I8896: James ALVIS

Notes

Margaret Berniers, no other info. ^[S2338]

Notes

"He signed his father's grant of Morwick to the church of Durham, and after his father's death in 1129 went to Durham. In 1138 he founded the Abbey of Newminster, which according to Richard de Hexham, was destroyed in the same year by the marauding army of David, King of Scotland. He had a grant from Henry I of the woods, enclosure and free chase of Eichamp, now Ulgham. He had William, Roger, the First and Osbert. Newminster was restored as they were all buried in the north part of the Chapter House." ^[S1922]

Notes

Paragould Daily Press
LOCAL NEWS:
Serving Greene County, Arkansas Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Resident's ancestor helped found Alabama-based college

PARAGOULD -- Many college students now would scoff at the idea of a textbook only costing $3. They would find it even more laughable if they were told that same book could be sold back for $12. But during Roy Whitten's college years, that is what an average used textbook cost.

Whitten, a 93-year-old Paragould resident, remembers much about how things used to be when he was growing up. His grandfather and great-grandfather were both in the 9th Tennessee Confederate Cavalry during the Civil War. Some of his first memories were of visiting his grandfather's farm near Florence, Ala. "It was a very self-sustaining farm," he said. "They raised just about everything they consumed. They used to tell me Civil War stories about how hard times were and how difficult it was to get things during that time."

Whitten was born in 1911 in a small community in Wayne County, Tennessee. He said the area he grew up in was largely made up of Whittens and about six or eight other families that had been there since before Tennessee became a state.

"I often wondered how those people made a living because the only tillable land was along the riverbanks, but they made it and they're still there," he said.

Whitten's family links were prevalent throughout the community. He went to Whitten Elementary School, attended Whitten Methodist Church and traded at Whitten's Grocery Store.

The social structure was much different during Whitten's childhood than it is today, he said.

His mother would tell him stories of going to stands. The girls would ride in at noon and prepare a meal, and then the young men would ride in in the evening and they would enjoy supper together. Then they would dance into the evening. "That was a favorite social event of the time," Whitten said.

Another sign of the social structure for the time was the family's reaction to Whitten's aunt getting a job as a telephone operator.

"The married girls found out about this and they came back to the homeplace and had a crying session because the family had been disgraced," he said laughing. "Never before had a Boyd woman worked in a public place."

After Whitten graduated from high school, he went to his grandfather's farm expecting to work there that summer. "But I found there was nothing to do," he said.

Whitten instead decided to attend LaGrange College, the first college in Alabama. It operated from 1830-1865 when a group of Union soldiers burned it down. The college was then moved to Florence where it was rebuilt. It is now the University of North Alabama.

A few years after Whitten had left the college, he said he discovered from a cousin that his great-great-grandfather had helped found the college with two other men. The building Whitten took classes in, called Wesley Hall, housed his grandfather's private library. "I thought it was interesting that I would take classes there and never know the history of the building," he said. Whitten has a picture of one of the college's original buildings hanging on a wall in his home.

While in college at LaGrange, Whitten took an economics class and was exposed to his first ideas of integration. The custodian, who was a black man, was singing before the class began one day on a stage that was in the classroom. Whitten said his professor told them that people in the South were going to realize someday that a lot of wonderful talent was going to waste.

Whitten's wife, Sarah, came to Paragould from Kentucky. Her father came from France along with General Marquis de Lafayette, who helped the Americans in the Revolutionary War. Sarah's father, Henry Lady, established a plantation in Kentucky that Lafayette often visited while he was in America.

"When he went back to France," Whitten said, "he requested three barrels of soil (from Lady's plantation) be shipped back to France to line his grave when he died."

Whitten said a member of the Lady family recently went into an antique shop in New Orleans where she found a necklace with an inscription that said it was from Marquis de Lafayette to a member of the Lady family. She returned it to the family, he said.

Whitten got his degree from the University of California in Berkley. "I take a lot of ribbing for being a University of California product," he said.

Whitten's field of study was in administration, but he mostly taught math. He said many people ask him why he went to school in California when he had Arkansas State University right here.

"When I graduated, Arkansas State University was a small junior college with very little to offer other than some classes in agriculture and woodshop," he said.

While Whitten thinks the University of California is a wonderful institution, he discouraged one of his friends, Callie Williams, from applying there. He said he did so because the university can only allow 8,000 to enroll for the freshman class, and the university said only three out of four would make it through the first semester. "I don't see any reason to be put under that kind of pressure when you don't have to be," Whitten said.

That kind of pressure was not present when Whitten attended school. Then, he said, everyone wanted to attend the University of California because it was so heavily endowed the university didn't have a tuition charge. He also said the university had student-cooperative dormitories. If a student lived in the dorm, he or she had to work about 15 hours a week on campus. "It cost about $25 a month for room and board," he said.

Whitten had a job at the opera house in San Francisco where he made about $4 a night while he was in California. "That was a fabulous amount of money then," he said, "but money was hard to come by."

Whitten said he "just can't comprehend" the price of college today.

Notes

children:
i. Daniel2 Williams was born Hanover Co., VA ca 1734. Daniel died ca 1800 in North Carolina. He married Ann Henderson.
ii. Henry Williams was born November 3, 1734.
iii. Merya Williams was born Hanover Co., VA ca 1735. Merya died after 1759 in Granville, NC. She married Benjamin Goodman.
iv. John Williams was born Hanover Co., VA ca 1735. John died November 1794 in South Carolina, at 59 years of age.
v. James Williams was born Hanover Co., VA ca 1740. James died ca 1800 in Caswell Co., NC.
vi. Mary Williams was born Hanover Co., VA ca 1742. Mary died ca 1800 in North Carolina.
vii. Joseph Williams was born Hanover Co., VA March 27, 1748. Joseph died May 11, 1827 in Stokes Co., NC, at 79 years of age.

^[S1964]

My Southern Family

James ALVIS

Lady MARGERY BERNERS

____ - 18 Dec 1475

ID Number: I38965

Notes

Sources

WILLIAM CAVENDISH Duke of Devon

15 Jan 1640 - 18 Aug 1707

ID Number: I94181

Sources

William J. JOHNSON

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I42881

Sources

RANULPH de MERLAY Lord of Morpeth

ABT 1110 - 1160

ID Number: I53115

Notes

Sources

WHITTEN

-

ID Number: I99548

Notes

Sources

Daniel WILLIAMS

28 Sep 1710 - 1759

ID Number: I40511

Notes

Sources

Sallie WOODWARD

ABT 1780 - ____

ID Number: I86944

Notes

Sources

My Southern Family

James ALVIS

Lady MARGERY BERNERS

____ - 18 Dec 1475

ID Number: I38965

Notes

Sources

WILLIAM CAVENDISH Duke of Devon

15 Jan 1640 - 18 Aug 1707

ID Number: I94181

Sources

William J. JOHNSON

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I42881

Sources

RANULPH de MERLAY Lord of Morpeth

ABT 1110 - 1160

ID Number: I53115

Notes

Sources

WHITTEN

____ - ____

ID Number: I99548

Notes

Sources

Daniel WILLIAMS

28 Sep 1710 - 1759

ID Number: I40511

Notes

Sources

Sallie WOODWARD

ABT 1780 - ____

ID Number: I86944

Notes

Sources

-