Potts Camp News - Dale Hollingsworth


Thursday, December 13, 2007
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Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

Bethany Baptist Church members deliver Christmas baskets to shut-ins

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year! I’m like the little boy who learned all about Jesus’s birthday in Sunday school. When he entered a store full of pretty decorations and toys, he said, “Where is Baby Jesus?”

Bethany Baptist Church members delivered large Christmas baskets of delicious fruit to shut-ins this week. I really appreciate them remembering me, and I thank them.

Doris Goode of Hickory Flat reported the new granddaughters in their family. Blake and Christy Puryear of Florence, Ala., have a new daughter, named Cora Catherine Puryear. Scotty and Amy Rogers of Clinton have a new daughter; they named her Elizabeth Claire Rogers. Congratulations to Dora and her family! She is a special friend.

Thoughts

This poem was written by Mary Reid and placed in a Bible for her son, Cornelius, as a gift.

To My Dear Boy
When tempted, son, to go astray, pause, pause, my dear child, and turn away, from sin’s alluring form. Go to thy chamber and when there, check in thy mother’s gift, a prayer, a refuge from the storm.
Read my dear boy, believe and live, then not in vain this book I give, to my own darling boy, ‘Twill smooth for thee life’s stormy path, teach thee to shun thy Master’s wrath, and wear His crown of joy.
When grief shall check thy young son’s mirth, to weep that she who gave you birth, has passed into the skies. Then ponder o’er thy mother’s gift. It will thy drooping spirit lift and dry those weeping eyes.
And, as your hands the pages turn, resolve, dear boy, of Christ to learn; Be lowly, meek and mild; Remember she who gave this book may unseen, upon you look, rejoicing in her child
— Mary Potts Reid 1904
(I found this poem in an old Bible given to me by Warrine Reid Oakley before her death many years ago.)

I enjoyed talking to Katherine Greer Sundstrom of Holly Springs; she grew up in Potts Camp and we all love her and her family. I have happy memories of her mother, Mary Ella Greer, a former Potts Camp School teacher, Sunday school teacher and youth leader of our children.

Sam Ford was happy to kill a deer.

We were sorry to hear that Betty Rose Jones of Memphis had fallen earlier this year and broke her shoulder. We send get well wishes to her! They grew up in Potts Camp. We love the Jones girls!

I was happy to hear from Lola Autry; she called for information about the old coal chute. Many years ago when I was a member of the Potts Camp Civic Club, she was my guest speaker once a year. Lola is so talented, she draws beautiful pictures, and writes interesting articles. I love and admire her!

Sherry Gurley Lothridge has recently visited her mother, Mattie Gurley, for a few days.

Happy birthday to Karen Nelson Ferguson on Dec. 14, also Ollie Mansel on Dec. 14, to Faye Turpin on Dec. 15; also Kathy Sanders on Dec. 15. My birthday is Dec. 16.

Happy birthday to Dana Gurley Holtzlander on Dec. 17; to Carol Lynn Gurley on Dec. 18. Happy birthday to David Fuller on Dec. 20.

Pray for all the sick and sad people, also those who are lonely during the Christmas holidays.

Thanks for the many supporting cards I’m still receiving from friends and relatives.

I miss my sister, Ann Potts Hill, who died recently, but the Lord knows best. She had suffered a long time and could not recover. I have happy memories of her; she was my little sister, and my late brother, Lindy Potts, was my little brother. I took care of them.

I’m still receiving sympathy cards; I thank the senders of all of them.

Memories and History

I’ll never forget the wonderful two-story house on the hill on Pontotoc St. As a child, I spent many hours there playing with my friend, Quinn Holley and others. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Lon Holley; they were very special. The house was built by Charlie Reid for his wife, Mary P. Reid, only daughter of the town’s first settler, Colonel Erasmus F. Potts and his wife, Elizabeth Brownlee Potts.

Charlie Reid and Mary had one son, his name was Cornelius Reid. They loved him very much. Mary Reid gave land for churches in Potts Camp for both races and also schools. She gave land also for Potts Camp Cemetery and a right-of-way for the Frisco Railroad. The new depot built in 1886 was named “Potts Camp,” the same name as the old camping site near Tippah River, where the river was forded and Colonel Potts encouraged people to camp out there.

Reid’s Gift MB Church and Mary Reid School are both named for Mary Reid. Their son, Cornelius Reid, married Mary Lou Anderson. They had one daughter, Warrene Reid; she was only 7 years old when two men came to their home on Church Street and told her that her dad had died suddenly. It was 1908, the same year his mother, Mary Reid, had died (earlier). Warrene received a good education and worked for a relative, Judge Anderson in Blue Mountain. She married Fred Oakley. She showed me pictures of their visit to the World’s Fair in St. Louis around the turn of the century.

The couple had one daughter, Mary Louise Oakley, a lovely girl, who married Jack Merrill. They have one son, Mark Merrill, and some grandchildren. They live in Germantown and are my friends. We keep in touch! I love her.

Mary Lou Reid, mother of Warrine, married again. His name was Mr. Young, and he owned a men’s hat shop in town. She was a pretty lady who dressed up every day. I remember her. She had bought land for the first Baptist church in 1916. Until then, everyone worshiped in Potts Camp Methodist Church.

I remember when he died one night, suddenly, when I was a child.

These are happy and sad memories!

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