Jeannette McIntosh Nemeth’s recollections. 2005. Incomplete Working Copy



E. S. McIntosh

Dad could build anything from a fireplace.. to turning a peach pit into a monkey in a cage with his knife carving ..and.. a man of his word...quiet, but not asleep at the wheel...HE always knew what was going on.. when I look back at both Mom and Dad...they were wise beyond their years ..right from the beginning. They were a team. They gave me good advice as to what a marriage should be. Said, “always remember, if you harness two mules together to pull a heavy load, if one is a slacker letting the other do most of the pulling.. in time the mule doing the pulling will drop dead...so, you are to always do your half of carrying any load . !! What Dad was lacked, Mom made up for, what Mom lacked.. Dad made up for.....best of all they remained “friends”...Dad left this world with heart problems.. that a logging chain wrapped around the tree and his back.. damaged one of his kidneys.. he kept on working.. with blood on his saddle......and that is another story..



E. S. McIntosh and Quaynah Cannon Marry

The story goes... Dad signed up for war ...they decided to marry before he left... Grandpaw Cannon didn’t want that to happen... Mom got Grandmaw to sew her up a pretty grey dress.. she had lilacs for her flower.. She told parents Dad would be bringing the preacher in a buggy, and they would be married sitting in it pulled right up to the front steps of Blossom Farm, and that they hoped Grandpaw and Grandmaw would come out to see them married. Dad and preacher drove up, Mom got in and...out came her parents and some of the rest of the brothers and sisters to see them married, Grandpaw, tears in his eyes!!. They then went to stay with the McIntosh’s... and that is another story.

I have the marriage license —Mom and Dad...issue date.. Sept. 21, 1918...recorded.. Sept 21..1918, page 119 of marriage record 16 R. E. L. Gillentine/

State of Mississippi...Itawamba county...E. Sherman McIntosh and Quaynah Lee Cannon.. Sept. Issue..Sept. 18. 1918. ...R. E. L. Gillentine...clerk

they were married, Sept. 22, 1918, by D. C?. Boren..

Dad was born, August 18, 1899 and Mom, January 15, 1900



The Cannon Family

I don’t know how much you know of Blossom Farm and White Springs.. and all the history concerning this side of the family. It is a wonderful story lots of twists and turns . The Cannon’s were quite different from the McIntosh side. One little tid bit ...Mom and Dad were living with the Mc’s when Uncle Allen came home from the war...when he walked into the house... no one hugged him or kissed him...nor even shook his hand.. all that was said... was.. ”hah dee Allen”.....

Mom’s side of our family, laughed and smiled... hugged kissed and talked for hours.. LOL When we went south to visit.. I loved the C. side.. all old and worn.. huge old hotel falling down....all the old spooky cabins we could play in down by those wonderful white springs all fenced in.. food...outside toilet...well water.. music being played on the front porch while Dad and uncles etc. cranked Ice cream, and the sound of the swishing of real lemonade with lots of ice.. in a sparkling new tub.. Aunt Pat and Uncle Dewey gliding to the fiddle of G’paw.. I never strayed far from all of this...and amazed at G’paw he played with his middle finger missing on his left hand.. his long stained beautiful teeth ..and red mustache...

It was a whole different thing to go to the McIntosh’s...some great stories about them too...One day I will have to write all the old stories down...I can do that if you are interested... this one way emailing is just plain WRONG...I take the time...and if it is not Important enough for you to take YOUR time to answer.... well....there ya go!!.

And by the way, I never heard a cross or unkind word between my mother and dad... until way after I had children and stopped in one day after a long absence —they both wanted to talk to me at the same time...when suddenly dad said “Quayner... if you’d just be quiet a minute.. I’d like to tell her somethin...”..in a gruff voice.... that shocked both Mom and me... and that was the first and only time ever.

Understand Michael ...your father saw things ..his way....if you like, I will tell you the story of mom and dad and both families pretty much right on, as..I never, as you Dad said, left the nest.....and just about every day or so...I listened to the same stories over and over...........

Another thing, Your Dad would stop by and spend the night with me....I have a dream now and then that comes to pass...I dreamed of your father standing beside a brand new t’model car... all black and shiny... but the windshield was covered in dirt... I walked over and cleaned all the dirt off . I pondered about that dream.. and realized, that ever since he would visit in MY home and I am grown up... when he would start to tell a story that was all wrong.. I had been stopping him short.. and could say “you are wrong”...you were not there!! Or.. do you think you are the only one who has read a Bible.. or searched it.. Our fellowship was getting better as the years went by... he began to see who I really was, not who he “thought”...I was. And how things really were in our family here in Michigan... in his last years... He would call and chat often, and ask, “can I run something by you??”....He was a sweet man... I remember him ......... and trying to do the right thing... but just didn’t have enough information ... and off away from an extended family... with no one to ... pass something by ...

