Mother Bale

(Click on the picture to see this article on Kathryn Smith's site)

 I have enjoyed getting an e-mail each day for the last several months from Baptists, Bootleggers, and Everything in Between -- it is a serial inspired by the 1926 diary of Henderson Lanham, a Rome businessman, lawyer, and later our Congressman. He was also an avid gardener, a devoted father, and a sometimes troubled husband. I had thought that he had some association with my local church, Trinity United Methodist, though according to the diary he was a member at First Methodist Church. He was killed in a car-train accident in Rome in 1957.

But in 1926 he ran the Lanham & Sons general merchandise store in Rome, with his father. The store was going through a bankruptcy, but by November had begun to pull out of its emergency. Kathryn Smith the author of this series will end Mr. Lanham's diary and take up another project at the end of this year. I'll miss it. 

Because I am interested in local history and sometimes help with local history tours, I wanted to preserve today's e-mail for future reference. Lanham's diary mentions "Mother Bale" so Smith researches that a little a gives us some more information about this woman. She reminds us of the frequency of childhood tragedy before the advent of vaccines and other modern medicines and medical procedures. Her beautiful gravesite and those four small tombstones would give an opportunity for that somber story.

Here's Ms. Smith's e-mail for today:

Mr. Lanham's Diary: Dec. 18, 1926

Rome loses a venerated local historian

KATHRYN SMITH DEC 18

It was a clear and cold day, and though business at Lanham & Sons started slowly, it picked up as the day went on. Mr. Lanham termed it “good.” Better still, his father felt well enough to stay at work until well after dark. 

He mentioned in his diary that “Mother Bale” died that morning at age 83. This lady was Naomi Priscilla Shropshire Bale, also known as “Grandma Georgy,” an authority on Rome history and a prolific writer. She is quoted several times at length in George Magruder Battey Jr.’s A History of Rome and Floyd County, published in 1922.

In 1921, Mrs. Bale had shared a reminiscence in the Rome Tribune-Herald, concluding with these words: “The curtain of years now veils my eyes, and the drum beats of time have sadly dulled my hearing, but memory lingers and I see again many beautiful pictures, and many sad scenes that have come into my strenuous life of three score and eighteen years. God is my Father and He leads me on daily nearer to the City that hath foundation.” Mrs. Bale was laid to rest the following day at Rome’s Myrtle Hill Cemetery.

One of the saddest memories she had was the death of her only brother during the Civil War. Their broken-hearted father never recovered from the blow, and the young soldier left behind a widow and five children.

After the war, Mrs. Bale lost her first four children, all girls, in infancy, and her husband, a Confederate veteran, died in 1900. This photo from Find a Grave, with the four little headstones, is an eloquent testament to her sorrows. The photo above is also from Find a Grave.