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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/25703df14bd97d3a4cd29b66032e5478.pdf
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This is an interview with Loura Edmisten for the Appalachian Oral History
Project by Karen Ward at Boone on June 9, 1973. Mrs. Edmisten is my grandmother and the Papa referred to in the interview is my grandfather.
Q: Where were you born?
A: Beech Creek.
Q: Okay, what year were you born in?
A: 1894.
Q: Have you lived in Watauga County all your life?
A: No.
Q: Where else have you lived?
A: Avery.
Q: Avery County.
A: I don't know.
What part of Avery County?
I guess it would be called the Western.
Q: When did you move to Boone?
A: '45.
Q: Have you lived here since '45?
A: Yes.
Q: Okay, what were your parent's names?
I don't know.
�2.
A: Isaac Valentine Reese.
Q: What was your mother's name?
A: Mary.
X
Q: How many children were in your family?
A: Thirteen in all.
Q: Thirteen? Do you remember all of their names?
A: Yeah, Sarah, Mary, John, Grant, Lizzy, Thomas, Elminey, Hugh, Jim or
James, half brothers and sisters.
Q: Those are half brothers and sisters?
A: Roscoe, Victoria, Julia and myself.
Q: Okay, how many of them are living right now?
A: Three.
Q: Three, counting you? Is that counting yourself?
A: Yes.
Q: What did your father do for a living?
A: Well, he was a merchant and postmaster, union pensioner, farmer and I
guess that's all I can think of.
�3.
Q: Well, did your family own any land?
A: Yes.
Q: Where about?
A: Oh, in Watauga and Avery County.
Q: About how much land did he own all together?
A: Oh, I guess at one time, four or five or six hundred acres.
Q: Where did you attend school?
What was the name of your school?
A: Well, we went to Mt. Gilead, that was the name of the church and the school
that I attended was in the church buildings.
We didn't have no school buildings
at that time.
Q: So you went in a church?
A: Yeah.
Had two different churches.
were taught in.
Q: How long did you go to school?
A: Seventh.
Q: Through the seventh grade?
A: Through the seventh.
Q: Were your teachers strict on you?
Baptist and Christian that the schools
�4.
A: Yes, very.
Q: Tell me how.
A: Well, you just had to come with lessons or you had 'em to get over, and
if you got rude, you sometimes stood in the corner. And sometimes you got a
good lashing if it was bad enough.
Q: Did you ever get a whipping?
A: No.
Q: So you were good. What type of subjects were you taught in school?
A: Oh, reading, arithmetic, spelling, history, geography, grammar, which
would be called English now I guess.
Oh, I can't think. I guess that's all.
Q: Did all of your brothers and sisters go to school at some time?
A: Yes, every one of them.
Q: Do you think the schools have changed very much over the years?
A: Yes indeed.
Q: How?
A: Well, that'd be hard, sixty-four dollar question.
Q: Have you ever worked anywhere?
A: No.
They've changed a lot.
�5.
Q: Nowhere?
A: Outside of home, garden, and farm.
Q: Did women when you were growing up, work very much outside of the house
of just within the house and garden?
A: Yes, quite a bit.
Q: What did they do?
A: They helped with the farm work.
Q: What kind of crops did you all grow?
A: Oh, corn, wheat, rye, oats and all kinds of garden varieties.
Q: What types of churches were in your area when you were growing up?
A: Baptist and one Christian Church.
Q: That was all?
A: Yes.
Q: What religion were most people in your community?
A: Baptist, I'd say.
Q: What church did you go to?
A: Christian and I went to the Baptist.
�Q: So you went to both •
A: I went to Baptist I guess more than I did the other.
Q: Do you think religion has played an important part in your life?
A: Of course.
Q: How?
A: Oh, I guess it probablymade me see things in a different light than what it
would if I had never gone and probably caused my conversion.
Q: Have churches changed much over the years?
A: Well, I think so.
Q: Do you think the preachers are different from what they use to be like?
Do they preach the same?
A: Yes, they are.
