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Witty's Fish and Chip truck, probably belonging to a later descendant of the Witty family. Pocklington is the site, and they supposedly had North Sea Fish from the Boat Daily. I'm curious what the Saloon represents, but I sure understand Fried Fish and Chip. The only Pocklington I've located is a road in El Passo Texas. And no matter what the locale it would have to be within, say, 20 miles of the coast where the fish were caught. So a 20th century cousin might have owned this business. I'll be looking at other Wittys who lived in Texas (an assumption that this truck would have been in Texas) The first Whitty to settle in Texas (on my family's line) was Carroll Whitty from Alabama, my great times three grandfather. A repost from several years ago...Carroll Witty, (1818-1898), my 3 times great grandfather on my mother's maternal side, the Booth Family Tree. I found an Alabama agricultural census for 1850 had been recently added, with Carroll Witty having no land, either improved or unimproved, and no value of a farm, but $100 value for farm implements. For the same year the federal census said he had a household of 8 persons. He was 31, his wife Susan Hoke Witty was 32, and he had children; John C. 6. James 5, Martha E. 3, Mary 2, Thomas 0, and Joseph Hoke, 57 (his father-in-law). The population census for the same year includes his brother (Andrew) Jackson Witty living next listing to his. Jackson did own land. And his household was very interesting. Jackson was 35 and his wife Emily was 26, and his mother's sister, Elizabeth Wells lived with them, age 75, and perhaps a cousin Sarah Wills 35 and unknown relationship Carlin Wills 26, and a mis-transcribed person Matilda Collins, 9 (listed as Marilda Colling). I must salute Carroll Witty for taking his family to Texas, for being an entrepreneur and starting a new community (with partners) and for being a man with a mission. He may have been a farmer in 1850, but by 1852 he was in Marshall TX, and by 1860 all the way in Hill County, Subdivision, TX. This is a man who traveled far, as well as had a big family. Though his 2 oldest sons took part in the Civil War, (and one died in it) there's no record that he did. His family grew up, and daughters and sons married and moved away, and he continued to be a farmer. In the 1870 census he had property valued at $1000 and his youngest 3 children as teenagers were living at home as well as his oldest son James who was a stock raiser (perhaps cattle.) Granpa Carroll is listed as Terrell Witty, living with his wife Susan, in the 1880 census, with their daughter Susan actually 24, but listed as 20 living with them, as well as a niece, Freby Moore, age 21. He is listed as "Terrell Witty" clearly in the handwritten form, but when someone says Carroll for a man's name, perhaps the census taker understood it as Terrell. And their daughter Susan Witty (1856-1902) had married in 1876 in Hunt County TX to James Moore (1854-1931)...but for some reason was living with her parents and using her maiden name. And whoever Freby Moore was, the niece, she was born in Alabama. Perhaps a relative of James? Susan and James Moore didn't have their daughter, Edna May More, until 1885. But this Uncle James "J.J." Moore (b. 1856 Marshall TX) had a life which continued after his wife Susie Witty Moore died in 1902, and he remarried to have more children. He also lived until 1932, and here's a great photo of him in his corn field in 1930.
Back to where Granpa Carroll's roots came from...Limestone County AL. First is a map of Alabama showing where Limestone County is located, at the very top on the middle, very close to Tennessee. Madison is the next county over to the east, where Susan Hoke Witty was born. The Tennessee River has been damed more recently than when the Wittys lived in Limestone County.  On the topographic map below, you can see Athens, Limestone County as well as tiny Mooresville, in the southern part of the county. And don't believe your eyes that the Tennessee River starts anywhere in AL...it is fed from North Carolina mountains around Knoxville, where several rivers join up to form the Tennessee.  Limestone County, AL - used to be a cotton raising area. Athens is s city in Limestone County. My great times 4 grandfather, James Witty (abt. 1768 - 1830-40), may have lived in an area like this, where Carroll Witty, (1818-1898) his son, was born. Mooresville AL - FYIMooresville is one of the oldest incorporated towns in Alabama, having been incorporated on November 16, 1818, when Alabama was still a Territory.
Mooresville Post Office (1840) – located at the corner of Lauderdale and High streets, this post office is the oldest in operation in Alabama and has call boxes dating before the American Civil War. The call boxes and some of the office furnishings actually predate the building, having been used in the nearby Stagecoach Inn and Tavern.
Small Town We Love: Mooresville, Alabama In Southern Living magazine...A real-life living museum.Population: 53History reigns supreme in this postcard-size town. As a matter of fact, the entire town, all 0.1 mile and six streets of it, is included on the National Register of Historic Places. White picket fences frame tree-shaded streets and buildings where Presidents have slept. Visiting here is like stepping back into a time of gracious plenty, where city noise is the rustling of oaks and congestion is the growth of moss on clapboard cottages. The Community Though there’s a larger city on either side of this Tennessee River town (Huntsville to the east, Decatur to the west), no one seems eager to leave. In fact, the mayor, Margaret-Anne Crumlish, is the third generation of her family to take the seat and the seventh consecutive generation to live in Mooresville. Start at JaVa.Mooresville on North Street, where Jack McReynolds, the unofficial town record keeper, serves lattes, lemonades, and apple pies. Then lace up your walking shoes for a guided tour (256/355-2683) with a resident. Stops include the Stagecoach Inn and Tavern, where town council meetings are still held, and the post office, the oldest one in continuous use in Alabama. Stop over at 1818 Farms (1818farms.com) to buy organic eggs, lavender linen spray, and goat’s milk bath bubbles. And don’t even think about leaving town without visiting Lyla’s Little House (lylaslittlehouseal.com), where Mrs. Lyla Peebles sells her candies, cheese straws, and homemade ice cream along with vintage dishware. On Fridays in summer, join Bonnie Richardson as she hosts margarita nights on the porch of her home, Cedar Lane. Locals To Know Sixth-generation resident Woody Peebles has lived on the same street for 64 years. You’ll find him in the Peebles House on North Street, where he lives with wife Lyla. The two went on their first date 30 years ago on a Tuesday, and by supper on Friday, Woody had proposed. Now they act as the town’s party planners, hosting events at The Dance Hall. The 1839 brick church on Lauderdale Street has a wooden hand pointing toward heaven atop the steeple. It was carved by Bonnie Richardson’s “Pa,” who worried that people wouldn’t know which way to heaven.
How many brothers and sisters do we know about for Carroll Witty? I'll post tomorrow about his father's two wives, and the many children. |
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