MC Bostick

Transcription of cassette tape: "Roots, Volume 1", prepared by M.C. Bostick, ca. 1978.

(Transcription and annotation by W.D. Bostick, December 1998).

Side A (note: tonal quality of tape is deteriorating, tape is binding on capstan, etc., making transcription advisable for purposes of preservation;  some portions are not decipherable)

".. I'll start at the beginning again.  I have a tape somewhere that didn't come out too well, and I don't know where I put it at the moment. So it might be better to start over again, anyhow.  but to set the record straight, I might say that my name is Marvin Cathey Bostick, and I was born on September 28, 1914 in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee -- of the same place that James K. Polk and William D. Bostick and Marvette Marie Bostick came from --  sometimes known as "Mule Town, U.S.A.,"  but necessarily because of the Bosticks being from there.

My father was Marvin Amis Bostick, better known as "Doc", and my mother was Bessie Blanch Cathey Bostick, who's people still live in the Hampshire, Kettle Mills, and Isom communities in Maury County. I had one brother, William Whaley Bostick, who's 3 years older than me, minus a couple of weeks or so.  He was born October 10, 1911.  My father died in 1925, when I was 11 years old and Bill was about 14.  My mother worked for a great many years as a dental nurse and technician with several dentists there in Columbia, mostly with Dr. Roy Galloway {?}.  My grandmother on that side of the family was Betty Nicholson Bostick, and she died when I was quite a small boy.  Grandpapa Bostick did live until 1936 and died about a week after Babette and myself were married on July 4, 1936. He was 83 years old at the time, had cataracts pretty bad, and had a recurring prostate gland problem, which was chiefly responsible for his death at age 83. The other grandfather on mother's side of the family was William Alexander Cathey, and he also died at the age of 83 from prostate gland complications.

My father was the oldest of 5 children, consisting of {1} my father; {2} My Aunt Bess, who married J.C. Snead, and lived a great deal of her life in the Los Angeles area. She had been, during World War I {WWI}, secretary to Barney Barouche, the war manpower administrator back in WWI.  This was before she came to California and became  a "sun-worshiper". {3} The 3rd child was Jim (J.T.) Bostick who spent most of his life in Birmingham {Ala.}, and who died a few years back, and who was married to my Aunt Juanita.  He was a building and loan executive with ?? Mortgage in Birmingham for a great many years. {4} The 4th child in the Bostick family was Kate, who married Jim McGruder.  She has two children, and she lived for a long time in Texas and later moved to California. She died quite a few years back, but her 2 children are still living in CA - - Jim (James E.) McGruder and his sister Betty, who lives, I believe, in the Santa Barbara area - I don't recall exactly what her last name is.  [Did forget to mention that Aunt Bess Snead did have 1 child, born quite late in life, named Sarah, and Sarah for many years was a missionary living abroad, and I've lost track of her and do not know exactly where she is at this time.] {5} The youngest child in my father's family was Gene - William Eugene Bostick, Jr. - and Gene did see service in WWI, 'though he was not too well suited physically for it, and he lived all of his adult life in Birmingham, and worked for (and retired from) the ? Alabama, just west of ?.  Gene married late in life to a woman that had 1 child, and just had the one foster child, and I never did get to know his wife at all, and only met the foster son a couple of times when Gene came to Columbia for a funeral or something of that type. He was a very nice fellow. The child was frail type, quite intellectual, and they were very close to each other.  .. Omitting the adopted son of Uncle Gene, it will be seen that I have 5 cousins on my father's side: Sarah Snead, Diane (Bessie's only child),; Diane and Hugh Bostick, Uncle Jim's children; and the two children of Betty and ? McGruder.  My brother and these 5 1st cousins and the children which they have, these are the only surviving near relatives that I do have on the Bostick side of the family.

