Born Dec. 15, 1917 in Kemper Co., Mississippi
Died April 24, 2007 in Lauderdale Co., Mississippi
This is the story of my father, Herman Vaughn. His love for his family heritage and time he spent sharing the Vaughn history is the reason this website exist. I've always heard that a picture is worth a thousand words and these pictures below speak volumes about his life's journey and his experiences along the way. To me he made the Vaughn legacy real and in doing so he became a part of the Vaughn Legacy himself.........I miss him.........................Ray Vaughn
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| Herman Vaughn 1943 |
Herman Vaughn is a man that I love and admire more than any other. He was a kind hearted person who care for and loved his family and his heritage. A man that I honor and respect. But most of all he was my father. He was the great grandson of Jim and Mary Vaughn who first came to the newly opened Mississippi Territory in the 1830's. As a boy I grew up hearing the stories of Jim and Mary Vaughn and the various and colorful stories of other members of my father's family. He is the reason I planned and constructed the Twin Cemetery.Org website and the reason The Vaughn Family History Archive website exists today. During my youth we spent many great times together in Kemper Co., MS. visiting the area where he grew up and exploring places like Twin Cemetery, Wahalak and Keys Mountain. I would pay special attention to the family stories he related to me as a young boy because they were so interesting. We hunted arrowheads together on Wahalak Creek where he and his brothers played in the plowed fields when they were young boys growing up near Wahalak, MS. This is his story as he remembered it during his last few years. My father was a story teller and throughout his life he enjoyed telling about his family and his grandfathers.......the family legends, the myths and the surmised. There are many parts of the family history he chose to exclude from his family memories. We will never know why that is so but we do know that these memories below are the thoughts that fixed his mind during those final years of his life.
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| Herman & Curtis Vaughn Twin Brothers |
He was born on a cold December night in Preston, MS. with snow falling outside. He was a twin and is survived by his twin brother, Curtis Vaughn who lives near the family home that was The Cole Plantation before my grandfather purchased the property in the 40's.
Both boys fought against Germany for England during WWII seeing action in Normandy on D Day, through France, Germany and western Europe.
Herman and Curtis were both Technical Sergeants in Patton's 3rd Army. Their job was working on the big guns-88mm artillery pieces.
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| Mary Ella Harris Vaughn |
My father married my mother, Mary Ella Harris, on Sept. 18, 1948. I was born in July 1949. My mother was 19 years old when she married my father.
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| L-R Ray Vaughn, Herman Vaughn, Lynn Vaughn, Mary Ella Vaughn & Carole Vaughn |
Herman Vaughn & Family
Circa 1957 (approximate)
Herman and Mary Vaughn - picture era is about 1948.
The story that follows is from my fathers memoirs and are in his own words. This story about his life and memories was given to my sister Carol Holland by my father in 2000 and she typed and prepared a book with pictures while he was still living. I believe that this is the perfect place to post this story about our father and hope that you enjoy the memories of his life that he shared with us.
Herman Vaughn Remembers - Date Recorded: Summer 2000
In 1917 my dad and mother were living in a log cabin in Preston, Ms, Near daylight my mother was about to deliver. When she told my daddy, he went out to get a granny woman and he was in such a hurry he tore the seat out of his pants, but he kept going. He brought back the granny woman and about midnight on December 15, 1917 two babies were born. One was named Curtis and the other was me-Herman. We weighed about 3 pounds each. That same night a big snow storm came. It snowed through the roof and got on the babies. They hung up a quilt to keep the snow off the babies. That was a big snow that year for Preston, Ms., located about 12 miles out of Dekalb. My daddy was John . Vaughn. He was born July 19, 1878 and died January 11, 1958. My mother was Minnie L. Vaughn. She was born January 6, 1888 and died January 25, 1966. Mama and daddy had nine children. They were: Lettie, Aileen, Anna Bell, Prentiss, Lillie Mae, Curtis, Herman, Mertis, and Willie Bea. We moved to Noxubee county the year after I was born and lived near Running Water Creek. By the time we were 6 months old, Curtis and I weighed 8-10 pounds each. We used to run to mama when she drew syrup out of a 60 gallon barrel. I would always beat Curtis to the barrel and get to lick the stopper while she was drawing the syrup out. Curtis would get some syrup in a bowl and lick it off his forgers.
