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Oral History Transcript
Appalachian State University • Collection 111, Tape 34
Interviewee: Edward Blackburn
Interviewer: Bill Ballock
2 March 1973
BB: Bill Ballock
EB: Edward Blackburn
OB: Ollie Blackburn
BB: This is an interview for the Appalachian Oral History Project with Edward Blackburn at Todd,
North Carolina, on March 2, 1973 by Bill Ballock. Tell your name and start out from there.
EB: I’m Ed Blackburn and I live at Todd, North Carolina. I’ve lived here for 80 years and I’m a
preacher. I have, in the past been a mail carrier, but today I’m trying to preach. Lived here in
the mountains and worked with mountain people, think they’re the finest people in the world.
That’s not belittling anybody else, but I appreciate and honor them. Want to be an honor to the
mountains. Is that thing (the tape recorder) running now?
BB: Just don’t even pay any attention to it.
EB: Now, you go ahead and talk to me.
BB: Okay. Can you tell me something about your childhood?
EB: Yes, a little bit. I remember not too much about it. I remember many years back, born here
in Ashe County and lived here, as I said once, all my life. Went to school here, what little I went,
and went to the First World War. Went through the First World War through the entire was
except for 14 days. Came back and lived here ever since. This has been my home ever since.
All my life this has been my home. I have seen Boone when it was just a few white houses there
and the streets were two feet deep of mud. If you got across the street you got across on a pile
of ashes. You missed the ashes and you went in the mud to your knees. I’ve seen West
Jefferson come from a house or two to a nice town. Seen the railroad come in here and helped
work on it. I drove pegs for the engineers, helped work on the track and I’ve seen it come and
go.
BB: What about the railroad? What did you do on the railroad?
EB: I helped the engineer survey it and worked on the track work. And then I helped grade it,
helped grade the whole thing. Helped make it, everything but the coaches and the engines.
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�BB: Where did it start out?
EB: Where did it start from? Abingdon, Virginia. Came to Todd, 76 miles, 76 miles and so many
tenths to Todd. Came in and out once a day. Stayed all night here and then went out in the
morning, came back in the evening. Todd used to be a business place. Had a bank, drugstores,
and how many grocery stores I’ve forgotten. Lots of numbers of people lived here. It’s just a
ghost town now because all the old people are dead and all the young people have moved
away. And the banks are gone, the money is gone, the timber is gone, and most of the land is
gone.
BB: How did people feel about the railroad here in Todd?
EB: Well, they wanted it to come in you know. They didn’t know it was going to ruin us and take
all our timber out and leave us nothing. We wanted it to come in.
BB: So you think after it left it was bad?
EB: Yes, yes. It left us in a lot worse shape. All of our timber gone and not anything to show for
it.
OB: It should have gone on up to Boone.
EB: Sure, if it went on up to Boone it would be running today. West Jefferson over there is a
thriving town and it came into West Jefferson now one or two times a week. (The railroad)
hauls freight in there. No passenger trains, no mail. Used to run a passenger train in there and
carried the mail.
BB: It did run a passenger train?
EB: Yes, oh yes. Two times a day the Lord blessing. One in the morning and one in the evening.
In and out. Passenger train and freight, sometimes two freights. Loads of them, double heading
out here, a number of cars loaded with timber.
BB: So if you wanted to change it back, you wouldn’t let the railroad come back?
EB: No. I wouldn’t work on it. In fact, I would get other people not to. That’s right, keep what
we have.
BB: Well, they tell me you are a preacher. Can you tell me something about how you got
started in that?
EB: Yes, well the Lord called me. Yes, I’m a preacher honey. Got a lovely church over here. The
finest people in the country come there. I got started because the Lord called me to be a
preacher. I didn’t want to be a preacher. I wanted anything in the world besides being a
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�preacher. I really wanted to be a drunkard, and drink liquor and carouse around. But the Lord
saved me. Then He called and saved me and delivered me from drinking liquor. He called me to
be a preacher. And now I’m preaching and wouldn’t do anything else now. I’m not much of a
preacher, but I’m the best preacher I know how to be. God bless you.
BB: When did it start?
EB: When did I start preaching? I started preaching in about 1922 or ’23.
BB: What brought it on? Did you go to school?
EB: No, never been, just went through the schoolhouses. Ran a mill, only school college I’ve
ever been in. I used to run a mill in Todd and sell meal to the Boone College. That’s the only
college I know anything about; selling meal. I’ve been to college anyhow selling them meal.
