the southern

ANNA - The home the late Anna resident Esther Mary Ayers kept is a house brimming with local history and cherished family memories.

One and a half years after the 83-year-old Ayers, a former teacher and art history expert, died, her niece, Ann Ayers Martin, still uncovers lost family treasures and relics of local historical significance inside the home.

Martin, who lives and works as a real estate agent in Houston, has been boxing and organizing more than a century's worth of artifacts in the house, along with her sisters; they are preparing for an estate auction that will be held Monday on the home's site at 301 W. High St. in Anna.

For Martin, gathering such a large assortment of family heirlooms, as well as preparing to let go of a place filled with memories, has been emotional.

"This house has been in the family since 1898," Martin said. "They were always interested in history, and they were pack rats."

Martin motioned to the various items, sitting in boxes and stacked along the walls of the distinctly Victorian interior.

"This is now five generations; no one ever threw out a thing."

Five generations of items covers a good deal of ground, as Martin has discovered. What the family wants to keep they've already taken from the house. What is left is a mix of antiquated furniture, clothing articles, crystal ware and various historical documents and quilts describing life in Union County as far back as the late 1800s.

Martin thumbed through a collection of school board annual reports nearly 100 years old. One of the booklets, from 1910, prominently displayed the construction of a new Davie School, still standing as a community center today on Freeman Street in Anna.

Along with the items, Ayers left note cards with short descriptions of where and how the relics came into her possession. Martin said the cards had been displaced from their original items over the years, and putting them back in place has been somewhat of an interesting puzzle.

"These little stories are all over the house," Martin said. "It's just been amazing to put them all back together."

Some of the proceeds from Monday's

auction will go to fund a scholarship at Anna-Jonesboro Community High School, where Ayers taught art and humanities until 1986, Martin said. The scholarships will be $500 awards, given to one or more seniors each year, she said.

"Our goal is to make it a continuing scholarship, so that we can continue to support those kids," Martin said.

Interest in the house and its contents is running high. Martin said the Union County Genealogical and Historical Society has been helping sort through the items of historical significance. Some of the relics are being donated to the society, as well.

As for the memories, Martin said members of her family will gather one last time in the house just before the auction - a few last moments to soak in five generations.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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