Q: Back when you were growing up, what were politics like?
A: Well, I'll tell you, women didn't mess in politics then at that time when I
was growing up.
They did later, but not to the extent they do today, they were
just like they are now, everybody for his own side.
Q: How did most people tend to vote back then, more Republicans or. . ?
A: Yeah, I think they were at that time, I don't know how about nationwide but
�we had more Republican Presidents.
Q: How did people get around for transportation?
A: Horseback and buggy, surry and what they call a hack.
Q: What's a hack?
A: Well, it's a bigger vehicle where maybe nine or ten can ride in it.
Q: Can you remember seeing your first car?
A: Yes.
Q: What year was that? Do you remember that?
A: Oh, I don't remember what year it was.
Q: What did you think when you saw it?
A: Well, I just thought it was a car, because I knew they were being manufactured.
Q: Did you ever make soap or quilt or anything like that?
A: Soap and quilts.
Q: You did both of those?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you still quilt any?
A: No.
�Q: When you were a young girl, can you remember any bad men or know people
that were outlaws and stuff like that?
A: Yes.
Q: Who were they? Do you remember?
A: Oh no, I don't talk and tell who people was. That's not my business.
But
there were murders went on and some stealing and robbing, and I know their
names of some, but that's for someone else to answer.
Q: Are they dead now?
A:
Yeah, I guess they are, most of them.
Q: What did young people do for entertainment?
A: Oh, they dated and danced and had singings.
Oh several different things.
Q: Was dating back then different from what dating is now?
A: Yes.
Q: How.?
A: Well, they stayed at home and dated.
Q: Stayed at home? Did the depression affect you and your family very much?
A: No.
Q: It didn't? Were you married then?
�A: Yes.
Q: What was Papa's job during the depression?
A: Oh, he was a farmer and a produce man, hauled produce to market.
Q: So he raised crops?
A: Yeah, and then he bought and sold.
Q: How many children did you have during the depression?
A: Two.
Q: Did any of your children have to leave home?
A: No.
Q: Did your family always have enough to eat?
A: Yeah.
Q: You never went hungry because of it?
A: No.
Q: What do you think you should do to be a good mother?
A: Oh, Law, that's another question I couldn't answer. Do the best you can and
forget about it I guess.
Q: Do you know if you raised your children right?
�10.
A: No, I don't.
Q: Do you think you did? Do you think you raised them right?
A: No, I don't. I don't know whether I did or not, but some of 'em didn't do
exactly as I wanted 'em to, but some did, so there it was.
Q: Is it the father's place to help in raising children?
A: It certainly is.
Q: Did Papa help you with the children?
A: Not too much.
Q: But some?
A: ^ah. Oh, he helped support 'em.
Q: Yeah. What do you think children should do around the house when they're
growing up, you know in helping?
A: Whatever they are told to do.
Q: You tell them what to do and they do it.
A: They should, but they don't always.
Q: If .you could change anything about the way things are, what would you change?
A: Well, graft for one thing. I'd tried to have people not to be so greedy, that
they'd do anything for money.
That would be about the biggest thing I'd change,
'cause its about the cause of all evil. People wanting money, doing anything to get it.
�
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
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Scanned by
Wetmore, Dana
Equipment
Hp Scanjet 8200
Scan date
2014-02-26
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 Loura Edmisten, June 9, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Loura Edminstin was born in Beech Creek, NC in 1894 and had 13 siblings in her family. She lived in Watauga and Avery County throughout her life.
Ms. Edminstin discusses her childhood including the topics of politics, school, and church. She also discusses the traditions in raising a family.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ward, Karen
Edminsten, Loura
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
6/9/1973
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.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
10 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
document
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
111_tape82_LouraEdmisten_1973_06_09M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Boone, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Edminsten, Loura--Interviews
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Avery County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Christian life--North Carolina--Watauga County
Christian life--North Carolina--Avery County
Avery County
Baptist Church
Beech Creek
buggy
church
hack
Loura Edmisten
Mt Gilead
Politics
schoolhouse
Watauga County N.C.