A Little Story of My Early Life
By Ora James Hartline,
(born May 15, 1908)
Son of Rev. John M. & Bettie Hartline
(Retyped and Edited in 2007 by James B. Hartline)
The call:
My father was a Baptist preacher; in those days, the kind that felt the call from above. He said he heard the call audibly and felt the hand of God on his shoulder. He did not demand money for his preaching, nor did he get any money to speak of. I remember one year he got one dollar and fifty cents from one church in a whole year. But he never missed an appointment if it was possible to make it. His work was not allowed to interfere with his preaching appointments. For that reason, we moved at least once every year and sometimes twice a year.
Moving (1914) six years old:
I know the year I became six, we moved twice. The second move that year took us to what was called the “flat woods.” There I got another baby brother (Ernest, b. 1915) which made five of us boys, and of course we already had my twin sister.
Fishing in Big Wills Creek:
We lived close to Big Wills creek, very close to where another smaller creek ran into Big Wills. This was a good spot for fishing and my mother and my older brother (Louis, b. 1904) did a good deal of fishing and had some very good luck, too. One night a man we called Uncle Ben (his name was Ben Deering) (I never knew whether he was any kin to us or not:)* but he did visit us often, and he was quite some fisherman too. Well, this night, really just before night, Uncle Ben, my mother, and my older brother got up all the fishing poles we could find and baited them up and set them out along the creek where they left them all night.
*(Ora’s mother Bettie was the great-grand daughter of George Hartline and his second wife Joanna Dearing, so Ben Dearing was likely family).
The Eel:
Well, next morning when they went to their poles, one of them had caught an eel, about four feet long, and it had all those lines so tangled up that they haven’t got them untangled yet. They just had to cut them off and throw them away. Just in case you don’t know what an eel is, it is a fish that looks a lot more like a snake than a fish, but it is a fish anyway. I don’t know how big they get, but that one was the biggest one I ever saw. They are scarce now, but there were a lot of them in Big Wills creek then. They eat much like a catfish and have an outside feel like a catfish and very few bones. I have seen some eels caught in sanes (something like a fine net) and have seen a man throw the sane down and run when he saw one.
Entertainment:
In those days, we had no means of entertainment, except to sit around and see who could tell the tallest tales; and this uncle Ben was one of the best. He could scare me so bad that when I just had to go to bed, I would take a long run and jump as near the middle of the bed as I could. I don’t know what I thought was under the bed, but it was always dark in the bedroom. Of course those tales were ghost stories and since mother believed very strongly in ghosts, I suspected they were true. Mother was quite sure she had encountered ghosts many times. She could tell some pretty good ones herself. Like the man that was trying to get home one night and the road he had to travel on foot was through some deep woods and very dark and a long way, too. Well, of course he met a ghost, who tried to talk with him, but he had no intention of carrying on a conversation with that ghost. So he ran as fast as he could till he was so tired he could go no further. Thinking he had out distanced the ghost he sat down on a log by the road to catch his breath. No sooner had he sat down than the ghost was sitting right there beside him. The ghost said “boy did we ever have a race.” The man threw his hat in the air and said “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” and took off again. By-the-way, I never did find out how that man came out.
Seven years old and First Day of School: (1915)
This was the year that I became seven years old and learned what it meant to hoe cotton. I also started to school that year and I got into trouble the first day. In fact, I got my first whipping in school that first day. Until then, I didn’t know what curse words were. Some kids got me to say some bad words and went right away and told the teacher, so she lifted my hide pretty good, so I did learn something my first day in school.
Eight years old and Sand Mountain: (1916)
Well, from there we moved to Sand Mountain, where not much happened, except I had my eighth birthday. There were more lightning strikes close by than I ever saw before or since. That year was when I saw my first telephone. I also met the first girl I ever knew who had the same first name as my own. She was also the first cross-eyed person I ever saw. I played with her and my twin sister a good deal.
To the valley:
From here we moved back to the valley, but to another strange community where we had to get to know our neighbors and to go to a different school, but that was the norm for us.
This place, at least to me, was very interesting. After the second move we lived in a two story house right at the foot of a high ridge. Near the house there was a spring, and around the spring a small lake.
Spring in the Lake:
Believe it or not, the spring was out in the lake. Someone had put a tile around the spring and built a walk-way out to it so we could go out there and get water for use in the house, for drinking, cooking and other uses. In the lake lived snakes, frogs, spring lizards and numerous other things. The stream that flowed from the spring lake flowed down through a swamp that was grown up with lots of different kinds of plants; such as elder, willow, hazelnut bushes, blackberry briars and other plants. Just below the spring lake a road crossed the swamp and just below that, had been a saw mill which had left a large pile of saw dust. This made a wonderful place for us kids to play. When they moved the saw mill, they left some of the timbers that had served as a base for the machinery and some very fine blackberry briars had grown up around it.
