Descendants of
Simeon Box
Generation No. 1
1. Simeon1
Box was born about 1821 in GA and died September 1859 in Quitman, Clarke Co.
MS. He is buried in Odd Fellow Cemetery in Quitman, MS. The grave marker has
been lost.
He married Mary Jane Pruett. She was born about 1825 in GA. She
died October 4, 1899. They were married
about 1840 in Ga.
Children of Simeon Box and Mary Jane Pruett are:
1. i. Martha Jane
2. ii Henrietta
5.
v. Elizabeth Jane
7.
vii John Wesley
1. Martha Jane2 (Simeon1) was born
about 1841 in GA. We have no record of her .
2. Henrietta2 (Simeon1)
as born about 1843 in Ga. We have no record of her.
3. Mary Almira2
(Simeon1) was born September 17, 1848 in MS. She married Thomas W.
McGee. He was born April 27, 1839. They were married January 11, 1865. She died
November 5, 1883. He died April 21, 1878.
Children of Mary Almira and Thomas McGee are:
8. i. Joseph A.
9.
ii. Thomas E.
10. iii.
Emma L.
11. iv. Oscar W.
12. v.
Mary Lillian
13. vi.
Simeon
4. William2
Box (Simeon1) was born about 1850 in MS. He died in infancy
5. Elizabeth Jane2 Box (Simeon1)was
born about 1853 in MS. We have no record of her.
6. Simeon Alexander2 Box (Simeon1) was
born February 15, 1855 in Desoto MS. and died February 5, 1928. He is buried in
Odd Fellow Cemetery in Quitman, MS. He
married Lucinda Vaughn October 14, 1885.
She was born July 29, 1862 in Stockton, AL(Red Hill). She died March 4. 1937
and is buried in Odd Fellow Cemetery in Quitman, MS
Children of Simeon Box and Lucinda Vaughn:
+ 14. i.
William Edgar
+ 15. ii.
James Alexander
+ 16. iii.
Leona Elizabeth
+ 19. vi.
Simeon Whitt
7. John Wesley2
Box (Simeon1) was born ______ and died_______. He
married _______. She was born_______
and died________ .They married _________.
Children of John Wesley and ________:
14. William Edgar 3 Box (Simeon
Alexander2, Simeon1) was born July 11, 1886 in Quitman,
MS and died February 21, 1969. He married Hilda Neal August 15, 1911. She died
February 23,1962.
Children of William Edgar and Hilda Neal:
23. ii. William Edgar Jr.
24. iii John Alexander
15. James Alexander3 Box (Simeon Alexander2,
Simeon1) was born November 9, 1889 and died April 23, 1972. He
married
Lola Gay Holcomb December 29, 1914 and she died October 8, 1981.
Children of James Alexander Box and Lola Gay Holcomb:
25. i. James Alexander Jr.
16. Leona Elizabeth3
Box (Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born December
25, 1892 and died _______.
She married Thomas Muse Dabbs July 19, 1914 and he died
June 23,1948.
Children of Leona Elizabeth Box and Thomas Muse Dabbs:
27. i. Addie Elizabeth
17. Samuel Eugene3
Box (Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born December 24,
1894 and died September 12, 1971. He married Mattie Neal November 10, 1916 and
she died ____.
Children of Samuel Eugene Box and Mattie Neal:
29. i. Samuel Eugene Jr.
30. ii. Simeon Alexander
31. iii. Robert Neal
18. Mary Lou3 Box (Simeon Alezander2,
Simeon1) was born May 4, 1897 and died April 14, 1973. She married
John Manning Chalk November 20, 1919 and he died _____.
Children of Mary Lou Box and John Manning Chalk
33. i. Louise Marie
19. Simeon Whitt3 Box (Simeon Alexander2,
Simeon1) was born July 17, 1899 and died July 16, 1962. He married
Pattie Snow Felton ____. She died September 10, 1971.