BB: So you just took the preaching on your own?
EB: Yes, thank God. On my own. Lived by it. Only way I have of getting a penny is what people
give me. Nobody behind me but the Lord and that’s enough. God called me and I’ve worked
with everybody that needs help.
OB: He’s worked all his life and got Social Security.
EB: I draw Social Security, but not enough.
BB: Do you get paid for preaching?
EB: Yes sir. Got a lovely congregation. Get a little, sometimes get more than others. Take an
offering every morning when I preach. I just preached over here at the tabernacle two times a
month, second and fourth Saturday. And somebody takes an offering for us.
BB: What’s the name of the church?
EB: Blackburn Memorial Church and Campground. I want you to go out and get a history of it,
get you to look at it and take the history down off of the sign.
BB: How did it come about that you’re preaching? How were you called?
EB: Well, the Lord just called me you know. I got saved from being a drunkard and the Lord
called me to be a preacher. Why, I don’t know, but He called me to be a preacher. I just went to
doing things that preachers ought to do. Not like other men can, but the best I could. And God
called me to be a preacher and I’ve been faithful to the job ever since.
OB: He gets busier everyday about it, counseling with somebody. Some drunkard or some
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�family having trouble.
BB: What people come here?
EB: Drunks, folks trying to get delivered from liquor, folks having marriage troubles, about to
separate, parting, fussing and fighting. Come here day and night to be prayed with and
counseled with, talked to and prayed for. Thank God. God had blessed us so far with a fruitful
ministry.
BB: They told me that once you got sick. Could you tell me something about that?
EB: Once I was seriously sick. So sick they thought I would die you know. They sent me to the
hospital against my will. They sent me to West Jefferson and the hospital at Jefferson kept me
18 or 19 days and couldn’t find what was the matter with me.
And they sent me from there to Winston-Salem. When I got to Winston I was so near dead they
gave me eight pints of blood. And that’s about all of it. But I stayed down there 18 or 19 days
and they were going to operate on me, but I couldn’t take it. I was weak. I couldn’t stand an
operation. I prayed and before the Lord and the host of heaven, God healed me and I came
home the day they were supposed to operate on me.
That night – the doctors and nurses came in to get me ready for an operation and I told the
nurses, “God’s healed me. I’m going home. I want you to send me home today.” That excited
the nurses and the doctor came in and told him that, and then he went out of the room. And
several other doctors came in. They pushed me and then rolled me, then looked in my eyes,
looked at my fingernails and examined my feet and had a counsel and told me I could go home.
But when I got ready to come home there were a number of people there that came to set up
the operation.
Felt sorry for my mom you know and my children. I was getting my clothes on and getting ready
to come home and I told the doctor, “I’ll never be back down here unless I come to pray for
somebody.” I’ve been back twice, or three times.
OB: Why don’t you tell the whole story?
EB: Well, I’ve told enough of it, haven’t I?
BB: I want the whole story.
OB: The night you were healed, don’t you remember?
EB: Yes, yes. I was praying you know, the night before the operation and a nurse came through
and turned my pitcher upside down, the water pitcher, and I knew that was bad business. I was
burning up and wanted water. The nurse came in and turned my water pitcher upside down, no
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�more water for me. If I had money I would have hired somebody to pour water for me, but I
didn’t have that kind of money and had to depend on the nurses and the orderlies. The nurse
came through or one of the aides came through and turned my pitcher upside down and I knew
that there was no more water for me. I knew what was coming. I knew that I was so weak and
couldn’t take it. I was already dead. I just told God that I couldn’t take it. And sometime through
the night, somebody came to by bed and called me name and said, “You don’t need an
operation.”
Next morning I was able to come home. Thank God. And I’ve been home ever since and I work
like a slave, day and night. I haven’t ever been sick any more and I’m 80 years old this coming
August. Thank God. That’s what God done for me.
BB: You sure don’t look 80 years old.
EB: I have been out here sawing wood.
BB: My father is 50 years old and you look twice as young as he.
EB: What about that? Bless your daddy honey.
BB: What about the community itself? What do you think of the Todd community?
EB: I think its marvelous and wonderful. One of the best anybody ever had the privilege to live
in. Thank God. The best neighbors that God could set down around you. Anything you need,
somebody will bring it to you and see about you. That’s what I think about it. It’s so good I
nearly disgraced it by living here, that’s what kind of place it is. Marvelous.
