The Holly Springs City Cafe: Gone but not forgotten

    I was thinking about the Holly Springs City Cafe the other day. It’s said we don’t appreciate things until we don’t have them any more, and that’s certainly true of the City Cafe.
    I’m not sure how old I was when I first remember going to the City Cafe. I would guess 9 or 10. Cokes were served in 6.5 oz. bottles along with a glass of ice. I was always a little frustrated by the small bottle size, but at the same time the Coke from the smaller bottles seemed to taste better. They used to say they put the same amount of syrup in the 6.5- and 10-ounce bottles.
    The City Cafe was owned and operated by Juanita Jones. She either inherited it or owned it jointly with her late husband, who I think might have been named Ed. He was quite a bit older than her, which says something since I don’t remember her being that young. I don’t remember him ever saying anything. He just said at the cash register and took money. I think Mr. Jones died around 1975.
    There aren’t many restaurants that offer fresh vegetables, but the City Cafe did most days. They would buy them from local growers who would drop them off or perhaps off the back of the many pickup trucks that used to park across from the Post Office. I haven’t seen a pickup with produce for sale in quite a while; not sure what happened to the fresh vegetable supply.
    Most of the pies that were offered for dessert were homemade, or restaurant-made anyway. The late attorney John Kennedy would always ask when the pie was made and it was always “Made fresh this morning.” This really wasn’t true as sometimes the pie was a day or two old; it took some detective work and careful interrogation to ferret out which pies were truly just made. I don’t like coconut, but I remember liking Juanita Jones’ coconut pie.
    My junior year in high school I arranged my class schedule so that I could leave school at noon and work at my dad’s office. A few people have engaged in a campaign of lies and innuendos against me by suggesting that perhaps I didn’t expend too much effort on the job. Don’t believe them!
    I do remember that my work day almost always began with lunch at the City Cafe, sitting at the back table with Dad, John Kennedy, Ralph Avent, Hamlet Yarbrough and his cotton buying partner Mr. Allen, along with a host of others who joined in on an irregular basis.

• Keeping up with the conversation was a bit like trying to follow a game of Ping Pong. Somebody might mention almost hitting a deer on the way to work; another might mention they heard Thus-And-So got in a wreck; etc., etc. with the subject changing every minute. One day Ralph Avent declared “I could have killed two this morning” to everyone’s puzzlement. You see, at the start of the conversation somebody had mentioned almost hitting a deer; the conversation had moved on, but Ralph hadn’t.
• Ralph had the same order every day: “I’ll have what Sidney got.” One day my dad ordered and Ralph turned to him and said, “Sidney, you know I don’t like turnip greens!”
• Mrs. Jones was slightly hard of hearing and would repeat everything you said, changing only the pronoun. If you said, “I’d like the pork chop and mashed potatoes,” she would start writing the ticket while saying in a fairly loud voice, “You’d like the pork chop and mashed potatoes.” One day my brother Lanier found a worm in his squash – a hazard when using fresh vegetables – and very quietly pointed out to Mrs. Jones that there was a worm in his squash. Mrs. Jones responded: THERE’S A WORM IN YOUR SQUASH! So much for being discreet.
• The City Cafe always had French fries that were nice and crunchy and done. They had a great hamburger and a really good club sandwich, which cost $3.50 with fries included. One day my dad lavishly complimented Mrs. Jones on her fine sandwich by telling her that he had paid $6 for a club sandwich at the Cincinnati airport the day before and it wasn’t nearly as good as her club sandwich; he spent quite a bit of verbiage in telling her how fine her sandwich was. The next day the price of the club sandwich was increased from $3.50 to $6.
• If someone got a dessert that was particularly good, a friend might ask for a taste. My dad never did that. On the other hand, if someone declared that something tasted awful, Dad usually said, “Lemme see.”
• One day the conversation made me think of a joke I had read in a men’s magazine. It was a clean joke, mind you, so I threw it into the fray. John Kennedy, sitting at the other end of the long table turned and said in a loud voice, “So, you read Hustler, too!" My 15- or 16-year-old face got pretty red after that.

    The City Cafe had a fine breakfast as well and different time slots would draw a different crowd. There was always a big crowd for breakfast, a smaller crowd mid-morning, then a big lunch crowd for about 90 minutes, and then a small crowd around 3 p.m. This was before the day of coffee places on every corner, but the City Cafe had Starbucks beat. And their iced tea was always perfect.
    Perhaps I’ll think of some more stories later on, but I sure do miss that place!

