General Notes

Custom Field:<_FA#> She was called Mattie.@@S726784@@Date of Import: Jul 31, 2003
[coosa1.ged]
She ran the general store on the Miller property at Bentlyville, AL.  She
was also the postmistress.  Bryce Miller remembers being told that she
learned how to do the bookkeeping from her husband, John Thomas.  She
would worry about taxes and being afraid of making a mistake, would send
a small amount of money to the government who would send it back.
Periodically they would ask J. T.'s brother, Jim to balance the books.
When one child did something wrong she would paddle them all.  She put
their head between her legs and paddled them good.  One time Butler
decided to bite her  and really got  "worn out".
At this time in history, many of the shoes did not fit left and right
feet.  Each one would fit either foot.  Coston Miller remembers his
grandmother taking her shoes off when going to bed and arranging them so
that when she put them on the next morning the one of the left foot the
previous day would be on the right foot on the new day.  This kept them
wearing evenly.
Soon after they married, Mary and J. T.  moved from Luke Branch into the
old Latticher place which they rebuilt.  They added the barns and the
store/post office and this became the Miller homeplace and Bentlyville,
AL.  They wanted to name it Millerville but the name was already in use.
Bryce Miller remembers that her father had slaves.  He would pay $2500.00
for a good working, good age blackman.  The slave houses (he remembers
hearing of two)  were built by Hatchett Creek.  He had good strong slaves
but what they ate was supposedly killing them.  Doctor Petty told her
father to feed them fish instead of high fat meats like pork.
She died from Flu and had problems with High Blood Pressure. She was
called Mary (my grandmother said everyone called her  "Cousin Mary".