The Butler Siblings of Cobb County

One of my passions is old photographs. I just find them fascinating. I am fortunate that on my mom's side of the family there are so many old photographs available, so I thought I'd share a few here.

My grandmother, Wilma Butler Hasty, was born in 1899 and grew up with 11 siblings. She had six sisters and four brothers. They got into all kinds of mischief. 

My great-grandfather Robert E. Butler owned several businesses around the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, including a car lot. So occasionally, Memaw or one of her siblings would borrow a car and go riding around Marietta, Georgia. No license was needed. Memaw was tiny but she'd get her sister Hazel to work the pedals and she would steer.  

Note: if you click on the photos they will open in a new window, much bigger.

Below, Butler Motors. 

 Below, Granny Butler [Beulah Phillips Butler] and Grandaddy, on their wedding day in 1888. 

The Butler boys once asked their dad if they could borrow his car and go to a party. They were big teenagers. He said no. They waited until he was asleep, tied him up, and took the car and went to the party!

Hazel was once locked in a smokehouse for being naughty, and she took a crowbar and destroyed all the watermelons stored there. Another time, she was upset because a boy in school was dirty and smelled bad, so she dumped an inkwell down his shirt! 

Below, some shots of the sisters. 

This one is tricky, but I think it's as follows: Back row, from left: Hazel, Ralph, Doyle, Carl, Jenny. On the floor, from left: Dot, Miriam, Dan, Wilma [my memaw].
 

 

Standing, from left: Miriam, Dot, Hazel, Jenny, Wilma. The two little ones are Marcel and Barbara. 

Standing, from left: Marcel, Dot, Grandaddy, Hazel, Wilma [my memaw]

Seated, from left: Miriam, Granny, Jenny, Barbara
 

Above: Jenny, Hazel, Wilma, Dot. Atlantic City, 1921. 

Finally, below, all the siblings in the 1940's, with Granny. Grandaddy had died in 1940. 

In back, from left: Dot, Marcel, Barbara, Jenny, Wilma, Hazel, Miriam. Bottom row, from left: Carl, Granny, Ralph, and Dan.

Memaw married Bob Hasty, a major league baseball player for 5 years.  My novel, Return to Marietta, was inspired by their early marriage and the scandal that ended Papa's major league career.

Jenny married a lawyer and lived in Macon. She had a Ph.D. in German. She was a full professor at Mercer. 

Ralph Butler owned car lots and was a wealthy guy in Cobb County and later in Dallas Georgia. 

Carl Butler was mayor of Acworth, Georgia, for several terms. 

Dot married a wealthy businessman, Joe Lindley. I believe he was an executive at Foremost Dairies. 

I put together a collection of my mother's blogs into a book called Singing to the Cows, and she talks a lot about the Butlers.