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AOH #39
Page 1
This is an interview with Mr. Stanley Harris, Sr. for the
Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill Brinkley at Boone on
March 20, 1973.
Q:
Mr. Harris, could you give us your age and place of birth?
A:
Well, I was born in Johnson County, Tennessee, where the
name of the place was Trade, which is just over the line from
North Carolina, October 31, 1882.
Q:
How long have you lived in this community?
A:
When I was two years old, my father moved to what is now
Montezuma, N. C. and I stayed there until I finished high school
and in 1902 I went to college at Athens, Tennessee which was
at that time part of U. S. Grant University, main plant being
located in Chattanooga, but the liberal arts department was at
Athens.
That has since changed to Tennessee Wesleyan College.
I graduated in 1902, and took, a post graduate course at what was
then the American University at Harriman, Tennessee.
that was sold and the American University was closed.
Later,
At the
close of the school in 1903, I went to work for a furniture
factory in Harriman, Tennessee and a year later moved to
Lexington, Kentucky and worked there in a furniture store as
a salesman.
In 1907 I became the assistant secretary of the
YMCA at Lexington and in 1912 became the secretary of the YMCA
at Frankford, Kentucky, and in 1916 became the state boys work
secretary of theYMCA.
Correction!
I went to Frankford as the
YMCA secretary in 1907, and in 1908 started a Boy Scout troop
under the British Scout Association which troop was recognized
and chartered in December, 1908 and became so far as we can find
�2.
any history the first chartered Boy Scout troop in the United
States.
After I became the state boy's work secretary, my
headquarters were moved to Louisville and the Boy Scout troop
in Frankford was expanded and a council organized with four
troops in Frankford.
In 1917 I went with the National Council
as a special field commission and remained with the National
Council of Boy Scouts of America until October 1, 1947 when I was
automatically retired because I had reached the age of 65.
I spent a few months in South Alabama where I had a little property,
then came back to Chattanooga whece I was associated with Jake
Bishop in General Insurance and for a time, lived at Johnson
City.
In 1948 we came back to Watauga County primarily because
in 1930 and '31, we had built a very modern residence across
Cove Creek from Henson's Chapel Methodist Church.
At that time
it was called Amantha, and we lived there until we traded that
property with Gene Wilson and officially moved to Boone.
1949 Watauga County celebrated its 100th anniversary,
In
and I
was elected president of the Watauga'.Centennial, and we produced
a type of play called "Echoes of the Blue Ridge" and published
a brief history written by Dr. Whitener as a history of Watauga
County.
In 1912 after graduation from the Grant University
Branch at Athens, I came back to Watauga County as (principal
of Cove Creek Academy which was an imaginary high school and
taught school until about the middle of January, 1903 when I
went to the American University for a short post graduate
course, ant it was at Cove Creek Academy that I met Mary Swift
then a student, which in 1919 became my wife.
We lived in Memphis
for a while and then moved to Chattanooga and eventually came back
�3.
to Watauga County to live, and the family has been here ever since.
In 1949 I recommended to the Chamber of Commerce that we should
develop industry to balance what was then a college and tourist
business as about the only industry.
The Board of the
Chamber
of Commerce was not sympathetic at that time to developing industry, but within a year or so, that became one of their major
projects, and as secretary of the industry committee, I directed
the campaign to supplement the purchase price of property for
IRC, and had an important part in bringing industry to Boone,
which was the first of the major industries coming here.
Later
the industry committee arranged with Shadowline to establish a
plant here, and after that, we found that Blue Ridge Show Co.
was disappointed in the location they had chosen for a new plant,
and persuaded the management to investigate Boone.
That was
other being a trip to New York made by Glenn Andrews and myself,
to interview Mr. Herb, then the president of the parent company
and he agreed to investigate Boone.
We did all the preliminary
work necessary to get Blue Ridge Shoe Co. to come to Boone,
including sale of bonds on their property, most of which was
bought finally by the Northwestern Bank, though several thousand s
of dollars of bonds were bought by local citizens.
Later, the
industry committee was successful in persuading Vermont American
to establish their plant in Boone, and each of these instances, we
had to supplement the land purchase for the new company, and I
had the privilege of conducting the finance campaign, all of
which was easily successful.
One of my big contributions to
Boone and Watauga County was as a member and the chairman of the
board of Watauga Hospital, and conducted the finance campaign to
�4.
to rennovate and improve the then Watauga County Hospital building.
This resulted in our acquiring our modern surgical department and
a very successful surgeon.
Also, with tie help of the state and
the Federal Government to build a nurses home all of which became
part of Watauga Hospital.
Later, when the people of the county
divided the money through bonds, the modern Watauga Hospital, this
property was transferred to the college and later became part of
the equipment of Appalachian State University.
If I have been any
value to Watauga County primarily it has been in developing these
industries and providing opportunity for people in Watauga County
to get employment at good wages, and this has resulted in many
homes and smaller businesses that would not have come without these
manufacturing industries to provide the employment.
I'm still
secretary-treasurer of the industry committee and a member of the
board of most of the organizations that continued to have a responsibility except to encourage and promote them.
We built the
building for Shadowline and they operated it on a rental basis for
a few years and then bought it, and we bmilt the building for
the Blue Ridge Shoe Co. which they still operate on a rental basis.
Same is true with Vermont American which is operated on a rental
basis as far as the building is concerned.
The "Echoes of the
Blue Ridge" finally developed into "Horn in the West" and has
been one of the great advertising projects for Boone and Watauga
County.
It resulted from an invitation to Kermit Hunter to be
the speaker at the Chamber of Commerce where we persuaded him
to write the story, and we conducted a finance campaign for the
money to build the theatre for "Horn in the West" and again I
had the privilege of being the director of the finance campaign.
That's about the story of my connection with the development of
industry and the "Horn in the West".
I have remained as an
�5.
active worker in the Chamber of Commerce, but recently no v&ry
major projects.
Now, what other questions you want?
Q:
Weren't you also connected with Coleman's Tobacco Warehouses?
A:
Well, soon after I came here probably in 1950, Coleman employed
me as a sales supervisor and at that time had the radio program
promoting the tobacco warehouse and Boone as a tobacco market.
I'm still the sales supervisor for Coleman, though we have not
had a radio program as such for the last five years.
Before
Warehouse #1 burned, the year before that we sold in excess of
6 million pounds of tobacco at the Boone market.
Less than 1/3
of that tobacco came from Watauga County, and a considerable
proportion of it came from Tennessee and Virginia, but the tobacco
warehouse in Boone hasbeen a great help to the farmers, not only
in Watauga County, but in this whole section, and last year sold
in excess of 4 million pounds for mighty close to $3 million.
Q:
You organized the first Rotary Club, is that correct?
first
director?
