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Mrs. B:
Tell them about going to Berea.
Then tell about coming to Boone, and
then tell about teaching your first school.
Mr. B:
Well, I better just go on to Boone.
and won't get finished.
I'll get so much history in there
Well, start out there then.
Mrs. B:
Tell them where you were born.
Mr. B:
Alright, ready?
Interviewer:
I'm ready.
Mrs. B:
Just talk natural.
Mr. B:
I was born at Bakersville, Mitchell County, North Carolina, in 1892.
What year, if you want to.
In 1908, I went to Berea College and was there until 1917.
particular time there was not a high scnool in this county.
At that
I
even
had my eighth grade, my high school work, and my college work at
Berea College.
In 1917, I went to the Naval/Aviation Air Force and
served seventeen months until the armistice was signed.
Then I came
home to North Carolina at Spear in Avery County and in 1919, I went to
Appalachian Training School.
Interviewer:
Is that the same place where Appalachian State University is now?
Mr. B:
At that particular time, there were only four buildings on the campus.
Interviewer:
How many students were there at that time?
Do you have any recollection
of how many?
Mr. B:
At the summer school, there was about 150 students.
Newland Hall with Warsaw Braswell.
I roomed in Old
Dr. Dougherty and his brother had
started this school in 1900 and it was known as Appalachian Training
School.
Interviewer:
Was this education oriented, like for teachers, that sort of thing?
Mrs. B:
It was just a normal, teacher's normal.
�2
Interviewer:
What is, what do you mean by a teacher's normal?
Mr. B:
It was changed, you want to get this down?
Interviewer:
Sure.
Mr. B:
It was changed the next year to Appalachian Normal School for teachers.
Mrs. B:
It was known as Appalachian State Teacher's College and you couldn't
take all these degrees, just college only.
Mr.B:
I had Dr. Dougherty as one of my teachers.
tory.
Dr. Rankin taught English.
Dr. I.G. Greer taught his-
Shut if off there just a minute,
what was that.
Mrs. B:
I'll get out of it.
Mr . B:
I put in there about teaching six months school, didn't I?
Mrs. B:
No, you didn't.
Interviewer:
I don't think you did.
Mr.B:
After, you can turn it on now.
After getting my teacher's and
principal's certificate by going to school at Appalachian, I taught a
six months school at Hughes, North Carolina.
Interviewer:
A six months, that means that . . .
Mr. B:
At that time we only had six months schools and at the end of the school
year about Christmas time, I had a letter from Dr. Dougherty wanting
me to come to Boone.
I got on Tweetsie and went over and spent the night
with Dr. Dougherty, and he offered me a position as a teacher and
monitor of Newland Hall, but at that time I had already signed up to
go to Sylva, North Carolina, and teach another six months school because
down in the Piedmont section, they only had six month school and they
didn't start it until after Christmas, hoeing and cutting tobacco.
Interviewer:
Were these for all grades of students and . . .
�3
Mrs. B:
For how many grades of students?
Interviewer:
Was this like on a high school level?
Mr.B:
For all grades.
Interviewer:
All grades.
Mr.B:
Yeah.
Mrs. B:
It was a grammar school, wasn't it?
Mr. B:
Yeah, a granunar school.
Inerviewer:
And were there.
Mr. B:
There wasn't a high school in, in.
Mrs. B:
(garbled)
Interviewer:
Yeah, was this, were these grades taught all together or did they have
like different classrooms and other teachers or were you the only one
teaching or . . . ?
Mr. B:
No.
I just had one helper at the first school.I taught with Molly
Ramsey.
She's still living up here at Banner Elk here.
Interviewer:
Boy, that's really something!
Mr. B:
I had the, I had the first four grades.
She had the first, second, and
third grade and I had fifth, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh.
seventh then was the eighth.
The
You graduated from high school in the
eleventh grade here then after that, later on, they added the twelfth.
Interviewer:
I see.
So, so you all, like, did you . . . you grew up in this area all
your life, right?
Mr. & Mrs. B:
Yeah.
InE!rViewer:
Right, right around Minneapolis.
Mr. B:
Well. .
Interviewer:
Did you stay . . . how long did you, did y 'all stay in Bakersville and
you could even tell us when you met and all that sort of thing, if you
would like to.
�4
Mr. B:
Like what. . •
Inerviewer:
You could even tell us like how y'all got together and how you, where
you spent your childhood years.
Mrs. B:
Ir's a funny thing about how we got a hold of this property.
Interviewer:
Really?
Mrs. B:
Yeah.
Mr. B:
Yeah.
Mrs. B:
Well, let's finish up about that edu . . .
Interviewer:
Educational thing.
Mrs. B:
Yeah.
Interviewer:
O.K.
Mrs. B:
And tell what year you graduated at Appalachian.
This going to be
helter skelter business because you don't know where you're at unless
you know what you're gonna say.
Mr. B:
Well, I might put this in, when you start it out, when l - finished at
Berea College, there were no such a thing as accredited schools at that
day and time.
Later on, they required a principal to have a degree from
an accredited school.
So in 1935 and '·36, I went back to Appalachian
and got my Bachelor of Science degree.
Mrs. B:
That was in '38, Wallace.
Mr.B:
In 1936.
In~rviewer:
And what did you do after that, when you got your degree?
Mr.B:
At that time, I made a score of 99 and 6/10% in my school studies and
Dr. Dougherty called me into the office again and offered me a job
teaching history.
Interviewer:
So did you do that?
Mr. B:
But I told him I'd already signed up to be principal at Riverside School
and consolidate it.
�5
Interviewer:
Riverside school?
Where is that located?
Mrs. B:
Plumtree.
Interviewer:
Plumtree?
Mr. B:
And I told him, you're getting this?
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Mr . B:
And I told him, I'd rather just be a country school principal rather
Is that one of the first schools around here?
than to teach in college which I did until I retired in 1954 at Elk
Park, North Carolina, at the age of 54.
Mrs. B:
64!
Mr. B:
64:
Mrs. B:
You were sixty-two.
Mr. B:
I retired in '54.
Mrs. B:
You retired in '54, but you was sixty-two years old.
Mr. B:
And I retired at the age of sixty-two.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mrs. B:
Tell her how the roads were in those days, how you had to lay down and
You retired at sixty-two, not sixty-five .
That's really something.
put chains on going to Riverside school, how we did.
Interviewer:
Was it really rough here?
It usually is pretty rough up here in the
winter time.
Mrs. B:
Yes.
Interviewer:
How, how long a time did people get let out of school?
Mr. B:
I'm
Interviewer:
Sure.
Mrs. B:
Well, wait a minute and get this, get this.
gonna tell you about me getting married and you can record that.
Wallace, she asked you
about uh . . . well now, back then you had to miss more days than you do
now.
Mr. B:
I didn't miss at Riverside.
Mrs. B:
Oh, you never did miss at Riverside.
�6
Mr. B:
Only one day I missed and that was when it was sleeted.
Mrs. B:
Now, last year they missed a lot . . .
Mr.B:
And I was there ten years .
just two buses.
Mrs. B:
I brought in six different schools there with
The first year, one bus had to make three runs.
Tell about the roads, and a little bit about the roads and tell how they
developed them up until today.
Interviewer:
O. K.
Mr. B:
Well.
Interviewer:
Does 19E, was 19E through here?
Mr. B:
19E, when we got married, was just a mud road through here but it's . . .
Mrs. B:
Gravel road!
Mr. B:
It was just . . . they graveled it.
Mrs. B:
The year we married .
Mr. B:
The year, the year we got married.
Interviewer:
I see .
Mrs. B:
1924 .
Interviewer:
1924.
When was that, if I might ask?
And then you were, Mrs. Buchanan you were talking about something
you wanted to say about how you got ahold of this land, or something
like that.
Mrs. B:
Let me show you this little piece of the road.
Interviewer:
Could you tell me something about the Tweetsie railroad and when it
washed away and all that sort of thing?
Mrs. B:
Yes, oh yes.
Tell her that when we first moved here in '24, Tweetsie
railroad ran through this section from Johnson City to Boone and they
had excursions on it .
You know they used to have excursions on it.
Interviewer:
Was there, was there a train depot in the innnediate area?
Mr.B:
Right back up here, there was just a shed back out here on the side of
the hill.
�7
Interviewer:
Right here in Minneapolis?
Mr.B:
That they stopped.
Mrs. B:
Well, the depot in Minneapolis.
Mr.B:
And the, uh, and the train came down here, plum down in here and went
up here and then went down in to Minneapolis.
Mrs. B:
That's what you call a .
Mr.B:
This building right over here is.
Mrs. B:
That's the switchback.
Mr. B:
Switchback.
Mrs. B:
They call it the switchback.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mr.B:
They stopped it in 1932.
Interviewer:
How large was this train?.
How many passengers did you think it would
hold?
Mr. B:
Well, they generally hold about a baggage car and six passenger coaches.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mrs. B:
On occasions when they was coming through here on excursions they'd
have about, oh about eight to ten coaches on it.
Mr.B:
Well, they had observation coaches.
Mrs. B:
Yeah.
Mr.B:
They'd stop right up here on the hill and look down the river toward
And they'd stop right up here on this hil±.
Spruce Pine.
Mrs. B:
Every time, Mr. Black was the president at the time, and every time
he came through here he had the train stop.
Mr. B:
Had them stop up there.
Mrs. B:
Because it's such a beautiful view down the valley.
Ina-viewer:
I bet that was beautiful!
Mrs. B:
I wish it ran today!
I wish it ran today!
�8
Mr. B:
I believe that old, I believe that old depot is in Boone yet.
They're using it for something.
They're using it for something
or another.
Mrs. B:
Now, I went to Boone after we were married.
go back and forth.
I went to Boone and I'd
I'd stay over there and room over there.
Then, I'd come back on Tweetsie and get off up here on the hill,
up back over here it was the time so, I'd travel back and forth
on Tweetsie and I'd go to sunnner school.
I'd take six weeks at a
time and I'd come home every weekend, but I'd have to ride Tweetsie.
Interviewer:
How much did it cost to ride on the train back and forth or one
way or whatever?
Mrs. B:
Very little.
Mr. B:
It wasn't but less than a dollar to go to Boone.
Mrs. B:
I think it was less than a dollar, maybe around a dollar each way.
Interviewer:
How, did it stop in Boone or like what was, how far down that way
did it go to Marion?
Mr. & Mrs.
B:
No, it went into Minneapolis.
Interviewer:
Just into Minneapolis, I see.
Mrs. B:
Do you know where Francis' Beauty Shop is, that building that was
just burned down
here?
InB:'viewer:
Yeah.
Mrs. B:
Well right over in the bottom, across from that was the depot.
My uncle ran the depot, the man that owned this house.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mrs. B:
So he was the depot agent.
Inerviewer:
And then it just went around to Boone and then . . .
�9
Mrs. B:
. . . stopped here.
Mrs. B:
That's all the farther it went.
Mrs. B:
It went up to Newland and it would go into Pineola and stopped at
Minneapolis, stopped all along the way, stopped at Stony Elk Park,
stopped at Cranberry, stopped at Minneapolis, stopped at Newland and
then it went down into Pineola and then came back and went around to
Linville and then into Boone.
That's the way it had to run.
Mr. B:
It's four miles into Pineola.
Mrs. B:
Yeah.
Mr. B:
The railroad was first built to haul timber out of this country and
it was built to Cranberry to haul iron ore down to Johnson City.
