1 50 3 https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/d64cd610551e84347b37f6f1ba7e6a13.pdf b8c8f282d27abb9305cda32faf9cfed5 PDF Text Text This is an interview2with Carter Ruppard by Tommy Pursley for the Appalachian Oral History Project at Matney N. C. on June 10, 1974. Interviewer : Where was your mama and daddy born? Mr. Ruppard : In Irdell county . I forget the name of the town . That's been years ago. If my daddy had been living yet he would be a hundred and seven years old . He come to this country from I rdell county to Watauga. Interviewer : When did they move here? Mr. Puppard: My daddy was twenty-five years old when he moved to Watauga county. And raised thirteen children in the country. Interviewer: born? What were you in that thirteen? Were you one of the first ones Mr. Ruppard : No, no . Let's see. Andrew is the oldest, Laura, Ellen, James, Nanie, Daisie, Me, Maggie, Besty, Troy, Roy, Sherman, right on down the rotation. Interviewer : Were they all born f ight here? Mr. Ruppard: In Watauga County : Interviewer : So when your daddy moved here • . . . Mr . Ruppard: Right over here at Cove Creek, at Willow Dale. Interviewer: That's where he lived? Mr . Ruppard: here . Yes sir. Interviewer : Are all your brothers and sisters still living? He lived there eighteen years before he ever came up Mr. Ruppard : No sir . I just got two sisters a living. I got two brothers and a sister living besides myself . The rest are all dead . Interviewer: Do they still live around this area? Mr. Ruppard : Got two brothers that live up here at Blowing Rock; one sister lives over here this side of Banner Elk, Horse Bottom they call it. Interviewer : Why did your parents move to Watauga County? Mr. Ruppard : They just come from Irdell County to here, took up and raised here, right over at Cove Creek at Willow Dale. Interviewer : Did they have them a farl'l? �2 Mr . Ruppard: Rented~ They rented fro~ old man Thin Mast . , Dave Mast's daddy, Gharles Mas.t t:s daddy . Stay up there eighteen years till we come to tnis country up here. Been here about sixty-nine years, right here. What I was going to say about the little ridge up there where Troy and Roy live, up there this side of Illowing Rock, stayed up there eighteen years, butchered for Boone Fork Lumber Company when the band mill ran over here at Shull ' s Mill, then I came back here, home to the old place . Interviewer: You were born on Cove Creek right? Mr. Ruppard: Yes sir. Interviewer : How old were you when you moved away from there? Right up there above Willow Dale. Mr. Ruppard: I was just ten year old when we come from over there over here. I'm eighty-two years old . We been here some while . Interviewer: Did your brothers and sisters help with the farming? Mr . Ruppard: Oh yeah . I can remember very well nister when there were nine of us all big enough at home at one time to take a row of corn across the hill together . Went to the taole and filled the table as far as here over to mama . Lived better then than we can now . And it was every day business . Interviewer: Did you all raise most everything you needed on the farm? Mr. Ruppard : Yes sir . We hardly ever go to buy anything unless it would be a poke of flour once in a while. The rest of the stuff was all raised on the farm . People better get to doing it now to . Interviewer : Do you still raise a lot of your food right now? Mr . Ruppard : Everything mostly. Interviewer: Do you remember anything that happen when all thirteen of your brothers and sisters were living at home? Ruppard : I can remember everything from two years old up to now . Yessir. I stayed with my oldest brother that Has married . The first baby that vTas born I was two years old . They sent me back home and I could carry just half a gallon of water to his wife . I stayed with them nearly three weeks and when they sent me back home they bought me a pair a overhauls just like the ones I got on now . I've wore pretty much ever since. I can remember stuff back then just about as good as I can a month ago . It was daylight to dark work, carry a lantern up at night to tie up ( unintangible) and put it in stacks. People have to do it this day and tiwe they'd die in spite of everything. l~r . Interviewer: Do you think life was better then than it is now? �3 Mr. Ruppard: Well in a way . Interviewer: What ways was it better? Mr . Ruppard : We never had any of this back then . . . I can remember very well. I was ten year old when we lef t over there and come here . Been here ever since and up to that time you never heard of a sickness only one thing . An old one-eyed fellow lived over here at Matney and people would come from Cove Creek and come to him to get him to make medicine to cure Diptheria they call it . Now then there is all kinds of disease everywhere. Every kid that took Diptheria would come to old man Doc Hogsy right over here at Matney . They had to make medicine to cure that. You would hear tell of measles, mumps, something like that, but I mean anything like cancer, stuff that a way you never heard tell of it. Interviewer: When the doctor had to take care of people what did he charge and how did you pay him? Mr. Ruppard: Back when we were over there for eighteen years, there weren ' t two doctors in this country at that time, old man Doc Perry and Doc Fybes down on Cove Creek . If they went to see you years ago they went horseback riding. Interviewer : Mr. was the two Well how were the roads? Ruppard: Oh boy it was bad . Not a hard surface road heard tell of. It just out of one hole and into another one . They call you out to work enroads and you had to do it for free. They'd work you out two days every weeks. I worked this road here when free labor was working . Interviewer: Were the roads wide enough for wagons? Mr. Ruppard : Just about one way. You had to pick places ti pass. It wasn't like it is now where you could pass anywhere . A lot of places you would have to pick places to pass . I've hauled lumber from here to Elk Park and Cranberry on the dirt road, mud down through there. You be expecting to meet somebody