Elsie Mae PRIEST

Family/Spouse: Earl Martin SEAVER. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Earl Martin SEAVER was born on 12 Feb 1961; died on 1 Feb 1967.
2. Karen Thelma SEAVER

John married Thelma Mae SCROGGIE on 16 Jun 1925. Thelma was born on 16 Jul 1907; died in 1954. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

John was Zada's first cousin

John married Zada Ella PROCTOR. Zada (daughter of Alfred Daniel PROCTOR and Nancy Ophelia Madoria LEITNER) was born on 26 Sep 1885 in Twin to Ada; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Zada was Charley's darling for the few years that he lived after their marriage. (He was a widower with no children.) He bought Zada a new car which she learned to drive at a driver's school and they enjoyed life going fishing at "The Little Bridge" at New Smyrna Beach and visiting relatives.

Aunt Zada symbolizes the hard working, little money, proudness, fidelity, and courteousness of most of our old timers. She worked in the fields; scrimped in the kitchen; made every relative "feel at home"; saw her husband die of cancer; nursed her bedridden father-in-law; married a second time; learned to drive a car when well past middle-age; lost a beloved great grandchild to brain tumor; turned to her other great grandchildren for comfort; never drank, smoked, or cursed; still scrappy--if you think-that I admire this little 86 year-old bundle of energy--then you're right!

Fannie Priest Kipp

Notes:

PRIEST, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (Pvt.) was taken prisoner twice by the Federals at age 16 on his father's farm near Palatka, Fla. At age 17 he enlisted Aug.1, 1864 at Waldo, Fla. in Co. H. lst Fla. Reserves. Discharged May 1865, Madison, Fla.(his Company surrendered 10 may 1865 at Tallahassee, Fla.) Christopher C. Priest became the 2nd husband of Sarah E. W. Leitner. (Researched by Fannie Belle Priest Kipp from papers obtained from the Florida and South Carolina Archives and from stories told by relatives.)

Written by R-Earl Kipp-concerning a cousin of Lum Priest. All of the older brothers and the father had left the plantation to fight in the Confederate army except 'Sant'. Sant was only 12 and supposed to help his Mother run the farm. One of Sant's chores was to bring the water from the well some distance from the house. On one trip he disappeared and the full bucket of water sat at the well. Two years later, after serving as the Col.s Boy and on his way home at the end of the War, he picked up a bucket of water and as he entered the house, sang out, 'Ma, I done brung your water!' (told by Ruby Landrum Montague.)

Papa was in a delightful story-telling mood the day he told this one.--His Dad, Lum Priest (C. Columbus Priest) had had a feud with a man ever since he was a teenager. Finally the man issued a challenge for a fight to determine who was the "best man". Lum had two friends to back him up, his enemy had a "whole cow pen full of seconds." Lum pinned the man to the ground and demanded that he holler. The man refused. Lum gouged at his eyes--still no sound. Lum then bit a piece of his ear off before the man hollered "Uncle.' On the way home when Lum's wife Sarah changed baby Walter's diaper, she found the ear-part in the diaper where Lum had spit it. Fan Priest Kipp

Christopher married Sarah Elizabeth Waring LEITNER. Sarah (daughter of Jacob LEITNER and Charlotte SOUTER) was born in 1847; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

When Sarah E.W. Leitner was packing to migrate to Florida with her parents she was told to take only the absolute essentials. 8 year old Sarah begged so hard to bring a little rose bush (everblooming Louis Phillippe) that she was allowed to "carry it all the way on my lap". As long as Sarah lived she had a bush of this rose (also known as the Carolina Rambler) in her yard. She rooted hers under an over-turned Mason fruit jar. --told to C. Patrick Priest.

Sarah E.W. Leitner Griner Priest demonstrated the Leitner determination when the nineteenth amendment went into effect Aug.18, 1920. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Aged 73 at this time Sarah went to the polls at the first opportunity and consulted with no one as to the most desirable candidates. (Told by her son Clarence C. Priest as he neared his 95th birthday. That same day Papa recalled that his grandpa, Jacob Leitner, Jr. ((1807-1884)) would become so wrought-up when he prayed at family prayer time, he could be heard a quarter mile away. Fan Priest Kipp)

Alfred married Nancy Ophelia Madoria LEITNER on 20 Oct 1874. Nancy (daughter of Jacob LEITNER and Charlotte SOUTER) was born on 27 Apr 1852 in Richland Dist, SC; died on 1 May 1939 in Oxford, FL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Better known as Ophie. Came to FL with her parents in 1855/6.

At age 83 in an interview, Ophelia said: "The greatest mechanical invention during my lifetime has been the radio