My paternal grandparents were married on January 1st, 1908 in Hampton, SC. Can you imagine choosing New Year’s Day to get married and on such a cold day of the year? Ha! In this year, New York City dropped the Time Square ball for the first time but with communication slow “back in the day”, I doubt my grandparents knew of this for a time. In this first year they would read headlines of the 46th star being added to the United States Flag and hear of the Grand Canyon being designated a monument.
My grandfather, A. P. Vaughan, Sr. worked at the poor farm in South Carolina so after his marriage to Agnes Loper, they moved together in the supervisor’s ward on the “pea farm” which was also called the “po farm”.
My grandfather was a tall man of about 6, 8′ and my grandmother, short. When I was growing up, her daughters would take my face in their hands and say, “You look just like my mama”. It was very endearing the way they did this but I would think, “Wow, you’re getting too close!” They obviously loved their mother and I must have brought back fond memories of her when they looked at me. Certainly, I got her plump body for I’m not tall and thin like that of my dad and grandfather’s frame. Now, my sister got that nice feature. Sigh!
My grandmother, Agnes Loper died before I was born so I was never acquainted with her however because I must have looked much like her, felt as if I knew her well hearing so many stories. One story was that I talked more in a day than she talked in a lifetime so I take that to mean she was a quiet woman. And I thought I was often pensive. Hummmm. Maybe not???
My grandparents married when Theodore Roosevelt was president and at a time when America was a fleging nation making it’s way all across the world with great strength and power. From the Manhattan Bridge opening to buying the world’s first military plane, America is growing and expanding in new and industrialized ways.
My grandfather was a farmer and my grandmother a stay-at-home-mother as she and Vaughan raised 6 young children: Verlie, Myrtle, Wilhelmina, Urbanna, Ralph and Alec, Jr. Tiny Viree died at birth.
We all have a heritage. It is really who we are in God. My grandfather taught Sunday School and for years and years receiving 14 pins for perfect attendance. That is over 700 Sundays folks! He loved God’s Word and God’s house and went faithfully to serve. I remember him on the front porch of his shot gun house with his Bible open wide. What an impact on my young life! His actions and in-actions made him who he was and he passed those behaviors to his children who passed them on to my siblings and me.
Model T debuts in 1908
I’m grateful for the marriage between my grandparents and thank God for the lives they lived as they passed down their heritage to me. I desire this for my children.
