The Hanson-Fahnerstock wedding had been solemnized and we stood in the vestibule of the First Methodist Church, as the guests lined up for the walk from the sanctuary to the reception rooms on the far side of the north wall.
Alberta (Mrs. Leslie) Frazier and two young women we didn't know were studying the bronze plaque which carries the names of the men and women of the church who took part in the first World War I, forty-nine in all, from John Archer to Jim Young.
Having lived here for twenty-six years, Mrs. Frazier is something of an old timer herself, so there were several names on the plaque that were familiar to her. Names like Kellner, Archer, Kittleman, Crouch, Paxton, Buehler, Beckwith, and Montgomery. But who, she asked, is Ney E. Wingate?
Bound to be Miss Annie's Ernie, replied Old Stuff, who was learning for the first time what the N stood for in Mr. Wingate's name. Yet this bears out what we have often mentioned in this column, namely the history-mindedness of those generations who came before us, both in the delta and the hills. And the Napoleonic era left its imprint, in place-names like Lodi, Arcola, Warsaw, and in given names such as Ernie Wingate's. For Ney was one of Bonaparte's ablest and best-remembered marshals.
And who is Stanley Law, continued Mrs. Frazier, who wondered if he was a member of the Lake Washington family of that name.
No Alberta, Stanley was a brother of Allen and Agnes (Peggy) Law and of the First Church's Deaconess Louise.
Did we know everybody on the Plaque, asked one of the young women, whom we didn't know, her manner suggesting incredulity.
All but two or three of them ma'am, for you see not only Greenville but also First Methodist was smaller, and everyone here knew everyone else when that war was being fought. We grew up with a lot of the boys on the list, went to grade school with 'em, and shot marbles and played ball alternately in their yards and our own. Of course, some of those names represent older men, to whom we paid deference In those days, but they don't want us to say “sir” to them now, and none of 'em was over ten years beyond our age group anyhow.
A few were younger than Stuff, like Frank Riggs (Miss Susie Trigg’s nephew), Jaybird (for Mortimer) Jordan, Raymond Phillips, Ben Wasson, Jack Holcomb, and R. H. Lake, and the last three of these served also in World War II.
The names of Will Jayne, his brother Lowry, and Dr. John Archer remind us again of the great Poosie Trigg, who remembered when the east side of Broadway, from Washington to Alexander, was called "Methodist Row". (Our good friend, Mrs. Will Rarrard of Greenwood, lived along there too, when she was Miss Maybelle Smith.)
Gold Star names include those of Wilmot Paxton and Jim Finch. Douglas Jones survived that war but died soon after as a Marine Lieutenant in some sort of Caribbean ambush.
All too many of the veterans have since departed this life, and some are long gone. Roberdeau Dunn, Lamb Crouch, Tommy Holmes, Claude Johnson, the brothers, Stanley McClain, Walter Russum, Charlie Kittleman, Alec Taylor Ransom, Carnot Posey, Jim Young, Jack Holcomb and there may be more.
One of those names makes a heap of bells ring. For the late Carnot Posey used to play saxophone for some of our homemade music. He worked for the I. C. Railroad here for several years, then moved to Indianola to represent the Virden interest.
A few weeks ago, when Mr. Eisenhower and Gen. Montgomery put us to thumbing through the history books, we ran across the name of Colonel Carnot Posey. He was second in command of Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Featherston's Mississippi Brigade, Anderson's Division, Longstreet's Army Corps.
The Carnot Posey we knew must have been far more interested in saxophone, waybills and lumber than he was in genealogy and the cause that was lost. For he never once mentioned so close a tie with the confederacy.
Alexander G. (for Galla Paxton) is the only one on the First Methodist, plaque to become a ranking general, so far as we know. Perhaps he has similar plans for that second grandboy of his, who goes by the name of "Zan".