A:
I was one of the group that organized the Rotary Club in Boone
and because I had previously been a Rotarian was elected the
district governor for District 780 which included all of Western
N. C. from Charlotte and West Jefferson through to Murphy some
40 clubs.
I'm still active in Rotary; I think it is a great service
organization.
Q:
What I'd like to ask you now is a few questions on the Depression.
When did the Great Depression start as best you can remember?
A:
Well, the Depression started in 1929.
We had had a very prosperous
�6.
period after the war closed, and things were going great when the
Stock Market had a tremendous setback, and by 1931 we were in
perhaps the worst depression we had ever had.
This depression
didn't seriously effect me because I was then employed actually
by one of the Rockefeller Organizations, and they didn't cut my
salary, but salaries went down in many instances, more than 50%
and thousands of people were out of employment.
It was during
that time that I decided to build a rock house over in Cove Creek
and believe it or not, purchased well finished lumber at $14
a thousand, employed labor only one carpenter on the job got
more than 350 an hour, and he as the foreman in building the house
made a little more than that but not too much.
Common labor
could have been had for 100 an hour, but I couldn't persuade
myself to go quite that low and paid 150 an hour for common
labor.
The rock that built the house was delivered to the site
for a dollar a yard, and even the rock mason made about 750 an
hour which is not much more than 10% what the same would cost
today, and while we later sold the Cove Creek house to Gene
Wilson and his wife, we decided to live in an apartment, and
not finding what we wanted, we bought the lot on W. Queen St.
and built Westmont Apartments which five or six years ago we
sold to a corporation which now owns them, but I still manage the
apartments.
Q:
Where were you living at the start of the Great Depression?
A:
Well, we were living on Cove Creek though I was travelling
out of New York and came home about once a month for a few days,
and sort of kept track of things, but Mary and the children run
the house.
�/ "••
Q:
How many were in the family at that time?
A:
We had two children:
7.
Stanley, Jr. who was born in 1923.
Wait
a minute, he was born in 1920, and Martha was born in 1923.
Q:
Was there a scarcity of food dtiring that time?
A:
No scarcity of food.
The scarcity was anything to buy it with,
and since my salary was continued, I made more clear money from
-"]?
1930 to 1936 than I had ever made-jfeior to that.
Q:
Did you raise any crops?
A:
We had a big garden, but as far as farming is concerned, I didn't
do any farming, anything that was done on the farm was done on a
rental basis, and that was not a cash render, but a percentage of the
income.
But we had a big garden, and I got some prestige as a grower
of roses, for we had a very beautiful rose garden.
Q:
What animals did you have on the farm?
A:
Well, part of the time we had a milk cow or two which Stanley
learned to milk as a 10 year old youngster, and we usually kept a
horse which he could ride or plow, but we made no attempt to be
farmers, but we did have a good vegetable garden along with the roses.
Q:
Were you familiar with any of the government projects during
the Depression?
A:
Not too much familiar with government projects during the Depression,
though during WW I, I was the federal director of the boys' working
reserve which organized boys to work to produce food during the war,
and a big part of that was done by Boy Scouts who produced the gardens
especially the big garden in Washington city which was down on the
�8.
peninsula furnished vegetables not only for the White House, but
Walter Reed Hospital, major hotels in Washington, and was honored
frequently by a visit from Mrs. Wilson, wife of the President, and
on a few occassions President Wilson accompanied Mrs. Wilson to
the garden for she always picked up her own vegetables twice a week.
I didn't do the technical work; that was done by a man from the
agricultural department who supervised that big garden, but I promoted
the idea of boys doing things for the government not only making
gardens, but distributing literature, make Black Walnut surveys,
and numerous and sundry other things, but I had very little to do
with government projects during the Depression period.
Q:
Were prices higher or lower during the Depression?
A:
They were down at the bottom.
I don't know the figures, but
certainly meat prices weren't much more than 10% of the present price
today, and as far as I have any memory, there was an abundance of
food if you had the price to pay for it.
Q:
Did new ways of making money arise due to these conditions?
A:
I didn't make any money except my salary until I retired, but
since I retired I made considerable money out of projects I've been
interested in.
Q:
Do you remember any of the banks closing?
A:
Oh, yes.
The Watauga County Bank in which my wife and children
kept their deposit was closed, and their deposit frozen.
That
didn't affect me very much because I had continued to keep my account
in a bank in Chattanooga which, while it was frozen for a short time,
reorganized and went right on in business, and my frozen deposit was
�9.
promptly reinstated.
But there was another bank or two in tte county
that was closed and if the Northwestern Bank hadn't taken over the
assets of the Watauga County Bank, the IE would have been a worse depression
in Watauga County.
But the Northwestern Bank took over the assets
of the Watauga County Bank and some months earlier Mrs. Harris sold
her stock in the Watauga County Bank, but most of the stockholders,
in fact, I suppose all of the stockholders lost their stock, and not
only that, they had to put up an amount equal to the base value of
their stock which was $100 a share before the Northwestern Bank took
it over.
And that was a real depression.
Q:
What were the community reactions to the banks closing?
A:
Well, of course everybody that had any interest in ttee bank,
particularly the stockholders were very much concerned and some of
them very bitter at the officers of the bank.
But they had loaned
too much money to too many people that couldn't pay and therefore
there was nothing that the officers of the bank could do but accept
the closing when that was decreed by the Federal Government.
Q:
Whom do you blame for the collapse of the banks?
A:
Oh, I think the officers of the bank were too liberal in their
loaning money, therefore, had a good many notes that weren't collectable.
Don't think that there was any one individual that was particularly
responsible.
It was the policy of the bank to loan money particularly
to farmers and a number of the farmers not only couldn't pay their notes,
but some of them lost their farms and that was one of the reasons
got so bitter at the bank.
�10.
Q:
Did the schools change very much during the Depression?
A:
All the schools went on as far as the county schools are con-
cerned, teachers were paid $25, $35, or $45 a month but that was in
line with other things at that time so as well as I observed there
wasn't much let down in public school situation.
Q:
Did tfee businesses and country stores change very much?
A:
Well, some of the businesses went into bankruptcy, but not too
much change in the major businesses.
They weren't making money, but
nobody else was making money at that time so they went along with
the crowd.
Q:
What do you think caused the Depression?
A:
Well , I had an experience in connection with the Depression that
always stood out with me.
I went as the guest of a very prominent
stockbroker in New York to a dinner in Dallas.
Everybody was asking
him questions about how to get rich on the Stock Market, and he
finally got a little irritated at that attitude and g^ve them a good
lecture about trying to make money without working for it, and told them
that if that attitude kept up there was going to be a depression,
and hence I was sort of close to it.
