Jim Martin

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Biography

“Jimmy Martin was born at High Bluff, raised at Wesley Chapel and educated at Oak Grove.” These words from the Rev Dr Moody Faulk of Hartford, Alabama, serve to introduce me, Jim Frank Martin, Jr., the descendant of seven forefathers who fought in and survived the War of Southern 1861-1865. This series of notebooks documents my ancestors including Daniel Fulford b. 1815 Carteret County North Carolina d. 1880 Geneva County Alabama; his son, James Monroe Fulford, b. 1843 Pike County Alabama. They are my paternal great grand father and great great grandfather. Other family trees document the ancestors of William Yancey Martin, my paternal grandfather, b. Macon Georgia 1881 d. 1946; Recer Lee Barnes, my maternal grandfather, b. 1890 High Bluff, Geneva County, Alabama; his mother, Mary Ellafare Jones Barnes 1871-1950; and her father, John Calvin Jones, b. 1843 Oak Grove, Geneva County Alabama d. 1920; Willie D Vaughan, my maternal grandmother, b. 1893 Gilmores Chancellor, Geneva County, Alabama and her father Daniel Vaughan b. 1863- d. 1896 Geneva County Alabama and allied families. Seven of my ancestors volunteered to fight in the War for Southern Independence. They and I were born in southeast Alabama. All of them lived in Dale County or the Southern District of Dale County when they volunteered between 1861 and 1863. I was born January 18 1947 in rural Geneva County northwest of Hartford, Alabama in a wooden frame farmhouse with 14 foot ceilings built about 1890 on a farm that belonged to my great grandmother, Mary Ellafare Jones Barnes 1871-1950, and her son, Recer Lee Barnes 1890-1967. Educationally speaking, I attended Oak Grove elementary and junior high in rural Geneva County on Alabama Hwy 52 between Geneva and Hartford, from 1953 to 1957. On May 28 1965, I graduated from Geneva County Hi School, Hartford. After lingering too long at Enterprise State Junior College, Enterprise, Alabama, I enrolled at Troy State University, Troy, Alabama, whose faculty saw fit to award me a BS in business administration and marketing and a BA in English and history between 1970 and 1973. The University of Alabama tolerated my presence in their English graduate program classrooms for two years before I exited stage left sans a master’s degree in 1980. I flunked French and thus imploded my dream of working as a junior college instructor teaching freshman composition and creative writing. My career, such as it was, consisted briefly of pursuing aborted efforts to teach high school English, speech and geography, and later write and shoot photographs as a correspondent/photojournalist for two daily and two weekly newspapers in Houston, Geneva and Coffee Counties in southeast Alabama. In March, 1989, after exhausting all my options for further employment in my state of birth, To paraphrase Elvis, I drifted on down to coastal Louisiana and worked offshore almost three years in the Gulf of Mexico as a galley hand, washing dishes, making beds and laundering clothes for oil and gas workers, making minimum wage, working 84 hours a week, the most money I ever made in my life doing menial labor with two college degrees. From May, 1989, when I finished my final tour offshore, and never received a call to return, but never received a pink slip, I settled in New Orleans Louisiana, where I lived until Hurricane Katrina struck August 29 2005. I supported myself there as a freelance academic tutor for students online and at Tulane, Loyola and the University of New Orleans, some of whom spoke English as a second language. Currently I live in Scott, Louisiana, just west of Lafayette, where I pursue ancestry research, concentrating on persons whose ancestors may or may not have fought and died during or survived the War of Southern Planters & Slaveholders. Facebook - Wiregrass Genealogy High Bluff High Falls Oak Grove Wesley Chapel St Paul

Jim Frank Martin, Jr. was born on January 18, 1947 at High Bluff in rural Geneva County northwest of Hartford, Alabama. He was born in a wooden frame farmhouse built in 1890 on a farm that belonged to his great-grandmother, Mary Ellafare Jones Barnes and her son, Recer Lee Barnes. He attended Oak Grove Elementary and junior high in rural Geneva County, Alabama and graduated from Geneva County High School in 1965. He received his B.S. in Business Administration and a B.A. in English and History from Troy State University, Troy, Alabama. At the University of Alabama he studied two years toward a M.A. degree in English, but did not graduate During his career, Mr. Martin taught English, world geography and speech and tutored students in college preparatory English and college freshman English composition.. He also took photographs as a correspondent/journalist for newspapers in Houston, Geneva, and Coffee Counties in Southeast Alabama. He lived in New Orleans for 14 years until Hurricane Katrina struck. Mr. Martin currently lives in Scott, Louisiana where he pursues ancestry research, concentrating on persons whose ancestors fought, died, and/or survived the War of Northern Aggression.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Jim Frank Martin at registration.