Fifth Generation

Callie Elsie Carter was born on April 24, 1874 in Waverly, Humphreys County, Tennessee. She died o March 14, 1966 in Union City, Obion County, Tennessee. Her parents were John M. Carter and Hannah Cotham both of Tennessee. Callie had two sisters, Lillie and Gillie and one brother Isaac Anderson Carter. Callie was the third child.

She grew up in Humphreys County Tennessee where her father was a farmer. She grew up around her cousins and aunts and uncles from both sides of her family. Her father died when she was 9 years old. Her mother remarried to a man named Isaac Flannery a year later in 1884. Isaac Flannery was marred to Callie’s aunt Nancy who died a couple of years before. So her cousins were now her step- sisters, Erie, Eva, and Lillie Flannery. She now had two sisters named Lillie! She was good friends with her sisters throughout her life. Soon after her mother’s marriage to Isaac, she had three young brothers Riley, Elmer, and Clarence.

Callie received some education for she could read and write. She was a small woman with light colored hair (light brown?).  At 20 she met the young handsome widower Willaim Henry Etheridge. I am sure they knew each other at some point. She had 10 healthy children who all lived into adulthood. Around 1906 she moved with her husband to Kentucky. He died in 1919. Her parents-in-law also died in 1918 and 1917. I don’t know when her mother died.

After her husband died she moved with her children near relatives in Gibson County, Tennessee. That is where one of her sons, James Ollie met his beautiful wife Lena Irene Burns.  She lived the rest of her life in Obion, Tennessee. My mother remembers visiting her once as a child. She only remembers that there was not a bathroom and that you had to go to an outhouse to use the bathroom. She was very small when she went to visit her great grandmother.

I have met some of Callie’s children at family reunions. They are the sweetest ladies and always talk so quiet. One thing I notice about the family is that they are all so humble. It was teaching her children these great values that prepared my grandfather to accept the gospel later when he was in his twenties.

William Henry Etheridge was born on September 7, 1867 in Waverly, Humphreys County, Tennessee. He died on July 14, 1919 in Mayfield, Graves County, Kentucky.

His parents were William Thomas Etheridge of Humphreys County, Tennessee and Mary Jane Baker. William Henry Etheridge grew up on a farm. I am sure he went to school at some point. He had 9 brothers and two sisters. William was the fifth child of 11. He grew up helping out on the farm.

I hope to be able to talk to my grandfather this summer to see if he can tell me more about William Henry Etheridge. The Etheridge family is a quiet, humble family. Even going to the reunions, it is more quiet and organized compared to other reunions I have gone to. They usually have blond hair and huge blues eyes that glare where they are angry. The picture of William Henry Etheridge is an example of the typical Etheridge look.

He was born right after the Civil War a tough time in the South. People were usually poor and suffered much loss. People moved around a lot during this time looking for good land and tried to survive. Many went West to seek their fortune. The Etheridges stayed in the general area but moved a few times.

They moved to Hickman County, Tennessee at some point. In 1885, when he was 17 years old, he married the 20 year old Winnie Forrester who was a Hickman county native. They had two children, Orie and Elmer. The young family went back to Humphreys County. Somehow Winne got sick. She had no more children after 1889 and died before 1895 leaving William with two young children to raise.

He married the young Humphreys County native Callie Carter. They had 10 children together. My great grandfather, James Ollie Etheridge was their 6th child and was born in 1908.

Sometime in 1906, the family moved to Calloway County, Kentucky where they continued to farm. William Henry died young at 51 years old in Kentucky. My guess is that he had heart disease, a common problem in the Etheridge family. His son, James Ollie died at 60 of a heart attack. William Henry was sent to the hospital in Mayfield, Kentucky and died there. He was buried in Lynn Grove, Calloway County, Kentucky.