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Kirby and Eller Family Letters
Description
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The Kirby and Eller Family Letters contain correspondence between the Kirby and Eller families of Ashe County, North Carolina. The letters focus mainly on day-to-day events such as planting and harvesting crops, health and illness, and household tasks, but also include references to the Civil War. The original letters of Collection 495 Kirby and Eller Family Letters, 1826-1938 are in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection.
<div class="subnote ">
<p><span class="less">Elizabeth “Bettie” Kirby (1851-1925) was born on February 15th, 1851 in Meadow Creek, Virginia, to parents Joel Kirby and Frances Roberts. Millard F. Kirby, Samuel J. Kirby, Emory T. Kirby, and Ada B. Kirby were her siblings. She married Joseph Lafayette Eller on September 22, 1875 in Ashe County, NC, where she lived until her death on December 9, 1925.<br /><br />Luke Eller (1806-1883) was born on June 8, 1806 in Ashe Co., NC. He was married to Sarah King<span class="elipses"></span></span><span class="more"> on March 27, 1829 in Ashe Co. He is the father of Joseph Lafayette Eller (Elizabeth’s husband), Hansford Eller, and Aswell Eller. Luke Eller lived in Ashe Co. until his death on December 6, 1883.</span></p>
<span class="note-content readmore expanded"><a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/165#" class="expander">See less</a></span></div>
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<p><a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/165">AC.495 Kirby and Eller Family Letters</a></p>
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<a title="In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted" href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/?language=en 8" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted </a>
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Letter from Lillie to Elizabeth Eller, 20 November 1892
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1892-11-20
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4 pages
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Letter_11_20_1892.pdf
Description
An account of the resource
This letter from Lillian to her Aunt, Elizabeth Eller, is about her life in Baltimore and cooking. She described her living situation and boarders. This letter is largely focused on the subject of food.
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English
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<p><a href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/165">AC.495 Kirby and Eller Family Letters</a></p>
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Subject
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Maryland--Baltimore
Cooking
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Ashe County (N.C.)
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<a title=" Kirby and Eller Family Letters" href="https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/collections/show/17" target="_blank"> Kirby and Eller Family Letters </a>
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https://www.geonames.org/4453028/ashe-county.html
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Text
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PDF
Letters (Correspondence)
Baltimore
cooking
Elizabeth Eller
Eller family
family letters
letter
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/c0fda66486b11b32e32cefae4864f3fa.mp3
da32e4a686b13e86c5ca44db2778b99f
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Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 214
Interviewee: Charles Bolick
Interviewer: Barbara Greenberg
21 June 1974
CB: Charles Bolick
BG: Barbara Greenberg
BB: Charles Bolick of Blowing Rock, North Carolina interviewed by Barbara Greenberg on June
21, 1974 at his home. Well, Mr. Bolick, Charles you…
CB: Charlie, that’s my name and that’s Libby, my little darling over there.
BG: You want to start out by telling me a little bit about where you were born and your family.
CB: Oh, well…its just about ten miles from Blowing Rock over in Caldwell County. Mulberry
Valley, a good farming community.
BG: And did your parents own their land there?
CB: Oh, yes. They owned their own home.
BG: How much land did they have?
CB: Oh, I think it was 150 acres in that place. My mother had a couple of hundred somewhere
else. And, we just lived…that was all there was to it. We had to work. We had to do this, that,
you know. And go barefoot, summer time us kids did. And we would get so danged tired
playing, that if we stubbed a toe over a flint rock…the sparks would fly, that’s for sure. They
would, we could light our way after dark by stubbing our toes.
BG: How many people were in your family?
CB: There was one little girl that died, I don’t remember her, I wasn’t even born yet. But there
would have been eight had she lived. There were seven of us. Five boys, two girls.
BG: What did your father do?
CB: He was a farmer, just a plain homesteader. He had to be, like most of the people back those
days. They had to be. They just had to do what they had to do and there was not much, as I
understood it, not much money back in those days. The people, but yet the old timers they had
to have cash to pay their taxes. And he told me that his father, my granddad, old granddad
1
�Abner, he had his own still. He used to make whiskey and he sold it at ten cents a quart, 40
cents a gallon, in order to get money to pay his taxes. That had to be in cash. Otherwise they
could barter you know, the barter system. If we have something we have a little surplus of, we
could swap to our neighbor who may have had something we needed.
You know that’s the same as cash and sometimes I think maybe it was better off that way than
it is today. The only thing we’ve got that isn’t worth anything is our dollar. Everything else is
worth something today.
BG: Especially the land.
