DANCYVILLE  UNITED  METHODIST  CHURCH

REMEMBERING  THE DANCYVILLE   COMMUNITY
Page  1

By  VAL  RUCKER  ROUTON

Dear Buddy,

When my daughter, Stephanie Routon Tayloe, told me about you my mind quickly ran back to having known your grandfather Dancy and his immediate family in the years 1928-1931.

My father, Edmond Birten Rucker, was a long time public school teacher who had been reared by a deeply religious widowed mother, also from a line of Methodist ministers. With that religious background my father at age 43 gave up teaching and joined the Memphis Methodist Conference. His first ministerial assignment was the Dancyville Circuit. He had been reared in Murfreesborough, Tennessee, and taught school for 23 years in Carroll and Gibson Counties. In November 1927, we moved from Bradford, Tennessee to the rural village of Dancyville in Haywood County. I was 9 years old, the oldest of 5 children. Although Bradford was small, Dancyville was really small and we were not sure what to expect with our families change in life style, new people and a different community. But our family will always cherish the memories and experiences we had those first three years as a minister's family in Dancyville.

The people in the community were true Southerners - steeped in family history and culture - they were proud and clung to ancestral teachings and life style. Dancyville was a crossroads in 1927 with three country stores on three corners. All wooden structures with a mixture of goods, groceries, some hardware, bolts of material, notions (needle, thread, thimbles and buttons) horse collars, reins, etc., with pot bellied stoves where men gathered to visit, chew tobacco, etc. One of the stores rented a room for the country doctor (Dr. Taylor.) He saw patients in his one room office and would make home visits if transportation could be provided. He was old and had no conveyance of his own.

Going east from the cross roads there were five houses - two antebellum ones - those houses had one room roughly constructed buildings in back for the families cooks - 70% of the population was black and all the white families had Black "help." Black women were cooks and Black men helped with odd jobs. Even the poorest white families had blacks to do laundry and help with work around the house.

Going south from the cross roads was a beautiful antebellum house owned by a "widow Jones" whose old maid daughter, Alenne, presided over the household and played the organ for special occasions. Setting back on this south road was the historic Dancyville Methodist Church (now on the historic register) with a well kept sprawling cemetery down the sloping hill in front of the church. (More on the church later.) There were three older, more modest houses on the church street.

Going north from the cross roads was an old five room school building with a long front yard and washed gullies. Oddly enough the teachers were well trained and cultured. The first year my father was pastor he set about to get a new modern school building which was located on the small road near the church.

On the north road sat a small brick Presbyterian Church. In times past it had understandably been a landmark but in 1927 only a few members remained and there was no full time pastor that I knew of. But there were descendants in the community who faithfully kept it up and the little cemetery beside the church. The people in the community took great pride in preserving family culture.

The west road from the crossroads had a cotton gin and your grandfather's ancestral home. It was near the grocery store that had the doctor's office.

I remember the house well. It was a two story wooden house with a small porch entry that had an upstairs porch over the entry. There were many large trees in the yard. I can remember sitting on the downstairs porch with my mother and your grandmother. They would visit and talk about the usual women's interest at that time; sewing, cooking, canning, etc. and your grandmother who was older than my mother seemed to have wise advice and interesting experiences to talk about. She appreciated music and as I remember had taught school before her marriage. She was an aristocratic looking woman, with a proud demeanor. She was reserved and friendly when approached but kept her reserve and dignity. She loved her house and stayed at home most of the time.

Their son, Malone, was a big nice looking man. He liked cars and mechanics and sometimes in bad rainy weather, my father, a very inexperienced driver, would get Malone to drive him to the churches (he had three churches.) Malone was an excellent driver. He could get my Dad's old T-Model and later 1928 Chevrolet, over those country, muddy roads with deep ruts and never have a problem he couldn't solve.

Their oldest daughter had married a "well to do man" in La Grange and lived there when we moved to Dancyville. She was a gorgeous women, pretty, stylist and very cultured and had a beautiful home in La Grange. We visited her once and were awed at the handsome antiques, china and well kept older home.

Another daughter, Mary, was a school teacher. She spent vacations and summers at home. She was a smart women. One Christmas she invited me and two of my little friends to her house for a little Christmas party. She played the piano and sang for us. We felt like royalty. She was so entertaining and understanding of our childish ways. Mary had a beautiful soprano voice. She always sang solos at our church when she was there. She had a boyfriend, Perry Rogers, a local boy who had a convertible - something in 1927 in a village as small as Dancyville. They would ride around in that convertible - making them the envy of us little girls.

Their youngest daughter, Mildred, was a real beauty. She had reddish brown hair and the brightest smile. Everybody loved her. She was teaching school her first year where she met a fellow teacher, Gus Duck and they had a big wedding that summer. They had a big home wedding at her sister's beautiful home in La Grange. My father performed the ceremony. I remember that wedding so well! It was really the finest wedding I had ever attended. Mildred

was a gorgeous bride. She had the most beautiful wedding dress. It was pink chiffon with tiers of ruffles on the long skirt and pink satin slippers! She would look good in Vogue today in her wedding gown and big beautiful bouquet. The reception was at the home - I remember all the wonderful food in the elegant dining room - But what I remember most is we were served on dainty blue plates and favors were little gold wedding slippers on each guest's plate. It was like the movies to me. It was one of the elegant affairs of my childhood.

Their youngest son was James, your father. I knew him least of the children but remember he was a good looking young man. I remember them saying he had a job in Paris and remember well the Sunday he came to church with his new bride, a girl he had met and married in Paris. My father welcomed him in the beginning of the service and introduced his bride, your mother. I remember her as small and cute - They looked happy and everyone welcomed her. They were there only for a visit as they had settled in Paris.

Your grandfather was looked up to in the community. Dancyville, of course, was named after his ancestors and he represented the town gentry. He was a hard working man, dependable, minded his own business, and was a pillow in the Methodist Church. He was the long time Sunday School Superintendent. I don't remember him ever missing a Sunday. He had a special seat to the left of the pulpit. He led in prayer and was faithful to the church's needs. The church is a white frame structure with long windows and green shutters. There were wide rows of pews in the middle of the wide church, with rows of more narrow pews on each side. It also had a small pump organ, choir pews and minister's pulpit and two upholstered chairs.

An old, slightly crippled Black man called "TRAZ" was the janitor. He swept the church, kept oil in the lights and had fresh water in an old bucket with a dipper on the back seat of the left pews. My baby brother would sometimes "act up" during the sermon and Traz who sat on the back seat by the bucket, would slip over and take my little brother for a drink of water, or a walk outside. Then he would go to the home of the which ever church member was having the janitor for Sunday dinner. He would always be given a heaping plate of Sunday food at the table in the kitchen.

We got to experience the life style of the old, aristocratic Southern people in that little village of Dancyville. No one was rich - but they were all proud and had culture and respect for each other and tremendous pride in their ancestors. I wish you could have known your grandfather and that family as I got to know them - good, steady, honest, proud people with a legacy of a community named in their ancestor's honor.

I was surprised when in later years I had married and settled in Paris and we wanted our 5 year old daughter to take dance lessons, and when we enrolled in Frances Hensler's dance class to learn that her dance assistant was a cute girl named Peggy Dancy - that I did not know for some time was the daughter of James Dancy. I did not know about your father after his visit to Dancyville Church when his bride was introduced but I do know he came from a good family and you and Peggy can be proud of his family, that is your family too. I am 90 years old but I remember your Dancy Family fondly.

Sincerely,

Val Rucker Routon