She Has Worn Many Hats: Saluting Loujine Young Shuler on Her Birthday April 10

Loujine Young Shuler (left) is shown with two of her Class of 1947, Union County High School, classmates at their golden anniversary class reunion June 14, 1997 at Blairsville. Loujine traveled from Walden, CO to be present for the event; Elbert Dennis Wilson from Wales, Michigan, and Ethelene Dyer Jones from Epworth, GA (where she lived at that time). Friends in high school--friends in the "golden" years!

Something as simple as telephone calls can renew an avalanche of memories and launch a simple project that will eventually result in much happiness.

I speak of recent telephone calls, one from a mother and one from her son. Neither knew the other was calling me. Both calls precipitated this column about my Union County Classmate, then Loujine Young, now Loujine Young Shuler, who went out from Union County and did well as wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and professional woman.

Let me quickly note that neither Loujine nor her son Carl remotely suggested I write about Loujine. They are too humble and unpretentious to seek publicity at all. To write about her is my own idea, my choice. But let me get on with the subject at hand, that of noting some of Loujine Young Shuler’s accomplishments and why Union County can be proud of this just-about-to-turn octogenarian.

And if you are a friend to Loujine, know her now or knew her in the past when she lived and grew up in Union County, will you please take the time to send her a birthday card. Loujine’s son Carl Shuler and her daughter Gwendolyn Shuler Hanson are both hoping a virtual “shower of cards” of good wishes will be sent to their beloved mother on or before her 80th birthday on April 10. Right now, Loujine is temporarily in Arizona with her granddaughter Jodie and may be addressed at Mrs. Loujine Y. Shuler, 21875 West Casey Lane, Buckeye, AZ 85326. Loujine will be returning soon to her home in northern Colorado where she spends the “warm” months of the year and may be addressed there at P. O. Box 296, Walden, CO 80480-0296.

Loujine Young was born April 10, 1930 to Joseph Benjamin Ezekiel Young (Dec. 18, 1891-May 3, 1931) and Birdie Maybelle Ingram Young (Sep. 25, 1896-Jul. 15, 1997). She was the youngest of five children. Her siblings were Ray Alan Young (1920-1941) who married Juanita Thomas; Clara Pauline Young (1922 - 1999) who married Howard McCarter; Joseph Benjamin (J. B.) Young (1924-1994) who married Dortha Pauline Henderson; and Floyd James Young (1927-1984) who married Alice Kathleen Freeman.

Loujine’s father, Zeke Young, died when Loujine was just a year old. Her mother worked hard to keep house and home together and rear the children to be solid, productive citizens during the hard times of the Depression, World War II, and the children’s “growing up” years.

I met Loujine first when we both became students of Union County High School, Blairsville, in our “Fabulous Class of 1947”. I was a country girl who had gone to Choestoe Elementary School. Loujine was a “town girl,” having grown up in Blairsville, attending Blairsville Elementary. We enjoyed having classes together and developing a lasting friendship. Loujine stated in memoirs for the Class of 1947’s 50th Reunion Book distributed when we had a grand reunion in 1997 that she liked mathematics best of all her subjects, as “it helped her much in her later work.” We both have the late Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva to thank for our love for and whatever proficiency in math we have. Loujine was also athletic in nature, and played on the Union County girls’ basketball team.

In those years from 1943 through 1947 when we were in school, any basketball we played was on an outside court, for our school did not then have a gymnasium for our practice, games or athletic gatherings. In recalling those days of playing basketball, Loujine wrote, “When we went to schools with hardwood gym floors, our ball did some strange things. It was a challenge, but we still won games.”

Loujine and Vester Eugene “Gene” Shuler, son of Murphy Jane Fortenberry Shuler and Marion Shuler, were married July 17, 1948. The young couple settled down in northern Colorado in a town called Walden. Eugene worked as a maintenance supervisor and Loujine began her career as a postmaster at Walden in 1959, continuing that job for 33 years until her retirement on October 4, 1992.

Loujine and Eugene had two children, son Carl who married Patty Hines (a teacher) and Gwendolyn Shuler who married Kirk Hanson. Loujine delights in her grandchildren, Matthew Allen, Joie, and Adam Shuler and Jodie and Deanna Hanson. I haven’t a current count or names or number of great grandchildren (sorry, Loujine!).

Eugene, Loujine’s companion of more than sixty years, died October 30, 2007. Eugene was known for his hunting trips, they both liked to travel, and Eugene played his fiddle for many a gathering, especially the famed “Georgia Picnic” in Eaton, Colorado the last Sunday of August each year.

As postmaster at Walden, Colorado for 33 years, Loujine was well respected in the community and earned many rewards for her service as both postmaster and citizen. In 1990, the great Christmas Tree that was taken to Washington, D. C. to be placed on the White House lawn was gathered from near Walden. Loujine assisted with fundraising to get the tree transported and was able to go to Washington for its placement and lighting.

She also was active in preserving local history in Walden and received recognition for the special stamps, dyes and other items she promoted to help Walden be known throughout Colorado and even in the United States. This lady, well-reared by her beloved mother Birdie Ingram Young, and well-grounded in principles of faith, family and work ethic, went out from Union County and lighted up another place, a town called Walden. She and Eugene were active in Walden Baptist Church, and reared their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In talking to Carl, their son, I find that he and his wife Patty enjoy providing music at worship services, Carl on guitar (having perhaps inherited his father’s love for producing instrumental music) and his wife Patty playing piano. So the talent goes on from Gene (and maybe Loujine, too) to the next generation.

In giving advice to the Class of 1947, Loujine said: “Enjoy life to the fullest each day you live. The golden years will be so full of fond memories you won’t have time for sadness.” My life has been enriched since 1943 by knowing Loujine Young Shuler. I am glad to call her friend, and happy for the fellowship we have enjoyed at class reunions and through other means in our “golden years.” Congratulations, Loujine, on reaching the milestone of 80 years. Best wishes for good health and continued happiness for you and yours. (And, as a reminder, remember to send Loujine a birthday card; we want to “shower” her with cards on her 80th!)

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 8,2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Beyond the Mountain Haze

Charles Weymon Cook shown with Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva at her 104th birthday celebration in February, 2009. He read a poem in tribute to her influence upon him as his high school mathematics teacher.

It is seldom that we can read a delightful and revealing story about a mountain family written in poetry, with just enough prose interspersed to make the line quite understandable and appealing.

Charles Weymon Cook who was born to Rufus and Nora Davenport Cook and calls Blairsville his hometown has done just that with his newly-published autobiographical poetry book entitled Beyond the Mountain Haze. Weymon, as he was known growing up in Union, now lives in Macon, Georgia. He is one of those native citizens who has gone out into other places and done well, first as a teacher, and now in his retirement as a writer. In this book paying tribute to his mountain heritage, he has captured in impeccable rhyme and rhythm many aspects of mountain life that are fast passing away under the guise of progress.

What makes the book even more appealing is the fact that its author is what I like to call a “walking miracle.” Charles Weymon Cook underwent heart transplant surgery on September 21, 2000. Not only did he live and do well, but he has been able to write and compile his delightful autobiography in verse and make it available to any who would like to know more about life in the “miracle” dimension of restored health. One way of offering his thanks for the gift of life is this book, well-crafted and pleasing to the eye as well as to the reader. It walks us through woodland paths and family solidarity, helps us meet and greet people significant in his life, and allows us new perspectives on the beauty of nature and the harmony of creation. And with thanks to his beautiful and compassionate wife, a teacher as he, LaVerne Young Cook, and their only child, daughter Christy, who assisted him with manuscript, typesetting and organization for the book, we have for our perusal a volume which I predict the reader will return to again and again.

Charles Weymon Cook’s father was Rufus Cook, “Mr. Ranger,” one of the earlier forest rangers in North Georgia who learned his skills as a forester under the able tutelage of Ranger Arthur Woody. Charles tells us that his father spent 43 years as a U. S. Forest Ranger. Among his skills were certified surveyor, timber-marker, forest-fire fighter, recreational facilities designer and builder, tower radio equipment manager and repairer—whatever the need within the far reaches of the mountain forests, Rufus Cook was there, walking the forests, keeping an eye diligently on the land and its care. Nine of Charles’s poems pay tribute to this giant of a fellow, both in stature and morally and spiritually, who gave him the firm foundation of a solid upbringing. We can sense love in every line in which this poet describes his father. Here’s but a small example from “Mr. Ranger”:

“I thank my God that I was there
To live and love and grow
Amidst the shadow of a giant,
With smiling face aglow.” (p. 65)

His mother, Nora Davenport Cook, has her section in the book. Both parents and their influence are seen throughout the book, but their own sections are especially provocative, leading the reader to recall and appreciate family roots that went deeply into the soil of a developing life and bore fruit in years “beyond the mountain haze.” A descendant of the early Davenport settlers to Union County for whom Davenport Mountain was named, Nora Cook was a stay-at-home mother who worked hard as an avid gardener and a dedicated housewife and mother. She did not tolerate “sassiness,” back-talk, or half-done chores. Her discipline and astuteness to details and homemaking values assured Charles and his siblings that they had a warm loving home where they were taught the principles of life:

“You taught me love with gentle hands,
Encouraging all the way;
You laid the founding cornerstone
By teaching me how to pray.” (p. 54)

I have the recent privilege of being associated with Charles Weymon Cook, teacher, poet, friend, having met him only in recent years through our associations in the Georgia State Poetry Society and the Byron Herbert Reece Society of which we are both members. Occasionally I am able to meet for a meal with him and his wife, LaVerne, or to travel to a meeting together. Having grown up in the same county, Charles and I didn’t know each other back when we were youth. I did know Charles’s older brother, Donald, as we were nearer together in age. The day of Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva’s 104th birthday celebration in February, 2009, Charles and I were both there and were able to read to her our individual poetic tributes for her profound influence on our lives. She had much to do with each of us choosing and pursuing careers in teaching.