CB: Oh, Lord yes. Even the barrel box cost you 25, 50, maybe 100 dollars. Well, it’s a
homestead; okay you got it from now on. We had to think of those things too. That’s
permanent, to pay taxes. Those are the two things that will last right on through.
BG: Till the end.
CB: Yeah, just right on and on.
BG: Well, when did you start farming?
CB: When? Oh, I was about knee high I guess. Kept clearing new ground. We burned a lot of
good wood, just piled them up, you know new ground. Logs, brush, everything. But farming,
that is the way we grew up back in those days, we had to.
BG: How did you decide how much of each crop you should plant? How did you know how
much you would need for the next year?
CB: Well, that was just a matter of what folks knew, it was experience. They would just plant
what they thought and hoped they needed with perhaps a little surplus, you know. It was just
that way. Sow turnip seeds, you know, when we were laying the corn by. They lay corn in the
new ground we would sow turnip seeds, then pumpkin seeds. And maybe fill up an old hollow
chestnut stump with turnips in the fall of the year. They’d keep maybe, if we covered them over
good. Haul them out by the sled load, you know, and pumpkins, they’d break loose from a vine
and go rolling just having a big time down the mountain.
BG: Do you farm as much now as you used to?
CB: Oh no, we just to a little gardening now. Just a little gardening and the better half does
most of that right? I don’t see my way around too good any more.
BG: were there ever any times when your family didn’t grow enough food and when you were
hungry?
2
�CB: Oh yeah, we went through all that. We just had to make do without. The only things we
bought back in those days was sugar and coffee and once in a while rice if we wanted to be real
fancy, we would buy enough of rice for breakfast. But the rest of it we just grew on the place.
And we raised our own hogs and killed a beef in the fall of the year, salt them. You know, we
didn’t have all that fancy stuff, it was just plain salt. And some of the best eating.
We made kraut, we raised cane, I mean the kind you make sorghum out of it. Well, we just had
to make it or else we didn’t have it.
BG: Did you have chickens and cows?
CB: Chickens? Yes, and turkeys.
BG: How were the chores divided on a farm? Did the boys do certain chores and the two girls
do other things or….
CB: Oh, a whole lot like now. The girls did their share of the chores and the boys of course
worked outdoors like gathering corn and hoeing corn and digging potatoes. And the girls were
more interested in quilting or making their clothing.
BG: Helping your mom in the kitchen?
CB: Cooking, yes, exactly. And Lord knows the mothers had plenty to do back in those days.
Besides raising a bunch of little heathens that we were.
BG: Did you give your mother a hard time?
CB: No, she was always our best friend.
BG: That’s great. Did the Depression have very much effect on your family?
CB: Well yes, it did to me. I wasn’t here then, I was out in the western country, but Lord it did
hit out there. The Depression? Do you mean that 1928, ’29, ’30 Depression? It was tough. And it
must have been rough on other people, because I was single then. I hadn’t been exposed to
marriage at that time. So no responsibilities other than, well…I was working on this
construction camp, and this friend of mine, Old Smiley Thomas, he said, “You know
something?” I said, “What Smiley?” He said, “The times are getting better.” I said, “What do
you mean?” He said, “They are making the hotcakes bigger and thicker.”
Every morning, we were living in this boarding house; the hotcakes were bigger and thicker. Oh
Lord, is that thing on?
BG: Tell me, when you planted your crops in the spring of the year, did you know whom you
were going to sell your crops to?
3
�CB: Oh, no. We were just growing them ourselves.
BG: There was no cash crop?
CB: Well, whatever we might swap with a neighbor for something, if they had a surplus of more
that they needed. I’ll never forget one time my mother sent me over to old uncle Will Green’s.
He’d always butcher a yearling, take down to the Grove Store and sell it on Election Day. That
was usually in early November, the 6th I believe. And my mother said, “Charlie, go up there this
morning and get us a good mess of beef. Your dad, when he goes for live beef, he always brings
back part of the neck; the brisket they call it.” She said, “Get something better.”
Well, I bought ten pounds of steak, 50 cents for 10 pounds, or five cents a pound. Well, I got
back home with it and my mother balled me out for buying such expensive meat. Can you
imagine that? She did. She said, “Charlie, I didn’t mean for you to buy such expensive beef.” I’ve
thought of that time and again. Five cents a pound for good steak, just a yearling beef, you
know not an old or a tough one or something.
BG: Good eating wasn’t it?
CB: Yeah, it was. But I couldn’t quite get over her kind of balling me out about buying such
expensive meat, it was five cents a pound, ten pounds was 50 cents. And you know how I made
that 50 cents? I used to help my dad run his still.
BG: Did your dad run his own still?
CB: Oh yeah, copper stills back in those days. They weren’t government inspected. We had a lot
of fun. We talk now how to make apple brandy.
