Here Comes Raleigh-blog 3

The third of seven blogs

         

                              HERE COME RALEIGH     

          Where does the Pounds family fit into this picture?  Raleigh Ryan and my father, Garland Pounds, Sr. were first cousins.  My grandfather, Charley Pounds, and Raleigh’s mother, Mary Pounds Ryan were siblings.  Mary Pounds married Edward Jefferson Ryan and they had four children.  Mildred and Minnie Alice were their daughters, Edward and Raleigh their sons; Raleigh being the youngest.

          Charley Juneapple (Yes, that was his name) Pounds, my grandfather, was the oldest of six children born to Raleigh Pounds, Sr. and Elizabeth Riley Pounds.  They first had three boys, Charley, Raleigh Jr. and Richard.  Their daughters, Gertrude and Mary followed.  Dewey was their youngest child.

          Raleigh Jr. and Richard were both early members of the Birmingham fire department. Raleigh worked as a master mechanic. He was killed in early August, 1916, when the gun he was removing from a boat accidentally discharged, killing him instantly.  Dewey, while fighting in the First World War, while in Europe, was the victim of a poisonous gas attack which caused a severe mental disability.

          Old timers in the Pickensville area remember Gertrude. She arrived in Pickensville in a roundabout way. When young she moved to Miami, Florida and opened a café. While there she met a man from Cordova, Alabama whose family owned a sawmill and a mercantile store in Miami.  They married and from him she learned the store business.  They later moved to Cordova where they opened a general merchandise and grocery store.  After a divorce, Gertrude moved to Pickensville where she opened a store and café, establishing a successful business.  Silas (Sy) Yagle also had a business in Pickensville and a marriage and merger resulted.  Combining their merchandise, charge accounts and customer base, they created a monopoly in their small town and became quite prosperous. 

          Because of health reasons, Sy and Gertrude sold their business in Pickensville and moved to Arizona, thinking that the climate might be more favorable.  They later moved to Washington State.  After the death of Sy, Gertrude moved to the Republic community in Jefferson County, Alabama where she lived near her nephew, (my uncle) Gaby Pounds.  She died on November 25, 1967 and was buried in Forestdale, Jefferson County.  She had no children.