OPINION
A Section
w w w.b on i f ay now.c om
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In our VIEW Chipley seeks growth
the path for researchers from the University of South The Chipley City Council Florida to exhume bodies is to be commended for at the former Dozier School their proactive work toward for Boys in Marianna. extending city water lines Former inmates at the south of Interstate 10. school have alleged abuse, The process back in rape, torture and even February when Mayor murder of children by adult Linda Cain invited staff members in the 1950s Consultant Doug Bruce and ’60s. to explain to the council USF researchers have what the city could do to identified 50 graves in the seek grants to fund the school’s unmarked burial expansion of the utilities grounds, which are 19 beyond the I-10 boundary. more than the state found Getting utilities south in a brief investigation that of the interstate would concluded in 2008. open up properties for Researchers, as well new businesses such as as the families of the dead restaurants and hotels children, want to exhume and could generate much the bodies so they can be needed tax revenue for the examined and identified. city and county. In May a judge denied The city selected the a request from Attorney Tallahassee firm of Doug General Pam Bondi to Bruce & Associates to exhume the remains. serve as consultants in the In response, USF process. applied to the Florida On Thursday, Angela Department of State for an Drzewiecki, representing archaeological permit to dig Doug Bruce & Associates, up the burial sites. presented a grant proposal However, Secretary to the council. of State Ken Detzner The council was set turned it down, saying his to approve a resolution department doesn’t have on Tuesday authorizing the legal authority. the consultants to seek a That was a flimsy, Water Supply Development bureaucratic dodge. Community Assistance On Aug. 6, the governor Initiative Grant from the and his Cabinet members Northwest Florida Water — Bondi, Agriculture Management District. Commissioner Adam This resolution is just Putnam and Chief Financial one small step, but it is Officer Jeff Atwater a step forward toward progress, so congratulations — unanimously approved a land agreement that will to Mayor Cain and the rest allow the USF research to of the council for looking proceed. to the future for not only We applaud the Chipley, but Washington move, especially Bondi’s County as well. persistence in pursuing this. The families deserve Progress at Dozier answers as to what Kudos to Gov. Rick Scott happened to their loved and his Cabinet for clearing ones.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Guest COLUMN
Elderly author grew up with her own type of drug problem By Wendy Victoria
Northwest Florida Daily News As assignment editor, I get frequent requests from authors to write about books they published themselves. Being a bit of a book snob, I almost always say no. Last week, though, I said yes after getting a book from a local woman in her 80s who wrote about growing up on a farm in Holmes County. Ironically, she doesn’t want her name used and doesn’t want the publicity, which begs the question of why she brought me the book. I can’t answer that, but I can tell you I wouldn’t have survived her upbringing and neither would my children. The fifth of 10 children, the author says she was raised in a house with no screens, running water or outhouse. The only furniture they had was two beds, a table, chairs and a rocking chair with one leg shorter than the other. When one of the kids
misbehaved, her mother whipped all of them with a branch from a peach tree in the yard. That tree was missing so many “switches” it never produced more than a few tiny, ugly peaches. Between the ages of about 5 and 10, the author was entrusted with the care of her five younger brothers while her mother worked in the fields. She writes about holding a pillow over her baby brothers’ faces so she could try to get them to nap. Only a child herself, she didn’t realize that could have killed them. Any shoes they wore didn’t fit and they didn’t complain. They ate what they could grow or what was given to them in trade. Their mother convinced them that eating chicken feet would make them better looking. Later, the author figured out her mother likely just wanted to save the better parts of the chicken for the pastor when he visited. When she left home at 17, she’d never seen her reflection in a
mirror, taking her mother’s word that she was pretty. She’d never been anywhere other than her home, church or school. She was afraid. Still, she turned out OK, as did every one of her siblings, she writes. And that’s more than we can say for a lot of kids raised in more permissive times. “One of my friends asked me if we had drug problems when I was growing up,” she wrote. “I replied, ‘I had a drug problem when I was growing up. “I was drug to church two times on Sunday. I was drug to the cotton fields every day. I was drug behind the house when I disobeyed my parents … “And all of those drugs are still in my veins. They affect my behavior and everything I do, say or think. God bless the parents who drug us.” Daily News Assignment Editor Wendy Victoria can be reached at 358-4478 or wvictoria@ nwfdailynews.com.