BG: Tell me how you make it?
CB: Well, you just grind up the apples and set them in wooden barrels and when it ferments
and gets to the proper stage, before it turns to vinegar, you just boil it. Just distill and boil it.
And that’s all it and you get something. It’ll be brandy tomorrow. And two or three sips, you
could make a rabbit walk up and spit in a bulldog’s face.
BG: Well, tell me…you don’t have to put any sugar in it? Just…
CB: No, we didn’t then. We were not that smart. No, it just made more. It produces more. Like
this old farmer was telling me about his corn crop this year. He said, “I’ll calculate that it will
grow about 60 gallons to the acre.”
BG: What do you mean 60 gallons? Did you mean 60 bushels?
CB: No, we get two gallons to the bushel. So he figured it in gallons. Except one fall of the year,
4
�some of the neighbors got worried because he wasn’t going to their revival meeting at night.
You know those country folk…back in those days; I guess here and there they’re still that way.
My dad said, “Charlie, some of the neighbors are wondering why you’re not attending. Maybe
you would better go down to the Bryant’s and sort of wash up a little bit and put you on a clean
pair of overalls. Just shut the still down and go on to the church. That will take the pressure
off.” Well, it did. It worked.
BG: What was it like (running the still)? Did you have to hide this still a lot? Did you have to hide
the fact that you had this still?
CB: Oh yes, that was all way back in the cove, the little burner. Otherwise you would get
“chopped down” as they called it then. The revenue agent, the IRS, the same outfit that collects
our income taxes. They are something.
BG: I hear they are bad people.
CB: Well, we had a lot of fun. It was rough growing up in that time and day, but we did enjoy
life, just like people do today. Just a little different style and manner that is all. We were
ourselves, and they were themselves. Like the old saying out west, “Well men are men, and
women are glad of it.” That’s the way it was then, down here at home, right through these hills.
I wouldn’t mind living through it again, knowing what I know now. It was rough, but that was
only what we had, so we had to live it.
BG: That’s right. Do you think life today is harder or easier than it was then?
CB: It’s much easier, but it’s too fast. Everybody’s in a hurry today. Back in those days you just
didn’t rush through like they do it now, it’s the way I see it. Somebody asked me not long ago,
“How did you do it? How did you hang on so long to life?” My answer is by not hurrying.
The only time I ever got in a hurry in my life I was trying to stop. Just one time I got in a hurry.
BG: Well what happened?
CB: I had straddled a danged riled horse and he was running away with me. That was it. The
next thing I knew I was sitting there looking at the other mountainside, blinking my eyes like a
frog in a hailstorm or something. And didn’t know who I was or where I was. Two arms, one
collarbone busted, and my head and neck bruised. They made me a trough to eat out of, I
couldn’t feed myself. Well, I still like horses now, if you can imagine that after that one near
beat me to death. It was a little two or three year old stallion. The horse was as gentle as a
kitten, but he just decided he was going to have his fun, and he did.
BG: How old were you then?
CB: About 17 or 16. I was old enough to have known better.
5
�BG: Really?
CB: When I look back at things like that its sort of amusing and, you know, if you didn’t have a
sense of humor you wouldn’t have much. At least I wouldn’t. I sort of like that idea of taking
things lightly, you know. Don’t be too serious about things and don’t get in a hurry.
BG: Yes, you get by a lot easier. Talking about getting in a hurry, did people go visiting very
much when you were a boy?
CB: Not very much. Well, they did on Sunday. That was church day, you know…Sunday school.
And that was the chance they had the whole week to see their neighbors. People would have
this church group where they would get together and get acquainted again. And do a little
gossiping sometimes on the side. But it was interesting. That was the only thing that we had to
look forward to.
There were no picture shows, no little league baseball. The only place where kids could go.
Sunday morning we could put on our clean shirt and go to church without asking mom or dad,
“Can we go?” That was understood, that was a part of life. They knew where we were going.
We knew where we were going, there were no questions asked at all on Sunday morning. Do as
you please, as long as you go to church. Well, sometimes as little boys we would always go to
Sunday school first then church. Sometimes we would prefer the swimming hole that was
about a half mile below the church. We would play “hooky,” I believe they call it. We sure did,
but it was fun. Once in a while we would have to kill a water snake or something.
BG: Does the water stay pretty cool up here all summer long? Is it warm enough to go
swimming?
CB: Well, this was down in Caldwell County about 2,000 feet lower than Blowing Rock. Down in
the valley, John’s River Valley and Mulberry Valley, which was just under the mountain three or
four miles away. Yes, up here the only way I would go swimming is to fall in and hope that
didn’t happen. It’s too cold up here.
