West Family Tree

Notes made by Camilla Mandeville Newell
Carrollton, Georgia
July 1962

When I was a small child my father had a store. Later he started a bank, and then he and Mr. Aycock built the oil mill, fertilizer plant and cotton mills.

After I married John Oliver Newell and our daughter, Marion, was a little girl we used to camp in the woods a good way back of the barn. We had several tents and a house which was the kitchen and in wet weather was the dining room. My tent was large enough for a double bed, baby bed, heater, chairs and a tiny dressing room. Every night we had a big log fire out of doors and everyone sat around, talked and toasted mashmallows.

When I was a little girl all of the grandchildren would beg Grandma for brown sugar lumps... a big one if we were good, a small one when we were bad. Her family sent a barrel of brown sugar each year from Vermont which they made from their own Maple trees.

Complete Notes made by Camilla Mandeville Newell
Carrollton, Georgia
July 1962

My mother's father, J. M. Richardson, was a scholar and mathematician. He went to school at The Citadel, University of Virginia and graduated from Harvard in 1854. He was a mathematic assistant at The Citadel. He was a Major in the Confederate Army and lost an eye and part of a leg.

My grandfather Mandeville's famly lived in Massachusetts, New York State, and Pennsylvania. He lived in several counties in Georgia before coming to Carloll County in 1833. He had a general store in each place and sold nearly everything except medicine.

Slaves were necessary as the only help to be had. Grandma taught them from the Bible and other books in the big kitchen or under the trees in the back yard.

During the War Between the States closets were built in the two upstairs rooms, filled with grain and the entired room papered. When the Northern Army was headed for Carrollton my father, L. C. Mandeville, and old Enoch took the cows to the woods and kept them there. Grandma walked down to the front gate and talked to an Army Captain. A guard was placed at the gate so no soldiers came in to disturb them or to get food, etc.

My father said that when he was a small boy he used to hang on the front gate and yell at the farmers as they passed by "you have to work for a living, you long-legged cuss." He was thankful that his mother did not hear him.

Old Enoch lived in the back yard and he used to tell Papa ghost stories by firelight. After dark he would hold the door open so Papa could run to the house by the light.

At one time Grandpa (Appleton Mandeville) was the largest landowner in Carroll County. He bought all the land from Alabama Street to South Street beginning at the Square (Carrollton, Ga.) Old family home was in the middle of the tract. He paid $600.00 for this area.

When I was a small child my father had a store. Later he started a bank, and then he and Mr. Aycock built the oil mill, fertilizer plant and cotton mills.

After I married John Oliver Newell and our daughter, Marion, was a little girl we used to camp in the woods a good way back of the barn. We had several tents and a house which was the kitchen and in wet weather was the dining room. My tent was large enough for a double bed, baby bed, heater, chairs and a tiny dressing room. Every night we had a big log fire out of doors and everyone sat around, talked and toasted mashmallows.

When I was a little girl all of the grandchildren would beg Grandma for brown sugar lumps... a big one if we were good, a small one when we were bad. Her family sent a barrel of brown sugar each year from Vermont which they made from their own Maple trees.

Our Grandmother, Camilla Newell, was one of the most amazing women I have ever known. She was a literal font of information about her family, Carrollton and Carroll County. She had a very dry sense of humor. I spent many hours listening to her talk about her family and the days when she was growing up. I just wish I could remember more than I do about her stories.

One of my favorites concerns her father L.C. Mandeville. He never became a proficient automobile driver because he always had a chauffeur. The chauffeur was also the stock man and general handy man. One day L. C. decided he wanted to go to town. There was a privet hedge across the front of the lot about 75 feet from where the automobile was. Well, L. C. got the car started, put it in gear and boom, He started toward the hedge. Not knowing how to brake, he was pulling back on the steering wheel and yelling at the top of his voice “WHOA, YOU SUNUVABITCH, WHOA”. Grandmother got him disengaged from the hedge.


Grandmother was one of the first female automobile drivers in Carroll County. Whenever folks needed to go to Atlanta (roughly 50 miles away), They usually rode in a bus like vehicle called a “jitney” which held about 18 people. On this particular trip, Grandmother was a passenger. At some point on the way home, the driver became incapacitated. No one else could drive, so Grandmother drove back to Carrollton.


To illustrate Grandmother’s sense of humor, this little story will do it. In her later years, Mother would take her to town to the beauty parlor once a week. After leaving the beauty parlor, she would walk around the square to meet Mother. One day as she walked around, a man said “hello Miss Camilla, how are you today?” She replied “ I feel awful, my arthritis is acting up and I really need to be at home in bed.” The man said “I sure am glad to hear that, it’s always nice to see you feeling so well.” The man was her cousin and she never let him forget this little encounter.


At one time, I moved back to Carrollton for a few years and tried to visit with her a couple of times a week. At this point in her life she was suffering with arthritis, which would come and go. During one of my visits, she asked me to get something off her closet shelf. I saw a small bottle filled with little brown balls. When I asked her what they were she said they were gall stones that she would look at when the arthritis acted up. This reminded her that the gall stones were much worse than the arthritis. - Hiram Raleigh Cannon III