I oppose renaming the journalism building, but to describe Ida Wells as 'reporter' misses the mark

Wells

    There is a proposal to rename the journalism building at Ole Miss after Ida Well, a native of Holly Springs. I am opposed and  find the proposal ironic, since Ed Meek, for whom the building is currently named, was the victim of a modern-day lynching insofar as his reputation is concerned. Wells was one of the first, most prominent, and most outspoken opponents of lynching in the South.

    With that said, the AP story which told of the effort to rename the building described Wells as a "reporter." That's like describing Ronald Reagan as a radio announcer. Wells was an amazing woman, one of the most important to come out of Mississippi in the 19th Century. I don't remember being taught about Wells in school even though she was from Holly Springs; I hope that is still not the case. Even though I don't support the renaming of the building, she certainly has a record of accomplishment that is worthy of admiration.

______

    Ida Wells, who was born and reared in Holly Springs, was born into slavery in 1862. Her father was owned by Spires Bolling, an architect whose homes were known for featuring octagonal columns. He also built the Walter Place, with its unusual octagonal wings on each end. The Wells family lived at the Bolling Place, which was later the Gatewood home, and is now the site of the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum, which features the signature octagonal columns.
    Wells, who lost both parents to the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878, struggled to support and keep her younger siblings together by working as a schoolteacher. Her frustration over receiving $30 per month while white teachers were paid $80 per month led her to become active in a movement to seek equal pay for black teachers, which led to her firing, after which she moved to Memphis.
    In May 1884, Wells refused to give up her seat on a Tennessee train and move to another rail car; when the conductor tried to forcibly move her she bit his hand. She was thrown off the train and successfully sued the train company, obtaining a $500 judgment in circuit court. The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned this judgment in 1887 and assessed Wells $200 in costs. This case was later cited as support by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which found that segregation laws were not unconstitutional under the "separate but equal" doctrine which remained controlling law until Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
    (An interesting note is that Plessy v. Ferguson was a "friendly" lawsuit carefully coordinated between Plessy and the railroad company, both of whom believed that the Supreme Court would find Louisiana's forced segregation laws unconstitutional. The railroad company wanted Plessy to prevail, as it did not want the expense of having to maintain two sets of passenger cars. Plessy was one-eighth African and seven-eighths European).
    In 1889, Wells, who was working in Memphis as a schoolteacher, became owner of the Free Speech and Headlight, a newspaper published out of the Beale Street Baptist Church. Her opposition to segregation and articles decrying the poor condition of black schools led to her firing in 1891.

    Also in 1889, three of Wells' friends were lynched, which led her to become active in the national anti-lynching movement, in which she often collaborated with W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglas. In 1892, she published a famous anti-lynching pamphlet, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases."
    On May 27, 1892, a white mob destroyed the offices of Wells' newspaper. Because of threats on her life she soon moved to Chicago, where she wrote articles for the New York Observer and began to work for the Chicago Conservator, that city's oldest black newspaper.
    During the 1890s Wells traveled extensively to promote civil rights, including trips to Europe. In 1909 Wells was one of seven black and 53 white founders of the NAACP. In later life she retreated from the national spotlight somewhat as she devoted herself to family life, although she remained active in support of civil rights throughout her life until her death in 1931.

Holly Springs Methodists to celebrate reopening of sanctuary after wall collapse threatens church

Click to Enlarge

    The Holly Springs First United Methodist Church will return to its home this Sunday, Feb. 25, after six months of repairs due to the collapse of a wall. Congregants have been meeting at the Rust College chapel while the church has been under repair. The announcement was made on the church's Facebook page.
    Whether due to Divine Providence or luck, two priceless stained-glass windows were nearly lost in the wall collapse but sustained no damage. I don’t know the exact construction date of the church, but it was standing at the time of the War Between the States as Union soldiers used it as a stable for horses. I would assume the windows are as old as the church and always find them a sight to behold whenever I visit.
    You can see in the photos above just how serious this wall collapse was. The church wall collapsed on August 22 following heavy rains caused by Hurricane Harvey. Church members rushed to protect the church with tarps following the collapse, as rain from Hurricane Irma was on the way. Because of the age of the building there were fears that the entire wall might give way, destroying the church.
    The Holly Springs United Methodist Church is one of the few churches these days to have a traditional service. For those who prefer the “Old Time Religion,” this is the place. I hope to join them on Sunday and everyone is welcome. Sunday School is at 10 a.m. with Worship Service at 11 a.m.
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Photos taken from Facebook posts by Susan Kemp Jones and Lacy Horton Tollison.

