Friday, May 24, 2014, 1:30 pm, 6th Street Chipley Barbara Russell is buckling her seat belt in my van, as I start the engine, and turn up the air conditioning as high as it will go. The heat is rising off the hood of my car in shimmering waves. Even […]
December 22, 1900The L&N Train DepotChipley The #22 L&N train pulled into the Chipley station a few minutes before 1 pm; it was a mild day for late December, about 55 degrees, an overcast, milky white sky. Chipley is a nice town, but it has never really felt like home […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, NoonChipley After Whit dropped me off at the Washington County Historical Society, I notice that I have about a half hour before I was to meet the current owners of the Dr. F.C. Wilson home. I took Judge Wells’ advice to do a self-walking tour around […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, about 11 a.m.Chipley As the officer said, the old train depot in downtown Chipley wasn’t hard to find. Fifteen minutes later, I’m sitting my car, in front of a seafoam-green building that definitely looked like a train station from the early 19th century. I note that […]
Friday, May 23, 2014 Once upon a time, U.S Highway 273 in Washington County, Florida, was a hard-packed dirt road. There were occasional ruts from wagon tires that dug deep after a heavy rain; the hot summer sun would dry the road quickly, and some of ruts would harden into […]
The final page of Katie Wilson Meade’s narrative is brief: There were no wharves or piers to land near, so the “big” boys jumped over-board and carried us in their arms. It was a lot of fun! We were much freer out there because there was no jungle to breed […]
Page six of Katie Wilson Meade’s narrative continues from the trip out of the jungle back to civilization. This section picks up from the last sentence of page five in the previous post. The men walked along side of the wagon, so when the oxen got stubborn the men yelled […]
The fifth page of Katie Wilson Meade’s finishes the story began on page four about the family parrot named “Ada” and the family’s return to the United States in 1884. …and looking positively devilish! She (Ada) was glad to get home though: We could tell! Frank was the brother that […]
What I love about Katie’s narrative about her family’s years in British Honduras are the anecdotes. She’s a wonderful storyteller, sharing family experiences in detail. I wish she were still alive — I would love to interview her. Here’s the fourth page of Katie Wilson Meade’s story: We had a […]
The third page of Katie Wilson Meade’s narrative of her family’s experiences in Toledo Settlement, British Honduras continues. In yesterday’s post, the Wilson boys, Frank Jr. and Percy, went on an illicit Sabbath fishing trip: Father quietly turned to Percy and got the truth! Frank got a good whipping for […]
Tell my story. 