I wanted to share this family photo of John Underwood with the community. Location: Houston, Texas, United States. Date: January, 1914.
Click here for the image details page or here for the full-sized version (1058 x 1632).
John Allison Underwood, age 36, on the left; Ralph Sidney Underwood, my grandfather, age 25 on the right.
John was my Grannpa's favorite brother. Grandpa never told me why either of them moved to Texas. John preceded him, and in 1911 Grandpa followed him and lived with him for a short time while establishing himself in Houston. John moved to Alabama and, on Grandpa's permanent return to North Carolina in 1915, he stopped in Alabama to visit again. Grandpa, a church going Baptist all of his life, described his brother to me as "rough-edged," but he loved him none the less. Uncle John died in 1920 at the age of 42.
I knew Uncle John's wife, Mattie Fisher Underwood. She was one of five daughter of Adam Clark Fisher, all of whom married into some branch of my family. Aunt Mattie lived until her 99th year.
I knew the date of this picture because it was Grandpa's habit to write on the back or front of pictures, dating, locating, and identifying.
I celebrate the memory of both Uncle John and Aunt Mattie.