I entered public school in Columbia ??  about a block from where I lived on Woodland St. next door to my Uncle Dan Cathey's house.  I entered in the 1st grade when I lacked a few days of being 7 years old.  In those days in Maury County it was a requirement that you had to be 7 years old to enroll in 1st grade, and my birthday was Sept 28 and school about the 10th of Sept so I just lacked a few weeks of being 7, but they sent me home and would not let me enter school that year. ... {the remainder of this section is mostly unintelligible, due to tape quality; mostly relating to how the next year, M.C. spent about 1 hr in 1st grade, and ended the school year in 4th grade, since he had learned to read from his grandfather's extensive library} .. moved outside city limits..  {attended} Jr HS at old location of Columbia High School .. on Anthenium St, and also took 4 yrs of HS there, and graduated from HS in the class of 1932 at the age of 17.  I did not engage in interscholastic athletics since during my high school career, I was always quite small and I believe at the time of my graduation I finally got up to about 125 lbs. While I was the captain of the debating team in Sr yr, and ? interscholastic debating in the Columbia school area for 2-3 yrs at that time.  Did take some public speaking and entered the declamation {?} contest after Columbia High.  .. made good grades in school, the best grades in English, Math, {Science?}.. and that sort of affair; not too good grades in music, ??.. and was not a {French?} scholar. I made it through the entire {9 years/12 grades} without bringing a book home. ..it was difficult to achieve this feat, since I did run into a few teachers that they would not have anyone in their class who did not study at home, and I carried a empty satchel filled with waste paper back and forth when I was in that situation.  I did make it through school without ever carrying a book home, and I did win the Maury County spelling match which was in the nature of an interscholastic event back in grade school days - I did win it 3 times, the 1st time before my 12th birthday.  And that's about all the bragging I can think of, because other than that I did not have many scholastic achievements that I could mention.  I did not get to attend college, {but} I did take 2 correspondence courses a little bit later on before I got married.. took radio from National Radio School and I took mining, surveying, and mapping from International Correspondence Schools...... ?? ... just before I did marry.  It was much harder back in those days for a fellow who worked ....not much cash on hand, to co-op through college.  I did have a number of offers, of course, in my Senior year of school, but didn't have any that were within my financial capabilities at that time, since as I mentioned mother was working as a dental assistant trying to make both ends meet and put me through HS, and it was necessary that I get a job and start bringing in some money on my own ASAP. 

I had worked for a number of years for both Postal Telegraph and Western Union delivering telegrams, jerking sodas there at ?? Drug Co., and one or two of the others, and the 1st industrial job that I had was immediately upon graduation from HS {was at Mass. ?? & ?} hosiery mill  and Shuey grocery Co {... Al Shuey's parents and uncle of the ??  and Kirks in Columbia}.. { at which time} I got an offer to go with Swan Chemical company there in Columbia prospecting for phosphate rock on Williamsport Pike, at the site where the Monsanto plant is now.  {They} had for many years a chemical lab, a private chemical lab, a great many of the chemicals were given to me by Aliston Webster, Sr., and he was he one who recruited and recommended me for the job with Swan Chemical Co. And I went to work for them about 10 February, 1934, when the temperature was bitter cold and we were prospecting outside for about 10-12 hours per day, and I like to froze to death that 1st month or so. Later on, I worked for Swan at the Birmingham {engineering} office.  I prospected in North Central Florida, around Perry, Mayo, below Hooks Hammock, several counties north of the Dunellen hardrock phosphate mines around there.  I went back to Birmingham and was working with Swan for B.G. Klug {?}, executive VP, when Monsanto Chemical Co acquired the majority stock in Swan, and Mr. Klug{?} said that he would send me to the Anniston plant, so that I could get lost in the Anniston Plant before the merger, because he thought that Monsanto would get rid of everybody at the Brownmarks Birmingham engineering office. So I went to Anniston, where I staid 1-1/2 year and after Monsanto acquired Swan, they decided to build the large yellow phosphorous plant in my hometown of Columbia, based upon the original prospecting we had done there, rather than in the Florida area, where it looked like we were to put the plant, had Swan remained in control.  So in the Spring of '36, I was transferred back up to Columbia and was in on the building of the original yellow phosphorous plant there.  All told, I put in about 14 years there with the combination of Swan and Monsanto.  I left there to go to Chattanooga, where I worked with ? company, designing portable hot mix asphalt ?, and then I went back to Columbia to work with Jack Oglesby {in his} machine company.  When the company was moved to Nashville, I moved to Nashville with Oglesby, and put in a number of years with them.  I went from there to Avco Corp, there at the airport in Nashville, where I again put in 13+ years, and left Avco to go with Scott Machine Tool Co, the Atlanta-based distributor of machine tools, where I worked about 8 years.  I did officially retire on my 63rd birthday, in 1977, and decided to back date it to the previous birthday (62), {since} I had been unemployed the previous 12 months.

