[Granville-Hough] 6 Oct 2009 - Brother Jeff Sullivan

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:53:39 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: BrotherJeff 6 Oct 2009

  Brother Jeff Sullivan, a Man of the Land.

Chester Sullivan describes Jefferson Davis ôJeffö Sullivan on pp 60-61 
of his book as follows: ôIn Merry Hell a long lane leads to an old, 
settled place with barns on the left and on the right the home of Jeff 
Sullivan, son of Joseph Sullivan. Jeff was born there in 1861. He 
married Jane Harvey, and they had ten children. Jeff wore a big black 
hat and had a red moustache, talked with a coarse southern drawl and was 
reputed to be the most courteous man imaginable. He lived all his life 
on the place that his father had homesteaded in 1836. His father before 
him had raised ten children there. Joseph Sullivan, Sr, never in his 
life bought a pound of lard, he raised everything he ate, and he always 
had plenty to eat. The Sullivan house was built of pine logs, sealed 
with planks inside and outside. (GWH: the carpenter who did this sealing 
work for the community was my great uncle Aaron Miller. Aunt Joan 
(Sullivan) Richardson could remember when Aaron Miller did the sealing 
for JeffÆs brother, Joseph, Jr û her father. She could also remember 
that Jeff Sullivan was the main helper for Joseph, Jr, when they built 
New Sardis Church. They worked so hard on the church that they almost 
lost their crops.) The (Sullivan house) walls are sixteen inches thick. 
There are three chimneys in the house, and one of them is built of 
homemade brick. Jeff used the same smokehouse that his father had used 
since 1863, and the garden had been in the same place since 1853. Jeff 
remembered that when he was a boy they cooked biscuits only on Sunday 
mornings, and remembered thinking that Sunday would never come.ö (GWH: 
If Merry Hell is defined as all the land forms where the surface water 
flows into McLauren Creek and on to Okatomy, then Jeff was barely in 
Merry Hell. I thought of him as being on Christian Ridge, the somewhat 
level ridge that was the dividing line between Ocohay Creek and Okatomy 
Creek drainage systems. You can actually follow this ridge for 15 miles 
without crossing a stream. The three Baptist churches sitting on 
Christian Ridge were New Sardis, Concord, and Pine Grove (in Simpson 
County).
I do not know for sure who inherited the Jeff Sullivan home, but it may 
have been his grandson, Ershel McAlpin, son of Clifton and Seebie 
(Sullivan) McAlpin. Ershel was one of those persons who when a teenager 
seemed destined for a wayward life. After his service in WW II, he came 
back home as a sober and serious individual. He married Genevieve 
Robinson, an industrious and hard-working woman who was highly respected 
in the New Sardis Baptist Community and who served for years as the 
Church Treasurer. Ershel became a church deacon, I am told, and their 
family carried on the New Sardis traditions. God does sometimes work in 
mysterious ways.
It was Jeff McAlpin, brother to Ershel, who was Clifford Hough's 
neighbor to the east. Of course, Jeff was grandson of Brother Jefferson 
Davis Sullivan and was also known as Brother Jeff. Clifford Hough 
considered Jeff the best neighbor he had. They had been friends from 
childhood. Clifford stated that when he got to heaven, he was going to 
ask God to give him and Jeff adjacent farms, just as they had in earthly 
life. It was a new thought to me; first that you could ask God for a 
heavenly farm, and second, that you could ask him for a specific 
neighbor. I hope Clifford got what he wanted.
Oak Hill Lodge Number 353 of Free Masons was chartered at Low, Smith 
County, on 17 Feb 1915, with O. J. Sullivan (Orlando Jack) as the first 
Master, younger brother to Jeff. In 1915, there were buildings at the 
rail siding at Low, and the lodge could have been formed in one of those 
buildings. In my youth, the lodge actually met on the second floor of 
the Oak Hill school building which was co-located with Concord Baptist 
Church. About 1932, this building was torn down and the lodge moved to 
Magee, where it is still active. Original members were all Sullivan 
associates or relatives: O. J. Sullivan; J. A. Wells; J. C. Meadows; H. 
P. Rankin; W. A. Wells; J. O. Sullivan; H. J. Sullivan; T. M. Amason; Z. 
T. Boon; J. W. Meadows; Willy P. Runnels; J. D. Sullivan (Jefferson 
Davis); F. A. Walker; and A. Wells.

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Brother Jeff would have understood the old Zen saying: "Start at the 
place where your own feet stand."