Mrs B:
The iron ore mine is at Cranberry.
Mr.B:
They still run the iron ore mine.
In~viewer:
They still run the iron ore mine?
Mr. B:
It's still running over here at Cranberry.
Mrs. B:
It was the main way of transportation in that day.
Everybody that
wanted to travel, the roads were very poor and crooked and there
were not very many hard serviced roads.
could go to Johnson City and shop.
We would ride the train and we
Oh, I guess we'd leave her along
about 9:00 and go to Johnson City, then come back and get off the train.
But you know, back in those days, it was an attraction for people
because everybody would go to a train stop.
they gather at the post offices today.
Why people were there like
They'd gather when the train
stopped.
Mr. B:
They'd gather to see who got off and who got on.
Interviewer:
That's really something.
Mrs. B:
They'd stop anywhere and pick up.
If I was along the road down here,
and flagged them dewn, they'd stop and pick me up.
�10
Mr. B:
And another thing they done away with is the Star Route post offices.
Now they've got them on rural routes.
I'd say they've cut out all
over the United States, two-thirds of the rural post offices.
Interviewer:
Really.
Mr. B:
We get ours still at Minneapolis.
Interviewer:
Minneapolis?
Mrs. B:
But there is a route that runs through here.
Mr. B:
But now they cut out Frank down here.
Where do you pick up your mail now?
Roaring Creek.
Do they still . .
They cut out Valley up on
They cut out Powder Hill post office and they still
have a post office in Plumtree.
They cut out the one at Ingalls.
They cut out the one at Three Miles.
Interviewer:
Why, what is it?
Did they just want one place where everybody comes
to get their mail?
Mr. B:
Rural routes go out from Elk Park and three or four of them go out
to Newland.
Mrs. B:
The one that goes out from Elk Park, that's about an eighty mile route.
This man goes way back into Beech Mountain and then comes back to Elk
Park.
Interviewer:
Does he do all this in one day?
Mrs. B:
In one day.
Mr. B:
Oh yeah.
Interviewer:
Boy!
Mrs. B:
It's a hard job.
Mr. B:
And people would gather at the post off ice like they would at the
depot to get their mail when the mail comes in.
Interviewer:
Really.
Well, you know those fellows over at the Inn?
haven't heard from that woman.
You know, I
I wrote her a letter and I was wondering
like when the Inn was built, the Appalachian Inn down here.
�11
Mrs. B:
Well, I guess that would be. very easy because that's a very famous
eating place today down here and get ahold of Bernice or . . .
Interviewer:
I tried to write her but I'm not really sure, maybe I can get her
by phone.
Mr. B:
The Appalachian Inn, I boarded that a year before I was married .
I was teaching there, six months school.
The girls that run that came
to school with me.
Mrs. B:
We started our teaching career in Minneapolis, together.
I taught two years.
Mr. B:
I taught the year, three teachers school year then, and I taught the
year before and then I got married and I had a vacancy and I put my
wife in it, of course.
She taught then until she went to Elk Park.
You taught three years here before you went to Elk Park, didn't you?
Interviewer:
Was this sort of like an apartment sort of thing.
¥ou know, like when
you stayed at the Inn?
Mrs. B:
It was just like it is now except it's just been remodeled.
Interviewer:
I see, so they have like a cottage or that sort of thing?
Mr. B:
The one that they feed the big dinners in is the same old building.
I guess it's . . .
Mrs. B:
It would be interesting to talk to Bernice or Hope, one, and let them
tell you the early history of that because it's very interesting .
Mr . B:
History of the Appalachian Inn .
Mrs. B:
Even before we came to Minneapolis.
Interviewer:
Well maybe before we leave today we can swing by and just go visit them,
Now we've been here 55 years.
maybe go talk to them about it.
Mrs B:
I bet you could.
They'd be glad to see you.
Interviewer:
That'd be great!
That's real interesting.
stayed there.
I didn't know that you
How about some of the churches in this area?
know like if there was only one church at one time?
Do you
Which ones were
�12
the original churches?
Mr. B:
Well the original churches in this were.
Mrs. B:
Not Minneapolis she's talking about.
Mr. B:
The Baptist.
Mrs. B:
And the Methodist.
Mr. B:
And the Methodist.
Mrs. B:
And later the Chrustian church.
lt was the Baptist church.
This new Christian church was built
in Minneapolis.
Mr. B:
That's where we belong.
We belong to the Christian church.
Mrs. B:
1932.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mrs. B:
It was built in 1932.
Mr.B:
Well now, well, recollect there were two buildings before we built that
It was a beautiful church too.
big rock building down there.
Interviewer:
I see.
The Minneapolis school now, do they teach first through eighth
grade?
Mr. B:
Yeah, first through eighth grade now.
Mrs. B:
Not to begin with.
When we came to Minneapolis, there were three
teachers with a three room building, and he was
~he
principal.
Mr. B:
Three rooms, three school rooms.
Mrs. B:
And when we were married we taught school down here, I guess two or
three years, and then we transferred to Elk Park.
a three-room school.
Mr.B:
It had three teachers.
But anyway, it was
A Mrs. Boners had a
Well up on Little Horse Creek there, remember Shelby?
that's the doctor over in Pineola now,
there.
Dr. Shelby Vance,
he had a little school house up
He taught first grade through anybody that through the eighth
to anybody that would come.
�13
Mrs. B:
Really through the sixth grade back then.
Course, we just had the
first sixth grades when we first came here.
Interviewer:
Did you have trouble getting people to come to school?
Mr. & Mrs. B:
No.
Mr. B:
The first school I ever went to was over just above Bakersville at
Not too much.
White Oak and it was a log school house and it had split logs with holes
bored through them and legs put in them and I remember to get up in one,
that was in 19 and, oh, 1898, I had to put my knee up and pull
myself up and then sit there with my legs hanging down like that.
Interviewer:
How about now?
Like how many students would you say attend the
school down in Minneapolis?
M s. B:
r
They had as much as 300.
I didn't know if they had three hundred this
last year or not, but it's developing. Until now, when we taught down here
it was about an eight·· teacher school.
M
r.B:
Well now.
Mrs. B:
I mean in late years, not at the
Mr. B:
Yeah.
fir~t.
Well when I went to Riverside and consolidated these six
different schools down here the
hundred and
thirty~six
highest~~~~~~~~~four
students one tim a
Mrs. B:
And you had ten teachers too.
Mr.B:
I had thirteen.
Mrs. B:
Did you?
Mr. B:
I had thirteen.
M s. B:
r
So you see the school's really made a rapid growth of progress in
these years.
Mr. B:
And a heap of the, a heap of the students or the teachers had been to
Berea College.
�14
Interviewer:
I see.
Mr.B:
Berea, Kentucky.
Mrs. B:
But you know most of the teachers we had at Riverside come from Boone,
graduated at Boone.
Mr.B:
Yeah, they graduated at Boone.
Appalachian.
Appalachian has, and you know that.
Xt's been a wonder,
I'm going to tell you this.
It got to the point where so many Florida teachers would come up there
and register up for one subject and room in the dormitory and spend
the sunnner up there at Boone in the girl's dormitory, especially girls.
Mrs. B:
Because it was a vacation for them.
Mr.B:
And they would come up there and spend the sunnner.
Mrs. B:
They would rent but one or two courses and then they got the requirement to take three courses.
Mr. B:
And besides that they got their board cheap.
.Mrs. B:
Back then it was, well it was a nice vacation for them •
Mr. B:
Then they got, they, they, well, it was along in the forties they got
to changing them.
They had to carry a full load.
Mrs. B:
Three subjects.
Interviewer:
I see.
Mr. B:
They had to carry at least three subjects.
Mrs. B:
I had a lot of classmates from Florida when I was up there.
Mr . B:
Yeah, well, you see why they would.
Inerviewer:
I can see definitely why they would.
Mr. B:
A lot of teachers came up there.
They was making a regular summer
resort out of the summer school.
Interviewer:
Boy, that's really something!
Mrs. B:
Now, how many do you have over there now?
�15
I~terviewer:
How many at Appalachian?
Mrs. B:
At least a thousand during regular time?
Interviewer:
I think it's probably over ten thousand, I guess twenty.
Mr. B:
I think it's something over ten thousand.
Interviewer:
I'm not really sure.
Mr.B:
I see where they're doing a lot more building over there now.
Interviewer :
Yeah • they're building two new dormitories over there and they're
,
increasing the library; they're adding on to that.
Mrs. B:
Well, last year, when we went to the reunion over there, I don't know
how many -- how many were there?
Mr.B:
That whole building full!
Well, one thing, in place of doing my practice teaching, I'd already
had practice teaching at, have had at Berea College, but Howell was
principal of the elementary school which was connected with the college
as well as the high school over there.
And the last three months, in
the spring term, Mr. Howell wanted to go and get, go to George Peabody
in Nashville, Tennessee, which is a university, a big university in
Nashville, and he put me in as the head teacher and principal of the
elementary school for the last spring term.
And I had about sixteen
practice teachers under me.
Mrs. B:
Tell her about the night you had to spend the night there on account
of the snow to take care of the children .
Mr .B:
Well, it was along in the last of February .
It begin to snowing all
that morning and just kept pouring and pouring the snow and pouring the
snow and the snow got eight and ten inches deep.
And the elementary
building there, I, we had to send to get blankets and quilts from
different places and several of the children slept on the floor .
Because it was too rough to go outside and go home?
�16
1-tr. B:
You couldn't , the buses couldn 't run.
Mrs . B:
Snow was too deep.
Interviewer:
Boy!
Mrs. B:
Snow was too deep.
Ini:!rviewer:
And a lot of those kids probably come from way up in the country.
Mr.B :
Some of them would come from, brought them in from eight or ten
miles, maybe twelve, over towards Deep Gap, you know where Deep Gap is?
Interviewer:
Oh, yeah .
Mrs. B:
That was 1936.
Mr. B:
Yeah, nineteen, the spring of 1936.
InB:'viewer:
That is long ways away .
Mr . B:
And not only that, I came over from Justice, Justice Hall there, and
I couldn't come the road and I just come down the steep bank .
Mrs. B:
It's not Justice Hall now .
?
1r. B:
And we came around by where the country home is for the old folks.
It 's that new dormitory .
This never, 105 hadn't been built, the railroad went 105, that's the
way you came over here now, we came around by Valdese and up by
Banner Elk.
Mrs . . B:
Tell them about that because that had dead bodies.
Mr. B:
And we came around right below the old folks ' home there and the hearse
was stole there and had been stole there ever since 10:00 in the night .
And it ·had a dead body in it !
Interviewer:
Oh Lord!
Mr. B:
And they had convicts shoveling snow and we came to Valley Mountain.
I left early that morning and I never got in home here until 2 :00 the
next morning, but when I got to the top of the Howard's Mountain above
Banner Elk there, why Avery County had it all cleared off but there was
�17
certain places, the snow was twenty feet deep.
Interviewer:
Boy!
Mr.B:
You couldn't tell where the road was!
Mrs. B:
Drifts!
Mr.B:
It snowed for three days!
Interviewer:
What happens when people like get really snowed in and they live pretty
far out in the county?
Does anybody go check on them or anything, make
sure they have stuff they need?
Mr. B:
Just a few years ago, they had over here in Ashe county, they had so
much snow they had to drop food for the cattle, hay for the cattle and
they dropped food to different homes.