OB: Tell him how we worship.
EB: Well, just like anybody else so far as I know. We go to church.
OB: Well, I mean we’re all one.
EB: Sure, sure. Our prayer meetings, we all worship together you know. We have a prayer
meeting in the Baptist church, and we’re known as Holiness people. We go to the Baptist
church and the next night they come to the tabernacle church, and the next night we go to the
Methodist church. We worship all the way around. And nobody knows whether uncle Ed
belongs to the Baptist church or the Methodist church. And I don’t know whether the Baptist
church belongs to our tabernacle or the Baptist church. We don’t pay any attention to that, we
just worship God, and get along good. It’s a marvelous community. Nobody’s got a better one.
BB: As time goes on, do you think that it’s losing out, that people are getting away from each
other?
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�EB: Yes, I do believe the young people are as time goes on. Yes, I do. And the old people are
dying and that cripples us some. But so many of our young people have moved off from this
country see, they had to leave here to get a job. And we just get them through high school and
many of them through college and they’ve got to go somewhere else to get a job you know, to
work out a living.
So that just leaves the young and the old folks. You know the old folks die one by one and leave.
And then these other children go to college and then they get…raised. Ma’am and me raised
five children, two boys and three girls. Our baby is in New Jersey, she’s a librarian. I got a boy in
Virginia Beach, Virginia; he’s a printer for the United States government. He has been thee a
long time, soon to retire. And I got a boy that lives at Cherryville. He drives for the Carolina
Freight and he’s been there for years. We have a daughter that lives in Abingdon, Virginia. She
married a builder contractor and they have a supermarket. They are building a supermarket.
Our oldest daughter married a sanitary and county health officer and they live here in Ashe
County. Five lovely children and all of them seem to be doing well.
BB: That’s just great. It’s just beautiful out here. I don’t see why any young people would want
to leave.
EB: Thank you, it is beautiful. And we live in an old house.
OB: I’ll tell you why the young people, our children…every one of them get so homesick to
come to the mountains to live. But you see, where we made the mistake was selling every stick
of timber we had here for the railroad and letting the companies come in here and carry it off,
haul it off on the train out away from here. And wouldn’t let companies come in here. We could
have had factories up here, all kind of furniture factories and everything if we hadn’t loved our
little dirt. You see we loved the dirt better than if we loved…
EB: Sure. They wanted to buy land for factories.
OB: And we wouldn’t sell them land. And see that’s the reason our children now had to reap
the results of it. They had to get an education and go somewhere else to get a job.
BB: What do you think about somebody who would want to come out here and farm and try to
preserve what you have?
EB: I think it’s wonderful. I think that young people can come and live conservative and buy a
farm and get rich, thank God. Say raise enough cattle to get rich. Right here in these mountains,
men are doing it. I don’t. I don’t have a cow. Don’t have anything but some fish and wild ducks.
That’s all the property we’ve got. I own 27 acres of land here and this old house is over 176
years old, where you’re sitting now.
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�All handmade, all worked with hands. And there’s a door that doesn’t have a nail in it unless I
put it in. The house is put together with wooden pegs. It’s been here we know for 176 years
and we think several years longer.
BB: Do you know who built it?
EB: We think we know. We think a man by the name of “Younce,” who has been dead for many
many years you know. We think he built this house here. This house and the soldiers, Northern
soldiers came down and burned my grandfather’s house down. This was his workhouse where
he loomed, had looms, and wove their cloth and cooked here.
OB: Made their shoes.
EB: The fireplace was six feet across and I filled it in. But this was just and outhouse. Northern
soldiers burnt the house down out here and left our people with nothing. Took their meat and
the horses, and burned a lot of their clothes. Just left my grandparents with nothing.
BB: So you remember your grandparents talking about the Civil War?
EB: Yes, I just barely can, the Lord bless you, just barely.
OB: His mother was 11 years old.
EB: Yes, when they burned the house and she’s been dead for years.
BB: So they did come through this way?
EB: They did come right through here and burn the nice home out here on this hill right out
here. You can go out there and dig up charcoals from it right now.
BB: And you’re 80 years old?
EB: I’m 80 years old this coming August.
BB: Okay. What do you think about politics?