I have been a radio amateur since 1952, with the call letters W4WHM.  Since my retirement, I have been enjoying doing some radio operating, something I was never able do much of during my working career.

I've been rambling off here without notes, and it just dawned on me that I made the statement earlier that I had 5 1st cousins on my father's side of the family, and that shows maybe that my math's not as good as I thought, because I believe that if you take Sarah Sneed, Diane, Hugh, and Neil Bostick and Jim and Betty McGruder, that does add up to 6 1st cousins on my father's side, and I apologize, but you know how it is when you're not too strong in math. 

So now let's look at mother's side of the family.  As I said, my grandfather on the maternal side was William Alexander Cathey, and his 1st wife that was my natural grandmother (and my mother's mother) was Margaret Shannon Cathey, also there from the Isom/Kettle Mills area.  They had 4 children,  the oldest of which was my Aunt Ella (Mrs. J.C. Finley).  She married  Uncle Cam Finley; they lived at Birmingham for most of their life, and did not have any children. Uncle Cam died a number of years ago, {having} lived to a ripe old age, and Aunt Ella lived in Birmingham until about a year ago when she did move to Columbia, and she's hale and hearty there as she approaches her 91st birthday.    The second child was Dan Cathey; his first wife was Fanny Minor Cathey, and they did not have any children.  Fanny did die a great many years ago, and Dan's second wife was Edith Nichols Cathey, and that union produced one child, Ellen Blair Cathey, who is now married to Bobby Potts, who lives in Columbia. They have a couple of children that are quite nice.  My mother was the 3rd child. And the 4th child was William Callie Cathey .. He married Charlotte Peery, and they still live on the old homestead where Uncle Will and Aunt Janie Kirkpatrick lived.  My natural grandmother died at childbirth when William was born, and William was adopted and raised by Aunt Janie and Uncle Willy, who had one child of their own, Pearl Kirkpatrick, who married Wilson Goodman{?}.  And when Uncle Willy and Aunt Janie made their will, they divided everything they had equally between their natural daughter, Pearl, and their foster child William Cathey, which was quite a nice gesture, I thought.  William and Charlotte had 4 children. The oldest is Cecil Cathey, {who} teaches school there in the Columbia system. The 2nd is Archie Blair Cathey (another A.B. Cathey), and he works in Mt. Pleasant, I think, and lives in the Isom/Catheys Creek community.  The 3rd one is a daughter, Margaret Jane, who married Wayne ??... And the 4th and youngest of the children is Roy.  Then a few years after the death of his 1st wife, grandpapa Cathey did marry a second time .. Ethel Williams, a very nice lady from the vicinity of Dixon, Tennessee.  That Union produced one child, Annie Mae Cathey, Mrs. Charles B. Cocoran, who still lives there in Columbia. Annie Mae is 12 years older than me, which will make her, as of right now, right at 76 years old, and by far the most attractive woman at her age that i have ever known; she's still a beautiful woman at 76. Annie Mae and Charlie did not have any children.  So I hope my math is better; this side, I have (as you can see) 5 1st cousins ... Ellen Blair (Dan's child)  and the 4 children of William and Charlotte Cathey (Cecil, Archie, Margaret Jane and Roy)....  So I do have 11 1st cousins, so all told Bill has 11 second cousins on my side of the family, plus I believe just 3 on Babette's side (Tom, Jim, and Barbara Friedlob), who are his 1st cousins.  And the only 1st cousins that he would have on my side of the family would be the children of my brother, Bill Whaley Bostick (who, because of some breakups in the marriage, I am not too close to and I don't know exactly where they are at this time). Any of my mother's brothers and sisters were quite fond of their foster mother, and of course, I was extremely fond of her.  I did not ever know my natural grandmother on my mother's side, of course, who died when my mother was 8 years old. but they just didn't come any nicer or better than my grandmother, and all of the children, from Ella down, all agreed that she never showed the slightest partiality between her own daughter (Annie Mae) and the foster children that she got when she married grandpapa Cathey. 

