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John Baxter became, after Moorman White's
death, the patriarch of the New Southern White family
aristocracy...reigning over a 2nd golden age of wealth and
prosperity for his family. In
his quest to ensure the family's future, he expanded the White family's
holdings in land during his later years, and invested in new railway
endeavors...many of which were VERY profitable.
John
had several children; two sons in particular...
One
a hard-working, industrious son named John "Joe" Greere.
The other son, Groover Cleveland ... the family playboy whom spent his
time gambling (and far too often loosing!), drinking, and associating with
ladies of "questionable" character...
Groover
Cleveland resented his brother Joe and his
father's grooming of Joe to take over the patriarchy after his
death. His father often was confronted by gamblers whom presented
IOUs written by his son, Groover, for payment. John paid his son's
debts and admonished his son time-after-time for his wasting his life ...
which
only built more resentment from Groover toward his father and especially
his brother Joe...
When
John Baxter died, Joe Greere was in Scrubs, Arkansas, overseeing the continued
cultivation
of their family lands for the spring & summer crops.
Groover, knowing that his days of leisure and
wealth were going to end when Joe returned to claim his position as
patriarch -- and the family's wealth -- went on a gambling and drinking
binge. During that binge, two "businessmen" he'd racked up
a considerable debt to, plied Groover with booze and two ladies of
"questionable" character, and then presented him with a paper to
sign -- supposedly allowing them to "recover" his gambling debts owed
them from the estate when it was probated upon Joe's return...
In
reality, Groover (then acting as a court-appointed "temporary"
executor of the estates until his brother Joe returned from Arkansas --
and in a drunken stupor!) had
signed over the ENTIRE family's wealth and holdings.
By
the time Joe reached Winston County, the White family had gone from wealth
to rags -- penniless, without ANY of the vast holdings Moorman had rebuilt
after the War and their father, John Baxter, had expanded upon greatly!
Joe
found his brother Groover in town ... drunk and unconscious ... a copy of
what he'd signed in his jacket pocket...
Joe
never again spoke the name of Groover even when the entire family asked
him to forgive his brother. Joe never again allowed Groover anywhere
near him or his family...
Joe
never forgave his brother, Groover, even after Groover renounced his bad habits
and eventually became a Presbyterian Minister. One of the few wishes of Joe
Greere in his will was that he would be buried at the opposite end of the White Family
Cemetery from his brother Groover -- he did not want to spend eternity buried next to
the "brother" that had financially ruined the White family...
...and
the 2nd Golden Age of the White Family -- one of the few Old
Southern Aristocracy families to survive and prosper in a Post-Civil War
"New South" -- ended, reducing the Southern White family from
wealth to rags once again...
EPITAPH...
John
Baxter was, in his last years of life, informed that the California gold
mine was showing signs of "playing out" and had started to shift
the White family financial assets AWAY from the mine and into
new railroads, brick kilns,
general stores, and lumber mills...but never completed this financial re-alignment
effort...
...an effort Joe was fully aware of, but Groover was NOT!
Interesting
enough, these two "businessmen" that managed to steal our Southern White family's
estates, businesses, and financial assets themselves fell victim to their own greed.
When the gold mine
had indeed "played out" within two years, these "partners" had realized that they'd placed too much of
"their" financial interests & investments in the gold mine
-- and had paid little to
no attention to their other holdings which were falling into disarray and
financial debt.
They
had also ignored the warnings from the managers of the mining company
working the mine that it was "playing out"...
As
their empire crumbled, they squabbled over the remnants...until lawyers'
fees had eaten away the remaining wealth they'd squandered from the White family.
They
died, penniless and in the streets, during one of the influenza
epidemics that swept through the nation ... and especially Winston County,
Mississippi ... at that time and were themselves buried
in paupers' graves...
Had
Groover Cleveland NOT signed that document -- not signed away the family's
vast AND GROWING financial empire -- and his brother Joe Greere allowed to finish John
Baxter's financial re-alignments ...
...the Southern White family of today may
well be one of the wealthiest families in the nation ...
Sadly, Joe Greere,
his newlywed wife, and their children -- the patriarch and immediate
family members of a once vast financial empire that stretched from Alabama
to Arkansas, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi -- was reduced to
sharecropping during the planting, growing, and harvest seasons AND
working on the railroad lines as a maintenance man during the off seasons
just to make ends meet day-by-day...
...on lands and
railroad lines Joe Greere should have been owner and Chief Executive
Officer over!!!
But that is yet
another story...
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