BG: Pretty chilly. What about your schooling? Can you tell me something about your schooling?
CB: Yes, ma’am. If I can remember. We had a three-day rain one time, way back in the teens.
That’s a little further back than you remember I’m sure. It washed the foot-log away, and we
were living on the wrong side of the creek. The schoolhouse was on my side. So I had to go to
school for three days before they go the foot-log put back.
BG: That’s the only schooling you ever had? Those three days?
CB: Yes, that was it. Except for just reading the Boone Almanac and a few newspapers.
BG: Where did you learn to read?
6
�CG: At my home by firelight. Preacher Savage used to be the Episcopalian minister here. I think
that he was raised over somewhere in Allegany County. He gave me a book; the name of it was
Treasure Island. I started reading it on Christmas morning, that was my Christmas gift, and I
finished reading it about midnight. I just had my head buried right in that thing. First in my
bedroom, then I had to go out on the porch, then upstairs. I was so danged scared I called my
mom to show me to my bedroom after reading that book by firelight. The house was a bit
crude, it didn’t have things so modern back then. That is, not compared with today anyway.
Its like those old timers used to say it was “root hog” or “die them days,” and hogs didn’t root
them like they do now.
BG: What do you mean by that?
CB: Well, hogs would just stick their nose in the ground and start walking. Now these days they
have smarted up, they go “hunching along.” I’m sure that is going to be interesting now.
BG: Go ahead.
CB: Pardon?
GB: I just said go ahead and tell me some more.
CB: About what?
BG: You’re doing just fine.
CB: Well, thank you. I hope it will not create too many red faces. But, just thinking of things
back those days like they were then and like they are today, there is really no comparison. Back
in those das when I was a young fellow, we just had one-track roads. It was either a buggy or a
wagon or a sled. Just right of the river. Most of the roads followed the creek bank, through the
farm area. Back in those days farmers were what kept us alive and they couldn’t afford to give
valuable level land, it was with corn or wheat or something for a road. That had been unheard
of.
BG: Doesn’t the way people used to utilize what they had, taking advantage of the land and
misusing it?
CB: Well, they just had to do it. Yes, we used to make molasses like I told you a while ago. Boil
molasses, you grind the can round with an old cane mill, horse or a mule, or an old steer or
something. That used to be my job. Pulling that thing, pushing him along, grinding candy. It took
one complete circle for the horsepower to equal one turn of the cane mill. So it was a slow
process. And it was just a toss up which one of us got dizzy first, going around and around. And
lots of times we would have to take one out when it would fall. Put in a new one that wasn’t so
disturbed, or something.
7
�And chestnuts, the forest full of chestnut trees then. It was a lot more fun to pick them up and
road them in front of the old molasses boiler furnace. That was made it worthwhile was
roasting chestnuts.
BG: I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten any chestnuts. They are just not around anymore. When
was it that the blight hit and wiped out all of the chestnuts?
CB: When? Well, it was some sort of blight. It got all of tem. All of our original, now they are
what they call blight resistant Chinese chestnuts. They are not too good either. I planted a few
of those. They are a very poor substitute for what we used to have, our original chestnut trees.
BG: When did this blight hit? Do you know what year that was?
CB: Oh, it started when I was a kid. My granddad had a big old field he called his chestnut
orchard. Great big old chestnut trees that were three or four feet in diameter and he would go
out there and pick them up. He would just fell for them, but they started dying. I was probably
ten years old, that’s a little while ago. Life was really interesting back then. It still is for that
matter, but people are living so different today. Too much hurry. Too much, well just we’ve got
to get there or we don’t, these days.
And I don’t see where it quite, I don’t know…maybe it’s a wholesome life. That’s all people
know. The young people these days, is what they’re living. Just like we did. The thing is its just
different for us old timers. But yet its all the young people know. This is their life. And some of
them are living it up a little bit.
BG: Way too fast.
CB: That’s what I would say. It’s no use hurrying through. It’s too short anyway. I’m not mad; I
don’t know whether they quit. It just doesn’t work that way.
BG: You’ve got a real good attitude.
CB: Well, thank you. I have been that way most of my life. Like I say, if you didn’t have a little
sense of humor, you wouldn’t have any sense. It all goes together. It works together. It’s about
what you make of it, is the way I see it. But the main thing, don’t get in a hurry. Even thought it
might be a lot of fun, don’t get in a hurry. Just go along in the agony. I’m going to tell you a little
shady joke or two. You would be better put that on another tape.
BG: All right. Can you tell me what a typical farm day was like? What time did you get up in the
morning?
CB: Sunrise or earlier.
