I was born in 1924 and delivered by Dr. E. J. Green of Chalybeate, MS.  I was the 6th of seven children born of the marriage of Ida Jewel Garrett of Chalybeate, MS and Huey Isaac Rowland.  They were married on November 12, 1912.

Both families were of pioneer stock and they were among the early settlers of Tippah County and North Central Mississippi.  At the time of their marriage my father was a prosperous young Rural mail Carrier and land owner, in the small town of Walnut.  Dad had a long courtship with my beautiful and popular mother, but by flamboyant and persistent courtship he finally won her over.

His primary mode of transportation during the courtship was a beautiful matching pair of White Horses and a classy single seated buggy.

We lived in a modest L shaped clapboard house about 150 yards west of the Gulf Mobile and Northern Railroad on the Northwestern corner of the old Highway 15 and old Highway 72 junction, which was in the center of the business district of the town.

My earliest memories of our home place was its location in the very middle of everything that happened in Walnut.  There was always something going on just outside of our front door.  In those years all commercial activity consisted of the coming and going of loud trucks or two or four team wagons, loaded with cotton, fertilizer, logs or household effects.  It was quite exciting to sit or lay in our front yard and watch the activity, going about, on the two Highways in our front yard.  Add to this the goings on associated with the large family of children in the Rowland family and the many friends that filtered in and out of our house throughout the days, seasons and years.

Let me digress at this point and explain.  In the second year of my life our lovely and popular mother died of blood poisoning shortly after the birth of my younger brother Jewel Rowland.  This, of course, greatly affected the routine and order in their large family.  Dad not only was faced with the problem of continuing to earn a living for this large family, but also had to provide for the orderly operation of his extended family in his absence.  One must not forget that he had an infant son without a mother to nourish him and love him as only a mother can do.

Dad had a sister, Montie Rowland Frederick, who lived across the Rail Road track, that agreed to take the baby Jewel and nourish him and love him along with her own four children, the youngest of which was only two years old.  Dad eventually was prosperous enough that he was able to hire a succession of house mothers and cooks and maids to keep us going.

Eventually Jewel grew enough that Aunt Montie was able to return him to our family, and with the help of those hired, the family and by the grace of God and oldest sister Ruth Rowland, we were able to hold the family together.

All this time Dad was trying to hold his family together, without a loving wife and mother, he had the good sense to think of the future without a wife.  He had previously dated a lovely young lady from nearby Middleton, TN, in his earlier years.  Dad finally took the "Bull by the Horns" and wrote to her asking if he could call on her again.  (Note this letter is in my possession)

Apparently she accepted his offer and if she did not know of his dilemma previously, she was soon no doubt made aware of it.  Can you imagine an individual dating a former acquaintance with six children, the youngest of which was about three and one half, a man looking for a mother to raise this motley crew?

Well she apparently understood his situation and knowingly agreed to see him again.  What a salesman my father must have been.  He also must have been a little desperate.  We have no way of knowing what he promised Annie Laurie Wilson, but on-------- he and Annie were married by C. M. Wilbanks in Corinth Mississippi.  She came into this circus all the while realizing the older sons and daughters remembered and loved our real mother.  I cannot remember my real mother and Jewel's and my step mother Annie was the only mother we knew and loved.  She adopted us as we adopted her.  Our neighbors accepted her with open arms.  She was truly a Godsend to our family and to the town of Walnut.

Can you imagine the relief when the town realized that the Rowland clan of unsupervised urchins were now under the supervision of a "real" mother, instead of housemothers and hired help.  What a relief to the town and to us, because it wasn't long before she had us all under control.

My early memories relate, basically, to our home and the three acres of land on which it occupied.  The home place, including most of the land on which the main part of Walnut now occupies, was purchased from Dr. Marsh on          ?with the understanding that Dad would allow his widow to live in her "Log Cabin" for the balance of her life.  This Dad agreed to, and I remember her living in that cabin which was located just South of our home.  It was located exactly where the Bank of Walnut was located across the street from our home.  It is now the City Hall.

When old Highway 72 was built through Walnut, both our home and the Marsh log cabin were left on a high bank.  Dad had steps built up to our house but us youngsters had to help build the dirt steps up to the Marsh cabin.  (Note, old Highway 72 is the current road to Chalybeate)

At this time Mrs Marsh was gone and the hired help lived in the cabin.  Later, when Dad decided to develop this area, he moved the log cabin Southwest about 100 yards under a large Mulberry tree.

This was the pasture area and was located about where the Arlie Doyle Warehouse is now located. The old cabin was then used as a hay and feed storage barn and later the back portion was used as a stable.  It was in this location that I milked the cows in bad weather as a teenager.