Blackberries and Snake:
Well one day my younger brother (Arthur, b. 1913) was getting some blackberries from around this base and a big cotton mouth snake struck at him, just missing him. He let out a yell that could be heard a far piece and moved away in time. My older brother (Louis) came with a shotgun and killed the snake. That did slow us down playing on the sawdust pile for a while. Around the sawdust pile there was an area that had grown up in hazelnut bushes about waist high to me.
Nine years old and another Snake: (1917)
I was now nine years old. There was a trail through the bushes that went across the swamp and it was all but grown over by the hazelnut bushes. One day my dad, older brother, (Louis) twin sister (Cora) and I were going across the swamp by way of this trail. We were going to hoe some corn. My dad was leading the way and he stopped short and took his hoe from his shoulder and started to strike at something. At first I had no idea what, then I saw a great long black snake bobbing and weaving right in front of him. He kept hitting at it, but couldn’t seem to hit it. I guess he got too close for comfort, for the snake finally turned and ran. Dad was right behind it, still hitting at it with the hoe. Soon they came to a big briar patch, but that snake would not go in the briar patch. It turned back on dad and he promptly turned his heels and ran with the snake right behind him. But for some strange reason, he would not cross that trail. When he came to the trial he would turn back on the snake and the snake would run back to the briar patch, but wouldn’t go in. I don’t know how many times they made that trip. I do know I was just about scared out of my wits. They kept that up till dad finally cut a chunk off the tail of that snake and that soon put an end to the scrap, but he didn’t stop till he had that snake chopped up in short pieces. I guess I’ll never forget that little episode.
Saw my First Airplane:
That year I saw my first airplane, but it was a long way off. I remember I thought I could see it flapping its wings. I told my brothers that if I ever got a chance, I would ride in one of those things. I did just that about eleven years later.
Fall, Crops and Another Move:
That fall, after we got the crops in, we moved away from there, to another rented farm not far away, on top of a ridge. It was a steep climb up to the house, but it was a pretty place and I liked it better. There was lots of open space all around, and lots of woods not too far away.
Ice, Snow and Rabbit:
All was not fun all the time. I remember one day while we were at school it rained and froze all over everything. Now, the school was down in valley, so that meant we had to get up that steep ridge with ice all over the place. Oh yes, we had to walk to school. Buses had never been thought of then. We soon found we could not walk in the road, but luckily the woods along the road had undergrowth all along. I found that I could get in the edge of the woods and hold to one bush after another and slowly make my way up the ridge. The others followed and that is the way we got home from school that day. We had bruises all over from falling on the ice, but being kids, we had fun. Once while we live there a big snow came. It must have been ten or more inches. My dad and some other men went rabbit hunting and we had a feast. We ate rabbit till we were all full.
Baby sister born and Grazing the Cow on the Ridge:
Lots of things happened while we lived at that place, among them was the birth of a new baby sister. (Bernice, b. 1918) I didn’t know what we would do with her, but she grew up just like all little girls do. Things were different then than they are now. We had never seen electric lights or any of the things we use every day now. We had our own cow for milk and she had to be looked after every day. Some of the time feed for the cow got a little scarce and the pasture was not too good, so my brother and I would take the cow out into the ridges where the grass was good and stay with her till she had eaten all the grass she could hold. This may sound dull, but I assure you it was the greatest adventure of my life. You see, those ridges were alive with all kinds of living things; wild living things, such as: rats, tarpins (turtle) , rabbits, opossum, raccoon, fox, wild cats and snakes of all kinds that are found in this part of the country.
The one that got Away: (1918)
I was only ten and my brother (Marvin) was seven, but there was only one snake that we saw that got away from us. Luckily there were plenty of rocks of the right size for throwing and we made good use of them. I, for some reason, could hit a snake almost every time. Although I could not hit a rabbit at all and I have tried many times. One day we were standing by a big tree, waiting for the cow to eat her fill. My brother saw a huge snake coming almost straight at us. It was obvious the snake had seen us, but it did not change its course. I guess it was not afraid of us at all. Its boldness made my brother afraid of it. He wanted to run, but I held him, for I had seen that snake chase my father the year before, so I was afraid to run, while he was afraid not to run. I held him fast and we stood there and watched that snake crawl past us. It kept looking at us and licking out its tongue, as it very slowly went past us. I don’t mind saying that I was frightened and I am sure he was, but as soon as the snake had passed us by, we left there as fast as we could. That was not the first or last snake we encountered in those ridges, but it was the one and only one that got away. All others, we killed as we found them. We killed several rattle snakes that year. We were careful not to tell our parents about all those snakes.
