The year is 1915. A scruffy looking family of young people make their way, feet shuffling, eyes downcast, and sadfaced across the broad, dusty field. In the arms of the oldest, just 19, is a two year old boy. His ailing wife, youthful at 16, but poor in health, walks alongside him. Two younger sisters are with them.

Finally the little group reaches their destination, a fence between the properties. A woman in faded workclothes, alongside a man dressed in dirty farm clothing, look at the group expectantly. The woman isn't smiling, but she looks pleased.

The man-boy lifts the little two year old a bit higher, and the woman suddenly smiles. She holds out her arms. Hesitantly, the man puts the boy into the outstretched arms.
"Y'all take good care 'o him ..." he says quietly. He looks one more time at the little boy and then turns and leads his group back across the dusty pasture. The deed is done.

Harvey McDaniel has been given to the Elrods. He won't see his sisters again for 60 years.

Harvey Elrod, father of H. Anne Whiteman, was born in 1913, according to family information, but he could have been born in 1912. When his mother died in 1915, the family could not stay together, and Harvey was adopted out. He had a hard life, was given little education, and worked as a farmhand for his new family until he was grown.

When he was 62, his sister Gladys located him and got in touch with him. He became close to his birth family, but wtill felt himself to be an Elrod.

The information on the Harvey Elrod Family is provided by H. Anne Whiteman