'Hidden' Facebook page has treasure trove of old Holly Springs photos, stories

    A couple of years ago Candice Holbrook Logue created a page on Facebook called "Celebrating Growing Up in Holly Springs." This page was quickly joined by more than 200 people who uploaded all sorts of great historical and not-quite-yet historical photos.
    The page was set up as an "event," rather than as a group. So when the event dates passed, so did everyone's link to that page -- and to all of the wonderful old photos and stories it contained.
    I thought the stuff was lost forever, but I found a link to the inactive page with my Facebook Activity Log, and you can go to it by following the link above. It's a shame the page can't be converted to a group, but at least now everyone can have a link to it through this blog.

When I asked my dad if he had met Mayor Crump he shared some stories -- but what if I hadn't asked?

    I mentioned in my previous post on the Faulkner-Francisco controversy that one of the problems of documenting or collaborating the Francisco accounts is that some of the best sources have been dead for five to 10 years.
    My father, Sidney Hurdle, was truly a font of historical information. He could place every member of our large and extended family in their exact and proper place and he could do the same with quite a few Marshall County families. He died last March.
    I'm not sure why -- perhaps because I had been reading his biography -- but one day I asked Dad if he had ever met Memphis political boss E.H. "Ed" Crump, who was born in Holly Springs. Dad's response was that he had met him once, in Ed Rather's office in the First State Bank. [ADDENDUM 5/1: Ed Rather was Ed Crump's grand-nephew].
    The Crump-Dancy feud over the clearing of a cemetery plot is something of a legend in Holly Springs. Crump had sent down a crew to clean up around his mother's grave, and in the process they cut down plants and a tree Mr. Dancy had planted in his family's cemetery plots. People didn't make many phone calls back then, but I think a furious exchange of letters took place. Mr. Crump finally came down to apologize to Mr. Dancy and to seek to make amends.
    I don't know whether Mr. Rather asked my dad to come by or whether the meeting was happenstance. It's quite possible that Mr. Dancy was in the office, too. I just can't remember.
    Dad told me that Crump met my grandfather, Jesse Hurdle, twice, almost 10 years apart. On seeing him for the second time 10 years later Crump immediately greeted my grandfather by name, asked about his wife Lucy, and clearly had not forgotten a thing about him. My grandfather was amazed and mightily impressed.
    One interesting fact about Crump is that he is always referred to as mayor of Memphis but was not actually mayor after 1915. He was impeached and removed from office for failing to enforce prohibition laws by Nashville politicians eager to reduce his political power. Instead his political power increased. He was elected Shelby County trustee and earned $50,000 per year in fees -- or roughly a million a year in today's money. For the next 40 years he would hand-pick almost every mayor. Wyeth Chandler, who left office in 1982, was the son of Crump man Walter Chandler.
    There really is no point or moral to this story other than I never would have heard about my father or grandfather meeting Crump if I had never asked. In the past couple of days I've talked to a lot of friends and heard some wonderful stories, but I'm afraid a lot of information has gone to the grave.

Article to claim Faulkner ledgers story a fabrication; but Holly Springs connection is remembered

The name "Ludie," etched into a
 glass pane at the McCarroll Place,
 which has been owned by the
Francisco family for many years.

