[Granville-Hough] 8 Mar 2009 - Neighbor Sullivan Cousins

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:43:42 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Neighbor Sullivan Cousins - 8 March


       Good Morning, God, thank you for a good night's rest, this first day of 
daylight saving.  Thank you for getting me up before daylight so I can 
get my breakfast and be off to church.  Thank you for the sleepy-eyed 
children I will see there.  May they adjust quickly to the new 
situation.  Thank you for our relatives and friends who send encouraging 
words.  May your son Jesus guide us all!  Amen!!


I sent this letter to Cousin Mitchell Sullivan about two years ago:


     It is nice to be in contact with you.  I am sorry about Lurline
Wells, who must have been a year younger than I.  We were Sunday School
mates until boys and girls were divided.  She was always
arranging dates for me, which I was not ready to handle at age 15 or
16.  Lurline's mother, Vick (Sullivan) Wells, was a great friend of my
mother, and they worked together on naming all the children from the
pictures from the old Oak Hill School, circa 1905-1910.
Her sister Scrap (Sullivan) Wells, may have helped on that project.
That school was at Concord Baptist Church, and I went one day with my
next older brother before we were consolidated into Mize.
     When we started school at Mize, we had to be bused; so my father got
the year's contract for busing the former Oak Hill kids, or part of
them, to Mize.  My oldest brother, Harold Hough, actually drove the bus.
  When I entered Kindergarden, I would ride with my brother to pick up
everyone, and I well remember Lillian, Chapman, and the others who rode
with us.  It was a great priviledge to sit between Lillian and her
sister Clemmie (who married Glaston Sullivan).  They held my hands and
hugged me up to keep me warm on the cold days.  I had started
Kindergarden at age 6 in midyear, December.
     Mrs. Ellen (Tootie) Sullivan was the community example of
hospitality and good will.  She had no enemies, so far as I know. She
did indeed dip snuff, as did nearly all the women of her generation. My
daughter, Bonny Ellen (Hough) Miller carries her name.  My mother,
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Richardson was sent one day as a teen-ager by Grandma
Richardson to borrow some spice from Tootie so she could bake a cake.
Mrs. Tootie engaged my mother in such an interesting conversation that
she forgot what spice she was supposed to borrow.
     My father always referred to Tootie and her children as cousins,
and he and Tootie were indeed second cousins (through the Cole family).
One little incident about son Jim I will relate.  My father, Elisha
Hough,Henderson Sullivan, and my Grandfather Jim Richardson, had all
been deacons of the Baptist church on Cohay Creek before they moved to
the Concord Community.  They continued as deacons in Concord and
generally stood together on church matters.
        Jim Sullivan was well known for his pranks
and was anything but a model teen-ager and young man.  When he announced
he was going to study for the ministry, my father felt obligated to talk
to him about it.  He reminded Jim that he, Jim, was the least qualified
person he could think of to join the ministry.  Jim was not deterred and
said: "But Cousin Lish, you forget, there's damn good money in the
ministry."  That was an argument my father was not prepared to counter.
So Jim Sullivan became a Baptist minister along with his brothers.

I do not know much about the successes he had with the money in the
ministry or about the souls he saved, but I can repeat one story.
Pastor Jim became known as a minister who could indeed raise money; and
his donors were frequently bootleggers, as he spoke their language.  At
one church a Deacon became upset and said: "Brother Sullivan, doesn't it
bother you to use all this tainted money from bootleggers?"  To which
Brother Jim replied, "Taint enough of it!"  With my regards, Granville.