Charles Weymon Cook writes in his “Introduction” to his book, Beyond the Mountain Haze: “My southern style ‘earthy’ verses simply reflect people, places and events that have influenced my life. Some things just tear at the heartstrings and trigger a melody in your soul that you wish to share with friends and neighbors.”

This very modest appraisal by the author of why he had to write the book only goes partially into why he should, indeed, have shared it. He had something to say, and he said it with apparent ease and facility. Find a copy of Beyond the Mountain Haze. My prediction is that you, as I, will return to its pages again and again for inspiration, information and enjoyment. He lifts the haze and allows us to see a miracle heart, restored and ready to give praise to the Creator of all beauty and the Sustainer of life. And this he does in understandable, sensitive and positive poetry. Congratulations, Charles Weymon Cook, mountain lad grown to productive citizen, whose knowledge and appreciation of family, environment and associations shine forth from the pages of your book.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 18, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reece Family Afterthoughts (Part 7 in Reece Family Series)

To Bobby Josiah Queen, current citizen of Union County and a person vitally interested in family roots, thank you for the volume of information you sent me on the Reece families in Union County.

This entry, at least temporarily, will wrap up my articles on the Reece family. Enough remains, untouched, from what Bobby sent, that could make a good-sized book. I was not surprised at how, from the earliest Reece settlers to Union County through marriages, many prominent last names show the relationship of this family to subsequent generations.

And so it is, in general. We “live and move and have our being.” Each generation leaves its mark, a circle in time, some work, some monument of service, some contribution to add to the corpus of knowledge or achievement. Or, alas, if we lack motivation and desire to contribute in a worthwhile manner to the good of all, our record can mar as well as help.

We can aspire to do as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote in his great poem, “A Psalm of Life”:

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.”

I was interested, for example, in seeing how Bobby Josiah Queen himself lay in the line of Reece descendants. He got his second name from his grandfather, Eli Josiah Reece (04.02.1878), son of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Clarica Adelia Logan Reece. Eli Josiah Reece was the sixth of sixteen children born to Quiller and Eliza. And Quller Frank, as you recall, was a son of William “Billy” Reece and Mary Daniel Reece. Uncle Billy Reece mined gold from the creekbed of Helton Falls Creek and hauled it to the Dahlonega Mint for processing.

Bobby’s mother was Nora Elizabeth Reece (11.08.1907) a daughter of Eli Joseph Reece. To them were born four children, Carl Winford Queen, Durwood Norris Queen, Bobby Josiah Queen, and Frances Louella Queen. I won’t attempt to trace the marriages and descendants of these Reece kin. Bobby Josiah Queen followed in the footsteps of several of his ancestors and gave patriotic service in the U. S. Marines and the Coast Guard. He married Carmela Rinaldi. He chose to return to his beloved Union County after his service years.

And looking through the many names of Reece descendants, I noted with great interest that my high school classmate, Elbert Dennis Wilson, now of Michigan, is also a descendant of Eli Josiah Reece and Sallie Lou Ella Stephens Reece. Elbert’s mother was Mary Eliza Reece (11.20.1901), daughter of Eli Josiah. Mary Eliza married Abraham Lincoln Wilson and Elbert was their fourth of nine children. Isn’t it strange that as high school students we hardly gave a thought to our genealogy? Then we did not know, somehow, that grandparents and great grandparents were important to our history. We failed to sit at their feet, hear their stories, and record them while these noble people were alive and could enlighten us on who begat whom and what they did in the hills and valleys of Union County.

Going back to William “Billy” Reece and his wife Mary Daniel Reece, I note that their daughter, Margaret Louise Reece (08.16.1856 – 06.20.1941) married John Spiva (04.22.1851 – 11.28.1933). To this couple were born Mary Jane, Eliza, Minty Caroline, Henry W., Emma, Frank, Jewell W., Gardner C., Josiah H., and Guy Cook Spiva. This family link opened up another avenue of genealogical lines back to the original Reece settlers in Union County. These, too, would make another book, and my friend, Geraldine Spiva Elmore has done much to preserve the Spiva legacy in her research and writings. Thank you, Geraldine.

This brief overview only partially covers the links and names going back to “Billy” Reece and his children. But last, and not least, I want to pay tribute to the last-born of Quiller Frank and Elizabeth Logan Reece’s children, Alice Elizabeth Louise Reece (01.23.1893), who married Olin Hayes. Her great niece, Esther Minerva Clouse Cunningham (daughter of Nellie Caroline Reece and Zeb Clouse) wrote of her great aunt Alice Hayes:

“I remember Aunt Alice Reece Hayes. She was my grandfather’s youngest sibling. She stayed at home and took care of her parents (Quiller Frank and Elizabeth) until they died. She married late in life and never had any children. I think she felt her responsibility to keep her parents’ family united. When my grandma “Roxie” (Roxie Potts Reece, wife of William Drury Reece, firstborn son of Quiller Frank) was sick and dying, Aunt Alice and her husband, Olin Hayes, came. I brought them to my house to spend the night because my Aunt Kate was caring for her parents.” And so went this testimony of Esther Cunningham, who remembered her Great Aunt Alice as a “keeper of the family history.”

To Bobby Josiah Queen, thank you for these and other great stories of the Reece Family in Union County. I leave this family saga now, not because the story is finished by any means, but because it is too large for inclusion in sketchy columns in a weekly newspaper. For those of you, like Alice Reece Hayes, who want to be “keepers of the family history,” learn your stories and record them. You will be glad you did. Much for posterity hangs in the balance of our finding and recording the stories. “Lives of great men (and women) all remind us” even now to catch a glimpse of the sublime in the lives of others who made a difference.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published February 25, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reece Family in Union County, GA (part 2): More on the Family of William ("Billy") and Mary Daniel Reece

William Billy Reece and his wife Mary Sarry Daniel Reece

Thanks to Mr. Billy Josiah Queen who promised and delivered on “more information than I probably ever wanted to know” about the Reece family of Union County. I have been digging through genealogical research that has thousands of names from before any Reeces came to Union County prior to 1834, as seen in last week’s introductory column.

To recapitulate my listing of William “Billy” Reece and Mary (called “Sarry”) Daniel Reece, I will review:

They were married in Union County on June 18, 1837, with Mr. Thomas M. Hughes, a justice of the inferior court, performing their ceremony.

This Reece family set up their homestead near Wolf Creek in Choestoe District, probably about where Vogel State Park and Lake Trahlyta are presently located. The family farmed the narrow patches along Wolf Creek, but as we shall see, William Reece also had other means of making a living.

William Reece was a teacher, and records of Choestoe School and Church indicate that he taught at least one term of school there. Schools then were in session at slack times on the farm, since students had to help with planting, cultivating and harvesting when needed for this work. William Reece would have taught in two, three or four months’ increments of school and pupils from first through seventh grades would have his tutelage.

Another interesting sideline of work William Reece pursued was that of gold prospector. If you recall from last week’s column, he and his brother James settled in Habersham County before coming into Union, and although there is no record uncovered yet of their having “prospected” in the gold fields along Duke’s Creek there when gold was discovered in 1828, he may well have learned this trade in that location.

William Reece got “gold fever.” It is said that he searched for deposits along Helton Creek and near the falls. Today, Helton Creek Falls Road can lead the inquisitive person to drive out to the falls area, walk along the creek, see the tumbling falls, and imagine what life was like for a lonely prospector in the mid-1800’s.

How much gold William Reece found is a matter left to the imagination, but he is known to have searched all week, week after week, and then to take his finds to the mint operating at Dahlonega, Georgia on Saturdays.

William and Mary Daniel Reece had these children, all born in Union County:

(1) Sarah Elizabeth Reece (1.11.1841 – 12.31.1934) who married Logan Davis.
(2) Quiller Frank Reece (4.20.1843 - 10.13.1932) who married Eliza Clarica Adelia Logan.
(3) William Hughes Reece (10.31.1844 - ?) who married Martha Adamson and Mary J. Evans.
(4) Josiah M. Reece (11.15.1847 – 10.18.1836) who married Margaret Kennedy and Mary Ann Kelley.
(5) Nancy Jane Reece (02.25.1849 – 05.14.1935) who married William Henry Smith and moved to White County, Georgia.
(6) John Nuel Reece (09.02.1852 – 05.07.1878) who married Adalige Rich.
(7) Mary Caroline Reece (02.18.1855 – 03.23.1930) who married Wellborn Jackson.
(8) Margaret Louise Reece (08.16.1856 – 06.20.1941) who married John Spiva.
(9) Joseph Brown Reece (06.01.1860 – 02.24.1930) who married Laura J. Nix and Fannie Ash.
(10) Mintie L. Reece (02.12.1863 – 08.06.1933) who married John W. Nix and Richard H. Majors.

William and Mary Reece’s large family of ten children, with their marriages to other citizens in Union County, spread the Reece relationship to a large spectrum of people. The children, born within a twenty-two year period from 1841 through 1863 saw the parents rearing children during the tough years of the Civil War. As a matter of fact, three of the sons served in the 6th Georgia Calvary, “The Blood Mountain Tigers,” during the Civil War. These were Quiller Frank, William Hughes and Josiah M. Fortunately, none of these Reece young men lost their lives in that conflict and were able to return and resume their lives after the war.

c 2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Jan. 21, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reunion Reflections and Revolutionary Remembrances

Pardon my very personal and proud approach to reporting on our annual Dyer-Souther Heritage Association Reunion held Saturday, July 18, 2009 at Choestoe Baptist Church Family Life Center. We gathered some 213 strong (according to registration count) for a day of reflecting upon the past, greeting people both new to us and regular attendees, and hearing the accounts of some of our ancestors who fought to gain freedom from Great Britain during the American Revolution.