    There is an interesting article in The Awl on a claim made and accepted by many in recent years that William Faulkner's writing was heavily influenced by his friendship with the Francisco family in Holly Springs.
    This theory was outlined in the book "Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgotten Friendship, and an Antebellum Plantation Diary," by Emory University professor Sally Wolff-King. King recounts claims by Edgar Wiggin Francisco III that Faulkner was a hunting buddy of his father's and that he was fascinated by old, detailed plantation ledgers in the family's possession. A window pane in the home, which had been etched with a diamond by an earlier young resident of the house also was said to have caught Faulkner's eye and was later used as a detail in his writing.
    The Awl story says the Francisco claim simply doesn't hold water and cites work by Jack Elliott, a former archivist with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and a seasoned analyst of historical documents. Elliott has written an article to be released soon, called "Confabulations of History: William Faulkner, Edgar Francisco, and a Friendship that Never Was." The article has undergone peer review and will appear later this year in the Journal of Mississippi History.
    I don't have a dog in this hunt. I will share that in the early- to mid-1970s I served as a Pilgrimage guide when the McCarroll Place, owned by the Francisco family, was still on tour. The glass etched with Ludie Baugh's name was pointed out to us and it was stated then that Faulkner was a friend of the Franciscos and that he later incorporated the etched glass detail into one or more literary works.
    I called Bobby Mitchell, my high school history teacher and a true history buff, and asked him what he knew of the Faulkner connection. He told me that he had heard of the Francisco-Faulkner connection all of his life as it pertained to the etched glass. I would say Bobby is about 75, so his memory does go back further than mine.
    There seem to be claims by some that there is no evidence that Faulkner ever even spent time in Holly Springs or drew any stories from the town. Mitchell said this wasn't the case, citing a story about Robert McDermont, who was the owner of the cafe at the depot and had a reputation for being extremely cheap. Customers sitting around the cafe would often joke about him slicing a certain piece of lunch meat so thin you could see through it. Robert's son, Tippy McDermont, carried the book "The Reivers" around with him with a passage highlighted in which Faulkner also describes someone cutting a piece of lunchmeat so thin you could see through it, in such a fashion that the person described is clearly inspired by Robert McDermont. Tippy was clearly sure that Faulkner had picked up the story while sitting at the Depot Cafe, as he would share it with anyone willing to listen or look.
    Mitchell told me that he had heard many times that Faulkner had attended a party given by the Johnson family at the Walter Place in the 1930s. He told me that L.A. "Gus" Smith, Jr. was friends with Faulkner and that he had asked Gus's son, Gus III or Little Gus, whether he was there. Little Gus said he believed so, but had no details as to the other guests. My father was Gus Smith's law partner before he became a judge and he never mentioned the Walter Place party, but I'm not sure he would.
    Finally, Mitchell told me that he believed one of Faulkner's step-daughters, a Franklin, had attended the Mississippi Synodical College in Holly Springs. This would have given him ample reason to visit the town on occasion.
    I decided to contact another source, who told me that if I quoted her by name she would kill me. She echoed doubts raised by Dr. Hubert McAlexander, a Holly Springs native, Faulkner scholar, and University of Georgia English professor. Said my friend: "It would amaze me if Edgar and Faulkner were friends. He was just not the type that you would expect to hang out with a bohemian like Faulkner. He was a meek, mild little man; and Miss Ruth, she’s not the type that I would expect to allow any carrying-ons in that house."
    My friend described Francisco as being absent-minded as well as meek. It was said that he once drove to Memphis in his car, and unable to remember where he parked it, returned by train.
    With that said, my friend went on to say that Faulkner was known to have regularly visited Holly Springs, and she had heard years later that he dated a local girl, whom she cited by name. One of the characters in Sanctuary was said to have been inspired by a Holly Springs attorney. I'll omit his name as I have no idea how he was portrayed in the book. My friend remembers reading the book as a teen back in the day and being aware of the local connection at the time: "The book was considered kind of racy, and Mrs. Lizzie Craft (the librarian) wouldn't let us check it out, so we had to get it through other means."
    My friend did tell me that she had heard that Henry Fort Gholson used to go hunting with Faulkner. I called my friend Harris Gholson, who confirmed the friendship and passed me on to his older sister, Bea Greene, who said she remembers her father hunting a number of times with Faulkner and her parents getting together with the Faulkners for dinner. They first met in the mid- to late-1950s while Faulkner's nephew, Jimmy Faulkner, was building their house. She knew absolutely nothing of the Francisco friendship, however.
    There is really no hard evidence as to any of this, and some of the best sources have died in the past five to 10 years. The Francisco claims could be a complete fabrication. But there certainly is a long connection between Faulkner and Holly Springs, and insofar as the story of the etched glass is concerned, many of us have heard of it all our lives.

Circa 1947 Holly High Tiger football team

    I'm dating this as somewhere around the 1947 Holly High Tiger football team. The second player from the left on the back row appears to be John Kennedy, and from his appearance he looks to be a sophomore. He was born in 1931, so add 16 to that and you get 1947. Of course, he was young looking, so this could be 1948 or 1949.
    The black man on the left is Nat Brooks, the long time trainer for the team. The coach is identified on the back of the photo as Coach Tutor. The names "Vic," Jack Wittjin, Freeman Garner, and Bobby Carter are written on the back of the photo, but their numbers are not identified.
    I will update this if I am given more names.

