Houses and the Way It Was

Houses come and go. I know this all too well.

I own a house, a Victorian one. It’s listed on the NRHP and is one of those towered, hard-to-heat Victorian jobs. In the attic (which would make a whole small house unto itself) the beams run about seventeen feet long—solid wood. I go there and cry sometimes, because I can’t live in it now, and, waiting for the “right” opportunity, may never again have the chance.

My house...NRHP, "William H. Scales House," 1892. Photo about 2007

So I have it for sale.

People’s tastes change, too, of course, and that makes it economically sensible to tear a house down when remodeling would be too costly. Or you could sell it to someone who didn’t want the latest appliances and counter tops. Maybe sometime down the road they’d arrive at their own decision about whether to keep it or not.

So here’s a look at what was Theadville, in 1988.

Remnants of old wagon, photo 1988

Mark Thead and his family allowed me at that time to poke around the old home places and take pictures. Some of these photographs show structures about to fall in, or in the process of being demolished. They’re all I have to conjure up a vision of what the original buildings looked like, so if anyone reading this post has photos of the stores, homes, and so on BEFORE 1980 or so, let me get a copy and we’ll put them up too.

People who “homesteaded” a place during the early times of settlement sometimes lived in rough log buildings until nicer homes were built. This particular one was probably where James Thead first lived in Clarke County.

James Thead cabin, side sheds added.

I took this photograph in 1988, but the structure has since been torn down. Here’s a map to show where it was standing when I visited. (As with all maps in this post, if it's not clear enough, right-click and save it to your computer. You can enlarge it and look at it that way.)

I hate that this particular building was demolished; if it was indeed (as I think) the home of James Thead, it was probably one of the longest-standing but earliest-built houses in that part of the state.

Barn at James Thead homestead, photo 1988

Back of barn

In Theadville itself I got to see Hamp Thead’s home as it was being dismantled.

Home of Hamilton "Hamp" Thead, Theadville, MS  photo 1988

Some may find this picture sad, and it is for me, too. But as a person who loves old houses, I still find it interesting in that you can see the “bones” of a once-wonderful old building. I eased up to one side and snapped a shot of the interior.

Here’s what remained in 1988 of John Hamilton Thead and James Aaron Thead’s store, where, according to Essie Patrick and Vernon Roberts, you could buy just about anything you wanted.

 

Home of John Hamilton Thead, photo 1988

Home of Emma Thead Shepherd

James Aaron Thead and family

We trudged up the hill and into the woods above Hamp Thead’s home. It was peaceful and quiet. There, Mark and his grandfather showed me two markers:

 

Those present with me that day told me that Hamp was buried there, and near him, in an unmarked grave, his youngest brother Daniel Frank (“Frankie”). Frankie was mentally disabled. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly when he died, but it was after 1900, when he and his (likely) sister-in-law Henrietta were living in James Thead’s old house. As I posted earlier, I think that Henrietta had been married to one of James’s sons. In 1880 she said she was a widow, and she reported that again in 1900 on that year’s census.

But there’s always something to mess up tidy theories when you’re doing genealogy! Because in March of 1879 a marriage was recorded in Theadville: Henrietta Thead and A. J. Martin. So perhaps her widowhood could be attributed to Mr. Martin and not a Thead. I can’t figure out, and if anybody else can, let me know.

I had nothing to photograph at Alex Thead’s probable home place. Tools like Google Maps and Google Earth now let you visualize what you used to have to get plat papers for. I think his house was most likely on the west side of today’s Branch Road (County Road 5). I’m not making this guess entirely without some basis: back in the day, when I was young and better able to roam around at will, I barged my way into several people’s homes and questioned folks who’d never met me before. Never let it be said I was shy. (No, really, I knocked and politely asked.) One of those people was Mrs. Mary Lee Stokely Covington, George W. Thead’s granddaughter—Alex’s great-granddaughter. She told me where Alex’s house had been, approximately; I have it marked on the map.

Oh, and I wandered around as many old cemeteries there as I could find. This was 1979; I was on a quest! However, I will say right now that the photos here of tombstones in Alabama do not come from my own journeys; they are available on Findagrave.com.

Sarah "Sallie" Thead McLaughlin

Hall Cemetery, Silas, Alabama

George W. Thead, Silas, Alabama

Louisiana Thead, Silas, Alabama

The other night I traveled again, so to speak, this time using Google instead of my car. I traced out the roads marked on the maps I show in this post—the one in Mississippi and the other in Alabama. I love maps, but this “trip” kind of took a lot out of me. Road names and numbers had changed through the years; it was a while before I could figure out what was what, and I DID it by comparing Google with these older maps, side by side.

—Because, after all, the landscape, in a general way, does NOT change much. Still, there were many pine plantations where once there appeared to be houses; people don’t live out in the woods anymore. At one time there was a largish gas tank with “Theadville” painted on its side; old road maps showed the town.

Now the name isn’t even on Google at all.

When you compare the old black-and-white maps with the Google snips, you can tell where you are. In Alabama, near Silas, it’s County Road 5—no Theadville there. But it matches what Mrs. Covington told me long ago.

Alexander Thead probable homestead

Google maps, Branch Road, Silas, Alabama

Now there's a pond where none existed when I had the older map. 

And James's homestead is even easier to find in old Theadville. But Thead Road loops around, following the Chickasawhay River for a good ways, as you see.

James Thead probable homestead

Like my big old Victorian house, communities are useful places only so long as people continue to find them so. There come times when they’re not places or buildings that we need anymore, or that we can exist in anymore, and then (as I’m doing now) we wistfully think about going back, in time as well as in place. Truth is, we probably wouldn’t, even if we could, but our memories tell us it was all better, simpler, happier there and then.

So I hope you all have enjoyed this little jaunt back to a town that was. And, now, I want to spend the night again in my house…

Ælfwine