Serena Josephine Cates Howell and David Hopkin Howell
by Sarah Jose Howell Greer, Christmas 1979

Both Josie and Hop were born in GA but came to AL [after their marriage]. We have a very sketchy family history of both families but no one has ever pursued it enough to have a very good record. When I retire, I'm going to work on this -- if I'm still able to function!

My Grandmother died when I was only 6 but I remember her well. She was a woman of great dignity and reserve. She was a pretty woman who had a lot of pride in her appearance even though her usual attire was a black dress with a white collar, white cotton stockings, and black, low-heeled shoes. She wore black cotton dresses for everyday but her "Sunday" dress was always taffeta and I remember the beautiful rustle that taffeta dress made as she walked. The white stockings were necessary because of an allergy but no one ever saw much of them anyway since the dresses were almost ankle length. She wore big, snowy white aprons every day and almost always had her thimble in her apron pocket. My Pop said she'd thump him on the head with it when he misbehaved at the table! At the time of her marriage, Josie's hair had never been cut and she could sit on it. By the time I remember her it was already grey and she wore it in a bun right on top of her head. She had a lot of natural curl in her hair so all the tiny bits that came loose hung in soft curls at temple and neck. She was STILL a pretty woman when she died.

Grandmother was always called Josie but I've always thought her first name probably suited her better. I've never heard of her being upset or showing any sign of distress no matter what happened. She was "serene" in the face of almost any event regardless of how others reacted. My father always told me about the way she reacted when a young horse ran away with her -- she had asked the boys to hitch up the buggy for her to go visiting and they used a young horse who was not completely broken. As soon as Grandmother got in the buggy the horse ran away. Pop said they watched in horror as the horse careened around a fence corner, almost turning the buggy over, and then took off across a plowed field. Eventually Grandmother was able to control him and she drove calmly back into the yard to pick up the girls and continue on her way. Pop vowed she didn't have a hair out of place and wasn't even breathing hard.

I was always convinced my Grandmother Howell made the best tea cakes in the whole world and I just KNEW the pink ones tasted better than the plain ones. It was a long time before I realized that the only difference was the addition of a little food coloring! She catered to my whim, as only a devoted grandmother would. I remember going to see her once when she came to the door to see who was arriving, returned to the kitchen without a word of greeting, and fired up the old wood-burning stove to make a batch of pink tea cakes even tho she already had a cookie jar full of plain ones. I COULDN'T have been spoiled, could I?

Grandmother "ruled the roost" at her house-- or she thought she did. She taught her sons that they should always be head of the household and handle all the business without their wives having any say-so at all -- and she taught her daughters that women should be strong and should "manage" their husbands! I wonder what happened when the boys and girls compared notes or how she explained her teachings, even to herself. She was firmly convinced that she knew what was best for her family -- even after her children were grown and married. She never thought she was "interfering" -- she was just giving them the advantage of her advice and counsel. Because of their great respect for her, they all listened to her patiently and, because every single one of them inherited her strong will, they did exactly as they pleased regardless of whether it was in agreement with her advice. Even though I'm sure she must have been disappointed sometimes, apparently she did not indulge in recriminations but I'm told (by some of her in-laws, especially) that she sometimes gave them all the "silent treatment" when they had disobeyed her.

Not too long after Mother and Pop married, Grandfather became ill and was not able to get in his crop. Mother and Pop moved back into the house with them for a year or so since the only other boy in the family was young and was not much of a farmer either. My brother, Frank, was born while they were living there. As was the usual practice, Pop promised Mother that when the cotton was sold he'd buy her some new clothes but Grandmother insisted he would be wasting his money since a woman with a nursing baby wasn't going to be out in public for a while anyway. When they loaded the wagon with the cotton and started to town, Grandmother followed them down the lane reminding Pop that "Nell won't need anything but a cotton dress or two". Mother cried all the way to town because she was 19 years old, loved pretty clothes, was tired of being in shapeless maternity clothes, and just couldn't wait to dress up and go to church to show off her new son.