Grandfather came to live with us and brought his phonograph:
That was the year my grandfather came to live with us. That was exciting too, for he brought with him a phonograph, the first one any of us had ever seen. I wondered how on earth they ever canned all that music in those little cans. The records were shape like a can that was a little smaller on one end than the other. The sound came out through a large horn that was shaped just like a morning glory and always had to be put together and hung from a special frame that fastened to the main part of the machine. Granddad thought he was the only one in the whole world who could operate that thing, but I, being a normal boy, was just as sure that he was not the only one. One day when my brother and I had finished letting the cows eat grass and had gotten back to the house, everyone was gone except one brother (Arthur). He was still younger. He told us that mother and dad and granddad had all gone to town, something they did not do often. I saw this as the time to prove, at least to myself, that I could indeed play that phonograph. I swore both brothers to secrecy and got that thing out from its hiding place and proceeded to put it all together. Then I put a record on and wound it up good and started it up and yes I could play that thing just as good as anybody else. I was right proud of myself, but somehow I failed to get everything back where it was before and mother noticed it right away. She asked questions and that younger brother told all. My other brother and I knew there was no way out of it, so we just confessed. Now I am sure you have heard of boys getting a “whupping,” well that was a WHIPPING. I had to watch my brother get his first and I thought he really got one, but I still had to learn what the word “whipping” meant. And to top it all off, I still didn’t see that we had done anything wrong, especially my brother; he just watched me do it. But mother thought it was wrong and she made the point very clearly. We did not try that anymore.
Granddad’s horse:
Granddad brought a horse with him. He said it used to be a race horse, but it had a club foot. I don’t know how that came about, it could run alright, but it was not too good to a wagon, every time it got to the foot of the ridge it would balk and just wouldn’t pull the wagon up the hill.
World War I: (1914-1918)
World war one was raging then and dad had to register. We were all afraid he would have to go to war, but the war ended that fall on the eleventh of November (1918); what a happy day. I remember it well. We that were old enough were picking cotton some three miles from Fort Payne, AL, when the word went out that the war was over. We could hear the noise where we were all the way from town. People were shouting and praying all over. That was sure a time of excitement and joy. Lots more exciting things happened that year. One more thing that I will tell; that winter after we started to school, my oldest brother (Louis) got into a fight on the school yard. The other boy had a long bladed knife and my brother had another boy to take the knife till the fight was over. My brother gave the boy a good going over and they all thought the fight was over, then the boy that was holding the knife gave it back and my brother started into the school house. The boy he had just whipped, (he thought) struck him in the leg from behind just above the knee joint and almost cut a muscle in two. My brother had to lay up a good while from that.
Another move, Excitement and Tragedy: (1919)
It wasn’t long till we moved on to another place as was our custom. We moved at least once each year, sometimes more. The place we moved to this time was one of those rare ones, we lived there two years. These two years were a period of excitement and tragedy. The first year at this place was when the Influenza (flu) epidemic, that followed world war one, hit the whole nation. More people died of the flu than died from the war. We were one family out of many that did not have a death, almost every family had from one to six die. We lived in sight of a large cemetery and every day for a long time they buried at least one and on some days as many as three people. They held no funeral services and had no crowds; just the ones needed to get the job done. Some went home from the burying only to die that night. We all had the flu and some of us were very sick. I almost choked to death with it myself. (675,000 Americans died of influenza in 1918) On top of all that, we had one of the worst winters ever. It rained and froze all over. The ice was two inches or more, then, as soon as that was gone a big snow came, about twelve inches. We burned wood for heat and to cook with too. Through all this the wood ran out, so I being the last one to get the flu had to look after all the chores such as milking the cow, feeding the mules and of course the hog and chickens, also keep wood in to keep the fire going. So I had to take a mule to the woods and drag some small trees we had already cut for firewood up to the house and cut them to keep the fire going. I became eleven years old in the spring of that year. It sounds like a tall tale, but it’s true.
Spring came, Flu Passed:
It was not all bad, for spring did finally come and the Flu passed on, although we couldn’t forget the many that died that winter. Spring never looked so good to me. At that time, some of the boys who had fought in world war one had not gotten home yet. I remember we broke the land and planted cotton for one man that was on his way home from the war. It was about the 27th of April and believe it or not, it snowed all day. The man got home in time to chop that cotton himself.
Good Spring and Summer:
The rest of the spring and summer was pretty good. We made a good crop and it brought a good price and for the first time in my life, I got fifty cents to spend for Christmas. I was sure I was just about the richest boy in the whole world and did I ever have a ball? The first thing I did was to get it changed into nickels, then, with my pockets full of money I started my spending spree. But, to my surprise, it didn’t last nearly as long as I thought it would. I had to check up to see if someone had short-changed me somewhere, but I finally had to give up and admit that I had spent all of it. I decided then that a half dollar just wasn’t as big as I had thought it was. I should mention that during the flu epidemic, there was almost no school that whole winter, but somehow I did pass. I think it was to the fourth grade. The next winter we went to school as usual, which was about three months, for we didn’t get to start till the crops were all in and then we had to come out in the spring to help get the next crop planted. You see, we didn’t have tractors and a lot of other equipment to work with. All work was just what the word implies, “WORK.” The second year, we lived at this place, we made a good crop, but there was post war slump and prices went way down, so my dad had more debts than he could pay. His creditors took everything we had worked to produce, right down to ten bushels of corn which the law forbade them to take. They took our mules, hog, cow and anything else that they could. But I am getting ahead of the story.
