From My Grandmother's Album

 by Glenn N. Holliman

 'Almost No One Looked at the Camera'!

The above is not from my sister's Becky Holliman Payne's attic but evidently one passed along to me from my great grandmother, 'Lulu' Hocutt Caine, center with the black collar, and then to my grandmother, Pearl Caine Holliman (1888-1955) who is in the upper right corner.  The year is possibly 1905 ca and taken evidently on the front porch of the William Lee Roy Caine family of Caine's Ridge south of Fayette, Alabama.  William  Caine (1862-1938) is sporting a mustache and looking in the opposite direction of his wife, who I have always known as 'Grandma Caine.'  Her full name is Ruth Lougena "Lula' Hocutt Caine (1861-1957).

The toothless lady in polka dots on the far left is evidently Lula's mother in law, Melissa Chandler Anthony Caine (1829-1913), my generation's great, great grandmother.  If she appears a bit worn, she did give birth to eight children.  Melissa was born in Jackson County, Georgia.  This is the only known photograph I know of her.  

Front row, between her grandmother and mother, is Vista Caine Gumpp (1898-1986), who according to my  father Bishop Holliman (1919-2018) had a lively social life, much to the chagrin of her oldest sister Pearl.  Pearl remembered a childhood Christmas morning with no presents as her father had 'drunk up' whatever financial surplus the struggling farm family had accumulated.  My grandmother became a (1893-1955) harsh opponent of alcohol consumption, supported Prohibition and embraced a fundamentalist Christian faith that condemned whisky, beer, dancing and card playing. Smoking and chewing tobacco, however, were accepted.  Several of my cousins remember Granda Ma Caine's empty coffee can that served as a make-do spittoon.

The young girl in the upper left is Maude Caine Cook (1893-1941).  Maude's family moved to Irondale, Alabama in the 1910s as did the Caine and Ulyss Holliman families seeking economic opportunities in Birmingham, the Magic City, that exploded in growth in the late 19th Century due to the development of the steel industry.  Maude, stricken with polio as a child, was wheel chair bound and died early on the family farm in Leeds, Alabama.

Pictured in the second row, center, is my Great Uncle Floyd Caine (1883-1966).  He became a druggist and employed his nephew Melton Holliman (1908-1958) as an assistant.  Melton would become a successful pharmaceutical salesman before his succumbing to an early heart attack. My belief is his premature death was due to his World War II service in France during the cold, rainy autumn of 1944 when attached as a medic in General George Patton's 3rd Army. He was invalided back to first England, then Long Island, New York before finishing his service in a Jackson, Mississippi military hospital in the spring of 1945.

Part of the Movement from Farm to City  

The Caines, Cooks and Hollimans were part of the great migration of Americans from farms to cities as part of the late 19th and early 20th century industrial and technological revolution in the United States and Europe. The USA census of 1920 for the first time revealed more persons living in urban areas rather than the rural farms or small villages. This move to cities opened up educational opportunities and lucrative careers for the descendants of Lula, Pearl, Maude and Vista undreamed by the immediate post Civil War generation in the Deep South. My parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and I are beneficiaries of this legacy. - GNH

 

Memories of Irondale, 1925 to 1942, Part III

by H. Bishop Holliman

This is the third article of my father’s memories of growing up in the small suburb of Birmingham, Alabama during the 1920s and 1930s, a time of economic deprivation prior to World War II. - Glenn N. Holliman

"Grocery Stores…I remember the two stores that provided food for Irondale folks in the 1920s and early 1930s.  We traded with R.H. Davis and Sons, located on 2^nd Avenue North and 19^th Street.  I remember stopping by the store when I was in the first grade and buying a nickel package of juicy fruit chewing gum and trying to chew it all before I reach home.  I did not succeed.  And I never did that again. 

Our groceries were bought on credit and Daddy  (Ulyss S. Holliman, 1884 – 1965) would pay the bill every two weeks. Mr. Davis would give him a little sack of candy each time, and my sister Virginia (Holliman Cornelius, 1922 – 2011),  brother Ralph (Holliman, 1924) and I looked forward to that treat.  Mr. Davis had a small truck he used to deliver groceries, and it could be used for other purposes, such as taking us once to ‘Blue Hole’. "

Above, Bishop Holliman, born 1919, in 2010 standing by the Irondale, Alabama tracks he crossed many times in the 1920s and 1930s.

"This was a small swimming hole created from the artisan well that flowed on the west side of town where 30 to 40 years later the East Side Mall was built.  ‘Lokey’ was a black man who worked for Mr. Davis.  He would come by the house to take grocery orders then he would deliver them later in the day or the next day.  We all learned to love Lokey.  He was highly regarded by our family, Grandma Lula Caine and Aunt Maud Cook’s family.  He always came into the house through the back door, as was the custom of that era.

The other grocery store was J. T. Ramsey and Son, located on south side of town by the Seaboard tracks in a large brick building that was still standing the last time I looked (2010).  We never did trade there.  I guess because it was farther away from our house.  At one time, I don’t remember the year that it opened or closed, the Jane Griffin family (Eloise, Janie, Joyce and Gerry) operated a store on the corner of 1^st Avenue South and 20^th Street.  I remember buying a cap pistol from Mrs. Griffin when I was about eleven years old, for 25 cents!"

Bishop Holliman’s brother-in-law, above right, Charles T. Ferrell, worked at a Birmingham,  Alabama A & P grocery of the late 1920s.  Charles would graduate from Birmingham-Southern College and Yale Divinity School, be ordained a Methodist minister and in 1935 marry Loudelle Holliman of Irondale. Photo courtesy of Charles H. Ferrell.  This store was similar to the Irondale groceries recorded above.

Next posting, more memories of an earlier Irondale, Alabama....