The two people in the picture above with my dad are Hulbert Durham and Mabel Huston. As I was growing up, I don’t remember seeing them at our reunions at all, but they were fond of their Uncle Marvice. They were the children of Dad’s oldest half sister, Elgie Durham (1874-1934), daughter of Dad’s mother, Quintilda Durham. Hulbert and Mabel had the same mother, but not the same father. Aunt Elgie married George Durham and had six children. One child a little girl died very young. Hulbert Durham (the man in the picture) was Aunt Elgie’s youngest of her and George Durham’s children.
I was told by my sisters and others, that around 1900-01 when Hulbert was still a baby, his father George Durham, moved to Texas, taking all the children except Hulbert with him. They said he put the older children in the wagon and left for Texas while Aunt Elgie was at the spring doing the family washing.
Some years later Aunt Elgie married George Huston and had another child. The child was Mabel Huston Harmon, the dark haired lady in the picture with Hulbert and Dad. One part of the story can be partly confirmed by something Donald told me. He said not so long ago a man from Texas came to Mt Olive, a stranger, and said that he thought he had relatives in the area. He was trying to find Dad’s people. Donald met him and talked with him, and sure enough he was a descendent of Aunt Elgie’s.