The winter before: (1919)
In the winter before this crop; the epidemic of Smallpox hit the community. Lots of people died of this dreaded disease, but not as many as died from the flu. By this time they had developed a vaccine to immunize against small pox. Several of us were vaccinated and didn’t have the disease. Granddad had it, he didn’t believe in vaccination. Mother and dad both had it and were awfully sick for a while, but we children got to go on to school that term.
Home canned food:
Mother and us kids had canned and dried all the fruit and other food we could get hold of that summer and nobody took that away from us, so we did eat. Of course we moved that fall. In fact, we moved twice.
Renting on halves:
Dad finally found a place he could rent on the halves. That is the man who owned the place furnished the land and the mules to work it with. He also furnished the seed to plant, and he got half of everything we made, which was not a bad deal. He had some land that was in woods and he wanted it cleared, so he told us we could have the wood off the land if we would clear it. We could use his mule and wagon to haul it with, so we went to work cutting wood.
Cutting wood to sell:
This spot had some good pines on it and pine was the best kind for stove wood. So, we cut it and hauled it to town and sold it. We could cut a wagon load in one day and haul it to town the next day and we got two dollars for a load. Two dollars for two days work and there was never more than four of us working at a time. (That’s what I call making money) but being a child, it didn’t seem so bad. I really enjoyed the trips to town to sell the wood, but I never got any of the money to spend, as the family had to use it all.
Wood cooking stove:
Maybe I should explain what a wood burning cook stove was like, as someone who has never seen one may read this. It was a fairly large contraption made of cast iron, especially made for cooking, with a large flat surface with four to six openings with lids. We called the lids eyes. These lids could be lifted off and a pot set over the hole for direct heat. The firebox at one end and the oven was arranged so the flame would encircle it, thereby heating all the way around it. It would brown bread all around and bread cooked in one of those old stoves was really good. Believe it or not, the wood cook stove was a fairly new thing when I was a child. It was the first step away from cooking on an open fire in a fireplace that was also used for heat for the whole house. That was a hot job in the summertime, but I have seen my mother do it many times.
Making Lye Soap:
Another thing mother did when I was growing up was to save hardwood ashes from the fire place to make lye for making soap. She had an ash hopper as it was called, to put the ashes in. It was roofed to keep the ashes dry till she was ready to make the lye, then she would pore water through the ashes and catch it as lye when it had run through the ashes.
This is the most awful part of making lye, she tested it to see if it was strong enough by putting some of it on her tongue. If it did not take the skin off her tongue, it was not strong enough to make soap. The soap was made by taking meat scraps that were trimmed off the meat for whatever reason and putting it in the lye until it was eaten up by the lye. Then it was cooked for a while till it reached the right consistency. It was allowed to cool, then it could be cut into bars. For getting the stubborn dirt out, that stuff would do just that.
No Washing Machines:
There was no such thing as a washing machine in those days. The washing had to be done the hard way, like everything else. We would heat the water in a wash pot, and rub the clothes on a rub board till the dirt gave up. Some of the worst ones, we would put on a block cut from a large tree and hit them with a big paddle. This paddle was called a battling stick. (I don’t know why,) but that is how we washed our clothes. The pot was a big round cast-iron pot with three short legs, so we had to put it on three bricks or rocks to keep it high enough to get fire under it. Then we would fill the pot with water and build a fire around it, using any kind of wood we could get that would burn. That (getting wood) was usually my job, and carrying water from the spring, or well, if we had one.
No Automobiles, etc., good neighbors:
Life was so different then compared to now, we had no automobiles, no radios, no record players and of course no television. We didn’t even have electricity. We never even guessed we would ever have such things. Everyone else lived much as we did, so we didn’t know we were having it rough, if indeed we were. I wonder sometimes if maybe we would be better off if we still had to live that way. One thing I am sure of, we did have neighbors that we could depend on and people visited each other. Really it wasn’t so bad, not bad at all.
Dad changed religion: (1919-1920)
The thing that bothered me more than anything else was that dad changed his religion between the Flu epidemic and the Small Pox epidemic. He had been a Baptist preacher since I was born, up to this time, then he got converted to the Free Holiness. They read the second chapter of Acts and the fourth verse, “they all began to speak in unknown tongues.” This religion was not popular in those days and some people called us “holy-rollers.” That hurt a little. But we got by some way; all stayed healthy, most of the time and that was great.
Good Crop, same school:
Well we made that crop and must have come out very well, for dad bought a pair of mules that fall and rented a crop for another year, where we could get more of what we made. It was not very far away, so we went to the same school. We were on the other side of the school and a little further away, but we only had to walk four miles to school from this place. That wasn’t so bad, only when it snowed or rained, but we wore shoes that were made for that kind of living. Our feet stayed dry except when the snow got deep enough to go over the tops of them, which it did sometimes.
Baby Sister: (Nellie)
We had not been at this place long when a brand new baby sister (Nellie, b. 1922) came along. She was pretty small, but grew up like all other girls so, of course, she didn’t grow a lot that year, but got to be right cute soon enough. Dad got us a job cutting logs close by, so we had work to do anytime we boys were not in school. When time came to start a crop, we older ones had to come out of school early to start getting the land ready to plant. So, we worked, but there was some time for play, too. We carried our water from a spring about a hundred yards from the house, across a slough, on a narrow bridge made of slabs from a nearby saw mill.