EB: Politics? Well, I think that we need two kinds. I think we need two good parties and I think
that both sides do so sorry that I’m ashamed of both sides. I vote for one then I wish I had
voted for the other because we do things. They tell us we’re not going to do one thing and the
next day they do it. Then I think I ought to have voted for the other fellow. I think we need two
good parties and men to be honest and upright and tell us the truth and do the best they can
for us and quit lying to us. We know they can’t do all the things they tell us they’re going to do
because we haven’t got enough money to do it.
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�BB: Do you remember the first election you voted in?
EB: No, I can’t remember darling. No.
BB: Who was the first president that you remember?
EB: Oh, I remember Teddy Roosevelt and Mr. McKinley. I remember, I was just a boy though,
but I remember when the news traveled so slow you know, about killing McKinley. I remember
that.
BB: What did you think of Roosevelt?
EB: Well, I was just a boy. Didn’t make any different to me darling. Just another man and I
heard by father and mother talk about him you know. Teddy Roosevelt.
BB: What about Truman?
EB: Yes, I loved Harry Truman. I think he was an excellent president. He would tell you what to
expect and then he did it. And if you didn’t like it he would fight you if you wanted to fight. I
think he was fine.
BB: What about Eisenhower?
EB: I think he was great.
BB: You did? You liked Eisenhower then?
EB: Yes, I liked him good enough to vote for him.
BB: What about Kennedy?
EB: Not struck on Kennedy. I’ll not comment why, but I’m not struck on him. I didn’t give a dime
if it’s on the signboards in Broadway, New York City.
BB: What about Johnson?
EB: I liked Mr. Johnson, thought he was a nice, fine gentleman.
BB: What about Mr. Nixon?
EB: I think he’s fine. I quarrel with him sometimes, cuss him sometimes for things he does and
don’t do. But I think he’s going be a fine president. I think he’s doing the best he can.
BB: What was World War One like?
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�EB: It was rough, rough, rough. World War One was rough. I volunteered and went. The war
was declared the 6th day of May and I enlisted in the World War the 17th day of May. I wanted
to go to the war and then I went, but wanted to come home. Went to France and fought
through the Meuse-Argonne Forest, Mont Saint-Michel, close to Verdun, and sector near
Verdun. I saw the Hindenburg line broke where Von Hindenburg said there wasn’t enough men
this side of hell to go through that line and the American soldiers went through it and tore it all
to pieces and whooped their hind ends off.
BB: And you were in it? You were fighting?
EB: I was there. Came out of the lines on November 11th, 1918.
BB: And then you went to World War Two?
EB: I wasn’t in World War Two, no.
BB: You were at home right?
EB: I was at home, yes.
BB: Were you preaching then?
EB: Yes.
BB: What was it like during World War Two?
EB: Well, I wasn’t in it. I just knew all the men that was in it. I knew lots of the men that did go
you know. But I wasn’t in it. I didn’t have any part of lot in it except to work you know. I worked
in the defense plant, the most of the time during the Second World War in Coats, Pennsylvania
for a steel mill. A big steel mill.
BB: What about Vietnam? What about the people here at home? How do they feel about it in
your community?
EB: Well, I think the majority of us thought that we had it to do. That there wasn’t anything else
to do is what I think. They didn’t fight as rough as I wanted them to fight. I wanted them to
thrash the face out of them and get out of it. Give them a thrashing and come home, but we
just played along with them and didn’t whoop them. I wanted to whoop them good and come
out.
BB: Are you glad that the Peace…
EB: I am delighted! I want to be a peacemaker honey. That’s my business, being a peacemaker.
But if I have to fight you I’m going to fight awful rough while I fight.
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�BB: What about the Depression?
EB: Yes, I lived through that. It didn’t make much difference to me because we’re kind of
depressed every day anyhow. But we did get through it, but it was a hard time, the Lord bless
you. It was a hard time.
BB: What did you do during the Depression?
EB: Well, I lived right here and raised cabbage and Irish potatoes and sent children to school,
right here.
BB: Do you think that it was easier for the people, the farmers than it was for the people in
town?
EB: Yes, I do. The man that had the farm knew how to work it and to manage. He had a better
chance of surviving than the people in town because they didn’t have anything. They were just
out.
BB: You didn’t have any trouble getting clothes or shoes and stuff did you?
EB: Oh, no. No, we had clothes, had shoes, and had plenty to eat what it was. But we didn’t
have any money.
BB: You wouldn’t want to see another Depression would you?