I thank all who worked hard to set up for the day and plan and implement the program. These events do not just happen. The trustees and officers of the association are Bill Collins, president, Reid Dyer, vice-president, Janice Lance, secretary, Marie Knight, treasurer of the Old Liberty Cemetery Fund, assisted by Lee Knight, Ethelene Jones, historian and newsletter editor, Keith Jones, Trustee, and Joe Dyer, Trustee emeritus. This group carries on the work of the association between reunions, plans for and advertises the reunion, and, with the help of others, sets up the meeting place for the anticipated crowd of attendees. Bill Collins concluded his long term as president at the end of this reunion. Reid Dyer became the new president and Bill will remain on the Board as a Trustee.

Andrew Turnage announced plans to further promote the work of inventor Micajah Clark Dyer (1822-1891) who received a patent (# 154,654) in 1874 for his "Apparatus for Navigating the Air." A foundation has been set up to receive funds for upgrading his gravestone in the Old Choestoe Cemetery. Plans are also under way to get his invention listed in the Aviation Hall of Fame and to build a working model of his invention according to specifications and drawings he set forth in his application for the patent. For more information, interested persons may go to this website www.MicajahClarkDyer.org or e-mail for information at MicajahClarkDyer@gmail. com.

A drawing for the proposed grave marker for Bluford Elisha Dyer, Jr. (ca 1785-1847) was presented by Keith Jones, Trustee. The approximate location of the grave, unmarked, has been found on property where Dyer settled when he and his wife, Elizabeth Clark Dyer, moved to the Choestoe Valley along Cane Creek in the early 1830's, becoming the first Dyer settlers in the area. Another historical preservation project is to locate the old Souther Family Cemetery near New Liberty Baptist Church where John and Mary Combs Souther buried some of their children who died prior to the establishment and development of the church and cemetery on land John Souther gave for that purpose. The Heritage Association aims to locate, if possible, this burial site and mark it.

Still another project is to mark in a more appropriate manner the family burial site of the Rev. John M. Dyer, and the gravesites of his wife, Elizabeth Sullivan Dyer and their daughter, Martha Dyer. This year's reunion saw first-time attendees from many places with ties to the Dyer-Souther and collateral families of Choestoe. From Louisiana came Ida Nix Reed and her husband Charles and daughters, Ashleigh Smith of Mississippi and Leslie Doucette of Atlanta, and granddaughter Caroline Smith. From Louisiana came Royce and Velma Dyer, descendants of Jefferson Beauregard and Rhoda Souther Dyer. From Athens, Georgia came Eva Leach Banks who descends from Samantha Dyer Alexander, and others of Eva's kin. From Warrenton, VA came Margaret Harkins Patterson, a great, great, granddaughter of Micajah Clark Dyer. From Cleveland, TN came Ed (and Dortha) Townsend. Ed descends from Sarah Elizabeth (Sally) Dyer and Eli Townsend. Ed has written a valuable family history book entitled Some Townsends of North Georgia. From Brasstown, NC came Tipper Pressley, author and presenter of “Blind Pig and the Acorn,” an on-line newsletter with the purpose of documenting and publishing information about mountain people and ways that are fast vanishing with our modern-day development. These are but a few of the "first time" attendees whom we welcomed warmly. Space precludes my listing them all here, but they, too, are important. Their names will be in the next Chronicle newsletter of the Association. We hope they will return, year after year, as do the scores of "regular" attendees, all of whom, by their presence and support, assist the Trustees to have a wonderful reunion that focuses on family solidarity and honoring the contributions of our ancestors to the American way of life.

The program for the 2009 Reunion was about our ancestors who were soldiers and patriots in the American Revolution. Brief biographical sketches were given about two James Collins soldiers who may be tied to Thompson Collins, first Collins settler in Choestoe Valley. We heard about Elisha and Amey Laws Dyer, assisting with material aid to the Revolution, as did William and Daniel England with their iron forge on Hunting Creek in North Carolina. John Ingraham, Stephen and William Souther, Michael Tanner, John Henry Stonecypher, William Jones, the two named John Nix, and the four sons of Repentance Townsend, all soldiers in the "Overmountain Men," were all briefly eulogized in the program to honor our Revolutionary War patriots. Each deserves his own story, and many have already been written about in this column in years past. Look online to see their biographies. Others will be featured in future columns.

A solemn part of the reunion program is the "In Memoriam" time. This year, we honored the memory of twenty-three of our kin who had passed away since the last reunion. We especially missed the physical presence of our beloved Dora Hunter Allison Spiva who passed away February 24, 2009, and who loved attending the reunions and contributing her sparkling wit and personality to all who came.

We honored our youngest present, little Kaitlyn Girardot from Hoschton, GA, daughter of Kari Bardenwerper Girardot, granddaughter of Judy Dyer Bardenwerper, and great granddaughter of Wilonell Collins Dyer. Our eldest one present for the second year in a row was Mrs. Irene Coker Brown, widow of Emory Brown, who at the wonderful age of 100 enjoyed the reunion and the people. The one who traveled farthest was a brand-new attendee, Simon Napoli from Australia, who was the guest of Dr. Eva Nell Mull Wike and Jim Wike of Oak Ridge, TN. Eva Nell taught Simon's mother in the 1980's as an exchange student, and now the student's son is here visiting the Wikes. He was "awed" by our reunion, and said he had never attended anything like it before in Australia. And from beautiful Hawaii, second in the "farthest distance" traveled were Linda Nahser Beadle and her husband Wes. Linda's mother is Kathleen Dyer Nahser, her grandparents were Franklin Hedden and Dora Nix Dyer, and her great grandparents were Bluford Elisha (III) and Sarah Evaline Souther Dyer. Thanks, Wes and Linda, for traveling so far, and for making sure Linda's mother gets to attend the reunion.

As I reflect back upon the Reunion of 2009, my very subjective evaluation is "wonderful, marvelous!" If you missed it this year, perhaps you will consider setting aside the third Saturday in July, 2010 to be a part of our gathering. You will find a warm welcome, good food, an enlightening program, and southern hospitality at its height. And you will learn something, too. This year, I took displays of several genealogy and other books and found people with notebook and pen in hand gleaning information on their family lines from the materials. Overall, it was a beautiful, exciting and rewarding day!

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 23, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Aunt Dora will live on—in memory and legend

All of us who have known and loved Aunt Dora Hunter Allison Spiva for so long were saddened at her passing on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the marvelous age of 104 and 14 days. She was able to live at her home until Friday, February, 20, when her final illness required hospitalization. We mourn, not for her, but for ourselves at her departure from our midst. We can but rejoice that she is now enjoying the joys of heaven which she anticipated after a life well-lived and entrusted to the Lord Christ.

She leaves behind the influence of her forty years of teaching on students too numerous to number, and the example of a life lived with joy, purpose and service. For her influence on so many, we are eternally grateful. She said to me, a motherless girl of fourteen, "You can do anything you set your mind to do." I found her advice worthy of following. Many could give a similar testimony to mine on the influence she had upon them in school and beyond as she "kept up with her own" and loved and encouraged us.

Memories flood our minds as we think of the happy occasions we have spent with her. I have set on her porch at her home in Choestoe and admired her flower gardens, as lush and bountiful as any horticulturist could produce. I have thought often of how her life was like an unfolding flower, lifting thoughts like petals to sunshine in the early morning as she sought the Lord's guidance for the day. She was a mainstay at our wonderful Class of 1947 Reunions, and this could be said of any class she nourished at Union County High School. She was the eldest present at our Dyer- Souther Reunions each year after Cousin Watson Dyer died, himself reaching nearly 104, until this past July when she was not able to attend. She loved family and encouraged me to record and publish the history of our noble ancestors. "Salt of the earth," she would often say of them, being hesitant to own up to the fact that she, too, was of that salt that had not lost its savor, even to the ripe age of 104.

Now she is a legend in our time. Each time we think of her it will be with gratitude. As recently as October, she was part of a documentary film which will open the Byron Herbert Reece Center. Our poet/novelist was one of her students and she spoke lovingly about his time in her classes. Aunt Dora was honored by Truett McConnell College through having the four-year School of Education named in her honor. The first graduates from the school finished in May, 2008, and are now somewhere in schools beginning careers that will honor the name of this master teacher. It is one of my aims to continue raising funds to complete the endowment and scholarships for the Dora Hunter Allison Spiva School of Education. It is one way I can say "thank you" to Aunt Dora for inspiring me to become a teacher. Anyone wishing to donate in her memory may send contributions to Truett McConnell College, 100 Alumni Drive, Cleveland, GA 30529.

My prediction is that she will remain alive in the hearts and minds of those who loved and admired her, continuing to wield her positive influence, eliciting sweet memories of many associations with her; indeed, a legend in our time.

Dora Allison Spiva

Mrs. Dora Allison Spiva, 104, native and lifelong resident of Blairsville, Ga., died Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at Union General Hospital in Blairsville.

Mrs. Spiva was born Friday, February 10, 1905 in Union County, Ga., to the late Jim Hunter and the late Martha Souther Hunter. She graduated from the Blairsville Academy, Young Harris College and The University of Georgia. She was the oldest living member of Choestoe Baptist Church and had been very active in the church all her life, and was a founding member of the WMU at Choestoe.

Mrs. Dora was retired from the Union County School System and was a member of the Georgia Retired Teachers Association, a charter member of The Blairsville Garden Club, The American Legion Auxiliary, and Union County Historical Society. The Dora Spiva Educational Program is a scholarship program at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga., named in honor of Mrs. Spiva. She was preceded in death by first husband, Frank Allison and second husband, Dan Spiva. She was an inspiration to many.