Flutter Mill: (1922)
A small stream flowed through the slough and above the slough I was able to build a dam about knee-high to back the water up, so I could use a flume-like trough to make the water go where I chose. Then I built a water wheel (I called it a flutter mill) and soon I had it pulling all sorts of machinery. I spent many hours with my mill and enjoyed every minute of it. That was the year I became fourteen. I also weighed on hundred pounds for the first time, that year. Then I was sure I was a big boy. But somehow, I could never understand why, I was different from most other boys. My nature was to fix or to build, never to tear anything down, unless I knew a better way to build it back. I would find myself alone a lot of the time and I like it that way. I had no great dislike for others, I just liked to be alone.
The “Thing:”
The house we lived in at this place was on a steep little knob-like hill. It was down-hill any direction from the house, but the side next to the slough was steepest. I carried strips from the saw mill and built a track (I called it) for a wheel I had found, to run on. This wheel was made of steel and had flanges on both edges so it would stay on a strip some two inches wide. It was large enough to roll pretty good. I used this wheel in the front on my car that I built of scrap stuff picked up at the saw mill. For rear wheels, I cut them from a log and burned holes in them with a rod of iron. I would heat it in a fire till it was red hot.
The “thing” had three wheels. I used slabs for the rear wheels to run on. Well, the “thing” was finally ready for my first ride, so I put it on the track and it looked to me like everything fit fine. I climbed aboard to see just how well “the thing” would work, but I had made one little error. I had under guessed the speed it would make, and the low end of the track was right at the edge of the slough which was about six inches deep in water. Also, there were blackberry briars, great big ones, grown up at the edge of that slough. I don’t know just how far it was down that track, but it took several lengths of slabs and strips to build it. Anyway, I let go and it took off, like I don’t know what, and before I knew it, I had crashed through those blackberry briars and was in water and mud almost to my knees. I knew then that I had to put brakes on that thing.
As was usual, I had built this thing alone, although I had four brothers, and I knew they would, everyone, want to ride it just as soon as they found out about it. I quietly went in the house and got into some dry clothes and rigged some brakes on “the thing.” Soon someone found out that I was having fun riding this “thing,” and wanted in on it, so I let him have at it. I “forgot” all about the brakes and didn’t say a word. Yes, you are away ahead of me now, but I sure got a “bang” out of seeing him scramble around getting out of that briar patch, wet up to his knees. He couldn’t see how I could ride the “thing” and not go into the briar patch, and I didn’t tell him right away, for I wanted to see some of the others do it too. He helped me get them into it and I had a wet bunch of brothers after a little while. For some reason, my mother didn’t think it was so funny, or at least she said it wasn’t, but I couldn’t help noticing her laugh about it when she thought I wasn’t looking. I did explain about the brakes and we all had a lot of fun with it after that. I called it the “thing” because I didn’t know a better name for it.
The pummies fire:
Between my flutter mill and the “thing,” I had plenty to keep me busy, when I had time to spend with them. Late in the summer there was a sorgum mill close by, in fact it was just across the slough from the house just above the spring. They must have made sorgum there every year, for there was a big pile of pummies there when we moved there and somehow we got that pile of pummies on fire. It burned for two months or more. When they came to get the mill ready to work that fall, they were glad to find the pummie pile gone. I enjoyed watching them make sorgum.
General Assembly in Cleveland, TN:
When we got our crop gathered, dad decided to take some of us to Cleveland, Tennessee to the general assembly of the Church of God; yes, he had left the free holiness by this time. Now this was quite an experience for me, as I had only been out of the state of Alabama one time that I could remember much about, and we were going on a train. That, I had never done before. Well, we went, but I soon tired of the whole thing and wanted to go home.
Granddad’s house:
They had dropped some of the smaller children off at my Grandfather’s (Nathan Gilreath) to stay till we came back, so dad said I could go back there and wait for them. I did just that, and had lots of fun at Granddad’s house. I loved my Granddad and Grandmother too. Dad made sure that I knew she was my step-grandmother, but she was Grandma to me. I couldn’t have loved her more. The food grandma fixed was “out of this world,” so far as I was concerned. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her. I am happy to say I got to know Grandma quite well later on and she was always sweet to me.
Twin Sister:
I haven’t had much to say about my twin sister (Cora). The reason being that dad and mother were afraid we would find out that girls are different to boys, but we found out anyway. We were really quite close and played together constantly until we were about seven. We were never apart on our birthday until we were past eighteen years old.
Move to Georgia:
Well, back to the story. When we got home from the assembly, we soon finished gathering the little that was left of the crop and dad sold out completely and we moved to the state of Georgia, where there was no child labor law, or any law to compel anyone to send their children to school. Dad arranged for two wagons to move us. We got everything loaded one afternoon and went and spent the night with one of the men who were moving us. We got up early the next morning and hit the road before daylight, as we had some thirty five miles to go and it took until away into the night to get there. We had to cross Lookout Mountain and quite a ways beyond. We were a tired bunch when we arrive (and hungry, too).
