Quiet Day Planned on 100th Birthday
A short biography of Caloma California “Callie” Shands Douglass
Dallas Morning News
Thursday, 22 October 1953
Page 18
Friday will be a special day for Mrs. Caloma California Shands Douglass – yet in its quiet observance will not be unlike other days for Mrs. Douglass.
Friday will be the 100th birthday for Callie Douglass – her name became somewhat shortened from its ambitious beginning. But the event will be noted quietly in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lenis D. Shrum at 1005 South Montreal – with Mrs. Douglass’ other children, grandchildren and friends honoring her.
Illness has limited Mrs. Douglass’ world in recent years to the four walls of her room and she lives much in the years gone by. A golden circlet on a finger helps bridge the gap of time to events taking place ten decades ago.
The day is Oct. 23, 1853. The place is the home of Dr. and Mrs. H.J. Shands in Summerville, Knoxube County, Mississippi. The young physician and household slaves are attending the birth of a daughter to be christened Caloma California Shands, in memory of the beautiful little city where Dr. Shands made his 49-er gold strike.
A nugget brought back by the doctor was later made into the ring Mrs. Douglass still wears.
The stories of her early days remained fresh with frequent retelling until very recent years. Stories of her father’s good and bad slaves; of the children scampering from house to house chiming “Merry Christmas! Christmas gift!” until each child was handed a peanut and a cookie, and of her tutelage by Miss Lycenia Penry in a private school in Mississippi.
There were blacker stories of the grim Civil War days when few enjoyed the coffee which sold for $100 a pound, and of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction.
Other tales were of her father’s practice of medicine on horseback, over a territory which kept him from home as long as three weeks at a time.
But her favorite story concerned the family’s postwar ox wagon trip from Mississippi to Gilmer. The trip lasted six months. Calllie’s mother and grandparents rode in the only carriage in the caravan.
Dr. Shands would ride ahead on horseback to find a suitable campsite for the night. The wagon train rested on Sundays. The day was spent reverently and Christian services were conducted, with Grandmother Cynthia Penry leading the singing.
Gilmer was chosen as the place to settle because the Looney School, then considered one of the best in Texas, afforded good educational opportunity for Callie, her sister and brothers.
From Gilmer, the family moved to Kaufman. Callie was married to James E. Douglass in 1878 and the couple settled in Forney. Mrs. Douglass was active in the Methodist Church and joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union campaign to rid Forney of saloons.
In recent years, Mrs. Douglass has lived with her children in Dallas and now lives with Mrs. Shrum. Three other of her ten children are living. They are J.E. Douglass of Dallas and N.B. Douglas and S.E. Douglass , both of Forney