Our home started out as a two room dog trot at its present location.  To this was added an "L" containing a dining room and kitchen with a tin roof porch on the back of the entire house.  Dad enclosed the dogtrot and made it the living room.

He then added a small bedroom under part of this tin roofed back porch on the Eastern side.  I can remember sleeping with Dad in this small room before he remarried.  What a great place to sleep with the rain falling on the tin roof.  Later the tin roofed back porch and bedroom were removed and a large dining room, another back porch and two bedrooms were added.  Later a bathroom was also added to this addition on the new back porch.

Over the years our Dad built the following buildings to the rear of the house.

1. The well house- made of brick, this building housed our deep well and a 500 gallon water tank.  Initially we pumped the water manually using a hand pump.  Later a one cylinder gas powered pump did the chore for us.  About 1935 we got electricity and an electric motor pump was installed.

Each day, we boys were assigned the duty of turning on the pump or starting the gas engine, etc., until sufficient water and pressure was available to last the day.  Dad did not like it when we failed to perform our duties which caused us to run out of water pressure and water.
One or another of the above systems was used until H. E. Wilbanks watched helplessly as his planeing mill burned to the ground, because no water was available in quantity to fight the fire..  This happened in the early forties.  To keep this from happening again Mr. Wilbanks dug a deep well and purchased a water tower.  Eventually all the town residences were given access to this water supply.  This system was later sold to the Town of Walnut, expanded and improved.

2. The smoke house- made of wide boards nailed up and down, with a dirt floor.  This is where our Dad cured his meat.  While I never remember him curing meats with fire and smoke, I know he cured the bacon and hams with salt, in the salt box.  With such a large family a smoke house was a necessity to keep meat edible over the months.  As a young boy I used this building to nail up my basketball goal which provided me and my friends with many good games.  I also used the building when it was time to kill the Thanksgiving turkey.  I simply tied its feet, hung it to a nail, held its head and chopped the head off with a hatchet.  While crude it was very effective.  Our Dad always used to order fresh Gulf Coast Oysters each year, because he love oyster dressing.

Our Dad was constantly given Water Melons by many of his mail customers.  We literally had to store many of these as there were too many to eat at on time.  The mail route patrons were great to us as the graciously kept us supplied with fresh vegetables from their gardens and fresh or cured meat from their barnyards throughout the year.  What great neighbors they were.  Many of them were, I learned too late in life, relatives of ours, some close some distant.

"NEITHER RAIN NOR SLEET NOR DEAD OF NIGHT SHALL KEEP......".etc.

3.  A two car garage- was constructed of tin.  It was built to hold two of Dad's several vehicles that he used to deliver the mail on his forty odd mile route.  In those years none of the route was done on a paved road, paved roads were reserved for cities or the state highways in rich counties.  Very few of the 40 miles was even graveled.  Most of it was sand, clay or a mixture of these.  In rainy weather and nearly all the winter, the road were all but impassable.

Daddy used to keep at least two A Model Fords, a high wheel 1934 V8 (this was in the 40's).  In the 30's he had only two Model A's, plus an enclosed one horse surry, which he kept in a small stall (garage) across old Highway 15, east of the house.  He also kept his horse in this stall in bad weather.  Once we went to hitch up his horse to the Surry, so he could began his mail route, only to discover the horse was missing.  Things were not good for a while until he later discovered that Mr. Charlie Mohundro had borrowed the horse to go home on the night before.  Mr. Mohundro lived about three miles Southwest on Hurricane Creek (we pronounced it Hurikan).

At that period of time people felt comfortable to helping themselves to other peoples property without permission, since real dishonesty was very rare.  The missing horse event was spoken of by the Elders of the community for many years.

Now Daddy's garage was just about the perfect size for two Model A's but as the size of automobiles increased in size during the early 40's, the rear end of them constantly protruded from the garage.  It served its purpose however, which was basically to protect the windshield and the cooling system during freezing weather.

As I recall we often had to drain all of his automobiles during cold spells, as anti-freeze was not in common usage at that time.  Why, you may ask, did Daddy keep two Model A's?, and why did he make annual trips to Memphis to purchase good used ones?  The answer was of course that the mail had to be delivered rain or shine, and if he had a breakdown, not that uncommon back then, or if one vehicle was in the shop for repairs, or if he ran off the road into a ditch, easy to do back then also, then he always had a back up vehicle.  Usually if he became stuck in a ditch or bottom, he was able to get help from local families to pull him out or he was able to secure his three foot jack, tie a rope around a tree or fence post and lever or jack the car out.  If this was not possible that day he would walk or hitch a ride back to town, pick up his spare and complete the route.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

THE SUNDAY AUTOMOBILE

Daddy also kept a "Sunday" car, the first nice one being a 1935 Dodge, which was the first car equipped with hydraulic brakes.  These new and improved brakes caused a wreck one day.  All of us children had begged and talked Daddy into letting us drive the Dodge to the 1938 Tippah County Fair in Ripley.  My older brother C. Grambrell Rowland was the designated driver.  Grambrell was the family strong man and daredevil.  All of us were in the Dodge and in great spirits headed South on the graveled Highway 15.

