Hood and Melinda were born in North Carolina in 1809 and 1814. in their early marriage, they, with their three small children, left North Carolina to move westward and settle in Mississippi. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen. They drove their livestock and stopped and raised crops in the summer and continued their travel in the winter time.

On the way their youngest child died. Little Wright, less than two years old got hold of the brandy jug ( used for medicinal purposes) and drank enough to kill him. Melinda bathed and dressed her baby for burial as Hood hewed a casket from the timber in the forest and dug his grave. There they buried their baby, by themselves, near a spring where they had spent the night They also left a bit of themselves. They never forgot little Wright. Each time they told the story, many years later they wept.

After arriving in Mississippi, they settled in Ponotoc County. The County was later divided and they lived in Lee County. Still later Lee was divided and they then lived in Union County. So that they lived in three different counties but they never moved.

When Melinda's father, Jim Hambrick, died, they gave a man $50.00 to ride horseback to North Carolina to collect Melinda's inheritance of $1,000.00. The eldest son of course got the bulk of the estate. Hood used the money to buy the land where they first settled and remained the rest of their lives there. The deed was written on sheep's skin. Hood built a house with what we call a "breezeway" between each room.

I lived with my grandparents Bob Mc and remember seeing the old house of Hood Melinda s when I was a small child. Hood and Melinda had several more children after their move to Mississippi, they also raised several grand children. Lucretia, the eldest daughter married John Lee Roberts, Grandma Mc's eldest brother. They had three children. The last one born after Robert Lee went to fight in the Civil War and never returned. Lucretia died of a broken heart. The day Lucretia was buried, Hood Melinda's 19 year old daughter Phoebe died and was buried in the same grave as Lucretia in Blue Springs Cemetery. Hood Melinda reared the three Roberts children: aged three years to 4 months. Thomas S. (Sony), Regina (Jina) and Jacquline (Jack) Years later Hood & Melinda lost their son Lee, when he was a young man. He too is buried in In the Blue Springs Cemetery.* Jim died in his 40's, he had been a sickly child and man. His family attended him with loving care and all the family felt the terrible loss. Their other 5 children lived to be "up in years." Where it reads Blue Springs Cemetery, it is crossed out and printed in Fairfield Cemetery.

Hood was a well read man and had the largest library in the community. Malinda was very industrious and had an excellent memory. She never forgot anything. She was calm, patient, kind and generous, but thrifty And was not a talkative person. In those days there were no daily papers, radio or TV. Only mail once in a long while. They depended on the Almanacs to keep up with events. Melinda remembered every date, birthdays and all anniversaries. Just all events. When they ran out of fire they would go to a neighbor and borrow live embers, sometimes a half mile away, but they had no matches. Melinda made tallow candles for light, she made soap, spun thread and wove cloth to make clothes for her family. She sewed by hand, she did the milking, churned the butter, dried fruit and vegetables. She rendered lard and made sausage at butchering time. On Sunday the "Clan congregated at her house. Hood was a sympathetic man and was always bringing home an orphaned waif for Melinda to care for. My mother Kizzie Jolley McGoodwin lived with them and they sent her to subscription school and paid her tuition ( at that time there were few free schools) and Kizzie got a good education. Kizzie would read to Hood in his old age. One night she was reading aloud to hood when he said, "Kizzie, look at Lindy ( his name for Melinda) she is reading without glasses and we've been married sixty years today." (I forgot to ask Kizzie the date when she told me this story). Melinda rode horseback to Mary (Jolley) Caldwell s ( Mary was Melinda s youngest child (#10) when Mary's youngest child was born (#8). That child was Seventy Seven years old 7, April 1872, when this story was written. Melinda had a stroke soon after this child's birth and died four months later. Hood lived three years longer but constantly mourned for his "Lindy, Lindy." A Richard Jolley wrote that Hood married twice, his 2nd wife being a Mrs. White. This is untrue. Melinda died just three years before him and by this time Hood was quite feeble.