Gilbert M. Cruit
Hollinger, as mentioned last week, was an up and coming community in southern Monroe County in the late 1800s. Yet history is more than the names of forgotten towns on the yellowing pages of old newspapers and maps. The real history comes in the every day lives of those who made their way through day to day living, who reared families, worked, lived and died in the areas they held dear. No story is more poignant to the above sentiment than the story of Gilbert and Mary Louisa Cruit, who lived at Hollinger during the 1800s.
In days of old, Gilbert is said to have been born in Devon, England in 1815. According to genealogical sources, he is said to have run away from England because he did not get along well with his father. Supposedly, before leaving on the ship, America, he looked at his father for a long time as his father set in the family study. The father, who was unaware he was being studied, would soon learn he would never see his son again as the young man embarked for the New World.
The young lad soon found himself in a new land bursting with optimism and growth. Gilbert likely followed the trail of pioneers down the Old Federal Road to what was then the American South West, that being the newly minted state of Alabama.
Gilbert Cruit thereafter became a stagecoach driver on the Old Federal Road. Also, in Monroe County in those days was the Gallaspie family, who were living on Limestone Creek in the Alabama Territory in January of 1819, when a daughter was born to the family named Mary Louisa. She was the eldest of a large family of brothers and sisters.
The family relocated near Hollinger's Bridge, along the Old Stage Road, where the father ran a stage stop near present day Enon. A young Gilbert and Louisa were married on March 28, 1842. The couple soon settled down to a quite farm life near what was called Hadley in those days. Hadley was near the county line of Monroe and Escambia counties.
Their hospitality is said to have been well known, as in their door always stood open to their host of friends and at their cheerful fireside many a tired stranger from the Old Stage Road sought warmth from the cold or a drink of water from their well on a hot summer's day.
The Cruits had ten children born into their family circle. Two of these died as small children. The third was Richard, who died at the age of thirteen on September 7, 1872. Gilbert followed his son to the afterlife a short five years later.
On August 14, 1896, her youngest daughter, Margaret Eleanor Cruit, married to Mr. C.R. McNeil, passed and on February 7, 1905 Gilbert M. Cruit, Jr. passed away. Later, on March 3, 1906, her youngest son George W. Cruit also passed away.
Robert F. Cruit (1844-1926) was the first postmaster of Mortimer, Alabama at what is now McCullough, Alabama. According to documents posted on Canebreak History's Facebook Page, the Mortimer Post Office was established five miles from the postal route between Atmore and Hadley and six miles from Steadham. Mortimer (McCullough), was listed as having a population of 75 at the time of the founding of the post office. Allen E. Driskell, Confederate veteran and great great grandfather of this writer, was appointed Postmaster in April of 1900 at Mortimer.
According to her obituary, "Mrs. Cruit was a consecrated Christian lady, having been baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist church by Rev. A.J. Lambert. She often expressed a readiness to go. At the home of her eldest grandson, Mr. W.H. Lane, on Saturday May 9, 1908, as the sun was sinking behind the western horizon this beautiful life came to a close and the weary spirit took its flight to that beautiful land of rest beyond the skies." Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. B.H. Crumpton and she was laid to rest beside her husband and other family at Enon Church.
Today, as a gentle summer's breeze sweeps amid the silent tombstones at Enon, it is easy for a visitor to hear the faint whispers of stories waiting to be told among the long passed residents of Hollinger, Hadley, Coley and the Old Federal Road.
Shadows and Dust Volume III: Legacies is available for purchase in the amount of $30.00+$5.00 shipping and handling to PO Box 579 Atmore, AL 36502 or visit Lulu Publishing.com; Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles.com OR at the Monroe County Heritage Museum in Monroeville, Alabama or by calling 251 294 0293.
