Selected Families and Individuals
Notes
J. Harry McInnis
Harry apparently had a happy childhood as he enjoyed skiing and swimming often. He told me of a dog he had that would fetch pebbles from the lake where he and his friends swam. I think one ofthe pictures I have shows the dog with him on a bike.
He had a paper route also, and would earn extra money from buying candy bars at the store and then taking them over to the factory where his father worked when the men were at lunch and selling them there. He said he often made more in a week than his father. This was during the depression and jobs only paid about a dollar a day.
Later he had a job in an ice house, cutting and delivering blocks of ice to people for their ice boxes. Most people did not have refrigerators then. He acquired his first car during this time but it was wrecked when he failed to negotiate a turn on a gravel road.Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.
In 1942, he joined the service and it was while on leave in Savannah, GA. that he met my mother and they then got married.
WW II. Dad enlisted in the Navy and was an 'ordnanceman' and 'turret gunner'.
His service number was #03120808. He won a number of medals including three Navy Crosses.
Harry was a photo engraver at a number of newspapers in Savannah, Ga., Kansas City, Mo; Kalamazoo, MI; Canton, Ohio; and Columbus, Ohio.
Harry moved his family to Savannah, Ga. to set up business in the vending machine area. He did not do well and they moved back to Columbus where he again worked for the Columbus Dispatch. He stayed with them till about 1973.
Harry took courses in television repair and did very well at it for many years. It was a secondary income as he continued to work at the Columbus Dispatch. He added a shop to the side of the garage at the house in Whitehall, Ohio. Jon worked for him also by delivering his business cards door to door. Jon was paid a penny per card and usually earned $3 or $4 for an afternoons work. This was pretty good money for a kid in the 50's.
Harry died in a nursing home where the Veteran's Administration had placed him. He had become quite ill several years earlier and was put in the hospital. There he had a stroke which left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak much. His mind was very unclear anyway, so it was not of any use to talk to him. Eventually it was necessary to amputate a leg and then about a year after that, he died in his sleep. Kind of an ignominious ending for a fellow who tried very hard to be a good husband and father and was in many ways just that.
I remember him wrestling around on the floor with us many times and watching the cartoons and comedy shows with us on Saturday mornings. Though not the most patient of men he was always there to help before Mattie died and left him so bereft.
When Harry died, his body was cremated by daughter Sue after discussion with son, Jon. Sue brought the ashes down to Georgia in December and she and Jon took them to the cemetery on the 4th of December, 1997. They now rest deep in the soil next Mattie, the one true love of his life. When she died, most of the light went out of his life. He was a mere shadow of himself there after.
Mattie Mae Sherrod
Mattie was names after her grandmother Mattie Mae Smith. She was quite instrumental in the marriage of Harry and Mattie as Mattie's father James was initially against the union. Mattie Mae Smith even accompanied her grand daughter Mattie to Florida where Mattie and Harry were wed due to Harry being staioned at a Naval base there during that part of the war.
Description: Mom was born in the old farm house where her mother was born. This house is still standing behind a newer house currently on the property. The old house was known as the old Clanton Place and is currently owned by Glen Duggar.
Mattie lived with her sisters in Savannah, GA. but each summer she and Louise would go back to the farm in Ellabelle (the Shuman farm) to help out. They would pick cotton, cut sugar cane, o rpick and shuck corn. A girl named Alice who was the adopted daughter of Wylie Shuman often helped them and there was a girl names Eliza Shuman who was mentally deficient and smoked a pipe constantly, that also lived there much of the time though she was the daughter of one of the other Shuman families.
During the school year, Mattie sometimes worked after school at Leopolds drug store down the street for tips. This was owned by George Leopold , a family friend. Years later when I was young, we often went there for ice cream.
Mattie lived most of her life with Harry in Columbus, Franklin Cty., Ohio. Once they purchased a house in Whitehall, Ohio, Mattie immediately set about making the back yard into a garden paradise. This took several years but was the envy of all who saw it. She was housewife and mother till the late 60's when, after Jon and Sue had married and left home, she got a job in a office. She had previously taken night school courses and finished high school. Mattie loved everything and everyone. She had a way with animals that caused them to trust her. They would eat from her hands even when wild. Everyone who met her, fell in love with her for her kindness and willingness to help.
In the mid 60's she contracted breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy and chemotherapy. It seemed the cancer had been cured. Then in 1972, it reappeared and spread through her body. She and Harry took vacations to Europe each year and in 1973 went to Greece. Shortly after returning to the states, she went into the hospital and died there in December.