EB: No, no. Never want to see another Depression. Don’t ever want to see ten-hour workdays
come back. I want good wages and honest work. I do believe in a man that’s getting two dollars
an hour ought to be able to put out and work for two dollars an hour.
BB: I reckon that you remember the flood of 1940 too, don’t you? The flood?
EB: Yes, I do.
BB: I reckon as a preacher that you had right much to do?
EB: Yes, I had much to do the entire time son.
OB: When was the flood?
EB: 1962, wasn’t the flood the one I’m thinking about here in ’62? We about washed away in
this country. I think it was in…no, in 1943, wasn’t it ’43?
BB: Yes, somewhere in there. Do you remember it?
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�EB: Yes, oh yes. I had a mill down here in this little village we call Todd. And I came home and
when I came around the curve coming out of Todd, there was a high place there. I turned
around, looked around and told God and to myself, “This is the last time I’ll ever see Todd if it
doesn’t quit raining.” And that night two or here buildings went out of Todd all together like an
ark. The buildings went right down the stream all together. There was a mill there, a big mill.
That mill was taken out, a store on the other side of the creek away from the water; the rain
took the store just like an ark was floating down the creek. But God ceased the rain and that is
the only reason that Todd didn’t wash away.
OB: Right here, over there came a big crack on the hill.
EB: Yes, the mountain cracked there. And had it slid off, there wouldn’t have been anything left
in the village. It would have all went out; too much dirt and water. I saw that.
BB: Did anyone come to your house for refuge?
EB: Yes, we had company. Some of our kinfolk were here. They got caught in the storm here
and had to stay here.
BB: Were all of you scared?
EB: No, we weren’t scared here on the hill. We thought my, lots of water, but we didn’t think it
would get to us and it didn’t.
BB: I was talking to Miss Trivette and she said their house almost washed away.
EB: Oh, yes. All around them.
BB: I reckon that was a pretty bad time.
EB: Yes. Serious time, serious time.
BB: Getting back to your childhood, what can you remember about it now? Was it like growing
up in the mountains?
EB: Marvelous, wonderful. I had a good daddy and a good mother and didn’t know what
trouble was. He was a hard worker and had a good farm and made all the things we needed to
live on except clothes and shoes. It was marvelous. I would love to go back and live through it
again. Didn’t know what trouble was. Didn’t know we would ever see a day that we didn’t have
enough. Thank God!
BB: What kind of games did you play?
EB: We just played what we called back in those days “Base.” We didn’t know anything about
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�baseball and things like that. We just played Base, “Dare Base” and would run like wild men.
We would see who could outrun the other and who could break the other side. If we ever made
a circle around the others man’s home, we would break him up and had to start over again. If
we would catch his men off a base, we would put them in jail. We would get all of his men until
he was overpowered, why we broke him up again.
BB: What was it called?
EB: We called in “Base,” or “Dare Base.” We would have a line and dare a fellow to come put
his foot on a line. Then we would take out after him and if we caught him before he got back to
his base, why we would bring him and put him in a jail. But then we had to guard him and if
another man left his base and came over, we could touch him. But if he touched the guy in jail
before we could get to him, then he would get out. But he watched that and if we caught him,
we put him in jail. That was our job.
The fellows that got the most men in jail or one of our best runners made a circle around the
other man’s base, that broke him up and we won the game. Just like war. He just had to
surrender, that’s all.
OB: Then at night, we danced in the homes. Barn dances.
EB: We would have parties in the night. Play the banjo, the violin or fiddle. We danced all night,
thank God! Had a good time.
BB: Did you know anybody that played the fiddle?
EB: They are dead now. Knew a lot of men, but they have gone to heaven now.
OB: My daddy played for the parties. My granddaddy played the violin and my daddy played
the banjo.
BB: Would it be every night?
EB: No, we couldn’t take it every night. About two nights a week.
BB: Would you all be drinking moonshine?
EB: Not much, sometimes. Usually wine, grape wine. Sometimes we had the real
stuff…moonshine.
BB: Did your dad make moonshine?
EB: No sir, he was a Christian gentleman. He didn’t even drink it. My father’s brother was a
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�Congressman. There is his picture on the wall. Served two terms in the United States Congress.
And my father was against liquor.
BB: What was his name?
EB: E. Spencer Blackburn. Honorable E. Spencer Blackburn.
BB: What was the year that he was in Congress?
