| Notes |
- The Lammon Tree 1900 Soundex
"Edward Barnes Lammon met Alice O'Keith Fields on his birthday February 2, 1893, when she went with one of his cousins, Lizzie Smith, to visit him as he was sick with typhoid fever. He made the remark that day that, "This girl will be my wife"--and it happened two years later. "
--Sadie Lammon Johnson
--Irene Lammon Hardwick
--Avis Lammon Atkinson
- The following is part of a taped interview with Avis Lammon in 1988. Present at the interview were Avis Lammon Atkinson, Nancy Lammon Tuck, Ann Lammon Day, Joseph Edward Lammon. - EBL
AVIS: Elmer came home. Elmer came home from the Navy. I think this is right interesting, too. Elmer was in the Navy when Papa was real ill, fixing to die. And we knew that he was going to die. So, Mama tried every way she knew -- all of us did -- to get in touch with Elmer's commanding officer or whatever he was. And the last letter we had from Elmer he had come from the Pacific side of the United States over to the Atlantic side. And we couldn't seem to get in touch with him. So, Elmer called one day on the telephone, and he was in Jacksonville, Florida, when he called, and said, I haven't heard -- he said, well, I haven't written y'all in a long time. He said, since I'm this near home, I wanted to let you know I was here. And so Mama told him about Papa being so ill. And ? they let him out of the Navy, and he didn't have to go back. His time was so near out, they just dismissed him then. So, he came on home, and Papa died just a few days after Elmer got home. That was in -- I declare. Let's see. I need that book, don't I?
NANCY: I believe it was '24.
ANN: About '24 because Daddy was about fourteen.
NANCY: I think it was '24 or '25.
ANN: Tell us about when Granddaddy died, how he talked to all of y'all. He called each one of you in.
AVIS: Yeah. Papa never had accepted the Lord, never had professed to have any kind of salvation. And when people would talk about -- about him getting religion or whatever, he'd say, I got to stay out and fight for the family. These women got to have it, he said. And I don't want nobody talking about them, so I'll fight for them. So, after he got sick, well, he told Sadie one day -- Sadie had got to be around a preacher. So, he told her one day, he said, Sadie, tell me how to accept the Lord. I know I'm not going to live. So, she told him how to submit hisself to the Lord. And so then, after that, Grandma Lammon was in our house -- his mother. And he called her in the room and told her, said, Mama, I'm a Christian now. I've given up all this, and I'm telling the Lord about it. And so, he said, I know I'm going to die, and I just want to tell that you that I'm not going to Hell. Then, he called Mama and told her. Then, he told Sadie and Irene and Otis and Avis, Elmer, and Edward. He told each one of the children separately that week that he was saved. And we were all so glad, especially Mama. That thrilled her, of course.
ANN: Tell about ? the things you remember about your mother and daddy, different things about their personality. I know Grandma Lammon was supposed to be a really fine Christian all of her life ?
AVIS: Mama didn't, we never did, have much. And when Papa was young, when they were young, I was a kid, a little one, he had the Ford agency in Hartford and had it for the whole county of Geneva. Any car that was sold in Geneva, he would get a percentage of it. Well, he decided he had to go over to Bellwood to put in a gin for somebody, so he just turned over the Ford agency to Lee -- to one of his brothers. And he went over there to put in a gin. I'll tell you something else about that. While we lived in Bellwood - I started to school in Bellwood - but one day - of course, we didn't have telephones or anything - one day Mama ? sent me and Elmer to the gin to tell Papa to bring something for dinner, tell him to bring something she needed. And while we were there, a man from Hartford had bought an automobile and, in driving over to Bellwood, something had happened to it. And he brought it to the gin, and said Mr. Lammon - I know all Lammons are mechanical - and said, I want you to see if you can fix this car. So, Papa did whatever there was to do to it. And told me and Elmer, come get in the car, and I'll take y'all home. Oh, we just felt like we were -- well, we were. That's the first car I had ever seen. We rode home in it.
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Another part of the same interview:
EDDIE: What about your father's personality? Did he have a lot to do with the children, or?
AVIS: Yeah, he was real sweet and kind to children, and -- but he was a Lammon. It was kind of like your daddy. Your daddy was like him.
NANCY: Was he more like Uncle Ed, or was he more like Daddy?
AVIS: I don't know how to tell you that. I wouldn't know. To me, he was more precious than any of them, and, you know, he never was mean to any of us. The only time my father ever switched me, or punished me with a switch, Aunt Carl came over there one time, and I was studying. I was in the seventh grade, and I was studying for an examination in school. She said, if you'll climb that hickory tree right there and study that, you'll never forget it. So, up the tree I went and took my book with me. And my father came home about that time. He said, what are you doing up that tree? I said, I'm studying. He said, get down from there, and he whipped me about three times around the ankle. It broke my heart.