On the day Mattie died, Jon was hunting in the fields around Greenville, Ohio where he was living. On returning to his house in the middle of the afternoon, he was told by an aquaintance that his mother had taken a turn for the worse and he should go to Columbus right away. Jon drove to Columbus immediately and went directly to the hospital arriving about 6:30 PM. On walking into the room where his mother was staying, he found it empty. She was gone. She had a heart attack caused by complications from cancer. Her death was quiet and painless. A blessing.
Mom lies with many other members of her family not far from the place where she and they were born. Dad was entered beside her in December 1997. The eulogy from the first ceremony in Columbus,Ohio is below.. It was given by the pastor of her church who had known her for many years.
EULOGY
In his handwriting: Mattie ... a beautiful soul.
"The Gift of Eternal Life"
JOHN 3:16 " for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Introduction - Much has been said in these days about the words that turn to ashes. There has been a climate of searching for the way-out, the weird, the occult, the signs of the zodiac, and the arts of the astrologers. Some have even turned to Satan worship as the way to life and fulfillment. But all these philosophies and occult arts have left multiplied millions with a mere pile of ashes. Words that turn to ashes are grief and disappointment, sadness and woe.
On the other hand we have, as Christians, the words that do not turn to bitterness and ashes, but lead us to the Lord and eternal life. Such experience we find in the words of the Holy Scriptures, as they become the only source of hope, comfort and joy,when everything else comes tumbling down.
Our worlds do fall apart, that is, the unimportant parts. Houses, lands, securities, bank accounts, which are, we think, temporarily important and of great significance, cannot help us in the day when, as we feel it so keenly now, one of our loved ones leaves this earth. Death without the words of the Bible, would be just that -DEATH. But the words of scripture, The words of Christ turn death into eternal life.
Mattie, as we affectionately called her in Brookwood, accepted her lord and her faith never wavered. Harry gave me her Bible Sunday morning and it shows the depth of her wisdom and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One of her favorite scriptures was the 23rd psalm, in which the greatest claim on Earth is made: The Lord is my shepherd. No claim exceeds this, no matter how wealthy or how high in protocol one is: The Lord is my shepherd is life's greatest claim no matter how you stake it.
I would like to read a poem which she left in her Bible and illustrate this point perfectly:
My shepherd will supply my need.
Jehovah is his name,
In pastures fresh he makes me feed
beside the living stream.
He brings my wand'ring spirit back
when I forsake his ways.
He leads me for his mercy's sake
In paths of truth and grace.
When I walk through the shades of
death thy presence is my stay.
One word of thy supporting breath
drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes
doth still my table spread.
My cup with blessings overflows
thine oil anoints my head.
The sure provisions of my God
attend me all my days,
O may thy house be my abode andall my workbe praise.
There would I find a settled rest,
while others go and come.
No more a stranger of a guest
but like a child at home.
You can feel Mattie's deep faith in that poetry based onthe 23rd psalm - in her life she is not a stranger but like a child at home.
Mattie was an ANGEL in our midst. She served with great devotion as Christmas chairman of the deacons and was a bundle of energy to get out the packages and the foods and the gifts to the needy. In her last year, she was the vise moderator of the deacons and never spared herself in this office of service. She desired very much to attend the deacon reunion during the 25th anniversary, but her illness prevented her coming to be with us again. And now the deacons are active again preparing with great enthusiasm the Christmas packages and boxes for the needy. I need not say, no package is wrapped without a memory or a thought of Mattie going into that package.
This life of service for her Lord found expression in that prayer called "Eternal Love" which she wrote by hand in the front part of her Bible: It was by St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord make me an instrument of thy peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be Loved, as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pard'ning that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Need one say more? it was in dying she was born to eternal life.
I have another memory of Mattie I would like to share with you. When Harry and Mattie lived on Mayflower, I always admired the beautiful chrysanthemums she raised. This was her love of nature and God's wonderful creation. But she gave me so many mum slips that I was able to stretch the beauty of this flower all the way across the back of my garden. I think it is kind of a parable of how her beauty and service multiplied and spread to many human hearts. And though the flowers are now gone, yet with coming spring, the warmth of the sun,and the showers of April, the flowers will again appear to bless mankind. It is a symbol of the human soul. With the warmth of the love of God, the brightness of the Son of God, the showers of the blessings poured out upon us, we live again and are resurrected to a life which we have called in this message, eternal.