I also have the Marker papers for the Cemetery plot. Death certificates.. and many wonderful old photo’s of them, and relatives of long ago. I started taking them from her old black photo album for the paintings (Mc’s and Cannon’s) I told you about in last email... thank goodness I did... as sometime after Mom’s death.. that photo album was lost.. or someone has it ???



John Cook

John Cook, daughter Nancy Ann Cook Long was mother of Nancy Paralee long Cannon ... who was Grandfather James William and brother John Cannon’s mother. An interesting read... thought you might find it interesting too.. At this time we are finding data.. dates and times etc. as many as we can that are filed in court Houses etc. so we can put life happenings and changes with these dates.. things can then pretty much be put some sort of order in a journal of our history.. but all information sent in by family members will also go along with these papers as these will include oral history and different perspective of the different family members.

I remember Mom talking about Nancy Ann Cook.. so I will add, she also tended to castrating cattle.. LOL and that she knew well how to use that gun!!

Duane and Jeannette

I remember when Duane and I were just kids, when in house on a rainy day would tease Mom to play RC’s guitar. She had the most beautiful small slender hands and tough long finger nails.. so she’d get the scissors and trim her left hand fingernails short and get Dad’s little pocket knife which she held between her left middle and ring finger and used it to slide up the E string in between chords when playing Gravel Train, ..she did this...long before the Rock Stars started slipping those metal and glass slides over a finger.. LOL. She used all her fingers.. no pick. Classic style. She had learned several ways to retune to open tuning. (RC disliked it when someone messed with the strings, as it made it harder to keep in tune I think) But she returned it anyway.. she had learned 2 tunes from a Black Man named Coon Harris..



Coon Harris

Coon Harris was a Logger in one of the Logging camps Dad worked in Mississippi... he drove a team of Oxen and some sort of sled to go where it was mucky to snake out logs. Dad really didn’t like it too well when Mom and very young Ray would go in the swamps with him, as when coming out they would be sitting high high up on top of the chained logs.. he feared what would happen if a chain snapped!! ..but she enjoyed hearing him sort of sing song talking to his team of Oxen as he told them what to and watch him work his mile long whip to flick a pesky fly from one of their ears and not ever touch the ear... and so she.. went. I remember when traveling to Mississippi when young.. and Dad driving into the colored district.. to look him up.. them getting out of the car and chatting and him peering into the car and speaking to each of us kids.

Well anyway he taught Mom two tunes, one was the Guns of Shiloh, the other Gravel Train. We would have her play them over and over through our growing years. Oh, and I remember RC ..his playing in a cowboy band.. the group practicing in our little house.. and me hidden so I could listen to them... another story for another time yes??? Then there was a time of great emotional stress for me..... to get my mind on other things, mother mentioned I purchase a good guitar and learn how to play it.. I already knew how to play piano. She advised me how to pick out a good one. And that is how I came to play the guitar. Once I had it and could play out.. I learned both those tunes, and, it was a good thing for my mental health.

When Duane was in the Hospital some time after his Surgery in Texas... I made a tape of these tunes and sent it to him to listen to in the Hospital... Joyce said how much he enjoyed it.. even calling the nurses to hear. I cannot play as well today, and need a little practice.. so on my “to do” list is to find a good small guitar.. I gave my Gibson 50 to Joe who plays... long ago. And to “Get R’ done”...tunes put on a CD. I don’t know if you have looked at my picture trail.. but on it is a little water color that Mom used a tiny pencil.. and colored with wetted crepe paper ... when Duane and I were small.. sweet!!

There are so many stories...the one about Dad carving a whip stock.. hitting a man .. and his Dad pulling him off this man...great tale...your grandfather was one fine man....the best!! Next time...

Slipped my mind if I wrote.. the stories I am writing are for "you"....with -some-- information...suitable to put for the McIntosh Clan internet. There are stories and more stories. I have the "Duane Letters"....I have your Dad's letters.. as I have mentioned to you before.... all letters ever written to me. We are from McIntosh and Cannon... and I personally feel you need information as to both families, but do let me know if you would rather not learn of these things, I live in my own little family world... and how we do things. The stories I repeat are those I heard .. some parts may be missing.... as so often when I stopped in Mom and Dad's apartment at the farm after seeing the children off on the school bus and enjoyed a cup of coffee and bite of the best apple pie in the world... when, one or the other talked of the past... my mind would wander on things I needed to do that day.. and of course NOW wish I had listened more intently or.. owned a tape recorder.. LOL My days are long and full...I'm still into the teaching and playing of music...and Art...and keeping in close touch with my children.. so not even a minute of time to waste...so do let me know what and where with your ancestry ..exactly... you wish to go.

There are things I wish I knew...where Uncle Allen's girls are... and by the way... there are both physical and mental health information talked about also... Have you heard the story about your Grandfather Mac... when he worked in a logging camp... and pulled tight against a tree, a logging chain wrapped around his waist and horse pulling...... and.... later in life the high blood pressure... In Detroit hospital.. told only one Kidney working.......... etc. Etc..

