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Community News

Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

First Baptist Church members deliver Valentine’s baskets

A former First Baptist Church pastor, Rev. Charles Fowler, preached there on Sunday morning. He and his wife have built a home in the Potts Camp area and moved here. We always loved him and his wife. When my late husband, L.D., died, he came with arms around me.

James Smith of Byhalia is very ill. On Sunday, his three sisters — Joyce Clayton, Faye Stanton and Verla Mae Stanton — and a niece, Diane Gray, visited him. We ask for special prayers for him.

On Saturday, Joyce Clayton drove to Thaxton to visit with her sister-in-law, Billie Crouch of McComb, who was visiting her son, J.D. Crouch, who lives in Thaxton.

The First Baptist Church of Potts Camp delivered lovely Valentine baskets of fruit and candy to many of the senior citizens this week. We thank them.

Sylvia Akin of Memphis called to tell me of one of my special girlfriends, Geraldine Alvis, who passed away recently. We send love and sympathy to her three daughters.

After church services on Sunday at First Baptist Church, the family of Etoyle Ash met at her home for dinner, also her sister, Inez Jarrett.

A recent guest in my home was Kitty Sanders King of Slayden; she also visited Mary Jo Whaley. Mrs. King had some old pictures for us to identify from Slayden Agricultural School many years ago.

On Sunday after church services, a special friend, Martha Fant, came to visit me. She brought a special birthday gift from the Marshall County Genealogical Society, a book, “A Southern Tapestry” by Herbert N. McAlexander. I thank them so much. Another guest was Joy Herron, a lovely woman from Glendora, who thanked me for a copy of my book about Potts Camp.

Thoughts

Jesus asks us to “Go into the world and preach the gospel to all people.” Mark 16:15. Can we do less than what Jesus asks us to do? Most of us are unable to go ourselves, but we can start in our own way, by sending others, missionaries, preachers, etc., and we can help pay to send Bibles to other places. We can also love and pray for those we come in contact with every day.

A missionary was reading about Jesus in the Bible to a group of strangers. A man asked, “Do you know the man in the book?” She wrote this poem: “I wish you knew my Jesus and loved Him as I do. For if you knew my Jesus, then you would love Him to. He gave His life at Calvary, the sacrifice for you. If you will receive my Jesus, then you will love Him to.”

Thoughts

Proverbs 17:17 — A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

1. There is something that is worth more than fine gold; it is to be treasured more than precious rubies. It is more healing than miracle drugs and of more value than all the world offers. It is God’s gift of loving friends!

2. The most precious thing a man can have is friends, and the more friends he has, the richer he is. Poor indeed is the man with no friends!

3. The only way you can gain friends is to be friendly. It is not free, it requires appreciation, sacrifice and love. Ralph W. Emerson once said, “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, or the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship.

It is the inspiration that comes when we discover that someone believes in us and is willing to trust us with their friendship.

Prayer list: Those who have lost loved ones; Mary Jo McCallum, Donna Marett, Hazel Foote, Pauline Hutchens, Henry Tutor, D. Ford, Mary Jarrett and son, Mark Jarrett, Ralph and Jeanette Dunning, Lina Mae Rhea, Diane Clayton, Josh Darnell.

Memories and History

After the first Potts Camp Depot was built in 1886, Dr. and Mrs. J.W. Vaughan arrived one stormy night on the train; Mrs. Vaughan remarked later that she felt like they had come to the jumping off place. They were among the first four families to move to our town; others were Mr. and Mrs. A.Q. Greer, banker; Mary Potts Reid and husband, Charlie Reid; and the Jones family. Mary Reid, daughter of Col. Potts, gave the right-of-way so the Frisco Railroad would come this way.

The night the Vaughans arrived, a group of Methodists was holding a revival in a small school house nearby. They started shouting and the floor fell in; Dr. Vaughan was called to help the injured.

They liked the new doctor! Dr. Vaughan built the first drug store in town, owned the first telephone and published a weekly Potts Camp newspaper for two years called “The Illuminator,” with the help of a friend.

The first Potts Camp board meeting was held in October 1888; Dr. Vaughan served as the first secretary and treasurer of the board. Children of Dr. and Mrs. Vaughan were Faye V. Peel and Mattie V. Jones, two well-known residents of our town. Miss Faye (as we called her) was the first music teacher in the first school, located near the Methodist Church, with three rooms and a stage. Her husband died young. He brought the first car to town, a one-seated “turnabout.” She worked in Potts Camp with Robert Greer. One day at noon, the bank was robbed by two men. Miss Faye and Mr. Greer were locked in the vault. They pushed the alarm and George Boren in the Potts Camp Drug Store next door called the police, who let them out of the vault, then followed the men to their homes. A trial for them was held in the school auditorium. I stayed there all day; it was the first trial I had ever attended. They were found guilty and served 25 to 40 years. The older man got the 40 years.

Miss Faye became postmaster in 1932; she was wonderful. During the war, she sold war bonds and helped families contact servicemen.

When she retired, she was called to the Mississippi Coast by the Postmaster General and given a special citation for outstanding service and a “This Is Your Life” surprise.

Vaughan’s Drug Store burned about 1917 or 1918.

Mattie Vaughan married Bernard Jones; they reared three sons, B.G., Jack and Harry, and one daughter, Aileen Warren of Holly Springs; Mattie operated a “library on wheels” for people in the rural area for many years. Harry Jones, one of their sons, married Clara Rose. After working about four years as a brakesman on the railroad, they came back to Potts Camp to live and had three daughters, Betty Rose, Mary Frances and Kathryn.

She taught school (fourth grade) and he had a business here for 60 years. She also taught Sunday school for 50 years at Potts Camp Methodist Church. Ruth Powell also taught Sunday school for 50 years.

We loved them. They taught all of our children. We miss them!

Until next week, God bless.

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