ANN: But he didn't want you up --
NANCY: He was afraid you'd fall.
EDDIE: You didn't forget that whipping, did you?
AVIS: I didn't forget that. But he was real kind and sweet. He was, I don't know, not real thoughtful, not as thoughtful as Eddie is to his younguns. But he was sweet and kind, and we were good to him, I remember. And he was heavy like you are. And he was always going to lose weight like you are. One time I remember he was sick and did lose weight because of the illness. We just had an old fireplace. And it was wintertime because it was there by the fire. And he said, go tell the children to come, I've got something I want to show all of them, something they've never seen before. And he was sitting right by a window, facing the fireplace. So, I first went to the window, and he was looking out the window. I said, what is it? Show me first. He said, no, I'm not going to show you 'til all of you get in here. So, I ran and told them. We all got in there. And what he was going to tell us was -- he had his legs crossed, like that -- like this. He said, this is the first time I've ever been able to do this, you know, put it up like that.
ANN: Eddie can't cross his.
AVIS: He always crossed it further down than that, just let it lay there.
NANCY: That's cute.
AVIS: And he said, I want y'all to see this. This is the first time you have ever seen my legs crossed like this.
ANN: Was he stocky like Eddie and Daddy?
AVIS: Eddie is built a lot like him.
ANN: But, now, his brothers were not that. Wasn't Freddie tall?
AVIS: Freddie was tall and thin.
ANN: Wonder how tall Freddie was?
AVIS: I don't know.
ANN: Over six feet, wasn't he?
AVIS: And Uncle Duncan was kind of stout, and Uncle Archie was stout like Papa and not as tall, so that made him look even broader. And Uncle Ed was just a medium-size man.
NANCY: Well, I've always thought of the Lammon men all being stocky. But when I think of Uncle Otis, I never thought of him being stocky. He was thinner, but he was probably about the same height as Daddy and Uncle Ed.
ANN: Yeah.
NANCY: He just wasn't as stocky. Because Daddy and Uncle Ed were built similar.
ANN: They said Granddaddy was the shortest of all his brothers.
AVIS: No.
ANN: He wasn't?
AVIS: I don't think. I think Archie was shorter.
NANCY: Shorter?
AVIS: Uh-huh. Does the Lammon book say that?
ANN: No. I just had heard somebody say that he was probably one of the shortest, and that Freddie was a lot taller and --
AVIS: Uncle Freddie was the tallest of all of them and the only one that was real tall like that. Uncle Duncan was taller than Papa, but was built -- not as broad, you know.
NANCY: Well, when your mother would take you all to church - I remember Daddy telling me one time - when he was little, and this may be one of his stories, because he said that they had him bundled up in a blanket and put him up underneath the pew, and they left church, and they left him in the church. They had to come back and get him. Now, that may be one of his stories.
AVIS: It may be so, too. I've heard that, too.
NANCY: I've heard that, too. Did your Daddy go to church?
AVIS: No, no, no.
NANCY: He didn't go to church?
AVIS: He didn't go to church. He stayed at home on Sunday.
EDDIE: How about the rest of the bunch -- Archie and that crowd?
AVIS: They didn't go either.
EDDIE: None of them did?
NANCY: So, just the women went to church?
AVIS: Uncle Joe went with Aunt Carl. Let's see. I don't believe a one of the Lammon men went, though. I don't know. I know one time when holiness first came through the country, I don't reckon I was old enough to go maybe. But Sadie and Irene, when we lived in Bellwood, they stayed with Grandpa Lammon and went to school in Hartford because they had already passed the school that was in Bellwood. And then they didn't have school buses to go. And, they had a holiness meeting, a tent meeting. I know where it is, but I don't know how to tell you the street it was on in Hartford. But it was over close to where the Assembly Church is now. And Irene and Sadie wanted to go. And Grandma Lammon, they were real strict with the girls. You didn't do things by yourself. You had to have an escort. So, Uncle Duncan said, well, I'll go with them. Then, when they got there, he told Sadie and Irene, said, don't you get up there close, they sprinkled powder on you and make you shout and do all that stuff, you sit way back here. So, Uncle Duncan didn't go, and he never did partake in any kind of church service. He married Mamie Hilton. They had two boys -- three boys.
ANN: So, the church influence y'all had came from your mother then?
AVIS: Yeah.
ANN: The little ones --
AVIS: Grandma Lammon now, she was a great church go-er and church worker.
EDDIE: You know, I remember Daddy talking about when he was a kid, that his mother took him to church all the time, and that he just couldn't wait 'til he got old enough not to go to church.
AVIS: He got tired of it.
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1872 - 1925 (53 years)