What happened was, as he told
me later, he went back to New York and had the stocks that he held
analyzed and began to sell the stocks that they thought were dangerous,
and as they began to sell, prices began to go down.
I've always
thought that the fact of his starting to sell stocks was one of the
basic reasons why stocks began to go down.
Because if he were selling
stocks at a lower price, pretty soon everybody was looking for them at
that price.
And as a result, stocks went down, and that was the
beginning of the Great Depression.
Fact of it is, I had some stock
�11.
that I paid as much as $20 a share for that went down to $1.25 a
y*''
share.
I didn't well(mine for several years after the Depression
was over and finally sold them for $60 a share instead of the $1.25
I would have gotten for them in 1931 or '32.
And that was an
illustration of what happened in the stock market.
Q:
Who was hurt worst by the Depression?
A:
Well, the common people are always hurt worst.
Laborers/ small
investors, small businesses—they were the ones that were really hurt.
Q:
Well, what do you think was best about the Depression?
A:
What was what?
Q:
What do you think was best about the Depression days?
A:
Well, it probably brought out the stamina of the American people
and showed that by hard work, they could still live even if they
didn't live like they had been accustomed to living.
But I think
it emphasized the importance of hard work and sticking to it which
would be valuable today.
Most of our trouble?today are because
people don't want to work and a good many people don't want to put
out their best at work, whether it be in building a house or running
a business.
Q:
How is life different today from life during the Depression?
A:
Well, it's only different in the luxuries we have.
had automobiles.
Very few people
You could buy a good Ford or a Chevrolet for four
or five hundred dollars, but most people didn't have four or five
hundred dollars.
�12.
Q:
What do you like best about today's way of life?
A:
Well, I like the comfort of feeling that I have a reasonable
income, likely to have as much as I actually need as long as I live
which I hope to be at least another 10 years because I'm only 90
and I want to get to be 100.
Q: .if you could change anything about the way things are now, what
W^
!
wouj-d/jwant to change and why?
A:
I'd want to change the willingness to work more than anything
else, and I think people are happier and live longer when they're
working and that's the reason I keep working now because if you•
keep busy whatever your job may be and try to put out the best you
can you don't have so much time to worry about the aches in your
knees and your back and so forth.
There could be a different
attitude toward life and willingness
to be done.
End of Tape #39
to do anything that needs
�Tape #40
13.
Q:
I would like to ask you some questions concerning your childhood.
A:
As a kid, I was connected with a lumber compantf.
There were
seven of we boys, and we did whatever work there was done on the
farm, but I happened to be down among the younger ones and the older
ones didn't like farm work, so by the time I was 12 or 13 I was the
chief on the farm, what little farming we did and one of the big jobs
was to get my two younger brothers to do what I thought was their part
in taking care of the farm.
Father did encourage it to get through
high school and we all did.
I was the only one of the three younger
boys that finished college, but we all got through high school.
But we didn't have any of the luxuries and we worked even as kids.
I
think one of the troubles with youth today and I don;t think there are
nearly as many of them as people think, but one of the troubles
is children are given too much and are not required to make an
adequate return for it.
I think you can spoil the child by giving
him too much maybe worse than if you made it pretty hard on them.
Q:
Could you give me the name of your parents and their birthplace?
A:
My father was William J. Harris and he was born out in the county
from Abingdon, Virginia, where his father owned considerable farmland.
My mother was born just this side of Mountain City, Tennessee,
on the road about 2 miles this side of Shouns.
Their education
was limited to grade school: I don't think that either one of them
ever went to college, but they appreciated the importance of their
children in getting an education, and while they didn't have back then
in those days too much money to help them through college they did
encourage us to make our own way so I worked my way through college
and that was good for me.
Q:
How much schooling did your brothers and sisters have?
�14.
A:
All of them went to high school, what in those days was
considered high school.
My brother Kemp went to college to study
to be a minister and had the best education of any of us including me,
but he didn't go to college until after he had decided to go into
the ministry and that was when he was 25 or 30 years old.
He was like
a lot of other ministers now, young ministers, he went to college
and pastored a small church someplace, and managed to get through
college that way.
Q:
When you came to this area what sorts of churches were here?
A:
Well, over at Cove Creek where I taught school and where I lived,
there was a Methodist and a Baptist Church, Henson's Chapel and
Cove Creek Baptist Church which is still there, and so far as my
knowledge is concerned there was an Episcopal Church, a Methodist
Church, and a Baptist Church in Boone.
But I did not know too much
about them even when I was teaching school at Cove Creek.
Q:
To which church did most people in the community belong?
A:
Baptist.
Q:
What were they like at that time, and how have they changed?
A:
I don't see too much change ao far as the religious attitudes
concerned.
I think they're a little bit more liberal toward other
churches than they used to be, that's true to both Baptist and Methodist.
I think my father tried to give me the impression that all Catholics
had horns and tails and I learned that people in the Catholic Church
were just as fine as the people in some other churches so that seems
to be a drifting of not being so antagonistic toward some other and
I think that's true between the Baptist and the Methodist, all the others.
�15.
Q:
How did this community get its name?
A:
Well, as far as I know it was the legend of Daniel Boone that gave
this particular community its name.
How much Daniel Boone really ever
stopped here is still a question; he undoubtedly passed through a few
times.
Q:
How and why was it formed in
A:
I don't know the answer to that; I suppose it just sort of grew up
as most places do to start with.
the first place?
I think the Dougherty boys and the
school has had a tremendous influence on the building of the town.
They
just had vision, they didn't have much to work with back in those days
but they got a school started and kept it going.
Q:
How has the community changed over the years?
A:
Well, it has changed a lot in the comforts of the people that live
in the community, other than that I don't see too much change.
A
large proportion of the people now are making pretty good wages and
they're living them up pretty largely.
Businesses have grown, some of
them tremendously.
Q:
Who have been
the community decision makers?
A:
Well, the folks at the Northwestern Bank have been a tremendous
influence in making the community.
Alfred Adams has been chairman
of the industry committee, and from a business standpoint there is
nothing that has even approached the importance of the industry
committee of the Chamber of Commerce in building the community from
a standpoint of industry.
�16.
Q:
Have the Dougherty's been in this decision-making group?
A:
Yes/ very definitely.
One of the interesting things to me was that
back when I first came here, Dr. Blan Dougherty was very much opposed
to developing industry, but a few years later he had a very definite
change of mind and particularly in the promotion of the International
Resistance Company was very important promoter of industry.
Course
he had one love, and it was above everything else, and it was the
college which he built up from a little grade school to quite a
sizeable college and laid the foundations for a tremendous growth
that happened under Dr. Plemmons as President and is still happening
under Dr. Wey.