Mr s . B:
But now, I'll tell you, · most of the people, they'll already have a supply
of food .
You know, they
all can and they all freeze food and they're
well protected in that way because .
Mr.B:
Mountain people always canned a lot and they dried a lot of food, too.
Mrs. B:
We do that still, we do that still, here.
Really, nobody suffered.
It was about '60 I believe when they had that awful snowstorm through,
especially around Ashe County, around Boone.
Boone gets a whole lot
more snow than we do here but they have ways.
Mr.B:
If it snows anywhere, it snows in Boone.
Interviewer:
Yeah.
M~
B:
Mrs. B:
That's what they always said.
We have an awful efficient rescue squad now.
When they get hurt up on
Beech Mountain or get snowed in, this rescue squad cars, they just go
get them and bring them to the hospital or whatever.
Mr. B:
I believe it 's three or four years ago, 's airplane fell into some
trees up there.
They rescued the two fellows in the airplane.
�18
Interviewer:
Well that's good; I'm glad they're alright.
Mr. B:
On Beech Mountain.
Interviewer:
What did you think about them putting the new highway through here?
Are you glad to see that happen or did you like it the way it was
before?
I have a lot of mixed feelings about the highway they put
in Boone, but I was just wondering like how the people responded to
that.
Through here?
Now at first they opposed it very much, a lot of them.
A lot of em say today right through here now, and we're one of.
we're some of them, that if it were to do over we wouldn't be
for this highway because it 's caused us alot of anxiety, a lot of hard
work, that would of . . . they could of straightened it out and
everybody says it up this valley ?nd out.
Mr. B:
They didn't have to take my rock pillars down there.
Interviewer:
No they didn't.
They took your rock pillars down when they built the
highway?
. Mrs. B:
Mr. B:
Yes .
They took, when they built the new highway, they took the rock pillars
and my wrought iron gates .
The rock pillars were 9 feet high with the
gates built in them.
Interviewer:
And did they do that to a lot of people's yards or whatever?
Mrs. B:
Yes they did.
If the highway did the . . . mislocate lots of people,
their way of life.
I nterviewer:
Well did you have any choice as to whether or did you actually sell
part of that footage that they took away there?
Mrs. B:
Yeah.
They allow you so much.
to do over, I wouldn't sign .
They didn't give us enough.
If it were
�19
Mr . B:
Where the road is down here, the owner had about half an acre of
bottom land right there .
And I sold the bottom land I had, all the
rest is mountain land .
Mrs . B:
Well I ' d like to say this too .
For the amount they paid us for
the damage, I ' d rather it be back like it was because we would
still have our rock pillars and wouldn ' t have to have gone through all
this anxiety .
They didn ' t pay enough for it .
I wouldn't have the rock
pillars torn out for the amount they paid for the road .
'Cause I ' m
glad it ' s over now , and I ' m glad that we ' ve got the good road, but
a lot of people were displeased with it.
But I think now after it ' s
kinda getting finished up , they feel a little differently about it .
They do a lot of destruction .
Mr . B:
You see , they took all this hill off behind me right here to make
that 50 foot field that comes
do~m
there .
Still it ' s a steep road .
Interviewer:
Well, what do you think the reason for doing that?
Mr . B:
Well they wanted to make the road straighter .
Mrs. B:
And a better grade .
Mr . B:
And a better grade and widen it out.
Mrs. B:
There would have been . . . if they ' d gone up the valley and missed
us and missed a lot of things and
said
Mr . B:
Howard~~~~~~~~~~~over
~~~~~~~~~~
They were coming up here into my hard and we got a new survey on
it and they went down 3 0 feet .
Mrs . B:
They would ' ve ruined us .
Mr . B:
Our house would be sitting up here on a bank .
Interviewer :
Well did they come to you and talk to you about all this and get
you .
here
�20
Mrs . B:
No, they surveyed it first .
Mr. B:
No, they surveyed it first and then we brought the - - --- and got
in here and surveyed it . .
Mrs . B:
Yeah, I came home..: fi:onC Elor.ida :: and .
Mr . B:
Pegs were out here in the yard.
Mrs . B:
to throw the things away, and Mama come home
---------~
she ' ll have a heart attack, come up through her yard, so they threw
the pegs away in the morning and we came home.
And the man hauling
us knew him, got this man to bring three of the surveyors there,
because we just told them we could not accept a survey coming
through our yard.
So this man came down and he said, " I ' m glad
you weren ' t here when I put pegs in your yard . "
put pegs in my yard?"
And I said, "You
I said, "ThE;r'r.e not here now!"
And I didn ' t throw them away either .
we could put them back . "
(Laughter)
And he said , "Well you know
I said, "You aren ' t putting them back,
you're not putting them back 'cause you ' re not coming through our
yard . "
They was going to take a ll my shrubberies through here .
So we got a new survey and they went down the hill .
They don ' t
consider your feelings, they don ' t consider anything when they ' re
surveying , especially surveyors.
Interviewer:
Well, they're just doing their job..
Mrs . B:
Trying to do their job .
Interviewer :
And they, they ' re probably just really immune to the nature of what
That ' s what they say .
it is they ' re doing probably.
Mrs . B:
They don ' t
hav~much
feeling .
But anyway the road is here and I ' m
glad it ' s here .
Interviewer :
Well did anybody around here try to stop it coming through at all or
get any kind of . . .
�21
Mrs . B:
Oh yes ! Oh yes !
Some Qoman in Cranberry said she ' d go to jail
before they took any of her yard .
Mr . B:
They didn ' t widen it out in Cranberry except . . . they didn ' t take
any out . . . well they did, two houses were moved back .
torn down that is right on the road.
One was
That one that Earl Greene
lived in.
Mrs . B:
Well, I think most of them that are . . . well 'course there ' s the
case of have to.
You just had to accept it .
law , you wouldn't win.
If you went into
They ' d win, the state would win .
We couldn ' t
Francis said they didn't pay us a third of what
we should have .
' Cause I'd rather have it back, than what little
money they paid us and we had to, of course, take out the money they
paid us and put the rock pillars back and that cost us 1000 dollars .
Mr .
B:
I have $1,000 to have the iron gates put back and the pillars
built- in other words-just the work.
Mrs . B:
Well really - - - - , I think sometimes these things will come
through .
We ' ve called it progress, sometimes I think it ' s destruction
and I'll make that statement anywhere .
Mr . B:
Well, they couldn ' t . ·. . now you take . . . they won't build a county
road here, and we need a lot of county roads, like the one going
up the river from here up to Newland.
there now.
It's only 5 miles up through
But they want a 60 foot right of way !
now it don't matter where it is, they want 60 feet .
need 60 feet .
road 14 feet
Mrs. B:
For any state road
Well they don ' t
All they need is 30 feet. Because they only build a
-----------------~
Well in connection with this road business, I ' d like to say that
they claim they want to keep the ecology like it is and the beauty
and to me they destroy so many beautiful trees that've been growing
�22
50 to 100 years.
You can ' t replace a tree in a short length of time .
And that ' s the objection I have to new roads.
They destroy so much
beautiful surroundings.
Mr . B:
We go down through Georgia, we keep trying to find us a shade tree
we can pull out under .
And they're just little.
Mrs . B :
Well now we ' re not talking about Georgia .
Mr . B:
Well I know, but I say that ' s it, they ' ve cut all the trees away
from the road.
Interviewer:
From around here .
Mr . B:
And that's what they want to do when they build a little county road
now .
Interviewer :
Well I was really amazed when I came here a few weeks ago for the first
time and saw what they had done to the road.
Mrs.B:
I wish you could ' ve seen this before, when we first came here it was
terrible all the beautiful trees were down and
Mr. B:
For two years the dust came right upon my porch and we had to
sweep it up in a dust pan and take . .
Interviewer:
While they were working on the road?
Mr . B:
While they were working on the road, yeah .
Mrs. B:
We didn't get to sit on the porch anytime.
Mr . B:
I had to redo my porch everywhere .
Mrs. B:
Had to take a hoe and scrape it .
it .
Just sprayed it before we painted
If it were not for destroying so many beautiful trees and
things .a nd stuff like that, a new road wouldn ' t be too bad .
Interviewer :
Well since this new road has been built and everything has this
increased like the traffic?
Mrs . B:
Yes .
They fly up and down this straight part through there .
mortally fly .
They just
�23
Mr. B:
We have to be careful going out, because they really come off that
hill a flyin now.
Mrs . B:
I think it ' s created a lot of danger traps; the straight roads.
Mr. B:
You know, it's on the straight roads that people get killed more .
Mrs. B:
Some woman said to me not long ago she said I went over here you
just come right down the mountain .
Shooo!
Into Minneapolis.
Said a few years ago said it was so pretty and widening and said,
and the beautiful trees, said it just ruined the looks of Minneapolis
she said .
Interviewer :
(Laughter)
Going into Minneapolis.
I didn ' t even know I was in Minneapolis when I came here the other
day;
all of a sudden I was just there ' cause it just really, and
trees would hang over the road.
Mrs . B:
Oh!
So and in the fall especially, it was so pretty down through
here, so many pretty maples.
I did save my red bud tree.
I wrote
a poem to put on it and the highway men left it.
Mr . B:
It was 6 inches on their right of way, but they left it.
Interviewer:
You said something about a poem?
Mrs. B:
Yeah, I did .
Interviewer:
What did you write a poem about?
Mrs . B:
About the tree!
Let me tell you about it.
a couple had given us down at Charlotte .
It was a beautiful blooming red bud.
I had this red bud that
It was about 12 feet tall .
So I said to Wallace, I
said, you know, I hate to see that highway take my red bud tree.
I'm going to write a little poem and tie a red ribbon around it,
around that tree and see if they'll save that tree.
what I wrote .
I said:
So this is
�24
I'm just a blooming red bud tree.
Will you please leave me so the people who travel this highway,
. . . I'm not getting that right.
Wait just a minute, you ' ll have
to rewrite this :
I'm just a blooming redbud
Will you please leave me
For the people who travel this highway
To enjoy and see the weeping redbud .
And do you know, a day or two later or about a week later, this man
c ame up and said, Mrs. Buchanan, we're going to leave your redbud tree .
Mr. B:
She put a red ribbon around it .
Mrs . B:
I put a red ribbon around that redbud tree and they didn ' t take
that tree .
Mr . B:
They left the maple too .
Hrs . B:
I tied this red ribbon around this maple and saved the maple, it's
the only trees .
Interviewer :
Well maybe somebody should ' ve , tied red ribbons around all those trees
out there.
Mrs. B:
A lot of trees , yes.
Interviewer :
Well that ' s really beautiful , that ' s really beautiful .
Mr . B:
That scene right there is over at the picnic ground at Linville
They wouldn ' t have taken alot .
Falls, looking up the river .
Mrs. B:
It ' s a fall scene.
You said, well now, they said it ' s, that's on the right a way just
a little bit, they may not leave it .
try it.
Well I said I ' m going to
I ' m going to make me up a little poem and sign it the
W
eeping Redbud, you know .
Interviewer:
Really?
I don ' t know i f you ' re going to be willing to do this or
not , but I was hoping to get this in while I was here talking to you .
�2
s
I was wondering if you wo ul d be interested in playing your organ
for us on the tape .
Mrs . B:
Yes, I will.
Interviewer :
Well great !
Mrs . B:
What do you want me to play?
Interviewer :
Just your favorite thing, whatever it is you like to play best .
