Hank, Merle and Waylon. West Asheville.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Watt Espy, The University of Alabama

From Uncle Watty's yearbook, The Corolla









The Wiregrass Farmer
June 15, 1950

There was a break here because Watty enlisted in the US Navy in the Fall of 1950.  You can about his Navy Days here.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is an Isaac Espy who practices law in Tuscaloosa. Related? When did Watt live in Tuscaloosa?

I see from meandering through you family history that Watt and I were at U of A at the same time; I was there from 1955-1960. A Holman cousin from Headland was also in school then.

When I received your msg Friday I was driving to Montgomery to attend the induction of my maternal grandfather, Congressman Henry B. Steagall, into the Alabama Lawyer's Hall of Fame. Of the 50 members only 2 served in congress - Steagall and Sen John Sparkman. Three if William Rufus King, 1776-1853.

As you no doubt are aware, Mr. Steagall's brother, Orlando, lived in Abbeville and ran the family farm. I have never known the extent of that farm but it must have been a sizeable operation as my grandfather lived right well and then, as now, congressmen don't earn much. Orlando died prematurely in an auto accident and grandfather pretty much took the son - Henry B. Stegall, II - under his wing. That Henry settled in Ozark after law school, served in the state legislature, as state finance director and concluded his service as a justice of the state supreme court. His two sons, Henry, III, and Judge Fred Steagall are also Ozark attorneys and I enjoyed seeing them both yesterday.

My great grandfather, John Holman had ten or eleven sons of whom only two or three remained in Ozark. My father was a banker and concluded his work at the U. S. Treasury department. I was born in Washington in 1936. Following my parents divorce in 1943 we moved to Ozark where I lived off and on until graduating from high school. So I knew all the Carrolls. Could Watt Espy have been a Carroll cousin and that accounted for him spending some time in Ozark.

Of course the Steagalls and the Holmans of those years knew pretty much everyone in SE Alabama. My mother's older sister, Mable, married Arthur Malone in Dothan and an uncle worked for a time at Malone bank in Dothan. Again, as you are no doubt aware, young Wallace Malone put together one of the largest bank holding companies in the Southeast earning a substantial fortune in the process.

Hank Holman