Q:
Could you give me any other names of really important decision
makers in the community?
A:
Well, I think Clyde Greene and Russell Hodges were of tremendous
importance, and Winklers have been important promoters, especially
Ralph and Gordon, and the three Wilcox boys-Herman, Charlie, Dempsey
have been tremendously important people in developing the community.
Q:
Would you list the Farthings and the Councills among these also?
A:
Well, Farthings and Councills held a lot of property and Grady
Farthing has been tremendously important as president of the Watauga
Savings and Loan which when I first became connected with it had assets
of very much less than $500,000.
Now I understand their assets are
listed at about 36 million; Grady Farthing has been tremendously important
in that connection.
Some of the best citizens in the county were
Farthings, but Grady stands out as the high man so far as promoting
the community is concerned.
Q:
Are there any minority groups in the community?
�17.
A:
Oh, yes.
There are minority groups, but they're much better off
than they are in cities, and we don't have much trouble with the
minority groups whether they be black, or something else.
Q:
Were some families poorer than others?
A:
Oh, sure!
That's true today.
Some families barely lived while
others were living in luxury.
Q:
Did the others look out for them to a certain extent?
A:
A little, not much.
Q:
How many people were in the community?
A:
Well, the first time I came to Boone, there must not been over
300 or 400 people living in what is now Boone.
There weren't any
paved streets or even MacAdamized streets, there were jyst mud roads
and when it rained they were really mud roads.
Q:
Has the population changed greatly?
A:
Numerically, of course, it has changed greatly.
A large number of
people now living in Boone lived in the county but a greater number of
people lived outside.
tremendous difference.
From an educated standpoint, there's a very
Back, when I first came here there was very
few that you could call educated.
Now, a large portion of the
population is at least high school educated.
A very large proportion
of the high school graduates go on to college.
Q:
Do you think that there'ivas a certain time that the population
change was greater, or was there a sudden influx of people, or was there
a gradual change over the years?
A:
Well, while there was a gradual change, there have been two or three
�18.
instances where there
was an influx, and the last five years have
probably been the worst, or the best whichever one you want to put it.-,
Q:
Concerning transportation, how did the people get around in the
community?
A:
Back then they walked, or rode a mule, some of the better ones
had a buggy, the automobiles finally came, and very few had automobiles,
but it kept picking up and picking up and automobile companies
have probably sold more new cars this year, 10 to 1 than there were
in the county in 1947 when I came back here.
Q:
Where did the roads and railroads run?
A:
Well, of course 421 was mapped out east and west of Boone, 321 and
221 were mapped out but they weren't paved or fixed up.
The road to
Blowing Rock was one of the best, but that was organized as a toll
road and they had to pay toll to go over it, and county roads were
generally poor and generally dirt.
Paving of the roads has been done
in the last 20 years, mostly.
Q:
When were the railroads built?
A:
Well, the Tweetsie Railroad built into here, I think, was built
back > in the teens, and was built primarily as a lumber road, though
they had passenger coaches.
Pact of it is, the railroad didn't come
beyond Cranberry when I was a boy and the first train I ever rode on
was Tweetsie from Elk Park all the way to Cranberry, but I remember
very well how afraid I was of it, that my brother carried me on board,
and I got down to Cranberry, and that was about 81-83 years ago.
They built on up here after the William Ritter Lumber Co. had developed
�19.
Pineola, which they called Saganaw, and pretty largely, and the
Linville River Railway came on into Boone, but both of them from
Cranberry to Boone was primarily built for lumber.
Q:
Are you very familiar with any of the mountain crafts or
customs?
A:
No, not familiar enough to talk about it.
Q:
Are you familiar with the folktales, legends, and superstitions
of this area?
A:
Well, I'm not too familiar with that.
�
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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.
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Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989
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1965-1989
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Wetmore, Dana
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Hp Scanjet 8200
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2014-02-14
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Title
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Interview with Stanley Harris Sr, March 30, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Stanley Harris Sr. was born on October 31, 1882 in Johnson County, Tennessee. He went to high school in Montezuma, North Carolina and then continued his education in Athens, Tennessee at U.S. Grant University. He wene to post graduate school at American University in Harriman, Tennessee. Mr. Harris had many different occupations throughout his life including salesman at a furniture store in Lexington, Kentucky, assistant secretary of YMCA in Frankford, Tenessee, and boardman on the National Council of Boy Scouts of America in 1917. He moved back to Watauga County in 1948, where he was part of the Watauga Centennial and secretary of Chamber of Commerce. He was a big influence on bringing industries to Boone, North Carolina.
Mr. Harris talks about the effects the Great Depression had on him while at that time he was emplyed by one of Rockafeller's orgnizations. He does explains how the banks were affected and what he believes caused the Great Depression based on his experience with the stock market. When asked about his childhood, Mr. Harris recollects his experience working, explains his family education, and describes the religious community. He then talks about Boone and describes how the minority groups of Boone are treated.
Creator
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Brinkley, Bill
Harris, Stanley Sr.
Source
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<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
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3/20/1973
Rights
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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.
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19 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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document
Identifier
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111_tape39-40_StanleyHarrisSr_1973_03_20M001
Spatial Coverage
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Boone, NC
Subject
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North Carolina--Social life and customs--20th century
Tennessee--Social life and customs--19th century
Tennessee--Social life and customs--20th century
Kentucky--Social life and customs--20th century
Depression--1929--United States
American University
Boone
Boy Scouts of America
Great Depression
industrialization
Kentucky
Tennessee
US Grant University
ymca
-
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Title
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Broyhill, Senator James Thomas - Photographs
Description
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James Thomas Broyhill was born August 19th, 1927 in Lenoir, N.C. to James Edgar (Ed) and Satie Hunt Broyhill. Broyhill attended the Lenoir public schools and continued his education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration in 1950. From 1945-1962 he was employed by the Broyhill Furniture Industries in a number of capacities including sales, production and personnel. Broyhill was active in the Lenoir Chamber of Commerce, serving as President for two terms, board member for two terms, and member of several committees. In 1957 he was the recipient of the Lenoir Jaycee Young Man of the Year Award.
In 1951 James Broyhill married Louise Robbins of Durham, N.C.They have three children: Marilyn, Ed, and Philip.
On January 3, 1963 James T. Broyhill was elected to the United States House of Representative from the 9th Congressional district of North Carolina. After the 1968 redistricting, Broyhill was elected from the 10th district which included Alexander, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, and Watauga counties. During his career in the House he served as the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
Broyhill resigned as a Representative July 14, 1986 upon appointment to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John East. Broyhill served as Senator from July 14, 1986 to January 1987. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate seat in 1986. Broyhill served as the Chairman of the North Carolina Economic Development Board, 1987-1989 and as the North Carolina Secretary of Commerce, 1989-1991.