I'm dictating this about 10 days after the death of Charlie Cocoran {5-Feb-1896 to June 1978},  Annie Mae's husband, a real fine fellow, not real garrulous, but a real nice fellow.   He was my best man when I got married, and Annie Mae was bridesmaid to Babette in 1936.  They were real nice people. Charlie had been a veteran of WWI;  he was an ambulance driver at the front in WWI, and for many years has been quite active in the American Legion affairs - a Commander of the local post, and that sort of thing.  So, at his funeral here (Sunday before last), the American Legion did the funeral service.  The coffin was draped with a flag, which was folded in the traditional criss-cross manner and presented to Annie Mae. It made a very nice funeral service, and there was quite a large turn-out at the funeral, because Charlie and Annie Mae had a great many friends, and of course when you put all of the Cathey clan into one room, you've got a pretty good crowd there., if don't anyone else attend. Charlie and Annie Mae had adopted and raised Johnny Henderson, a nephew of Charlies - Forrest Henderson and Mary Charles - very fine people - do live next door to Charlie there and they had a number of children, and Johnny was taken by Charlie and Annie Mae and raised as their foster son.  This made a pretty nice gesture, also. As I said, the Cathey was all at the funeral, and a great many of them asked about y'all, and Brown Grimmitt and his wife.. {I} spent some little time talking to them, and asked about Danny - he's of course grown up and married and left town, but {I reminded them} that we still had some shots showing swimming in the old swimmin' hole there in Cathey's creek, back of the Grimmitt place.  I told them that we were going to come back over there one of these days and look for arrowheads again, and told them  that Bill had never quite gotten over the arrowhead looking and the raising rocks and seeing if there were any small critters under the rocks there in Cathey's Creek.  That's a real pretty place, and it's certainly worth going back to.  I'm sure that as the years go by, it gets harder and harder to get there, 'cause I don't think they're farming it.. and maintaining a road to get back to those back lots, and you might have to walk all the way from the parking place at the barn for sure, now. Brown's 2 sisters were twins; Lucille and Camille were there, and I had a nice talk with them, {and} with Edna and ? Cathey, Fred Kennedy, and you can almost name it.  I did mention the fact that it was a shame that we had to pick an event like that for each of our get-togethers now.  they don't hold Family Reunions anymore, and about the only time that we see each other and get a chance to talk is  when there is a death in the family. And I think everybody felt pretty much the same way; it was a shame that we had to get together under that kind of circumstance... but it's better than not getting together at all, 'cause a great many of us are getting up in years and we've scattered we do loose touch there, if you don't have some occasion to meet one another. 

We have to get Deb and Andy down there one of these days.  Deb would be particularly, I'm sure, interested in seeing Brown Grimitt's house and William Cathey's house, both of these are quite old and you can't tell it now from the way they've {been} boarded up and "improved", both of them are of the same construction that was so popular 100 years or so ago, where there was a central breezeway that ran right through the middle of the house, with the living room on one side , and the other rooms on the other side of it. And they did favor running this breezeway straight North and South and it was, back in the old days before the breezeways were closed in, did make a real spot for the North wind to whistle on a raw, cold morning for sure; and she has probably seen similar construction, I'm sure, back maybe in New England. The Grimmitt house, particularly, I'm sure Bill will recall it, was made of Tennessee red cedar logs, and it is quite old. And you know that when they did modernize it, and sheet it in, they did not do anything in the living room except shine up the logs or buff them, and put some new hard plaster in between the logs, and put the huge cedar mantle over the big fireplace; that makes a real beautiful, authentic country living room there, for sure.  And knowing how you people love antiques and old nostalgia type of thing,  you need to get down there one of these days and Deb eyeball it there.

