Histories

The earliest memory of my life in Limestone County, Alabama was at age four years. I recall the night that my sister, Joyce, was born. I vaguely recall my Grandma Ada Clement's death and funeral. The years to follow are much clearer.

I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' homes. Grandpa Clement managed the farm along with its many chores; also, he managed the grist mill, and his cotton gin.

I can remember mule or horse drawn cotton wagons lined up waiting their turn for the cotton to be vacuumed from the wagon into the ginning process. The wagons had high sideboards that enabled them to haul one thousand pounds, or more, of cotton. I often watched the cotton being drawn from the wagons and fed through huge sheet metal tubes into six gin units where the cotton was literally sawed from its seed. The cotton seed was separated into a cotton seed bin and the soft, clean cotton fed into a huge packer that compressed the materials into a huge bail. After the cotton was separated from the seed, the bailed weighed an average 500 pounds each.

The gin machinery was driven by a large steam engine. The steam was produced by burning long, especially cut, wood logs in a furnace under a huge steel boiler. The steam was then piped to the mammoth engine. Incidentally, the cotton ginning process has not changed. The difference is that today the cotton is brought to the gin on trailers drawn by modern tractors. The gin is usually powered by large electric motors.

After the wood was burned in the furnace the ash was shoveled out and deposited in an ash pile near a small branch of water (creek). The branch and a deep well were the source for the boiler's water supply. On one occasion I was playing near the ash heap. I did not know that hot ash had been deposited there that day. I ran through the ash with no shoes on my feet. My feet were burned; blistered. That will help you remember incidents for years to come.

At times, for some reason, the cotton would become jammed in the huge tubes. The gin would shut down. It was my job, as a small boy, to crawl through the tubes and manually unpack the jammed cotton. I can recall the fear and trepidation that I often felt as I made my way through the tubes. I hoped and prayed that no one would start the gin until I had finished. I hoped that the operators would remember that I was in the tubes. My fears were unfounded. No one was going to start the gin until I was safe on the outside. Of course, no one knew of my fears; I was too brave (?) to let them know.

After Grandma Clement died, Grandpa Clement and my mother went often to the cemetery to clean and decorate the graves; certainly, on special occasions like Decoration Day (Memorial Day today). I went along. I remember how hard Grandpa and Mother would work. I remember the concrete borders around the graves put there by Grandpa in the early 1930's. They are still there (though deteriorating) today.

Grandpa had a number of ice cream churns; one would make five gallons, several would make one gallon. Often the relatives that lived near by would gather at his house at night for home made ice cream. It was a fun time when all of the cousins, uncles, aunts -- the whole clan -- would come together. It was special. I can remember Grandpa would sit in this strait back chair leaned back against the wall in the breeze way that led to the kitchen from the hall in the main part of the house. He would watch while the men, and boys who were strong enough, turned the cranks on the ice cream churns. In his last years of life on this earth, Grandpa spent most of his day time hours sitting in that chair, leaned back against the wall, in the breeze way. He had a chew of tobacco in his jaw. There were no screens. He usually had a fly swat in his hand. He was very good at spitting the tobacco amber on the ground well beyond the breeze way approaches.

Grandma Clement died in 1931. He lived alone for a few years. In 1934 he surprised everyone in the family by marring Laura SHARP Tucker. She was a widow. Her first husband died several years before. Laura was a sister of my Granddaddy, Joseph Walter Sharp. Of course, she was my father's aunt. Grandpa died in 1936; Aunt Laura died in 1938.

Grandpa Clement had injured his ankle while pulling on his boot using a "boot jack". The injury became an open sore; it developed into blood poisoning. I remember the whole family rallying around him. In those days' people did what they called "sitting up" with the deathly ill. During the entire illness his family was there. We were there when death came in 1936.

More About ANDREW NAPOLEON PERCYBLE CLEMENT:
Burial: June 23, 1936, Limestone County, AL, Delap/Clement Cemetary
Occupation: Farmer, Business: Sawmill, Grist mill, Gin
Religion: Member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church
Residence: Farm 9mi NE of Athens, AL