In retirement, Senator Broyhill is still active in serving his community and state. He has served as a member of the Board of Visitors to the Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital Medical Center (Winston-Salem, N.C.), the Board of Visitors of the Babcock MBA School of Management at Wake Forest University, and the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Food Bank (Winston-Salem, N.C.). He has also served as the Chairman of the North Carolina steering committee named “North Carolinians for Jobs and Progress” and served on the board of directors of three privately held companies. In November, 1993, the N.C. Republican party inducted James Broyhill into the North Carolina Republican Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Senator Broyhill was named Honorary Appalachian Alumnus in recognition of his lifetime achievements and of his service to Appalachian State University. Broyhill served on Appalachian's Board of Trustees for eight years (one year as Chairman) and sits on the Appalachian State University Foundation Board of Directors. He has also been involved with An Appalachian Summer and the Alliance for Teaching Science project in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Photographs from this collection are from the James Thomas Broyhill Papers, which are a part of the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection. The James Thomas Broyhill Papers cover the twenty-three and a half years he served in the United States House of Representatives and the six months Broyhill served in the United States Senate. Also included are papers generated from his office as North Carolina Secretary of Commerce. The collection contains a total of 1132 boxes, measuring 535 linear feet. The bulk of the collection consists of constituent correspondence and legislative files. The papers are arranged in three series: Senatorial Papers, Congressional Papers, and Secretarial Papers. Arrangement of the collection generally follows the file arrangement established by Senator Broyhill's staff. Further details for each subseries are available in the finding aid, which can be found at http://www.collections.library.appstate.edu/findingaids/ac100.
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JPEG
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Photograph
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100ppi
Scan date
2013-10-10
Dimensions - Original
4in x 5in
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Title
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James Broyhill Speaks with Boyscouts
Subject
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Broyhill, James T.--Photographs
Boy Scouts of America
Source
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<a title="Guide to the James Thomas Broyhill Papers, 1957-1991, undated" href="http://www.collections.library.appstate.edu/findingaids/ac100" target="_blank">AC.100 James Thomas Broyhill Papers, 1957-1991, undated</a>
Date
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10/10/2013
Type
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Image
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BSCOUTS_JPG.jpg
Language
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English
Boy Scouts of America
James Broyhill
photograph
-
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/80d43e4f322bc0409865ccec0f2cdd4f.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 39, 40
Interviewee: Stanley Harris
Interviewer: Bill Brinkley
20 March 1973
This is an interview with Mr. Stanley Harris, Hr., for the Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill
Brinkley at Boone on March 20, 1973.
BB: Bill Brinkley
SH: Stanley Harris, Sr.
BB: Mr. Harris, could you give us your age and place of birth?
SH: Well, I was born in Johnson City, Tennessee, where the name of the place was Trade, which
is just over the line from North Carolina, on October 31, 1882.
BB: How long have you lived in this community?
SH: When I was two years old, my father moved to what is now Montezuma, North Carolina
and I stayed there until I finished high school and in 1902 I went to college at Athens,
Tennessee which at that time was part of U.SH. Grant University, main part being located in
Chattanooga, but the liberal arts department was at Athens. That has since changed to
Tennessee Wesleyan College. I graduated in 1902, and took a postgraduate course as what was
then the American University at Harriman, Tennessee. Later, that was sold and the American
University was closed. At the close of the school in 1903, I went to work for a furniture factory
in Harriman, Tennessee and a year later moved to Lexington, Kentucky and worked there in a
furniture store as a salesman.
In 1907, I became the assistant secretary of the YMCA at Frankfort, Kentucky and in 1912,
became the secretary of the YMCA there. In 1916, became the state boys work secretary of the
YMCA. In 1908, started a Boy Scout troop under the British Scout Association which troop was
recognized and chartered in December 1908. And it became, so far as we can find any history,
the first chartered Boy Scout troop in the United States. After I became the state boy’s work
secretary, my headquarters were moved to Louisville and the Boy Scout troop in Frankfort was
expanded and a council organization with four troops in Frankfort.
In 1917, I went with the National Council as a special field commission and remained with the
National Council of the Boy Scouts of America until October 1, 1947, when I was automatically
retired because I had reached the age of 65. I spent a few months in South Alabama where I
had a little property, then came back to Chattanooga, where I was associated with Jake Bishop
in General Insurance, and for a time lived in Johnson City.
1
�In 1948, we came back to Watauga County primarily because in 1930 and 1931, we had built a
very modern residence across Cove Creek from Henson’s Chapel Methodist Church. At that
time it was called Amantha, and we lived there until we traded that property with Gene Wilson
and officially moved to Boone. In 1949, Watauga County celebrated its 100th anniversary, and I
was elected president of the Watauga Centennial, and we published a brief history written by
Dr. Whitener as a history of Watauga County.
In 1902, after graduation from the Grant University branch at Athens, I came back to Watauga
County as principal of Cove Creek Academy, which was kind of a high school and taught school
until about the middle of January 1903, when I went to the American University for a short post
graduate course, and it was at Cove Creek Academy that I met Mary Swift, then a student,
which in 1919 became my wife. We lived in Memphis for a while and then moved to
Chattanooga and eventually came back to Watauga County to love, and the family has been
here ever since.
In 1949, I recommended to the Chamber of Commerce that we should develop industry to
balance what was then a college and tourist business as about the only industry. The board of
the chamber of commerce was not sympathetic at that time to developing industry, but within
a year or so, that became one of their major projects, and as secretary of the industry
committee I directed the campaign to supplement the purchase price of property for IRC, and
had an important part in bringing industry to Boone, which was the first of the major industries
coming here. Later, the industry committee arranged with Shadowline to establish a plant here,
and after that, we found that Blue Ridge Shoe Company was disappointed in the location they
had chosen as a new plant, and persuaded the management to investigate Boone.
We did all the preliminary work necessary to get the Blue Ridge Shoe Company to come to
Boone, including sale of bonds on their property, most of which was brought finally by the
Northwestern Bank, though several thousands of dollars of bonds were brought by local
citizens. Later, the industry committee was successful in persuaded Vermont American to
establish their plant in Boone, and each of these instances; we had to supplement the land
purchase for the new company. I had the privilege of conducting the finance campaign, all of
which was easily successful.
One of my big contributions to Boone and Watauga County was as a member and the chairman
of the board of Watauga Hospital, and conducted the finance campaign to renovate and
improve the then Watauga County Hospital building. This resulted in our acquiring our modern
surgical department and a very successful surgeon. Also, with the help of the state and federal
government to build a nurses home all of the county divided the money through bonds, the
modern Watauga Hospital, this property was transferred to the college and later became a part
of the equipment of Appalachian State University.
