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Note: N472 1910 census, Loxley and Robertsdale, Baldwin Co., AL
Ard, W. J., head, age 37, married 15 y, b. Florida, parents b. Florida
Katie E., wife, age 33, 7 children, 6 living, b. AL, parents b. AL
Leslie N., son, age 13
Rubena E., daughter, age 10
Wm. Jackson, son, age 8
Alvin C., son, age 6
Hurley T., son, age 3
Thomas E., son, age 8/12
Lewis, Mary, sister-in-law, age 7
Notes---William Jackson Ard Family
JackÕs dadÑJ. W. ArdÑwas killed when he was fifteen years old so he went to work in the logging camps to help support his family.
COURTSHIPÑJack talked a lot about his courtship. He met Kate Lewis at a square-dance party one Saturday nite when he was quite young. Mom being a tall carefree belle of the ball type captured his fancy. On Saturday afternoon after work he would put on his best clothes and walk about fifteen miles through the woods in order to arrive in time for the square dances that would last until two or three a.m. Then he would spend the next day in the neighborhoodÑgo to church on Sunday night then go home in time for work on Monday at day-break.
Kate was a lot taller than Jack so perhaps proud to be escorted by a short fellow who wasnÕt afraid to tackle anyone that wanted to wrestle or fight. He kept the other fellows scared off from coming around Kate.
He proposed to Kate while sitting on a log near the old Jeff Blair place adjacent to Cordie NorthcuttÕs house (two miles from home) as they were walking to church on Sunday morning. They ran off and were married by an ÒitinerantÓ preacher during a ÒBrush ArborÓ meeting against her familyÕs wishes. Ñ (Jack being below their social levelÑa logging-camp worker.) Kate moved into her Mother-in-lawÕs cabin with a dirt floor near SeminoleÑLillian, Ala., and helped her cook for the logging-camp crew.
Several years later her DadÑa school-teacherÑrelented and gave them his small farm in the Rosinton community for which he had traded a saddle-horse to Will Givens (RubenaÕs 1st husbandÕs father) for the 80-acre Ð10/4/1904 on which he patented 189? KateÕs DadÑN.R. Lewis from Greenville, Ala.Ñsold the [farm] to Jack & Kate 5/11/1905 for 1.00 dollar.
Kate made my Dad quit the logging camp and become a farmerÑwith my Mom trying to keep him on the straight and narrow path. She taught him how to sign his name and negotiate business as he had only one month of school. Their children as they grew upÑseeing no future on the small farmÑleft home to seek their own livelihood leaving room for the younger kids to grow up. Kate never approved of her in-laws and their shenanigans.
At the time of marriage Jack could span KatieÕs waist with his handsÑbut later in life she weighed over 200 lbs. I can still picture them riding in a buggy tilted toward her side. JackÑeasy goingÑprobably never had a $200 bank account.Ñhis boys kept him broke.
LIFESTYLEÑSOCIAL LIFEÑOf course farm life was not a routine ÒrutÓ way of living for them. For instance, Kate used to tell how she put a stop to a neighbor woman (husband away at work) always sending a kid over to get Jack to come and put the harness on her horse so she could plow the crops. After the third time this happened my Mom made Dad stay home and she went over and showed her how it was doneÑthe neighbor woman got the ÒmessageÓ. Jack was not needed to do that job anymore however other jobs popped up.
The social life was usually Sunday church and neighborhood Wednesday-night prayer meetings attended by people clad in their cover-alls and work shirts. The heathen families of the community would occasionally gather for a square dance on a neighborÕs front lawn (which was bare dirt) lighted by a couple of kerosene lanterns placed on the porch. Refreshments was served after several sets were performed. Liquids was provided from a water-bucket and dipper. However a bucket of special drink Òrot-gutÓ moonshine whiskey was usually provided for the ones who disliked the taste of well-water.
KATEÕS FAMILY NOTESÑDick (N.R.) Lewis, b. 1849 came from a distinguished Lewis family of Virginia, who lost their Greenville, Ala., plantation during the Civil War. After the war he never went back to the old plantation.
After selling his farm to Jack he settled down with them and taught at the old Kendrick School near the Marvin Stanton place, Ñwhere during lunch time he would go out to the pond and take a swig from his whiskey bottle. Being an itinerant school-teacher and scaling (estimating) timber for the lumber camps, Dick reared his family in Montrose, Ala., and later in Buckatunna, Miss. where he taught school at the saw-mill town. ÐWhere he died of pneumonia-flu. He & his wife Victoria are buried in a cemetery about five miles below Buckatunna on route 45 near the Forest Nursery. He maintained his family in style by having a servant to do the household chores.