Working at the cotton mill:
My older brother (Louis), my twin sister (Cora) and I along with dad could work in a cotton mill there. I guess I will never forget that experience. I went to work that first day just about scared to death. I had never been in a cotton mill and it was so noisy I couldn’t hear what anyone said. Soon I learned to whistle and to understand sign language and very soon I was doing my job just like the rest. Our pay was really something to crow about. We worked sixty hours a week. Dad made nine dollars per week. The rest of us made six dollars each per week. We were allowed to keep one dollar each, the rest of it went to support the family. There is where I got my first experience with money. This was before the depression. But if you think you can get anything with one dollar a week, even then, well I have news for you.
Sears guitar:
But some way, and I don’t quite know how, I did save up enough to order a guitar from Sears. I paid $7.95 for it. And was I ever proud of that guitar. I got that thing with a tuning gadget and an instruction book, so I could start learning right away. But, with working six days a week, ten hours a day, who had time to learn anything? I hadn’t thought about that, but I did manage to learn a few cords and my brother (Marvin) just younger was able to learn quite a bit on it. I was glad of that, even if I didn’t have time to learn much. He has been better on the guitar than I have ever since, although, I did learn to play some.
Getting by, and fifteenth birthday (1923)
This may come as a surprise, but we did move away from that little cotton mill town. That was a time of rejoicing for me. Dad had bought a new wood burning cook stove from the company store and moved away still owing fifteen dollars on it. The move did nothing for our financial condition, so dad borrowed money for the train fare and went to Kentucky to work in the coal mines. He had been told that he could make good money there. But for some reason, he only worked one day and stayed a couple of months, then had to borrow money to get back home. In the meantime, the company store was pushing us for payment on the stove, so I went to see one of dad’s brothers and borrowed from him to pay off the stove. I went back and paid it off, then after we got the crop “laid-by,” I went and stayed with my uncle and worked for him to pay back the loan. During the time we were making the crop (my brother just younger than me (Marvin), my twin sister (Cora), my mother and myself) our older brother (Louis) hired out to a neighbor farmer for one dollar and twenty five cents per day. Almost all of that went for the family to live on. As soon as the crop was finished and I had my uncle paid, I went to work for the same man my brother worked for. As you may have guessed, my play days were just about over. Dad did get back from Kentucky in time to work at a saw mill while we gathered the crop. That did help keep us eating, but the crop all went for his trip to Kentucky.
I had my fifteenth birthday while living there.
Blueberries:
One day in early summer, my younger brother (Marvin) and I had caught-up with our work in the field and we went into the woods close by. We found that there were lots of wild blueberries and they were ripe. Our need for money was ever present, so we wondered, after we had made ourselves a pie with the blueberries, if we could sell some of them. There was a summer resort close by and we knew the people that lived there during the summer were not poor people like us, so we picked six gallons of blueberries and I boldly knocked on the door of one of those cabins. The lady that came to the door almost fell backwards when she saw what we had. After a few “ewes” and “aaws” she told us to take them to the back and she would take all of them. She had not asked the price. I had thought fifty cents per gallon would be fair, but after I saw her reaction, I changed my mind. We took the berries to the back door and she met us with pans and tubs to put them in. After we had poured them into her vessels, she said: “I didn’t ask how much or how many.” I told her there were six gallons and they were eighty cents a gallon.
She was delight to get them and we felt like that was the best days work we had ever done.
Started noticing girls:
Another thing happened that year that was sort of strange and wonderful. I guess it had been happening slowly over the last year, but I had not noticed what seemed to me all of a sudden, the girls began to look different to me. They were more beautiful than I had ever thought they could be. I didn’t understand why, some of them were down-right friendly with me, but I was afraid to touch one of them. I guess I was shy or something, but there was one that was very friendly. One Sunday afternoon I asked her if I could walk her to church, and she said sure. That was a surprise, but I thought I was doing all right, but I must have been dull or something, for she didn’t seem to want to go with me anymore. At least that is how I thought she felt, I never found out for sure. I guess girls go through that mysterious stage between childhood and adulthood too. Anyway, I could never understand it.
Back to school and back to Georgia:
I did get to go to school about two months that fall, then it was moving time again. We moved back to the state of Georgia but it was along way from that cotton mill town. Now, we lived near my Grandfather (James Newton Hartline) for the first and only time. I was glad to be close to them for I did love them both. We went to church at the same place that they did and I always loved to hear grand dad sing his testimony, “O come Angel Band.” He did it every time he got a chance.