BG: And what was the first thing that you did? Try to remember one, a particular day and just
8
�tell me every detail about it.
CB: Well, the first thing we would usually have breakfast. Mom would get up and cook
breakfast.
BG: What did she usually cook for breakfast?
CB: Just whatever there was. Eggs, bacon, ham; we usually grew our own hogs and our beef.
Just whatever there was. And turkey, once in a while we would have a stuffed turkey or
something at Thanksgiving. But it’s just a plain country family. Get up and work after breakfast.
Hoe corn; dig taters, whatever there was to do.
BG: There’s always something to do.
CB: There sure was. If nothing else we could on rainy days, we could get out there and
straighten up old bent nails with a hammer. Straighten nails they call it, because you couldn’t
afford new nails or anything. We made our own fence rails. We made our fences. We couldn’t
afford buying barbed wire, it was called barbed wire. So the cattle and cows and everything
they just roamed around through the pasture and the woods. And we would in the evening, our
job as kids was to go out and round them up, bring them in for milling. Just plain country life.
BG: What time would you come in to eat?
CB: Before dark. We would usually be in by dark, after supper. Bread and milk for supper. It was
wholesome, it was right good eating. And one time, I’ll never forget this. We had something
different for breakfast. Usually it was cured meat, ham, and stuff like that, maybe salted bacon.
But one morning, it was in wintertime, sort of cold. And mom left her old oven door open, this
old range stove. Back in those days we used to have a cat hole in the door. Have you heard of
that? A cat hole so the cat could come in or go out as he pleased. And some of them, before
they got sort of wised up they would cut a little hole for the kittens. But by and by they found
out the kittens could go through the same hole the old cat could, so they just cut one hole, a big
one.
Mom left the over door in a range cook stove. Two or three cats in there. It was cold,
wintertime. They decided they would keep warn in that oven. Well, we got up way before
daylight always every morning, and she closed the oven door and started the fire going. It was a
wood burner, and by and by she heard this awful yowling. She started looking for the cats, they
weren’t anywhere in there except in the oven and they were baking. That’s one time we came
right near having a baked cat ham for breakfast! Well, mom opened the door. They left there so
fast and both hit the cat hole at the same time and they jammed up in it and then they got in a
fight. The hair was scorching plum in the woods! But we nearly had cat ham for breakfast that
morning.
9
�BG: But they made it all right?
CB: They pulled through it. They didn’t come back too soon; they stayed away a little while.
BG: Wondering what these strange people are doing to them?
CB: Well, this was just old country stuff you know. That’s all. Just like people used to live.
BG: After you ate supper at night, did your family sit around together and have any sort of a
family entertainment? Did anybody play a banjo or fiddle?
CB: Well, there were not many musicians in our family. Two or three of the youngsters could
kind of plunk on an old guitar. You know, just one at a time. But generally at that time of the
day we were so tired we just went on to bed after supper, as soon as we could. Back in those
days we had those old rope beds. They called it a corded bed. Instead of springs, we used just
rope.
BG: Were those pretty sturdy? Were the rope beds pretty sturdy? Did they hold the mattress
firm?
CB: Well our mattresses were “ticks” as they called it. Straw ticks. Filled with wheat straw. Well,
by and by then they wore out we hat to put new straw in it. And the old bed, it could be any
style shaped bed and ever so often those ropes had to be tightened up. My brother and I
bunked together. One particular evening we got to bouncing around, the danged thing
collapsed with us and the old headboard came over and caught. We were in a spot I’m telling
you. Hollering, “Help! Help!” Mom finally had to go, she just died laughing, she had to come
and lift the danged headboard off of us before we could move. I reckon we would have been
there yet if somebody hadn’t moved.
BG: What was the headboard made of?
CB: Wood, it was all just old wood.
BG: Were they all hand carved by somebody in the family?
CB: Well mostly, yes. But there not so many factory made stuff back in those days. It was just
you do it yourself you know.
BG: Everything seemed to last a lot longer like that too.
CB: We have an old one in here, but its modernized. It got springs and what not on it. Used to
be in the family when I was a kid. You can see it after a while.
BG: All right, great. I’d like to see it.
10
�CB: It can’t talk to you. If it could I’d touch a match to it I believe!
BG: Don’t want it to tell any stories? Any old stories?
CB: I don’t believe I would, don’t believe I would. Lib can tell you some stories. Now, any other
questions Miss Barb? I’m just taking up a lot of your time?
BG: Oh, I’m enjoying it. Its great. This is great. I want you to tell me some more stories, like the
beds. I didn’t know about the rope beds. What was something else that is so different now than
how it was? I don’t know like…rugs. Did your mother weave your own rugs?