When I was about 2 years old, we had a watermelon patch down in a bottom about a mile away from the house. One day I decided to get me one of those watermelons. While I was gone a big rainstorm came up. I liked to have drowned and no one even new where I was. Everyone was looking for me. Mama whipped me when they found me. I never did get that watermelon. We lived in a big old house that was so high off the around on one side I could walk under it. I wasn't very tall anyway. One day when I was about 3 years old., we were making syrup in the syrup mill. The first airplane I ever saw flew over. It was a double winged airplane (biplane). Everyone was picking us up to show us the airplane. Papa used to go to Shuqualak. He would buy us ice cream or coke. Back then people called coke "dope". Since I had heard it called that, I told papa I wanted a "dope". I drank the coke and it made me burp. That thing went all up in my eyes and nose. I thought I had drunk something poison. I was scared to death. When we were about 4 years old, we moved to a house on a road west of Shuqualak. We lived there for a good while. There was a big magnolia tree out in front of the house. We went to Pinetucky church. Grandma died when I was about 6 years old. We carried her across the field to the cemetery in a wagon. I fell in a grave there and I thought
something would get me. When we got back home everyone was falling over each other crying. Most of the time mama and her sisters were fighting. But now they were all crying and hugging each other.
We were still living in that same place when I started
school at 7 or 8 years of age. There was a one room school house there. It was
a log school house with a pot belly stove for heat. It really got cold in
there. There was a lake over in the pasture that we skated on. It was frozen
over for weeks at a time back then. I have never seen weather as cold as we had
at that time.
Once I got into a fight with all my brothers and some of my
sisters. I threw corn cobs at them and ran them out of the barn. Papa got on to
me about that. I was really mean!
When I was about 7 years old I rode in my first car. Mama's
brother, Uncle David, bought a T Model and we rode in it. I thought that thing
was going so fast. The trees looked like they were going round and round. That
was something new to me, going that fast. We always rode in a wagon and you
know how slow that is.
We lived next to a fellow named Johnson. He farmed and had
cotton. We picked cotton for him and he paid us off in nickels, dimes, and
quarters. I always wanted to get enough for a little red wagon, but I was
always short on the amount I needed. So I never got that wagon.
On Saturday morning you could hear the wagons for miles.
They were coming from Gholson to Shuqualak. This went on into the night, wagons
just coming and going. Shuqualak was a thriving town back then and everyone
went there to get their cotton ginned. They carried a lantern on their wagons
so if anyone came by in a car at night they could see them. They would get out
of the wagon and hold the lantern by the mule so the people in the car could
see the mule. I can just see this happening now!
We used to go to the fishing hole in the creek. We would
catch all kinds of fish there. The creek is dried up now. You can’t even tell
there was ever a creek there. I just can’t imagine how things have changed over
the years up there.
There used to be a little store just up the road from our
house. Mr. Clemmons ran the store. We used to go up there to get candy. On one
of our trips there we found a 32 pistol lying in the road. We got it and put it
outside the road bank and went to get papa. He came and got the gun. It was
loaded. He put it under his shirt and carried it back home. No one ever came
looking for the gun.
When I was about 8 years old we moved back to Kemper county
to farm a 600 acre place. We got a fellow with an old T Model truck to haul
most of our corn and things like that. We loaded all of the kitchen things on
our Wagon. We drove the cows over to the new place. We even had a hog we drove
over there! We came through the flat woods where they were cutting trees. The
old road went through there and sometimes we had to go around a tree top or log
in the wagon. I don’t know how we ever made it through there.
We had a good crop for the next year or two. Then we had a
rainy year and a flood nearly washed away our crop. Our crop that year was
nearly a complete failure except for some late corn.
When I was 8 years old I was running and playing in the
weeds close to the house. I was about 3 or 4 feet from a rattlesnake when I saw
him. I turned to run and the snake bit me on the bottom of my foot. Mama put my
foot in a wash pan of kerosene. I sat with my foot in that pan for probably 2
hours. My foot had already begun to swell when I took it out of the pan. That
was all we did for the bite. The next morning my leg was swollen all the way to
my straddle. I could not walk on my leg. My knee would not even bend. I walked
with a walking stick for 6-8 weeks. I
finally got to where I could walk without the stick. Over the years I have had
trouble with that foot.
When I was young I always liked to sneak out on my own. I’d
go to the woods and sit and listen to the birds and other wildlife. One day I
was sitting on a trail and a thrasher came up close to me. It turned it’s head
and watched me. It seemed to be saying “you’re not wild yet”. Over the years I
would be in the woods when mama got to looking for me. Lots of times I got a
whipping for it but that did not stop me from going. You did not have to worry
about ticks back then, just red bugs.
When I was about 11 years old we were splitting stove wood
from a tree we had cut down about a mile from our house. I cut my finger off.
