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By Janet Morris Belvin

Years ago, my Aunt Thelma gave me a large trunk which had been owned by my grandparents. It was beautiful, a huge rounded top metal trunk bound with wooden strips.

Inside, I discovered six cigar boxes, each dustier than the last one. I opened them carefully hoping that no varmints would come jumping out at me. Thankfully, none did. But as I pored through each box, I realized what they held – the contents of my grandfather’s life.

My paternal grandfather Walter Frank Morris was born in Gates County in 1876 and lived there until his passing in 1955 from leukemia. He was a farmer who also was what my Daddy always called a timber cruiser, meaning he drove around looking for parcels of standing trees to buy for lumber companies.

He died when I was just a little girl, so I only remember him as an invalid, weakened from the cancer that eventually took him. But the cigar boxes revealed a very different man, one with widespread interests and optimism for the future. They also revealed a bit about the early mercantile history of Gates County.

The El Producto Bouquet box (11 cents per cigar) contained receipts for household purchases from 1913-1937. From what looks like D.D. Lallerby Department Store, Walter ordered a pair of pants for 98 cents, a hat for 49 cents and a harness for $2.98. There were several receipts from Nansemond Grocery Company, Wholesale Distributors. I found a receipt from the Quality Shop, 309-311 High Street in Portsmouth for $2.00 for a tie. A freight bill from Norfolk Southern Railroad Company revealed purchases of bath fixtures, stove parts and pipe fittings among other purchases.

But the receipt that meant the most to me was for the first payment on a New Rotary Sewing Machine for my grandmother, bought in 1917. It was this machine which stood in their house in Sunbury which burned to the ground when my daddy was a young teenager. As my grandparents stood outside with their children around them, Daddy, ever the impulsive lad, rushed back into the house and saved the machine, a machine which I now own. I look at it and think proudly of his courage and of how worried his mother must have been until she saw him come out of the burning house, carrying the sewing machine.

In the White Owl boxes, there were countless receipts for payments made on loans he borrowed from 1905-1927. One of the most interesting notes was from the “Merchants Mill Company, Dealers in General Merchandise.” There was one from Lyman R. Brothers Co. (Hardware, Framing Implements, Paints, Oils, Wire and Iron Fence, Etc.). There were quite a few payments to J.F. Speight, his brother-in-law, who owned a general store. An envelope from Cooper-Riddick Company in Suffolk, dealers in Hay, Grain, Plaster, Lime, Cement, Etc. contained an order for two bags of “Shipstuff.” (wheat by-products used as livestock feed) and 20 bushels of rye. The order form noted “No bran in town.”

My favorite item from the box was a Chattel Mortgage with Note from W.F. Morris to E.D. Eure. In this note, my grandfather conveyed to Mr. Eure the following: “One bay horse named Bill, about 8 years of age; one black horse named George, about 6 years old; Twenty-five shoats about four months old, crossed breed, Duroc, Black Essex and Hampshire.” He noted “all of the above being kept on my farm in Haslett Township.”

The La Palina Box (10 cents Ideals with a Spanish senorita on the lid) contained quite a variety of things. An engraved card announced that Dr. W.G. Starcke, Dentist, had removed his office to 134 Granby Street opposite the Salvation Army Building in Norfolk. His phone number was 22551. There were multiple payment slips for a $200 loan to Walter Morris from Cross & Co. (There were so many receipts for payments made on loans!) There was an inch thick stack of deposit slips to Farmers Bank of Sunbury from 1916 through 1930.

Automotive receipts were from the C.V. Cross Sinclair Station (“Cold drinks – candies and Sinclair products”) and J.M. Byrum & Bro. Authorized Ford Dealer – “Ford the Universal Car!” This receipt from 1924 listed among other things that my grandfather had bought five gallons of gas and one quart of oil for $1.45. There were several receipts for purchases at the Gatesville Oil Company, “Distributor for the Texas Company.” In one, he bought 50 gallons of Texaco Auto Gasoline @ 24 cents a gallon. The box contained a registration for a 1923 Ford Roadster owned by my uncle Tommy Morris.

Medical items and bills were in evidence in the box as well. One of the most unusual things was an envelope which still contained a few “Ramon’s Brownie Pills” advertised to “relieve backache and ordinary kidney disorders.” On the envelope was an illustration of a child doctor carrying his doctor bag, under which was the following description: “The little doctor brings happy days.” The pills themselves were tiny and brown and completely dried out.