I notice now that just have a few minutes more left on this side of the tape, so I'll just filibuster.   I believe that I told you that my father died when I was just 11. My mother married again when I was about 14.  She married F.L. Nicholson, and for a great many years they ran a small grocery store there in Columbia.  I believe they were running the store, for sure, when Mimi was born . And I got out on my own at a rather early age; I never did live at home from about my 14th birthday on.  And maybe thought I might mention that, that may give you some idea of how it is that I got this hermit-type of personality, because I never did have  much home life during my formative years.   My brother did not finish school; he went through the 8th grade and then he wanted to go to work.  He didn't like school particularly. He did go to work early, he moved to Nashville early.  So I never did get to know my brother very well, and since I left home myself at 14, that might explain why I'm not as good a family man as I might have been had the circumstances been somewhat different.  My mother's 2nd husband did die quite a few years before my mother did, and after my marriage broke up, I did take my mother in and we lived together until her death quite a few years back, also. But, thought that might make a good item here to use on these few remaining feet of tape that seem to running through this thing.... {tries to filibuster until the tape runs out}.. I thought I might sing a song or two for you, but I'll spare you that this time and I'll let this thing run on out and let you enjoy silence for a minute... When I come back in on the other side, I'm going to give you some more "Roots", Volume 1, take 2. I hope that  I can find something to talk about on take 2 that might be of some interest to you people there. Sure been nice visiting with you here on take 1, and hope I haven't bored you to tears, and hope that it won't influence you into not flipping it over and playing the flip side, because might be something of interest over there also. So I will see you a little bit later on the other side.  This is the "old one" signing off and clear.

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Maury County Remembers WWII, Pt. 2, MCHS, 1991, p. 399: M.C. Bostick was a radio oficer in the Merchant Seamen.

Columbia city directories:

1938: Bostick, Marvin C. (Babette), chemist, Monsanto Chem. Co., (res) 1004 S. High

1948: Bostick, Marvin, mech. engr. Oglesby Mach. Co., (res) 7th Ave (Riverside).

Nashville city directories: Listings for "Marvin C. Bostick (Babette), secy-treas Oglesby Mach. Co.":

1949: res: 2121 8th Ave S.

1950, 1951: res: 1705 Glen Echo Rd.

1953: 909 Sutton Hill Rd.

SSDI:

MARVIN BOSTICK 2

DOB: 8 Sep 1914

DOD: Oct 1986

Last residence: 37135 (Nolensville, Williamson, TN)

SSN: 409-05-3063 Tennessee

Died of pneumonia, a complication of pancreatic cancer.  SSN 409-05-3063.

Obituary (The Daily Herald, Colubia, TN, October 16, 1986, p.6)

Marvin C. Bostic (sic)

   Marvin Cathey Bostic, 72, died Wednesday in Southern Hills Hospital in Nashville.

   Graveside services are Friday at 1 p.m. in the Rose Hill Cemetary with Rev. Larry Clinkenbeard officiating.  The body is in Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home until time for services.

   The Maury County native was the son of the late Marvin Bostic and Bessie Cathey Bostic.  He was a member of the Christian Church and was formerly associated with the Oglesby Machine Co in Columbia and Nashville.  He was a retired chemist for Arco-Scott Machine Co. and a resident of Nashville.

   Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Babette Friedlob Bostic of Nashville; a daughter, Mrs. Mimi Taylor of Nashville; a son, Bill Bostic of Oak Ridge; a brother, Bill Bostic of Nashville; and four grandchildren.

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Death Certificate No. 8604740

Metropolitan Health Dept., Nashville TN

Marvin Cathey Bostick

SSN 409-05-3063

Died Oct. 15, 1986 Davidson Co., TN

Buried 10/17/1986 Rose Hill Cemetery,  Maury co., TN

Immediate cause of death: carcinoma of pancreas

F. Hawkins, Maury County Cemeteries, p. 335: BOSTICK plot @

Rose Hill Cemetery: Block J (Bounded by A, C, 4th & 5th):

* (Prof) Wm Eugene Bostick, 1854-1936 (b. 12 Aug 1854 in Rockingham, NC; Supt. of Schools);

* Bettie N. Bostick, 1856 - (8 Aug) 1931 (wife of W.E. Bostick; dau. James & Sara Nicholson);

* Mrs. Mary Covington Bostick, 79, d. Jul 1911, Nashville; native NC; mother of Prof. W.E. Bostick;

* M. Carter Bostick, 1898-1964;

* Mary Louise Bostick, 1902-1959;

* Infant Bostick, 1931.

[M.C. Bostick and his brother W.W. Bostick, along with their mother Bessie Bostick, are also buried there]

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Columbia Tenn City directory, 1933-4

Bostick, M.C., 911 So Garden