Our Medford Cousins

Yesterday I told about buying beer from Mr. Medford, as a teenager, at Medford’s grocery.

I talked to my sister last night, she read my blog and told me something I was unaware of. Mr. Medford’s first name was Jake. Jake Medford is a relative through the Tysons. He is descended through the Huey family. The Hueys married into the Tyson family the same way the Hunters did. Jake is descended from Styles Medford and Amanda Huey. And Amanda is descended from John T. Huey, which I am too.

One time when Buna Walker ran for sheriff and his father ran as his chief deputy, I remember two financial backers they had: Jake Medford and Barney Nunn. Barney Nunn owned the Nun-Better Cabinet Company and was extremely religious. I don’t know about Jake, but I do remember sometime back then a cross was burned outside his store.

One time before car driving age several of us rode our bikes to across the street from Medford’ Grocery to the Kendrick’s Farm. The Kendricks had horses and could ride them on their extensive property for a few bucks. We did that several times. The trails we rode the horses is now a subdivision and the house and barn has been replaced by a CVS Pharmacy and a parking lot…. Tch tch.

Once when we rode our bikes there, one of us did not show. As planned we met him in front of Jake Medford’s house. His house has a historical marker in front. I don’t know if I ever read it or not, but it is fairly close to Kennesaw Mountain, it is probably related to that Civil War Battle. Now, occasionally, when I ride by that house and remember several of us sprawled out on his yard enjoying ourselves I wonder why Jake would allow that. We probably bought Cokes at his store… we were paying customers. Probably as far as he was concerned we could have danced with his wife if we bought a bag of peanuts to go with those Cokes.

I remember another time I was with my family on a Sunday ride and we pulled into Medford’s Store and saw my first cousin-in-law Frank walking into the store with long underwear on. Puzzled, then we saw his wife, my first cousin, Faye (a college professor) in the car next to ours laughing. Frank was paying off an election bet.

My sister also told me Dempsey Medford who owned The Bookstore in downtown Marietta were also part of the same Medford Family, which meant we were related to him too.

Dempsey Medford seemed to always have several old hens working for him, and more or less just stood around and looked at people. Dempsey had a thick stock of dark, but graying hair. His son, who also worked at The Bookstore was baldheaded. If one didn’t know better, it would have been easily assumed that Dempsey was son of his son.