Visit with Mr. Smith adds to N.D. Miller Company story Mr. Ben Smith sent me word that some errors occurred in my previous story, and knowing that he had recently celebrated his 88th birthday, Jack and I paid him a visit. I often make errors in my stories and don’t usually try to correct them and I won’t in this case, because most of the material came from Barbara the daughter of Brown Miller, in the Heritage of Holmes County book. However, Mr. Smith and Miller’s HAPPY CORNER son Julian Hazel Wells Tison Miller did agree that The label from a can of Pure Cane Syrup from the National Can Company in the story of water in the Baltimore, Md., features the N.D. Miller Company Store in Bonifay. gas tank was just a story and did not happen. were the Suwanee Store, had bought the company, labels among the Tison I searched the with Roy Dowling as the planted the entire 40 acres memorabilia but I would E.W. Carswell book proprietor and later Mr. in potatoes. guess that it was some of “Holmsteading” to find the J.M. Browning. The only Brown Miller had lived Jack’s Grandma Meeker’s date of the formation of restaurant he remembered previously in Miami and family, the Youngs, who the N.SD Miller Wholesale was operated by a Greek made contacts there to sell made the syrup. Distribution Co. but was named Steve Koutric. Mrs. the chickens and the eggs. Mr. Smith said that unsuccessful in finding a Videll Mcfatter’s was a When the rolling stores had the whole N.D. Miller date. There was an N.D. general store with dry collected enough to load a operation shut down for Miller store listed in the goods as well as groceries. truck, Wallace Donaldson the week of July 4th and early 1920’s and in Jan In Leonia there was would deliver them via all employees and their 1923, N.D. Miller was listed Heath Mercantile operated truck to Miami. families were invited to as owning stock in the Brown Miller also a big picnic on the 4th newly formed Farmers and by Hiram Spears. Dady Post Office was there. contracted with the military at Jenkins Fish Camp Merchants Bank which He told how during the for delivery of rations for at Seven Runs on the bought the assets of the soldiers. Mr. Smith would Choctowhatchee River failed Holmes County Bank. war (WWII) candy was scarce and whatever the pick them up from the where they could swim, Other than the wholesale wholesaler got in was canning plants. He said fish, and have a good time. distribution company, apportioned between all from the number of Van Ben Smith still lives Mr. N. D. Miller is also Camp Pork and Beans he near where he, his six remembered for managing the stores they serviced. He remembered how hauled, he surmised that brothers and one sister the Eureka Hotel which the army only fed beans grew up. They attended was built by Mr. G.W. Banfil, Mr.Spears’ daughters swarmed his truck looking and crackers. He said Fairview School located but was operated by Mr. for the sweet treats when he delivered tons of soda on what is now Malcolm and Mrs. Miller from 1910 he serviced them. crackers (that’s what we Taylor Road. He for many years. The local rolling stores called saltines then) and it remembers Mr. Drane Mr. Ben Smith worked filled their traveling took 14,000 pounds of Klotz Kates as his earliest for the N.D. Miller stores with N.D. Miller Crackers to fill a 40 foot teacher. Daughter Sarah Company full time from merchandise. On the back trailer. lives nearby. Son Larry 1942 through 1956, but of their store they carried He hauled 2 tons of who works at Jerkins worked part time as a chicken coops. They would Henderson brand sugar also lives nearby. Son youth. Over the years, take chickens and eggs a week from Louisiana. I Ray drives a truck that many people worked for in trade for goods. Then, asked if a lot of that went hauls all of Willie Nelson’s the Miller Company. Tom to bootleggers and he equipment and a kind Jenkins told me he worked they would trade those items back to the company affirmed that it did. I also of rolling gift shop. Ben for them. But in addition in payment for their bill. asked if he knew local sang southern gospel with to the ones mentioned According to Ben Smith, people that the company Quincy Carnley, Devon last week, Mr. Smith bought syrup from. He Andrews, and Henry Ray recalled J.W. Leavins, Cecil one driver falsified his weight tickets to the degree said the Cope family in Kent or Roy Yates with Yates, and Elbert Harrell. that Mr. Brown Miller sued Chipley furnished a lot Marion Moss as pianist. The company serviced him for his debt and was and Silas Lee, Quincy’s He loves visitors and independent grocers awarded a 40 acre field. dad, furnished some. I recalling old times. We from the Chattahoochee Because Irish potatoes have a feeling that my enjoyed our visit with this River to Pensacola. were so much a part of their granddaddy, Tom Wells, did man who loves to tell “how Some additional Bonifay business, Brown Miller who too. I found these syrup to be a redneck.” stores he remembered