Surviving family members include special nephew, Charles "Buddy" and Bobbie Hunter of Blairsville; many other nieces and nephews, and a host of friends. Funeral services were held Friday, February 27, 2009 at 11 a.m. from the Choestoe Baptist Church with Rev. Stacy Dyer and Rev. Ken Zollinger officiating. Music was provided by Rev. Stacy Dyer and Bill Collins and Linda Thornton. Pallbearers were Daniel Hunter, Chris Souther, Josh Lewis, Eddy Alexander, Barry Collins, Phil Hunter, Ken Hunter and Lesly Hunter. Interment followed in Choestoe Baptist Church Cemetery.

If you wish, the family has suggested memorial contributions be made to Choestoe Baptist Church Building Fund, 4455 Choestoe Church Road, Blairsville, Georgia 30512.

Arrangements entrusted to Cochran Funeral Home - Blairsville Chapel. You are invited to view Mrs. Dora's Life Tribute, send condolences to the family and sign the guest register at www. cochranfuneralhomes.com.

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Mar. 5, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Aunt Dora reaches 104

Dora Anne Hunter Allison Spiva

Her name is Dora Anne Hunter Allison Spiva. Today, February 10, 2009, she reaches the milestone of 104 years of age. If we could string together a multitude of adjectives of a positive nature to describe this centenarian-plus, we could not come close to telling of her broad influence as a teacher, church woman, community worker, advisor and friend.

Saturday, February 7 from 2:00 to 4:00 p. m., relatives and friends gathered at Choestoe Baptist Church to celebrate the milestone of her 104th birthday. All the crowd who attended came bearing love and praise for this influential woman who has been blessed with beauty, compassion, wisdom and long life.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Dora! Whether you are aunt-kin to us or not, you hold this honorable title, gifted to you because God has granted you long life and a gracious spirit. We came from far and near on February 7 to say "thank you" and "you were a great influence on my life."

Just who is Dora Anne Hunter Allison Spiva?

First, let's look at her family roots. She was born on February 10, 1905 to James A. Hunter (1847-1912) and Martha Souther Hunter (1867-1937). She was the first-born of James A., but Martha had been married previously to James's brother, Jasper F. Hunter (1863-1897), also known as "Todd." To them had been born seven children: John Esther, William Jesse, Nancy, James Hayes, Francis Homer, Hattie and Jasper Grady. These first children of Martha ranged in age from 13 to a baby when Todd died in 1897.

Stepping up later like an Old Testament patriarch, James A. Hunter married his brother's widow and began to help his dear wife with his nieces and nephews who became his own children. To Martha and James were born Dora Anne (1905), Joseph D. (1906) and Daniel (1907), bringing the number of Hunter children to ten. James Hunter's parents were William Johnson Hunter (1813-1893) and Martha England Hunter (1819-1897). Martha's parents were John Combs Hayes Souther (1827-1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (1829-1888). Family ties on "all sides" stem back to early settlers in the Choestoe District with names written in the annals of that area's history: John and Elizabeth Hunter, John and Mary Combs Souther, Thompson and Celia Self Collins, and Daniel and Margaret Gwynn England, to name a few of Aunt Dora's early-settler ancestors.

James A. Hunter died in 1912 when Dora Anne was seven, Joe was not quite six, and Dan was not quite five. Her mother Martha somehow managed, with the older children helping on the farm, and the younger children, likewise, sharing their load of work as they grew up to the responsibilities of farm and family life.

Dora Hunter Allison was educated in the country schools, Old Liberty and Choestoe, whose excellent teachers managed to produce students that stood on their own wherever they went for subsequent education. She went on to Young Harris and became a teacher in the Blairsville Collegiate Institute in 1927 when she was twenty two. Her 40-year career as a mathematics teacher, principal and counselor was mainly in the Union County Schools where she distinguished herself as an apt and caring teacher and one well-beloved by all her students. She continued her own education, earning degrees from Young Harris, Piedmont and the University of Georgia.

In Choestoe Baptist Church where she has been and still is an active member, she was one of the founders of Woman's Missionary Union, served as a teacher in Sunday School, known for her knowledge of the Bible, and as Superintendent of the Sunday School even in the days before women took active roles in the major leadership of the church. She has been active in Georgia's Woman's Missionary Union, serving in past years on the Board as Divisional Vice-President. When telling her niece, Doris Hunter Souther, what her main wish for her birthday is, she said, "I would wish, before I go, that the indebtedness on Choestoe's Family Life Center can be paid." And so, on Saturday, people honored her by making a donation to that cause which is dear to her heart.

To honor this stately lady, Truett McConnell College in nearby Cleveland, Georgia, which she worked actively to establish in 1946 when her pastor at that time, the Rev. Claud Boynton, served on the first Board of Trustees, the college has named a division the Dora Hunter Allison Spiva School of Education. The first four year graduates in education are now serving in schools, a continuing tribute to this notable teacher who has touched so many lives. Donations can be made in her honor to further equip and endow this School of Education which will be touching lives and training teachers for many years to come.

And the beat goes on. A great life is like a widening ripple. It touches deeply where the impact is first made, but it circles outward to reach far beyond the initial target in an ever-widening circle.

Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva, you have had great impact on so many touched by your caring nature and your dynamic personality, your ability to teach and your dedication to leadership. Saturday's party was beautiful, with her friends from the Blairsville Garden Club (which she helped to found years ago) making attractive decorations for every table and even the "throne-like" place where she sat. The food prepared by her fellow church members was exquisite and tasty, and the huge birthday cake fashioned by Judy Hood Rogers was a lovely centerpiece enjoyed by all. But Dora herself was definitely the center of attention and attraction--amazing, delightful Dora!

Thank you is too small a word to wish you a wonderful 104th birthday! But we do thank you. You did make more difference in our lives than you will ever know.

c 2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published February 12, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Look at Owltown

Travel Highway 129/19 south from the old courthouse square in Blairsville and you will come to the Owltown District of Union County lying around the vicinity of the Experiment Station. It was the last of the fourteen districts of the county.

This district numbered 1409 was signed into law on April 4, 1887. Court appointed commissioners John M. Rich, Milton G. Hamby, and Quiller F. Reece had been assigned the task of laying out the lines of the proposed new militia district. Daniel Mathis, Thomas Fields and other citizens had petitioned for the new district and signed a request for it with the Court of Ordinary in Union County. Portions of already-existing districts of Arkaqua, Choestoe and Coosa were surveyed and made a part of the new Owltown District. Mr. William Colwell, County Ordinary, signed the completed papers and the new district was summarily formed.

One is reminded of the words of naturalist John Muir, who in 1867, passed through beautiful Union County, Georgia on his walk from Louisville, Kentucky to Cedar Keys, Florida, a journey of over one thousand miles. He wrote of this mountainous region: "Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days...in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God."

Whether Muir passed through what became Owltown twenty years after his visit, we know not. But he could well have been describing that section of Union County nestled along the Nottely River and its tributaries. County Historian Edward S. Mauney, in his description of Owlton in 1950, said of it: "Being no less mountainous than the county's entire terrain, with its dark recesses called coves, the natural habitat of that wise old bird, the owl, suggests what is believed to be the origin of the name." (p. 72, Sketches of Union County History III, 1987).

Hoot Owl Town and Hoot Owl Hollow were eventually shortened to Owltown. Others have thought that in addition to being "the natural habitat of the owl," Owltown may have received its name from a settlement of Cherokee Indians with Chief Owl as its leader.

Some of the early-settler families that chose Owlton as their place of residence were Hamby, England, Fortenberry, Rich, Davis, Stephens, Reece, Spiva, Akins, Curtis, Majors, Fields, Mathis, Colwell, Bowers, Rider, May, Crump and others. Even today, these family names remain in residents in the coves and hollows of District 1409 and elsewhere in Union.

If John Muir did, indeed, traverse land in what became the Owltown District twenty years after his sojourn here; he would have seen cleared patches in the bottom lands where the farmer settlers grew corn, potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, wheat, rye, oats and flax. In garden patches were tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins and peppers and in yard patches, herbs like sage and rosemary for seasoning. Growing out from their mountain cabins were the beginnings of mountain orchards of apples, pears and peaches. Owltown has been noted as a place of production of good-tasting, juicy apples.

On the mountains were chestnut trees, the annual fall crop of which provided food for ranging hogs and cattle, and enough to pick up and haul to market in Gainesville over the Logan Turnpike. This extra crop from the forest helped to provide coffee, tea, sugar, cloth for making clothes and even shoes for members of the mountain families.

Another distinctive early industry of Owlton was the gold mine at Owltown Gap. The yield of this mine is not currently known, but it, along with the Coosa Mines, caused enough excitement to produce a mini-gold rush to Union County in the heyday of gold mining here.

Fort Mountain is within the area of Owltown District. The ancient fort, some of the remains of which can still be seen, is a great mystery. Legend prevails that it was built by a contingent of Spanish conquistadores who came through the region in the sixteenth century under the leadership of one Juan Pardo and built a fortress on the mountain. Lost in mountain mists and lack of records, we may never know the origin of the fort on this mountain.

Out of Owltown have come many distinguished citizens. To name a few, the following come to mind. Rev. Milford G. Hamby was a noted minister in the North Georgia Methodist Conference. Mr. Newton Curtis was termed a "good teacher" and an able debater. Solomon Hill Rich and Nancy Conner Rich had a son named Charles Edward Rich who was a noted Baptist preacher and educator. The Rev. Luther Colwell, another long-time Baptist minister in Union County, was a son of John Theodore and Amy Elizabeth Bowling Colwell. John Theodore Colwell was county ordinary when "the old courthouse" on the square was built in 1899.

