(Cover photo) A clip from a family photo with his siblings, taken in Tallapoosa County at the time of the death of his mother, shortly after 1900. The only one not attending the funeral was Nancy Moran who was living in Arkansas at the time.

*Wilson Lumpkin Lightsey was born the youngest of 14 children, to Jacob Henry Lightsey and Samantha Jane King November 29, 1865 in Jackson's Gap, Tallapoosa Co. Al. He was named for 1830's Georgia Govenor Wilson Lumpkin, the instigator of the 1832 Georgia Land Lottery, of which his father was a winner. He lived there, was a farmer and a Tallapoosa County Deputy Sheriff.
*According to my mother, he was a very strict, but fair man and spoke only with good reason, having a dry sense of humor. She said when her mother would tell about her grandmother being a Cherokee Indian, he would always say, "I'm a Big Red Indian", while holding up his Big Red chewing tobacco. He would never crack a grin, when telling a joke, sometimes making it hard to know if he was serious or not.
*To this day, there has always been an argument with the spelling of the surname. He spelled his name "Litsey". My grandma would tell him, "You don't even know how to spell your own name". When he died, she had a stone erected, spelling it her way, "Lightsey". Ironically, when she passed, her daughter Ella, who was a daddy's girl, had her stone erected spelling it "Litsey". If that wasn't bad enough, when my mom died, dad wanted her maiden name put on her stone spelling it like her father did. Not really thinking, I said to spell it Lightsey because it was on his stone that way. Turns out none of us knew how to spell it. It was an old German name spelled "Leitzeit", which sounds the same when pronounced. It was told to me, by a German lady who still spoke fluent German, that it meant "Leading Time". According to my Aunt Ella, I at the time being 35, was the splitting image of him.
*Although I have stated before that my research shows the Lightseys came from Baden, Germany to South Carolina in 1750 and most names in this family were German, it appears that they were originally English. I recently did a DNA test, as did both my children. My DNA showed 90% English and both my children hovered around half of that. The rest of my DNA consisted of 6% Irish which I know for a fact came from the Hunters on my fathers side. There is 3% Ashkenazi Jew which is a descendant of Noah. This is significant in that the South Carolinian Cherokee also carry a large percentage of this DNA. Around 25%.
*In 1909 at the age of 43, he moved to Pisgah, Jackson Co. Al. and lived on the east side of Pisgah Road, facing west at the intersection of Bellefonte Road, until 1917. For many years because of his experience, he was a Jackson County Deputy Sheriff for that area. Judy and I, found a charge for assault of a minor in 1923, while he was a deputy. He was acquitted and I have often wondered, if the minor was my dad. From what I have been told, he did not like him. Grandma Liles would tell, how she could hear my dad every evening leaving work, crossing the bridge at Lightsey's creek, the mule's hooves, hitting the wooden bridge and him hooping and hollering. Their house was about a mile up the road on Hwy 71. I have a picture in my mind of dad showing out, as my mom stood on the porch on the hill, as he rode by. Or maybe he was just happy to get off work.
*Two weeks after the death of grandpa's 15 year old daughter, "Bee", in 1917, he purchased land at the end of Pisgah Road going toward what is now Hwy 71. The house he built there in 1935, after the original house burned, still stands on the hill. Although it has been remodeled and bricked, the way it looked before was better. It used to have a porch across the front with a smaller one on the side, where the kitchen was. It had a tin roof and greyish, slate, shingle siding. Both entrances had swinging screen doors. The ceiling was low, which I thought, gave it a cozy atmosphere. Thinking the way I do, he must have thought, it would be easier to heat. It seemed to me, to be a bright, happy, little house. The first house had a long porch, with a wooden runway, leading down to a smaller house. Many of his, of age or married, children lived there until they were able to afford their own. His older sister, Mary Jane, also lived there, until her death in 1930. The fire was assumed to have started when his youngest son, W.L., left without blowing out the candle. It was used for lighting and sat on the table. While everyone was in the field, the fire broke out and traveled up to the main house, destroying both.
*It was here that he also ran a commercial gristmill. It is still known as Lightsey's Creek to all who have or still live in the Pisgah area. It also was a favorite gathering place for bathing, swimming, fishing and recreation. It is located, beginning at the bridge on Hwy 71, where Bryant Creek flows off into the Pisgah Gorge. It has a beautiful waterfall with a swimming pond and even a shallow area on top for the children to play. It is believed that Indians came here for the same reason and maybe even lived under the rock overhangs. There has been some evidence of the first people living there, such as arrowheads and pottery. I remember seeing as many as 200 Mexican farm migrant workers there bathing after a hard day's work in the field when I was a young boy in the sixties. Many of them became my summertime friends. The foundation of a swinging, suspension bridge that crossed the creek to the gristmill is still there along with steel rods, hand drilled with star bits and driven into the rock that once held the water wheel. I have a photo of my Aunt Ella in her teens standing at the edge of the bridge. The bridge did allow limited access to the other side, but was not considered as public passage. The current steel and concrete bridge was built in the mid sixties when Hwy 71 was built. Me and my friend Billy Millican would go there often just to ride our bikes on the smooth asphalt surface. Before then, it was 166, a rough county road like the rest. The new bridge replaced a steel girder bridge with a wooden platform. It was built in 1930 giving the first public access to the other side. Before then, the only way to Scottsboro from Pisgah was the old Bellefonte Road Bridge where he had once lived. That road is now a dead end. However, the concrete foundation for it is also still there.
*For what ever reason, the new owner of Lightsey's Creek has chosen to no longer allow public access to this beautiful place. I think this is a shame. Our children and grandchildren will never know the enjoyment this place has to offer. This place has a million stories and memories for a lot of people, not just myself. There have been not only simple pleasures like site seeing, fishing, swimming and picnics but also baptisms and marriage proposals. But no more.
*When he died in 1940 of an Acute Gallbladder Attack and Pneumonia he was not taken to the Funeral Home. The front door was taken down and he was laid upon it. There he was bathed, shaved and dressed by all of his living daughters, with the exception of Kate. Not until he was put in the pine box and buried, was the door put back on the hinges. When I asked my mother why, she said, "It was an old family tradition". Which to me, indicated the traditional viewing and open door policy, to all who came to pay their respects. He passed away at his residence at the age of 74, Jan. 28, 1940. He is buried at Pleasant View Cemetery. The doctor who attended him was the same who delivered me, Dr. E.L. Trammell.
*Many times as a small boy, my parents and I went to visit his grave. There, they would tell me things about him. One time on one of these visits, we found the grave had sunken about 2 feet. I didn't understand what could have caused this. That is when my dad explained about the pine box and how it had rotted away. We hauled in dirt, to bring it up to ground level, once again.
*(Written by the youngest of 54 grandchildren (8 living as of Mar. 2023), Grandson, Bobby Liles and wife, Judy)