[Granville-Hough] 8 Jan 2009 - A Christmas Task

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:59:00 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: 8 Jan 2009 - A Christmas Task

A Christmas Task

    I stated I knew something about my brother Clifford Hough's bonding
with his next-farm neighbor Jeff McAlpin, and I will relate what I
remember about one incident.   Jeff was a year or two younger than
Clifford, but they were schoolmates, and possibly even classmates.  They
had service in WW II, and may have both been in the Navy.  Later, Jeff
was the community plumber at the time everyone was installing running
water and plumbing, so he had lots of work to do besides taking care of
his farm.  He had taken over the farm developed by Clifton and Seba
(Sullivan) McAlpin, and Clifford took over the farm originally developed
by Jim and Mary (Arender) Richardson.
    These two young veterans must have gotten out of service about the
same time.  The incident I recall must have been in December 1946, as I
soon left to go to Oklahoma to visit my fiancée's family, where I soon
forgot all the details.  Anyway, the two looked around the young women
in Concord Church congregation, and talked to the Ware daughters of Otho
and Winnie (Meadows) Ware.  These young women were just old enough to be
eager to date and invited Clifford and Jeff to come visit them at their
home, which was the former Jim Meadows home which Winnie had inherited
or bought from her siblings.
    Clifford and Jeff showed up in their best clothes, which may have
been their uniforms, as civilian suits were still hard to find.  They
paid their respects to the old folks, Otho and Winnie, and went with the
girls into the parlour room, as was customary in the community.
However, two of the family, older brothers who had been in service,
somehow entered into the discussion, challenging Clifford and Jeff on
their service, making derogatory remarks about the Navy.  Clifford did
not take kindly to this and cited his service at Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
and asked the older brothers what they had done to compare.  One thing
led to another, and soon a fist fight erupted.  The younger Ware man
pulled a pair of brass knucks (knuckles) from his pocket and beat up
Clifford pretty badly, knocking two of his front teeth out.
    Jeff and Clifford left as soon as they could for they had heard that
their mutual first cousin-in-law, Dr. Buford Neeley, of Magee, MS, could
replace broken teeth.  Jeff took Clifford to Magee, where they got
Buford to open his office and do the emergency operation of replacing
Clifford's teeth, swearing all the time about anyone who would fight
with brass knucks and aim at someone's teeth.  He wired in Clifford's
teeth and they eventually grew back in place.
    When my older brother, Harold, and I arrived for Christmas, the
problem was what to do about the situation.  Clifford could clearly file
charges for assault and battery, and we could start a family feud which
might last many generations and split the community.  Nearly every
family had Ware cousins or had themselves married into the Ware family.
The Hough family actually owned the hereditary Ware cemetery.  Harold
and I concluded we would try a different approach and talk to the Ware
family members involved and see if we could cool tempers.
    I went over to Mr. Billy Ware's home where I was told George and
Otho Ware were building a dwelling house.  George and Otho were sons of
Mr. Billy, and we had long ties to George.  Otho was the best carpenter
in the community, so he was involved when anyone was building a house.
I got there and got a polite and cool reception.  I explained that
Harold and I would like to talk to the two Ware boys and see if we could
reach a reconciliation.  I never mentioned a lawsuit or any legal
action.  Otho seemed to hesitate and looked at George who seemed to nod
in agreement.  Then Otho set a time and asked us to come, and he would
make sure his whole family was there.
    So Harold and I planned our meeting, agreeing that if either of us
became overly angry and out of control, we would let the other do the
talking.  We arrived and met the family, and the two older young men who
had been in service were quiet outspoken; and one or both had come home
with their units from Europe to Camp Shelby at Hattiesburg, MS, forty
miles away, and one or both had gone AWOL and were mostly living in the
woods to avoid any contact with anyone looking for deserters.  I knew
from my older brother Rudolph that the 28th Division, in which he was a
company commander, had numerous AWOLs until the division was demobilized
instead of being refitted for the Pacific.   The War had ended with
Japan's surrender.  Rudolph had told me that anyone who had gone AWOL
after the return to Camp Shelby were simply given a General Discharge,
with no questions asked.  I explained this policy to the two fellows,
without defining the difference between a General Discharge and an
Honorable Discharge.  Since I was in uniform and an officer of the
Regular Army, this was good news to them.  They could stop hiding in the
woods.  But they gave no indication that they appreciated what I said.
    We tried to determine how the fight started with no success.  The
girls seemed to be too frightened to talk.  It seemed there had been
some words over the respective services, Navy, Marines, Army, or
whatever.  The young men said the girls were too young to be dating
ex-soldiers.
I explained that I thought, when I went to see a young woman, that my
presence had to be approved by the young woman and her parents, looking
at Otho and Winnie.  I said I gave no consideration to older sisters or
brothers, younger sisters of brothers, just the young woman and her
parents.  I said that Mr. Otho and Miz Winnie knew Jeff's family,
Clifford's family, and every other family for miles aroung; and it was,
in my opinion, up to them and the girls on who came calling.  To which
Otho and Winnie nodded their heads.  The two young Wares objected to
what people were saying in Mize and Magee, and they named names.  All I
could say was that I had been away for five years and did not know the
people they mentioned.  Neither did Harold.  How could we control gossip
among people we did not know?  I suggested the only way I could think of
was to stop the provocation, and let everybody go their own way in
peace.  The gossip would die away.
    The older boys wanted to pick a fight with us, and Harold was so
angry that I had to do the talking.  But we got away peacefully.  Jeff
and Clifford each married someone else from communities in other
counties.  I do not know who the Ware girls married.  A few years later,
Mr. Otho Ware died, and Gaynell Ware inherited the farm.
Gaynell was a younger brother, still in grade school at the time of the
incident.  He and Dueward Hough, my older brother, and Clifford all got
along well.  When Gaynell died, his widow married Olin McAlpin, a first
cousin of Jeff.  I do not know what happened to the two older Ware sons
who caused the trouble.  They left that community.  The gossip of such
great concern was forgotten, and I may be the only one alive who
remembers the incidents.
    As noted above, I only had a day or so to think about the incident
before I left for Oklahoma; but I would say that Clifford never forgot
the assistance Jeff had given him in getting him to Magee for surgery.
He considered Jeff the best of all the neighbors he had.  I hope that
Jeff reciprocated the feeling.