RJ: Oh yes, they had their little political successes. It seemed to be that the workers in
 the mill established a Baptist church. And the other people who furnished the
 services and that sort of thing established the Methodist church. Now, my father was
 a grocer, so he went to the Methodist church. He was one of the five people that
 founded the Methodist church. His beginnings as a grocer were rather interesting
 because he was a little old country boy from out in the upward section, which was
 out east of there. He was also from one of the most confusing families that you have
 ever seen in your life. Grandpa Jones was married and had some children, and his
 wife died. Grandma Jones was married and had some children, and her husband
 died. And Grandma and Grandpa got married and they had some children. Now,
 this whole conglomeration of children ended up being of about five of Grandpa's
 [children], five of Grandma's [children], and five of [both] Grandpa and Grandma's
 [children]. They all lived and prospered. My father was one of the first [children]
 of the Grandpa/Grandma group. They all produced large numbers of children with
 the result that, when I was twelve years old [and] went to a family reunion, all sixteen
 children were there with husbands and wives. One of the daughter's husbands had
 died and another daughter's husband had just disappeared, [but] there were sixteen
 children with fourteen husbands and wives. There were over 100 grandchildren and
 twelve great grandchildren when I was merely twelve years old, and it continued.

 But my father started out life as a barber; he opened a barber shop right down on
 the corner down there at Upward, which was a crossroads. Then he went to work
 for a relative (I have forgotten what his name was) over in the Flat Rock section,
 who was the grocer. My father was a big, burly, handsome man with curly black hair
 and big brown eyes and [was] jolly and happy-go-lucky. So he was an absolutely
 marvelous public relations man. They did not call it that back in those days; he was
 a great salesman. What he would do [is] every morning he would take a nice horse
 and a light wagon and circulate through all of these estates. The people who ran
 these estates were just dying to know what the news was and my father had all of it.
 So these influential people came out to talk to him. And the cooks also came out
 and gave him orders. So he would take the orders in the morning, go back to the
 store, make up the orders, and then deliver them that afternoon. So he was the
 grocer to all these places. And he knew which day to go to which estate. There
 must have been about twenty-five or thirty of these estates. He did not go to each
 one every day, but about every other day he would go to a certain group of them.
 Then he graduated from that to his own little store, and he was a grocer for over
 sixty years.

CJ: That is how he supported your family?

RJ: Yes.

CJ: When did he marry your mother? Do you know?


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