Better times: (1924-1925)
We had a much bigger crop there and it was on the “halves” as usual, but we made a lot of stuff and came out fairly good that fall. Money was not quite so tight and we did several kinds of work that year. We cut some cedar and some logs and hewed some cross-ties and I worked a while at a lumber yard. I loaded railroad cars with lumber and switch ties up to seventeen feet long. That was heavy work for a sixteen year old boy, but it paid well for that time, two dollars a day, and I needed the money. Well, here, that thing about girls being pretty still held true. I remember the first girl I asked to let me walk her home said “yes” real loud, but I guess I was still dull, for I never went with her again. There were others and maybe I got over some of my shyness, for the next one I dated for a good while. I even thought I might be in love with her and that scared me something awful, but didn’t stop me. Finally, she moved away and that was the end of that.
Too Many girls:
Then, I tried to see how many girls I could go with, but for some reason, the girls didn’t like that idea too much. Then I met a very pretty little girl but very young. I had already turned sixteen by this time. She was so much fun that I was with her as much as I could be. We never thought of each other as sweethearts, just friends.
First Black Acquaintances:
While living at this place, I got to know my first black people. I had never lived around blacks before, but here we had a family that lived as close to us as anyone else. They had two boys about my age and we hunted and fished and swam together. Strange to me now, we had no thought of any difference, we even went to church with them. They came into our house and I went into theirs. We worked together in the fields or anywhere else and always got along fine.
Hunting:
When we had finished gathering the crop that year, and the weather got cold. For some reason, we were late about moving. A young man I had gotten acquainted with, had a good “coon” and opossum dog. He and I got started hunting together. He allowed me to take half the hides we caught just for hunting with him. I soon learned that I could make more money hunting for two or three nights a week than I could working five or six days. We hunted all night some nights.
To Sand Mountain, AL:
I hated to leave that, (hunting for hides) when it came time to move away from there, but move away, we did, back to (north) Alabama about the middle of Sand Mountain.
Dryest, hottest year on record: (Records indicate 112 degrees September 5, 1925 as all time high in Alabama)
We lived at this place in the year 1925, which was the driest year on record. I waded the Tennessee River that year, all the way across. The ferry boats were grounded and people drove wagons across the river. That was also the hottest year anyone I knew could remember. We didn’t make any corn to speak of that year, but cotton made good. Believe it or not, we picked our cotton mostly at night that year. It was so hot you couldn’t stay out there in the daytime, so we stayed in the shade in the heat of the day and slept when we could and when the moon would shine, we picked cotton, continuing as long as we could in the morning. Even when the moon rose at midnight, or whenever it did rise, we got up and picked cotton. We had it all picked by the second week in September.
Ginning Cotton:
The (Cotton) gins were powered by steam then and water was scarce, so several wagons were kept busy hauling water to the gin. I met another girl that year that had the same first name as my own, but it was obvious from the start that we would not hit it off at all. She didn’t like me for having her first name and I didn’t like her for the same reason I guess. This girl’s father owned a truck, something that had just begun to appear and very few of them were around. He hauled cotton to town for people after it had been ginned and bailed. The people all trusted him, so he sold their cotton and brought their money to them. He could haul five bails at a trip and cotton was a good price then, so I have seen him when he had more than a thousand dollars of his neighbors’ money on him and he never lost a cent. No one worried about their money, except his wife, she did. Well between the time that we had a crop laid by and gathering time, I went to Alabama City, AL and worked in the cotton mill for a while. That was not too rewarding, for I made nine dollars a week and it cost me seven dollars for room and board. I couldn’t get rich very fast at that. I found a better place to board for four dollars a week and it fed better too. Then before long, I found a job in Gadsden that paid eleven dollars a week. Now I thought I was doing O.K. but before long I foolishly got fired from that job. That was the only time in my life that I got fired. I sure did hate to lose that job. It was almost time to get back to help gather the crop anyway, and that moving job that always followed.
Eighteen years old and leaving home:
It wasn’t very far this time, but move we did. The year that followed I turned eighteen and had to split from home and go on my own. I thought I was going to be married that year, but my mother was more in love with the girl than I was and the girl’s mother was more in love with me than the girl was. One day we talked it all over and agreed to call the whole thing off. That was the only thing that year that turned out right. She went on to marry a man that was better for her than me.
(Got married: (1928)
I waited about two years before I married. At least I picked the girl myself and I am sure I am better satisfied that way. We have four girls and three boys and are proud of every one of them. We also have twenty-five grand children and nearly four great grandchildren. So I reckon it has not all been for nothing.
P.S. I have been very much in love with the girl I chose to marry for the last forty-five years and I hope it lasts a few more years.
(Written by O.J. Hartline About 1973.
They celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1978.)
Ora James Hartline (more)
(1908-1982)
Ora James Hartline was born May 15, 1908, a son of Marvin Gibson (John Marvin) Hartline and his wife Elizabeth (Bettie) Gilreath Hartline. Ora James (O. J.) married to Annie Berry Evans, daughter of Newton and Mary Francis Wininger Evans in 1928. Annie was born April 30, 1910. O. J. and Annie lived at several different places. Among them were Honeycomb Valley (which is now flooded and a part of the TVA reservoir between Guntersville and Huntsville, Alabama, and Macedonia, near Section, Alabama, where he farmed for several years and where several of their children were born. Section is on Sand Mountain, near Scottsboro, Alabama.