KateÕs MotherÑVictoria LawrenceÑwhile Dick Lewis was boarding at her fatherÕs house in or near Rosinton worshipped him from a distance. She loved to talk about her taking his dirty dishes and eat from them without first washing themÑso one day he caught her in the act and began to take notice of herÑfinally after about a month he started to pay more attention to her. (She continued to eat out of his unwashed dishes until marriage.) VictoriaÑone-fourth CherokeeÑa tall dark beautiful girl was about ten years younger than Dick.
After DickÕs demise, Grandma Victoria would spend a lot of time at our place. I remember her as a tall thin attractive woman who would make over my Dad and get him to help her wash the dishes to my motherÕs discomfort. She was a lady-of-leisure type.
(My Dad never cared too much for my MomÕs relatives as they maintained a condescending air about them that made you feel a little inferior to them. They seemed to be above making a living with the use of their handsÑbesides if you didnÕt have a Lewis name you wasnÕt considered fully within the Family inheritance of a past glory.)
I believe that if I were not a college graduate the Lewis Family Records would not have been made available to me. One current Lewis family member living in New York City commented that maybe some of the Lewis blood came out in me.
NOTES ON KATEÕS GRAND-MOTHER & G-GRANDMOTHERÑ VictoriaÕs motherÑAlameda McKenzieÑone-half CherokeeÑwas married three timesÑ(1.) Marsh (2.) Lawrence (3.) BrillÑ establishing three large family groups in Baldwin Co. She was reported to be a beautyÑwore her long dark hair pleated in a braid which hung down her back to her waist. My older sisterÑRubenaÑsaid that when Alameda was being discussed by Mom and her older relativesÑthe talking stopped when she was within hearing range. She and Alex Brill are buried in Hale Memorial Cemetery on US 90 near Robertsdale, Ala.
KateÕs g-grandmother AbigailÑA full-blooded CherokeeÑlater called Grandma ÒShayÓ was also ÒtabooÓ talk. She was born 1796(?) in N. Carolina. We can trace her back to the 1850 Census of Baldwin Co., Ala.,Ñ age 54Ñbeing married to a 16 or so year younger man with a notation that whe had been married within the past year. Records show her to be married in 1853 to Patrick Shay and later made her home with Alameda while between live-in householdsÑshowing she was still desirable to a lot of fellows. She is reported to be buried in the Greek Cemetery by Wesley Gilley. (I was surprised that he knew of herÑnot being related to her.) There are several similarities in the later years of life-style, etc., (possible coincidences) between the Abigail Ard (JackÕs g-grandmother) and Abigail Shay (KateÕs g-grandmother).
NOTES ON JACKÕS MOTHER & FAMILY McCurdy
Grandma Litt McCurdy said that her motherÑBarbara StevensÑhad twenty-one brothers and sisters (all lived) from one set of parents. Her grandfather Stevens was a butcher living in Atlanta, Ga., before the Civil War and moved to Santa Rosa Co. near Pensacola when the War was imminent.
LittÕs fatherÑElijah McCurdyÑborn in S. Carolina 1799(?)Ñhad 23 children by three wivesÑBarbara Stevens being #3 wife. One of her younger brothersÑWilliamÑhad 28 children from two wives. He divorced another one when no children was forthcoming. He seemed to want a lot of Òhoe handsÓ (farm workers) too.
The McCurdy clan emigrated to N. Carolina & S. Carolina from Pa. We trace the Southern ancestor to one of two brothers that was a younger brother of Elisha McCurdyÑthe Presbyterian EvangelistÑof Washington Co., Pa., who established a church at Florence, Pa., and was buried in the Florence Cemetery.
The McCurdys came from the islands off the coast of Northern Scotland no too far from the Orkney Islands from which the Ard clan emigrated.
TranscriberÕs Notes:
This memoir was given to my family by George Laurendine Mills, my fatherÕs brother. It was included with a large collection of family data sheets about the Lewis and Mills families of Baldwin County, Alabama, and Wayne County, Mississippi. The notes were written by one of the children of William Jackson Ard and Katherine Elizabeth Lewis Ard, perhaps by Mildred Ard Carten, their youngest daughter.
Gretchen Mills Maresco, July 21, 2004
daughter of Arien L. Mills (1914Ð1991)
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