It hurt terrible bad and blood was shooting in a stream about 8 foot away from
me. Curtis and Mertis grabbed up dirt and piled on my hand to stop the
bleeding. We went home and mama cleaned the dirt off. She laid my hand on a
towel and my finger was just hanging on by a thread. She covered up my hand in
a bag of sugar and wrapped it up. She put an arm band on so I had to hold it
up. We had to walk about 2 ½ miles to where a man with a T Model lived. When we
got there the car had a flat that had to be fixed before he could drive us to
the doctor. We finally made it to the doctor about 2 hours after the accident.
By the time we were teenagers we would go to school all day
and come home and do our lessons. About 9:00 at night we would go coon hunting.
About midnight we would come home and skin whatever we had got and then go to
bed. The next morning we would walk 2 miles to catch the bus to school. After
school we would stretch out the hides so they could dry. We did this through
the winter. We made enough money off the hides to make up for the crops we had
lost. One night we were hunting and it was about 15 degrees outside. I fell into the creek. We
had a coon up a tree on a little island in the creek. We got over there and cut
down the tree. I was trying to hold on to the dogs and lost my balance and fell
into the creek. I was wet and my clothes froze on me. We built a big fire and
stayed by it until I warmed up and dried out. Then we went on hunting. So went
our winters. Our cows had calves and we had extra money from that. We would go
to school and hunt. We made good enough grades, but nothing to brag about.
Once we had a family move in and want to rent land from us.
They had to use our well for water. When they came to get water their young
ones would spit into the well. So we stopped them from using our well. The man
got mad and got his shotgun and stood on the other side of our pond. We had
rifles and wanted to shoot him, but mama and my sisters would not let us. We
later caught him in the field without his gun, but he ran through the creek and
a brier patch and got away. After that we built a box and wrote coffin on the
top with his name. We sat it on his porch while he was away. After that he left
and we never saw him again.
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| Herman Vaughn circa 1930's |
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| Herman Vaughn near Jackson, Wyoming circa 1930's |
By this time we were doing some really vigorous training. It
was really cold there and we were living in a hut like building with tin on the
outside. We used what they called coke heaters. You would start the fire with
wood and then white charcoal would heat up the building. It would take about
half the day to warm up the building. We were usually up and gone before the
place warmed up.
I remember one day feeling really bad, but they kept us out
all day. The next day my jaws were swelled. I came to find out I had the mumps.
They sent me to a hospital near Oxford. I stayed there 6 weeks. When I got out
of the hospital I found my outfit had moved over the English Channel. I had to
catch a train to get there. I had a hard time understanding what the conductor
said when he called out the names of the towns. I had to change trains and that
was hard to do when you did not know what town you were in. I met a girl on the
train who was going to the same town as I. She helped me get on the right
train. I rode the train all the way across England to a town called
Asheville-Kent. The girl lived at the next town up the English Channel near
Dover, England. All those little towns on the channel were being bombed.
The Germans would send flying bombs over the English
Channel. These bombs were 2000 pound bombs with some kind of propeller on it.
When it stopped it would fall to the ground and blow up. The Germans could not
control where the bombs came down. The British spitfires would get above the
bombs and shoot them to make them blow up. They were trying to keep the bombs
out of London. One night one of the flying bombs came over our camp. We had
antiaircraft guns, so we tried to shoot it down. It exploded right over the
camp and sprayed scrap metal everywhere. It’s a wonder no one was hurt.
One morning they woke us up early and told us to get ready
in a hurry because we were pulling out. This was summer 1944. We pulled out and
headed to where the invasion would take place. They put us up in a big
warehouse. We stayed in the warehouse all the first day. We could not go
outside. After dark they loaded us onto barges and we set in the harbor nearly
all night. We left the next morning just before daylight. A good while before
we got into the beach area, we could see the big guns shelling from the navy
ships. The flashes from the ground lit up the whole area before daylight. Lots
of people were already on the beach when we got there. There was a lot of
shooting, gun smoke, and flashes from guns everywhere you looked. We rushed
onto the beach as fast as we could. There were dead soldiers lying all over the
beach. We stayed right on the beach until the next morning. Guns were firing
and artillery shells were hitting around us all night. At daylight a soldier
came running down the beach. He had sort of gone crazy. He was hollering, “O
Lord, what’s happening?” He did not have a gun. I tripped him as he started to
go by me and told him he had better wake up. I told him nothing was going on
except we were invading France. I told him to get a gun from one of the dead
soldiers and start fighting. He did. We fought all day and were getting very
weary. We did break through on one end of the thing and some of the soldiers
had a little more room that day. The firing stopped from the pill boxes we had
gotten. We had a little more peace that day except for the artillery fire that
kept coming in. Most of the small arms fire stopped except for a few times when
they broke through the lines. Lying on the beach that night, the guns firing
looked like lightning. You could see it for miles. One guy who was on the water
headed in told us he was twenty miles away and could see the gun flashes. A lot
of soldiers were killed, but it is amazing more were not killed. Even the water
was bloody around the edges of the beach. The death on the beach was horrible.