Mr . B:
Did she tell you about this organ?
Interviewer:
Last time I was here you know, you can tell me some more about
it.
Mr. B:
I ' d love for you to , if you would .
You had bought this organ .
It was orginally in a Presbyterian church .
I picked it up at a
second-hand store for $15 .
Mrs. B:
I'm going to play Marvin ' s favorite song when you and I were young .
Mr . B:
And we brought it down to the Christian church and Nell used it .
She plays by (music begins) , she plays by shaped notes. (Music)
Mrs. B:
I don ' t think I can play it .
Interviewer :
Yeah, but that ' s okay, you can get warmed up.
Mr . B:
Play my favorite tune "Farther Along".
You didn ' t tape that, did you?
(Music )
Interviewer :
Ohl That was real beautiful.
Mrs . B:
We might s.ing "Farther Along" .
I really appreciate that .
It ' s an old timey religious song.
Would you like it?
Interviewer :
Sure, I ' <l love it if you would .
Hr . B:
Fellow came out from the University of North Carolina .
He was
gathering up ballads one way or another , and Nell , she used to sing
a lot of ballads .
Fact is, she went from Berea, they took her to
Chicago one time to sing ballads .
Interviewer:
Boy !
�26
Mrs . B:
Yeah, I made the trip.
Mr. B:
And he promised to send her one of the records of them .
But he never
did .
Interviewer:
Really?
Mr. B:
He was working on his Masters degree in the University of North
Carolina .
Interviewer:
I'd be willing to send you this tape if you ' d like .
Mr. B:
I went to summer school in University of North Carolina in 192 7.
Then I . . . first went in 1922 .
Interviewer :
Boy, you ' ve been to all kinds of places.
Mr. B:
I went to Columbia University in 1939.
Mrs. B:
I
Summer school in that .
could write a whole history about my life .
I ' ve been . . .
He never did tell you about when we got married .
Interviewer :
No, you didn ' t.
Mrs . B:
Let me tell you about it.
Interviewer :
Okay .
Mrs. B:
When I was living at Crossnore with my father and mother, and I
had taught school for a couple of years and so I thought I had got
a little bit of money saved up, decided I ' d get married. Well the
a
morning I got up it was/real rainy day on the third of July .
So I decided I ' d better tell my mother , she didn't know I was
going to get married .
So I went upstairs and I said to my mother,
I said, well I guess I ' d better take a bath and get ready to go.
Well she said, where you going this morning, Nell?
going to get married .
And she $tarted to cry .
I said, I ' m
And my little baby
sister was ten years old and she went downstairs and she said , Pa !
Says, Nell going go to get married this morning.
she ' ll be picking her a bargain too .
And said, Yeah,
But anyway, a little while
�27
Wallace came for me .
He had a real roadster car.
So I went to
this old Dr . Tovitt, they called him, and got my health certificate
and we were married in the Baptist church in Newland.
Bridges married us .
A Baptist minister.
And a Rev .
Well we came on and so I
went on down to his mother ' s and father's and I stopped and I
hanged from the dress I was married in to a dress that I could
travel in.
So we were going on down toward, over toward Asheville,
and you know we heard this awful racket under the car .
So he got out
and stopped the car and there was all this barb wire that was wound
around the wheel and he had to get out, now we're on our honeymoon
mind you, and he had to get out of the car and take that off.
Well we went on in to Asheville .
We stayed, I don ' t know what
hotel it was, but we stayed in a hotel that night.
Next morning
we ' re going to the top of Mt. Mitchell, but back in those days the
roads were not very good .
top of Mt. Mitchell.
I mean it was just a graveled road to the
So I said, well I have an uncle and an aunt living
?
over at Canyon, says we can't go on to Mt . Mitchell, let's go over to
see
Aunt ~~~~~~and
Uncle Walter .
Well, while we were over there
visiting with them, he said, you know we ' ve got that old house
back in Minneapolis and we want to sell it to you.
already planned to live down around Plumtree .
But Wallace had
But anyway Uncle
Walter said I want to sell you that house . · He ;was in the timber
business .
of the car.
So anyway we started home and a ball bearing burnt out
And we went back home and my Uncle Walter and Wallace
came back to Asheville and got the bearing fixed .
and got the car started on the second time.
And came back
Well the ball bearing
went out and he said I ' ll just go back and we ' ll trade with Uncle
�28
Walter .
So he gave us $600 for the old car .
first payment on this house .
And that was the
Well Uncle Walter brought us to Asheville
North Carolina, and we caught a taxi and now imagine what a taxi
would cost, I don ' t know what it cost .
Well anyway we caught a taxi .
Mr . B:
It didn't cost much that time.
Mrs . B:
Into Spruce Pine .
Mr . B:
And it wasn ' t a tar road anywhere .
Mrs . B:
And so we came on and when we got to Spruce Pine, ·' course . . .
Mr . B:
Well tell them about getting sick now.
Mrs . B:
Oh yeah.
Coming across Bull's Gap the taxi driver had to stop ' cause
I got sick .
The ruts were about 6 inches deep .
The car just went
back and forth and back and forth .
Mr. B :
Even with chains on .
Mrs . B:
And I got sick and so I had to go on to vomit on my honeymoon, now
mind you .
Coming on home, well I got home to his home.
We stopped.
His mother was a midwife .
Mr . B:
We got to Spruce Pine and had to hire anoLher taxi.
Mrs . B:
Well I did .
I told her that .
And anyway we came on home and got to his
house down at Spear, North Carolina , and his mother was gone delivering
a baby somewhere .
breakfast.
Well the next morning I had to get up and get
And of course I was embarassed being a new bride, I was
just embarassed to get breakfast for his dad and well I guess that was
all that was there.
So we lived there for a few days then in the
meanwhile we bought this place, of course, and we moved here in
August 1, 1924.
So we have lived here for SS years.
0£ course we improved the house .
Mr. B:
We ' ve rebuilt it 2 or 3 times .
This same place.
�29
Mrs . B:
The house was really a mess when we came here because just
squatters had lived here you know .
But it's been a very delightful
place to live and we have enjoyed 55 years of married life here .
We think it ' s beauti ful and we love to live here . Enjoy having
our friends come and see us.
Let ' s sing them "Farther Along".
Wallace, can you . . . sing the lead, now don ' t sing bass .
Mr. B:
You want me to sing the lead or the bass?
Mrs . B:
Well can you sing the bass with it?
Mr . B:
Yes, I can sing the bass.
Mrs. B:
Do you know the words?
Mr . & Mrs. B:
(Singing "Farther Along")
ltrs. · B :
I made some mistakes in that .
Mr . B:
Yeah, I did too .
Interviewer:
That was so nice, it really was .
Mrs. B:
We sang it at one of our church meetings .
Interviewer:
You must sing a lot .
Mrs . B:
Yeah .
Interviewer :
Well that's a real nice song to sing.
Mrs . B:
Well anything else now you want . . .
Interviewer :
Well now wait .
Mrs . B:
That he does, he does, but he don't.
Mr . B:
I haven ' t got it tuned up now .
Do you?
I'll tell you . .
Is that one of the songs you sing?
That's one we sing a lot.
my life.
That ' s a beautiful song .
Sang it down at Saint Augustine too.
I . . . does somebody play the banjo here?
I made three banjos, homemade in
It ' s down in Florida though .
bterviewer:
That ' s a real nice one .
Mr. B :
It's just not tuned up now .
Mrs . B:
You'll have to redo a lot of that because we made so many mistakes .
Mr. B:
Way back , back in my teens, I 'd take the banjo and I had one of these
I ' ve almost lost the art of tuning it.
frames, it's down in Florida, that you put a mouth organ in, and I'd
�30
pick the banjo and play the mouth organ .
And my dad had a drum
that nis dad brought back from the Civil War and I beat that drum with
my foot and I ' d make the music for country dances .
Play "S ourwood
Mountain" and different dance tunes like that (Sings) .
. . . chickens is a crowing in Sourwood Mountain. Hey !Ho '! A diddle le a
day ! My pretty girl lives up in the hollars .
won ' t call her .
She won ' t come and I
Hey ! Hoop ! A diddle le a day !
(Laughter)
Interviewer:
That ' s really neat .
Mr . B :
Not anymore .
Mrs . B:
They have in the high schools, clogging .
Mr . B :
Just in the high school , clogging .
Did people have dances around here a lot?
But we used to have a dance at
least once a month; country dance somewhere or other .
Interviewer :
Where did they usually have it?
Mr. B :
People's houses.
Mrs . B:
In the olden days they did .
Mr. B:
Just before Nell and I was married, we took her up to Dave Vances
At people ' s homes?
and we had, they took.
Mrs . B:
Played the old Virginia reel; what they called it.
Mr . B:
The old Virginia reel and square dancing.
Mrs. B:
Course they have the more modern dances now; you know .
This Avery
clog team and the square dance team-they ' re right famous .
Mr . B:
I do a lot of work like this.
Interviewer :
Oh that ' s nice.
Mr . B :
That's chestnut .
Int el!viewe r :
Yeah.
Mr . B:
Wormy chestnut .
Make things like that .
What kind of wood is this?
Chestnut is a thing of the past now .
The wormy chestnut, I see that . .
�31
p~etty.
Interviewer:
That ' s real
Mr . B:
It ' s all made out . . . I ' ve got one in my bedroom there, it ' s all
made out of one plank.
there .
I made it in my.
. in Justice Hall over
When I was over there in 1935 and 36 .
Interviewer :
Oh!
Mrs . B:
Yes, he has a workshop .
Mr . B:
Yeah , I have .
Mrs. B:
He made Francis
Interviewer :
Do you· have any other children besides Francis?
Mr . B:
I got, I got credit for 3 or 4 things that I · made · on art .
Mrs.B :
Show you these pictures here of the girls .
~~~~~~~~
down at Daniel Christian Church .
grandaughter .
That's a picture made
That ' s Rickyl_ our oldest
You see that?
Interviewer:
Yes mam .
Mrs . B:
I bet you saw that the other day .
(Tape temporarily cuts off )
Mr . B:
capital of the world do you?
Interviewer :
Uh huh, I sure do .
Hr . B:
I ' d say three- fourths of the people in this county are raising
shrubbery that ' s shipped all over the United States .
And it ' ll
continue to be in the place of raising crops to eat .
They ' re
going to raise shrubbery and buy their, buy their. . . what they eat .
Interviewer:
Uh huh .
Mr . B:
I used to raise ooxwoods here .
I guess I sold altogether during my
lifetime, at least ten thousand dollars worth of boxwoods .
Interviewer:
Wow !
�32
Mr. B:
That's these boxwoods growing right out : here, that's where he's
making his living now.
He sold a big lot out, right around here
the other day.
Mrs. B:
She asked a question what you thought this would be a urban or a
(phone rings)
Mr . B:
It'd be a urban.
The whole county will be.
won't increase too much.
They want to get out.
The town of Newland
People don't want to live in town anymore.
That's the general conception of a new life
going on, is to get out in the country.
Interviewer:
Do you think that's a good thing?
Mr . B:
And that's really, yes, it's good.
Interviewer:
Do you think these people that are moving into the area that come
from cities, do you think they're going to bring a lot of the really
bad things about the city with them and do the same thing all over
again?
Mrs . B:
Yes.
Indeed they are.
But we've already shown that they've brought into
our county a lot of things that our people didn't know about.
they've brought a lot of good things, but on _the
o~her . hand,
been a lot of wickedness and a lot of evil that's come
Now
there's
into our country.