"A thousand windows," to quote from John Muir, open throughout Owltown. One has but to drive its roadways to be surprised by beauty and a quality of "divine light" that emanate from a lofty past and point toward an optimistic future.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published November 20, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

James "Jim" Berry, the Last of the True Mountaineers

Visit New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery in Choestoe, stretched in front of a beautiful white country church house, with Enotah (Brasstown Bald) Mountain lifting its towering peak in the distance, and you find graves of many early settlers to that section of Union County. Today, we will focus on two graves bearing names, not of early settlers but the descendents of some of them.

These graves are of a husband and wife, James "Jim" Berry and Varina "Tib" Souther Berry. The dates tell us Jim lived from August 14, 1896 through June 26, 1982, and Tib lived from May 12, 1887 through October 15, 1963. Many who knew Jim Berry, and who wrote about him, like Charles Roscoe Collins and the roving reporter for The Atlanta Journal, Charles Salter, called him one of the last of the "true mountaineers."

Living in the old log house, somewhat updated from the time his wife Tib's grandfather built it in the mid-1800's, James was a widower from 1963 when his wife died until 1982, when he passed on at age 86. A philosopher of sorts, Jim Berry enjoyed company and was a great talker. His simple lifestyle was often an amazement to the many visitors who dropped by his house just off the Jack's Gap Road to hear him talk and to get his viewpoints on the issues of the day.

Jim Berry was not a Union County native. His wife, Varina, claimed that honor, but not Jim. His grandparents came from Old Gilmer County (a portion that later became Fannin) and from the mining town of Copperhill, Tennessee. Like settlers to that section, his forebears left North Carolina in a general migration and found land on which to carve out a new life in the mountains of North Georgia. The Berry Family moved from their Gilmer County home and got land along Fodder Creek in what became Towns County in 1856. There Jim Berry was born in 1896 to William Berry and Becky Shook Berry. Jim Berry had siblings William Berry, John Berry, Tina Berry McFall, and Martha Berry Chastain.

James Berry spent his childhood and early youth working on the family farm at Fodder Creek. He had little formal schooling because his father was an invalid. It was necessary for Jim Berry to work hard to try to make a living on the hardscrabble farm for his father, mother and siblings. They had cattle and hogs that ranged the mountains and, when rounded up and driven to market in Gainesville, provided a little extra income for the family.

When America got involved in World War I, James Berry served in the US Army. After basic training at Fort Gordon, he was selected to be in the unit that guarded German prisoners of war at Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia. He remembered those two years of his life as hard. Guarding the prisoners took great vigilance and discipline. When the Armistice was signed in November, 1918, Jim Berry was one of the guards chosen to accompany the 550 German prisoners by train to Charleston, SC, where the captives were loaded on boats and returned to Germany.

Upon his honorable discharge from the army following World War I, James Berry returned to Fodder Creek in Towns County. He purchased 80 acres of mountain land, and there continued the same life of small patch farming in the bottoms along creeks as he had done growing up.

Then another opportunity came for this World War I veteran. The Pfister-Vogel Land Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin had purchased thousands of acres of mountain land in Towns, Union, Lumpkin and White Counties. They needed workers. Jim Berry signed on, and because of his previous experience as a guard in World War II, he was assigned to the security detail of the company's work force.

Part of the land purchased by the Pfister-Vogel Land Company included the old Brewster holdings along the Jack's Gap Road leading toward Bald Mountain. An aside in the Jim Berry story lets us know that this tract of land had a history. It was sold to the land company by John Brewster. On that land, during the Civil War, Washington Brewster was killed near Jack's Gap by a roving band of Home Guard. The Brewster Place also had other families living there through time. Some were Jesse Spiva, Ben Spiva, Cornelius Spiva (who was killed in Germany during World War I, the first casualty of that war from Union County), Jim Harkins, Van Duckworth, and, finally, James Berry himself. Near the house was an old cemetery where Brookshires, Brewsters and Spivas were buried back in the era when family cemeteries were started near the old homeplace. The Land Company allowed James Berry, one of their important security guards, to live in the old Brewster house.

And that move, from Towns County to Union County, set the stage for the rest of citizen Jim Berry's life and times. Not only did he have work in the outdoors and woodlands he loved, but romance was on the horizon for James Berry. In the sequel to this story, we will learn about the life and times of Varina "Tib" Souther and James Berry. Stay tuned for the remainder of this delightful story.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published September 18, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Dr. Thomas Jackson Lance, President of Young Harris College, 1930-1942

Dr. Thomas Jackson "Jack" Lance (31 Jan 1886 - 27 Jan 1880)

President, Young Harris College, 1930-1942

Among great persons who have gone out from Union County and served mankind with dignity and unselfishness, we must applaud Dr. Thomas Jackson Lance, educator and humanitarian, who was president of Young Harris College during the difficult times of the Great Depression Years, 1930-1942.

Thomas Jackson Lance was the first of twenty children born to his father, James Washington Lance (1861-1940). Jim Lance, as his father was known, was a farmer at Wolf Creek, north of Vogel State Park in Choestoe District, Union County, Georgia. The mother of Thomas Jackson, better known as Jack, was Virginia Jane L. Henson (1863-1916). Jack, their firstborn, was born January 31, 1886. It is possible that the young boy had a memory of his grandfather, the Rev. John Lance (1834-1890), who was brutally murdered by moonshiners after returning from a preaching assignment. Jack's father, Jim Lance, spent much time and effort trying to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice. That story has been adequately covered in Charles Hill's excellent book entitled Blood Mountain Covenant.

Since Jack Lance's family was so large, it seems somewhat of a miracle of the mountains that he was able to get an excellent education and become the shining light among educators that was his calling. After a long and useful life of 94 years, Dr. Thomas Jackson Lance died January 27, 1980. I was able to access the eulogy given at the time of his memorial service by the Rev. Edgar A. Padgett of the Calhoun, Georgia United Methodist Church. From this tribute I learned much about the man whose life was marked by selfless service to others.

Being from a large family, and the eldest of the children, early on Jack Lance learned to bear his weight around the farm on Wolf Creek. His full siblings, born to his mother, Jane, were Juan Bascomb (1888-1958), Lena Mabel (1891-1946), Sarah Theodosia, "Docia" (1894-?), Luther Edgar (1897- ?), Fannie Lee (1900-?), Carter Paul (1903-?), Homer E. (1906-?) and Mary Emma Louis (b/d 1908). Jack's father, when Jack's mother, Jane, died, married Melissa Spiva. Jack's half-siblings from this marriage were Elbert, James C. known as Jay, Auburn, Champ C., Bruce M., Charles F., Johnny W., Donald Ray, Grace Jane and Betty Jean (died as infants), and Bobby Gaynell. From his early life Jack Lance was taught the virtues of hard work, honesty, kindness, good manners, and a love for education.

After having learned what he could in the one-teacher schools of Choestoe, and at the knees of notable teachers and preachers there, Jack Lance went to Young Harris College for further education. The college took him in, giving him work on the farm to earn his way. He was an exceptionally gifted student. He graduated from Young Harris in 1908, with high honors.

From Young Harris, he continued his education at the University of Georgia where he earned both the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa National Scholastic Society. His doctor of philosophy degree came later, but the information of where he earned it is not presently available to this writer.

He wanted to teach. His career as an educator included classroom instruction at Hopewell High School, at Richmond Academy in Augusta, at Young Harris College, and then as an administrator for 13 years, serving as superintendent of schools in Waynesboro, Georgia.

His Alma Mater, Young Harris College, having already his record as a student and as a professor there, tapped him as president of the college. He served admirably in that capacity during some difficult years, beginning in 1930 and continuing through 1942. I wish the span of this short article could list all the hardships he faced in keeping the small mountain college above-board financially and operable during some of the darkest years of America's Great Depression. Suffice it to say that his hard work, faithfulness and industry during that span of his career saw him inducted into and honored by the Kappa Phi Kappa National Honor Society for Distinguished Educators.

Of that period of Dr. Jack Lance's career, the Rev. Edgar A. Padgett wrote: "He lived with deficits as his daily companion, but managed to keep Young Harris alive, serving the needs of so many who without it would have had little, if any, chance for a college education… Dr. Lance always found a way to help a deserving student stay in college. Many of our most distinguished citizens of Georgia have testified that they owe their start in life to Dr. Lance who inspired and encouraged them to keep trying, with the assurance of his help."

Thomas Jackson Lance married Annie Rose Erwin who graduated from Young Harris in 1913. To them were born four children: Thomas Jackson, Jr., Robert, Alice Rose, and Thomas Bertram, "Bert." Many will recognize the name of Bert Lance as a cabinet member during the time Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. From Young Harris, in 1942, the Lance family moved to Calhoun, GA and there the children were reared. He was superintendent of schools at Calhoun for two years, 1942- 1944, and then he began a sixteen year tenure with the State Department of Education in Atlanta as a state school supervisor, having as his goal improving the quality of education for every public school student in the state of Georgia.

It was said of Dr. Lance that he had a phenomenal memory, even into his later years. He never forgot a name, a face, a favor, a verse of Scripture, an experience. From his rich well of experience he could recall where he had met people and what they did.

He loved his family, his home, and the classroom. Although many years of his illustrious career were spent in school administration, his first love was teaching. It has been said of him that the "moments of illumination" when a student "sees" through a problem and has an epiphany of insight were, for him, thrilling and emotional experiences.

