The Dummy

For Christmas this year I gave my siblings this ornament offered by the Butts County Historical Society.

There are four others in the set:  the Indian Spring Hotel/Museum, the Butts County Courthouse, the Flovilla Schoolhouse, and the Elder Hotel.

I chose the train because our great-great grandfather (Wm Ferguson Smith) started (with a couple of others) the railroad company.  And our great grandfather (Thomas Osborn Linch), his son-in-law, was one of the train's engineers.

Here's a link to a little history about the Railroad Company.  Please note that the engineer is misnamed.  A. O. Linch never was the engineer.  It was his father, Thomas Osborn Linch, who held that position.

The outbuildings (shed) which housed the engine(s) in the off season are featured in one of the stories recounted in My Flovilla.  Read the next-to-last chapter - The Best to Last.

This gift seemed fitting since I'd spent so much time this Fall working on the Second Edition with our mother.  Plus it tied in with all the children and grandchildren actually receiving their personal copy of My Flovilla.

Reading up on family made me wonder about their Christmas traditions and gift-giving.  Young Mary Talitha died at age 35, in 1887, a mere 17 years after President Grant declared December 25th a legal holiday.

Her daughter, Harriet Ann (Hattie), my maternal great grandmother and wife of the Dummy Train engineer, died on Christmas Day, 1940.

And now you know.... the rest of the story.

My Flovilla for Christmas

To our children and grandchildren,


This little book, My Flovilla, describes the world in which our grandfather/great grandfather grew up - affectionately referred to as the village of flowers or "Flovilla."  The anecdotes were written by his sister, Eugenia Talitha Linch, known to her descendants as Aunt Genie.


The book was first published by our cousin, Harriet Stovall Kelley, in 1988, and has long been out of print.  If you have a copy of that first edition, be sure to keep and treasure it.  But enjoy this Second Edition that we have been priveleged to make available.  Actually it's the same as the first, just reproduced using newer technology.


The stories are real treasures.  They allow glimpses into what our grandfather/great grandfather, Thomas Osborn Linch, and grandmother/great grandmother, Harriet Ann Smith Linch, were like in their younger years.  We never knew him and remember her only as an "old lady."  Also, we learned a lot about my father's siblings, my aunts and uncles, but mostly about life in a small middle Georgia town in the early 20th century.


Love, 


BaaBee - and DanDan, too

Latest Book Review

Wendell-Berry-Like is the best way to describe the stories in our family book called My Flovilla.

Penned by my great-aunt just a few years before she died, twenty-four tales tell of her formative years, share sibling love, and leave a legacy.

This Fall I've had the opportunity to partner in the production of the Second Edition (that's another story) of this family treasure which is now available for sale by sending me an email.

Even though I'd read the book before, I read again with delight, and again more slowly - seeing and hearing things I had not recognized before.

Here are some examples ~

1) The trip to the dam for a picnic represented an event of historic proportion. This year marked the GA Power Centennial Celebration of Lloyd Shoals Dam, in which our great-great grandfather William Ferguson Smith was commended.

Aunt Genie's retelling of this momentous event in The Trip to the Dam reinforces my appreciation for another favorite Georgia author Terry Kay and his The Year the Lights Came On.

2) Settling family disputes with mock trials shed light on the real-life personalities of these unknown-to-me great aunt and uncles, but especially my beloved maternal grandfather, Albert Linch - who always took the role of prosecuting attorney.   So, don't miss the chapter, Cake and Piety.

3) Rearing a family takes hard work no matter when and where you live. Sometimes world events (in this case WWI) overshadow daily life and everybody pulls together. For that reason, the chapter entitled The Farm may be my very favorite - based on this quote:

Our little farm has served us well.

While none of my brothers became farmers, the lessons learned working together on the land and keeping busy in a meaningful way stood them in good stead all the rest of their lives.

I would hope that each of them carried with him a collection of memories as happy as my own of the days when we were farmers in a world at war.

Reading really does transport you to a different day and time, answering questions you never knew you had. 

We learn about growing up in community, in a real-live Port William, called Flovilla.

Thanks, Eugenie Talitha Linch aka Aunt Genie!

For taking the time to share yourself.

Then and now.

Love,

a grateful great-niece

Praise from a New Reader

Reared in Monticello, Georgia,

right down the road from Flovilla,

I was particularly interested to read Ms Linch's recollections.

These stories painted such vivid pictures of the area, especially of the houses and countryside, that I had no trouble imagining the scenes.

It did not matter that I was born decades later, I still remember the landscape as Ms Linch describes it - the pecan groves, the pastures, the little communities at every crossroad.

Her words brought back very sweet memories for me.

What a treasure for all that My Flovilla is back in print!

Betty Barrow McCanless

Book Cover

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Trip to the Dam
The Buggy Ride
The Princess
Piano Pear Blooms
Sam
Father
A Royal Confusion
Brothers and Berries
First Day at School
The House
Beautiful Alice
Berries and Berries
Miss Theresa's Hats
The Perils of Pride
Whims and Styles
Cats
The Farm
Johnny Greer's Picnic
Cake and Piety
My Most Embarassing...
The Old Maids' Mouse and the Wonder Machine
Mrs. Wren
The Best to Last
My Last Day of School

1989 Book Review

Until a review of the Second Edition is published, enjoy this one from 1989.