Just South of Tipplersville a stalled flatbed truck suddenly appeared dead smack in the middle of the road ahead, as we rounded a curve on an up-grade.  Gambrell (one of my older brothers) slammed on the brakes, he was used to the old style mechanical brakes and he was very strong.  The brakes locked up tight and we of course slid directly into the flatbed.  Had Gambrell only been more used to the new brakes, he could have easily slowed enough to go around the truck on the left side.  As it was the car was damaged beyond repair, but surprisingly, and with the Grace of God, no one was hurt, except for a sore nose and Gambrell's pride.  This, I might add was a considerable time before seat belts.  Daddy then traded the wrecked 35 Dodge for a 1938 model.

The last "Sunday" car purchased by Huey Isaac Rowland was a 1940 Lincoln Zephyr!!!  Wow, what a car.  We were the envy of every family in Walnut if not the whole of Tippah County.

4.  The Cooks house- was built of clapboard and painted white in keeping with the home place.  We had various domestic helpers, what with so many children in the household and because of the good and steady income our father was able to provide, for a long as I can remember.  The first Cook/housekeeper that I remember was Ossie.  She lived in the old Marsh log cabin across the road for many years.  The came Susie Lee Spight, who began working for our family as a young girl.  She worked in the household off and on until both Mama and Daddy passed away. (Note H. I. Rowland died in 1950) (The Spight name is an old Tippah County name.)

Most of the time Susie Lee lived in the Cooks House, which was a large one room building with two closets in the rear.  This was before the addition of indoor toilets so everyone on the premises used the two holer in the rear of the home.  It was not until the late 1930's that the indoor bathroom was installed.

Susie was an important part of the family and often kept us when our parents went to Church functions or visited with neighbors or relations.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The family churches.

The family went to church at Harmony until the mid to late 1930's when Mother and Dad became part of a splinter group that broke away and formed a new church located at the intersection of New Highway 15 and old Highway 72.  Harmony Baptist Church was about one and one half miles North of Town and many people felt that Walnut deserved a Church of its own.  Daddy donated the land to the new Walnut Baptist Church, and has a stained glass window for his devotion as a Deacon.

Over the years we had a number of different cooks and we children loved them all, but Susie Lee was our favorite and when she died, we all attended her funeral at the Sand Hill Church.  (Note, Sand Hill was the name of the voting precinct in N. Tippah County untill being replaced by Walnut.)

5. The chicken house- was built of rough planking and contained both a storage room and a chicken roost and egg nests.  Mama was a great believer in keeping chickens.  We often accused her of treating her chicks better than her children.  She even baked cornbread for the chickens on occasion, to give them a change from their usual diet of scraps, corn and commercial mixes.  She apparently had a standing order with Sears, Roebuck & Co., to ship her at least 100 baby chicks every spring by mail.  Daddy usually delivered these to her with his usual "Here's you durn chicks!", brought on by the fact that at least 30 to 40 of his mail route patrons had received the same shipment over a few week period.  Dad had to personally drive up to each home on his route to deliver the live chicks in person.

The delivery of the Spring Chicks was a ritual along with the delivery of the heavy Sears Catalogs several times each year.  It is no wonder that Daddy built up such a "love hate" relationship with the mail order giants.  He didn't complain too much when this writer went to work for the Sears giant in 1951 and continued until they closed the catalogue business in the 1990's.

Daddy even purchased rebuilt engines, tires and other items from Sears during his mail carrier days.  In an attempt to make wash up easier the boys of the family built their own outdoor shower between the house and the tin garage.  We could use it only during the summer months because no hot water was available there.  This outdoor shower was installed before the installation of the indoor toilet.

According to Uncle Guy Manning Rowland, living North of the Rowland home, in the 1930's to 40's, were the following families;

1. Verna and Annie Lee Boyd Luna

2. Howard Luna and wife ? Davis.
 
 

3. Daniel Craig and wife.  He was the brother of Troy R. Craig

4. The lumber yard of Everette Wilbanks was next, where the old swimming pool was located.

5. The home of H. Everette Wilbanks

6. The Lee Smith family, bought land from H. E. Wilbanks.

7. The Hudson family, the Hudson's probably bought the home from the Smith's.

8. The Jack Wilbanks home.

9.  The Leroy and Ruth Rowland Hughes family.

10. The Elbert Wilbanks family, he was the 1st cousin of H. E. Wilbanks

11. The J. Neely Wilbanks family, he was the father of H. Everette Wilbanks