Big Level
I was born and raised in Big Level. I went to school in Big Level. I went to church in Big Level. All of my first friends were in Big Level. My daddy was born in Big Level, as was my granddaddy, and my great-granddaddy. My history runs bone-deep and blood-rich in Big Level. I spent my first nineteen years there. I learned a lot about life and love there.
Big Level—sounds pretentious, doesn’t it? This is the name of a community on the eastern side of Stone County, Mississippi, encompassing a full fourth of the county’s land area. The land there is topologically flat with sandy loam soil. Land that was found to be ideal for raising cattle and other livestock, for farming and producing just about everything a pioneer family needed to subsist. Simply put, the area is both big and level, an aptly descriptive name for the community there. My Lott great-great-grandparents settled there in the 1840s, both being raised some 40-plus miles away in Covington County, attracted by the richness of the prime real estate just opening up in the area, with its fertile soil, numerous creeks and streams, teeming wildlife, and its abundant stands of virgin pine and hardwood timber. I wouldn’t say there’s much pretention there, but there is an abounding pride of place and an abiding sense of belonging to be found among the fine, simple, country folk who’ve spent generations building their lives and raising their families there: the Lotts, Bonds, Brelands, Batsons, Hattens, and Hickmans, the Miles, O’Neals, Taylors, Whites and Whittingtons—just to name a few—all of whom I’m related to, by both roots of blood and marriage, and also by roots planted deep within this bonny land.
Geographically speaking, Big Level is bounded on the north up Oil Well Road to the Perry County line, on the south down City Bridge Road to Red Creek, on the west by the Ten Mile Community and the outskirts of the town of Wiggins, and on the east by the New Zion, Deep Creek, and Ramsey Springs Communities. While these are its approximate confines, and some might quibble on a point or two, all would agree that the heart of Big Level lies along City Bridge Road from White’s Crossing on Highway 26 down by the old Home School and Big Level Baptist Church to the Big Level Grocery where City Bridge Road intersects with King Bee Road.
I grew up on a 40-acre farm at the end of a sandy gravel lane less than a mile from my Lott grandparents’ place in Upper Big Level. (Yep, that’s a real thing—my mother and Aunt Riecey were both members of the Upper Big Level Cooperative Home Extension group.) Our homeplace, now owned by my brother, John, lies at the top of Punk Lott Road, a half-mile off Big Four Road and about three miles from White’s Crossing. Almost all of these country byways are paved now—including the lane leading up to our family home, except the last hundred yards—but when I was born, in the early ’50s, most were dirt and gravel roads, variously graded and ungraded, often muddy and rutted. I wouldn’t trade my raisin’ there for anything.
You’ll quickly learn that exploring roads, maps, and local history is one of my favorite pastimes. And I’ve just mentioned several Big Level roads and place names that have interesting histories and stories behind them. I plan to share some of those on these pages, lest they be lost to future generations. If you enjoy them, let me know. And if you’re from Big Level, lead me to other bits and pieces of the story, help me fill in the gaps. For me, at least, all good stories are intrinsically grounded in a sense of place.
Home Vocational High School, aka Big Level School, 1959-60
That’s me, 12th from the left on the bottom row, between Billie Ruth O’Neal and Keith Sellers, 2nd-graders in Mrs. Bullard’s 1st-2nd-grade classroom. This photo of the entire student body and faculty was taken in 1959-60, the last year the school housed all twelve grades. Over the next few years, as the county consolidated its schools, the high school grades were moved to Wiggins. I graduated from the 8th grade at Big Level in 1967 before moving on to Stone High. Home School closed for good in 1972.
A WORD TO PONDER
bone-deep: an inherent part of someone or something.
Source: thefreedictionary.com
Song of the day
“Country Road” by James Taylor (Sweet Baby James, 1969)