We wouldn't of had . . .
Mr . B:
Well like up here on Beech Hountain, they brought in what we used to
call blind tigers where they sell whiskey.
You go into blind place
and get whiskey or get it by the drink or get it by the bottle.
Mrs. B:
And on the whole I believe that probably it's not for the betterment
of the county.
As I say, there are a lot of good things about it,
but it's brought, it's made a different way of life.
have changed .
I doubt if
they ~ re
for the good.
A lot of things
�33
Interviewer :
Well.
Mrs . B:
I mean, that ' s my opinion .
I ' d~~- onl¥ my opinion .
opinion of a lot of people, you can discuss with people.
I was talking to J . D. Ellis over here at .
Interviewer :
Okay.
END OF TAPE
For the
I know
�
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
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Buchanan, Wallace
Buchanan, Nell
Interview Date
2/10/1976
Number of pages
33 pages
Date digitized
9/23/2014
File size
16.1MB
Checksum
alphanumeric code
cb5c8e77c4a8ab85b01168888696e91a
Scanned by
Tony Grady
Equipment
Epson Expression 10000 XL
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.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
AC.111 Appalachian Oral History Project Records; 1965 - 1989
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
111_tape479_Wallace&NellBuchanan_transcript_M
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Wallace & Nell Buchanan [January 10, 1976]
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Document
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Buchanan, Wallace
Buchanan, Nell
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>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Mountain life--Appalachian Region, Southern
Appalachian Training School for Teachers (N.C.)
Teachers--North Carolina--Interviews
Appalachians (People)--North Carolina--Watauga County
Appalachians (People)--North Carolina--Mitchell County
Appalachians (People)--Kentucky--Berea
Buchanan, Wallace
Buchanan, Nell
Description
An account of the resource
Wallace Buchanan, born in 1892 and a resident of Minneapolis, North Carolina has been a teacher for most of his life. He talks about his early education at Berea College, his time in the air force, and his time at Appalachian Training School. It was located exactly where Appalachian State University stands today, only smaller and exclusively for training teachers. He had many jobs, namely as a history teacher at Riverside School.
Air Force
Appalachian Inn
Appalachian State University
Appalachian Training School
Avery County
Bakersville
Beech Mountain
Berea College
Elk Park
Farther Along
George Peabody
highway
Hughes
iron ore mine
Minneapolis
Mitchell County N.C.
mountain snow
Nashville
Nell Buchanan
North Carolina
organ
Plumtree
Riverside School
Sourwood Mountain
Tweetsie Railroad
Wallace Buchanan
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/fa8d8ef7f21a64c763c3201203e45c30.pdf
efb8ee9d2d3f7ef22dc653d291e9021b
PDF Text
Text
INTERVIEW WITH BOB GUY
Bob:
there.
My grandfather and grandmother in Marion started two miles from
And in order to get there, we had to get there on the Tweetsie
Railroad to Johnson City and spend the night and ride the Clinchfield
Railroad from there to Marion the next day.
forty minutes used to take two days.
we set our watches back.
A trip th&t now takes about
That's one thing and then of course
Tweetsie in those days,..., we came down from Boone
every morning about 8:30 and you come up from Johnson City in the
afternoon at four.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Did it go back behind the house?
Yes, you could see it out the back door.
Interviewer:
Bob:
It went right by the house.
Would you talk a little bit about when you were born?
About the time I was born we did'nt have any doctors in thi s
county and my mother had to go to Marion where I was delivered on Christmas
day in 1918. I was the third of seven children.
Interviewer:
She must have known when you were going to come home to
make that trip.
How many people were in your family?
Bob:
Two boys and five girls.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Are most of them living around here now?
I have one sister in Philadelphia, one brother in Raleigh,
two sisters in Salisbury, the rest are here.
Interviewer:
Do you want to talk some of your father?
�My father was born in Stanton, Virginia and raised in Salem, Virginia.
HE came to N. C.
when he was twelve years old.
He rode a horse into
Newland in 19]2 when the county was organized and started the Avery County
Bank.
Interviewer:
What was your family life like?
Was thenealot of
emphasis on the "family"?
Bob:
Idon't recall that much about that because my mother was deaf
and had seven kids.
My baby sister was just a year old when she died.
But mother could always read lips and she put a baby to bed.
She always
slept with one hand on the baby so that when it woke up she could feel
it move without hearing.
That's about the only thing I remember about
my childhood.
Interviewer:
What kind of things did you do when you were little?
What pastimes did you have?
Bob:
When I was little ther were'nt any cars around here, as I remember
ther was one bicycle.
ride it to the
then;
df.po't'
We used to pay the boy who owned it a nickel to
and back.
That was our method of mobility back
and swinging and fishing and trapping, and that was about it.
those days we had alot o-f' chestnuts.
Interviewer:
Bob:
You still have one in your yard.
That's the black keeled-over tree.
We used to have it in the
backyard.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Do you ever have any reunions?
No, not a family reunion, is that what you mean?
Interviewer:
Of course you visit alot.
Jane comes down.
In
�Interviewer:
Was that the Dr. Sloop who founded Crossnore?
Can we
talk a little bit about h .m?
Bob:
I'd rather you get the information from him.or rather from
Martha
because she knows all that down cold.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Do you see it any different now?
Well, do you want me to describe my first game of post office?
Interviewer:
Bob:
What was courting like then?
All right
No, that was about the limit of courting back then.
Different people
in the community would have a party maybe once a week and the romancing
consisted of a game of postofficg, .
Interviewer:
Bob:
Yes, it's alot different now.
There wasn't any cars and you just had to find somebody's home to
do alittle romancing in.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Do you remember any outlaws around this area?
We had murders all the time.
attention to it.
movie a week.
When I was a kid, I didn't pay any
We'd got to the show every Saturday night.
It was a silent movie.
There was one
There was always a fight at that.
There is something I remember - if we had a nickel extra, we'd buy a bottle
of pop with it and you get an ice pick and punch a hole in "the top of
it so it would blast out through the movie.
Interviewer:
Are there any superstitions you remember from when you
were little or legends?
Bob:
Myifiother was the most superstitious woman in the world, I still see
things around the house she'd be superstitious about
Interviewer:
Bob:
Like what ?
Like walking under a ladder, stepping across a broom-
My mother was
�terribly superstitious.
Interviewer:
Bob:
What did she do if she did step across a broom?
She'd put her kids to bed if she thought one of them was involved.
She
made us got to bed.
Interviewer:
Did you ever hear your father "talk about the civil war
or anything?
Bob:
No, all his people being from Virginia, they were real southerners, but
he never said too much about it.
In this section of the country , the
civil war is never discussed too much.
Bob:
I think that if you'll go back in history of Avery county, you'll
find that the reason it is Republican is because the people up here supported
the north in the civil war,
Interviewer:
they did not support the south.
I've heard that and that the peopledown in the Piedmont were
a little bit upset.
Bob:
That's true that's why it is still Republican.
Interviewer:
I guess one thing, they didn't have any slaves around here, did
they?
Bob:
No, these people are still meek and Republican.
Because there's
no color conformity, people saw no reason to fight because there weren't any
slaves.
Interviewer:
this area.
One thing, we think is important is about the depression in
I want to ask you if you noticed any shortage of food or any hard-
ships from the depression at all
Bob:
Not personally, I don"t -
I remember the way people worked.
work all day for maybe .75 or $.80.
They'd
But to me, I couldn't conceive of any-
thing being wrong with it at the time because I was just a kid and $.80
to me then was a tremendous amount of money.
�Interviewer:
Did you ever have a garden?
when I was a kid.
We had corn, potatoes, and we had gooseberries until
they had the blight.
bushes down.
Oh, we always had a garden
Then , of course, we had to cut our gooseberries
We had grape arbors - everything that you
have on a farm;
cows, pigs,.,.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Then you never had a scarcity of food or anything.
Oh no, we always had plenty of food - just common food, grits, potatoes
and eggs
Interviewer:
You talked about when you went to school.
Where was the
school?
Bob:
I went to grammar school and through highschool at Newland.
I went
to college at the University of Alabama and University of North Carolina,
spent five years in At lanta and got out of the army in '46 and haven't been
back since
Interviewer:
Was the school real small?
What was it like?
Was it
particularly like elementary school?
Bob:
The thing I remember most about it was that I went to second grade
and third grade in one year and third and fourth grade in one year because
you didn't have the teachers that you
Interviewer:
do now.
Did you find yourself having alot of teachers for a
couples of grades in a row?
Bob: We had the same teacher maybe two or three times.
Interviewer:
Do you see any difficulty in the schools nowadays?
�Bob:
Reading, writing, and arithmetic-
Interviewer:
Bob:
with a hickory stick[
So you went into the army after college?
Yes
Interviewer:
Do you remember having an active religious life when you
were young?
Bob:
No, it's just been a normal protestant Presbyterian life all my
life.
All my people are Presbyterians.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Ive been brought up that way.
Have there been alot of get-together s
with church?
Well, I've always thought of our family as a religious family
Interviewer:
Do you see any difference now in
the church from the way it
was ?
Bob:
No, I think it still has the same basis it always had.
Interviewer- Do you know how Newland got it's name?
Bob:
From the Lieutenant Governor W. G. Newland from Lenoir.
Lt. Gov. of the state fron 1912 to 1915.
Waightsill Avery.
He was the
The county was named for Col.
The county agent, his descendant,..., his name is
Waightsill Avery.
Interviewer:
Do you want to describe Newland a little bit... the
way you remember it?
Bob:
Well, all there is to Newland is a courthouse, a bank, and it runs 3/8
of a mile from the courthouse.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Well, when I grew up, they were dirt streets.
Interviewer:
Bob:
This has been paved then
Now they were paved.
Have alot of people moved in around there?
Oh the people are entirely different.
�The old people are gone or deceased.
Interviewer:
Bob:
There is more or less a new breed now.
How are they different?
Well, most of the people that used to be here were mountain
neighbors.
Now folks are here from all over the country; Charlotte,
Florida, New York, anywhere, you can think of.
You have people who aren't
natives of Avery County
Interviewer:
What were the mountain people like, you know that was diff-
erent about them?
Bob:
Well, the only thing I
can say about the people from here is that
they were strict, hardworking, honest, religious, and just fine people.
Interviewer:
Youve talked a little bit about this and I guess there's
a pretty big difference now . Do you notice any change in politics or
government?
Bob:
It is still three to one Republican.
Interviewer:
You have talked some of the railroad.
when the first cars came in?
Bob:
I think it'll stay that way.
Do you remember
Did they change the area?
The station master at Tweetsie Railroad had the first car that I
ever remember.
It was a 1918 Ford.
The first Car my family had was a 1928
Stoddard as I remember.
Interviewer:
That's funny that the station master had one. Who'd
have thought he'd be against them.
Bob:
He drove the mail from the depot to the post office.
Tweetsie.
But that's curiosity.
It came in from
The railroad wasn't called Tweetsie theft.
It was named that after it was washed away.
Interviewer:
Bob:
What did thgy call it?
The kids called it " Eat taters and we<jr no clothes"
Interviewer:
Do you remember any mountain crafts or cust oms you were
involved in yourself- H aoamn^i
^
t J-"«*xHi2 *f*ii"riniT
o 9 *-ui. J.HEJ
.
