GEORGE N. AND AMERICA CRIM HONEYCUTT

The following bio was taken from page 244 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Cemeteries of Texas

The date was November 19, 1857. The state was Alabama, Shelby County. The young man was George N. Honeycutt, born in 1835. With homemade valentines, poetry, and songs, he had wooed his young lady bride-to-be to the altar of matrimony. She was America Crim, born in 1837. (See John W. Crim Family.) These are my great-grandparents. Miss Crim treasured the valentine and the poetry and kept them in her Bible. We are very fortunate to have them now. When she was twenty and he, twenty-two, they became man and wife.

To this union were born three daughters: Rozy Ann Honeycutt, born October 10, 1858; Mary E. Honeycutt, who was born January 1860 and died October 11 the same year; and Martha Louisany Honeycutt, born March 13, 1861. The latter is my grandmother.

The War Between the States began and young George N. Honeycutt went to serve in the Confederate Army. He wrote to his wife from Camp Selma, Alabama, April 27, 1862 but didn’t complete the letter until May 1. By that date he mentioned the hardship of camp life and said that he was ill with a "cold." This was his first and last correspondence to his young wife. He died on May 11, 1862. The young widow, America Crim Honeycutt, left Alabama with her children and came to Texas to live with her Mom and Pop, the Abraham Crims. She was the elder sister of J. P. and J. W. Crim and two other war-widowed sisters. The settlement was at Crims Chapel, Rusk County, Texas. A brother-in-law, R. M. Honeycutt, through correspondence, helped America dispose of her property in Alabama. He was a Baptist minister in 1874, in Baker County, Alabama.

My grandmother, Martha Louisany, known by her friends as "Lousa", was married December 28, 1879 to Joseph Anderson Irwin (born in 1858). They homesteaded a plat of land two and one-half miles west of Crims Chapel and erected a small house where their five sons were born. Walter Newton, born in 1885, was the second son. He was my father.

Grandma took much interest in the musical training of her boys. They had guitar, violin, organ, and piano lessons. They all sang with their string band for her entertainment and for that of the community. Walter and Andrew taught in singing schools in and around Rusk County. Otho taught piano lessons and is still know for his ability to tune pianos. He is now the only one left of the five sons, and although he is eighty-six years of age, he still leads singing in his church. The other two boys were Bazel and Earnest.

From an early age, my father made us aware of his love for singing, and as soon as possible my brother Forrest bought himself a guitar, and within a short time he and I were singing in duets for community activities around the county. People to this day remind me that they used to listen to "Forrest and Lavelle" on the radio broadcast from the first radio station in Rusk County. All my brothers and sisters had a part in singing, too.

The children are, in order of birth: Forrest, Wilton, Lavelle, Edelle, Ruby Lois, Marie, Geneva, and Wayland. Our mother, Mattie Belle Walton Irwin, encouraged us in every way. (See Walter and Mattie Irwin story.) She was too small to be heard, but you can bet she was patting her foot and keeping the pot boiling in the kitchen on those Sunday afternoons when we all got together.

Submitted by Lavelle Irwin Scarborough