Bama Planter

I have done more with the wall since I sold the green cupboard two weeks ago. I took out the miniature oil portraits from among the silhouettes. One can finally see the biscuit/pastry table now. The elderly couple oil portraits are from Alabama Black Belt country, so named for the rich dark soil. The chair on the left is a ca. 1680 mushroom chair from Massachusetts. The Windsor chair on the right dates ca. 1790-1820. The little black leather key basket on the table is from antebellum Virginia.

I said good-bye to the green cupboard in the center of the photo. My friend Regina has taken it to her house and I think it will be happy there ! I am choosing one piece at the time to pass on to someone else who will love it as much as I have. My purpose is not for drastic change, but I do think that the log walls are too concealed at the moment. This didn't happen overnight. It was a 15 year process. If I can manage to part with two or three more pieces, I am sure the room will look much better. The room seems small but is 20 ft. x 30 ft., yet with all the pieces, it is a bit cramped. I guess I am moving toward quality not quantity. Plus, I think I need a change. I bought some very nice dark olive green paint to redo the doors and windows. I realized I had not painted the front room in 10 years. I think a few color changes are due. The back room was painted about 1993 and is also due for a face-lift. I did a quick count and there are about 1,200 books in the house. I

I'm trying not to return to my days of clutter.

I filled the space on the left wall between the plantation cupboard and the green stepback.

Some of my jacquard coverlets on a pastry cooling stand at the foot of the downstairs bed; MY OWN hog dressing bench ! , and some mortars on a Pennsylvania bucket bench, with a bit of local pottery. Photo taken in this morning's light. Skies are blue today with highs in the mid-60's in Alabama.

I looked at about ten houses for sale in Marion in 1992. This was one of them, Mrytle Hill, built in 1840 with the side entry door, Charleston Style. I decided it was just too much house for me and bought an 1835 cottage instead. This house is for sale again. It is a beauty.

THE COLONIAL PORTRAIT I purchased has arrived and he is in great condition. The size is 22" x 28" . He will be fine in a black frame.

This shows some quilts being aired out on the porch of my house in Shelby County, Alabama. The house is log and was built by my ancestors Benjamin and Hannah ( Harless ) Wilson in 1816. I am generation 7 from them.

This is my great great grandmother Mary Ellen Roebuck Cunningham. Her father and grandfather owned 5,000 acres of what is now Birmingham, Alabama. The Yankee Carpetbaggers purchased the plantations ca. 1870 and built the city of Birmingham on them and ( according to my family ) "destroyed the best cotton land in central Alabama ."

This photograph shows my family at home about 1898. My great grandfather James A. Cunningham 3rd from left. My gr gr grandfather Ben Cunningham 1st on right. He was in the 2nd Alabama Cavalry with Gen. Joe Wheeler. Left to righ: Richard N. Cunningham, Cousin Laura Moragne Davis, James Alfred Cunningham, Ida Cunningham ( seated ), William Speller Cunningham, Velma Cunningham " Auntee" , Ben Jr. ( died 1926 in auto accident), Craig Denson ( child on ground), Lucretia ( Ludie) Cunningham Denson ( Selma, Alabama), and their father Ben Cunningham Sr. born 1843. Their mother had passed away in 1891.

This photograph shows the Cunningham Plantation Home built 1825. This is my great aunt Susie Mae outside the house about 1920. It wasn't until the 1960's that the original porch was removed and replaced by six columns. The Old Planter Joseph Harrison Cunningham would sit on the top balcony and use a spy glass to watch the field hands. HIs son John was the overseer in the late 1850's. The addiction tacked on to the back corner was the room where my grandfather and his three brothers slept as children. The three brothers all died in the 1918 pandemic. My grandfather was the oldest and survived. Photo from my cousin Cassie.

FINALLY I found a frame to fit my ca. 1770 colonial portrait. The frame is from the 1850's but FITS the painting, so it will be fine. I got it from my friend Jack ( whose father founded Jack's Hamburgers in the 1960's . )

"THE HEADLESS DUCK" ( my pic on the left ) . I'm bidding on a duck head in our primitive group. I hope to win him tonight! I hope no one else needs a duck head without a body ! Update: I won. It's on the way in the mail.