.T
WR-air"! »-»i"»
O " ••'^civj.ii^
i
.
r*hQ-i-K.«^i
r
I, or
�things like that ?
Bob:
No
Interviewer:
Bob:
Did you know any craftsmen?
Oh, I knew some.
Beech Mountain.
Interviewer:
Bob:
At
They were at the CrossnCfe School and over in
that still goes on but I was never involved in it.
What kinds of things do they do?
Crossnore, it's handweaving,
And over in Beech mountain, they
make different kinds of toys.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Did you ever play with any of those?
Oh yes
Interviewer:
Do you
remember making things like
molasses, apple butter
and things like that?
Bob:
We called it sorghum,
It was molasses.
Everybody made that
and most people made home brew because you couldn't buy any alcoholic beverages
so people made wine and homebrew at home.
Interviewer:
Bob:
No, I am not sure.
It's a homemade beer.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Do you know what home brew is?
Do
you know how to make it?
I know how to make it but it's illegal.
Interviewer:
Iguess
not.
Do you remember af\y
I'd better not discuss it.
cures your mother used on
you when you got sick?
Bob:
There was always castor oil, as well as I remember.
Interviewer:
I guess you didn't like that too much
«
Bob:
The doctor always came to see us
and there was some wh)te oil that
he gave us and I didn't know what it was but my mother always thought maybe
it was like castor oil for whatever ails you.
�Interviewer:
Bob:
We always have in this counrty, especialy the ones who are farming still
Interviewer:
Bob:
Did alot &>{-• PE°ple have to rely on their gardens?
I guess then that there wasn't that much poverty.
I don't think that there was any hunger because everyone was more or
less self-supporting.
I think there's been more hunger during a snow-
storm than there was during a depression.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Do you remember any particularly bad snow storms?
One bad one we had was wh .n they had to fly helicopters in with food
for the people,
I have pictures where the snow was higher than the
automobile/
Interviewer:
Bob:
When was that ?
I don't remember but I believe it was in 1940.
I think that was the
year that it snowed every day all winter.
Interviewer:
I remember Bill was talking about the snow of 1936.
They had
to keep the store closed about a week.
Bob:
It could've been that year,
I am not sure.
It was before I went into
the service.
Interviewer:
Did you ever have any large calamities or fires or anything
like that in Newland?
Bob:
Newland's burned up completely twice.
Interviewer:
Bob:
What happened then or do you remember?
One of the first times it burned up,
second time, I was home.
I was in Asheville.
The
The whole block down here burned down and the
wholeblock behind the bank. That was about in 1958 and 1959.
Interviewer:
Bob:
I guess there was alot going on
Then, of course,
he flood in 1940 washed
.way all the railroad
and we were without any, you couldn't get to any of the highways for
about two weeks.
It washed all the raods, railroads, and the highways
out.
�Interviewer:
And what did they do to help this situation?
Did the state
send people ?
Bob:
Well, the state of course sent all the equipment up here that they
could and it was opened up as soon as they could but the railroad never was.
Interviewer:
Were there alot of people out trying to help people that had
been put into hardship
Bob:
Oh Heavens, yes.
There were many houses washed away
The redcross were
around for about two or three monthes.
Interviewer:
Bob:
didn't know it had hit this area that bad.
Oh, it was terrrible, especially in Pineola when the lake washed
out over there.
Interviewer:
It washed out a whole community over there.
I was thinking that it h it lower areas.
Down in Deep Gap
for instance, I know they had a really bad time down there.
Bob:
We had it as bad as anyone here.
Interviewer:
Bob:
Is Ngwland,... I guess you'd call this a valley, right?
It was old Feim's Cove that's what it was called. Then, it was
named the town.
It was an old Indian settlement
There are still Indian
graves around here.
Interviewer:
Bob:
You know of that?
We used to play around them when we were kids and dig around arrow-
heads.
Interviewer:
Do you remember seeing any Indians up here?
Interviewer:
Bob:
No
Interviewer:
I guess they're all down in Cherokee now.
Bob they were probably here a hundred or two hundred years ago.
�
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
2014-02-14
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 Robert Guy, March 12, 1973
Description
An account of the resource
Robert Guy was born on December 25, 1918 in Marion, North Carolina. He attended school in Newland and continued is education at the Univeristy of Alabama and the University of North Carolina. Mr. Guy was also in the army and was realeased in 1946.
Mr. Guy talks a little about the Tweetsie Railroad during his childhood. While describing his childhood he also talks about courting, schooling, and superstitions. Mr. Guy also mentions the Great Depression. Mr. Guy describes the history of Newland, North Carolina and compares the current conditions of the community to that of his childhood. Mr. Guy talks about local crafts and traditions including homemade remedies and house gardens. Mr. Guy concludes the interview speaking of past natural disasters such as snowstorms, fires, and the flood of 1940.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
White, Pam
Guy, Robert
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
3/12/1973
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_tape36_RobertGuy_1973_03_12M001
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Newland, NC
Subject
The topic of the resource
Newland (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Depression--1929--North Carolina--Newland
Community life--North Carolina--Newland--History--20th century
crafts
Great Depression
homemade rememdies
Newland
schoolhosuse
Tweetsie Railroad
-
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/2b8ff52594ba8c11ce4897d5c7a77998.mp3
5aaab0341314c24cf62e539863e2f7e7
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e2ff16b84bb951d71cfff050775c251f.mp3
87850752fb6c30aa10ba270932d65b0b
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/00eb4ea4c7c28041afbd5f8199de5234.pdf
97b38f175018b9645b0db1f59d45484f
PDF Text
Text
Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 235
Interviewee: J.O. Shell
Interviewer: Barbara Greenberg
23 July 1974
BG: Barbara Greenberg
JO: James O. Shell
BG: This is a recording of Mr. J.O. Shell, done by Barbara Greenberg on July 23, 1974 at his son’s
home in what area is this?
JO: It’s Elk River.
BG: Well, tell me Mr. Shell were you born and raised in this area?
JO: No, I was born on Upper Shell Creek in Tennessee. And my father died when I was two
months old and my mother, she moved back to the Heaton area. And I was principally raised in
the Heaton area.
BG: What year were you born?
JO: I was born in 1892.
BG: How many brothers and sisters did you have?
JO: I had one whole sister, one half-sister, and four half-brothers.
BG: Was Shell Creek, was that area named after your family?
JO: Well, it’s been known as Shell Creek ever since I’ve known anything. My grandfather lived
there and went to school. I went down there and went to school on up to Shell Creek for a
while; stayed with my grandfather.
BG: Do you remember very much about your grandfather?
JO: Well, not too much.
BG: What did he do for a living?
JO: Well, he owned a farm up on Shell Creek. Worked on a farm.
1
�BG: Was your father a farmer also?
JO: No, he was a carpenter.
BG: Oh, was he?
JO: Yes, he was a carpenter. I had part of his old tools until the ‘41 flood and I loved them. I had
his toolbox and tools sitting out on the porch and it washed a part of the kitchen away and all
his old tools away.
BG: Boy! I hear the flood back then, was it in 1940 or was it ’41?
JO: I believe it was ’41, but I’m not sure.
BG: I’ve talked to several people who lived out in the Foscoe area and they told me that the
flood really hit hard out there.
JO: Oh, it was hard here. I can remember a hard one in 1901. But I can’t remember much about
it because I was too young.
BG: Did the flood of ’40 or ’41, did that affect many of the farmers around here? Did they have
a real hard year that year?
JO: Yes, it washed a lot of their stuff away.
BG: Did anybody have any crops to sell or did they just barely have enough to feed their family?
JO: I don’t know of anybody that had anything to sell. Don’t remember anyone. But I do know,
remember it was stronger across the way. I had a good garden up there and it came and
washed the land away and just left a rock bar.
BG: How did your family decide how much of each crop they should plant each year?
JO: Well, I don’t know really, they just decided about what they could really take care of. Back
then people used horses you know, and plowed the ground with a horse. Some tried to plow
with one horse, some of them with two. And they mostly tended their crop with a hoe. Back
when I was a small boy.
BG: I bet you worked in the fields a lot, since your family was smaller than a lot of the other
families at that time.
JO: I didn’t understand just what…
BG: No, I’m just saying that you probably had to do a lot of work, a lot of chores yourself since
2
�your family was so much smaller, is that right?
JO: Yes, yes.
BG: What were some of the other chores that you had to do?
JO: That was about the biggest thing that we did, was farm, but when I got to be old enough to
drive a team, my stepfather, he had a yoke of oxen, and he would put me out hauling for those
oxen. I’d make about $3 a day. I would give him six days and make $18 a week with that team. I
thought we were doing well.
BG: Can you describe a typical day for me when you had to go out and work the oxen? What
time would you get up in the morning?
JO: Oh, usually got up about four o’clock and got the horses fed, after that I drove the horses
and I would get feeding, get up and go to feed about four o’clock in the morning. Eating
breakfast started out in the dark and it would be dark when you got back that night.
BG: When you came home that night, would dinner be all ready for you?
JO: Oh, yes. And I can remember working at the Cranberry dome (iron ore that was mined in
nearby Cranberry). And I worked ten-hour days.
BG: How far was that to walk?
JO: It was about, something over four miles each way.
BG: Can you remember if there were ever any years when your family didn’t have enough
food?
JO: No, we always had food, except only during the 1901 flood I believe. Anyway, food got
scarce then and we didn’t have much, couldn’t get anything one time.
BG: Did your family plant their crops according to the moon?
JO: Well, to some extent they did.
BG: Can you remember any of the certain signs that were good for planting certain crops?
JO: Well, I don’t remember just exactly but a lot of times, certain things they wanted to plant
when the moon was new. And other things when it was an old moon.
3
�BG: When the Depression hit, what were you doing at this time?
JO: In ‘30?
BG: 1929, ’30 yes.
JO: I was postmaster at that time.
BG: When did you first become postmaster?
JO: I was appointed in 1914, I believe in November. I forget what day in November. My
commission is in there on the wall (in another room); you can go in there and look at it if you
want to.
BG: Great. In a little while maybe I can even take a picture of that. Well, tell me a little bit about
you, when you were postmaster. What did you do?
JO: Well, I worked about every day in the post office. But sometimes, I’d leave my wife and my
daughter, when my daughter got old enough with the post office. And I got out and worked on
a farm. And I can remember as I was always lazy about milking my cows and people teased me
and said my cows would wait for me to milk them until after dark.
BG: How many years were you postmaster?
JO: Nearly 39.
BG: 39 years, boy. And in which area? In Heaton?
JO: Heaton, yes. The old building is there yet. Do you know where J.C. Ellis’s store is?
BG: On the left as you’re going back towards Boone?
JO: Boone, yes ma’am. The old post office is right in front of his on the right hand side of the
road. It’s there yet. That old building is.
BG: Let me see, what was the political scene like at that time? How did people tend to vote?
JO: Well, just like they do now, but you know we didn’t have any radios, television like now. You
watch news right off and sometimes it would be three or four days before we would get the
news. I can remember when Woodrow Wilson was first elected. There was a friend of mine, he
was about my age and we were kind of good friends you know, and together quite a bit. And I
knew he was a strong Republican you know. Just after we heard the news that Woodrow
Wilson had been elected to his first term. I saw him coming down the road. I stuck my head out,
just waiting until he got past the door and stuck my head out around, out the door and hollered
4
�“Hurrah for Woodrow Wilson.” He turned back and looked over his should and said, “Hurrah for
a dad burn fool!” (both laugh). That really tickled me you know. I just fell back and laughed. And
then later on, after he became a man Mike changed from a strong Republican to a strong
Democrat. But he and I were always friends.
