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PAPA AND MAMA'S FIRST HOME IN GENEVA

Papa and mama's first home in the Geneva area was on the 168 acres that they
bought when they came to Geneva. This house stands today and it has not changed
except for a new front door. Willie Janet was born in this house in 1902. papa built a
larger house about 200 yards down the road nearer the railroad. This first home became
the overseer house. His name was Tom Menchew. His wife was Rose. Rose sewed
beautifully and after her husband died, she moved to town and took in sewing. Rose made
me many pretty dresses. This house was later known in Geneva as "The Doctor Curlee
House".
During the late 1940's, Mrs. W.H. Harris sold to a stranger, the first farm home of
the Harris", it is located today, in 1987, between the Geneva hardware Company and the
Geneva Cotton Mill, now Clinton Mill. The house is built on a curve with the road from
the town to the cotton mill cutting the Harris farm in two. Mrs. Harris later learned that
she had sold her farm house to a Dr. Curlee, a seventh son of a seventh son bom with a
veil over his face which gave to him special healing powers. Dr. Curlee was a faith healer.
He had just gotten settled when people started to line up on his front porch at the
break of day. By nine o'clock in the morning, a car could not pass down that road. It
looked like today's Super Bowl traffic. Now for the total of one dollar, Dr. Curlee would
lay his magical hands with special healing powers on your infirmity and it would be healed.
Of course, one treatment might not work and you would need to go back for another try.
The merchants of Geneva experienced an economic boom. People came from far
and near by on bus loads to be healed. They spent money in Geneva and merchants
prospered during this time. The merchants were happy and went around with smiling
faces. The physicians in Geneva could only shake their heads. A cartoon appeared in the
Montgomery Advertiser showing the Geneva merchants calling Dr. Curlee,"Our Boy". It
is told that Dr. Curlee paid everything in one dollar bills. Before he had been in Geneva
very long, he purchased a Cadillac, paying for it with one dollar bills.
After several years of prosperous business, Dr. Curlee became ill and even though
he was the seventh son of a seventh son and bom with a veil over his face, he was like all
other human beings, he passed away. The people in Geneva have forgotten that the house
was first the Harris home and it became known as Curlee's Comer.

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