Children of Simeon Whitt Box and Pattie Snow Felton:
38. iii. Mary Patricia
20. Joseph Ollie3 Box (Simeon Alexander2,
Simeon1) was born March 10, 1902 and died October 2, 1967. He
married Eugenia Harman December 25, 1925. She died October 12, 1997.
Children of Joseph Ollie Box and Eugenia Harman
+ 39. i. Joseph Harman
+ 40. ii.
Thomas Manning
21. John Wesley3 Box (Simeon Alexander2,
Simeon1) was born February 10, 1905 and died December 12, 1954. He
married Melba Martin September 8, 1929. They were divorced in 1931.
Children of John Wesley Box and Melba Martin:
41. i. Robert Martin
39. Joseph Harman4
Box (Joseph3, Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was
born March 2, 1927 and died August 13, 1977. He
married Kate Otey Yerger September 3, 1949. She was
born October 26, 1927
Children of Joseph Harman Box and Kate Otey Yerger:
+ 42. i.
Lucinda
+ 43. ii. Malinda
+ 44. iii. Kathy
40. Thomas Manning4 Box (Joseph3,
Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born November 23, 1928.
He married Jo Ann Wiltshire October 7, 1951. She was born November 7. 1931.
Children of Thomas Manning Box and Jo Ann Wiltshire:
+45 i. Deborah Ann
+46. ii. Diane Elizabeth
+47. iii. Thomas
Manning Jr.
42. Lucinda5
Box ( twin) (Joseph Harman4, Joseph3, Simeon
Alexander2, Simeon1)
was born June 18, 1951. She married Chester Newton Willis III on May 19,
1973. He was born December 31, 1950.
Children of Lucinda Box and Chester Newton Willis III
+48. i. Chester Newton IV
43. Malinda5 Box (twin) (Joseph Harman4,
Joseph3, Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born
June 18, 1951. She married Charlie LeRoy Robinson July 21, 1973. He was born
July 30, 1947.
Children of Malinda Box and Charlie LeRoy Robinson:
+51. i. Ellen Elizabeth
52. ii. Matthew Thomas
44. Kathy5Box (Joseph Harman4, Joseph3,
Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born December 28,1957.
She married _________
which
ended in divorce on ________.
Children of Kathy Box and _________:
45. Deborah Ann5 Box (Thomas4, Joseph3,
Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born December 31, 1953.
She married Robert Wayne Gomillion June 29, 1974. He was born January 2, 1951
Children of Deborah Ann Box and Robert Wayne Gomillion:
+54. i. Stephen Thomas
55. ii. Jonathan Chadwick
46. Diane Elizabeth5
Box (Thomas4, Joseph3, Simeon Alexander2,
Simeon1) was born April 17, 1959. She married Terry Milton Burd June
26, 1982.
Children of Diane Elizabeth Box and Terry Milton Burd:
56.
i. Cliff
57. ii. David
47. Thomas Manning5 Box Jr. (Thomas4,
Joseph3, Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born
October 5, 1961. He married Donna Renee` Newsome
________.
She was born________.
Children of Thomas
Manning Jr. and Donna Newsome:
58. i. Thomas
Manning III
59. ii. Jonathan
Gaston
49. Ellen Elizabeth6
Robinson (Malinda Box5, Joseph Harman4, Joseph3,
Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1) was born December 19, 1976.
She married. She married Justin
Sanders. He was born ________.
Children of Ellen Elizabeth and Justin Sanders:
61. i. Elijah Ward Odie
54. Stephen Thomas6 Gomillion (Deborah Box5,
Thomas4, Joseph3, Simeon Alexander2, Simeon1)
was born July 8, 1977. He married Beth Cash
which
ended in divorce.