BG: Were the majority of the people Democrats at that time?
JO: No. Most of the folks in Avery County were Republicans and are yet.
BG: Was the Heaton area, was that Avery County at that time?
JO: Yes. At that time it was. But at one time it was Mitchell County, that was when I was just a
small child. Avery County was established in 1910 or 1911. I forget which.
BG: Did many people in this area have slaves at that time?
JO: Have what?
BG: Slaves.
JO: Sleighs? The children had quite a few. I can remember a mail carrier that carried the mail
from Boone to Elk Park. It gets slick and bad sometimes and he’d carry it with horses on a sled.
Jeff Billings was the mail carrier at that time. And he usually just had a small team of horses. He
would hook them to that sled and carry the mail on a sled. And then another time there was a
route from Heaton to Beech Creek. My brother-in-law, he carried the mail from Heaton to
Beech Creek. He’d tell me about snow drifts being so deep that a lot of times he’d be walking
there, he’d come to a snow drift that he would get a hold of the horse and pull him through
that drift.
BG: Boy, that’s some deep snow.
JO: The winters back then, you know, were even harder than they are now.
BG: I wonder why all of these changes are taking place like that?
JO: Well, I think the Bible is fulfilled because, you know, the Bible says that time will come that
you can’t tell winter from summer. It seems to me that its getting much lighter than they used
to be.
BG: A lot of people really believe that that’s what’s happening. Was there many “crooked
carrying-on” in the political elections?
JO: Well, it was about lit it is now, as far as I know. People…
5
�BG: Somebody was telling me that they didn’t go out and buy your vote with money. They
would go out and then take you to the polls and make you sick.
JO: Oh, I never did get drunk enough to know anything about that. I never id drink any whiskey
much. I remember getting drunk when I was a little bitty boy. My mother let me go over to my
grandfather’s to stay overnight, my sister and I. And she told us to come home the next
morning early. My grandfather he was a good religious man but he always kept a jug, an old
stone jug sitting under his bed with a little whiskey in it. And he’s take it down before breakfast
every morning so he got his whiskey and picked him up a glass. He passed it to me, I just hung
on to it and drunk until he took it from me.
So good you know and I wasn’t used to it, and so I got so sick, my sister couldn’t take me home.
It was way up in the day, about 10 or 11 o’clock until I was able to go home. I didn’t know any
better and I just kept drinking. That’s the only, well, I remember getting drunk one time after
that. I was a small boy. I wasn’t but…Sunday school teacher.
Did you hear him sing at Elk Park Sunday nights? I got a couple of other fellers and went out
one night and had a pint of whiskey. We drank that pint of whiskey and all got kind of high on it.
That was my last. Well, another time I stayed with one of my friends one night. One of them got
so drunk he couldn’t get home and so we had to stay all night. And next morning I went home
and felt so bad. And my stepfather had a big old mule and he told me he wanted to plow that
mule that day. And I thought well, could I ever make it? But I finally got the old mule and wen
over to the field and after I was there I got to work, I got hot, and I got better and worked all
day. But that was my last time I ever got the old saying is “high.”
BG: Did a lot of the people around here used get, as you say, “high?”
JO: Well, no more than it is now, I don’t think.
BG: Let’s go back to your early life on the farm a little bit. Did you and your sisters, were the
jobs – the chores, were they divided that you had to do a certain think or did you all work
together?
JO: No, my stepfather would go off and tell us to do certain tasks, give us a certain thing and we
usually always got it done. If we didn’t we were afraid we’d get a whipping.
BG: Did you and your sister alternate jobs? Like you did something one time and the next time
it had to be done and she would do it?
JO: No, we usually just did little jobs both together. Of course, she helped in the kitchen you
know, and I didn’t too much.
BG: What type farm machinery, farm equipment did you use then?
6
�JO: We just used old one horse plows and some two-horse turn plows, hillside plows you know
mostly. And then we used hoes for the rest.
BG: When modern farm machinery came out, what kind of effect did it have on the farmer?
JO: Well, on some of them, it was quite a help. But some didn’t farm enough to buy it and they
had to farm the old fashion way.
BG: Did it seem to give the farmer a lot more leisure time or did he have to spend a lot of time
taking care of his new equipment?
JO: It seemed like he worked quite a bit.
BG: Did your family ever grow any crops, any cash crops?
JO: I don’t remember it. Had many things to sell. Now, I raised beans after I got grown. I raised
them for several years. I sold them of course and then I sued to raise cabbage to sell.
BG: Would you sell your crops to big buyers or would you sell it to small buyers?
JO: Well, usually just small buyers would come around with a wagon or a truck you know. Buy
it. After I got older and raised more stuff, there was quite a lot of people hauling the stuff to
Knoxville and sold it.
BG: Did they get much better prices down there?
JO: They would get a much better price down there than they could around here.
BG: Would all the farmers get together and just make one big haul to Knoxville or would
everybody go separately and take their own?
JO: Why, they would usually have enough stuff just to take a load of their own, you know. We
used trucks. Of course we traded down around Johnson City and Elizabethton some back in the
horse and wagon days. They hauled it on a wagon.
BG: Did your neighbors help you harvest your crops?
JO: Well, some. They would, back in those days you know. They would clear a piece of land, and
they would get a certain date for a log rolling and a lot of the men in the community would
come and help pile the logs you know. And you would always fix up a good dinner for them and
have a good time. I remember I was going to a corn shucking one night after I was married,
after I was grown and was shucking corn and somebody hit me in the head with an ear of corn. I
never did find out who it was. I don’t know whether they did it accidently or whether they did it
on purpose.
7
�BG: Can you remember any other stories about any particular corn shuckings when something
funny happened?
JO: Well, I remember we used to go to several but I don’t remember any specific accidents that
happened much.
BG: Did people give rewards for people who shucked the most corn or did you play games or
anything like that?
JO: Well, sometimes they would play games. They never got any rewards that I remember.
BG: It seems like families used to be closer together then, and the neighbors used to help out
more? Could you tell me a little bit about that?
JO: Well, if a person…if one certain person was building a new house you know, the neighbors
would come and help him on the building. And you don’t see any of that anymore. They always
have to do their own work. Nobody will help you free much. Of course people do yet, you know
some. But they were better to help each other seems to be, back several years ago than they
are now.
BG: Where did you go to school, around here?
JO: Well, we had a school over at Heaton. I went there until 1910. I believe it was and then I
went to Melvin one year, down at Melvin College. But I had not completed high school at that
time. And in 1911, we had a high school, the first high school that was ever in Avery County. I
believe it was 1911 or 1912, I’m not sure. And I went to high school one year at Elk Park on the
side of the hill.
BG: Can you describe it to me, what did it look like?
JO: Well, I can’t remember too much of what it looked like. But I can tell you who the principal
was. Professor Pearson was his name. But I don’t remember his given name.
BG: How did he teach, if there were so many different grades in this one classroom, how would
he teach everybody something different at the same time?
JO: Well, they just have different classes, you know. And while one class was doing one thing
then he’d be teaching another class something else.
BG: Yes. Did you used to write on slates?
JO: Yes, we used to have old slates, you know and slate pencils?
8
�BG: Penny pencils?
JO: No, I don’t know if they were. I don’t know what they called them, they didn’t have any
wood on them, you know they were jut a little pencil you marked with on the slates.
BG: They didn’t have any wood on the pencil, it was just like lead?
JO: They were chalk you know, they used a blackboard and used chalk a lot. Can you remember
seeing chalk?
BG: Chalk?
JO: Chalk? To write with.
BG: White chalk, yes, we used that.
JO: Well, we used that a lot back in my days, when I was going to school.
BG: What type of classes did you learn when you were in school? What subjects?
JO: I studied arithmetic and algebra, history and geography, and I don’t remember what else.
BG: What type of games did you and your friends used to play at your recess time?
JO: Oh, we played ball. They hit the ball and then they would run and if they got across before
they go to the based, why they were out. Somebody else took their place. And then we had
another one called “Bull Pen.” I know my uncle, he was a preacher, but he came to the school
house and played Bull Pen with us. But I don’t remember too much about how we played it.
BG: Did you used to make your own balls?
JO: Oh yes, made it out of cotton thread.
BG: Did you wrap leather around the balls, is that what you used to do? Somebody was telling
me they would take their mother’s old shoes that were all worn out and wrap leather around
the balls to make them last longer?
JO: Well, I think they did that some, but usually back when I was going to school they just were
thread ball. Just used cotton thread and rolled them.
BG: Was it hard to make one?
JO: No, no.
9
�BG: Did the girls play these games with you or…
JO: Sometimes they would play ball some. I remember they used to have a game they would
call “Dare Base,” they played that quite a bit.
BG: Did a lot of the town people around here used to meet at one certain store in town and sit
around and tell folktales and things like that?
JO: I remember up there in Heaton, they used to do that and called it “Rover’s Story.” A little bit
you know around there, some people called it “Rover’s Story.”
BG: That’s a good name for it I guess. Were any of your neighbors or your family, were any of
you all involved in playing banjos and making music?
JO: No. None of my family did it. I had an uncle named James Heaton, he was a merchant,
wholesale and retail merchant there in Heaton and he enjoyed singing mighty well. He usually
always had singing for about two or three times a week. About once a week in the middle of
the week and then on Sunday and Saturday. And he preached quite a bit.
BG: Did you feel it was, or did the people feel that it was important to be real active in the
community?
JO: Be active?
BG: Active, yes.
JO: Well, I guess it was about then like it is now. People are about the same.
BG: It seems like it would, the more active you were, the more it would help your political
career and everything like that.
JO: I can remember Eddie Ray’s brother, and he lived up there at Heaton. After they put in a
Trailways bus, he would see that bus come in and say “Yonder, here comes the big bus.” That
was Homer, Homer, Jr. Eddie Ray’s brother.
BG: Does he live around, does he live…where now?
JO: I don’t know where he’s at now. He must be in California. He’s still in the service.
BG: Can you tell me the different between the things you did in the summertime compared to
the wintertime? Was the summer a lot easier, even though you had all your farming to do or
was it easier to fight off the cold in the wintertime?
JO: Well, of course we didn’t have so much work to do, you know. Everybody burned wood
10
�mostly then. And had to get out and cut a lot of wood when it was cold and bad to get it in. I
remember that we always had a fireplace and we would, if there was a fire, we would get a
buckeye and cut it for back sticks. That was a stick to burn in the back and the other wood such
as hickory and sugar tree and maybe oak and so on, for to burn in front of that back stick. That
old back stick would be green buckeye and it would burn, last a long time.
BG: Burn a lot slower.
JO: Yes.
BG: Can you tell me something about the houses back then?
JO: Well, there were not many people that had very good houses. Just two or three roomed
houses about what they mostly had. Some of them only had one room. And you never saw any
carpets on the floor very often.
BG: Really? I thought that a lot of the ladies used to weave their own carpet?
JO: I never knew of anybody weaving any carpet but, I can remember the spinning wheels. They
used to take wood and make yarn out of it. And use yarn for whatever they wanted to make
like socks and so on.
BG: A lot of the people raised their own sheep then?
JO: Oh yes, there was quite a few sheep then but there are not that many now.
BG: I don’t know, why do people not raise sheep anymore around here?