Considering the "opportunites" this country boy had to become "somebody," they were slender, indeed. But mountains were a challenge to him, and doing good was his second nature. "Lives of great men all remind us, /We can make our lives sublime,/ And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time." So wrote poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. So lived Educator Dr. Thomas Jackson Lance.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published August 21, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Reunion Reflections: Basking in the Afterglow

Sentinel photo/Janie Holbrook Authors displaying their books at the 2008 Dyer-Souther Reunion:

Seated: Dr. Eva Nell Mull Wike (The Matheson Cove in the Shadow of the Devil's Post Office); Ethelene Dyer Jones (The Singing in the Wood and Mother and Child Reunion); Dr. Tom Lumsden (Nacoochee Valley); Sylvia Dyer Turnage (Micajah ClarkDyer and His Amazing Flying Machine; Choestoe Story and other books);

Standing: Dr. Joe Turner (High Humor of the Hills); Charles H. Souther (From the Mules and Wagon to the Space Shuttle); Keith Jones (Mother and Child Reunion, with his mother, Ethelene and an 8-disk CD recording of the collected poems of Byron Herbert Reece). Not pictured (absent because of his mother's illness), William Clyde Collins, Jr. (The Last Deer Trapper.)

The annual Dyer-Souther Reunion is now history, an event of Saturday, July 19, 2008.

Held at Choestoe Baptist Church that some of our ancestors helped to found in 1832, the gathering of 163 people rejoiced at being together, at seeing new faces joining our number, at the sheer pleasure of family and roots and heritage.

The theme of this year's reunion was "Meet Our Authors." We invited those we knew in the "clan" who had written books. Seven were present to sign their books and to talk about the stories that had inspired them to write history, comedy and poetry.

Absent was president of the association, Bill Collins, whose book, The Last Deer Trapper, also was featured, by vice-president Keith Jones reading a story from "The Deer Trapper." Dr. Joe Turner, Dr. Eva Nell Mull Wike, Dr. Tom Lumsden, Sylvia Dyer Turnage, Charles Souther, Keith Jones and Ethelene Jones were present and folks enjoyed talking to them and getting signed copies of the author's books. Reports coming in by e-mail since the reunion term the event "fun and enjoyable," and "I loved hearing the authors."

All the long journey back to my present home in Milledgeville gave me four hours to reflect upon the reunion. Many thoughts went through my mind.

I thought of the "In Memoriam" period of our reunion program. Each year the list of our honored dead who have passed in the last year seems to increase. It is a solemn time of remembering. We recall going to school and church together, keeping in touch spasmodically as the years roll by, enjoying a once-a-year reunion when family ties are renewed. Maybe seeing them as "looking over the windows of heaven" to see us below is only a fanciful idea I have of re-identification with our beloved departed. But I imagined that "great cloud of witnesses" Paul the Apostle writes about. I see them applauding us. They are happy that we still remember the important virtues of family togetherness. The reunion was a little preview of heaven right here on earth.

Our honored dead who passed during the last year were James Perry Dyer (1923-2008), Anna Mae Dyer Burnett (1922- 2008), Harry Vaughn Dyer (1929- 2007), Carolyn Collins Kelly (1950-2008); James Vaughn Dyer (1916-2008), Connor Andrew Brock Carmichael (3 months, 2007), Dr. Howard Van Ness Morter (1916-2007), Opal L. Sullivan (1917-2007), Clara Belle Collins Duckworth (1919-2008), Raymond Sullivan (1919-2007), Robert Edward Moose (1970-2008), John Chester Dyer (1932-2008), Clinton Samuel Kelly (1927- 2007), Pearl Souther Smallwood (1919-2007) and Francis Homer Hunter, Jr. (1922-2007). These had a relationship to members of the Dyer-Souther family: Mildred Ensley Brown Turner Haigler (1930-2007) and Ruby Gibson Shook (1916-2008). We sang together "Amazing Grace" after standing in tribute as names were read.

I missed people who were not present. Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva has been our "oldest present" since the death of our historian emeritus, Watson Benjamin Dyer. Had she been present this year, at age 103, she would have received again the "eldest present” certificate. Mrs. Dora, Aunt Dora, Teacher Dora, know that we missed you. The reunion just wasn't the same without you. Several of her nieces and nephews, usually present, were not in attendance. This segment of our family line was sorely missed.

The oldest present was Mrs. Irene Coker Brown, widow of Emory Brown. At age 99, she amazed us all by her keenness and ability to walk on her own. She is a tower of fortitude and inspiration.

The youngest present was little Maddox Kidd, two-and-one half week old infant of Jessica Kidd. Proud grandmother Deborah Rich Leach and proud great grandmother Ann Rich were present to see this newest member of the clan receive a certificate. This family descends through Nancy Dyer Rich.

Roma Sue Turner Collins, having recently sustained a fall and serious bone breaks, was in the Northeast Georgia Medical Center at Gainesville in intense therapy section. Her husband Clyde, and her son, Bill (president of our Association) were in Gainesville visiting Sue. We missed you - and prayed for you. Edna Ruth England Rich was thoughtful enough to bring a huge "get well" card to be signed to take to Sue.

The "farthest distance" people were from Hawaii- our cousin Linda Nahser Beadle and her husband Wes. They came by way of Wetumpka, AL where Linda's sister, Sandra Nahser Gilley and her husband, Scott, joined in the entourage to bring the girls' mother, beautiful Kathleen Dyer Nahser to the reunion. I needed a camera in hand when mother and daughters stood together talking to me. They formed a trio of classic beauty, poise and love. Thank you, Linda, for traveling so far to the reunion!

My "children" from Liberia, West Africa were present, Magdalene and David Sunday-gar. But we could not count them as "traveling farthest." They have lived in Gainesville since 2000. David earned an AA from Gainesville College and a BS in Business Administration from North Georgia College. He is now in seminary working on his master's degree. They plan to return to Africa after David completes his education. Ethelene and Grover met David when they went to Africa for a mission trip in the summer of 1986, and they have kept in close contact with David since. "It's a small world, after all."

Many were present for the first time, and we heartily welcomed them to the gathering. We expect to hear from them and to see them back in forthcoming years.

The food was unbelievable. Thanks to those who volunteered to get the tables spread with the most delectable-looking food imaginable. Somehow, a food serving committee was not appointed this year. Volunteers, you know who you are, thank you! You came through with flying colors.

In business session, Reid Dyer was elected vice-president. The other officers remain the same: Bill Collins, President; Janice Lance, Secretary; Marie Knight and Lee Knight, Treasurers of New Liberty Cemetery Fund; Ethelene Jones, Historian and Newsletter Editor; and these named officers are also trustees, as is Keith Jones, who has served for several years as vice-president. Joe Dyer remains as an advisory member of the Trustees. A committee appointed to draw plans and implement the monument honoring Elisha Dyer, Jr. was given to Reid Dyer, Harold Dyer, Lee Knight, and Ethelene Jones, Historian. We heard that $11,000 is now in the cemetery fund drawing interest for upkeep and care of the cemetery, and the newsletter/ reunion fund has a balance of $2,600, with some bills current for postage and newsletter distribution. Edward Dyer reported that the Dyer Family Bible is now on display at the Union County Historical Society in a lovely display case. Edna Ruth England Rich told the group of the Historical Society's latest project, the "history cards."

The miles rolled away and I left the beloved mountains of Choestoe behind. But the reflections of a day at the reunion will remain as a sweet aura surrounding me for the next year. I will bask in the afterglow- until we meet again.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 24, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

This Old House

"Did you know that the old Hunter-England Cabin is being torn down?"

So was the distressed call I received last week about the old cabin beside Highway 129/19 at Choestoe, which had been a landmark as long as any of us can remember, and much longer.

Legend holds that John Hunter (b. c1775 in VA, moved to Buncombe County, NC, then to Union Co., GA; d. 1848 in Union County, GA) built the cabin about 1832 (no later than 1834).

The Cherokee were still residents of the area. A story passed down in the family is that John Hunter and other workers who built the cabin had to ward off Indians who looked with disfavor upon those of light skin building a dwelling beside the Nottely River on land that had been hunting grounds and home for the Cherokee for untold generations.

"That's such an historical house. Isn't there something that can be done to prevent its being torn down?" another distressed caller asked me.

My response to him was that we as citizens and lovers-of-history had neglected to get the old house officially on the Register of Historic Places. Our hands were somewhat tied as to what we could do, outside of having the money for the price being asked for the cabin- which was destined for tearing down and removal.

It was obvious by the telephone calls and emails to me that many in Union County and descendants of the Hunter-England families for whom the cabin was originally named were "up in arms" about what was happening with the ancestral home.

As a lifetime member of the Union County Historical Society, and as a descendant of those pioneer settlers, John Hunter and Daniel England, I wanted to do what I could, albeit long-distance, to assure that the cabin would not be razed and lost to posterity. We had such a little bit of time to really take action.

The Hunter-England Cabin

I thought of what a landmark the cabin was in my growing-up years. I grew up "across the Nottely River" (on the east side) from the Hunter-England cabin. But my mother's portion of land from her father, Francis Jasper "Bud" Collins, was acreage that adjoined the land on which the Hunter-England cabin was built. When my sister, Louise, married Ray Dyer, they built their first house across the highway from the cabin. In those days, when I walked a footlog across the Nottely in the short-cut from our farm to my sister's new house near the old cabin, I went by the old house on each trip to visit my sister's family. In those days, the old cabin was occupied, rented to people we knew, other kin who always invited me in to warm by the cabin's fireplace or take a friendly meal in the little lean-to kitchen that had been built onto the old cabin. "This old house" was a fixture in our community, a place built a hundred years before I was born. It's sturdiness seemed to assure all of us in the community that it would be around forever.

I thought about John Hunter and Daniel England, my ancestors. John Hunter moved his family from the Mills River Section of North Carolina, then Buncombe County, and later named Henderson County. In the ones coming to Georgia with John and his wife, Elizabeth, were sons Andrew, William Johnson, and Jason Henderson, and daughters Harriet and Martha. Later, his daughter Rebecca, who had married Samuel Riley Lance in North Carolina, also came to Georgia and settled near her father and mother. It is through Samuel Riley and Rebecca Hunter Lance that our noted Union County poet, Byron Herbert Reece, traces his lineage through his mother, Emma Lance Reece. Settler John Hunter was the great, great, great grandfather of the poet.