Children of Stephen Thomas and Beth Cash:
62.. i. Stephen Tyler
Growing
up on a farm in the late 1800s and early 1900s required that young boys do some
hard and unpleasant chores. One day Papa Box told the Box boys to hitch up the
mules to the wagon and haul some pine lighter stumps from a recently cleared
piece of land to the house. These stumps were used as kindling to start wood
fires at the house. The boys had done this chore many times before and knew
that it was hard and boring so they had an idea how to liven it up. Instead of
hitching the mules to the wagon, they decided to use the ox yoke and hitch up
two yearling calves to the wagon. They herded the calves into the lot and
caught one. In all the commotion, all the other calves broke out of the lot and
back into the pasture. Not having time to round up the calves again, they
decided to hitch up one calf and get one of the black boys to put his neck in
the yoke. They told him to just hold up his side of the yoke and they would
make the calf pull the wagon. They hitched the calf and black boy to the wagon
and all was going well. To get to the cleared field they had to drive the wagon
down beside the railroad track to the field. Through the years, and many
episodes, the men on the trains had become to know the Box boys real well. As
the wagon loaded with the boys and pulled by the calf and black boy was moving
along the tracks, a train came by. Seeing the strange procession, the engineer
started blowing the train whistle at the boys as he had done many times before.
This of course scared the calf half to death and it broke away from the wagon
and ran into a cornfield. The black boy was running as fast as he could while
holding up his side of the yoke. Papa was riding his horse on the other side of
the cornfield and heard the train whistle blowing. He stood up in the stirrups
and saw something going through the cornfield knocking the corn stalks down.
Papa rode over and caught the calf. He released it and told the black boy who
was still holding on to the yoke to go back to the house. He then rode over to
where the boys were with the wagon. He told them to go back to the barn, get
the mules, and hitch them to the wagon as he had told them and to finish their
chores. O Yes, he told them that he would see them later.
The Box boys, as well as all boys who
lived on the farm in those days had to feed and care for the livestock. They
had to mend the fences around the pasture as well as around the barn and feed
lot. One of their daily chores was to put the horses and mules in the feed lot
and give them their daily rations. This was done about the same time each day.
It seems that a neighbor had a pair of mules that jumped their pasture fence
every day. The neighbor knew this because he had to put the mules back in the
pasture when they returned. These same mules had learned the time of the day
that the Box boys would feed their stock. After the boys had finished their
feeding chores, these mules would jump the fence and eat with their horses and
mules. When all the feed was eaten this pare of mules would jump the fence to
get out of the feed lot and the other stock would either jump out too or break
the fence down. The Box boys had gotten tired of this because of the extra work
it caused and they decided to do something about it. They took some shotgun shells
and removed the pellets and replaced them with rock salt. When the neighbor’s
mules returned the next day, the Box boys were waiting on them. They shot both
mules with the rock salt and they were close enough that some of the salt got
under the hide of the mules and burned them pretty good. Needless to say the
mules left in quite a hurry. The next day the neighbor saw Papa and asked him
if he had seen his mules yesterday. The neighbor said that he did not know what
could have happened to his mules because they came running home, broke through
the fence and started kicking the boards off the side of his barn. Whether he
knew what happened or not, and I am sure he did, he told the man that he had
not seen his mules the day in question. The mules never returned to the Box
feed lot again.
As on most farms in those days the livestock herd on the Box
farm included some goats. The herd was ruled over by a large male goat named
Billy. This goat was the children’s pet, however some goats could get mean
depending on how you treated them.
This goat was both good and bad.
The boys would hitch Billy to a play wagon and ride their sisters around the
yard and he was a lot of fun. The boys would also chase Billy and Billy would
then chase them and try to butt them with his large horns. The Box house, as
most were back then, was built fairly high off the ground, three feet or so.
One day the boys were chasing Billy and then he would chase them around the
house. It seems that a black woman who helped Mama Box around the house was
stooped over looking under the house when Billy came chasing the boys around
the corner of the house. He could not catch the boys, but seeing the black
woman stooping over and an easy target, you know what happened.
