From the “small world” file: Last September, I went to my 45th year high school reunion in Huntsville. It was great to reconnect with old friends and to find out that I wasn’t the only one cruelly betrayed by my mirror. One of the folks I ran into was Bill Newman. He was not actually part of our graduating class, but he did go to school with most of us from grade school on until he moved to another district. Anyway, besides being an old classmate, he was also the great-grandson of Miss Addie, third and last wife to Fred Kull. I’ve since been corresponding with him to find a little bit more about “Miss Addie”.
From one of Bill’s emails:
I remember “Mr. Kull” (that what we called him) . He and Grandma Kull lived way out on Pulaski Pike . I think their house was on the north side of the road close to where Bobo Angus farm is now. After Mr. Kull died, Grandma Kull went to live with my great aunt Imogine and her husband Howard Tidwell. They had no children that survived early childhood (Jack died at early age). Howard and Imogene ran two small grocery stores during my childhood at the corner of Pulaski Pike and Holmes and later one at corner of Church and Cleveland, opposite side of Church as the old Southern Cottonseed Mill plant. They lived on Holmes near Peachtree St.
Bill has also put me in touch with his sister, Patti Newman Daniel, who has generously provided her own observations and some new snippets for inclusion here.
I remember going to their house for a visit on Sundays. Mr. Kull was always in bed and the kids were all told, “Do not play with the water dipper on the back porch!” Well you know kids, the first thing we did was ask if we could have a drink of water. I was always excited about the Sunday trips to visit Mr. Kull and Grandma Kull.
Thanks for the sharing your info with us. By the way, I think that I was always their favorite, (just kidding). – Patti Newman Daniel
Miss Addie
From Huntsville Times
Bill Newman (left) and Jim King
September 29, 2012
Fred Kull was my grandfather… Mary Kull, Finley was my mother:
I remember my mother telling me that grandpa Fred did not like children going in and out of the house and allowing the door to slam; so when I would go out I would stand at the door for the longest allowing the door to close just a little by little so it would not make a noise and at the same time he would be looking up over his glasses, watching to if it was going to slam..
I always had great admirations for my grandfather and his brother, uncle Julius for their accomplishments here in America. I remember as a child how I would always want my mom to tell me about her train trip from Chicago to North Alabama.
Uncle Julius had already came to the Ardmore area a year or so earlier and had told grandpa he should relocate to North Alabama where the land was free and that he knew someone that was about to loose his land because he had not done all that was required and that grandpa could take it over and make his claim on it for just a few dollars. Sooo!! Grandpa loaded up the family and moved to Alabama!
The property that grandpa got was on Puliski Pike-Bobo Section Rd. on the North side and each side of Wall Triana ..Grandpa had three children at that time; Liddy, Mary, and Lewis… Grandma did not come with the children until grandpa got the place fixed-up.
When my mother was 5 years old, she her mother, her sister “Liddy and brother Lewis road a train from Chicago to Fayetteville, TN. Then caught a train that at the time ran from Fayetteville to Taft Tennessee, then she hired a man with a buckboard to take them to Uncle Julius’ place on the Alabama/Tennessee Stateline Road.. The two families lived in uncle Julius’ home which at the time consisted of two rooms.. The two rooms consisted of one in the ground and the other was built on top of it.. I use to kid my mom and say that was why there was such a gap between the birth of uncle Lewis and uncle Willie because there was no room for such activity!!! (:ing!!! Anyway the Kull brothers met the Gaddoda brothers while on the ship coming to New York, became friends and went South together.. Both set of brothers ended up homesteading in Madison County, Alabama and became life long best friends and life long residents of Madison County, Alabama…Both sets of brothers lived within a mile or two of each other and I live only one mile East of Uncle Julius’ home-place… I sure do miss it and it saddens me each time I drive by it and see nothing but wild weeds growing where his fine vineyard use to be and where his beautiful home use to sit… I hope someday I will be able to forgive the young man that had the meth-lab there that destroyed that beautiful home and a land mark for this area.. Everyone in this area knew Uncle Julius and talked about his fine wine and the great stories he told… I still have a copy of the newspaper where a news reporter from Athens in the early sixties came out and interviewed them.. They were such a sweet and loving couple and always bragged on each other and spoke of how much they loved each other, she would always look up at him, smile and say, “he is still as handsome now as he was the first day I met him”… I can still see him smiling as she spoke those words.. OH!!! such a loving couple!!!
Doris,
My sister, Linda, and I are coming to Alabama next week(Feb. 28th, 2015) to see as much as we can of our grandparents beginnings. Will you contact me so I can get some info from you? My e-mail address is above and my phone # is 706-799-3949.
Thank you!!