CB: She had some of those old wool cards they called it, you know…spiked things? And a
spinning wheel and what not. I think couple of old spinning wheels as boys; we tore them up
trying to make a sawmill out of it. Or tried to. If we had them today they would be worth
something. But as kids, anything we could, we would tear up cloth and make a sawmill out of it.
Just anything, kids, crazy. When the brains were passed around I reckon we just reached over
and grabbed a bag of nuts, or fell out of the high chair or something!
BG: Did your mother make all of your clothes?
CB: Most of them.
BG: What did she make them out of? What kind of material did she use?
CB: They called it factory cloth back then. It was just plain old white cloth. The same kind of
stuff they made covered wagons out of, the white stuff.
BG: Canvas type cloth? Was it thick?
CB: Well, it was made by a manufacturing company. It was thick and heavy. Well, that was the
only cloth that I ever knew of, other than the overalls. Overall cloth could be bought then in the
bolt. She would make overalls for us and shirts. And that factory cloth was the coldest
underwear I believe. Even an Eskimo would have shivered if they put on a pair of drawers made
out of that stuff!
BG: Did they keep you very warm in the winter?
CB: Well, after you finally got them warned up you would stay warm. They were all right, but
golly they were cold to start with.
BG: What about your shoes? Did somebody make your shoes?
CB: Oh, we would get a pair a year. If we wore them out, we were out of luck until the next
year. There were shoemakers back in those days, but my dad didn’t make any. His dad did, my
11
�old granddad. He used to make all the shoes and granny made all the clothes for all the young
ones.
BG: Did you know your grandparents very well? Did they live…
CB: I remember my granddad real well. He died when I was about; I think I was eleven years old
when he died. He was 90, somewhere in the nineties. I went to his funeral.
BG: What was the funeral like?
CB: It was country graveside; they just dug a hole and planted him in there. That was all there
was to it back in those days. My daddy used to worry about that. He told Momma one time, he
say, “We’ll, you know it would take a 100 dollars to bury the family.” There were seven kids and
he said, “It will cost that to bury our whole family.” One hundred dollars, think of that. Well, an
undertaker wouldn’t even sneeze at you these days for $100.
BG: And then you would be buried anywhere you wanted. Is that correct?
CB: Oh yes, family burying ground usually. Just anyplace on the hillside where it wouldn’t do to
grow corn. Just plant them (people) there and they would stay. No questions asked. Nothing.
BG: Did a lot of the neighbors come to the funerals?
CB: Oh yes. Everybody for miles around. That was another one of those get together, like going
to church on Sunday. But they were all there if you needed help. They would come and sit up
with you and everything. That’s one think we don’t have that much anymore, very much. We
still have friend s and neighbors, but back in those days you just had to do things. That was part
of life, you know.
BG: Showing each other. Kind of showing each other how you felt, helping them out when they
were having hard times.
CB: Oh, yes. It was just being neighbors and friends, that was all. We either stuck together or
else we were gone. That was the way it was. Help each other. And sometimes I think its pretty
nice way to live. Pretty good way to be friends and neighbors. Its still that way, but a little
different…too speedy these days. Say, “Good morning” to somebody these mornings and then
the next morning they say, “Oh, go to hell!” or something. Its just different than it used to be.
Please excuse my language.
BG: Oh, it’s quite all right. Well, you were talking a little while about the roads being just onelane roads. Do you remember when the first cars came to this area?
CB: Oh, yes. They were those old Model T Henry Fords. You would crank one of the dammed
things till the water boiled and maybe they would start. You know hand-cranked? Lord have
12
�mercy. The hardest work I have ever done in my life was trying to crank up one of those
damned things. And then you would usually end up with a broken arm!
The car would backfire if it ever did fire. That’s what this old Frenchman told me. He said, “I
cranked the danged thing until the water boiled.” He was French Canadian. I said, “Dan,
wouldn’t it fire at all?” “Hellfire, it wouldn’t even backfire!” he said. But that was your Model
T’s. That was way back in the 1920s.
BG: Did the coming of the car have much of a change on life?
CB: Oh yes, it changed everything around. But it took a little while to do it. You know we still
had plenty of chestnuts when they first came out. And beans and corn and there was no blight,
there were no bugs. We didn’t have to spray, or dust or anything for our crop back then. But I
reckon the Model T’s changed all that. They brought the bugs with them or something!
BG: The pollution I guess it was.
CB: Could be. I don’t know if this was so long ago. It’s hard to put everything together again,
you know just at once. But sometimes I think maybe we would have been just as well off if we
would have stayed with a horse and buggy. I can’t help but think of it that way. At least it suited
me. And those were the good days if you didn’t mind sitting behind a horse. You could have a
lot of fun on a date. Just as much fun as it is these days. If you didn’t mind sitting behind a
horse.