EB: Well, I’ve forgotten little darling boy. I was just a boy. In 1906 and 1908 I expect (Edmond
Spencer Blackburn was a Republican U.S. Congressman from 1901-03 and 1905-07). You better
put a question mark on that honey, because I was just a little boy. But he would visit my father
often. Had a big, high silk hat and fine clothes.
BB: What kin was he to you?
EB: He was my uncle, my father’s brother.
End of side I
BB: Have you hunted and fished a lot?
EB: Yes, fished a lot. Yes, it wasn’t against the law then to take a net and go into the river and
catch fish by the bushel.
BB: What about legends and stuff? Old folk tales and myths. Do you remember any?
EB: No, not many. People used to tell us ghost tales and that would scare us nearly to death.
BB: Who would tell them to you?
EB: Old people. But they are all dead and gone many years ago. They would come by and tell us
ghost stories you know, and we were afraid to look out of the house after the sun went down.
BB: Do you remember any?
EB: No, I can’t remember them. One old man lived down here on the river and a man went
missing and the people never could find him. They thought he went and jumped in the river at a
hole where it wasn’t frozen over. But never could find him. But then in the spring when the ice
went out, the ice flow went out, why this old man down here on the river found five bones.
What the doctor said was they were five bones of a man and he took them home and put the
bones in the loft. He said that every night the five bones would just beat the floor all night. I’ve
heard him tell that story many times. He said there was a beat on the floor. But he still had so
far as I know, when he died – still had that beating on the floor.
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�BB: Do you believe that?
EB: Don’t believe a word of it, no. But I do believe that he had the bones because I heard
people talk about the man disappearing. The man’s name was “Lookabill.” Something
happened to his mind. A nice man, but he disappeared and never was found. That’s as close as
anything that would come to a ghost story. But that’s just to me a folktale. I know nothing
about that, only what was told.
BB: Do you remember any old sayings?
EB: No, I’ve forgotten them all. We used to have many of them. And they were all so good that
they ought to have been remembered.
BB: You ought to have written them down.
EB: Yes, by all means.
BB: If there was anything that you could change back, what would you change that’s now gone?
EB: Well, if there was anything that I could change back I would have gone into preaching when
I was 14 years old. And I went into the First World War without ever being a Christian. God
wanted me to be a preacher when I was 14 years old, but I wanted to drink liquor and I put off
preaching until I was about 22 years old. I would change that.
BB: Is there anything that you would change in the community?
EB: No, I doubt it. Just let her roll, just like it did.
BB: Is there anything else you want to tell me?
EB: Bless you. I don’t know much more little lad. The Lord blesses you. I never thought about
anybody coming to talk to me about things like this because there are so many men that can
tell you so much more than I could tell you. But there is nobody in this country much older than
I am.
BB: They say you are the oldest around?
EB: I don’t know any men that are older than I am. I know one lady down here. No, not in this
vicinity, I don’t know of any man that’s older than me.
BB: And this is your mother?
OB: This is my wife and she’s 81 years old.
14
�BB: What’s her name?
EB: Ollie Blackburn.
OB: I was Ollie Clawson.
EB: She was a Clawson.
OB: I waited through the war to marry him.
EB: We were supposed to get married anytime, but I went to the war and left her here you
know.
BB: Were you raised here in Todd too?
OB: No, I was raised in Watauga County.
BB: In Watauga County?
OB: Yes, this is Ashe County.
EB: Yes, here we are across the line about a hundred feet. When you came up that road you
were in Watauga; when you turned in to our house, why you are in Ashe County.
BB: So you all live in Ashe County?
EB: Just across the line. We pay our taxes on the Ashe side.
BB: What was your childhood like? Did your mother teach you how to crochet and all?
OB: She taught me how to sew and I sewed and made all my children’s clothes. During the
Depression we had some pretty well to do folks and they gave us second hand clothes and I
made them over for my children. Some of them got the prize for being the best-dressed in
school there.
EB: Out of second handed clothes.
BB: During the Depression they got the best-dressed?
EB: Yes, I guess it was during the Depression. They went to school well-dressed by ma working
over old clothes, redoing them.
BB: How long have you two been married?
15
�EB: Going on 54 years. We had a 50th anniversary three years ago this June. So this June we will
have been married 54 years.
BB: Have they all been good years?
EB: All have been wonderful. Thank God, I would like to live them all over. Been good years.
