About 2 weeks ago this book was mentioned on our Itawamba net and I would like to say more about it. During 1905 and 1906 Col. W.L. Clayton wrote articles in the Tupelo Journal newspaper about life in Itawamba County during the 1840's, 50's and 60's. In these articles he tells about old timers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, ministers, merchants, and others who lived in Itawamba County when he did. The title of these articles was Pen Pictures of the Olden Time. Later after he discontinued writing the articles he would occasionally write an article when a friend died or when something important happened in the county. I have copies of articles from 1905-1908. Not only will you get vivid pictures of life in the county, but you will see the influence of Latin, Greek, and French that they learned in school and the type of literature that was read and the type of writing that was done back then. It is really fantastic to read these articles, especially if you are interested in the whole county, and not just your line. I came upon these articles in the manuscript section at the MS Archives during the late 1980's. Later I purchased the 2 rolls of microfilm of the Tupelo Journal and transcribed most of them and a lot of them have been printed in the Itawamba Settler quarterly. Later I learned that a book had been printed on the articles. As the author of the book states she has purposely edited the articles.. If you are interested in reading these articles there are several things you can do. One is to get the Tupelo Journal film by interlibrary loan from your local library. Another way is to purchase back issues of the Itawamba Settler. I purchased the book in March of 1992 from the Cottage Bookshop, 214 N. Madison, Tupelo, MS 38801, 662-844-1553. The book was printed in 1982. Keep in mind that the book doesn't contain complete articles. Also the microfilm that I purchased was donated to the Itawamba Historical Society. I remember the excitement I felt when I found these articles. If you are only interested in your family then this is probably not for you. But if you enjoy reading about the whole county then you will really enjoy these articles. It is my hope that with all of us working together we can find more writings, diaries, letters etc. on Itawamba County. We are so fortunate not to be researching a burnt county and that there is a lot of info. out there on the county if we can just find it. Thanks Martha Bone