But how did she maintain this busy, effective, and devoted life? Perhaps she reveals this secret in another poem found in herBible:
DO YOU HAVE TIME TO PRAY?
I woke up early one morning
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
That I didn't have time to pray.
Problems just trembled about me
And heavier came each task;
Why doesn't God help me? I wondered.
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted joy and beauty,
But the day was gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn't show me.
He said, "But you didn't seek."
I tried to come into God's presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided
"My child, you didn't knock."
I woke up early this morning
and paused before entering theday;
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.
-authorunknown
Harry McInnis wrote on a sheet of paper:
Time waffles away on fleeting breath
Tis now, we must first contemplate
Our lives so short we can't retrace
We must act now or have regrets
Mom was prominent in Brookwood Presbiterian Church in the last 10 to 15 years of her life and had seen to it that Sue and I went to church most Sundays when we were young. I remember walking about three blocksto church on Sundays quite often and being in Sunday School. I often attended later when she and Dad went. I always enjoyed the sermons and the music.
Allen Penn Clark
Military Service: He was a 'Private First Class'. Bud received the WWII Victory Medal. He was stationed in Alaska From May 11, 1947 to Mar. 29, 1949
Allen enjoyed wood crafts and was great at it. Probablywhere daughter, Bard, gets her talent. He was also an excellentmechanic and liked to rebuild cars as a side job. He took greatinterest in gardening and was an avid fisherman.He worked for the state of NJ for many years in maintenance atCresthaven, NJ (from 8-1977 to 3-1989) before retiring in 1989.
The name 'Penn' is in honor of a family friend whose lastname was "Penn" (according to Josephine Gallagher (Clark)).
Josephine Clark
Description: in Sec 2D, Grave 2000
Sheila Clark
Description: Died at birth
J. Harry McInnis
Harry apparently had a happy childhood as he enjoyed skiing and swimming often. He told me of a dog he had that would fetch pebbles from the lake where he and his friends swam. I think one ofthe pictures I have shows the dog with him on a bike.
He had a paper route also, and would earn extra money from buying candy bars at the store and then taking them over to the factory where his father worked when the men were at lunch and selling them there. He said he often made more in a week than his father. This was during the depression and jobs only paid about a dollar a day.
Later he had a job in an ice house, cutting and delivering blocks of ice to people for their ice boxes. Most people did not have refrigerators then. He acquired his first car during this time but it was wrecked when he failed to negotiate a turn on a gravel road.Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.
In 1942, he joined the service and it was while on leave in Savannah, GA. that he met my mother and they then got married.
WW II. Dad enlisted in the Navy and was an 'ordnanceman' and 'turret gunner'.
His service number was #03120808. He won a number of medals including three Navy Crosses.
Harry was a photo engraver at a number of newspapers in Savannah, Ga., Kansas City, Mo; Kalamazoo, MI; Canton, Ohio; and Columbus, Ohio.
Harry moved his family to Savannah, Ga. to set up business in the vending machine area. He did not do well and they moved back to Columbus where he again worked for the Columbus Dispatch. He stayed with them till about 1973.
Harry took courses in television repair and did very well at it for many years. It was a secondary income as he continued to work at the Columbus Dispatch. He added a shop to the side of the garage at the house in Whitehall, Ohio. Jon worked for him also by delivering his business cards door to door. Jon was paid a penny per card and usually earned $3 or $4 for an afternoons work. This was pretty good money for a kid in the 50's.
Harry died in a nursing home where the Veteran's Administration had placed him. He had become quite ill several years earlier and was put in the hospital. There he had a stroke which left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak much. His mind was very unclear anyway, so it was not of any use to talk to him. Eventually it was necessary to amputate a leg and then about a year after that, he died in his sleep. Kind of an ignominious ending for a fellow who tried very hard to be a good husband and father and was in many ways just that.
I remember him wrestling around on the floor with us many times and watching the cartoons and comedy shows with us on Saturday mornings. Though not the most patient of men he was always there to help before Mattie died and left him so bereft.
When Harry died, his body was cremated by daughter Sue after discussion with son, Jon. Sue brought the ashes down to Georgia in December and she and Jon took them to the cemetery on the 4th of December, 1997. They now rest deep in the soil next Mattie, the one true love of his life. When she died, most of the light went out of his life. He was a mere shadow of himself there after.
James Harry Edgar McInnis
1910 Oseola Co, MI Federal Census:
James (32) and wife Florence (23) and son James K. (21 mo) are living with father and Mother on N. Elm St. James is a cigarmaker.
