Leltter from Eutaw, Mississippi

Eda and John traveled throughout the south during the early years of their marriage. He drilled wells for water. Their children were born in West Point, Mississippi and Selma, Alabama. John I wrote a letter to the Decatur Review from Eutaw, Alabama in February of 1899 which was published in the Decatur paper.


The Decatur Review
Friday Morning, Feb. 17, 1899 Page 4
Source: www.ancestry.com Newspaper archives

Eutaw, Ala. Feb. 14, 1899
Ed. Review.
The Review being a regular visitor to me at this place and seeing a good many letters from farther south than this, I thought I would give the Macon county people a description of this country here.
We are just recovering from a sudden attack of a northern-type blizzard, the measure going sown to nine degrees below zero yesterday morning, being the coldest weather by eight degrees ever experienced in this country, according to the oldest settlers.
I am an old Macon county boy, being born and raised in Harristown township.
Eutaw is a beautiful little town of 600 inhabitants about seventy-five miles southwest from Birmingham and sixty-two miles northeast from Meridian, Miss, on the A. G. S. railroad. The soil in town is sandy with red clay subsoil and is excellent land when fertilized, but south and southwest from town two miles begins the celebrated prairie belt of Alabama, the finest cotton land in the United States. Land that has grown nothing but cotton for sixty years and not a shovelful of fertilizer and still makes a good crop, from 600 to 800 pounds of seed cotton to the bale. Of course, taking these lands as a whole, they will not produce that much, for there are spots in them, as in all other sections of the south, that will not produce anything. The best of these lands will produce from fifteen to twenty-five bales of cotton per acre, but would do better if they were fertilized.
These lands lay as pretty and look as good as Macon county lands and can be bought from $10 to $25 per acre and rent for from $1.50 to $2.50 per acres, so you see it is a better per cent on the amount invested than most Macon county lands.
Good pasture can be made here in a short time, also good hay grasses do well here and hay is in good demand at from $12.50 to $18 per ton.
All kinds of stock do well here and do not have to be fed so long through the winter. I have seen good hogs killed taken up from the woods and they had not see a grain of corn all fall. Some fine deer and turkeys are in the swamp and plenty of quail and rabbit. The climate is mild and healthful, about the same as through all the central south.
I would not advise any one to come here without some capital. I believe any one coming here with small capital and investing it prudently would realize quick and good returns. There is plenty of labor and good land and it needs some energy and eastern push to utilize it.
John I. Hawk

Eda Sanders Married John I Hawk

Eda Sanders married John I. Hawk, the son of A.C. Hawk on
01 Aug 1894 in St. Louis, MO. They went back to Niantic on Saturday where they made their home.

Eda, Thelma, John I and Virgel Hawk, about 1898. Thelma and Virgel were born in West Point, Mississippi, which must not have been far from Meridian, Mississippi where this photo was taken.

(Photo from the files of Ayliffe Hawk Moore, inscribed in Mildred Hawk’s handwriting,
“For Alie – John I Hawk and Family, Taken in December, 1898”. From Mary Moore
Willis Armstrong, Ayliffe’s daughter, 2005.)

.

The children of John I. HAWK and Eda Myrtle Sanders were:

1. Virgel Aden Hawk, born 18 Oct 1895 in West Point, Clay, Mississippi; died 25 Apr 1973 in Springfield, Sangamon, IL. (married Leva Whiteside, March 12, 1918.)

2. Thelma Kate Hawk Williams, born 29 Mar 1898 in West Point, Clay, Mississippi; died 26 Mar 1993 in LaMesa, CA. (married Don Williams)

3. Mildred Olivette Hawk, born 04 May 1900 in Selma, Dallas, Alabama; died 03 Feb 2003 in St. Louis, MO.

4. Ayliffe Cyrene Hawk18 Moore, born 14 Apr 1902 in Selma, Dallas, Alabama; died 29 Dec 1931 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. (Married Paul Moore)

Eda Sanders Social Life

This card was a “social card”[1] and was inscribed with “Miss Edith Sanders” on the back. It was an invitation to a Picnic near Sanders’ Ford, which is on the river, south of Niantic on July 4^th, 1890.

This social card was an invitation to an “Anagram Party” at the home of Mr. & Mrs. John Wacker on Tuesday evening, March 29 of 1892 at 7:30 p.m. Anagrams[1] was a popular game in the late 1800’s.

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[1] These cards were in the files of Mary Armstrong and were generously given to Sue Ridgley in 2008.

Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders

 

Mary Jane Hollingsworth was the daughter of Eli Hollingsworth and Mary Baughzel Russel. She was born on 15 Dec 1846 in Vermillion, Indiana, USA[7, 8].

When she was 3 she appears on the1850 Census, Vermillion County, Indiana, with parents Eli and Mary Hollingsworth. Her residence in 1860 was Helt Township, Vermillion County, Indiana. [9] . Her siblings Anna and Zimri are still at home.

This small picture was labeled by her daughter, Eda Sanders and is marked 1859, aged 16.

This may be Harriet Singleton Sanders (George’s mother) or Mary Jane Hollingsworth.  No name was on the photo. The clothes appear to belong to an Indian. Harriet Singleton Sanders was 1/2 Cherokee, her mother being married to John Singleton. A large 15 x 24 framed copy and the small copy are known.

Lavina Shoemaker Marshall

1880 Census: Myrtle Sanders, age 5, living in the home of Greg and Lavina Marshall in Friends Creek Township, Macon County, IL. Listed as “cousin”. Lavina was a Shoemaker, daughter of Amanda Hollingsworth (sister to Mary Jane) and Unknown Shoemaker, which would have made her a first cousin to Eda and Will Sanders.

Will and Eda Sanders about ages 16 and 15 or so.

Children of George William and Mary Jane Hollingsworth

Eda Myrtle Sanders was born to George William and Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders on 24 Aug 1874 (Mt. Auburn, Christian, IL)





William Dallas Sanders. He was born on 06 Aug 1876 in Mt. Auburn , Illinois; picture probably taken in 1877.



Eda was about 3 1/2 and Willie was about 17 months old when their mother, Mary Jane Hollingsworth Sanders, died in 1878. When Eda had grown up a bit, she went to live with her cousin, Livina ShoemakerMarshall and husband Greg Marshall and worked in her boarding house. In the 1880 census, she is shown as age 5.Willie was raised by Frank Sanders , his uncle and his aunt, Annais Hollingsworth Sanders, who was a sister to Mary Jane.(It is unclear if or how Frank Sanders is related to George William.) Their father, George William Sanders, was a “traveling man” and was not settled down enough to raise the children.