Oral history with Mr. Joe Reyer, native Mississippian

              Oral history with Mr. Joe Reyer, native Mississippian
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Mr. Joe Reyer was born in Pearl River County, Mississippi, into a family, which had deep roots in that area. His mother's family, the Lewises, came from Alabama and " I imagine it was about the 1840' s." The Reyer side of the family came from Florida at a time, " I don't know, but really I think it must have been in territorial days."
Mr. Reyer's education was gained in schools in the local area, at first small country schools and subsequently at the Pearl River College, then an agricultural high school. He recalls that " In our early school days, we lived out east of Ford's Creek and it was a little country school. . . I think it was called Boley School, as best I can remember." At that time the school year was about four months. After moving to Poplarville, he attended the agricultural high school. " Then my second year there, my father died and there was a lot of children younger than me and I came out of school and went to work."
Mr. Reyer worked hard all of his active life. Earlier, he drove teams of oxen hauling lumber from isolated sawmills to the town of Poplarville. The pay was three dollars per thousand board feet of lumber to haul it nine miles. The round trip required an entire day, but his income could be increased to six dollars by using four oxen. " Then you'd have to pay two dollars for a hundred pounds of feed to feed them on that night. But, you still made four dollars." Among other things, during his working life he farmed, built a few houses, worked on road construction work, and lumbered.
In 1919, Mr. Reyer married his first wife, Miss Edna Varnado, also a native of Pearl River County. " Her mother was a sister to Senator Bilbo and her father was a Baptist minister." Joe and Edna Varnado Reyer were the parents of six children.
After the first Mrs. Reyer's death, Joe Reyer married Mrs. Alma Miley Quinn, who had moved to the area as a child. She subsequently made a successful career as a legal secretary, and spent periods of time away from Poplarville, but had returned there to live prior to Mr. Quinn's death. Joe and Alma Reyer are living in retirement in Poplarville.
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