Aunt Virginia

Henrietta Virginia Watson was born at Kilmichael, Mississippi on January 7, 1891 as the fourth child of Eli Jasper Watson and Malinda Josephine Nations. She was married to Vernon Burns and their first child was Selma Virginia Burns born on December 9, 1917 at Kilmichael.

Vernon died in a runaway mule and wagon accident in rural Montgomery County. He was going to a sawmill to pick up lumber(or slabs) on his drop-tongue wagon. As was common practice, he had no box on the wagon in order to be able to haul a bigger load. It was said that Vernon was a hard worker and always went in a hurry. While pressing his mules to go faster down a long hill approaching the sawmill, the coupling pole to the rear wheels accidentally detached. The front part of the wagon, on which Vernon sat, buckled as drop-tongue units do. The buckled tongue and axle hounds trapped him. The mules became excited and ran out of control. Vernon was killed. Aunt Virginia was left in the world carrying twins. The twins, Zera Blanch Burns and Lera Emma Burns, were born on January 13, 1921.

Aunt Virginia was left with no husband, three baby girls, a piece of land (100-200 acres), plow tools, and farm animals. In other words, she owned a small farm with the necessary tools and animals; but she had no manpower around.

Aunt Virginia had a real struggle. She never married again. Uncle Walter, Aunt Emma, and Grandmother Lynn (Josephine Malinda) Watson moved from the Mississippi Delta back to the old homeplace in Montgomery County to be near and to help Aunt Virginia.

A neighbor, H. Townsend, decided to cut his firewood from Aunt Virginia’s property. She told him twice to stop cutting her trees. When he came into her woods with wagon and team a third time, Aunt Virginia got the old pistol Vernon had left her, loaded it, met the Intruder and shot. The bullet put a hole through the crown of Mr. Townsend’s hat, but did not touch his head. He swore out legal papers against Aunt Virginia. Aunt Virginia was tried for attempted murder at the Old Bank Building at Kilmichael. After all the testimony was heard the jury pronounced her not guilty. After that, Aunt Virginia had no trouble with intruders.

Every time the Pearsons, who had pecan trees and two girls about the age of Selma, Lera, and Zera, came from Hollandale to Kilmichael; they came with bags of pecans and boxes of clothes tied on in every available space of the Ford Model A. We all enjoyed those paper shell pecans, but the Burns girls were the best dressed at the Nations School.

When this writer was about ten years of age, he went to spend the night with Aunt Virginia. Sitting around the fireplace on the cold night she inquired about how much stovewood this writer’s Mother used in cooking breakfast. The writer replied, “An arm load.” Aunt Virginia said, “Your Mama has three strapping boys to cut and bring in wood. If you will get up early tomorrow morning, I will show you how to put breakfast on the table in fifteen minutes with three sticks of stovewood.” For those who may not know, a stick was a piece of ordinary split pine about 16" long and two to three inches across. The writer agreed to get up and see this near miracle. When Aunt Virginia called ‘get up’ early the next morning, it was still dark. The kerosene lamps were lit. Aunt Virginia called the writer into the kitchen. There she placed a wad of newspaper in the bottom of the stove’s fire chamber, put in a stick of wood with shavings peeled out on one side, and then placed two sticks of stove wood on top of that. The paper was lit and the fire started burning quickly. Aunt Virginia put on a pot of coffee, made biscuits and placed them in the oven. She fried bacon and scrambled eggs on top of the stove. A hot breakfast complete with syrup was served in only fifteen minutes just as she promised. The only explanation Aunt Virginia made was that Mama’s wood was stacked outside and wet, but she had to place her wood under a shed and really conserve it. It wasn’t easy for even four women to cut and split wood.

During the middle thirties Aunt Virginia was a cook in the Nations School lunch room. The writer enjoyed her cooking each day at noon while in elementary school. The favorite was her tomato soup.

Aunt Virginia’s last home was in the town of Kilmichael. It was a nice, small, older house that she had repaired and painted and supplied with potted plants. She was a very neat housekeeper and managed to make a place a home. Aunt Virginia died in the middle sixties at the Kilmichael Clinic of complications of diabetes. She was laid to rest beside Vernon.

This was written by Roy C. Watson on April 23, 1993 at Jackson, Mississippi.