LBERT EWING LAMB, the son of SIPPIO AFRICANUS LAMB and ELIZABETH DAVIS KIMBRO LAMB, was born the 23rd day of May 1866 in Ridgway, Gallatin County, Illinois and departed this life the 21st day of April 1950 in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey. His body rests in the Over Look Mausoleum in that city.
Helen Sterling Kimbro, a granddaughter of Garland Miller Kimbro and Helen Sterling Kimbro, in a letter written to me 9 August 1983, said the following: "I remember his [Elbert Lamb] visiting us around 1940. He was a very gentle, soft spoken man. His face was badly scared from an operation for cancer of the mouth, but when he talked and told stories of the things he had remembered, I loved to listen to him."
He reportedly stood 6' 2" tall and, according to his own words, had blond hair. Supposedly, his aunt Louella Porter Phillips[*], gave him the nick name "Ebenezer Snowball". Ebenezer stuck, but was shortened to Eb. I have never heard him referred to as anything other than Uncle "Eb" Lamb.
I took on the project of retyping this book because I feel that it has great value, and I did not want to see it slip into obscurity with the passage of time.
Some of the words that were habitually misspelled, I left that way. I did, however, separate some of the exceptionally long dialog into more meaningful paragraphs. There were pages of this material that was, in places, nearly impossible to read - I did the best that I could. Perhaps someone, in a day yet future, will be able to fill in the blank spaces that I was forced to leave.
This has been a labor of love, both for my uncle, Eb Lamb, and for the historical preservation purposes which his writings may serve.
Larry F. Lamb
Update: In an e-mail to the webmaster on July 1, 2006, Valerie Phillips Gildehaus, a great-granddaugther of Luella (Porter) Phillips and her husband Winfield Phillips, noted that Luella was Eb Lamb's sister-in-law rather than his aunt as Larry Lamb wrote in his introduction.
According to Gildehaus, Luella was born on August 13, 1858, in Covington, Kentucky, and her sister Jane Anne Gibson Porter was born February 3, 1866, in Moore's Hill, Indiana. They were daughters of Braxton Carter Porter and his second wife Sarah Jane Fisher Redington. Other siblings included Braxton Franklin "Frank" Porter and Fannie Porter who married Ammon Crawford, a step-brother of Winfield Phillips.
