-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [HOWELLS-SOUTH] Howells Resent-Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 02:44:23 -0600 Resent-From: HOWELLS-SOUTHERN-L@rootsweb.com Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 01:37:26 -0500 From: Rayford Wallace <rayfordlwallace@valornet.com> Reply-To: HOWELLS-SOUTHERN-L@rootsweb.com To: HOWELLS-SOUTHERN-L@rootsweb.com Everyone, I guess that I'm what Colleen calls a "newby." This is my first try at making a contribution. My name is Rayford Wallace. My mother was Bessie Howell, daughter of Ralph Allen Howell Jr., son of Ralph Allen Howell Sr., son of Alfred Howell, brother--I believe of R.B.C. Howell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Nashville from 1815 to 1850. Both being only a hop and a skip off of Ethelred Howell. In response to Colleen's "October Challenge," Alfred was himself a pioneer Baptist missionary preacher in Jackson County, Alabama. His two sons, Crawford and Ralph Allen were also Baptist preachers/pastors. Ralph Allen Howell, my great-grandfather pastored--among other churches--the New Hope Baptist church in Big Coon Valley in Jackson County. He lived on top of what was then known as Howell Mountain south of the valley. He was a Baptist farmer-preacher. Across Big Coon Valley was another mountain on which Martin V.B. Culver lived. Martin was my other great-grandfather. He was a moonshiner. Ralph Allen's son, also Ralph Allen, married Martin's daughter Parallee. It was a case of the preacher's son marrying the moonshiner's daughter. They produced 12 children. The oldest was my mother, Bessie Lee (Howell) Wallace. Alfred came to Alabama from North Carolina. My mother was born in Big Coon Valley in 1904. The family moved to Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, in 1920. Does anyone have any information on the Culver family in Jackson County. I would be particularly interested in Martin's mother. My uncle, shortly before his death, told me that she was "an Indian woman." We have some documentation that she was Cherokee. Does anyone have any information on Martin's wife's family, the Reese's of Big Coon Valley? Her name was Elizabeth. My mother told me that she was "full-blooded Irish" and that she was "blonde" and "slight-built." Rayford Wallace P.S. Until only a few months ago, I hardly knew what a computer was. I'm still very much a computer illerate and I will probably make some mistakes. In advance, forgive me. ==== HOWELLS-SOUTHERN Mailing List ==== Please avoid flaming (attacking) any single person or the group. This infraction will earn you immediate removal from the list. ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237