Another card addressed to A. Judson McNeil of Quebec, Canada promised that “Rheumatism and all Kidney and Urinary Diseases CAN BE CURED!” I wonder if my grandfather sent off for the free sample promised.

One of Gates County’s early doctors was Dr. E.F. Corbell whose office was in Sunbury. He delivered my father and probably all of his brothers and sisters. In fact, my Uncle Corbell Morris was named for him. In the cigar box were numerous receipts for medical treatments from Dr. Corbell. One from January 27, 1920 was a receipt for payment in full of $38 for the delivery of my twin aunt and uncle Thurman and Thelma. Another from April 13, 1926 was a receipt from Walter for “$7.50 in full for attention to Negro for Morris and Edwards.” Another receipt from Norfolk General Hospital was for Walter’s four day stay in March, 1938 for $28.60.

Then too there was evidence of Walter’s civic and religious involvement. There was a receipt for a donation of $30.00 for the rebuilding of Middle Swamp Baptist Church in 1910. Walter was the Sunday School Superintendent at Middle Swamp Baptist Church as evidenced by a letter to him from Thomasville Baptist Orphanage urging him as superintendent to emphasize a Thanksgiving offering for the orphans. He made a donation to another church as evidenced by a post card from Mrs. J.L. Williams on October 18, 1919 thanking him for his gift.

Walter was on the Gates County School Board as evidenced by a letter from Superintendent of Schools Lycurgus Hofler dated October 18, 1919. He was urging all committeemen to check their schools to make sure they were ready for the new school year to begin October 27th. [Schools started late to allow children to help with harvests.] Walter was encouraged to “scour the floors, wash the windows, remove the cobwebs and dauber nests, repair the desks, and provide suitable seats for all the pupils.” He was also reminded to “secure a plenty of good wood and have it cut the proper lengths for your stoves… Be sure the stoves, stove pipes and flues are entirely safe.” Quite a different kind of preparation than our school board is experiencing this year.

The Roi-Tan box (2 for 15 cents!) held several checkbooks with check stubs made out to his son Chester ($8 for books for his law studies), his uncle Jack Frank Speight for items purchased at his store, and for numerous men for “work.” He wrote several to “Light Co. for Lights” The average monthly bill for lights was $2.70. He wrote a check for $2 to his Uncle George for “fish.” One of the biggest checks was written for $180 for a piano for his daughter Edith. Aunt Edith could really tear up that piano. She played kind of a boogie-woogie style which suited her personality, perfectly.

The box contained little account books where Walter kept records of what he owed the men and women who worked for him, tying tobacco, plowing or hauling timber. There were receipts for plots of timber he’d found for lumber companies.

The Golden’s Blue Ribbon box (“It’s Mild – 2 for 15 cents”) contained two stamp pads for Jill Brothers Commission Merchants 270 Washington St., New York, NY. There was also a metal stencil for Jill Bros, a produce merchant with whom Walter had regular business.

Finally there were checks, so many checks written by Walter, never by Beulah, his wife (my grandmother.) They lived during these years at Sunbury, Drum Hill and Gates. Many of the checks went to pay off loans he borrowed. My family were not wealthy as is evidenced by all these loans and mortgage documents in the collection. And my grandfather’s filing system was primitive at best. The simple fact that they have survived for over 100 years is practically a miracle. But looking through them gave me a few more minutes with the grandparents who died when I was young. And what has struck me is that there is nothing in all of the cigar boxes that didn’t bring credit to his name. He repaid every loan and paid all his tax bills. He provided for his family by owning homes where his wife and nine children could live. He gave to charity and church. And he served his community. Walter was a man with optimism and energy to make something of himself. Though he died when I was six years old, I am proud to be Walter Morris’s granddaughter. I hope my grandchildren will feel the same way about me years after I am gone.

Janet Morris Belvin is the author of Southern Stories from the Porch Swing, The Refuge, The Bookshop on Beach Road, Sycamore Hill and The Amazing Grace [available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere.] A former resident of Gates County, Belvin was n English teacher at Gates County High School and lived in her family’s ancestral home on Millpond Road where her grandfather was raised.