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Forgotten sayings of yesteryear

The meaning behind the old sayings……

wash tub baths

wash tub baths

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house always had the privilege of the nice clean water, then the sons and other men. Next the women and finally the children, with the babies last. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it….Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!”

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof….Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and the guest got the top, or the “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a “wake.”

Returning a family album to its rightful owners

Family of Dr. John Harland Paul

Family of Dr. John Harland Paul

Recently, I came into the possession of a very old and beautiful family album. It is in very good condition for its age. The photos seem to range from 1900 to 1910. The family names noted are Coffin, Hauk, Norman and Paul. Also, there is a letter written by Ellen Coffin of the Parker Coffin family of the Wayne County Coffin Quaker Pioneers, stating that they are of Norman-French descent. Total, there is probably 30-40 very old photographs. The following are just a few. If a notation is added, it is what someone has written on the back of the photo. Please let me know if you recognize any of these, so that the album may be returned to its rightful owner.

John Harland Paul and Kathryn Paul, Shanghai, China 1905  (siblings)

John Harland Paul and Kathryn Paul, Shanghai, China 1905 (siblings)

Harvey Hauk

Harvey Hauk

Florence Hauk, age 8 yrs. old  1903 possibly 1908

Florence Hauk, age 8 yrs. old 1903 possibly 1908

Union Baptist Church, Lanier County GA

Union Baptist Church est. 1825

Union Baptist Church est. 1825

Union Baptist Church, the first church in the old area of Irwin County, Georgia was established October 21, 1825. The original members were William A. Knight and Sarah, his wife; Jonathan Knight and Elizabeth, his wife; Joshua Lee and Martha, his wife; James Patten and Elizabeth, his wife; Mary Knight, and Josiah Sirmans. The first Minister of Union Baptist Church was Reverend Matthew Albritton.

First Africans in English America

continued…..Unveiling the First Africans in English America
Next, we must explore the men who owned and captained the three intersecting ships on that fateful day.
The San Juan Bautista was captained by the Don Manuel Mendez de Acuna. Known to be of the powerful Acuna family to which Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, the Count of Gondomar also belonged.
The Treasurer’s ownership was shared between the powerful Earl of Warwick, Robert Rich II and the current Governor of Jamestown, Samuel Argall. In early 1618, Captain Daniel Elfrith was hired once again by Warwick to Captain the Treasurer. Elfrith, an active and known privateer in the West Indies as early as 1607, had captained the Treasurer before. Elfrith and the Treasurer left England in late April or early May 1618 and arrived in the Settlement of Virginia just as the Neptune, carrying Lord Del la Warre to retrieve Argall back to England was making its way into the mouth of the James River. Questions of foul play arose quickly. The Neptune’s Brewster accused the Treasurer of foul play and bad air. Lord Del la Warre, Sir Thomas West was dead. Governor Argall would in turn order his Treasurer, Elfrith and crew to the West Indies, to plunder what they may with the marque of Charles Emmanuel I, a commission Rich obtained from Count Sarnafissi, Emmanuel’s ambassador to England.
The White Lion was owned and captained by the Reverend John Colyn Jope, a Calvinist Minister from Merrifield in Cornwall England, just miles northwest of Plymouth. In 1619 on the captain’s maiden voyage, Jope would leave his wife, the well-connected Mary Glanville and the Port of Plymouth, heading for the West Indies with a Dutch Marque, a commission acquired through Prince Maurice.

The Bautista’s Cargo
In early 1619, the Kingdom of Ndongo in the Central Mountains of Angola, under siege by the Portuguese Governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcellos, is ransacked and men, women, and children are enslaved and marched to the Port of Luanda to be transported to the silver mines of Mexico.
Of the six slave ships leaving the port of Luanda in the summer of 1619 for the Port of Vera Cruz, only one would report a raid by English pirates. The San Juan Bautista, captained by the Don Manuel Mendez de Acuna.
Just weeks later in mid August 1619 the White Lion arrives with “twenty and odd” Africans. The Captain, carrying a Dutch marque, claims he took them from a floundering Spanish warship.
Documents recently discovered by Historian John Thornton determines they were the Northern Mbundu people who spoke Bantu, from the Kingdom of Ndongo. Only one other possibility exists. There was a report of some Portuguese Christian porters who accidently became caught up in the Imbangala’s slave march to the Port of Luanda, their port of origin and point of sale.
Of the three hundred fifty sold to the Bautista’s Captain Acuna there would only be “twenty and odd” blessed souls to make it to Englands’ young settlement of Virginia. Will the “twenty and odd” continue to be slaves as they were when they left Africa? Or do they find their freedom? Could God’s hand have been involved? Over the centuries many have said “God must have been involved.”

On this day in history…

Powhatan Chief Opechancanough

Powhatan Chief Opechancanough

On this day, April 18, 1644
More than 500 settlers are killed in the second major Powhatan uprising. This event touched off a two-year war between Native Americans and the colonists up and down the James River, ending in the capture and execution of the Powhatan Chief Opechancanough.

Gus Hall Family Home, Tildenville, Florida.

This Bungalow style home was built in 1919 by Gus Hall, General Manager of South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association.

Gus Hall House, Tildenville, Florida

Gus Hall House, Tildenville, Florida

Gus Hall Citrus Fruit Labels

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Clover label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Clover label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Combination Brand Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Combination Brand Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Killarney Rose Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits Killarney Rose Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits - GH Brand label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits – GH Brand label


Gus Hall Citrus Fruits - BOX CAR #2

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits – BOX CAR #2

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits - Box Car Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits – Box Car Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits - Gus Hall Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits – Gus Hall Label

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits

Gus Hall Citrus Fruits

Gus Hall (1881-1956) began his long tenure in the citrus industry when he joined the South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association as General Manager in 1910.  Under his leadership, South Lake grew from humble beginnings to an operation handling 641,000 boxes of fruit annually.  One of Hall’s successful innovations while at South Lake involved featuring his face on the Gus Hall Combination Brand crate label, making him instantly recognizable while attending industry events in northern markets.  After 31 years with South Lake Apopka Citrus Growers Association, Hall left to form his own operation, Gus Hall Citrus Fruits.  His packing house, located just west of Oakland in Killarney, was constructed by T&G Railroad on State Highway 438.  From South Lake, he brought his Gus Hall brand label and added other labels including Boxcar and GH.  In 1946, he sold his interest in the company, and it was renamed Killarney Fruit Company.

 

 

List of the Living and Dead February 1623

The following is a link to the List of the Living that was completed in February of 1623.  This was after the Great Massacre of 1622, in March and after the plague, brought with the Abigail from England on December 20, 1622.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/jamestown/census/1623cens.txt

 

The Great Massacre of 1622

Massacre of 1622

Massacre of 1622

The day would be like no other yet it started as every other had. The fields were active and the town was a bustle with merchants trading up and down the river as the natives began to arrive with their own trade. Then, like a bell tolling out, the natives turn savage mutilating one unsuspecting settler then the next. Bodies are strewn about, with no pause for woman or child. They all lay tangled, one with another, hacked and disfigured.

When the savagery calms and the tallies are made, some three hundred forty-seven souls are lost, a third of the struggling settlement’s total population. Of the eighty (80) plantations that were beginning to flourish up and down the James River, they all lay in wait, now gathered within eight (8) to sustain a position of defense.