Ma’s been a darling.
BB: How many grandchildren do you have?
EB: Fourteen.
BB: I bet you have a big Christmas don’t you?
EB: Yes. Fourteen. And two great-grandchildren.
BB: Do they all usually get home for Christmas?
EB: Yes, usually.
BB: What’s the difference in Christmas when you were small and Christmas now?
EB: Oh, so much difference. When I was small if we got two sticks of candy and an orange we
were well fixed.
BB: Do you remember any great presents that you once got during Christmas?
EB: No. I got a toy truck; as far back as I can remember and thought that was the greatest thing
that could be delivered to anybody.
OB: Tell him about your pistol.
EB: Yes, I used to have a little gun when I was six years old. Lots of folks won’t let boys have
pistols and I had a gun. I think this is the same one if I can find it here.
OB: I guess it’s gone.
EB: I had one like this when I was just a boy and I’d hunt with it you know. I would shoot grouse
and rabbits when I was six years old.
BB: So it’s a real pistol?
EB: Oh, it’s a real .22 pistol. Break it down. That’s a real gun. Dangerous, it would kill you. Single
barrel, a Stevens.
16
�BB: Do you still hunt?
EB: I still hunt.
BB: Do you still hunt with this?
EB: No. I carry an automatic shotgun.
BB: What do you think about the tourists?
EB: Well, I think that they have ruined the mountains, is what I think of them. We can’t go
anywhere and get anywhere but they do bring in some money but we were living well before
they came. That’s not belittling them; that’s just what I think about them.
BB: So you think that Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain…
EB: Yes. I think its hurt the morale of the country. I do. And that’s just what I think. That’s my
personal opinion.
BB: Well, I agree with you.
EB: Yes. I think its hurt the morale of the country. I do. And that’s just what I think. That’s my
personal opinion.
BB: Well, I agree with you.
EB: Thank you dear. Bless you darling. Just about ruined us.
BB: I hate to see the mountains torn down too. I think it’s real sad.
EB: Thank you honey.
BB: Is there anything that you want to tell me? Just anything that you would want somebody to
know about you as a man?
EB: No, I didn’t do well enough to want anybody to know anything about me darling.
BB: I think you being a preacher…
EB: I’ve done my best on that line. But we got many preachers.
BB: Do you baptize?
EB: I do. Baptize and marry folks.
17
�BB: You have a license to marry?
EB: I do have a license to marry, yes. And to baptize and to establish churches.
BB: What was your education? You got as far as…
EB: Oh, I wouldn’t know. I just…it pushed me to get through the seventh grade I guess. We just
had three months of school you know, when I went to school. Always commenced in
September and would be out by Christmas. And we had to walk three miles. We have to walk
three miles when I went to school most of the time.
BB: So you got about as far as the seventh grade?
EB: Yes, I guess it pushed me to go through the seventh grade.
BB: Learn enough just to read and write?
EB: I can read and write. And I can…
OB: Figure (mathematics).
BB: I would like to come down to your church sometime.
EB: Well, you ought to come darling. You ought to come. You ought to bring some friends. I
want you to go up by and look it over darling before you leave here this evening. Open the
door, it will not be locked. Just open the door and go in and look around. What God has done.
BB: How long has that church been there?
EB: Well, this one has not been there that long…I guess 38 or 40 years. That right ma? About 38
years.
BB: Is this your first church?
EB: Yes, but the first church was burned down over there.
BB: I know a good question. Do you remember the first time you preached? The very first time
that you preached?
EB: No. I don’t remember the first time I ever got up and took a text and preached from it. But
for years before I ever went out into the ministry, before I was ordained I would hold funerals
you know. So many people would send for Uncle Ed you know, to come and hold funerals. But I
can’t remember the first time.
18
�BB: What were the funerals like?
EB: Well, they haven’t changed much. They have gotten finer, but the same mode and the same
lines. When I was growing up we didn’t know anything about undertakers in the mountains
here. Just neighbors, dress people and made their caskets and put them in the ground.
BB: When was the first time that you can remember that you preached?
EB: I can’t remember. Can’t remember the first time that I ever was called to a funeral. Wish I
could. I would like to try and recall the feeling, but I can’t remember to save my life. I’ve had
hundreds of them.
BB: It wasn’t a good feeling I guess.
EB: Wasn’t so good. I was scared. Still am.
BB: Are you still scared?