1920 Oseola Co, MI Federal Census:
James is on this census working as floor grader at a flooring mill. He lives with his third wife Ione (26), James Kenneth (11) son of Florence, Ivan Hugh (8) son of Florence, and Audrey Janet (6) daughter of Florence. James still lives on N. Elm St. apparently in the same house he lived in on the 1910 census. James gives his year of naturalization as 1893.
According to Robert McInnis, son of James Kenneth, James Harry was a very gentle father.
On the 1920 Census, James Harry lists his trade as Grader in a flooring mill.
Ione Cecelia Lemont
Ione had brothers Edgar and Max and a sister, Emma. According to Rita McInnis, Edgar was a surveyer by trade and lived much of his life in Alaska. He was quite an accomplished artist and she has a book of his drawings. In the 1920 Census, Ione lists no ocupation. Her father was born in the USA and mother and she in Illinois.
James H. Sherrod
Granddad became ill, was diagnosed, and died all within about two months.
Description on Headstone:
He lies beside his wife, Lizzie, the infant son they had and near Mattie Mae, their eldest daughter.
James and Lizzie lived on and tended a farm in Ellabelle owned by his father Willie. This is where Mattie, Eloise and Louise were born. Shortly after Eloise was born they moved to Savannah and that is where Roselle was born.
James worked for the fire dept. in Savannah and in later years drove a trash truck for the city. That was the job he had when he died of lung cancer. During WWII, he worked on the Southeast Ship Yard. This information is by way of Eloise Sherrod.
Lizzie S. Shuman
Lizzie was a twin. Her sister was
Lizzie, as were all of her siblings and daughters Mattie, Louise, and Eloise, was born in the house her father built. The property is now owned by Glen Duggar. It was once called the 'Clanton Place'. So perhaps Wade bought it from a Clanton. In the Early part of the century, Wade built another house on the land and the family moved into it. It subsequently burned down when it was struck by lightening some years ago.
Lizzie lies beside her husband, Jim, the infant son they had and near Mattie Mae, their eldest daughter.
Grandma was a wonderful cook. She made the only fruitcakes I have ever tasted that were good. Hers were delicious and never went bad (all the bourbon she used). I remember my Mother, Mattie unwraping a piece once from the past Christmas which was more that 9 mos. old and it was just as good if not better than ever.
Grandma also made great quilts and I have one of her last ones. She spent her last years in a trailer of her own on property owned by daughter Eloise and her husband, Herbert. They lived just across the street and were able to keep an eye on her. She was a very loving woman.
Infant Sherrod
Description: and died at birth
Description: at birth
Description: next to parents
Autumn Marie McInnis
10/12/2004: Autumn's cat Al was struck by a car and had to be put down.
William (Willie) Greene Sherrod
1900 Bullock Co, GA Federal Census:
Willie (32) and Mattie (30) are living in Bulloch Cty., GA with children Maude A.(7), Bertha M.(6), Iler H.(4), Laura E.(1). They are next door to Mattie's father and mother and siblings Henry, Joseph, James, and Sarah. On the other side of the Smith family is the family of Forest Shuman and then the family of John Shuman.
1910 Bullock Co, GA Federal Census:
Willie (42) and Mattie (39) have been married for 18 years and had seven children all of whom are living with them now: Maude (17), Ruthie M. (16), Ila (15), Lura E. (11), George D. (9), James H.(5), and Benjamin F. (2). Also staying with them is Leroy Lee, son of Willie's sister Nettie (died in 1898).
Willie was one of the first conductors on the new trolly system in Savannah.
He went to school at Ash Branch Church when it was a log building.
Source: Iler Purvis as told to Mary Beth Purvis Gandee.
Obituary from the Savannah Morning News:
William G. Sherrod, 418 East Gwinnett Street, died at the residence yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock after an illness of four weeks. He was 68 years old and a native of Louisville, Ga., but had resided in Savannah for the past fifteen years. Mr. Sherrod was a member of the K.K.K., No. 41. Surviving him are his wife, Mrs. Mattie Sherrod; four daughters, Mrs. W. H. McLendon, Mrs. Henry Johnson, Mrs. Iler Purvis and Mrs. Loura Davis; four sons, A. D., J. H., B. F. and L. D. Sherrod, all of Savannah; two sisters, Mrs. Nora Williams, Eldora, Ga., and Mrs. Gertrude Johnson, Summertown, Ga., and T. L. Sherrod, Stilson; M. H. Sherrod, Eldora, and J. L. Sherrod, Savannah.