In Cullman, Alabama, Steifflemeyer's was THE store -- they bought the local crops and then sold the farmer's yearly supply of food and clothes so they couldn't lose. Pop dropped Mother off at the store and told them to let her have anything she wanted in the way of clothing. She happily bought a silk dress, fastened up the back with a tiny row of buttons, a new hat with an egret plume, silk stockings, and new shoes. Somewhere in our old pictures there is a picture of her in the outfit wich was truly fancy! When they got home Grandmother looked at it, didn't say a word, but was obviously not pleased. She must have had the last laugh though -- the new mother had given no thought to her nursing baby and couldn't manage all those back fastenings when she needed to nurse the baby and the very first time she wore the dress to church the bodice was stained by milk and it could never be properly cleaned! So far as I know, Grandmother never said "I told you so".

Grandmother was a good cook and was noted community-wide for the fine table she set. She was also good at all types of needlework, especially crocheting. I have one or two pieces that she crocheted and I remember several pillow tops that were always in the "parlor". She favored the temperance movement and I still remember that she had one crochet pillow that had a bottle, a champagne glass, and the motto "Drink Kills" worked into the design. It was not popular with the rest of the family, for some reason, and it disappeared one day!!

As usual, Josie lost a couple of babies to the "summer complaint" -- Merdice, who only lived one month, and Grover, who lived one year -- but she raised Eva, Pop, Maude, Herbert, Flossie (who died of a ruptured appendix at 16), and then, when she thought her family was complete, she had still another daughter, Cecile. She lavished a great deal of love and attendtion on the "child of her old age" and succeeded in spoiling her outrageously. By the time Cecile became a young woman Josie and Hop had married off all the others and so they could afford to give her a few more material advantages than the older children had enjoyed. Cecile was married twice but never had any children so she gave me a lot of the things Grandmother bought for her when she was young. I have a couple of lavaliers from the 1928 era and a few more nice pieces of simple jewelry that Grandmother ordered for Cecile from the Sears catalog! I'm also told that I resemble Flossie very much so I have inherited one or two things from her also. I'm trying to remember to identify all these pieces to be handed down to the younger ones one day.

I have only one girl cousin close to my age -- Lois Smith Ward, who is the daughter of Maude Howell [Smith]. Lois and I often visited Grandmother and Grandfather at the same time so we could be company for one another. While Lois lived in Cullman, not too far from the Vinemont home of our grandparents, we lived in Birmingham so we didn't go as often. Frank and I sometimes rode the bus to Cullman and then on to Vinemont (3 miles beyond Cullman) for a week's visit. Frank was truly a city boy and couldn't stand the country for more than a day or two at a time, even when some of our other cousins were there too. His solution was to bribe me to cry to go home since I was a "baby"! I'm sure Grandmother and Grandfather were not fooled by our act but my big brother always said he'd better take me home or I'd cry `til I was sick. I remember Mother telling of the time she sent us away for out week's vacation only to see us trudging in 3 days later with Frank dragging the suitcase since it was heavy and he was still too little to carry it! I was 4 years old and he was 11!

My grandfather, whom everyone called "Uncle Hop", was not quite 6 feet tall and was a well built young man but by the time I remember him he was stooped, slight of frame, but with the biggest forearms and hands of any man I've ever known. I used to wonder, when I went to the Popeye cartoon shows and saw Popeyes big arms, if my Grandfather ate his spinach too!

Apparently Hop discovered early in his marriage that the best way to get along with his strong-willed wife was to speak softly -- and do as he pleased. He didn't argue with Josie - nor with anyone else - but he decided on the best course of action for him and did it. He was a story-book kind of grandfather -- kind and gentle, devoted to children, and somewhat childlike himself in his simple pleasures. He stuttered badly and I remember wanting to "help" him talk sometimes. He was not an educated man -- he could write (barely) and could read poorly but he could "cypher" faster than most people could add on a machine. He could figure his crop yield while it was still in the field and when he took his harvest to town he knew to the penny what it should bring. And, devoted husband and father that he was, he never failed to buy a small gift of some kind for his wife and children when his business had been concluded to his satisfaction. I still have in my possession a Carnival glass bowl that was part of a berry set he bought for Grandmother and the girls one year. I also have a small figurine of a little girl with a rabbit that he bought on a trip to Atlanta for his little daughter, Flossie, because he said it looked like her.

Grandfather was a good farmer, a good neighbor, and a good churchman. He loved to attend the revival meetings -- the country people called them "protracted meetings" -- and it really made no difference to him whether they were at the Baptist, Methodist, or what ever church. He always sat in the "Amen" corner, nodded his head when he agreed with the fire and brimstone preacher and frowning mightily when he disagreed. Once, when Lois and I were visiting with our mothers, Grandfather took Lois and me to a revival meeting. We went in the buggy and I worried about how we would see to come home after dark until he showed me the coach lanterns he put on each side of it. After services, we stopped at his friends' home for a "drop of cider" and, while we were there, a terrible storm came up. I was happily playing with the children of the house until one little girl said she'd bet Uncle Hop would spend the night because of the weather. I was not used to the country people's custom of staying where ever the weather caught them and I cried to go home, insisting that my Mother would worry about me. My gentle grandfather couldn't stand for me to be unhappy so he borrowed quilts to wrap Lois and me in and drove home in the storm where Grandmother and both our Mother's gave him fits for letting us get wet!

Times were hard when I was a child -- it was the midst of the big depression -- and our grandparents didn't have much money but they always provided simple entertainment for us when we visited. Like most farmers, Grandfather almost
always went to town on Saturday afternoon to attend to his business and to visit with the other people in the community who were also in town. Frank and I loved to go to Cullman with Grandfather because we knew he would somehow manage to treat us to a big dish of ice cream before we went home, even if it meant he had to spend the bus fare and we had to walk the three miles back to Vinemont! That never bothered me anyway since I knew that when I got tired Frank or Grandfather one would give me a ride on their back. One time Grandfather took an old clock to town to sell and when we walked home that day Frank had to carry me all the way because Grandfather was weighted down by thirty silver dollars he'd gotten for the clock.

Grandfather loved animals and always had a few around the farm that were special pets. He always had at least one cat named Tom (even when it should obviously have been Tomasina!) and for many years his constant companion was a Boston bull dog. Pop remembered that he also tolerated an old black snake who lived in the corn crib -- Grandfather said he kept rats out as effectively as any cat and would just push him out of the way when he went to get feed for the stock. One of his more unusual pets was a Rhode Island Red hen. When he hitched up the mule to plow a field, the cat, dog, and hen went along with him. The hen followed behind the plow to get the worms, the cat got the field mice, and the dog watched for moles. When they were through plowing for the day all the animals would hop on the mule's back and ride back to the house. My favorite picture of my Grandfather was taken by the chimney at his house and he's holding the little dog. Grandfather always took a little nap when he came in from the field at lunch and both the dog and cat napped with him out on the screened porch on an old "fainting couch". I'd give anything to have that piece of furniture now but have no idea what happened to it.

When I went to visit I always slept in the same room as Grandfather in a bed with a soft feather mattress, home-bleached sheets, and lots and lots of Grandmother's hand-made quilts. There was a fireplace in the room and I
remember listening to Grandfather doing all the last-minute things all householders do at night -- banking the fire, winding the clock (where he hid his spare change from Josie!), putting the cat out, and then getting a drink of water with a dipper from the bucket sitting in the kitchen. He always whistled through his teeth softly as he went about his chores. Grandmother would call to him, knowing he was barefooted and that she had clean sheets on the bed, "Hop, did you wash your feet?" and I'll always remember him answering her -- "Now J-j-josie, my feet are as clean as your face". And he always said to me, "Sleep well, Sis-sis-sister".

After Grandmother died, Grandfather lived with my Uncle Herbert in the Lacon community in Cullman County. I suspect that he was not really happy there and that he felt the need to get away often. He would sometimes arrive at our house in Birmingham unannounced, much to my delight. He never stayed very long but I always enjoyed his visits greatly. He enjoyed his meals but still liked that little nap afterwards. He never failed to compliment Mother on the meal and he was a favorite of hers because of his good nature and gentleness. After a few days with us he'd move on, either back home or to visit one of the other children for a few days.

Often, as Frank, Grandfather, and I walked home from Cullman, he would caution us about the proper way to walk on the highway -- reminded us to always walk facing traffic, stay on the shoulder, move well out of the way of big trucks, etc -- but, ironically, he was killed walking on the highway in violation of all the rules he taught us. He left my uncle's home one Saturday night (on the way to see a "widder woman" in the community) along about dark. Apparently he was struck from the back by a large truck -- we can only surmise but the back of his coat was covered with red paint from neck to waist. It is possible the driver never knew he struck him because Grandfather was wearing dark clothes. He managed to get up and walk almost 150 yards to the home of a friend where he sat down on the side of the porch and rapped on the floor with his pocket knife to attract their attention. He was not able to speak and died before a doctor could be summoned. When an examination was made later, the doctor was astounded that he'd been able to walk that far since all the ribs on his left side had been torn from the back bone and his lungs were pierced several times. He was a strong old man `til the very end.

Grandmother and Grandfather, along with their children, are buried at Etha Cemetery, Etha Baptist Church, Eva, Alabama in Cullman County. This was the community where they lived their early married life -- in fact, Eva Alabama is named for their oldest daugther, Eva Estelle, who was the first baby born in that settlement. [See addendum.] Shortly after Grandmother lost her two babies she had a joint monument placed between their graves and she planted a piece of boxwood there. By 1970 it had grown to be 14 feet tall and 10 feet in circumference. Some of the men of that church agreed to provide perpetual care for the cemetery if they could mow it with power mowers so they asked permission to move all plants and shrubbery to facilitate mowing. A local nursery asked if they could remove that piece of boxwood because of its great value. We all have a cutting from it and the rest of it was removed.

On the second Sunday in May (Mother's Day), the families of those buried in the cemetery return for "Decoration Day". The pretty little cemetery is covered with flowers, there is an "all day singing with dinner on the ground", and many families hold reunions there on that day. I remember my Grandmother working hard to make a floral arrangement for each Howell grave from the flowers in her garden and they were somehow always prettier than the ones from the florist that other family members brought. She always made simple sparys of white roses and old-fashioned "pinks" for her babies and they seemed to be just right. When I was little I used to long for someone to make pretty flowers just for me! While I was too young to understand the significance of the day, I thought that cemetery looked like a picture book!

Pop used to love to go back for "Decoration" to see all his old friends but then it became a sad occasion as their ranks dwindled a little more each year. It always bothered him that he was not able to "do his part" about keeping up the cemetery so we were especially pleased when the church agreed to this task. Pop always sent a donation to the church fund to help with expenses and we have continued his practice since his death. I go by there occasionally and instead of being saddened, I find that it triggers many happy memories of my wonderful grandparents. I regret that I didn't have them for a longer period of time but I cherish the time we had together.

[1 Mar 1996] Addendum: I have often been told the story of the naming of the community of Eva just as I wrote it. Later, however, I learned that I had been misinformed. Aunt Eva was born in Georgia before Hop and Josie moved to Alabama. She was, however, a very young child when the community decided to apply for a post office. To do so they had to name the community and the Mitchell children tell me that a country doctor who had recently treated Aunt Eva for a childhood ailment suggested the name Eva "because she's about the prettiest little girl around". I stand corrected!