Yalobusha Historical Society Minutes – April 19, 2012
William (Buddy) Lyles
The Yalobusha Historical Society held its regular meeting on April 19, 2012. Mike Worsham welcomed fifty-four members and guests, and Lawrence Litten spoke a prayer. Mike Worsham announced that a fundraiser would be held on Celebrate Coffeeville Day, October 6, 2012 in the YHS Parking Lot.
Julia Fernandez announced that the May 17, 2012 speaker would be Bill Breidinger, President of the MS Archeological Society. He will present archeological artifacts with show and tell.
Julia Fernandez introduced William (Buddy) Lyles of Greenville whose hobby is woodworking. Over the years he had built rocking horses for his grandchildren, but he’d never considered a 10-inch house – much less furniture to go inside. It began when His sister, Shirley Ann, asked Lyles to build her a bird house. This was no ordinary birdhouse. She wanted it to look like their Grandpa and Grandma Melton’s old farmhouse in Schooner Valley, Mississippi. When his grandmother, Alice Melton, died in 1966, the 600 acre farm was divided among her eight children, and the buildings were eventually left to the elements. Lyles didn’t even have photography of the old home place; he was going to have to re-construct it from memory. So he constructed the farmhouse and did not stop. He divided the house into room and included the furniture and the other eleven buildings on the family farm. Lyles remembered details, and he kept building an entire farmstead – not only miniature furniture but a miniature outhouse (two seater), grist mill, blacksmith shop, and even farm equipment. Other details included a tiny sewing machine in the window, a fireplace and an old wood stove with its pipe leading out of the house. Also, shovels and a posthole digger, meticulously painted and placed on a rack in the blacksmith shop. All of the details were seen in Buddy’s displayed farmstead.
Buddy recalled memories from his childhood. He remembered the time he and his cousins tied cousin, Joe Willis Melton’s feet together beneath a rowdy steer. Joe Willis finally tangled in the fence. Peach tree limbs were the prizes for the youngsters. Other memories on the farm included skinny dipping in the hog pond while clothes were hidden by sweet little girls.
Lyles retired in 2006, after working first at Greenville Mills for 20 years then Uncle Ben’s for 26, so he had time to devote to the project. Bring the tiny farm again, Buddy, and tell us more childhood stories.
Attending: John Perkins, Mike Worsham, Mike Ayers, Carl Vick, Dave Hovey, Debby Hughes, Joy Tippit, Julia Fernandez, Vernon Allen, Bessie Allen, Melba L. Hardis, Buddy Liles, Helen Liles, Jean Chandler, Joe V. Lyles, Claudine Barnette, Sue Golloway, Helen Jones, Robert Melton, Bill Wilson, Hugh Bill McGwire, Bobby Hutchens, Bobbie Hutchins, Ruth Perkins, Joy Herron, John Perkins, Judy Perkins, Joe Jones, Donna Logan, Emma Hovey, Mark Melton, Joe Melton, Jerry Melton, Mae Vick, Lawanda Ingram, Diane Coleman, Sue T. Fly, Opal Wright, Jimmy Waddell, Granville C. Vaughn, Lawrence Litten, Gilbert Sullivan, John Moorman, Harold Sprayberry, Dollie Smith, Betty Miller, Tom Moorman, Pat Brooks, Thelma Roberts, Jimmie Pinnix, Kay McCulley
Submitted by Joy M. Tippit
