CULLMAN – The beautiful white home was built in the early 1900s by Mr. Valentine Preston Brandon. But Mr. Brandon didn’t cut the timber and build like most folks did back in those days; he did things just a little different. He ordered this house from Sears & Roebuck!
“To my knowledge, the home was built by my great, great grandfather, Valentine Preston Brandon,” said Lantry Brandon. “My grandfather is one of the small children in the old picture of the house,” he smiled. “They [his family] came from Texas and had ordered the house from Sears & Roebuck. It came into the Cullman depot and was unloaded – pre fab – and hauled, wall by wall to the home site by wagon.”
Because Lantry Brandon is both a history and genealogy buff, he was able to identify the people in the photograph. They are, from left to right, Olen Preston Brandon, Joe, VP Brandon, Sarah Hall Brandon, (on the porch) Asa P. Brandon, Eula Bufford Wilhite Brandon, Pauline Brandon Teague, Erline Brandon, (on the ground) Emily Ellen Young, Leslie Higginbotham, Herman O. Brandon and Thomas Monroe Brandon.
The Brandon family lived in the house a short while before they sold it to James Robert Reid and his wife Esther Entrekin Reid. The Reids had six children who lived in the house with them. Their names were Charles Arthur, Benjamin Homer, Myrtle, James Glenn, Joseph Verna and Alma. James and Esther also had three children that died in early childhood. Their names were Dora, Maud and Lora.
The old home has remained in the Reid family ever since James and Esther purchased it in the early 1920s. The current owners are the late Marvin “Robert” Mize Jr. and wife Helen Mize. Robert is the son of James and Esther Reid’s youngest daughter Alma.
Do you know of any other houses that were ordered from Sears & Roebuck? Are there buildings that have an interesting background worth hearing about? If so, we’d like to hear about them! Please contact me at sharon@cullmansense.com and tell me all about it. You never know, your story just might be picked to run in a future issue of our paper.