Billy, the leader of
the goat herd had lived on the Box farm for several years. He was not only the
leader of the goat herd, he was the king of the Box farm. He would walk through
the barnyard and the house yard too as if it was his domain. The Box house had
a porch that almost completely encircled the house, except for the corner that
was the kitchen. When playing chase with Billy, the children would run around the
house and up on the porch too with Billy right behind them. Billy had become
accustom to being on the porch and he loved to walk around on the porch and
look in the windows. The windows in these older houses were tall and went all
the way to the floor. As always on Sunday the Box family loaded up everyone and
went to church services at the Methodist Church. When they returned home that
day, Billy was standing on the porch as if to greet them. When Mama Box opened
the front door she screamed at what she saw. The mirror in the “halltree” was
broken and scattered all over the floor. In checking through the house, she
found that every mirror that was floor level had been broken. Somehow Billy had
gotten in the house and seeing himself in these low mirrors, he butted his
image and broke every mirror. The Box clan had a big barbeque the following
week.
As was the case in those days, there were several black
families who lived on the Box farm. The children of these families grew up with
the Box children and the adults worked on the Box farm and worked in the house.
These people were very superstitious and as the old saying goes, scared of
their shadows. The Box boys loved to play tricks on the black families. One
time the boys cut a section, about 2 feet long, from a large limb and hollowed
out the center from one end to the other leaving the outer shell. They took a
piece of “rawhide”(a cow hide that had not been tanned), wet it and stretched
it over one end of the hollowed limb like the cover on a drum. When it had
dried they cut a small hole in its center. They tied a knot in the end of a
rawhide lace and put the lace through the hole with the knot on the inside.
They put pine rosin on the lace. When you pulled the lace through your fingers
it made a loud growling noise. They waited one night until the black family had
turned out the lamps and had gone to bed. The boys were hiding in the woods
next to the house. They pulled on the lace, a loud growl was made and soft
voices could be heard inside the house. They pulled on the lace a little harder
the second time. Louder voices could be heard, and someone lit a lamp. The boys
thought that it was time now to head for home.
Edgar, the oldest son and first born of Simeon Alexander and
Lucinda Box, was a family doctor. In the early days of his practice, he not
only diagnosed a person’s illness, he also made the medicine he prescribed to
cure the illness. Doctor Box had a patient who was constantly ill. In fact,
this man seemed to enjoy being ill. Doctor Box told the man that he had a pill
that he could give him as a last resort. He warned the man that the pill would
either cure him or make him sicker or may even kill him. The man said that he
was willing to try this medicine. Doctor Box made some of these pills, which
were primarily sugar and gave them to the man.
A few days later they met on the street. The man was walking at a fast
brisk pace. He walked up to Doctor Box and was raving about the new medicine.
He said that he had never felt better in his whole life.
Ollie and John were the last two children of Simeon Alexander
and Lucinda Box. With four older brothers and 2 older sisters, there was always
an opportunity for the younger boys to get in trouble. The older boys loved to
hunt and there were several guns around the house. Ollie and John were quite
young, around 4 and 2 years old, and quite naturally they were fascinated with
the guns. One day they found a shotgun standing in a corner in a bedroom. John
could not say Ollie so he called his brother “Oggie”. John wanted “Oggie” to
hold the shotgun so he could climb up the gun and look down the barrel. The two
boys did not know that someone had forgotten to unload the gun before bringing
it into the house. With “Oggie” holding the gun, John tried to put his big toe
in the trigger guard and climb up the gun and look down the barrel. When he
did, the gun fired and blew a hole in the ceiling. When the other members of
the family heard the gun go off, they ran into the bedroom to see what
happened. They saw the gun on the floor, but no one was in the room. They
noticed that Ollie and John were missing, so they started calling them. The
houses in those days had a fireplace in each bedroom. They heard a small voice
coming from the fireplace saying, “ Oggie do’d it, Oggie do’d it”. They found
John hiding in the fireplace, and later found Ollie hiding under the
house.
