Minnie Elizabeth Hendrix Potts was my great-grandmother, the mother of my dad’s mother, Iva Potts Hartley. Her parents were Lewis Hendrix and Louisa Young, and she was the oldest of their eight children. Born in 1875, she lived a very secluded life on a farm and learned to work hard at an early age. Her only opportunity to go to school was a one-room-type elementary school in her neighborhood. I don’t know how far she was able to go in school, but I do know that she was literate—could both read and write.
She married James Franklin Potts in 1891, and they had six children, with my grandmother Hartley being the oldest one. In those days life was hard, and money was scarce. Minnie’s husband was a tobacco farmer, and he also grew their food and had chickens and pigs for meat. Once a year he would take his tobacco crop to Winston, sell it, and come back home and bury the money in his yard. I’m sure there were no friendly neighborhood banks in those days!
Their house was in a remote area, so there were no neighbors to drop by for friendly chats. They, like all of the people within hearing distance, had a large bell on a pole, and they rang the bell in case someone was sick, or there was a fire or something like that when they needed help. I don’t imagine that we can relate to their lifestyle, yet that is how it was.
The unique thing about Grandma Potts is that she loved to write. I only found out this information a year or so ago from another cousin, but she has the original copy of a hymn that Grandma wrote in 1924, and I would like to share that with you here as it reflects her strong religious faith, which apparently helped her in her life. Spelling and punctuation are her own.
Prepare to meet thy God
By Minnie Potts
Careless soul, why will you linger wandering from the fold of God
Hear you not the invitation, prepare to meet thy God.
Why so useless are you standing as the fleeting years go by
And your life is spent in folly, prepare to meet thy God.
Hear you not the earnest pleadings of your friends that wish you well
And perhaps before tomorrow prepare to meet thy God.
If you spurn the invitation till the spirit shall depart
Then you’ll see your sad condition unprepared to meet thy God.
Chorus:
Careless soul, o heed the warning
For your life will soon be gone
O, how sad to fail the judgment
Unprepared to meet thy God.