LETTERS FROM AUNT MIL       

Aunt Mil ~ 2001

All the personal comments, antidotes, history, records and pictures provided by relatives, acquaintances, and in
some cases total strangers, for this web site, are appreciated beyond our ability to express.
The Aunt Mil letters, however, are very special. Here we will include the memories of the
patriarch of our line of Dancys, with emphasis on the family and the Dancyville community.
AUNT MIL is MILDRED ETHLENE DANCY DUCK wife of Augustus Dunn Duck; daughter of
Isaac Bradley and Maggie Ethlene 'Lena' Hughes Dancy; granddaughter of John Henry and
Louisa Jane Kerr Dancy.

October 31, 2001

Dear Jimmy,

I knew the Scott family of Dancyville well, especially Edna, who was about my age.   Edna and I double dated occasionally. On one of these dates I wore a lovely dress of  Mary's without her knowledge and one of the boys spilled something all over it. Never again did I borrow a piece of clothing without permission.

Edna sometimes drove a buggy to school.  During recess one day when I was in the tenth grade, Edna and I took the buggy and rode off down the hill for a twenty-minute outing. Needless to say, when we returned, we received the fury of the teacher.

At one time, Edna became very ill from the bite of a black widow spider.

The Scotts lived down a dirt road off the road to Whiteville. J.S. Scott, who was somewhat younger than I, was smart so I am glad to hear that he became a doctor. E.W. liked Elizabeth Scott, a pretty dark-haired girl.

There was another Scott boy whose name may have been Millard.

Love,

Aunt Mil

Tue, 26 Jun 2001

Dear Mary Kay,

Mother* says that she knew of Somerville's influential Walker family, but did not know any of them personally. Mrs. Locke's sudden death from a bee sting is sad.

Mother remembers the Tripp family well. She says when she was about four, she took her first car ride sitting in the backseat of the Tripp's car with Charlie Tripp. Charles Sr. drove and his wife sat by him in the front seat. Mother thought that Mrs. Tripp rode so strangely because every time the car went over a bump, Mrs. Tripp would ease up off the seat. (Mother learned later that Mrs. Tripp did this because she was pregnant with her second son, Robert.)

Another memory Mother has of the Tripps took place in church. While Charlie was waiting for the offering plate to get to him, he kept putting his penny in his mouth. When he accidentally swallowed it, Mr. Tripp jerked him upside down and hit him on the back until the penny came out.

Mr. Tripp had a store in Dancyville and kept a wagon sitting in front of it. One Halloween, Uncle Huck and the Hunter boys took this wagon apart and, piece by piece, hauled it up onto the top of the store where they put it back together.

Thank you, Mary Kay, for keeping Mother informed about people she knew in and around Dancyville.

Love,

Betty

*Mildred Ethelene ‘Mil’ Dancy Duck

January 8, 1994

Dear Alice, Allen and Lucy,

Thank you for sending the bookı. We all enjoyed reading it. Even though I never camped there, we went for the day. I've had many good times there. It seems a lot of things in the book happened after I married and moved away. Janie and Perry Rogers camped there after I left, I think. Many of these people that wrote must have been children of people I knew.

Does Joy Rosser know if Laura Dancy was married to John H. Dancy?   Papa had a brother in Brownsville and one in Stanton. I know very little about their families except the one in Brownsville. He had one daughter named Meanon(?).  I remember she visited one time and  was dressed in her finery and had to sit on the porch and watch us play games - so she wouldn't get her clothes dirty.

I have my grandfather's²  ledger where he kept records of coffins sold. All are marked paid. I've only seen one that sold for $75.00, most of them were $20.00 to $35.00 and many less than $10.00. I also have where he kept a record of meal he ground and sold for 50 to 60 cents a bushel. All marked paid - 1st date on ledger was 1880 - on record of meal, work, etc. was 1896.

It's colder here today. Supposed to get better they say!

I'm supposed to go to a pancake supper at the church tonight, to raise some money for the youth program, gotta get up and get dressed.

My love,

Mil

ıA History of Joyner's Camp Meeting, Joyner's Campground ~ 1893-1993 by Sarah Rhea McNamee ~ 1993
²John Henry Dancy, Undertaker, Cabinet maker, Farmer, Gristmill operator.
Papa Bradley Dancy, continued the undertaker and gristmill operations started by his father, and farming.
This letter used by permission of Allen and Alice Cogbill, and Aunt Mil of course.

 
July 1, 1999

Dear Jimmy,

What a wonderful surprise your letter was. It brought back so many memories. Some sad, some funny and others that shouldn't have been done - like curling a dead snake up in the teacher's desk drawer.