Growing up on a farm, the Box boys loved nature and the outdoors. They loved to hunt and fish and spent many a day along the Chickasawhay River on what was known as, “Box’s bend or eddy”. James (Jim) was the second son and second child of Simeon Alexander and Lucinda Box. Jim loved snakes. As most farm boys could do, he learned to identify poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes at an early age. The Box farm, which was bordered on the west by the river, had both bottomland and high land. This was a perfect habitat for all kinds of snakes. Jim would catch some of the nonpoisonous snakes and bring them to the house. In fact, Papa saw to it that there was always a large population of King snakes around the barn and corncrib to control the rats and mice. Jim had accumulated a large collection of snakes, and kept them in a glass container on the mantel over the fireplace in his bedroom. Mama Box had a black woman who helped her do the chores around the house. This black woman was extremely afraid of snakes. Jim’s collection of snakes had grown to the point that the woman refused to go into his bedroom. Mama Box took care of Jim’s room for a while, but because of the time and effort it took to take care of a family of eight children, she told him he would have to take care of his own bedroom. This did not agree too well with Jim, so after awhile he had to do something with the snakes. He carried the glass case out of the house into the middle of the front yard. He put a piece of chewing tobacco in his mouth, reached into the case and picked up a snake. He squeezed the snake’s neck, and when it opened its mouth he spit some tobacco juice into the snake’s mouth. The snake crawled just a few feet before it was dead.
One day Papa was getting some corn from the corncrib to feed
the livestock. When he reached down to pick up the corn a snake bit him. Papa
went to the doctor and he told Papa to get some whiskey and take a spoonful three
times a day. Now Papa being a staunch Methodist did not like the medicine the
doctor had prescribed. However, he felt that he should follow his orders, so he
bought a bottle of whiskey. The boys decided that they should kill the snake.
When cleaning out the corncrib, the snake struck at one of the boys (Witt) but
did not bite him. When it was time for Papa to take his next dose of medicine,
he could not find the whisky. So the story goes, Witt had gotten so upset when
the snake tried to bite him that he drank all of Papa’s medicine.
Ollie, like all the Box boys, loved the outdoors and enjoyed
hunting. During his lifetime, he hunted deer, turkey, doves, rabbits, squirrels
and quail. He enjoyed hunting quail most of all, and he always had several bird
dogs. One of his favorite dogs was “Ella”. Ella was a small white English
setter, and was a very well trained, and obedient, dog. She would hold a point,
and not flush the birds until she was commanded to do so. Ollie trained all his
dogs. When a dog pointed birds, Ollie had taught it to hold the point until he
clucked before flushing the birds. One day while hunting, he lost Ella. He
looked everywhere, and finally found her at the bottom of a gully on a firm,
rigid point. The gully was fairly deep, and the sides were steep. He decided to
stand on the rim of the gully, and cluck to the dog to make her flush the
birds. He could then shoot them as they flew out of the gully. He clucked to
Ella, a single bird flew up and he shot it. He looked at Ella, and she was
still pointing. He clucked again, another single bird flew up and he shot it.
He clucked a third time, the same thing happened, and she was still pointing.
Ollie was curious as to what was going on, so he climbed down into the gully so
he could watch the dog when he clucked to her. When he got in position to watch
the dog, he clucked to her again. She moved her front foot, and a single bird
flew up. The dog had chased a covey of birds into a sinkhole, she had her foot
over the hole, and would release one each time he clucked to her.
One of the boys had become quite well known as a squirrel
hunter. He hunted squirrels all over the county wherever he could get
permission. There was one old man who owned some property that had a hardwood
bottom that was full of squirrels, but he would not let anyone hunt on his
property. The Box boy finally got to know the old man well enough, that he was
given permission to hunt on his land. The old man said that he could hunt the
squirrels on one condition. Half of the squirrels were his. The boy went
hunting early one morning, and sure enough the woods were full of squirrels. He
killed the limit, and started on his way home. On the way, he had to pass by
the old man’s house. When he got to the house, the old man stopped him. He said
that he had heard lots of shooting and wanted his half. The boy told the old
man that he shot the first squirrel he saw. The second one he saw he let go
because that one was part of the old man’s half. He did this until he got his
limit. The old man was furious. Later that morning, after he had dressed the
squirrels, the boy carried the old man his half.
***
Donated to Bolivar County Gen Web
2009
