WW Pollock

WW Pollock
Originally uploaded by crowdive.

Great grandpa, William Washington Pollock. He had 7 children with his first wife, the second wife died in childbirth, and the third had 13? No, that only adds up to 20, while I know he fathered 21. Did the baby of the second wife live? I don't think so. Someone out there correct me.

My grandma Smith was one of the last of his children and the last to die. She remembered her dad being very old and she remembered the seat of his pants sagging when she saw him using the grubbing hoe removing stumps from the cotton field.

One of grandma's first important jobs was the weekly cleaning of the kerosene lamp shades. She told me that one day she had some of them resting on the porch rail while she cleaned the others. The wind pitched up and blew one over and it broke. She was so afraid that she was going to be in terrible trouble. Her dad never said a word about it though.

Grandma remembered finding a trunk of money in the attic. She and her sister played in the trunk and tossed the paper bills and scattered them around. She never got into any trouble from that either. She said that she later thought it must have been Confederate money and it was worthless.

When the old homeplace was being torn down (it must have been in the 1970's because I remember this) grandma's heart ached. The homeplace was on the Ben Lang farm and it was Ben Lang's right to do with it as he please. There was a crew there and a bulldozer. Grandma asked one of the men if she could salvage a few pieces, maybe a brick from the foundation or something. The man in charge told her "No". Later she found one of the wooden pegs used in the joinery and she took it home and treasured it.

I can show you where the house stood if you ever want to see the spot.

Out of all the Pollock Lands in Jones County, my dad is the only descendant who owns a piece of it. His dad's farm was original Pollock land and the farm he bought near the Pollock homeplace was also some of the original lands.