Mingia
Family History Home Page
Please feel free to discuss, add or make comments at the Mingay History Web Pages Forum
234. Ruth Palmer Green
Buried in the Tulip Cemetery.
239. Willis Ramey Green
Ramey Green operated a general store and was Postmaster at Jacinto untilhis death on April 18, 1929. His store and post office was located westof the Green home place in Jacinto.
According to family lore, two of his sons had returned home for the 1929Christmas holiday in a Motel T Ford which developed mechanical trouble.While the car was jacked up, Ramey Green got underneath and it fell onhim. He died four months later.
His obituary stated: "He was one of the county's most prosperousmerchant-farmers and a leader in the community of Jacinto, where he spentthe greater part of his life. Mr. Green had not fully recovered frominjuries received last Christmas when he was run down by an automobile,but he was able to get around with the aid of crutches."
He was survived by his wife, Anna, and all of his six children. He isburied at the Macedonia Cemetery with his wife.
In the 1880 census for Dallas County, Frances Stevenson and her twochildren, Anna and George, were living in the home of George andElizabeth Mays in Jacinto. Elizabeth was her sister.
She died on January 24, 1959 and the funeral service was held at Mt.Carmel Methodist Church by the Rev. Irl Lancaster. She is buried with herhusband at Macedonia Cemetery.
Mary Virginia Harrison was the daughter of Robert Henry Harrison andPriscilla Lea.
241. Mary Martha Catherine Elizabeth Rebecca Green
Mary Martha Catherine Rebecca Green, the only daughter of George Willisand Mary Ann (Mann) Green, was called "Cattie" by her friends andrelatives. She was an excellent cook and very adept at running alargely self-sufficient household where everything from soap to clothingwas hand-made.
She won many blue ribbons at the Dallas County Fair for her baking andcanning. Her dinner (lunch today) table was always overflowing with goodfood, all raised on the farm and cooked on a wood burning stove. Bakingwas one of her joys. Every morning for breakfast there were biscuits, atlunch cornbread and yeast bread and on Sundays and special occasionsthere were those wonderful rolls. And, of course, the pie safe alwaysheld several cakes and pies. In the Fall, the cellar was filled withjars of fruits, vegetables and various types of cooked meat that she hadprepared. Meat came from their own pigs with plenty of hams, bacon andsausage always hanging in the smokehouse.
In the beginning, The Taylor house consisted of two large rooms with a"dog trot" hall and broad front and back porches. Because of firedanger, the kitchen was in a separate room out back. Behind the housealso was the covered well and the big bell on a pole to call neighborsin case of fire or other emergency. The main room, to the left, had amud fireplace. When their children started arriving, the hall wasenclosed and two rooms added in the rear by enclosing the long backporch. Later, the kitchen was made where the girls room had been and thehall portioned to make a dining room.
The Taylor farm was located on a hill reached by a long farm lane thatran from a dirt road coming off State Highway 9. It was a sizable farmfor that part of Arkansas, the original land added to by purchases. Oncetwo families lived and worked there as tenant farmers. At the turnoffto the house, there was a concrete cattle dipping vat. The house burnedin 1946 while rented to Erma Green Dedman, daughter of Ramey Green, oneof Cattie's brothers. Practically all of the cropland in this area isnow piney woods owned by timber companies.
Martha Mann Green, Grandma Taylor's mother, died when "Cattie" was onlythree years old and she was raised by Rebecca Holmes Taylor, herstep-mother. Although Grandma Taylor had only three years of formalschooling, she spoke, wrote and read like a well-educated person. Shewas witty and a bit of a tease with the grandchildren. All remember heras even-tempered, kind and loving. Her grandchildren remember the Taylorhomeplace as one where the huge front yard was shaded by large red oaktrees, one with a tire swing that was the source of much pleasure on ahot Summer day. In the field just across the front lane, there was animpressive spreading chinquapin tree that always bore an abundant crop ofnuts. In the front hall of the house stood a large pump organ. Grandmahad a stereoscope with many pictures, mostly of biblical scenes andhistoric European sights. This and the organ kept visiting grandchildrenamused for hours. To the right of the hallway, was a guest bedroomwhere, on the wall next to the chifferobe, there was a crank telephone -quite a modern device for that time and place.
Since this was a working farm, there was plenty of work for everyvisiting youngster. There was always cotton to be chopped or picked,cane to be stripped and made into sorghum, hay to be cut and hauled tothe barn, vegetables and fruits to be picked and canned, soap to bemade, hogs to be butchered, chickens to be fed and cows to be milked.Uncle Curt, the last son left on the family place, was a hardworkingfarmer and also an able teacher for his vacationing nieces and nephews.
Christmas visits to Grandma Taylor's were special treats. In the cornerof the sitting-room by the fireplace there was always a holly tree, cutfrom the nearby bottom lands, that nearly reached the twelve foot highceiling. The grandchildren slept on quilt "pallets" spread out on thefloor. Presents were meagre by today's standards of excess but there wasno shortage of excitement and wonder. Boiled custard was one of GrandmaTaylor's many Christmas specialties.
One of the highlights of the year in the Taylor household was "CampMeeting" held each August at the Ben Few Campground near Princeton. TheCampground's focal point was a big open-air tabernacle holding hundredsof people where the morning afternoon and evening services wereconducted. Around the meeting hall were cabins where families from afarcamped and lived for the week of the revival. Locals came on dailyvisits in wagons loaded with kids and food. A nearby creek gave theyoungsters plenty of amusement. "Camp Meeting" was always held in August,the hottest part of the Summer. And with no air conditioning or electricfans, the hand-held fans, almost always carrying advertisements offuneral homes, were given a furious workout. It was as much a social as areligious occasion, a homecoming ritual of the rural South where folksfrom near and far could visit at length with family and friends.
A tribute to "Cattie" Taylor, written by Rev. C. R. Andrews, appeared inthe Arkansas Methodist newspaper of July 28, 1949. Rev. Andrews hadbeen the circuit riding preacher for the old Holly Springs Circuit inDallas County from 1926-1928, the circuit that included Mt. CarmelMethodist Church in Jacinto. He wrote:
"When sickness or sorrow came into her community, Aunt Cattie's presencewas always a healing balm. People loved her, and best of all she lovedpeople. She was always helping someone, not only in word and deed, buther radiant Christian life, her loyalty and devotion were an examplepeople desired to emulate."
John Wesley Taylor (Johnnie) was a twin of Charles Wesley Taylor. Bothwere named for the famous Methodist preacher twins, John and CharlesWesley.
John Wesley and "Cattie" Taylor's home in Jacinto was built by JohnWesley in preparation for his marriage to Cattie Green on 23 December1891. As a wedding gift to his daughter and future son-in-law, Cattie'sfather, George Willis Green, offered them a choice of either $100 - alarge sum of money in those days - or 100 acres of land. They chose totake the $100 cash in order to finish work on the house.
He had a reputation as a good farmer who was not hesitant to try newfarming methods. An avid reader of the "Progressive Farmer" magazine, hefollowed many of the practices it recommended. His farm was sosuccessful that at one time he had two tenant families living and workingon it.
Sadly, in 1920 at the age of fifty three, he died of stomach cancerleaving a wife and five children. "Cattie" was reluctant to have himburied in the Taylor Cemetery because it was not located next to achurch. She feared that, as a consequence, eventually the cemetery wouldbe neglected. So, both he and "Cattie" are buried in the MacedoniaCemetery, the old Green family burying ground.