Mister P
06-18-2007, 02:46 AM
Oh my Lord
So you are Uncle Jack's great grandson. This is so awesome. First, let me say that I miss your Uncle Lucky something fierce. He and my mother used to talk regularly. Has anyone found Uncle Jack's Bible? My grandmother had that Bible for years, then, when we found Lucky, we shipped it out to him. Barbara on the Poythress website has pictures of the family pages. We all met in Richmond a number of years ago and she took those.
I have a picture of Uncle Jack somewhere. My great grandmother Mamie and Jack were siblings. You are correct that he was a carpenter and very talented with his hands. He also played the fiddle like it was on fire. Especially considering he lost several fingers on his left hand. My mother has many many fond memories of Aunt Bertha.
It is funny that you are from Charles. All I have on him is his date of birth and death records. This was part of the line that I didn't know which way to go since they went out west.
I will be the first to warn you though, the family is still very tight lipped about alot of information and it takes quite awhile for them to warm up. I will, however, share everything I have with you. May I say, welcome home Steve.
By the way, James R. Poythress' wife is Sarah "Sallie" Crowder, daughter of Hezekiah and Nancy Adams Crowder. Hezekiah is the son of William of Dinwiddie VA, born abt 1723.
The prodigal Poythress is back! :D I guess it's been several years since I've contributed, I owe a big apology on that, my bad. To reply to your points above -
Several leads I have best point to the family bible and other geneology info of the "northwest Poythress's" being in the posession of Sister's daughter, Jeanette (Sister's given name is Laura Lee Poythress, she is my grandfather Chuck's youngest sister). I've only met her a few times in my life, the last being at my grandma Eleanor's funeral (Eleanor Bernice Williams, first wife of grandpa Chuck) .
After we had buried her ashes (grandma Eleanor) a few of us made our way back to Grants Pass Ore for brunch, it's been a while now as that was about 7-8 years ago but I remember my sister (Penny Leigh) was there, along with my father (Gary Fredrick) and his sister (Sharon). My dad and aunt Sharon began to talk about relatives, they did fondly recall Lucky (Horace Elmo)... My father also briefly mentioned the only member of the family still living in NC, Bennie Wayne? Is he/was an acting minister? I'm pretty sure that's right as I recall that was the joke at the table, there was no ‘middle of the road’ in Jack’s family (Jack Elmo), his kids were pushed to either one extreme or the other!
And that began a biography of my grandfather, Charles Poythress (my "grandpa Chuck") as recalled from his children - suddenly a whole lot of our multi-generational dysfunction really came into focus. So this is my abbreviated knowledge of my grandfather, Charles Poythress, the most of it learned in that 30-minutes seated at that restaurant table.
Charles Fredrick Poythress was born in Richmond VA, and his father Jack (Elmo) pressured young Charles to smoke cigarettes by the age of six; Charles told my father that he would be sent to school with a pack of cigarettes rolled-up in his shirt sleeve. Jack did not tolerate 'weak' sons, and their education in 'male-ness' was hands-on, brutal, and thorough. Jack was also reputed to be a successful moonshiner, an endeavor he was partnered in with his brother.
Charles achieved a sixth-grade education, and I *believe* served underage in the military (WW2) although that is more an impression/supposition on my part. Charles relayed to my father that he met his first wife Eleanor in Coos Bay Or; she was a waitress at a local coffee shop/restaurant and Charles, who indulged in a lifelong sport of engaging, flirting, chatting-up, and taking home waitresses talked Eleanor into a date and long-term relationship.
Dad and Sharon related a brutal childhood at the hands of their father Charles; the picture they painted of him was not glamorous at all - that of being often violent, often drunk with an unpredictable temperament and rampant episodes of unchecked physical abuse towards Eleanor, my father, and Sharon - to the point of inflicting absolute physical terror lasting well into the kids' teen years.
According to my father, all four of them were living in Coos Bay Ore at the time my father turned six years old, at which point Eleanor had decided to literally flee her marriage with Charles by secretly purchasing a used car and moving unannounced to sothern Oregon and then filing for divorce; remember that this was in the early 1950's, women were not allowed to even consider this kind of action let alone go through with it especially in Southern Oregon which was largely lawless at the time. True to plan, Eleanor purchased her own car, quickly loaded my father and infant Aunt Sharon and left Coos Bay - my father tells that this was literally his first experience in an automobile, and that he was violently motion sick the entire day-long trip. But after several months, Charles did successfully track Eleanor and his children to their new home, and after another confrontation a reconciliation was begun.
