[Granville-Hough] 15 Oct 2009 - Bud Aaron

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:07:08 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: 15 Oct 2009 - Sullivan Descendants.

SULLIVAN DESCENDANTS - BUD AARON

Bud Aaron, the Man who would not quit. William Alva ôBudö Aaron was a
typical Sullivan descendant who started out with musical talent, a good
humor, and an optimistic spirit. He went to work for the railroad out of
Hattiesburg, and by 1912 was in Shreveport working for the Texas and
Pacific railroad. The first thing he saw in Shreveport was a black man
being hanged from a tree at the courthouse square for raping a white
woman. Bud had married Abie Campbell, probably in MS, and they had one
ch, Leona, who eventually died of brain tumor. The wife Abie Campbell,
abandoned the family and disappeared. At age 34 he married Candace Ellen
(Davis) Hunt, and they had one child, Alwilda. At age 43, in 1927, Alva
was sitting on the rail tracks eating lunch with his men. The switch man
did not signal he was going to throw the tracks. When the track was
switched it caught AlvaÆs foot. The train was coming and did not see
him, thinking the swichman had cleared the track. His shoe was a high
top lace up. He tried to get it untied and unlaced and pull his foot,
out, but there was not enough time. The train hit him cutting off his
leg just below the knee and dragging him along the track. He had damage
to the kidneys and back. He was in the hospital in Shreveport and later
transferred to the Texas and Pacific Hospital in Marshall, TX, where he
spent a year. He was at deathÆs door for many months. He had been sent
home and not expected to live in 1928 when his father died in MS.
Despite his fatherÆs wishes, he made the trip to Liberty, MS, for the
funeral. The nerves were exposed at the end of his leg, and he was in
constant pain, but he refused morphine, and finally mastered a wooden
leg to the extent he could square dance. Because of his accident, it
became law that a switchman must be present, and he must signal when a
train is switching. Alva put in a grocery store at the corner of 63rd
and Fairfield in Cedar Grove, a section of Shreveport, LA. It was across
the street from the Fairfield Elementary school and beside the Jo Ann
Ice Cream Parlor. It became Uncle Bud AaronÆs Place, with a lunch
counter for the school kids. He and Ellen and Alwilda made a place to
live in the back and rented out their home on Willard St. On Saturday
nights, they pushed the shelves and counters back and local musicians
came to play in a free for all. For these occasions, he served turnip
green pot liquor and corn bread. Bud kept chickens in the back yard of
the store, and he had a hired black man who killed chickens and prepared
them to order for customers. He had a truck for going out into the
country to buy items for his grocery, and he had a regular route. One of
his providers was a black man who had too many children. This man
offered to let his 14 year old daughter come live with the family if
they would feed her and teach her how to live in Shreveport. So black
Clara Bell was like an adopted daughter and helper who lived with the
family. (from 1987 notes of granddaughter Shirley Pickerel of Colcord,
OK.)