EB: Still scared. Scared to death.
BB: Do you preach from a text or do you just get up and talk?
EB: I preach right out of a book. Never write down a note or take a note and just read by
chapter – what I’m going to preach from and go to preaching. If there is one certain verse in it
that I want to dwell on and talk about, I pick out such and such verse in such and such chapter
and tell my people all I know about it.
BB: Do you all have Sunday school?
EB: We do have Sunday school every Sunday. One of the finest in the county.
BB: What time does preaching start?
EB: Eleven o’clock. Every second and fourth Sunday.
BB: So you only have preaching the second and fourth Sunday? Why is that?
EB: Well, because we found it’s the best. And because my people are not…
OB: Well, he preaches in other places.
EB: Yes, I’m gone a lot of the time and that gives me a chance to preach here twice a month and
go somewhere else two times.
19
�BB: Oh, so you go other places?
EB: I go to other places.
BB: Where do you usually go?
EB: Well, the last meeting I was in was at High Point. Evangelical Methodist in High Point. And
next to that one, I go anywhere they call for me…anywhere from Ohio to Pennsylvania.
BB: You’ve been up to Pennsylvania?
EB: Yes sure, give two meetings in Pennsylvania and two meetings in the city of Baltimore.
BB: Well, thanks a lot.
EB: Honey, have I been any help to you?
BB: I think you have.
EB: Have you? Do you? God bless you. (Gives a prayer) “Father in heaven, here’s a lovely, pretty
boy. I’d give a billion dollars, God, if I could be like him. But it’s gone from us God. And now
Lord we pray that as long as he lives let him remember the two old people, the Blackburn’s on
the hill. Came in to have an interview with them and we wasn’t wise enough to give him much
of an interview. After he leaves we’ll think of many things that happened to us that might have
been amusing to him.
I pray you will take good care of this little boy God, and make his successful in the world. Help
him to be a Christian gentleman. Because if he gains the whole world and loses his soul, what
would he give for that pearl of great price, which is his soul. Take good care of the little boy. In
Jesus’s name we pray. Amen and amen. Bless you darling. You’re lovely.”
End of interview
20
�
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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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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
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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
Blackburn, Edward (interviewee)
Ballock, Bill (interviewer)
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
01:04, Reflects on Todd and Ashe County, 00:32, World War One
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 Edward Blackburn, March 2, 1973
Subject
The topic of the resource
Blackburn, Edward (1893-)--Interviews
Todd (N.C.)--History--20th century
Todd (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century
Clergy--North Carolina--Todd--Biography
Railroads--North Carolina--Todd--History--20th century
Lumber trade--North Carolina--Todd--History--20th century
Description
An account of the resource
Edward Eugene Blackburn was born on August 29, 1893 to Alex (b. 1852 – d. June 1, 1926) and Rhoda Howell Blackburn (b. February 12, 1856 – d. December 6, 1934). He was married to Ollie Clawson Blackburn (b. July 29, 1893 – d. June 1985). He grew up in the Todd community of Ashe County and served in the U.S. Army during the First World War with the 318th Field Hospital of the 80th Division. He experienced combat in France, which is briefly mentioned in the interview.
Many affectionately knew him as “Brother Ed” or “Uncle .” The Reverend Ed Blackburn and his wife took over the leadership of The Tabernacle, a non-‐denominational Holiness church across the hill from his childhood home. This church later became the Blackburn Community Church, was originally started by his father around 1910. His uncle was U.S. Congressman Edmond Spencer Blackburn (b. September 22, 1868 – d. July 21, 1912) who served in 1901-03 and 1905-07.
During the interview Ed Blackburn talks about growing up in rural Ashe County. Topics include explaining the rules to a game called “dare base,” and his experience working at a grist meal and laying railroad track as a young man. He also discusses the railroad in Todd, timber stripping, religion, and family.
Source
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<a title="Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/195" target="_blank">Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews, 1965-1989</a>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2-Mar-73
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright for the interviews on the Appalachian State University Oral History Collection site is held by Appalachian State University. The interviews are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Appalachian State Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989, W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC). Any commercial use of the materials, without the written permission of the Appalachian State University, is strictly prohibited.
Format
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MP3
Extent
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20 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound Document
Coverage
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Todd (N.C.)
Ashe County
childhood games
Civil War
folklore
ministry
railroad
religion
timber
Todd
Watauga County N.C.
West Jefferson
World War One