Evelyn Elliott Davis Part Two

Part II
The Life and Times
of
Evelyn Elliott Davis
Born: March 8, 1915 Died: August 17, 1991

My cousin Mary Emil Rushing who is the daughter of Pauline Elliott Rushing, my mother’s older sister, has related the following information regarding the birthplace of Pauline (aka Tutti) and a couple of short items regarding Pauline and Evelyn. She writes,

“[regarding] the location of the Mitchell Place where mother, (Evelyn and Annie Lou?) were born. It was in Tuscaloosa County… In fact I have been there. Mother had Uncle Jim take us there so I could see where she was born. It was an old "sharecropper" type unpainted house out in a field. As I recall, we went just past Hinton's Store and the house where our Elliott great-grandparents lived on the Old Greensboro Road and turned right just before reaching Little Sandy Creek. We wound through cotton fields but it was not very far back in there. I drove down that way three or four years ago in hopes that I could locate the spot but there are houses everywhere so it would be impossible to find now. I also have mother's birth certificate stating that she was born in Tuscaloosa County.

Have you heard how mother got to be "Tutti" or "Tootie"? As I recall, Evelyn and mother both got dolls for Christmas and named them "Tootie" and "Tooter"(I think). After a while they began calling each other "Tootie" and "Tooter". Some family member became annoyed by the practice and offered a bribe to induce them to stop the habit. Mother quit but Evelyn would not and "Tootie" stuck.

When mother was old enough to go to school, the family was living near where Annie Lou and Bill (Seales) lived in Hale Co. The school had two rooms. Evelyn cried so much when mother left for school that after several days they let her go too even though she was not old enough and did not get credit for attending. I wonder what the teacher thought of that!”

Mary Emil concludes and I agree, “It is a shame we did not preserve all the stories that our parents related.”

One summer day when the family was away from the home place and Evelyn’s father was out in the fields farming, Charlie Elliott stirred up a hornet’s nest and was mercilessly stung all over his body. Somehow he made it back to the home place and collapsed in the front room. Much later the family came home and discovered their father unconscious on the floor. After seeking medical help, Charlie recovered. My mother related how upsetting it was to see her father in this state and was thankful and much comforted when he returned to stable health. I don’t know the time frame of these events but can only assume that our grandmother Mae Neighbors Elliott was still alive at this time.

In another story, my mother related a sad and very tragic event in her father’s life. In the segregated South of that era, a black woman had conceived a child by a white man whether by rape or consensual sex my mother did not know. The woman gave birth to the child and she lived with her son in “The Quarters” where the black community of that day lived. As the boy grew, it became known to the white community that there was a child who had “white” blood living amongst the black community. A vigilante group was formed to go and extricate the boy from the situation and have him placed in a state-run home since the white community (at least some in the white community) could not abide the idea of having someone with “white blood” living in a black community. To give credence to the dastardly deed, prominent members of the white community were “encouraged” to go with the vigilante group. Charlie Elliott must have had some prominence in the community since my mother remembers the group coming by the home place to fetch her Daddy. When Charlie returned home later that evening, my mother said he was visibly sick and emotional to tears. As he explained to his family what had taken place, Charlie sobbed that what had taken place was dead wrong. He said it would take him a long time if ever to get the sounds of the screaming boy being ripped from his family as he cried out for his Mama. Charlie said the sounds could be heard echoing all throughout the “holler” of The Quarters. My mother said that her Daddy was so sick over the event that he vomited to dry heaves even hours after he had shared with his family.

Not too many years later, Charlie Elliott had an opportunity to help a young black family in need. I only know the family as being the Prince family. Besides the parents, there were three boys named Robert Lee, Willie C. and Nunnie. Apparently, the parents worked for Charlie Elliott and his farming endeavors. Mr. & Mrs. Prince were tragically killed in an accident, perhaps an automobile accident. I don’t recall exactly how they died. This left the three boys as orphans and the State was going to place them in a state run facility. Charlie intervened and asked for custody of the three brothers with the intent of raising them himself even though he had his own grief since he had been widowed not too long ago himself. The State granted his request and the boys were able to stay together as a family. Charlie maintained a small house out from his own family’s home where the cook who worked for the family lived. I don’t remember the cook’s name but she watched after the boys and cooked for both families. Robert Lee, Willie C. and Nunnie eventually worked with Charlie Elliott in his farming business. The boys were always grateful to Mr. Charlie for rescuing them. When I was a kid, I remember walking the streets of Moundville, Alabama, and one of these boys now a grown man would come up to me or one of my brothers and say, “You must be Miss Evelyn’s and Mr. Cronin’s son (s). You look just like them. The last time I remember seeing one of these men was at my mother’s funeral visitation in 1991.

An addendum to this story comes from my brother Cronin. After my brother Cronin retired from the logging business he worked at a sawmill in the north part of Tuscaloosa County. One day a young black man came into a store near the sawmill. My brother started a conversation with the young man and discovered that the man’s name was Ronald Elliott Prince. Immediately, Cronin knew that the man had to be a descendant of one of the Prince boys who had been raised by our grandfather Charlie Elliott. Sure enough, Ronald Elliott Prince was the grandson of one of the three boys. My brother asked Mr. Prince if he knew the origin of his middle name Elliott. He didn’t know. Cronin was able to relate the story and pass on to him a piece of family history.