I was recently back in Tennessee for a week and got to spend some time looking through the archives in the Reese J. Moses-Scallions Genealogy Room at Elma Ross Public Library in Brownsville. I am usually in a hurry when I am there, so it was fun to have a few hours to check things out.
The late Reese Jacocks Moses Scallions (1924-2005), along with many others, helped archive a large number of maps, documents, books and microfilm relating to the history of Haywood County and the families that lived there. One box that contained a number of very old photos was particularly fun to look through. I always search for individuals who might show up in one of my family lines, and written on the back of the school photo was a familar name: Jack Moody Castellaw (1925-2010).
The children in the picture look a lot more like the stars of “The Little Rascals” than “The Grapes of Wrath,” so I had already assumed they were city kids.
This photo was indeed taken “in town” at Anderson Grammar School on Main Street in Brownsville. The school has since burned down.
Anderson Grammar School, Brownsville, Tennessee
Anderson Grammar School grew out of one of Brownsville’s earliest public schools, Brownsville Grammar School, which was located on West College Street. According to “The History of Haywood County, Tennessee,” the West College Street school burned in 1928 while Charles Wesley Anderson (1851-1943) was principal. The new school was named in his honor.
Anderson was a longtime Brownsville educator whose influence reached across generations of Haywood County students. Born March 10, 1851, in Haywood County, Anderson graduated from the public schools of Haywood County before earning a degree from Washington and Lee University in 1875.
A biographical sketch in Prominent Tennesseans, 1796-1938 described him as a retired educator, a Methodist, a Democrat and a Sunday school teacher for 50 years. He married Iowa S. Bradford Anderson (1857-1941) on Oct. 29, 1879, and they had six children: C.W. Anderson Jr., Marion Anderson Glass, Thomas P. Anderson, Richard Nathan Anderson, George Bradford Anderson and Robert L. Anderson.
His marriage to Iowa Bradford connected Anderson to one of Haywood County’s oldest families. She was a grandaughter of Hiram Bradford (1797-1862), an early Brownsville entrepreneur. He was a farmer, horse and mule trader, merchant, mill operator and cotton-gin owner. After buying one of Brownsville’s first town lots, he built what was described as the first general store in town, later built Brownsville’s first hotel, helped establish Bradford’s Landing on the Hatchie River and built the county’s first cotton gin.
Anderson Grammar School Photo
Many thanks go to the person from the past who took the time to write the names on the back of this photo from Anderson Grammar School. Apologies for any misspellings.
Download a larger version of the photo
Front row, from left:
Jimmy Moore, Betty Nell Haynes, Jack Castellaw, Dotty Cook, ?, Beverly Herring, Louis Sellari, Bill Drumwright, Charles Faulkner, Thelma Klyce, Carolyn Whitten, O.C. Timbes, Billy Grantha; second row, from left: Myra Jo Thornton, Ruth Elder Moses, Burn Drake, ?, Mary Head, Willette Shaw, teacher, Mary Ann Ragland, Earl Williams, Walter Duffery, Jack Harwood Jr.
By tracking down a few of those listed, I determined that most of these children were born between 1924 and 1926. They look to be about 8 to 10 years old, so I assume the photo was taken in the mid-1930s.
Jack Moody Castellaw (1925-2010)
That made it easier to identify Jack Moody Castellaw, who was born July 3, 1925.
Jack was the son of Lloyd Moody Castellaw (1904-1983) and Lavenia Jones Castellaw (1901-1983); the grandson of Thomas Jefferson “Tom” Castellaw (1871-1940) and Helen Vesta Moody Castellaw (1874-1959); the great-grandson of Jeremiah Fletcher Castellaw (1847-1915) and Mary Aurelia Blaydes Castellaw (1848-1933); and the second-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson Castellaw (1808-1878) and Mary Elizabeth Cole Castellaw (1809-1875).
His second-great-grandparents were my third-great-grandparents, so he and I are second cousins twice removed.
Back on Nov. 27, 2010, I wrote quite a bit about Jack’s grandparents migrating to Texas and then back to Haywood County. After returning, they built a house across from Holly Grove Baptist Church and the school that was on the corner of Poplar Corner Road and Dr. Hess Road. They were also members of that church, and he was a magistrate.
Jack Moody Castellaw seems to have gone by Moody. He grew up and married Laura Elizabeth Martindale Castellaw (1925-2002). She already had children when they married, and it does not appear they had any additional children together. She worked for Union Planters National Bank, and they were members of Cherokee Baptist Church. She died at 77 in 2002, and he died at 84 in 2010. They were buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Brownsville.
Class at Anderson Grammar School; download a larger version of photo
There was another photo from Anderson Grammar School in the box. The only person identified is the teacher, Grace Russell (about 1898-1936). Sadly, Grace died July 10, 1936, at just 38, so I know the photo was taken before that date.
None of the children are identified, so if anyone recognizes any of them, please let me know.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
Leave a Reply