A younger sister of Mother’s -- Eva Cannon Hartung -- youngest daughter Hazel Bell Hartung Colburn who has been doing the Cannon research... many years... writes these things below about Eva and Maurice Hartung and family. Enjoy the read...



Mom: various memoirs

My mother always carried chewing gum in her purse. Usually it was Juicy Fruit, Wrigley’s Spearmint, Doublemint or Teaberry. Her favorite was Juicy Fruit. She also kept a pack in the kitchen cupboard on the bottom shelf. Sometimes it stayed in her purse too long and became hard so it could be broken into pieces. She also carried a compact of face powder in a blue plastic case with a mirror in the lid. She used light ivory and often rant he puff over her face to “keep the shine off her nose”. Her rouge came in a small round metal case about 2” in diameter and 1/8 “ thick. It contained a small round “puff” to apply the color to her cheeks.

Mom began shaving her eyebrows off in the 1920’s when it was the fashion and continued the practice the rest of her life. She drew a thin, arched eyebrow in with an auburn eyebrow pencil. When she was young she wore eyeshadow and mascara, but later she did not saying it made her eyes look too big. Once she applied make up to her large, heavy lids and the effect was definitely startling. Her eyes looked hug!

She used bright lipsticks until she got older. She ran the lipstick around her mouth then blotted it on a tissue. There was always a red lipsticked marked tissue in her purse and you could smell it mixed with the odor of chewing gum and face powder. The zipper section of her purse was always stained with make up.

There were also cloth handkerchiefs, small spiral notepads. A pen, safety pins and odds and ends of things she might need. Her wallet contained only money, her Social Security card, medical insurance card. I don’t remember that she carried photos.

She was forever reapplying her makeup and said she felt naked without lipstick. She pushed at her hair to put in place and combed—never brushed—it often.

She got up early in the summer, put on a large brimmed hat to keep the sun off her face and worked in her flower gardens until it got too warm to be comfortable. In the cool early evening she worked in them again, then took a sponge bath and put on a silky nylon nightie and cotton housecoat (aka: robe). I don’t recall that she perspired.

After breakfast she wrote letter to her sisters, Sonny, Jane and friends. She required complete silence for this and I knew not to bother her. I took her a long time because she was self conscious about her handwriting. She often started the letters over, wadding up the first one and throwing it haphazardly toward the woodbox. She rarely hit the box and had to pick it up later.



I have from mothers “box O’ Stuff”...three.. yellow slips, stamped Customer’s receipt..from Mississippi State board of Health, Division of Public Health Statistics....EACH dated 5/2/72....Birth...:

First one, receipt# 209710...Registrant/s Ray cannon McIntosh , date of event, mo day year..7-25-19, Reference number..2 MORE....place of event..County ...ITA...Certificate number 21111-19.

Second one, Receipt#209711...Registrant/s..Mavis Geraldine McIntosh... Date of event mo day year,...... 22 (I know her birthday 10-4-22)...reference number 20910, ...place of event ..Co...ITA, certificate number 36507-22

Third one, Receipt# 209712...Registrant/s..James Maury McIntosh...Date of event, Mo.day..year......26 (I know Jim’s birthday 3-14-26)...reference # 209710...Place of event...Co..LEE .

this information copied from slips. There has been a little controversy over the day RC born. I remember we all celebrated his birth on the 25th July.

Dad, From his death certificate..... birthdate....August 18, 1898.. (I remember his birthday as, 1899, on his grave marker reads..1899)...Died: Aug. 16, 1963. Dad and mother were school chums.. in the little country school, she would sit next to him and help him with any difficult studies, Dad was shy, but Mom sure wasn’t...as the years passed, each of the teachers would tell the next grade teacher.. to leave Sherman and Quaynah alone.. to not separate them)..Mom and dad decided way back then, they would someday marry. A story I remember Dad telling, ..he said ”in the school yard the girls would run their hands down into the boys pants to retrieve a penny or two.. and that he cut a hole in his pocket”.. LOL, true or not.. he probably just HAD a hole in his wee pocket!!)...I can see dad with that twinkle in his eye and grin...

I remember I was a little shy in my teens....and your mother Jean, when she stayed at the homestead during one or the other of your Dads service moves...she would take me along to shop in Montrose. She smiled at everyone on the street and bank store where ever she went.. and said hi.. chatted etc etc. while I just quietly walked along. “She told me I should do that, when I said I couldn’t ..she said they will always respond in kind”.... A while after you all left, I was in one of the grocery stores and the owner asked me where Jean was.. then went on to say how much they liked her ..how friendly etc etc. well.. remembering what she had told me...that was the beginning of my...working on my looking someone I was approaching, smile and sometimes to say “HI”...and have been doing it ever since...

Your mom was also the first to show me I could hug my Dad anytime I wanted to and to kiss him on the cheek...I can see her now, bringing him a cold beer or some Ice tea when he was working in the garden.. your beautiful mom tan ..long legs in shorts.. big smile walk up and as she was taller than Dad wrap one arm around his neck and hand that glass to him...and sometimes, kiss his cheek.....Ahh, such sweet memories!!