Circa 1939 Holly High Tiger football team

     Pictured above are members of the 1939 or 1940 Holly High Tiger football team. Presumably the boys in the white uniforms are ninth-graders. This photo was from my Dad's office.
    On the front row, sixth from left is Shep Smith. Eighth from left is my father, Sidney Hurdle. On the second row, eighth from left is Blanton Jones.
   As always, click on the photo for a bigger copy. I will update this if I am provided with any more names.

Holly Springs First Baptist to celebrate 175th year this Sunday; former youth get together Saturday

    First Baptist Church in Holly Springs will celebrate its 175 anniversary this coming Sunday, Oct. 21, with a 10 a.m. worship service followed by lunch. Members are encouraged to bring a dish, although there will be extra food on hand. (Note the time, it's 10 a.m., not 11).
    Needless to say, all members, former members, friends of members, friends of former members, prospective members, community members, and first, second, and third cousins once, twice, or thrice removed of all of the above are invited to attend.
    Former pastor Dr. Earl Kelly is scheduled to be in attendance and will speak briefly. Dr. Kelly was pastor in the late 1950s and early 1960s during a period of substantial growth for the church and went on to serve as Executive Director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention for many years. His sermons were said to have the power to cause chandeliers to drop, gas pipelines to explode and ravens to fly ominously around the sanctuary. (Anyone wanting to know what I'm referring to will just have to attend the anniversary service and ask).
   First Baptist welcomed a new pastor just a few weeks ago, Dr. Joe Lusby. Dr. Lusby is originally from Tupelo. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Ole Miss, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Louisiana Baptist University. He was most recently the pastor at First Baptist Church, Greenfield, TN, where he served for 14 years. He has also pastored churches in Braxton, Olive Branch, and Tunica, MS. Dr. Lusby is married to Patty Watkins Lusby, originally from Abbeville, and they have three children, Kyle, Kayla, and Kristen.
    Milton Bell has helped to organize a reunion of former youth ministers and participants in the music and other youth programs in the church. Must of us are now almost eligible for the Young at Heart program! At any rate, since something is already scheduled for the church for this Saturday, a get together is planned for 5:30 p.m. at Clancy's Cafe in Red Banks. Milton said Ralph and Jean Thomason of Southaven are planning to attend, as are Howard and Linda Fuller. Lyndia lived with our family for a couple of months after Howard moved to wherever (St. Louis?) so she could finish some coursework at Ole Miss before she moved to join him. I'm planning to attend and look forward to seeing all of them. Bring the kids. For a few, bring the grandkids! For more information call Milton at 662-306-3736.

'Aunt' Hallie Chatham recovering nicely from broken leg

    I was waiting for some prescriptions to be filled today so I drove down to Phillips for a hamburger. I was lecturing the order clerk about how I wanted my hamburger pressed good and flat and cooked well done and douse with salt, "just like Mrs. Phillips used to do."
    Somebody behind me in line chimed in with a "Mrs. Phillips" comment and it turned out to be Ralph Doxey. He had just taken his great aunt, Hallie Chatham, to the doctor where she got a cast off of her leg which she broke some months ago.
    Hallie Chatham is 97 and in reasonably good health. She's not far from 98.
    Hallie and Lloyd Chatham only lived a block away from me when I was growing up. They didn't want me to call them "Mr. and Mrs." so we settled on Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Hallie. They treated me like royalty. Hallie taught me how to "decoupage," which is admittedly not the world's highest art form. Lloyd loved to show off his fruit trees in the back yard, although most years he was showing off lack-of-fruit trees, as he said the Holly Springs climate simply wasn't suited to peach and pear trees.
    As I got older I stopped invading their privacy. I don't remember when Lloyd died, but throughout my teen years I continued to see Hallie at the First Baptist Church in Holly Springs. In fact, as a young teen or pre-teen I would check out Hardy Boys books from the church library, which she ran and opened for about two hours each Sunday. They were the great, brown Hardy Boy books which were far better than the more modern ones.
    In any event, it was great to see Ralph, who served as assistant scoutmaster for a year when I was a Boy Scout. It was great to see his grandmother, who has been kind to me all my life. Willard Scott is gone from the Today Show, but I'm looking forward to wishing Hallie Chatham a happy 100th birthday.