The decision to leave their homes in eastern Alabama was a collective one. In fact, one could almost characterize what happened as the mass exodus of a whole tribe of people.
2 The lure of cheap land in the southern reaches of
Marshall County proved to be too powerful to ignore for most of the
Hendrix-Camp families and their kinfolks. As a consequence, a small wagon train
formed and headed out for Brindlee Mountain.
3 For ten-year-old Virgil, this was a great adventure.
He was constantly pestering Henry, who was six years his senior. “Can I help
you feed and water the stock?” he asked. “I guess; but I’m gonna wallop you if
you get in my way!” Henry warned. “I’ll tell Mama and Daddy,” the little boy
threatened.
4 “Just do what I tell ya to do, and we won’t have no
problems,” Henry told him as he swatted the back of his head. “I want to water
the horses,” the little boy insisted without missing a beat. “Well, go ahead
then – there’s the creek,” Henry pointed.
5 “Are you boys takin care of them animals?” William
hollered. “Yes, Daddy,” they shouted in unison and smiled at each other.
6 A few minutes later, their mother appeared. “Have
you boys seen Teenie?” she asked. “No, mam,” Henry answered. “She ain’t been
this way, Mama.” With that, Mary turned and walked back in the direction of the
wagons.
7 Virgil could tell that she was worried. After all,
Teenie couldn’t take care of herself, and their mother had always kept a close
watch over their “half-witted” sister.
8 “I’m gonna go help Mama find Teenie,” he told Henry.
“She’s probably just wanderin around the wagons,” his older brother replied.
“She might need me,” Virgil told him as he ran back toward the wagons.
9 However, by the time he had caught up with her, his
older (and now married) sister was leading Teenie by the hand back to their
mother. “She came over to visit with me and John and look at the baby,” Mary
Elizabeth Thrower explained to her mother. “Baby!” Teenie said with a wide
grin. “Thank you, Lizzie, I was so worried,” she told her as she took her
youngest daughter by the hand.
10 “Virgil, lead your sister back over to our wagon
and stay with her until I get back,” Mary Hendrix told her son. At that, Virgil
quickly stepped forward and reached for Teenie’s hand. She pulled away. “Come
on sissy,” he prodded.
11 “Baby!” Teenie insisted. “We’ll see the baby again
later,” Mary assured her. Having secured her mother’s promise that she would
see the baby again soon, she finally took her little brother by the hand and
led him back to their wagon.
12 When they finally reached Brindlee Mountain,
William opened a little shoe shop and began making and repairing the footwear
that the community would need to build a new life there.
13 “Welcome to Arab,” the new postmaster said as he
shook William’s hand. “We’ve needed a good cobbler around here for a long
time.” “Thank you,” William nodded. “I hope that we will all be happy here.”
14 Mary’s mother, Leah Daniel Camp, had also made the
long trek to Arab and had moved in with one of her other daughters and her
husband. Lida and Pickens Butler had five children together, and Leah looked
after them while their parents took care of the house and worked in the fields.
15 “Annie Ophelia, you help me look after Sarah and
Will,” Leah told her granddaughter. “I will, Granmaw,” the little girl
promised. Leah couldn’t help herself – Annie was her favorite.
16 When Leah died in September of 1889, the now
fifteen-year-old girl stood at the end of her grave weeping. They buried their
beloved matriarch right in the heart of the little village in what would one
day be known as the Old Arab Cemetery.
17 A little over two years later and much to the
consternation of his little brother, Henry married his cousin Annie Butler.
Virgil was just ten months younger than Annie, and he couldn’t imagine himself
getting married.
18 “I don’t understand it,” he had told his mother
before the ceremony. He felt like he was losing his best friend. “You’ll
understand your brother’s feelins when you’re a little older,” she told him.
19 Over the years that followed, William could see
that his youngest son was getting restless. He knew that Virgil wasn’t
interested in being a cobbler, and the community was only big enough to support
one of those anyway.
20 To solve the problem, William purchased one hundred
and eight acres of land in December of 1895. “I need you to help me farm it,”
he told Virgil. “The boy needs to start makin his own way,” he explained to his
wife. Mary nodded her assent and went back to cooing to Henry and Annie’s baby
boy.
21 This was the couple’s second child. They had had a
little girl two years after they got married, and little Fred had been born in
January. Annie, however, had still not fully recovered from his birth and was
weak and listless.
22 “I’m worried about Annie,” Mary confided to her
husband. “Yeah, she just ain’t herself since the baby came,” William admitted.
23 The following year, Annie would be dead, and Henry
would disappear a few years later. They would bury her next to her beloved
grandmother, and others would eventually be left to raise their children.
24 In the meantime, Virgil was struggling to become a
farmer. He didn’t want to let his father down – especially after he had
invested most of his money in a farm just to help him out. Nevertheless, in the
pit of his stomach, he knew that he was not cut out to be a farmer.
25 “I’d rather live in the city,” Virgil thought to
himself. Thereafter, he began plotting his escape from Brindlee Mountain.
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