Randolph remembered

When two large trees fell across the yard of a house on Randolph Street during the March 30 storm that pushed through the area, one of its former residents wanted to take a look.

Wilson Golden Jr. said the house opposite the old health department building was right across the street where his mother once lived.

It was his old stomping grounds in Holly Springs where just around the corner on East College Avenue he was one of the first babies born in the old North Mississippi Hospital in February of 1948, now the home of the present Department of Human Services.

The winds blew in memories.

The street he knew on the north end of Randolph was the home of the freedmen’s school which later became Shaw University and now Rust College.

One of the most wealthy families in the city, J.F. Brittenum, was located there.

At the other end of Randolph was the home of one of the city’s most prominent white businessmen, banker C.D. Collins, who lived in the house opposite Graceland Too was the president of former president of First State Bank in the 1960s and 1970s.

Added to this 1960s cultural and racial mix a few blocks north sits a house at Randolph’s intersection with Salem Avenue, one of the most storied 19^th century houses in Holly Springs – the Spires Boling house, built with the help of Ida B. Wells’ father, later owned by several generations of the Gatewoods, most recently where Frances and Mary Walker Gatewood lived. It now serves as a museum to the civil rights and human rights activist known worldwide – Ida B. Wells-Barnett, born near there in slavery in 1862.

Wells moved to Memphis in her late teens and from there witnessed things that caused her to leave the South.

Sandwiched in between his mother’s house and the Doxey house which was once home of Senator Wall Doxey is located one of the most controversial house in Holly Springs.

Golden said Randolph Street, named after one of the town founders, was once a thriving street with many well known figures living there. The Sandusky House is located just north of his mother’s house. Sandusky is now occupied by James Knox, a relative newcomer to the city.

Across the street from the museum lived Shepherd Smith and his wife Dora Ellen, the parents of the former Fox News anchor Shep Smith, born in 1964.

“I didn’t know little Shep at the time,” Golden said. “I lived in my mother’s house during the inauguration of JFK in 1961. “When I left for college, mother lived in that house until 1999.”

His mother Constance Harris Golden, was the daughter of H. A. Harris, owner of a dry-goods store on the square.

Golden said he sees the street in terms of a 1.5 century overview.

Freedmen’s College became Rust College in 1866, formed by the United Methodist Church.

“My uncle, Sam Coopwood, was mayor for 35 plus years and on the board of Rust College,” Golden said. “I was educated at the public school as was my mother.”

Randolph Street was named for one of the men who established Holly Springs, Golden said.

Golden’s relatives are buried just up the hill from Sen. Hiram Revels, first black senator in Congress, in Hill Crest Cemetery.

“That’s the thing about a little town like this,” Golden said. “Everything is close to everything else.”

Golden was in town for a stockholders meeting at Unity Bank. He said his grandfather, H.A. Harris was president of Merchant and Farmers Bank, which recently merged with First State Bank

Holly Springs was originally the home of three banks, which Golden said was unusual for a small town.

Golden said growing up in Holly Springs, he had never heard of Ida B. Wells.

“Her name was never mentioned in any context,” he said. “It was never part of the story. It’s who is doing the telling.”

The owner of the house at the corner of East Falconer Avenue and Randolph Street where the trees fell is Clint McDowell. He works on a riverboat on the Mississippi and serves in the Army National Guard.