John Hunter's son, William Johnson Hunter (1813-1893), married Margaret Ann ("Peggy") England, daughter of William Richard and Martha "Patsy" Montgomery England. She was a granddaughter of Daniel and Margaret Gwynn (Guinn) England.

Daniel England was noted as a patriot, giving aid during the Revolutionary War from his iron foundry in North Carolina. William and Peggy married in Habersham County in 1839. In 1840, they built their house not too far from William's father's cabin. That house, said to be one of the first built of planed lumber in the Choestoe area, still stands today on Liberty Church Road. It was the ancestral home of many Hunter descendants, including 103-year old noted teacher, Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva. It is through one of the ten children of William and Peggy England Hunter that I trace my ancestry to John Hunter, the cabin builder. Their daughter, Georgianne Hunter, married Francis Jasper Collins, and they became my grandparents through my mother, Azie Collins Dyer.

When John Hunter died in 1848, he was buried in the Old Salem Cemetery on a mountain directly up from the cabin he built. It is a sad commentary, indeed, to think that the long-time landmark will no longer be on land near his final resting place.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 3, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Spivey/Spiva and Related Families

Before I launch into today's article, please accept this correction from last week's story about "Some of the Descendants of Leason Spiva." When I make a mistake, I am eager to clear it up, because many of you read this column and if it is on family history, you often add the information to your file.

I heard from Linda Spivey Bjorklund of Baker City, Oregon, regarding her father's siblings and where they were born. As you recall, last week's article was about Claude Raymond Spivey, the 92-year old whose hobby is woodworking. The first six children of Luther Adniram Spivey and Ora Ellis Spivey were born in Monroe County, Tennessee. The seventh, Clyde Spivey, was born in Graham County, NC on July 10, 1927 at the home of Ora Ellis Spiva's aunt, Renie Ellis Blevins near Yellow Creek and the town of Robbinsville. Then in September, 1929, the twelve-day trip in a 1928 Buick took the large family across country to Baker City, Oregon where the last three children were born: Della Lavelle in 1931; James Henry in 1933; and Glenn Duane in 1937. (Note: If you have Geraldine Spiva Elmore's family history book, "Descendants of Adaniram Spiva and Evaline Souther Spiva," Linda Spivey Bjorklund asks you to please make the above corrections to the family of Luther Adniram and Ora Ellis Spivey on page 15.)

For this week's story of a member of the family of Adaniram (1827- 1898) and Eveline Souther Spiva (1826- 1865) we will take a look at their first-born of nine children, John Spiva, who was born in Union County, Georgia on April 25, 1851. John Spiva was only fourteen when his mother died. In the fifteen years his mother and father had been married, she had borne nine children, seven sons and two daughters. There is no information about Nancy Jane except the listing of her name; it is assumed that she died young. John's youngest sibling, Stephen Adrian Spiva, was born November 12, 1865, and was less than a month old when his mother Eveline died on December 4, 1865. You will recall from last week's story that the Souther grandparents, John and Mary Combs Souther, took the infant Stephen and reared him. That still left John Spiva, as the eldest of the children, great responsibility in helping his father Adaniram with the other children until the father married Sarah Haseltine Corn on October 28, 1873.

John Spiva was a blacksmith and a barrel-maker (cooper). In addition to farming his acreage, he used these two trades to help bring in some money at a hard time after the Civil War was over. John Spiva began to court a young lady who lived on Wolf Creek about where Vogel State Park and Lake Trahlyta are now located. John's sweetheart was named Margaret Louise Reece (b. 08/16/1856). They were married earlier in the same year John's father married for the second time. John and Margaret's wedding date was February 13, 1873. Rev. R. M. Hughes performed the marriage ceremony at the home of Margaret's parents, William "Billy" Reece and Mary "Sarry" Daniel Reece. Her parents' wedding date was June 18, 1839 in Union County and their officiant had been Thomas M. Hughes, a Justice of the Inferior Court.

Billy Reece was the son of Jacob Reece and the grandson of William Reece. The earliest Reece settlers in America had migrated from Wales. The name had gone through several spellings: Rays, Rhy, Rys, Reys, Rees, Reese and Reece. Billy Reece's earliest known ancestor was Valentine Reece who was in Watauga County, NC as early as 1790, and came to America from Wales in 1750. Billy and his brother James migrated together from North Carolina to South Carolina, into Habersham County, and finally to Union County before 1837 (they were in the 1840 but not in the 1834 census).

"Sarry" Daniel moved to Union County from Alabama. Her father was Josiah Daniel who came to Union prior to 1837.

John Spiva no doubt learned much from his father-in-law. Billy Reece was an early teacher at Choestoe School, and John may have been one of his students. He was also a farmer and a prospector. Billy found gold deposits in Helton Creek. He would work to get enough gold to take to the mint in Dahlonega, and on Saturdays he would go by horseback to take his findings to be assayed.

John Spiva and Margaret Louise Reece Spiva had ten children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. Their children were: Mary Jane "Mollie" Spiva (12/13/1874-06/05/1962 who married James Asbury Curtis; Eliza E. Spiva (09/08/1876 - ?); Mintie Caroline "Callie" Spiva (06/04/1878-12-06/1974) who married Arlie Knox Waldroop; William Henry Spiva (02/20/1881-12/13/1922) who married Elizabeth Jones; Margaret Emma Spiva (01/28/1883-09/09/1979) who married Joseph Reuben Brown; Frank H. Spiva (01/14/1885-01/18/1880) who married Ada Gertrude Ledford; Jewell Wilburn Spiva (02/16/1887-07/25/195?) who married Grace Mae Swain; Gardner Coke Spiva (12/31/1893-08/18/1988) who married Ethel Susanna McClure; Josiah Haygood Spiva (12/15/1895- 02/08/1988) who married LaFarest McGarity; and Guy Cook Spiva (04/25/1900-03/12/1973) who married Bessie Lee Duckworth.

John Spiva died at age 82 on November 3, 1933. His wife Margaret Louise Reece Spiva lived to age 84, dying June 20, 1941. Both were interred at Shady Grove Methodist Church Cemetery, Union County, Ga.

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 28, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Some Descendants of Leason Spiva

When the Union County Census of 1834 was taken, the first after the county was formed in 1832, one of the families listed was that of Leason Spiva. His name was spelled by the census taker, Lecen Spivey. He had come into Union County from Habersham, and to Habersham from Rutherford County, NC where he had married Jane Jackson. Leason Spiva became clerk of the first inferior court of Union County. It seems that Leason liked to live in new counties, for by 1860 he and his family were residing in Towns County which had been formed in 1856 from a portion of Union. His property near the Hiawassee River on Mill Creek in Towns County was distributed to heirs. He died sometime before April 1, 1889.

Leason and Jane Jackson Spiva had at least eight children. I will focus on Adnirum, born in 1828 in Habersham County, who married Eveline Souther, daughter of John and Mary Combs Souther. They made their home on a farm near her father's home in Choestoe. Their children were John (1851-1933), Jesse (1852-1918), Joseph L. (1855-1940), William Washington (1857-1931), Rhoda Caroline (1859-1930), Thomas Newton (1862-1918), James Alfred (1864-1950), Nancy Jane (?), and Stephen Adrian (1865- 1960). Eveline Souther Spiva died December 4, 1865 when her baby Stephen was less than a month old. She was buried on her father's farm and her grave has been lost to the ravages of time. Her parents, John and Mary Souther, took her small child Stephen and reared him. In his will, John Souther bequeathed to Eveline's heirs $300 to be divided between them, except for "Stephen whom I raised." To him he gave $100.

Claude Spivey, age 92, stands before some of his model trains that he makes in his woodworking shop.

Adniram Spiva married, second, Sarah Haseltine Corn of Towns County and they had five children, bringing the total born to Adniram to fourteen. Adniram and Sarah's children were Evaline (1875), Sarah Rose (1876-1943), Louis J. (1880-1954), Luther F (1883-1955) and Benjamin H. (1885-1925).

James Alfred, seventh child of Adniram and Eveline, chose to use the spelling Spivey for his last name. He was the only one of the children by Eveline who ventured out of Union County and went first to Tellico Plains, Tennessee and eventually to Baker City, Oregon. He married Mary Elizabeth Rhea at Tellico Plans. They had eight children: William Finley, George Thurston, Luther Adniram, Maggie Beatrice, James Wiley, John Henry, Harvey Ethridge, and Charles. All the children were born in Monroe County, TN at Tellico Plains, so it was perhaps after their third child, Luther Adniram, left Tellico Plains in 1931 to go to Baker City, Oregon to make a living that the other family members followed him. All of James Alfred and Sarah's children lived in Oregon until their deaths.

Luther Spivey

Luther Adniram Spivey was the third child of James Alfred and Mary Elizabeth Rhea Spivey. He and his wife Ora Lee Ellis Spivey had a large family of ten children. The eldest of these was Claude Raymond Spivey, born December 2, 1915 in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. He is now 92 years old, in good health, and is eagerly awaiting spring in Baker City, Oregon, so that it will be warm enough for him to go into his shop and resume his hobby of woodworking. A feature article in the "Living Well" section of the "Baker City Herald" told of this zestful senior citizen who looks forward to each day.

He tells of his family's trip to Baker City in a 1928 Buick. He remembers it as in 1929. However, noting the birth dates of his siblings, it must have been 1931, for his sister, Della LaVelle, was the last born in Tellico Plains on June 14, 1931. With seven children and two grownups in the car, they learned to pull some subterfuge at toll gates to avoid paying twenty-five cents per head for every child. They "hid" the younger ones to save some payment in tolls.

