My Grandmother, Emma Lewis Mundy, was born on the 10th of July, 1861 in Albemarle County near the present Preddit's Creek Baptist church, Stony Point, Virginia. She was the oldest child of John Dickerson Mundy and Cynthia Anne Birckhead. There were four brothers and three sisters in the family. John Dickerson Mundy was a farmer and ran a mill in the county. He trained his oldest son as a miller as well. It is evident that Emma Lewis also worked around the mill because one of the family stories about her was that she could lift two barrels of flour, one on each hip, and walk away from the loading dock with them. She was said to be stronger than most of the young men of the community. Near the end of the War Between the States, Phillip Sheridan along with his Cavalry under George Custer, pillaged the food producing facilities of Albemarle County. It is said that they destroyed every mill in sight. In the censuses which I have seen after that period, John Dickerson is listed as a farmer. He may have operated as a miller for other mill owners who were well off enough to restore their mills following the destruction. As a matter of fact, I don't know that John ever owned a mill, but he would have had to be operating a mill for Emma Lewis to be lifing barrels there. Also, in an interview I conducted with my Aunt Fannie, just before her death, she told me stories about the mill which she had heard from her mother, my Grandmother.

My Grandmother was well into her fifties when I became old enough to know her. She was a vigorous woman who had a will of steel. These modern day feminists couldn't hold a candle to her. She was in command of everything around her. To say that she dominated isn't half of it. Mind you, she was very fond of me and I loved her. I am telling it like I saw it, and don't mean to be especially critical of her. I am sure that she would have fought the biggest bear in the Blue Ridge Mountains if it had threatened any of us, and very probably would have won that fight.

Grandmother liked fine horses, and had one of the best buggies in our county, a Studebaker. She would have one of the men hitch up the buggy while she put on her Sunday best, and then set off to one of the local meeting places like Stony Point or Proffit. Everyone in that part of northeastern Albemarle County knew "Miss Emma." It was a real treat to get to go along on these rides. Sometimes, when we walked to school at Stony Point, she would come along and pack us all in the buggy and give us a ride home. Most of the time she would manage to find a treat for us in one of the packages she was carrying. Nothing big, mind you--mostly a lemon drop or a cookie. But for a hungry boy returning from school it was pure ambrosia.

Grandma still knew all of the skills of the pioneers who settled that part of Virginia. She was adept at making kraut the old fashioned way, making all kinds of homemade wine from grapes, blackberries or other fruit, curing and caring for meat, and treating minor illnesses. I was amazed to see her use a hen's egg as a hygrometer in making brine to cure the cabbage when making kraut, and it took me several years to understand the wisdom she took for granted. Who would know that the density of an egg was exactly right to make a brine solution of the right strength? Her wines, mostly reserved for medicinal purposes, were fermented by the natural yeast found on the fruit, although she added sugar to get a product which would not spoil. She sometimes allowed us to dip a bit of homemade bread into a little of the wine and eat it. As I remember, the flavor was fruity and sweet, definitely a stolen and wonderful experience.

When our house burned my family moved across the Rivanna to Mr. Peary's place, where they used a house on his land and lived for several years, farming on his rich botom lands. I was left with my Grandma and Grandpa to finish the year at school at Stony Point. I can't remember very much about my stay there, except how glad I was to ford the river and hike up the old abandoned road past the Miller place to be with my family on weekends. I am sure I was treated very well indeed.

I do remember one unhappy event that scared me half to death and impressed me so that I remember it to this day. I slept upstairs at the end of the hall with my cousin, James Dickerson Mundy. In the middle of the night we heard a loud argument going on in Grandma and Grandpa's room downstairs. James and I got up and went down to see what was going on. Grandma, in her nightgown, was holding a 12 gauge shotgun and threatening to shoot Grandpa. I was terrified and froze. James took the gun from Grandma and I believe hid it somewhere. During all of this Grandpa was silent. He was a quiet man and I never heard him speak in anger to anyone. I never knew what caused this episode of violent anger, but I have been told that Grandma was plagued with many such attacks in her later years.

After I rejoined my family at school year's end, I had very little contact with my Grandma. I was away from home when she died, 2 March 1942, and did not get to attend her funeral. She was a force in my life that I will never forget.

-- Recollections of Roy Lee Mundy, _____date______