JO: Well, dogs go so bad until I had to sell. I’ve raised sheep I guess, for 30 years. And gos got so
bad, they killed the sheep, so I had to sell mine. Sold them two years, two or three years ago. I
haven’t raised any in about three years.
BG: Can you remember what the attitude of the people was when the first cars came to the
area?
JO: Yes, I can remember that people, they thought it was something great you know. And I can
remember the first one I ever rode in. One of my friends that lived in Banner Elk bought one of
the first cars that was around. I’d been somewhere walking and he picked me up between
Heaton and Elk Park and gave me a ride and that’s something I can remember the first time I
ever drove one too. Back then you didn’t have to have any license, you just bought your car and
went ahead and used it. It was like with horses you know. But that didn’t last too long until you
had to have a tag for each car.
11
�BG: How fast would those first cars go?
JO: About 20 miles per hour. That was a pretty good speed.
BG: Well, how did most people feel towards the car? Did they welcome it?
JO: I think so. I think most of them appreciated them.
BG: Can you think of any specific changes that started coming into use?
JO: Well, I don’t know of anything special that happened. Of course people began to buy you
know quick as they, people didn’t have money then that they have got now. And they would
buy a car when they got able.
BG: What about the railroads? Can you remember the first railroads?
JO: Yes. I can remember a little narrow gauge that came from Johnson City to Boone. And I
don’t remember, I believe it was the 1940 flood that washed away so much of it between
Cranberry to Johnson City until about oh, I don’t know. Its been discontinued I guess about 20
years. They called it E.T. & W.N.C, the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, but
most people called it the “Arbuckle.”
BG: what was the train ride like? Was it hot and smoky and anything like that?
JO: No, no, it was a mighty good one. People you know riding the train. Sometimes they would
have a special trip. I can remember going to Boone one time on a special trip. Just for the trip
you know, no business. Just for the trip.
BG: Did you take many trips that weren’t for business very often or did you usually go places for
business purpose only?
JO: Mostly for business purposes.
BG: Can you tell me the difference in a weekday compared to a weekend?
JO: I have to understand just what you mean by that.
BG: Well, did you do farm work on the weekends the same as on the weekday?
JO: Oh, yes. People used to work six days a week. Now they only work five. They used to work
ten hours a day and now they only work eight.
BG: Did everybody in the community go to church on Sunday?
12
�JO: No. But people went to church very little back then in those days. Of course, there were not
near as many people as they are now you know. There just were not that many people like
there are now. But they attended church very little back then. Like they do now, about the
same amount.
BG: Were the church services different then compared to how they are now?
JO: Well, not too much. Preacher usually preached the Bible you know, couldn’t be much
difference.
BG: Some people have told me that…what was I going to say? Oh well. What were funerals like?
JO: Well, they were different when somebody died in the community. Somebody made a coffin,
they didn’t go to a store and buy it. There wasn’t any place to buy it. Somebody would make it.
They would be buried in a homemade coffin. Now they wouldn’t know what a homemade
coffin was I don’t guess.
BG: I don’t guess so.
JO: I used to remember this fellow named John Harmon back in the Beech Mountain section
that made coffins. He usually kept a few made ahead, you know, for people. But a lot of times
they would make your coffin after they died.
BG: Were the graveyards scattered throughout the area or did people like to be buried on their
own land?
JO: Well, some often wanted to be buried on their own land but now the graveyards in Heaton,
I can remember the first one that was buried there. And it’s a pretty big cemetery now. But
there are a lot of differences you know, in funerals in those days and today. People just had to
take them to church in a wagon, with a horse and a wagon. I can remember when my mother
died. They took her to church in a wagon. That was back, I guess in the ‘30s or ‘40s.
BG: Were there not any laws about where you could bury people and where you couldn’t bury
people?
JO: They used to have cemeteries around certain places in the community, you know, they
would all have a name. Now line the one up there at Heaton, one named the Heaton Graveyard
and there’s another one across on the other side of the river called Smith Graveyard, and
another one back over on the mountains a little further called (inaudible) Graveyard. You see
people mostly named them after people that were first buried there. They would start their
own graveyard, you know.
BG: So they were not really like church graveyards then?
JO: No.
13
�BG: Did they have a service at the…like a graveside service or did they hold the service at the
church?
JO: They had both. They would have a funeral at the church and then the preacher usually
talked some at the graveyard.
BG: Was your family involved in any crafts in any way?
JO: Not that I remember.
BG: The crafts that people speak of today were really just your livelihood in a way. Its how you
kept going you know, making your own clothes and spinning and weaving and all that.
JO: People used to make about all their clothing you know. I can remember a fellow down at
Shell Creek whose name was, he was a Miller and his wife had knit a pair of socks. He said, “I’ll
give you a quarter for the pair of socks,” Yes, I guess you would like to cheat your wife out of a
few cents. I can take them down to Woodrow’s store and get 25 cents for them. Now, I don’t
know whether that’s true or not, but they told it to an old gentleman.
BG: The mother used to knot all the socks for her family?
JO: Oh, yes.
BG: How many pair of socks would you have?
JO: Oh, two or three I guess. Didn’t have many. Just enough for a change you know. Of course
some would have more than others.
BG: How many pairs of pants would you have? Just those that you worked in everyday and then
another pair for Sunday?
JO: Yes. I can remember when I was just a boy. Usually a boy wore knee pants and he was
sporting a pair of pants and a little shirt. One Sunday a couple of boys would come to spend the
Sunday with me and we went swimming just a little ways over the hill on what they called
“Gator Branch.”
I noticed that one of the boys he was in a little hurry to get his shirt and pants on before I had
mine. I took out up the road after him, he was about a quarter mile ahead. He got ready and
just threw my pants way off above the road on an old brush pile. I had to crawl in that brush
and get my pants.
BG: Did you get him back?
JO: Oh, I threw rocks at him all the way back.
14
�BG: Can you think of some more old stories of experiences that you had that would be
interesting to us?
JO: Well, I don’t know of anything that would be very interesting. Of course, you know it
wouldn’t be interesting to me anyway. After I got to be older why I had the experience of going
to Georgia quite a lot. I bought a farm down there, between Greensboro and Madison. I bout a
326 and ¾ acre farm down there for $3,300 I believe it was. I kept it from 1927 until about 16
year I think it was. I would go down there every three or four times a year. We kept renters
there, kept cattle down there.
I would buy cattle down there and bring them back here and sell them. And I had quite an
experience going to Georgia and back.
BG: You own quite a bit of land today don’t you still?
JO: Well, they have my tax at about 471 acres. And than a couple of lots at Heaton.
BG: What were land taxes like back when you first started buying land?
JO: Oh, they were cheap then. Land was cheap too.
BG: How much did you pay for most of the land that you own now?
JO: Now, this house, you see what it is. About 30 acres, maybe about 33 acres of land was the
first I ever bought here on Elk River. I bought it for 1,800 dollars.
BG: 30 acres for 1,800 dollars?
JO: And then I bought another 100 acres gross on the other side of the mountain called Fall
Creek. I got it at a sale. A man owed them 2,000 dollars for the mortgage to somebody else and
he didn’t pay for it, they put it up for a public sale and I got those 100 acres of land for 500
dollars. When UI went to the sale there wasn’t anybody there and I thought that would bid
against me. His name was Ed Lewis, and when the man brought the sale up he said not to start
for less than 500 dollars. He turned around to Mr. Lewis and said “What will you give me for
it?” I said, “Oh, I reckon I’ll give you 500 dollars.” So I got 100 acres of land for 500 dollars, he
had been asking 2,000 dollars for it. “The buck stops here.”
BG: The land down here where the Elk Falls are?
JO: No, I own some land below the falls.
BG: You don’t?
JO: No, that belongs to the government.
15
�BG: I went swimming down there. It was so cold, I did it and every muscle in my body froze up.
Did you go down to the big one? Did you go down to that?
JO: Yes. My next-door neighbor went down there and he jumped off the top. That is what
about 65 feet isn’t it?
BG: I’ve seen people jump off. Not me!
JO: I wouldn’t want to do that!
BG: Didn’t you tell me about the mailman who used to ride ½ down the falls and jump the rest
of the way? What’s the story about the mailman?
JO: I don’t remember, but I do remember a mailman who was carrying mail to Beech Creek and
one day he came to eat, got his mail, then started back to Beech Creek and the water was up
pretty high. It had been raining hard. Along by night he came back with a wet mail bag. He said
the creek was so high it swept it away and he found it down the creek. So I took the mail u of
that bad, fried it, and delivered it. Every piece of it, then sent the bag back.
BG: Well, what happened to the mailman?
JO: He didn’t get hurt, he went on. I’ve got a piece that was written about him, rowing the
branch. I’ve got it, I’ll let you read id you would like to.
BG: Let’s talk some more now.
JO: He never would ride a horse. He walked. He would just about run downhill. But he walked
fast the entire time. He just had one hand, lost one hand back in his young days.
BG: Can you give me a comparison of your feelings of life compared to today to when you were
growing up?
JO: Well, I don’t think it was any better. Of course there were not so many people back then
and it seemed that things were not as hurried when I was young.
BG: Do you think having a small community school was better than having the larger schools in
big areas now?
JO: I think you can have better schools by having them small, but it seems like now such as
Avery County. At one time they had three schools, and now they have one. People have to
come from Beech Creek and Plum to Newland for school. That’s awful far for them to travel to
high school. But still people think it’s better; I guess they think it is because they still continue
them all in one.
16
�BG: Would you say that life is easier now or harder?
JO: Well, people don’t work as hard as they used to back then. But it seemed that people were
stronger then and could enjoy it better. You know the Bible speaks of a generation that will get
weaker and modern. It seemed to be that its getting that way, don’t you?
Of course you know people are a lot wiser than they used to be, because they didn’t know how
to make automobiles and airplanes, and like that.
End of interview
17
�
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
Shell, J.O. (interviewee)
Greenberg, Barbara (interviewer)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:13, Election of Woodrow Wilson, 01:28, Heaton Postmaster
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
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Interview with James Oliver (J.O. Shell), July 23, 1974
Subject
The topic of the resource
Shell, James (1891-)--Interviews
Farm life--North Carolina--Avery County--History--20th century
Avery County (N.C.)--History--20th century
Avery County (N.C)--Social life and customs--20th century
Description
An account of the resource
James Oliver Shell was born on January 26, 1891 in Shell Creek, Tennessee where his grandfather owned a farm and worked as a carpenter. His father died when he was two months old, so his mother reared the children living with her father. Mr. Shell had one sister, a half-‐sister, and four half-‐brothers. As a young man James O. Shell moved to the Heaton community of Avery County North Carolina and was a farmer and served as the postmaster in Heaton from 1914 to about 1953. He died on July 4, 1980 at the age of 88.
During the interview James O. Shell reflects on working his farm, local politics, and playing baseball as a youth. He discusses log rollings, corn shuckings, and the how neighbors helped each out. Some other topics he discusses are Tweetsie Railroad, homemade coffins, local cemeteries and playing baseball.
Creator
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Shell, James Oliver
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
23-Jul-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
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MP3
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
17 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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Shell Creek (T.N.)
Avery County (N.C.)
Avery County
cemetery
coffins
corn shucking
Education
Elk Park
ET & WNC railroad
farming
Heaton
local politics
postmaster
railroad
rural mail delivery
Tennessee
Tweetsie Railroad