If I have been any value to Watauga County, primarily it has been in developing these industries
and providing opportunity for people in Watauga County to get employment at good wages,
and this has resulted in many homes and smaller businesses that would not have come without
2
�these manufacturing industries to provide the employment. I’m still secretary-treasurer of the
industry committee and a member of the board of most of the organizations that continued to
have a responsibility except to encourage and promote them.
We built the building for Shadowline and they operated it on a rental basis for a few years and
then bought it, and we built the building for the Blue Ridge Shoe Company, which they still
operate on a rental basis. Same is true with the Vermont American that is operated on a rental
basis as far as the building is concerned. The “Echoes of the Blue Ridge” finally developed into
“Horn in the West” and has been one of the great advertising projects for Boone and Watauga
County.
It resulted from an invitation to Kermit Hunter to be the speaker at the Chamber of Commerce
where we persuaded him to write the story, and we conducted a finance campaign for the
money to build the theatre for the “Horn in the West” and again I had the privilege of being the
director of the finance campaign. That’s about the story of my connection with the
development of industry and the “Horn in the West.” I have remained as an active worker in
the Chamber of Commerce, but recently no major projects. Now, what other questions do you
want answered?
BB: Were you also connected with Coleman’s Tobacco Warehouse?
SH: Well, soon after I came here probably in 1950, Coleman employed me as a sales supervisor
and at that time had the radio program promoting the tobacco warehouse and Boone as a
tobacco market. I’m still the sales supervisor for Coleman, though we have not had a radio
program as such for the last five years. Before warehouse #1 burned, the year before that we
sold in excess of six million pounds of tobacco ant the Boone market. Less than 1/3 of that
tobacco came from Watauga County, and a considerable proportion of it came from Tennessee
and Virginia, but the tobacco warehouse in Boone has been a great help to the farmers, not
only in Watauga County, but in this whole section, and last year sold in excess of four million
pounds for mighty close to $3 million.
BB: You organized the first Rotary Club, is that correct? First director?
SH: I was one of the group that organized the Rotary Club in Boone and because I had
previously been a Rotarian was elected the district governor for District 780 which included all
of Western, N.C. from Charlotte and West Jefferson through to Murphy, some 40 clubs.
BB: What I’d like to ask you now is a few questions on the Depression. When did the Great
Depression start as best you can remember?
SH: Well, the Depression started in 1929. We had a very prosperous period after the war
closed, and things were going great when the Stock Market had a tremendous setback, and by
1931 we were in perhaps the worst Depression we had ever had. This Depression didn’t
seriously affect me because I was then employed actually by one of the Rockefeller
3
�organizations, and they didn’t cut my salary, but salaries went down in many instances, more
than 50% and thousands of people were out of work. It was during that time I decided to build
a rock house over in Cove Creek and believe it or not, purchased well finished lumber at $14 a
thousand, employed labor only one carpenter on the job got more than 35 cents an hour, and
he as the foreman in building the house made a little more than that but not much more.
Common labor could have been had for ten cents an hour, but I couldn’t persuade myself to go
quite that low and paid 15 cents an hour for common labor. The rock that built the house was
delivered to the site for a dollar a yard, and even the rock mason made about 75 cents and
hour, which is not much more than 10% what the same would cost today, and while we later
sold the Cove Creek house to Gene Wilson and his wife, we decided to live in an apartment, and
not finding what we wanted, we bought the lot on W. Queen Street and built West Apartments,
which five or six years ago we sold to a corporation which now owns them, but I still manage
the apartments.
BB: Where were you living at the start of the Great Depression?
SH: Well, we were living on Cove Creek though I was travelling out of New York and came home
about once a month for a few days, and sort of kept track of things, but Mary and the children
ran the house.
BB: How many were in the family at that time?
SH: We had two children: Stanley, Jr. who was born in 1923. Wait a minute, he was born in
1920, and Martha was born in 1923.
BB: Was there a scarcity of food during that time?
SH: No scarcity of food. The scarcity was anything but, and since my salary was continued, I
made more clear money from 1930 to 1936 than I had ever made prior to that.
BB: Did you raise crops?
SH: We had a big garden, but as far as farming is concerned, I didn’t do any farming. Anything
that was done on the farm was done on a rental basis, and that was not a cash binder, but a
percentage of the income. But we had a big garden, and I got some prestige as a grower of
roses, for we had a very beautiful rose garden.
BB: What animals did you have on the farm?
SH: Well, part of the time we had a milk cow or two which Stanley learned to milk as a ten year
old youngster, and we usually kept a horse that we could ride or plow, but we made no attempt
to be farmers, but we did have a good vegetable garden along with the roses.
4
�BB: We’re you familiar with any of the government projects during the Depression?
SH: Not too much familiar with government projects during the Depression, though during
World War One, I was a federal director of the boy’s working reserve, which organized boys to
work to produce food during the war, and a big part of that was done by Boy Scouts who
produced the gardens especially the big garden in Washington, D.C.. The garden was down on
the peninsula that furnished vegetables not only for the White House, but Walter Reed
Hospital, major hotels in Washington, and was honored frequently by a visit from Mrs. Wilson,
wife of the president, and on a few occasions President Wilson accompanied Mrs. Wilson to the
garden for she always picked up her own vegetables twice a week. I didn’t do the technical
work that was done by a man from the agricultural department who supervised that big
garden, but I promoted the idea of boys doing things for the government not only making
gardens, but distributing literature, making Black Walnut surveys, and numerous sundry other
things, but I had very little to do with government projects during the Depression years.
BB: Were prices higher or lower during the Depression?
SH: They were down at the bottom. I don’t know the figures, but certainly meat prices weren’t
much more than 10% of the present price today, and as far as I have any memory, there was
abundance of food if you had to pay for it.
BB: Did new ways of making money arise due to these conditions.
SH: I didn’t make any money except my salary until I retired, but since I retired I made
considerable money out of projects I’ve been interested in.
BB: Do you remember any of the banks closing?
SH: Oh, yes. The Watauga County Bank in which my wife and children kept their deposit was
closed, and their deposit frozen. That’d didn’t affect me very much because I had continued to
keep my account in a bank in Chattanooga which, while it was frozen for a short time,
reorganized and went right on in business, and from my frozen deposit was promptly
reinstated. But there was another bank or two in the county that was closed and if the
Northwestern Bank hadn’t taken over the assets of the Watauga County Bank, there would
have been a worse Depression in Watauga County. But the Northwestern Bank took over the
assets of the Watauga County, and some months earlier Mrs. Harris sold her stock in the
Watauga County Bank, but most of the stockholders, in fact, I suppose all of the stockholders
lost their stock, and not only that, they had to put up an amount equal to the base value of
their stock, which was $100 a share before the Northwestern Bank took it over. And that was a
real Depression.