BG: What was courting like?
CB: Courting? Just like it is now, I reckon.
BG: Where did you go? What did you do?
CB: Nowhere. You just go call on your date. You would sit at her house for an hour or two and
then head for home. A little bit milder I reckon than what it is these days. I would say quieter.
And you had to act respectable they called it back in those days. You had to be known in other
words.
If your date’s parents didn’t like you, you just didn’t date. That was all there was to it. You had
to be a good neighbor and a good friend in order to have a date with whoever it was.
BG: Did you have to ask the parent’s permission or did you ask the girl?
CB: Well, that was usually understood. You knew if the parents didn’t approve of you, you
wouldn’t be there regardless of what the girl said. But otherwise the courtship I would say was
a little more modest back in those days. Less, what would you call it these days? permissiveness
these days?
13
�No, that was unheard of back then. If a girl made a mistake, she was through. And they all, it
seemed to be understood that way. They just very seldom ever made a mistake until they were
married. And then of course, it couldn’t have been a mistake. End up in a divorce court, but
very seldom.
BG: Did they have many divorces back then?
CB: Oh yes, the same then as now, but you were downgraded if you even though of a divorce.
That was something unusual. People jus didn’t go for that. They just have to if they made a
mistake. Well, they would sweat it out. Just tough it out. Rather, they were thinking of the kids.
Family life in other words. Rather than degradation.
BG: That sounds good.
CB: Whatever it was. They just didn’t go for that back in those days. Nothing, they wanted to be
on the “up and level” you know, keep going ahead. And it wasn’t a bad idea, I reckon.
BG: Kept people closer together and family life more of a family.
CB: Yeah, more of a close-knit family life. Rather than, I think these days that, I don’t know but
it seems to me that the parents say, “Okay kids, just go ahead.” Without supervision or
anything. Just to get rid of them, get them out of the house. “Go on, do what you want to do.”
Well, they do.
Especially if they have a sporty vehicle. Back in those days if we had a four-legged horse and a
four-wheeled buggy we were, lucky. A buggy would be like a Cadillac today.
BG: Were your parents very strict with you? Did you consider them to have been strict?
CB: Well, they sure laid it on once in a while. I knew exactly where they were hitting too.
BG: Is that what they would do for punishment?
CB: Well, they would talk a little once in a while. But usually they were too dang busy trying to
make a living that they didn’t have time to talk too much. But when they did decide to punish,
they knew exactly where they were spanking.
BG: What did they spank you with?
CB: Oh, a paddle, broom handle, anything that was available. Just whatever was handy that
would be it. Usually he palm of the hand.
BG: It seemed to hurt the most I guess.
14
�CB: Well, like you said, I knew exactly where they were spanking.
BG: Did your family dig roots too?
CB: Dig roots? Oh yes, we used to dig ginseng. “Sang” we called it back then. S-A-N-G. Ginseng.
That’s supposed to be a mysterious, great herb that the Chinese like so well. And then star root,
and then we would also pull Galax.
BG: Did the people use ginseng around here at all or did they just sell it?
CB: I don’t know of anyone that used it, juts just one of those things. Maybe a few people do.
I’ve found it. I’ve dug it up from time to time, but I don’t see that anymore.
BG: I’ve got a few plants at my house. Got about four of them. Only one is getting a little berry
on it. What do you do with the very if you want to say, increase your crop?
CB: The seeds?
BG: Yes. Are there seeds inside the little berries?
CB: Yes, like holly berries. Same color exact. The ginseng is a pretty plant really, its just three
leaves. And the seed part after they grow to a certain age, the seed comes up in the middle of
he pant with al little flower, a little group of red berries. Those are the seeds.
BG: Do you replant each of the red berries or is there just one, or several of them?
CB: No, there are several in a little pod right in the center of this parent plant. And the birds
sometimes plant them, or you can if you want to. And if a mole or something doesn’t get them,
it’ll come up. My daddy used to have three or four old big hollow chestnut logs full of red soil
that he grew ginseng in where we used to live. But the cultivated kind never did do quite so
good as the just out in it s natural state in the woods.
Well, the time it rained for three days, my dad’s old ginseng patch washed away. Those old
hollow chestnut logs, they went down the river putting him out of the business. He said, “Well,
I’ll just leave them where they are from now on, out in the woods in the cold.”
Back in 1916, it rained so much that is caused a flood. Nearly washed everything thing down.
The word got passed around, back at this time there were no telephones, but the word spread
from one place to another. This old timer, our country church preacher got people together to
pray at our little church for this rain to quit. He said, “Pray for the flood to stop.” It was really a
rip-snorting flood!