I have never talked in detail about the deaths on the beach, but I will never
forget it. The memory will always be with me.
After that day we finally broke through and got a little
farther out on the land. We slowly pushed toward the German line until it
collapsed and we pushed on in. We pushed into all the little towns. One town,
St. Lowe, was completely destroyed except for a church and one steeple. We
moved on and broke out into Normandy. The Germans were pulling back. A lot of
their artillery was horse-drawn. The planes were scraping the highways, killing
the horses. It was horrible walking up the roads with all the dead horses lying
about. It was warm weather and the smell from the dead horses was bad. The
flies were so bad you had to be careful when you set down to eat or you would
eat flies. The fighting grew less as we moved on except for the nights.
The artillery fire would go on all night. The Germans were trying to hold on,
but we kept pushing them back. At every field or patch of woods, we had snipers
to look for. This went on for days.
Papa got sick and we took him to the hospital. He had a
heart attack and died at Anderson’s hospital on January 11, 1958.
I met Willie Longacre and we were married June 4, 1994. Willie has been a blessing in my life. I think it was meant for us to be together after Mary Ella died.
THIS IS ALL, GOODBYE.............memories from Herman Vaughn in his own words.
During this time I had an attack of appendicitis. They
carried me to the 101st evacuation hospital. The appendix had already ruptured.
They operated the same night I got to the hospital. They gave me a spinal
before they operated. I was aware of what was going on around me. I could hear
guns firing . We were right on the front lines at this evacuation hospital. You
could see flashes of guns just a short ways from the hospital. I stayed there a
few weeks and they sent me back to my outfit to start fighting again.
We went through France, and past Napoleon’s castle. The
Germans had guns set up in the forest around the castle. The 3rd
Army took these guns out. There was not a lot of fighting around the castle. I
guess they tried to spare it.
We were on the Mozelle River in France. This river is about
the size of the Pearl River. General Patton had sent our unit to help out the 1st
Army in Belgium. The Germans broke through the Ardennes forest and had several
airborne units trapped in the Belgium town of Bastogne. This was known as the
Ardennes invasion. The airborne units had been trapped for a while, and would
not surrender. The 3rd Army went in to get them out. Everything was
covered in snow, and we stayed out in it for several days and nights. The
Germans were way down in Belgium and had plenty of troops and tanks to fight
with. General Patton finally made it to Bastogne. The Germans tried to pull
back out then. Many men were killed. Blood covered the snow on the ground. Dead
soldiers were everywhere in the snow. We fought the best we could, but we were
at the mercy of the German tanks. We took 2 tanks out with bazooka. Thousands
of Germans surrendered after General Patton made it to Bastogne. There were
Germans walking everywhere with white flags. We would take their guns, give
them a white flag, and send them to the rear lines to be hauled out.
This battle was known as The Battle Of The Bulge. I fought
in the 3rd Army under General Patton. I was with the 275th
Ordinance and the 9th Army and 5th Infantry at times.
This battle was worse than Normandy. We were in the snow day and night with no
protection from the weather. We felt some relief when the Germans started to surrender.
General Patton told the 1st Army they could capture all the Germans,
but some were let go because they could not handle all the prisoners. This was
a bad mistake because we had to keep fighting them as they backed up. We broke
through the front around Metz, France. We went across the Rhine River into
southern Germany, and then over to the Danube River. From there we went to
Reganburg and Frankfort, Germany, where the Germans surrendered. After that we
went on through Germany, collecting arms from soldiers. We threw truck loads of
Germans arms and fighting equipment into
the Danube River. We ended up in the mountains where Germany and Austria join.
We saw what they called Hitler’s hideout in the mountains. He had a big
building up there where he met with all his generals. We left there and went to
Badrackenhall, Germany, still in the mountains. We got orders there to go home.
We went back to France.
Back in France we could not get a boat in northern France,
so we got on a train to Marces in southern France. We rode that train 4 days
and nights. There was nowhere to sleep during that time. We just sat in our
seats for 4 days and nights. They had places along the way to stop and eat. I
was wore out when we got to Marces. We stayed around there for several weeks
before they found a boat for us to come home on. We left Marces and went down
the Mediterranean Sea between France and Spain. When we were leaving the sun
was rising, you could see land on both sides and there were no ripples in the
water. It was very beautiful.