Dad use to make one of those big black wash pots of Brunswick stew for Joyner's Campground opening day. Did the little creek still run by it?

I too wish the pulpit could be put somewhere else. The campground could be sold someday. Allen wanted it. To be put at her front steps but they chose the campground. Where it is serves as a symbol to John Henry Dancy's Christian beliefs, which are taught at Joyner's Campground.

I use to put an apron around me and with that sword pretend I was cutting "Yankee heads" off. My grandmother wore it on a belt under her apron, I was told. I never knew her, she died when my father was about 21-22 years old. I think?

I remember my grandfather well. After he lost his sight & Dad had to move him from the county home to that house by DC's store. Dad had to take over his undertaker business. Grandpa tied a rope from his yard gate to the shop and he'd feel his way out there. I use to help Dad line baby coffins, I'd tack lambs on the tops of some and angels on others.

I tried several times to get in touch with you when you were in Fla. Daisy wrote me you were down here. One person told me he thought a Jim Dancy was there. I asked him to try to locate you and have you call me.

Maybe with your web site you may find other relatives. A women called me last week and wanted to know if I was kin to her - through the Duck family. I asked her where she was from and she said Alabama !!!! I said well Gus came from England.

It seems you know about as much about your Mom & Dad as I do. As best I remember James & your Mom lived (where I've forgotten) until Peggy was several months old, as a family. James lost his job and they went to Paris. Then mother wrote me they were with her and Dad. You were not born then. Beulah went back to Paris but later came back to Dancyville. What I always thought - you were conceived in Dancyville but born in Paris.

I have no pictures of our grandfather J.H. Dancy. Where they are I have no idea.

Come to see me,

Love you

Aunt Mil

P.S. Page
I hope you can read what I've written. My old hands are uncontrollable at times.
I'm so glad you and Mary Kay know each other.
Hillary & Bill went to a baseball game. (a joke was included here)
Who changed your name from James Kerr to Karl ?

GO  HERE  FOR  PAGE  2   OF  AUNT  MIL'S  LETTERS

Index To Names in Aunt Mil's letters

-Aunt Mil - Mildred Ethelene ‘Mil’ Dancy Duck, daughter of   Isaac Bradley & Lena Hughes Dancy
-Gus - Augustus Dunn Duck (Aunt Mil's husband, Priscilla and Betty's father)
-Betty - Betty Carolyn Duck Byrd (Aunt Mil's daughter)
-Priscilla - Mary Priscilla Duck Stripling (Aunt Mil's daughter)
-James - James Hughes Dancy (Aunt Mil's brother)
-Mother, Mama, Mom - Maggie Ethlene ‘Lena’ Hughes Dancy (Aunt Mil's Mother)
-Father, Papa, Dad - Isaac Bradley Dancy (Aunt Mil's Father)
-Grandfather - John Henry Dancy (Aunt Mil's grandfather, Bradley Dancy's father, husband of Louisa Jane Kerr Dancy)
-Grandmother - Louisa Jane Kerr Dancy (Aunt Mil's grandmother, daughter of F.B. Kerr, wife of John Henry Dancy)
-Sword - A large 'Bowie' style knife, made by John H. Dancy for wife Louisa, as protection against Northern carpetbaggers
-Aunt Lou - Loula A. Dancy Mays (Isaac Bradley Dancy's sister)
-Malone/Uncle Huck - Kerr Malone ‘Huck’ Dancy (Aunt Mil's brother)
-Jimmy - James Karl 'Buddy' Dancy (Aunt Mil's nephew, son of James Hughes Dancy)
-Mary Kay - Mary Katherine Dancy Smith (Aunt Mil's niece, daughter of James Hughes Dancy)
-Rueben Dancy - Just one more mystery Mary Kay found, in the form of a birth certificate, while looking through family records.
Apparently Rueben, a son of  Bradley and Lena Dancy, died in infancy.
-Peggy Jean - Peggy Jean Dancy Paschall (Aunt Mil's niece, daughter of James Hughes Dancy)
-Beulah - Beulah 'Bibe' Blackwood Dancy (First wife of James H. Dancy, mother of Peggy Paschall and James K. Dancy)
-DC - David Craig Crawford Sr. (store owner  - family business - Dancyville - Son of James Monroe 'Row' Crawford)
-Paris - Tennessee that is - Henry County
-Joyners's Campground - Location of the annual Joyner's Camp Meeting - since 1893
-Bill and Hillary - If you don't know, I will never be the one to make the identification
-Mary Jane Harrison Dancy - Second wife of John Henry Dancy (Daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Harrison)
-E.W. - E.W. Dancy, Aunt Mil's brother

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Updated  November 1, 2000