The body will be taken this afternoon at 2 o'clock by motor hearse of the Irvine Henderson Funeral Home to Ash Branch Church near Pembroke, where services will be conducted at 3:30 o'clock. Pastor of the church, Rev. Mr. Wilkerson, will officiate. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
Clippings from Savannah Morning News:
In Loving Memory of WILLIE G. SHERROD Who Died One Year Ago Today
How we miss and how we mourn him,
How we long for him each day,
Since he heard the call of heaven,
Closed his eyes and went away;
But our hearts and souls gain comfort,
In the thought where he may dwell,
There is peace and rest and beauty,
God is love, and all is well.
Wife and Children
In Loving memory of our father WILLIAM G. SHERROD, who died eleven years ago today, January 22, 1936
We saw you suffer, we saw you go
It crushed our hearts, we loved you so.
We saw you suffer, we heard your sighs,
With aching hearts and weeping eyes.
We saw you sinking, hour by hour
Yet could not stay death's awful power.
Those happy days we once enjoyed when we were all together,
But, oh, how changed it all is now, since you are gone forever.
Children
More About WILLIAM GREENE SHERROD:
Burial: Ash Branch Cemetery, Bulloch County, Georgia
Mattie Mae Smith
Savannah Morning News:
MRS. MATTIED SHERROD DIED THIS MORNING
Mr. Mattie Mae Sherrod, 418 East Gwinnett Street, died this morning at 7:15 o'clock at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. J. O. Harper, 1018 East Bolton Street, after an illness of several months. She was a native of Macon but had resided in Savannah for the past 25 years.
Obituary from the Savannah Morning News:
Funeral services will be held this afternoon for Mrs. Mattie Mae Sherrod, 418 East Gwinnett Street, who died yesterday morning at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. J. O. Harper, 1018 East Bolton Street, after an illness of several months. A native of Macon, Mrs. Sherrod had lived in Savannah for 25 years.
Services will be conducted at 2 o'clock by the Rev. John S. Wilder, D.D., in the chapel of Irvine Henderson Funeral Home, and further services and burial will follow at 3:30 o'clock at Ash Branch Primitive Baptist Church.
Pallbearers will be E. D. Purvis, W. C. Purvis, L. H. Purvis, W. H. McLendon, J. P. Sherrod, and J. C. Martin, all grandsons.
Mrs. Sherrod is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Iler Purvis, of Savannah, Mrs. Ruth Johnson, Midville, and Mrs. Loura Davis, Blitchton; four sons, Dewey Sherrod, James H. Sherrod, Ben F. Sherrod, and Lawrence Sherrod; one sister Mrs. Sallie Padgett; and two brothers, John Smith, Pembroke, and Ben Smith.
Wade Hampton Shuman
1910 Bryan Co, GA Federal Census:
Wade H.(44) and Francis(33) have been married for fourteen years and have a large family: Wiley(12), Bertie(10), Dan(8), Mack(7),Minnie(6), Roena(5), Sam(4), Eva(23 mo), and Julia May and Lizzie May,twins(11 mo.). Next door to them is sister Sinia and her family and two doors away is brother Thomas and their mother as well as several other sisters.
1920 Bryan Co, GA Federal Census:
Wade H.(54) and Frances(45) are now living with Mac(18),Minnie(17), Rena(15), Fau?(12), Julia M.(9), Lizzie M.(9), and Katherine(5).
On the day that Wade died, he was sitting on the porch of the house on the farm in Ellabelle waiting for daughter Lizzie to come visit. Lizzie was unable to find transportation, however, and never made it there. After sitting for quite a while waiting for her, Wade remarked to his wife, Frances, that he guessed Lizzie wasn't going to come. He turned back around facing the yard and almost immediately had a stroke and died. Unfortunately, Lizzie was unable to forgive herself for not getting to the farm that day and always thereafter, felt partly responsible for his death.
On the 1900 census, Wade's birth date is given as June 1874. This would appear to be an error as his tombstone says otherwise.
Besse Shuman
Description: in the ancestral home
Julia Shuman (twin)
Description: with her twin, Lizzie
Description: living with her parents and siblings
Description: living with her parents and siblings
Julia died in the new home her father had built. She wentto bed one night and died in her sleep of a epileptic seizure. ertwin, Lizzie, was profoundly influenced by her death.
Wade Lee Shuman
Description: in the ancestral home
Description: at a young age