BB: What were the community reactions to the bank’s closing?
SH: Well, of course, everybody that had any interest in the bank, particularly the stockholders
5
�were very much concerned and some of them very bitter at the officers of the bank. By they
had loaned too much money to too many people that couldn’t pay and therefore there was
nothing that the officers of the bank could do but accept the closing when that was decreed by
the federal government.
BB: Whom do you blame for the collapse of the bank?
SH: Oh, I think the officers of the bank were too liberal in their loaning money, therefore, had a
very good many notes that weren’t collectable. I don’t think that there was any one individual
that was particular responsible. It was the policy of the bank to loan money particularly to
farmers and a number of the farmers not only couldn’t pay their notes, but some of them lost
their farms and that was one of the reasons they go so bitter at the bank.
BB: Did the schools change very much during the Depression?
SH: All the schools went on as far as the country schools are concerned, teachers were paid
$25, $35, or $45 a month, but that was in line with other things at that time, so as well as I
observed there wasn’t much let down in public school situation.
BB: Did the businesses and country stores change very much?
SH: Well, some of the businesses and went into bankruptcy, but not too much change in the
major businesses. They weren’t making money, but nobody else was making money at that
time, so they went along with the crowd.
BB: What do you think caused the Depression?
SH: Well, I had an experience in connection with the Depression that always stood out with me.
I went as the guest of a very prominent stockbroker to a dinner in Dallas. Everybody was asking
him questions about how to get rich on the stock market, and he finally got a little irritated at
that attitude and gave them a good lection about trying to make money without working for it,
and told them that if that attitude kept up there was going to be a Depression, and hence I was
sort of close to it.
What happened was, as he told me later, he went back to New York, and had the stocks that he
held analyzed and began to sell the stocks that they thought were dangerous, and as they
began to sell, prices began to go down. I’ve always thought that the fact of his starting to sell
stocks was one of the basic reasons why stocks began to go down.
Because if he were selling stocks at a lower price, pretty soon everybody was looking for them
at that price. And as a result, stocks went down, and that was the beginning of the Great
Depression. Fact of it is, I had some stock that I paid as much as $20 a share for that went down
to $1.25 a share. I didn’t sell mine for several years after the Depression was over and finally
sold them for $60 a share instead of the $1.25 that I would have gotten for them in 1931, or
6
�1932. And that was an illustration of what happened in the stock market.
BB: Who was hurt worst by the Depression?
SH: Well, the common people are always hurt worst. Laborers, small investors, small
businesses. They were the ones that were really hurt.
BB: Well, what do you think was best about the Depression?
SH: What was that?
BB: What do you think was best about the Depression days?
SH: Well, it probably brought out the stamina of the American people and showed that by hard
work, they could still live, even if they didn’t live like they had been accustomed to living. But I
think it emphasized the importance of hard work and striking with it that would be valuable
today. Most of our troubles today are because people don’t want to work and a good many
people don’t want to put out their best at work, whether it be in building a house or running a
business.
BB: How is life different today from life during the Depression?
SH: Well, it’s only different in the luxuries we have. Very few people had automobiles. You
could buy a good Ford or a Chevrolet for four or five hundred dollars, but most people didn’t
have four or five hundred dollars.
BB: What do you like best about today’s way of life?
SH: Well, I like the comfort of feeling that I have a reasonable income, likely to have as much as
I actually need as long as I live. I hope to be at least another ten years because I’m only 90 and I
want to get to be 100.
BB: If you could change anything about the way things are now, what would you want to
change and why?
SH: I’d want to change the willingness to work more than anything else, and I think people are
happier and live longer when they’re working and that’s the reason I keep working now,
because if you keep busy whatever your job may be and try to put out the best you can. You
don’t have so much time to worry about the aches in your knees and your back and so forth.
There could be a different attitude toward life and willingness to do anything that needs to be
done.
BB: I would like to ask you some questions concerning your childhood.
7
�SH: As a kid, I was connected with a lumber company. There were seven of boys and we did
whatever work there was done on the farm, but I happened to be down among the younger
ones and older ones didn’t like farm work, so by the time I was 12 or 13 was the ‘chief on the
farm.’ What little farming we did and one of the big jobs was to get my younger brothers to do
what I thought was their part in taking care of the farm.
Father did encourage us to get through high school and we all did. I was the only one of the
three younger boys that finished college, but we all got through high school. We didn’t have
any of the luxuries and we worked even as kids. I think one of the troubles with youth today
and I don’t think there are nearly as many of them as people think, but one of the troubles is
that children are given too much and are not required to make an adequate return for it. I think
you can spoil the child by giving him too much maybe worse than if you made it pretty hard on
them.
BB: Could you give me the name of your parents and their birthplace?
SH: My father was William J. Harris and he was born out in the county from Abingdon, Virginia,
where his father owned considerable farmland. My mother was born just this side of Mountain
City, Tennessee, on the road about two miles this side of Shouns (Tennessee). Their education
was limited to grade school. I don’t think either one of them ever went to college, but they
appreciated the importance of their children getting an education, and while they didn’t have
back in those days much money to help them through college, they did encourage us to make
our own way so I worked my way through college and that was good for me.
BB: How much schooling did your brothers and sisters have?
SH: All of them went to high school, what in those days was considered high school. My brother
Kemp went to college to study to be a minister and had the best education of any of us,
including me, but he didn’t go to college until after he had decided to go into the ministry and
that was when he was 25 or 30 years old. He was like a lot of other ministers now, young
ministers, he went to college and pastored a small church some place, and managed to get
through college that way.
BB: Wen you came to this area what sorts of churches were there?
SH: Well, over in Cove Creek where I taught school and where I lived, there was a Methodist
and a Baptist church, Henson’s Chapel and Cove Creek Baptist Church that is still there. So far as
my knowledge is concerned there was an Episcopal church, a Methodist church, and a Baptist
church in Boone. But I did not know too much about them even when I was teaching at Cove
Creek.
BB: To which church did most people in the community belong?
SH: Baptist.
8
�BB: What were they like at that time and how have they changed?
SH: I don’t see too much change so far as the religions attitudes concerned. I think they’re a
little bit more liberal toward other churches than they used to be, that’s true to both Baptist
and Methodist. I think my father tried to give me the impression that all Catholics had “horns
and trails” and I learned that people in the Catholic Church were just as fine as the people in
some other churches so that seems to be a drifting of not being so antagonistic toward some
other and I think that’s true between the Baptist and the Methodist, all the others.
BB: How did this community get its name?
SH: Well, as far as I know it was the legend of Daniel Boone that gave this particular community
its name. How much Daniel Boone really ever stopped here is still a question. He undoubtedly
passed through a few times.
