[Granville-Hough] 15 Mar 2009 - Sullivan Genealogy

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:47:35 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Sullivan genealogy - 15 Mar 2009

After church, I am going to Aliso Niguel High School to see 
and hear Faron and Julie Shepard's oldest son Ryan compete in his high 
school percussion band.  This high school was built in a beautiful 
meadow along a creek where Carol and I used to walk.  We saw our first 
cattle egrets there, and there were other unusual birds that had worked 
their way up the creek from the ocean.  The start of the trail was 
across the street from where Jerry Miller saw his first tumbleweed.  The 
area had four big barley farms where the city of Aliso Viejo was built. 
I have never been to the high school, but I will see what it is like today.
        I am enclosing a 2002/03 exchange of letters between me and Maxine 
Watts and me on the Sullivan project.  I got started on it soon afterward.

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     I noted your request for acid free paper, via the Smith County
folks.  The place where I go to get my supplies is OfficeMax, a big
national chain.  My branch states they have it in stock on the floor.
Next time I visit, I will look at it.
     If they have it, then any office supply place should be able to
special order it.  Now, there is likely an office supply place where
there is a community college, maybe Picayune or Slidell,  certainly in
Hattiesburg or Gulfport.
     I could buy it here and send it to you, but that would be an
expensive bunch of paper.
     Yes, send the Sullivan and Zion Hill information along at your
convenience.
     I'm hearing strange stories about the Sullivans, even more strange
than I heard in my youth.
     It reminds me of a story I once saw depicted on "Believe It or Not,"
if you remember those stories in the newspapers of our youth.  It seems
there is also a Sullivan's Hollow in Sullivan County, New York, about 50
miles from New York City.  A journalist travelling through the
contryside noted the general backwardness of the communities and began
asking the question: "Please, sir, can you tell me anything about
Manhattan, in New York City?" to which he got the same reply all day.
"Never heard of it!!"  That people fifty miles away had never heard of
Manhattan merited a "Believe It or Not" coverage in the 1930 decade.
     The Sullivans of Smith County are not that reserved.  Some will give
you an answer, even if it is one made up on the spot.  So, if you ask:
"Where did hog Tom Sullivan come from?" you will get an answer which
satisfies
the answerer if not the questioner.  It may not be geographically or
historically impossible, but the answerer does not know or even care about
that.  If you question the answer, the answerer will say, as I often
heard in my youth, "Oh, I have that on good authority."
     Well, we should set some of the record straight, that is, we might
try to be someone's "good authority" in future generations.  Those
presently off on some fantasy trip will stay there to their dying day,
so we can only work on the future.
     Sincerely, Granville..


Maxine Watts wrote:

> I am sending to you some material for you to look at and maybe give me
> some ideas as to how to go about putting together.  I don't know
> anyone else, as Elizabeth is legally blind, and i am so sorry about
> that. What I am sending is material I have gathered over the years.  I
> am good at gathering facts, but not arranging, etc, which you are good
> at. I am keeping a copy of everything I am  sending.  Uncle Tom said
> when I put this together I could use anything in his book, like Smith
> County history, etc. Much of this material came from Mama, Grandma
> Sullivan whom I grew up around until I was grown, and I tried to
> listen to everything that was said. I have a copy of the Zion Hill
> Church minutes, beginning with the organization in 1851.  I am
> sending a page (hand written), as there are over l00 pages, more or
> less.  Also, a copy is typewritten from some of the other pages, and you
> would be interested.  It is typed exactly as it was recorded, included
> errors, etc. I need HELP. Hope your family is o k and Carol is o
> k. Maxine

P. S. I was able to organize the information into five volumes, stopping
with the 1930 census for security reasons when I did not find death
records after that date.  I worked on the project for four years, and
added census information Maxine did not have available.  Maxine has the
copyrights and is publishing the volumes in different ways.  In a future
letter, I will give the information for obtaining copies.