After arriving in southern Oregon, Charles became involved in competitive team roping; according to my father he only achieved average skill for the endeavor but loved it and the equine lifestyle around it, and within several years had purchased a parcel of land large enough to support a house, sizeable barn, arena, and pasture to maintain a few horses just off the end of the airport runway in Medford Ore. The house, fences, and outbuildings were constructed entirely of free scavenged lumber-mill scrap (White City and Medford were home to over a half-dozen major lumber mills at the time) by Charles, my father, Sharon, and Eleanor; my father recalled there being absolutely no outside labor, they built everything themselves. The walls of the two-story barn were fashioned by laminating (or, layering) reject two-by-four timbers horizontally atop each other face-to-face; the resulting walls of the barn were four-inches thick of solid Douglas Fir timber. My father bitterly recalls a conscripted youth of constant nailing as a pre-teen, and much chiding from Charles over bent nails which they could not afford to waste.
Charles was an avid and accomplished hunter and outdoorsman, superbly skilled in stalking/tracking game and equally proficient with bow, firearm, and fishing pole. He taught my father to hunt at an early age (pre-teen) and the family regularly lived off what they killed in the mountain wilderness of southern Oregon. In his later life, Charles owned a boat and regularly fished the ocean off Coos Bay Ore.
The remainder of the marriage between Charles and Eleanor was still rife with pain, fighting, and infidelity; and parental discipline was routinely severe. Chuck continued a loosing "relationship" with alcohol, it being a major negative influence in his life. Chuck and Eleanor did divorce later, my impression being during my father and aunt's later teen years.
Charles was gifted with an almost psychic insight into people and was a master interviewer and salesman; my father has professed that Charles literally could engage in a 2-minute conversation with any stranger and come away knowing everything about that person, including strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. Charles was also an accomplished womanizer, a near-incurable alcoholic, and opened/operated/failed a few local bars around the Medford Ore area in his early adult life. And he was an unabashed hell-raiser, having a completely untamable personality, total lack of fear for any man or thing, and an innate disrespect for authority - for several decades in southern Oregon he was constantly involved in all manner of disorderly conduct, brawling, and physical violence short of egregious felony. It was open knowledge in southern Oregon that Charles always carried on his person a loaded firearm and *at least* $5000 in 100-dollar bills (remember that this was the 1950's, that was a fortune then), the cash regularly used to pay-off police officers arriving on scene of any disturbance he might discover himself in and sidestep arrest. Charles came to know every law enforcement officer personally on a one-to-one basis, making friends of many during his life in southern Oregon; in fact both my father and Sharon were taught to drive a car in their teenage years by Medford Ore police officers!
(cont'd...)
So you are Uncle Jack's great grandson. This is so awesome. First, let me say that I miss your Uncle Lucky something fierce. He and my mother used to talk regularly. Has anyone found Uncle Jack's Bible? My grandmother had that Bible for years, then, when we found Lucky, we shipped it out to him. Barbara on the Poythress website has pictures of the family pages. We all met in Richmond a number of years ago and she took those.
I have a picture of Uncle Jack somewhere. My great grandmother Mamie and Jack were siblings. You are correct that he was a carpenter and very talented with his hands. He also played the fiddle like it was on fire. Especially considering he lost several fingers on his left hand. My mother has many many fond memories of Aunt Bertha.
It is funny that you are from Charles. All I have on him is his date of birth and death records. This was part of the line that I didn't know which way to go since they went out west.
I will be the first to warn you though, the family is still very tight lipped about alot of information and it takes quite awhile for them to warm up. I will, however, share everything I have with you. May I say, welcome home Steve.
By the way, James R. Poythress' wife is Sarah "Sallie" Crowder, daughter of Hezekiah and Nancy Adams Crowder. Hezekiah is the son of William of Dinwiddie VA, born abt 1723.
The prodigal Poythress is back! :D I guess it's been several years since I've contributed, I owe a big apology on that, my bad. To reply to your points above -
Several leads I have best point to the family bible and other geneology info of the "northwest Poythress's" being in the posession of Sister's daughter, Jeanette (Sister's given name is Laura Lee Poythress, she is my grandfather Chuck's youngest sister). I've only met her a few times in my life, the last being at my grandma Eleanor's funeral (Eleanor Bernice Williams, first wife of grandpa Chuck) .
After we had buried her ashes (grandma Eleanor) a few of us made our way back to Grants Pass Ore for brunch, it's been a while now as that was about 7-8 years ago but I remember my sister (Penny Leigh) was there, along with my father (Gary Fredrick) and his sister (Sharon). My dad and aunt Sharon began to talk about relatives, they did fondly recall Lucky (Horace Elmo)... My father also briefly mentioned the only member of the family still living in NC, Bennie Wayne? Is he/was an acting minister? I'm pretty sure that's right as I recall that was the joke at the table, there was no ‘middle of the road’ in Jack’s family (Jack Elmo), his kids were pushed to either one extreme or the other!