We crossed the ocean and landed in Newport News, Virginia, 9
days after we left. This was fall 1945. The ride back on the boat was real
nice. After being so cold in France, it was warm on the ocean. From Newport
News we caught a train to Camp Shelby. They kept us for a week or 2 before our
discharge. Curtis got his discharge one day before mine. He waited for me and
we came back to Meridian together. Curtis, me, and 3 or 4 other guys hired a
taxi to bring us back. We got off in Meridian and the others went on to north
Mississippi. We took a taxi out of Meridian out to the Cole place in Lauderdale
county where mama and daddy had moved. We got there in the middle of the night.
They did not know we were coming, so we surprised them. After being gone 3
years, everyone looked different. Our old coon dog had gotten old and crabby
and did not want us to mess with him.
After staying around home for a while we started looking for
a job. Every place we looked for a job, there were other soldiers looking to.
So we started farming again. The government paid you so much to farm back then.
We farmed for a couple of years. There were still no jobs to be had. I worked
here and there for 35 and 40 cents per hour. I worked at Owen Brothers Packing
for 45 cents per hour. I delivered meat in Meridian. I had to park in front of
the stores and carry a side of beef to the back of the store and hang it up.
That got to be too big of a job, so I decided to move on to something else.
There were still not many jobs around. The government paid you so much to go to
school and learn a skill, so I went to ECJC. I took mechanic training and math.
After I finished school I was able to get a job here and there.
One day I was driving over there in the Harvey curve and saw
a girl standing on the side of the road in front of a house. I pulled over in
some loose gravel to talk to her. I got stuck and she helped me get out. The
girl was Mary Ella Harris. I knew she was the very woman I had been looking
for. We went together for a while and then got married on September 18, 1948.
Later on we moved to Eutaw, Alabama. I worked at the Ford
place there. Ray was small at this time. We lived in a big old spooky house
with big white columns out front. Sometimes I would get up in the morning, and
the stove would already be lit. I never figured out how this happened. From
Eutaw we moved to Starkville, Mississippi, to work at the Ford place there.
From Starkville we moved to Aberdeen. Carole was born but still small at this
time.
From Aberdeen we moved back to Meridian. I got a job at the
Kelly Williams Company, and worked there for a long time. We lived at the Till
place in a small house. Ray and I would go into that swamp and hunt sometimes.
When I came home after work, I would have to gather wood for the wood stove. On
one of my trips into the swamp looking for wood, something followed me out. It
was squalling and hollering, but went on past the house. I don’t know what it
was.
I went to work for the Ford place in Meridian next and
worked there for about 10 years. Lynn was born during this time.
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| John R. Vaughn |
I got a job at the Naval Air Station and worked there about
20 years as a mechanic. I was working at the navy base when Mary Ella got sick
with cancer. She stayed in the hospital for about 6 months. When she died on
May 27, 1980, I was lost. I did not know what to do. I stayed on at the navy
base about 2 more years and retired.
I made a mistake after Mary Ella died and I retired. I was
lonesome and I married this woman named Belle. It was just a mistake, and that
is all I will say about that. I divorced her.
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| Herman and Willie Vaughn |
I met Willie Longacre and we were married June 4, 1994. Willie has been a blessing in my life. I think it was meant for us to be together after Mary Ella died.
I had three children, Ray, Carole, and Lynn. All my kids
turned out fine. I believe God has blessed me with this family. God has always
got a purpose for you. When your time is up you go. I survived all the close
calls I had in the war because the Lord had a plan for me. My wife and children
are the best things that happened to me in my lifetime. I think often of all
the hard times we had, but we always came through it. God had a plan for us.
Life goes on and everything turns out all right in the end. We might not like
it at the time, but it is how God intended it to be.
I am signing off now__ this August 2000. I will go on with
the rest of my life. I am in bad health now, but whatever happens will be God’s
plan for me. I hope God will bless my family from now on.
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| Herman Vaughn |
Published by Ray Vaughn
Vaughn Family History Webmaster
Information Resources for this website include;
"The Conner Family" by W. E. Conner published 1975
"Crusade in Education" chapter 1 titled My Heritage - Published 1971 by John Earle Vaughn
Hewers Of The Wilderness-1st Edition by Jack Vaughn - Published 1958
"The Conner Family" by W. E. Conner published 1975
"Crusade in Education" chapter 1 titled My Heritage - Published 1971 by John Earle Vaughn
Hewers Of The Wilderness-1st Edition by Jack Vaughn - Published 1958
Family History Genealogy Research by Lynn Till
Herman Vaughn Remembers by Mary Carol Holland
Family Bibles
Herman Vaughn Remembers by Mary Carol Holland
Family Bibles
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