Claude Spivey served as a cook in the US Army from 1941 to 1945. His tour of duty took him to Trinidad, Curacao, Puerto Rico and other places. After the war, he returned to Baker City, Oregon, but went to Brooklyn, New York to marry the girl whom he had met in service in Puerto Rico. He married Ernestina Gomez Quinones on July 5, 1947. Known as "Tina" because of her petite 4' 11" stature, she and Claude had four children, all born in Baker City, Oregon: Diana Lynn, Linda May, Evelyn Sue, and Ronald Steven. Tina passed away in 2005 and Claude now lives with his daughter Linda May Bjorklund.

Among his prizes in his woodworking collection are six trains which he has fashioned simply by "thinking about them," from his years of work on the railroad. He began woodworking in 1977, a year after his retirement from Union Pacific. One of his favorites is the steam locomotive made after #4449 "American Freedom Train." When the weather warms up in Oregon, he will put the finishing touches on this seven-foot replica.

Trains are not his only forte. In their home are gun cabinets, a secretary desk, a table, creative picture frames, stools, a stock for an old .22 caliber rifle, and knife handles. Linda says lovingly of her father: "If I don't have something and need it, Dad makes it."

It's a long distance to Choestoe in Union County where his great, great grandfather Adniram Spiva lived. And it's been a long time since that ancestor passed away. But some of the genes for a solid work ethic and a zest for life still remain with this 92-year old descendant, Claude Raymond Spivey, in Oregon.

[Thanks to Linda Spivey Bjorklund of Baker, OR for sending me the newspaper article about her father; to Geraldine Spiva Elmore of Tuscaloosa, AL for her book, "Descendants of Adaniram Spiva (1827-1898) and Evaline Souther Spiva (1826-1865)"; and for Watson B. Dyer's "Souther Family History" 1988, all of which I used as resources for this article.-EDJ]

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 21, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved

A tribute to Dora Hunter Allison Spiva

Dora Hunter Allison Spiva

All who know her admire her beauty, graciousness, vitality and personable nature.

It is hard to believe she reached the milestone of 103 years of age on February 10, 2008. Her bearing and interest in life, her surroundings and all the people she meets are still very important to her and are characteristic of one much younger. Many people helped her celebrate her 103rd birthday to thank her for her positive influence on their lives and wish her health and happiness. What a lady is Mrs. Dora Hunter Allison Spiva, teacher extraordinary.

What a span of living occurs in 103 years of life. When she was born Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States. She has lived through the administrations of a total of eighteen presidents: T. Roosevelt, William Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush.

In the year of her birth, her parents, Martha Souther Hunter and James Hunter, could send out an announcement of their new daughter's birth by attaching a two-cent stamp to a letter.

In 1905, the federal spending was 57 billion dollars. Think how the national economy (and indebtedness) has grown in her 103 years of living!

The population in the United States in 1905 was 83,822,000. She has observed the population growth over the years to billions.

Not that the little baby from Choestoe could go to New York City and take a ride on a train to Chicago that would take 18 hours for the journey between the country's two major cities, but if she had been offered that privilege in 1905, she would have seen the first train equipped with electric lights. The nearest train to the Hunter farm home in 1905 was met at Culberson or Murphy, NC, at Blue Ridge or Gainesville, Georgia. Her father would take products across the Logan Turnpike on Tesnatee Gap to market in Gainesville in a covered wagon.

In scientific advancements the year she was born, Albert Einstein proposed the theory of relativity. The Nobel Prize in medicine was won by a German doctor, Robert Koch, whose work on alleviating tuberculosis earned the award.

Dora had two brothers born after her, Joseph in 1906 and Daniel in 1908. Dora was the first child of her father, James Hunter. But her mother had been married previously to James's brother Jasper F. Hunter who died in 1897. Dora's half-siblings were John Ester (1884), William Jesse (1886), Nancy (1888-1897), James Hayes (1890), Homer (1892), Hattie (1894), and Grady (1895). Jasper F. "Todd" Hunter died in 1897 with typhoid fever. The year 1987 was a sad one for Martha Souther Hunter. Her first husband died in May and her daughter Nancy died in June. Her living children in 1897 numbered six and ranged in age from thirteen to two. She had the task of working the farm and making a living for herself and the children. All had jobs to do. In 1904, she married her first husband's brother, James. Then sadness struck again on April 3, 1912, when Martha's husband James died. Dora was 7, Joe was 6, and Dan was 4 when their father died. Life was not easy on the Hunter farm on Town Creek, but somehow Martha had a will to survive and see her children grown and educated. Martha Souther Hunter died December 11, 1937. All her life, Dora has appreciated her heritage. One of the highlights of her year is the reunion that honors her legacy and pays tribute to hardy ancestors.

Teaching was the chosen career of Dora Hunter Allison Spiva. Well-beloved by her students, she taught both by precept and example. Mathematics was her field of expertise, but she also served as a principal of a country school and as a counselor in high school.

Much has been written of teachers and their influence. I close this tribute by quoting some that fit Mrs. Dora and her memorable style of teaching. And all we who had the privilege of sitting under her tutelage stand up and call her blessed.

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams, 1907.

"Teachers provide a social and intellectual environment in which students can learn." - James MacGregor Burns, 1978.

"A teacher's major contribution may pop out anonymously in the life of some ex-student's grandchild." - Wendell Berry, 1990.

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein (1879- 1955).

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter it by yourself." - Chinese saying.

At Truett McConnell College, Mrs. Dora is honored in the naming of the Dora Hunter Allison Spiva School of Education. There the Bachelor of Science in Education degree will be offered for the first time in May, 2008 with the first graduates from the school. In future, many will study there and go forth to teach, a living tribute to a masterful teacher. That school of education is new and struggling. Why not honor Mrs. Dora's birthday by sending your contribution designated for the School of Education? The address is Truett McConnell College 100 Alumni Drive, Cleveland, GA 30528.

Thank you, Mrs. Dora, for your teaching and your far reaching influence. Happy Birthday!

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Feb. 14, 2008 in The Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Dyer-Souther Reunion

Saturday, July 14, 2007 marks the date for the annual Dyer-Souther Heritage Association Reunion. Choestoe Baptist Church's Family Life Center will be a-buzz with people, beginning with registration at 11:00 a. m. A bounteous covered dish meal will be enjoyed at noon. The reunion program will begin at 1:00 p. m.

If telephone calls and e-mails are an indication, many new "kin" who are just now finding out about the wonderful reunion are planning to be first-time attendees. My excitement begins to grow weeks before the event.

The reunion honors early settlers to the Choestoe Valley who began coming into the county about the time Union County was formed from the large Cherokee territory. Elisha Dyer, Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Clark Dyer, and several of their children came from Pendleton District, South Carolina by way of Habersham County where they remained awhile, and then moved on across the mountain to Choestoe, "place where rabbits dance."

The Souther early settlers migrated from the vicinity of Old Fort, NC a few years later, about 1835, with John and Mary Combs Souther settling in the vicinity of present-day New Liberty Baptist Church. Altogether, five Souther siblings had settled in the area by 1850. These were John, Jesse William, Jr., Joseph, Hicks (or Hix), and Kizziah Souther Humphries. Jesse established a mill, with assistance from his brothers John and Joseph. The mill opened in 1848 and ground corn for meal and grains to bolt flour. A sawmill was operated on the site using the water power provided by a head of water passed through a chute to operate the turbines. The grist mill operated for 90 years.

Another family, in the valley by 1832, was Thompson Collins and Celia Self Collins. Her father, Job Self, also settled in Choestoe. Claiming other homesteads were the John and Elizabeth Hunter family. Daniel England married Elizabeth, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Hunter. The oldest house in the county still standing is the Hunter-England cabin, now in bad repair, which can be seen just off Highway 129/19 in the Choestoe District. There were other families: Nix, Jackson, Duckworth, Spiva, Henson, Vandiver, Brown, Townsend, Turner, Reece and more. By the time marriages were performed from one family to another, there soon came a rich fabric of kinship.

Saturday, present for the first time, will be Dan Smith of Raleigh, NC. He descends from Rhoda Lucinda Souther who married John Floyd Edward Vandiver. Dan is a musician. He will sing and will also lead reunion attendees in singing an old, old song.

On April 13, 1868 at New Liberty Baptist Church, Nancy Collins Souther, wife of John Combs Hayes Souther and daughter of Thompson and Celia Self Collins, sat writing the words of a song as the song "heister" lined them out to the congregation. In her own handwriting, these words have been preserved. Set to the tune of "The Good Old Way" found in Southern Harmony # 156, Dan Smith will lead reunion attendees in singing this old church song on Saturday. It is entitled "Come All Ye Righteous Here Below." Nancy Souther wrote nine stanzas of the song. Here are three:

"Come all ye righteous here below,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Let nothing prove your overthrow,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Chorus:
But call on me both day and night,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
And I'll visit you with delight,
Sing glory ha-le-lu-jah!
When the day of judgment doth draw nigh,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
Poor sinners will lament and cry,
Oh Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
For the earnest deeds that they have done,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!
They will repent in time to come,
Oh, Ha-le, ha-le-lu-jah!

A solemn memorial service will honor those who have moved from this life to the next- a large number since the last reunion.

We will gladly welcome familiar faces, those who return to their roots year after year. We will help those who come for the first time to feel welcome through connections that have been made since July, 2007. And if you would like to come, too, and see what's up with this large family, you will find a warm reception.

In 1989 my cousin, the late Watson B. Dyer, nominated me to take his place as family historian. Without even asking me if I would accept the job, I was suddenly plunged into a task I didn't anticipate. But one of the great pleasures of my life since then has been contacting people throughout America to help them find their roots. I don't always succeed in giving them the right links, but I've made many new friends and have more "cousins" than I thought possible. The Russian writer in his famous novel, Anna Kerenina, wrote: "All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." We're one big happy family and that's a good way to be.

c2007 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published July 12, 2007 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved