My Life as I Remember It: Growing up in Alabama

By Billy D. Smith

In writing my book I tried, to the best of my memory (and with the help of a lot of people), to relate and have a true story about the things that we did as children and adults about growing up and living in a small town in Alabama. Even though times were hard then, I feel very fortunate to have grown up during that time and in that place. I believe that my life has been guided and protected by a Higher Being and I thank God for looking after me and guiding my life. I also had some great teachers which I am thankful for knowing. Most of our teachers loved us and tried to help, when they could, to prepare for our future. All this gave me confidence to go into adult life and knew that I had my future in my hand and could make my life and that I alone am responsible for my actions. I believe that growing up in Roanoke gave me the knowledge and background to have a great life, for which I am thankful, and I hope for many more good years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 30, 2009
• ISBN: 9781449024000

Billy D. Smith

Billy was born October 2, 1933 the third child of Charles and Sally Mae Smith in a small Cotton Mill town in Alabama. Billys parents both worked for Handley Manufacturing Company. Billy lived most of his early years on the Mill Village in houses owned by the mill. There he learned to take care of himself, learned right from wrong, the morals of the time, and respect for other people. He learned how people relate to you because of where you live. After attending Handley High School he learned that no matter where you come from you have to make your own reputation and your own life.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgments

Photos Index

CHAPTER ONE

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

A Lone Flower

Genealogy Charting

This Book is Dedicated with Love

To Sally Mae and Charles Smith

My Mom and Dad

Who worked hard all their lives

So their children could have it better than they had it…

Who instilled morals in us

Who gave us confidence to go into adulthood

To my wife Gail, who passed away April 6, 2008

Who has given love, joy and understanding…

To my children

Mike and Teresa — Michelle and Tony

And to my grandchildren

Ashley, Michael, AJ, Scottie, Gracie

Who fill my heart with pride

A Marine’s Life in the Shadows

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By

Billy D. Smith

My name is Clay Dawson. I am lying here in a trench some where in South Korea trying to take a hill from the North Koreans. The hill does not have any real value, except the NK’s have it and someone higher up in our battalion wanted it. We will keep trying to take it until we succeed. Then the NK’s will want it back and they will try to retake the hill. Eventually everyone will just leave it and hunt for another hill to take. In Alabama this land could be bought for about $100.00 per acre. You can’t grow anything on it, but here it is costing the lives of a lot of good men on both sides. We have been fighting for three days now. I am tired, hungry and dirty. I can’t remember the last time I had a good sleep. We just doze off when there is a break in the action, but before we get rested the fighting starts again. I have been given the responsibility of taking this hill and keeping my men alive, a job I wish I didn’t have…

From Chapter One

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When You Work in the Shadows -

You Can Never Walk in the Light

By

Billy D. Smith

Clay told Robert, You mean you want Amy and me to go up against 20 terrorists and an agent who might be a traitor and we won’t know when or where this will all take place! Robert said, I am trying to find another team to go along on your cruise; but right now we are short of agents with the experience needed for this type of operation. Ray is tied up on another assignment and he can’t get away right now without endangering other people. If his case is wrapped up by then I will definitely get him on your ship.…

From Chapter One

Introduction

This is how I came to write my story. In our Sunday night discipleship training class at church, we were taking turns bringing some memorabilia of our family, and telling about what made us who we are. The night that it was my turn, I brought in some of my school things and talked about growing up in Roanoke. After I finished my presentation that evening, a lady suggested that I should write a book. I had thought earlier about writing a fictional book, but thought that I did not have the knowledge to write a book. English was never one of my strong suits!!

I have heard many people during my life say that they wished that their parents and grandparents had written down things about their early life, so they would know more about their heritage.

I decided, since I had a computer, that I should write down anything that I could remember about our family. At least my children and grandchildren would have something that they could read about my life. I started writing down anything that I could remember. This was mainly just information as I was not thinking about writing a book. But the more that I wrote, the more I remembered. At this time my doctor ordered a stress test for me. I had a slight problem and had to have a stint inserted in my artery. I was told to start a daily routine of walking. I hated doing this, but begrudgingly started exercising. One day I was walking along the river bank, when a large Siberian husky followed me home from the river, and never left. I named him Shadow. Every morning he wanted a walk, so he and I walked about two miles, almost every day. While I was walking, I wrote and thought about my story in my head. I thought about a lot of things that I did then, and people I had known. I would come home and write it out on the computer.

It was not very long until I started putting all my information into the form of a book. Two friends, Pete Mulligan, and Bill Vincent, were in the Marine Corps with me, at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. As I would finish a chapter, I would e-mail it to them, and they gave me suggestions, and they asked some questions about the period of time that I was writing about, and compared their lives to mine. Pete, who was born and raised in New York City, told me one time that he could see this story made into a movie. I knew that this would never happen, but I thought that if he was enjoying it, maybe other people would enjoy it also. I started thinking about putting it into print. I started asking anyone who had some experience in writing, how to go about finding a publisher. That has gotten me to this place. I appreciate their input, and the work that James Hand, friend and author of Tracking Lives, and Jeanette, my second and new wife, did in editing my book. I thank them for their expertise and hard work.

While most people only see bits and pieces of memory of their life, I have had the unique opportunity of seeing my life in a sphere, by seeing it all at one time. As I looked at my life I became aware that God must have had a plan for me before I was born. Mom told me that the doctor told her, because of the medicine he had given her during the pregnancy; the odds were that I should not have even been born alive! But God has protected me from serious injury. There were many times in my life when any one of the accidents that I wrote about in the book could have been fatal. But I came out of them unscathed, with no lasting problems.

I have made many mistakes during my life. I tried most of the time not to repeat the same mistakes, but there were some that are too much fun to make only once!

I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a small town…a place where hardship was just a way of life, and to have attended a school where the teachers knew everybody by name… where they loved everyone that went through our school. Had I not attended a small school I would not have had the chance to do the things that I did in school. I give credit to Mom and Dad, my teachers, and my church for working with me to make me aware of the things ahead in my life.

Like ore, that has to go through the fire and be beaten with a hammer to turn it into iron, with proper tempering and work, a thing of beauty can emerge and last forever. Like the Marines from Tripoli, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam and up to the present time, they have stood the test of time, and have stayed a strong unit. As the motto that was given to me by Dave Murphy, who I served with on the USS Bennington, SAEPE EXPERTUS, SEMPER FIDELIS, FRATRES AETRMI, it means Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever. That quote, Once a Marine, always a Marine is very true.

All of these events in my life have had a part in forming me into the person that I am today. God has been good to me, and when the time comes for me to make an account of my life, I hope that I can say I did the best that I could, and that I did the job He had planned for me. I do not know what God wanted in my life. It might be just to be the parents of my two children, Michael and Michelle. Maybe He has something great planned in their lives. We will just have to wait and see!

Any advice I could give a young person, would be, Just be yourself and try to follow God’s plan. The words, I can’t do that, should be removed from your vocabulary. How do you know you can’t do it until you try? Never be afraid to try to do something that’s worthwhile. You never know what your actions may do for the future.

This is my legacy, but only AS I REMEMBER IT. If other people remember it differently, that is perfectly all right, and I encourage them to write it down for their loved ones.

I hope it brings back memories for people of my generation, and sheds some light for the younger generations, as to what it was like to grow up in Alabama in a Cotton Mill Town, during the Depression Years.

Acknowledgments 

Trying to write an accurate and true story involving history and family members, the research for true information is a time-consuming project, but necessary for accuracy. I tried to write the story mostly from my memory, and there may be some who remember it differently, but I wrote it as I remembered it. If someone doesn’t remember it the way I wrote it, this is completely all right. I tried to prove what I could find, but if no information was available, I used my memory. I only used my imagination to try to fill in some blank areas of the history that has been lost or cannot be found. But I acknowledge that the basic information is true as the way that I remember it.

I would like to acknowledge some people who have graciously supplied me with information and pictures.

John Stevenson, and the Randolph Leader, for allowing me to research the papers and a pamphlet called History of Roanoke. I found a lot of information from these old newspapers.

Rollie W. Taylor, who through his expertise and hard work in researching the genealogy of the Taylor family, has graciously allowed me to use the information that he has found and organized, and some documents that he has discovered. Walt Taylor has also given me stories and information about our family.

Clifford Underwood allowed me to copy some pictures that he inherited from his father, Julius Underwood, and has given me permission to use them in my book. Julius was very active in taking pictures during the time when I was a child. I believe he was the first man in Roanoke who owned an 8MM movie camera. Wyner Phillips also loaned me some pictures that he is using in his book, History of Randolph County Pictorial and has given me permission to use them in my book also.

Betty Bunn edited the 1st edition. James Hand, my good friend and author of "Tracking Lives", and Jeanette Smith, my dear second wife, edited and helped with the layout and grammar of the 2nd edition.

Photos Index 

1) Louis Graben’s family

2) Louis Graben (from family picture)

3) Joseph Graben, (Billy’s great grandfather)4

4) William Henry, Elvira Smith (Billy’s great grandmother and father), sons- Charlie Walker (Billy grandfather), Osker, Colman

5) Grandpa Charlie Walker Smith, Ma, Odessa, Hugh at Charlie’s blacksmith shop

6) Walter B. & Lena Lane Taylor

7) W A. Handley Manufacturing Mill approx. 1903

8) Roanoke during the Gentry Brothers Circus 1906

9) Roanoke trading day 1908

10) Roanoke street scene (approx. 1908)

11) Lena Lane Taylor (from tin type)

12) Roanoke 1920

13) Mom and Dad wedding day at Roanoke cemetery May 11, 1928

14) Mom and Dad kissing after the wedding ceremony May 11, 1928

15) Mom with Dad’s dog

16) Knight Enloe school ball game, approx. 1930

17) Roanoke 1931

18) W. A. Handley manufacturing mill approx. 1930

19) Knight Enloe class of 1936 (Junior’s class)

20) Knights Sanatorium 1920

21) Knight Enloe kindergarten class of 1938 (Billy’s class)

22) Francis (our cousin’s) birthday party 1939 (Betty attended) at Knight Enloe

23) Claude Embrey manager of the Mill theatre

24) W. A. Handley Manufacturing Mill pool, dedication day 1938

25) W. A. Handley Manufacturing Mill pool, dedication day 1938

26) Randolph Courthouse in Wedowee (before it burned 1940)

27) Granny Chittam

28) Ma Smith in rocking chair

29) Dad on Motorcycle, at the start of the World War Two on Vine Street 1942

30) Jr. in Boy Scout uniform w/Ma’s dog, Billy with cat

31) Betty and Billy wading in lake

32) Betty, Billy and Jr. w/bow and arrow on Vine Street

33) Billy, Jr. and Betty on steps on Vine Street

34) Billy and Joe our setter bird dog

35) Betty w/cat, Billy holding up Water Witch outboard motor and Dad, on Morgan Street 1947

36) Dad on boat on the back waters

37) Dad and Billy after fishing w/string of crappies

38) Handley High School

39) Toy pistol Billy whittled after watching Dillinger movie 1946

40) Mill Village 1966

41) Ferry with our 1950 Buick

42) Billy in Football uniform

43) Camping trip Billy, Mac Schuessler, Bob Bradshaw Harvey Fisher in picture May 2, 1952

44) Roanoke Christmas Parade 1952

45) Billy MP guard as Jacksonville, Florida NAS, 1955

46) Billy MP guard with his 1954 Chevrolet Jacksonville, Florida NAS

47) Marine formation entering Hong Kong port USS Bennington 1955

48) Marine’s rickshaw race downtown Hong Kong, China 1956 (Billy not in photo, but he was in the race)

49) Gail and Billy’s wedding day April 23, 1956 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

50) Billy, Pfc. Johnson and orphans at Christmas diner USS Princeton at Seattle, Washington 1956

51) Gail, Billy, Michelle and Mike Ft. Lauderdale on Easter Sunday

52) Jeanette & Billy on camel by Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt, on honeymoon

CHAPTER ONE 

The Beginning

I suppose almost everyone has at one time or another thought or said they wish they knew more about their heritage and what made them who they are and how they got to be at this place. Most Americans have a history of ancestors coming from some other country. Most of the information is out there somewhere, but the trick is to find it… like the proverbial needle in the haystack. You just have to move one straw at a time and eventually you will find something that will lead you to the next step. When you find that one nugget of information, it is like a gift or a prize. With the help of a lot of people you can piece together some form of history as to where you came from. I am fortunate to have other members of the family who have put a lot of time, knowledge, and effort into doing research and have shared with me the information they have found. When you find the information, always be willing to share this information with other members of the family. With this basic information, and sometimes using my imagination and knowledge about that period of time, I have tried to weave together the history of what it might have been like living during those times when our forefathers lived. This is my genealogy, but many people could put their name in the place that I have my name as our beginnings are very similar and our heritage came from a path that is the same. Your genealogy is like a large spider web. When you see one in the morning with the dew on it, the center has a woven pattern. There isn’t another one just like yours. Each web is an individual: but very similar to every other web. The center is the focal point, and the start of the line. This will be the furthest back in history of the information that can be found. Somewhere on the web will be your family but tied to all the generations before and after and they are all tied together by thin but strong lines on the web.

Louis Graben

Ludwig (Louis) Graben, my great, great grandfather, was born at Prussia (near Berlin) Germany, June 27, 1829. His family was of means in the textile industries or had a manufacturing plant of some type. Louis was an apprentice weaver, and was probably well- educated for that period of time, and may have had some knowledge of English, being near the shipping area. Germany was having a civil disturbance because of the treatment of the working class people by the upper class people. Germany had a compulsory military draft. When Louis was twenty-five years old, he did not want to be conscripted into the Prussian army. He ran away, probably with the help of his family, and boarded the ship Anna which sailed out of Bremerhaven or Hamburg for the United States. He was looking for a better way of life and was trying to make a new start in a country he only knew about through stories he had heard, probably from merchants traveling through his country buying merchandise to ship to the United States. The manifest of the ship showed him with a woman Auguste and girl Caroline, who were either relatives or more likely his wife and daughter. The trip took 46 long, hard days to cross. Louis worked on the ship during the voyage to help pay his fare. This was not one of the better liners. It was a dirty cargo ship of some type, and may have even been a cattle ship. Living quarters were just bearable and the food only enough to sustain them through the trip.

The ship Anna, that Louis, Auguste and Caroline were on, docked in New York September 15, 1854. There was no more mention of Auguste and Caroline. The slums around the area where the ship docked were full of disease. 1855 was an epidemic year for typhoid and malaria, and the Eastern coast was rampant with the disease; many immigrants died from the sickness. Finding it hard to get work to make a living and being able to speak only a little English, Louis wanted to go to Baltimore where there were many factories and textile industries. He would have been a journeyman in the work there and would have earned very little pay. After a short time in New York, Louis heard of the opportunities and cheap land in the South. Louis started making his way south. He was traveling with another family that he had become acquainted with and became friends, and they reached Charleston, South Carolina. There he started working with the railroad, blasting passages through the mountains.

While working on the railroad, Louis became friends with John Kimbrel. John was probably a foreman or someone in charge of the work force. Louis was strong and short in statue, being five feet four inches tall, and was a hard worker; and John took a liking to Louis. In South Carolina Louis married Mary Diana (Polly) Kimbrel, John’s oldest daughter. They worked their way with the railroad to Georgia. October 25, 1856, Joseph Graben (my Great Grand dad) was born during the time his parents were working in Georgia. It was easy to become a naturalized citizen. After living five years in the country, a person would just go to the local court house and swear an oath and receive their papers. The papers he received when he landed at Ellis Island would be proof of when he arrived in the United States. The records have been lost as to where Louis actually received his naturalization papers.

John, Louis, and their family came to Alabama; it is not clear where he received his papers in Alabama or Georgia. Most likely it was in Alabama so that he could buy some land. The 1859 census had John owning 120 acres farm; later the census had Louis owning 159 acres farm. The next records of the1860 censuses show them in Lineville. Most likely John and his family -Louis, Polly and Joseph- came to Lineville and purchased the land and started farming. John probably helped Louis with the buying of his property because Louis couldn’t have made very much money working on the railroad.

Louis volunteered to join the Army for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He enlisted at Wedowee April 1, 1862 (Lineville was part of Randolph County. Clay County was not designated as a county until Dec. 6, 1866, and he was inducted into services at Lineville on April 5, 1862. He appears on the muster-in roll at Camp Goldthwaite near Talladega, Alabama, May 8, 1862. It had his age as 32 years old, and stated that he had joined at Randolph County. He did his basic training at Fort Goldthwaite (there are several spellings of the camp name; the muster-in roll spelling is almost illegible. It was signed by Captain West), and then he was assigned duty with the Alabama 31st, assigned to the Pettus Brigade; their Commanding officer was Col. Hundley. A missing-in-action form was signed, sighting the dates May 16 to June 13 for Louis. He was captured at Champion Hill near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was a prisoner of war at Delaware Prison; a prisoner exchange was issued on July 4, 1863. After his release from prison by a prisoner exchange between the North and the South, he returned to his unit and later he was wounded at Resaca, Georgia. He remained with the Alabama 31st until the end of the war. He was paroled by the United States Army at Salisbury, N.C., May 2, 1865. In 1901 Louis Graben applied for Veterans’ assistance based on his military service. The application showed Louis’s farm valued at one hundred and fifty-nine dollars, or one dollar per acre.

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Louis Graben’s family reunion at Barfield

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Louis Graben from family picture

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Joseph Graben, (Billy’s great grandfather)

Charlie Walker Smith

Story told by Ma Smith

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William Henry & Elvira Smith, (Billy’s great grandfather & great Grandmother & their sons, Charlie Walker, Osker, and Coleman

Grand Pa Smith was a blacksmith and very strong. The people would tell that once he got a horse’s leg to shoe, the horse wouldn’t or couldn’t move. Ma told us that one July day she and Pa Smith were walking in the field when all of a sudden a dove flew over and lit on Grandpa’s shoulder. This was very unusual because doves are very skittish birds. She didn’t say what they thought about it but within a couple of weeks Pa Smith died. Ma always thought the dove was an angel or an omen telling them that something bad was going to happen. Ma told us that Grand Pa was very sick and no one knew what his sickness was. Ma would try to use whatever she could to get him better. He told Ma, I have to go, let me go. She insisted on trying to help him but he kept saying, I have to go, let me go. Ma finally gave up and Grand Pa Charles W. Smith died from typhoid fever after drinking stagnant water in his blacksmith shop and died, July 17, 1912.

One of the superstitions of that day was that if a wild bird lit on a person’s shoulder he would die. If a bird tried to get into a house by flying up to the window and holding on to the window, someone in the house would die. If an owl lit on your porch and hooted, someone in the house was going to die.

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Grandpa Charlie Walker Smith, Ma, Odessa sitting on wagon, Hugh standing

William & Catherine Taylor

Most of the information that I can find about William and Catherine Taylor comes from Rollie Taylor, Walt Taylor, and other family members who put a lot of work into researching them. William was born in 1786; his family probably came from England. I had one report that Catherine’s father may have served in the American Revolution. Catherine Cornwell was born in 1796 in North Carolina.

William and Catharine owned a farm in Troup County, Georgia. They had eight sons and two daughters. My great, great grandfather Stokley Morgan Taylor was the fourth son, born in 1820 at Troup County, Georgia.

My mother, Sallie Mae (Taylor) Smith has told me the story of the slave, a colored girl named Katy whose name was sometimes spelled as Caty. The story told to me by Mom was that as a child she was mentally slow and became Catharine’s worker in the house. William bought Katy when she was approximately eight years old. One document that is available shows the sale of some property which had Caty Taylor as a witness.

Katy died and a doctor signed the death paper that she had been beaten with a club and starved to death. A warrant was issued for the arrest of William and Catharine Taylor with a reward for $300 to anyone who apprehends them and turned them over to the Sheriff of Troup County, Georgia, by the state of Georgia. The copy of the transcript was given to me by Rollie Taylor with permission to use it, and it had it that William and Catherine presented themselves to the court and asked for a continuance because a witness that knew the truth was not available and couldn’t be subpoenaed as a witness. I am not sure if the witnesses were not available or if they just didn’t want to be called as a witness. The court refused to allow a continuance and ordered a quick court case. At this time a person was tried within a short time after an incident. Caty died March 15, 1836; the trial took place August 1837.

William was reported to have gone to visit a relative in De Kalb County, Georgia, to purchase some property. I believe it was then that he went to Randolph County, Alabama, and bought some property near Roanoke. History has it that High Pine was burned by the Indians in 1836 and when the town was rebuilt the name was changed to Roanoke. After William tried to get a continuance because a witness couldn’t be subpoenaed, William, Catharine and the family moved to Roanoke and started a farm there; this was just out of reach of the Georgia Law enforcement.

After a short time, William and Catharine prepared themselves to prove their innocence hired a lawyer, and returned to Georgia. At the Grand Jury trial they proved by witnesses Hugh Wilson, Caty’s (Katy) original owner, that Caty was not beaten by William and Catharine, but rather by the original owner. He found her disobedient, said that she lied, and said that she would steal things. He had tried to sell her but no one would buy her. He would beat her, and one time after he had beaten her she ran away and tried to drown herself in a river. He said she was slow and had a tendency to have fits. William offered to buy her; she was approximately eight years old. She lived in the Taylor’s house for eighteen to twenty years. Caty would have been born between the years 1808 to 1810 and she would have been 26 to 28 years old at her death. The scars on her body were made by the original owner. Another man testified that just before she died, Katy had run away and he found her and she had been out in the cold weather for several days. A different doctor testified that the injury that killed the girl