Tag: Paul Jones Stith

The Epitaphs

My grandfather, Paul Jones Stith, shot himself to death in 1906 and left his wife with six children and a seventh on the way.  My Grandmother, Annie Belle Stein, lived another 43 years and died in 1949.  They are buried side by side in Oakhill Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Birmingham Age-Herald reported his suicide in a page 1 story, on April 14, 1906:

Paul Jones Stith
Paul Jones Stith

“Paul Jones Stith, age 48, well known in this section as a mining expert, died yesterday morning at 11:30 by his own hand at his home, 1617 Seventh Avenue, in Birmingham.  He shot himself through the heart with a 38-calibre revolver, in his bedroom.”

“Hugh Stith, the oldest son, hearing the report of the revolver, ran up to the bedroom on the second floor…and found his father dressed in his street clothes laying full length on the bed. The pistol with which Mr. Stith had fired the death-giving shot was lying on the bed near his right hand.”

Why did he kill himself?

The newspaper said that, according to “the family,” my grandfather was despondent because he had been unable to secure a right of way from Stith Coal and Iron Co. mines, in nearby Walker County, to a railroad.

grandfather's tomb (2)“Without this right of way, the operation of the mines of the Stith company would have been impracticable the family said, and all his capital and labor for the past year had been expended in developing the property,” the story said.

grandmothertomb (2)When the going got tough, my Grandfather shot himself to death.  His tombstone says, “HOW DESOLATE OUR HOME BEREFT OF THEE.”

My Grandmother stayed the course and raised their seven children alone.  Her tombstone says, “HER CHILDREN ARISE UP AND CALL HER BLESSED.”

Annie Belle Stein Stith
Annie Belle Stein Stith

NOTE1: Grandmother’s epitaph is taken from Proverbs 31:27-29: “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.  Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her: ‘Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.'”

NOTE2: Grandmother’s middle name, “Belle,”  was misspelled on her tombstone.  And the year of my Grandfather’s birth was wrong, too.  He was born in 1858.

Coming Friday: Growing Up Country

 

 

Not Even A Drop

My grandfather, Paul Jones Stith, was 48 years old when he went to his bedroom, alone, and shot himself in the heart. He was born before the Civil War, on Jan. 25, 1858, and died shortly before noon on a Friday, April 13, 1906.

Paul was a “mining expert,”  according to The Birmingham Age-Herald, which published a front-page story the next day explaining why he killed himself.  The newspaper said he was despondent over his inability to obtain a right of way for mines owned by Stith Coal and Iron Co., of which he was president, to a railroad siding he had to have to ship coal.

Paul Jones Stith
Paul Jones Stith, 1858-1906

My father, who was 10 years old, revered his father — he never told me about the suicide.

Dad did tell me that Paul Jones Stith was an alcoholic, the fall-down-drunk-in-the-gutter kind.  On the nights he didn’t come home his wife, Annie Belle Stein Stith, would send men out looking for him, asking them to check the jail, the hospital – and the gutters of nearby streets.

Then, one fine day, Paul stopped drinking. Just like that, according to Dad. Paul made up his mind, told Annie Belle he had decided not to drink any more, and then he didn’t, according to my father.

Dad said after his father quit drinking he went on a U.S. government-sponsored expedition to Alaska to assess minerals there. Paul Jones Stith, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, was an engineer.

Dad said one of the men on that expedition told him it was bitterly cold most of the time and, at night, the men would gather around a fire in one of their cabins and drink. Dad said he was told that his father would take shot glass of whiskey, hold it under his nose, and smell it. And then put it down without drinking a drop.

I heard my father tell that story several times. It was the only time I ever saw him tear up.

Coming Friday: Storm At Sea