O. J. and Annie had the following children:
1. Mary Ellen Hartline, born August 4, 1929, married (1) George T. Walden and they have four children, (2) Haden (Tony) Tidmore, no children.
2. Bessie Marie Hartline, born April 19, 1931, married (1) Johnny Humphries, they had two children, Veronica and John (2) Justin Amos, they had two sons, Chris and Patrick.
3. Rayford Ora Hartline, born April 11, 1933, married Mary Lou Bradford, they had five boys, Tommy, Jimmie, Steve, Joey and Chuck.
4. Audie Berry Hartline, born September 22, 1934, married (1) Leon (Bill) Allen of Section, Alabama, and they have two daughters, Sheila and Cynthia. (2) Jimmy Hodgens, no children.
5. James Buford Hartline, born April 10, 1936, married Ruth Dixon Hood, June 27, 1964 and they have four daughters, Anna, Susanne, Tami and Jami.
6. Annie Ruth Hartline, born May 10, l938, married Eskie Nye Dukes of Section, Alabama, they have three daughters, Valerie, Lisa and Patty.
7. Doil Nelson Hartline, born February 2, 1940, married (1) Joanne, they have one daughter, Chris. (2) Twila Duane Willoughby, _____. They have two children, Telina and Marty. Doil died in 2000 and is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Boaz.
8. Wanda Faye Hartline, still born March 11, 1942, buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.
9. Wynema Gale, born April 11, 1944, died April 13, 1944, buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.
O. J. Hartline was a share-cropper farmer near Section, Alabama in the little Church Community of Macedonia, until about 1939.
He had begun repairing bicycles, rebuilding car batteries and took a course in radio repair from NRI and began fixing radios.
He move to Ft. Payne, Alabama about 1939 and opened a radio shop.
In 1942 he moved to Boaz, Alabama and again opened a radio shop in an automotive store.
In 1944 he was drafted into the Navy and then was switched to the Marine Corps. He was in service until the war ended in 1945. When he came out of service, he used his mustering out pay to purchase test equipment to set up another radio shop in with an appliance repair store, C. E. Cline & Company, on Main Street in Boaz, AL. He did well there and after a few years they moved the appliance store and his radio shop to West Mill Avenue (AL Hwy 168) and continued there for a number of years.
During this time, television came to that area and O. J. started repairing TV sets. He and Mr. Cline also formed the Cline-Hartline Television Company.
Eventually, O. J. moved out on his own and opened a store on Main Street, no longer selling TV sets, but repairing both TVs and radios. His son Jim worked with him for several years in the W. Mill Avenue location and his second Main Street location, but left in 1955 to go into radio broadcasting. When Jim stopped working with him, O.J. closed that store and worked out of his garage/apartment building next to his home, then built his own building on E. Mill Avenue and continued there until he retired.
O.J.'s sons Ray and Doil joined him in the new E. Mill Avenue shop.
After O. J.'s retirement, Doil continued to operate the shop and Ray opened his own shop on W. Mill Avenue.
Annie and O. J. loved to sing and he played the guitar and banjo and he could fiddle some. He had recorded some of their "old time" songs on audio tape for their children. Among the songs was one called "I'll see you in the Springtime, Little Annie." When Annie died, in the Spring, this tape was played at her funeral. He never sang publicly while he was living, but sang at his wife's funeral nine years after he died.
Annie Berry (Evans) Hartline was a good wife and mother and stayed home and cared for things there. She went trough long periods of sickness when both Wanda Faye and Wynema Gail were born and she was bed-ridden for quite a while. She still managed to keep the family together while O. J. was in the Marine Corps. Later in life, she was much healthier and out-lived all her siblings. She had two brothers, Jasper and John and two sisters, Alice and May. Annie Berry Evans Hartline died of an aneurysm in the spring of 1991, March 7, almost 81.
Annie and O.J. were instrumental in gathering information for the book “Hartlines in America,” authored by their son Jim. She also gathered information on the Evans, Wininger and Bellomy side of the family. She did not have much education, but learned to type and did a good job of collecting information. She is credited many times as a contributor of information in a book written by James Casey on the Evans, Wininger, Bellamy, Pace and Shelton families. These were people who moved from Yuma, Virginia and settled in Maynard Cove, not far from Scottsboro, Alabama.
Annie had ancestors named Evans, Wininger and Pace, and relatives named Bellomy (the name is spelled with an "o" or with an "a" by various family members).
She spent many years looking for her Virginia ancestors and never found them. We found them two years after her death, and have attended numerous reunions at Yuma, Virginia, in Scott County, with those families who were her distant cousins. She is descended from William Pace, a body guard (life-guard as they were called) for General George Washington, father of our Country.
Ora James Hartline died at Boaz, Alabama, March 25, 1982, two months short of 74 years.
Annie Berry Evans Hartline died March 7, 1991, two months short of 81.
Both are buried at Hillcrest Cemetery at Boaz, Alabama.
Ora James and Annie B. Evans Hartline
