Source: Ledger-Enquirer East Alabama TODAY, March 11, 1976 By VIRGINIA SMITH TODAY Correspondent

Note: Changes have been made to update this to the current time period - 1999

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Mary Walter Gordon Guinn Stanley 1879 - 1978

When she was living, Mrs. Mary Walter Gordon Guinn Stanley enjoyed reminiscing about her Confederate veteran father and the many changes she had seen take place in East Alabama.  The daughter of Captain James Miles Killian Guinn, and his second wife, Mary Jane Culbertson,   Mary Walter Gordon Guinn Stanley, which was her full name, had always gone by the name Gordon.

She was born July 26, 1879 in Roanoke, Alabama where her father was county superintendent of education.  Mrs. Stanley was a small child when the family lived in Roanoke, but she had vivid memories of growing up in Wedowee and as a bride and mother in Langdale and Lanett..

At 21, Gordon Guinn married Alonzo Nolan Stanley in LaGrange, Georgia. at the home of her half-brother, Robert Guinn.  At the time of her marriage, her father-in-law Isham Stanley, was the master mechanic at Langdale Mill and Nolan worked for his father, Isham Stanley moved to Langdale after the original mill built in 1866 burned, and he drew the plans for the new mill, part of which stands today.

In 1900 when the Stanley's were married, "Langdale was a nice place to live."   There were only dirt roads, water was drawn from wells and there were no street lights..   The young couple had a vegetable garden and chickens, but bought milk from a neighbor who had a cow.   Mrs. Stanley cooked on a wood stove and the house was heated with wood in big fireplaces.   The Stanleys did not have a car or a horse and buggy, but this was no loss as they could travel all the way from West Point, Ga., to Bleecker on the Chattahoochee Valley Railroad.  Mrs. Stanley rememberd Thomas Lang, for whom Langdale is named as well as his brother, Ed Lang.

Of the four children born to the Stanley's, only the eldest is living. Mary Dickson lives in Arlington, Massachusetts.   Alton G. Robinson of Newnan, Georgia. And Louise Brown of Lanett,Alabama. Are deceased along with their infant brother Alonzo Nolan Jr.

As a child, she rememberd going to the grist mill with her father and cottage prayer meetings with the only light provided by kerosene lamps and open fires. But most of all, she rememberd the loving family of mother, father, brothers and sisters and the fact that "just about everybody was kin to each other." She had lived through good times and hard ones, wars and peace and had seen the advent of many life styles taken for granted today.  She agreed all the changes were not for the better, but she enjoyed life as it came.

The philosophy and outlook that Gordon Guinn Stanley had is one not to be envied, but followed.

Would you like to read about the last battle of the Civil War that occured in West Point, Georgia on April 16, 1865 as written by Isham Stanley Jr.? - go to: Click here for West Point Battle Story     Use your browser's Back button to return

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