The history of
The Russ House
Jackson County, Florida
by
Merritt Dekle
July 2000
All rights reserved!

The Extended Family

At the turn of the century, estates such as the Russ House required many workers on the grounds and in the home. Typically, there would be facilities on site for the provision of meat, dairy products, vegetables and fruit; they would even make their own wine from Scuppernong Grapes. The stables, barns, smoke and spring houses, and vegetable gardens all required workers, as did the household. These individuals were all a big part of each other's daily lives and many of them lived in their own quarters on the grounds.

In recounting any era from the past, we must keep in mind the social traditions and mores of the time. From our present perspective, some of these social structures seem alien, even abhorrent to us, but we will not go into that here. What I do know, from the stories I grew up hearing, is that a mutual feeling of affection and respect seemed to exist between the family members and the people who worked on the estate, and it is impossible to discuss the history of the Russ House without mentioning them here.

Two women in particular were such an integral part of the family that it is impossible to leave them out. These women, Nan and Poll Bryant, had died long before I was born, but their memories were etched upon the family's minds. There was seldom a time when family members gathered when their names did not come up, and in all of the letters from those years, "give my love to Nan and Poll" was almost the standard ending. Nan and Poll practically raised both my grandmother and her children. Their imprint was as deeply ingrained in them as was that of their own parents. I believe they were sisters, but there is not much more that I know about them. They originally lived in their own cottage on the property, but after the land was sold off, they lived in the house itself. Their cooking, their caring, and their sage wisdom was legendary in the family, but unfortunately, my only memory of them was to go with my mother or grandmother to put flowers on their graves.

In my early childhood, Big Mama had a cook and housekeeper named Mariah. Since my grandmother worked in the day, Mariah would prepare "dinner", as the noontime lunch used to be called, and Big Mama would return home for lunch. Mariah was replaced by a woman named Lily Mae DuBose, and I seem to recall that they were related but I can't quite recall how, and there's no one left to ask. It is Lily May that I mostly remember from those years. She was my favorite companion when I would visit the Big House in the summertime, and though I'm sure I must have been a nuisance to her at times, she was always wonderful to that little boy she called "Mr. Merritts". As with Nan and Poll, there were few occasions that the family got together that recollections did not drift back to Lily Mae, particularly her Chicken and Dumplings. She and Big Mama had a special friendship; she called my grandmother "Baby", though I doubt that their age difference was that much. She did not live in the house but was there each weekday, and when her health finally required that she retire and she moved to Newport News, Virginia to be with family, they corresponded until Lily Mae's death.

These individuals were as much a part of the family as any other relative, or so it seemed to me. I do not know if their own perspective would reflect the same experience, but I suspect, I hope, that it would.

Frances Russ Dickerson Bettie Philips Russ Sisters Nan and Poll Bryant holding Bettie Russ Dickerson

Frances Phillips Russ and Poll Bryant Nan Bryant holding Bettie Russ Dickerson and her brother George Clark Dickerson, Jr. With the family pet, Hollywod Bus

Bettie Dickerson, Perman Baker and pony "Prince"

Bettie Dickerson with Rose Borders in Russ House yard

Mitch (?) ca. 1898