BB: How and why was it formed in the first place?
SH: I don’t know the answer to that; I suppose it was just sort of grew up as most places do to
start with. I think that the Dougherty boys and the school had had a tremendous influence on
the building of the town. They just had vision, they didn’t have much to work with back in those
days but they got a school started and kept it going.
BB: How had the community changed over the years?
SH: Well, it has changed a lot in the comforts of the people that lived in the community, other
than that I don’t see too much change. A large proportion of the people now are making pretty
good wages and they’re living them up pretty large. Businesses have grown, some of them
tremendously.
BB: Who have been the community decision makers?
SH: Well, the folks at the Northwestern Bank have been a tremendous influence in making the
community. Alfred Adams has been chairman of the industry committee, and from a business
standpoint there is nothing that has even approached the importance of the industry
committee of the Chamber of Commerce in building the community from a standpoint of
industry.
BB: Have the Dougherty’s been in this decision making group?
SH: Yes, very definitely. One of the interesting things to me was that back when I first came
here, Dr. Blan Dougherty was very much opposed to developing industry, but a few years later
he had a very definite change of mind and particularly in the promotion of the International
Resistance Company (IRC) and a very important promoter of industry. Of course he had one
love, and it was above everything else, and it was the college, which he built up from a little
9
�grade school to a quite sizeable college and laid the foundations for a tremendous growth that
happened under Dr. Plemmons as president and is still happening under Dr. Wey.
BB: Could you give me any other names of really important decision makers in the community?
SH: Well, I think Clyde Greene and Russell Hodges were of tremendous importance, and the
Winklers have been important promoters, especially Ralph and Gordon. The three Wilcox boys
– Herman, Charlie, and Dempsey have been tremendously important people in developing this
community.
BB: Would you list the Farthings and the Councills among these also?
SH: Well, the Farthings and Councills held a lot of property and Grady Farthing has been
tremendously important as president of the Watauga Savings and Loan which, when I first
became connected with it, had assets of very much less than $500,000. Now I understand their
assets are listed at about 36 million. Grady Farthing has been tremendously important in that
connection. Home of the best citizens in the county were Farthings, but Grady stands out as the
high man so far as promoting the community is concerned.
BB: Are there any minority groups in the community?
SH: Oh, yes. There are minority groups, but they’re much better off than they are in cities, and
we don’t have much trouble with the minority groups whether they be black or something else.
BB: Were some families poorer than others?
SH: Oh, sure! That’s true today. Home families barely lived while others were living in luxury.
BB: Did the others look out for them to a certain extent?
SH: A little, not much.
BB: How many people were in the community?
SH: Well, the first time I came to Boone, there must not have been over 300 or 400 people
living in what is now Boone. There weren’t any paced streets or even “MacAdamized” streets,
there were just mud roads and when it rained they were really muddy roads.
BB: Has the population changed greatly?
SH: Numerically, of course, it has changed greatly. A large number of people now living in
Boone lived in the county but a greater number of people lived outside. From an educated
standpoint, there’s a very tremendous difference. Back when I first came here there was very
few that you could called educated. Now, a large portion of the population is at least high
10
�school educated. A very large proportion of the high school graduates go on to college.
BB: Do you think there was a certain time that the population changed was greater, or was
there a sudden influx of people, or was there a gradual change over the years?
SH: Well, while there was a gradual change, there have been two or three instances where
there was an influx, and the last five years have properly been the worse, or the best whichever
one you want to put it.
BB: Concerning transportation, how did people get around in the community?
SH: Back then they walked, or rode a mule. Home of the better ones had a buggy. The
automobile finally came, and very few had automobiles, but it kept picking up and picking up
and automobile companies have probably sold more new cars this year, ten to one than there
were in the county in 1947 when I came back here.
BB: Where did the roads and railroads run?
SH: Well, of course 421 was mapped out east and west of Boone, 321 and 221 were mapped
out but they weren’t paved or fixed up. The road to Blowing Rock was one of the best, but that
was organized as a toll road and you had to pay a toll to go over it. The county roads were
generally poor and generally dirt. Paving the roads has been done in the last 20 years, mostly.
BB: When were the railroads built?
SH: Well, the Tweetsie Railroad built into here, I think, was built back in the teens, and was built
primarily as a lumber road, though they had passenger coaches. Fact of it is, the railroad didn’t
come beyond Cranberry when I was a boy and the first train that I ever road on was the
Tweetsie from Elk Park all the way to Cranberry, but I remember very well how afraid I was of
it. My brother carried me onboard, and I got down to Cranberry, and that was about 81-83
years ago.
They built on up here (to Boone) after the William Ritter Lumber Company had developed
Pineola, which they called Saginaw largely, and the Linville River Railway came on into Boone,
but both of them from Cranberry to Boone was primarily built for lumber.
BB: Are you familiar with any of the mountain crafts or customs?
SH: No, not familiar enough to talk about it.
BB: Are you familiar with the folktales, legends, or superstitions of this area?
SH: Well, I’m not too familiar with that.
11
�
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
Harris, Stanley (interviewee)
Brinkley, Bill (interviewer)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
03:07, Depression; 01:44 Work ethic
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 Stanley Austin Harris, date unknown
Description
An account of the resource
Stanley Austin Harris was born on October 31, 1882 in Trade, Tennessee, and reared in Avery County. The son of a Confederate officer, after graduating from Tennessee Wesleyan College in 1903, he worked for the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) in Kentucky where he was introduced to the British Boy Scout movement. He chartered a troop from the British Scouting movement in 1908, two years before the Scouting program was established in the United States.
He started working for the Boy Scouts of America in 1917 until his retirement in 1947 at the national office in New York City. In 1926, he was the director of the Interracial Service where his responsibility was to build positive relationships with African American and Native American communities across the nation.
The Harris family lived in Boone while he worked in New York City, but would commute by train every few weeks. In 1942, Stanley Harris was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities from the historically black university Tuskegee Institute; the first Caucasian to receive this honor. Upon retiring, he lived in Boone and was very active with local businesses and civic groups.
During the interview he focuses largely on his retired life and talks about his childhood, the Depression, and Boone history.
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
unknown
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
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MP3
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
12 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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Avery County (N.C.)
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Watauga County (N.C)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Harris, Stanley Austin--Interviews
Boy Scouts of America
Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Watauga County (N.C.)--History--20th century
Avery County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Tennessee--Social life and customs--20th century
Avery County
Boone
Boy Scouts of America
Depression
Kentucky
Rotary Club
Stanley Harris
Tennessee Wesleyan College
Tennesssee
Tuskegee Institute
Watauga Centennial Celebration
Watauga County N.C.