BG: Was it worse than the flood of 1940?
15
�CB: Yes, it was. I remember that one too. But in ’16 it was a little rougher. Well, it was rolling
boulders half as big as this house down the little creek here. It just shook the earth, like an
earthquake. Most of the foot-logs washed away. Finally one of the brothers said, “Well, looked
like no more of us are going to get here. We might as well go in and start praying.” Then the
preacher said, “We can go in and pray, that’s all right, but it ain’t going to do a bit of good as
long as those clouds are coming from the north and from the southeast. It wouldn’t do a bit of
good!”
BG: Well, did you say it rained for three days?
CB: Three days and nights. There was no let up to it. I was beginning to wonder what old Noah
felt like.
BG: Who felt like?
CB: Old Noah, you know, the ark. I was beginning to look for a little mountain to climb onto. But
the branches were all so full of water. I couldn’t think, or get to the mountain. One little branch
of the creek above the house where we lived, it dried up every summer and it got so deep I
couldn’t even wade. I was 19 years old and couldn’t wade in the creek because there was too
much water in it. Rock, driftwood, everything coming down.
BG: Did that hurt a lot of people for that year? Was it in the springtime?
CB: It washed a lot of crops away. Corn and wheat, ruining so many farms down there in the
valleys. A lot of the farmers they were do discouraged. They would have sold out if they could
have found anyone to buy their place. But by and by they came accustomed to the change.
Where rich level fields had been, it was nothing but rock. That creek was running everywhere.
No sir, the bottomland as they called it. Nothing but rock.
End of interview
16
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Sound
A resource whose content is primarily intended to be rendered as audio.
Artist
Bolick, Charles (interviewee)
Greenberg, Barbara (interviewer)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:26, Making moonshine
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Charles Bolick, June 21, 1974
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bolick, Charles (1891-)--Interviews
Farm life--North Carolina--Caldwell County--History--20th century
Distilling, Illicit--North Carolina--Caldwell County
Caldwell County (N.C.)--History--20th century
Caldwell County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Description
An account of the resource
“Charles” Wesley Bolick was born on August 15, 1897 in the Mulberry Valley community of Caldwell County about ten miles from Blowing Rock, North Carolina. His parents were Emanuel (b. October 24, 1852 - d. August
16, 1926) and Mary Vienna Sherrill Bolick (b. April 1860 – d. August 27, 1934). He had four siblings and was married to Elizabeth “Libby” Gomer Bolick (b. October 7, 1881 – d. January 16, 1983). Charles Bolick died on April 29, 1996 at the age of 98.
During the interview he talks about his parents and siblings, selling whiskey, making apple brandy, living off the land and making everything the family needed. He reflects on the Depression, and attending school. He also discusses making molasses, sleeping on a rope bed, courting, digging for ginseng, and the floods of 1916 and 1940.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bolick, Charles
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
21-Jun-74
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP3
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
16 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
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Caldwell County (N.C)
1916 flood
1940 flood
Blowing Rock
Caldwell County
car
chestnuts
cooking
courting
Depression
farming
herbs
molasses
moonshine
Watauga County N.C.
Whiskey
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/bfdcde28375a3728f55e2a2522b3adf3.mp3
a7181a389c8b26b4fa24fbbfdd87830c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region.
The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students.
Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU.
An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school.
This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1965-1989
Sound
A resource whose content is primarily intended to be rendered as audio.
Artist
Critcher, Josie (interviewee)
Ward, Karen (interviewer)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:53, Making soap
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Josie Critcher, August 8, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Josie Mae McGuire Critcher was born on May 10, 1876 to Paul McGuire and Laura Martinee Lewis from Ashe County. She married Gaither Critcher on April 27, 1898 and they had seven children that included Thelma, Lena, Willie, Jessie, Paul, Robert, and Hubert.
Gaither was a farmer and carpenter, and also pruned trees and shrubbery. The entire family helped on the farm and mother Josie did the cooking, canned food for the winter, spun cloth to make clothes, made quilts, embroidered pillow cases, made scarves, and crocheted lace and fringe. She also taught weaving at Watauga Handicrafts in Boone. During the interview she talked about her parents, siblings, making soap, quilting, education, using lamps before electricity, and raising children.
She died in June 17, 1977 at the age of 101.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
8-Aug-73
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
MP3
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
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Boone (N.C.)
Watauga County (N.C.)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Critcher, Josie Mae McGuire--Interviews
Ashe County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century
Ashe County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Watauga Handicrafts Center
Ashe County
cooking
crafts
Education
farming
quilt making
Watauga Handicrafts