I grew up one of those fortunate children in a huge old farmhouse with my Greatgrandparents, grandparents and parents all one big extended family. The Cato side of the family has long been noted as family storytellers and kept a lot of the Craig information alive. My Greatgrandfather in Tennessee John Wesley Cato married Laura Craig and if it were not for his interest in the Craig family history, a lot of the Kentucky information/connection would have been lost to me. My Greatgrandmother, who lived up here in Missouri with us was of course, a Tennessee girl, Clara Augusta Terrill Hays McElroy. (We didn't talk about the Hayes side much, I was told that Grandpa Terrill "carried" Clara down to Nashville and got her a divorce..shhhhhhhh) Anyway.....the Hays side of the family turned out to be "poor old white trash". Jake Hayes was supposed to be "black Irish" ....whatever the heck that is. I have found out subsequently that if you are a Hays and you hailed from Ireland you came from Northern Ireland...Port Stewart to be specific. The Hays were Scots transplanted to Northern Ireland like a lot of the Craigs. Jake's family was poor..not real big on working hard and did not raise their kids the way the rest of the community thought kids should be nurtured. They had too many kids and their homestead was ill kept. Jake ...and his father...drank too much. My Grandmother, Surisa Winifred Hays McElroy (who married my Grandfather John L Cato, Sr, son of Laura Craig) spent her entire life of 83 years living down the fact that she was Jake Hayes daughter. No one else in the world knew ...or cared...but she did. She was the daughter of a wildly good looking, wild young man, who finally ran off to work for the railroad, whose family was "poor white trash". My Grandmother married into a gentile old Southern family who lost everything but their pride and manners to the Civil War. To the day she died she always believed they never thought she was "good enough" for "Buddy". He was the eldest son and everyone always deferred to him. After she died I was visiting in Tennessee with some of my cousins. If you look in the dictionary for the definition of refined, gentile, strong Southern women....their pictures will be next to the explanation....LOL!!! We had all of the genealogy books out and were swapping and investigating family stories when one of them started talking about my Grandmother, Surisa. They went on and on about how everyone always admired Surisa's ways...about how stylishly she dressed, how impeccable her manners were and how, as children, they were always severely admonished and lectured to mind their manners, only speak when spoken to, sit up straight at the table, don't run and shriek in the house, no fighting, watch your grammer....Aunt Surisa was going to be there, and "you know how nice she is, don't embarrass us in front of Aunt Surisa." I cried when I heard that story.....I know how much my Grandmother suffered all of her days under the belief she was never good enough, because her father's family was poor old white trash. ...........Judy *********************************************************** cato@primary.net ***********************************************************

Judy, I really enjoyed your story and memories. I read it twice and just wanted you to know. Kelly ----- Original Message ----- From: cato <cato@primary.net> To: <CRAIG-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2000 9:09 AM Subject: [CRAIG-L] Poor Old White Trash > I grew up one of those fortunate children in a huge old farmhouse with my > Greatgrandparents, grandparents and parents all one big extended family. > The Cato side of the family has long been noted as family storytellers and > kept a lot of the Craig information alive. My Greatgrandfather in Tennessee > John Wesley Cato married Laura Craig and if it were not for his interest in > the Craig family history, a lot of the Kentucky information/connection would > have been lost to me. > > My Greatgrandmother, who lived up here in Missouri with us was of course, a > Tennessee girl, Clara Augusta Terrill Hays McElroy. (We didn't talk about > the Hayes side much, I was told that Grandpa Terrill "carried" Clara down to > Nashville and got her a divorce..shhhhhhhh) > > Anyway.....the Hays side of the family turned out to be "poor old white > trash". Jake Hayes was supposed to be "black Irish" ....whatever the heck > that is. I have found out subsequently that if you are a Hays and you > hailed from Ireland you came from Northern Ireland...Port Stewart to be > specific. The Hays were Scots transplanted to Northern Ireland like a lot > of the Craigs. > > Jake's family was poor..not real big on working hard and did not raise their > kids the way the rest of the community thought kids should be nurtured. > They had too many kids and their homestead was ill kept. Jake ...and his > father...drank too much. > > My Grandmother, Surisa Winifred Hays McElroy (who married my Grandfather > John L Cato, Sr, son of Laura Craig) spent her entire life of 83 years > living down the fact that she was Jake Hayes daughter. No one else in the > world knew ...or cared...but she did. She was the daughter of a wildly good > looking, wild young man, who finally ran off to work for the railroad, whose > family was "poor white trash". > > My Grandmother married into a gentile old Southern family who lost > everything but their pride and manners to the Civil War. To the day she > died she always believed they never thought she was "good enough" for > "Buddy". He was the eldest son and everyone always deferred to him. > > After she died I was visiting in Tennessee with some of my cousins. If you > look in the dictionary for the definition of refined, gentile, strong > Southern women....their pictures will be next to the explanation....LOL!!! > We had all of the genealogy books out and were swapping and investigating > family stories when one of them started talking about my Grandmother, > Surisa. They went on and on about how everyone always admired Surisa's > ways...about how stylishly she dressed, how impeccable her manners were and > how, as children, they were always severely admonished and lectured to mind > their manners, only speak when spoken to, sit up straight at the table, > don't run and shriek in the house, no fighting, watch your grammer....Aunt > Surisa was going to be there, and "you know how nice she is, don't > embarrass us in front of Aunt Surisa." > > I cried when I heard that story.....I know how much my Grandmother suffered > all of her days under the belief she was never good enough, because her > father's family was poor old white trash. > > ...........Judy > > > > *********************************************************** > cato@primary.net > *********************************************************** > > > ==== CRAIG Mailing List ==== > All Material sent through Craig-L > is copyright 2000 by its original > author. Permission must be obtained > from the original author for the reuse > of any text "whole or in part". > Craig Genealogy Web Page > http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/9791 > > > ============================== > Genealogy calendars, guestbooks and more: > Visit RootsWeb's Resource Center at > http://resources.rootsweb.com/ >