John Harrison Herd |
Verde Vanbeber |
Born
in
Williamstown, Kentucky on November 15, 1889. Died in Valdosta, Georgia, October 1983 |
 Born
October 20, 1896. Died in Valdosta, Georgia, August 1991 |
| They were married
in a double wedding on March 30,
1918. (Certificate) The story of Squire Brooks (Robin W. Brooks) who performed the ceremony is interesting. |
|
The 1920 US Census (March
18th) places them on Cumberland Avenue, Middlesboro,
KY. Uncle John's occupation is listed as bookkeeper for a railroad.
(The
L&N railroad. He received their magazine for
decades in later life.)
The 1930 US Census (April 2nd) places them at 1631 Cumberland Avenue, Middlesboro, KY. Apparently they were next door to Mom's father, George Vanbeber. Uncle John is listed as having no occupation. He had tuberculosis and was in a sanatorium for several years. This may have been during his period of convalescence. His age is listed as 35; he was actually 40.
When Uncle John was courting Mom, he became frustrated because she apparently had little taste for sweets and always gave away his presents, having scarcely sampled them. When he tried to find out what would please her, she said, "Oh, just bring me a bag of apples."
Her practical streak was with
her until the day she died. She
lay in
intensive care in Valdosta's South Georgia Medical Center and expressed
regret over the purchase of a new hearing aid because she didn't expect
to need it anymore.
With their only child in Florida, Mom and Uncle John had little choice but to pack up and follow. They bought a hundred-acre farm outside Live Oak. We all lived there until 1953, when Dad got a job with the new paper mill at Clyattville. My parents and sibling(s?) moved to 748 East Ann Street in Valdosta, leaving me in Live Oak to finish the first grade.
Uncle John had invested heavily in Purina's caged layer program. He had a long chicken house ( a roof on posts, really) with rows of suspended wire cages containing chickens. Continuous feed and water troughs ran behind the cages. The cage floors sloped toward the front, causing eggs to roll that way. All the operator had to do was to keep pumping feed and water into the back and collecting eggs from the front.
In 1953 a hurricane hit Live Oak and blew down the chicken house. I
recall (or seem to recall)
standing beside Mom and Uncle John on the
back porch, watching through the storm as the chicken house slowly
kneeled to the ground. Mom was wringing her hands and making
sounds of distress. Uncle John said, "Oh, hush Verde!"
Dad came down from Valdosta with some men and railroad jacks. Over a period of days they raised that long roof and re-erected it. I was put to work hosing down the roof to keep it from becoming too hot while still on the ground. Then the chickens were temporarily removed from the cages and put into a fenced yard, where many succumbed to disease.
The chicken house had been displaced perpendicularly to the cage rows when it went down. They jacked it straight up in the new location. This necessitated shoveling out the long piles of guano which had accumulated beneath the cages while in their former locations, and which were now exactly in the walkways.
After that, Uncle John soured quickly whenever anyone mentioned chickens. They sold the farm and bought seven acres out Old Clyattville Road, near Valdosta. At the time, Old Clyattville Road was unpaved and very sandy. Many's the time I have ridden my bicycle from 516 East Rogers Street in town out to my grandparents place.
