Edmond Allen "Allie" Sholar -- Farmer and Grocer

 

Edmond Allen "Allie" Sholar

Edmond Allen “Allie” Sholar was born on September 25, 1866 in the Donaldson Creek community of Trigg County, Kentucky.  He was the oldest of three children born to Peyton Sholar and Frances Etna Vinson Sholar.  Peyton was the youngest child of Jemima Bridges and Allen Thomas Sholar.  Peyton worked as a farmer and his wife Frances was a homemaker.  Allie had two sisters, Lou Rena Sholar, born in 1868 and married William Franklin Vinson and Frances Etna “Etta” Sholar, born in 1873 and married Joel Wesley Deason. Allie also had two half-brothers from his father’s second marriage to Martha Calhoun, William Peyton Sholar, born in 1875 and died at the age of 5 months, and Henry Lee Sholar, born in 1879 and married Lillie D. Darnell and later married Ida Mae Ezell.

Allie grew up in the Donaldson Creek valley and went to school in the one-room Donaldson Creek School.  He received an elementary education up to the eighth grade at the school and then became a farmer with his father. Allie was a single man his entire life.

In addition to farming, Allie operated a small grocery store that was located on the bank of Donaldson Creek.  Limestone was quarried from the hillside next to the store and was used to build a small cabin next to the store that was used as Allie’s home. Allie’s entire life was dedicated to farming and operating the small grocery.

A column in the August 5, 1992 issue of the Cadiz Record written by Billy Rawls mentions Allie’s grocery store. The article describes when Billy would go hunting in the “tangled fields of Dollason Creek in about 1929”.  He would always stop by the “primitive log store that belonged to Allie Sholar who would greet him through a big moustache as he entered the dark interior” of the store.  Allie would “volunteer information about where the most quails might be had as he took off through the uncivilized looking fields” of Donaldson Creek.

Although he never married or had a family of his own, Allie was widely known and respected by many people throughout the community.  Having lived his entire life on the same farm, he was a special friend to those who lived near to him.

Allie was bedfast the last few months of his life and his niece, Grace Vinson Moore and her husband Albert Moore lived with him until his death.  Allie died on August 5, 1948 at his home at the age of 81.  He was buried in the East End Cemetery in Cadiz.

 Allie's home on Donaldson Creek

LINEAGE: (Edmond Allen “Allie” Sholar was the son of Peyton and Frances Etna Vinson Sholar and the grandson of Allen and Jemima Bridges Sholar.  Jemima was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)