And that began a biography of my grandfather, Charles Poythress (my "grandpa Chuck") as recalled from his children - suddenly a whole lot of our multi-generational dysfunction really came into focus. So this is my abbreviated knowledge of my grandfather, Charles Poythress, the most of it learned in that 30-minutes seated at that restaurant table.
Charles Fredrick Poythress was born in Richmond VA, and his father Jack (Elmo) pressured young Charles to smoke cigarettes by the age of six; Charles told my father that he would be sent to school with a pack of cigarettes rolled-up in his shirt sleeve. Jack did not tolerate 'weak' sons, and their education in 'male-ness' was hands-on, brutal, and thorough. Jack was also reputed to be a successful moonshiner, an endeavor he was partnered in with his brother.
Charles achieved a sixth-grade education, and I *believe* served underage in the military (WW2) although that is more an impression/supposition on my part. Charles relayed to my father that he met his first wife Eleanor in Coos Bay Or; she was a waitress at a local coffee shop/restaurant and Charles, who indulged in a lifelong sport of engaging, flirting, chatting-up, and taking home waitresses talked Eleanor into a date and long-term relationship.
Dad and Sharon related a brutal childhood at the hands of their father Charles; the picture they painted of him was not glamorous at all - that of being often violent, often drunk with an unpredictable temperament and rampant episodes of unchecked physical abuse towards Eleanor, my father, and Sharon - to the point of inflicting absolute physical terror lasting well into the kids' teen years.
According to my father, all four of them were living in Coos Bay Ore at the time my father turned six years old, at which point Eleanor had decided to literally flee her marriage with Charles by secretly purchasing a used car and moving unannounced to sothern Oregon and then filing for divorce; remember that this was in the early 1950's, women were not allowed to even consider this kind of action let alone go through with it especially in Southern Oregon which was largely lawless at the time. True to plan, Eleanor purchased her own car, quickly loaded my father and infant Aunt Sharon and left Coos Bay - my father tells that this was literally his first experience in an automobile, and that he was violently motion sick the entire day-long trip. But after several months, Charles did successfully track Eleanor and his children to their new home, and after another confrontation a reconciliation was begun.
After arriving in southern Oregon, Charles became involved in competitive team roping; according to my father he only achieved average skill for the endeavor but loved it and the equine lifestyle around it, and within several years had purchased a parcel of land large enough to support a house, sizeable barn, arena, and pasture to maintain a few horses just off the end of the airport runway in Medford Ore. The house, fences, and outbuildings were constructed entirely of free scavenged lumber-mill scrap (White City and Medford were home to over a half-dozen major lumber mills at the time) by Charles, my father, Sharon, and Eleanor; my father recalled there being absolutely no outside labor, they built everything themselves. The walls of the two-story barn were fashioned by laminating (or, layering) reject two-by-four timbers horizontally atop each other face-to-face; the resulting walls of the barn were four-inches thick of solid Douglas Fir timber. My father bitterly recalls a conscripted youth of constant nailing as a pre-teen, and much chiding from Charles over bent nails which they could not afford to waste.
Charles was an avid and accomplished hunter and outdoorsman, superbly skilled in stalking/tracking game and equally proficient with bow, firearm, and fishing pole. He taught my father to hunt at an early age (pre-teen) and the family regularly lived off what they killed in the mountain wilderness of southern Oregon. In his later life, Charles owned a boat and regularly fished the ocean off Coos Bay Ore.
The remainder of the marriage between Charles and Eleanor was still rife with pain, fighting, and infidelity; and parental discipline was routinely severe. Chuck continued a loosing "relationship" with alcohol, it being a major negative influence in his life. Chuck and Eleanor did divorce later, my impression being during my father and aunt's later teen years.
Charles was gifted with an almost psychic insight into people and was a master interviewer and salesman; my father has professed that Charles literally could engage in a 2-minute conversation with any stranger and come away knowing everything about that person, including strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. Charles was also an accomplished womanizer, a near-incurable alcoholic, and opened/operated/failed a few local bars around the Medford Ore area in his early adult life. And he was an unabashed hell-raiser, having a completely untamable personality, total lack of fear for any man or thing, and an innate disrespect for authority - for several decades in southern Oregon he was constantly involved in all manner of disorderly conduct, brawling, and physical violence short of egregious felony. It was open knowledge in southern Oregon that Charles always carried on his person a loaded firearm and *at least* $5000 in 100-dollar bills (remember that this was the 1950's, that was a fortune then), the cash regularly used to pay-off police officers arriving on scene of any disturbance he might discover himself in and sidestep arrest. Charles came to know every law enforcement officer personally on a one-to-one basis, making friends of many during his life in southern Oregon; in fact both my father and Sharon were taught to drive a car in their teenage years by Medford Ore police officers!
(cont'd...)