and have to pass them with a load of lumber. It's all together different. Interviewer: Well you've talked about how hard you had to work, did you ever have time for games or anything like that . Mr. Ruppard: Lord dickens. place a going. It was daylight to dark, after dark to keep the Interviewer : You never got to go out and fool around with your friends? Mr. Ruppard: Very seldom did we get to' do the same thing as a vacation day . Interviewer: What did you do for entertainment? Mr. Ruppard: Like I tell you, hard work . That's what we got . �4 Interviewer: You didn't have get togethers? Mr. Ruppard: Only thing like that back then was in clearing new ground people would go in ... if we had a big new ground to clear here, the Binghams down here and Haurts and all of them would come in here and help us in our new ground and when we got ours ready to pile the logs and burn the brush we'd go on and help them get theirs ready. And while the men folks were doing that the women folks would have a quilting . . They sit around and quilt and get dinner. I fell on two old sled standards years ago and broke two ribs back there and just got so I could get out of the hospital with that and they swell up on me and it cuts my breath off every once in a while. I guess I took a team and logged more than anybody in this country that I know of now. Two big settings up in Jenkins, Kentucky, two big settings up at Garden Creek, 26 miles above Wilkesboro. We logged all over this country. Interviewer: What would you do leave home for a couple weeks? Mr. Ruppard: Yes sir. Interviewer: How was the pay then? Mr. Ruppard: It come slow. It come slow, Mister. I was talking to a fellar the other day about going up there to · Kentucky on that job, we destroyed and wasted more timber that if we had it back this day and time we could buy up a sight. Big chestnut logs and we'd just cut a twelve foot slice out of them to make our log losd out of and just leave the rest hardwood, poplar, and stuff and now old rotten wormy chestnut is way up yonder. We wasted more than people make this day and time. Interviewer: Besides logging and farming what other jobs have you worked at? Mr. Ruppard: That's about all I ever did, farmed, sawmilled, logged. Interviewer: Which work did you like the best? Mr. Ruppard: I just as soon get out and go to the mountains after a trail of logs as I would anything. Or work at a sawmill if every man does his part under a sawmill shed. I loved that pretty good. You couldn't find most of them that would do that. One would loaf on his work and that would make it harder on the rest of us under the shed. If everybody would carry his load, I'd just as soon work under a sawmill shed. Interviewer: Was Saturday and Sunday any different from the rest of the week? Mr. Ruppard: We'd work Saturday and take off on Sunday. Interviewer: What did you do on Sunday? Mr. Ruppard: Go to church and have a good time. Most of the time we had to work late Saturday night carrying out hay and tie up the stacks. It was hard business. �5 Interviewer: Did you go to church on Sunday and stay all day? Mr. Ruppard: No. We go until after the service and come back home. lay around or walk up to your neighbors. Interviewer : What kind of church did you go to? Mr. Ruppard : Baptist . We'd Everyone of us, the whole bunch was Baptist . Interviewer: What did you do when you started getting a little older about courting girls? M.r. Ruppard: going. We'd ask daddy if we could go out . Interviewer: Where would you go if you went? If he said no then you weren't Mr . Ruppard: Just go to her house. I was telling a fellow here the other n~ght • he. was· talking about drinking liquor . I said anybody can smell gas or 1 ~iquor quicker than I can they just might as well stay in bed. I don't fool with it and I never did . I had a pair of mares and I hooked them to a bug . .. I dated this girl nearly four years, stayed in a sawmill with her da~ly and hauled lumber through the \-?inter time with him ... we took a buggy ride down to Elk valley, down Elk Park and around on Sunday . And they was Advents; Seven Day Advents. We came hack from the ride and I hitched the mares as far as from here to the road from their house. Her daddy never would ask me to help him on Sunday . But when we drove up her daddy and grandpaw, an old man, was up in the hollar trying to finish stacking some hay. It looked like it was going to rain. Well this girl ' s name Fas l)aisie, but her daddy always called her son . Her sister's name was Blanche and he always called her Jack . He seen us walking up to tl\e house and hollared, ''hey Son." She said, "what do you want Papa?" He said, ''bring us a bucket of water up here . '·' We went out to this spring and carried them a bucket of water and he said, "Son, how about getting up there and finish stomping down that ' so-and-so'· hey . " He was an awful man to swear . That's the only thing I ever had against him. I said, "no, I ' 11 do it." I wasn't going to stand there and see her do it . Before I did it he said, ''Cart you never have took a drink and before you get up on that hay you got to take a drink. 1 ' Before I could say anything there he come around that haystack totin a gallon jug, holden the cork in his teeth and pouring it like he was pouring water. To satisfy him I took that jug and turned it up and took one swallow. I got the whole whiff of it as I . . .. I got up there and before we could finish that haystack, I had to hold to th~ top of that stack to keep from .. . . . I could see everything in twos, two of everything . And I noticed this girl sitting up there laughing at me. Yeah, she was tickled to death. I had to hold to that dogged pole up there to keep f rom falling off till we got that stack done . Then I had to go back down to the house. I had to go about from here to the woods up yonder to my horse and buggy. I remember very well trying to get my horses unhitched and a fellow come along that was courting one of my sisters, Walt Bennet, he was corning over here . Re got me in that buggy and brought me home, took my mares and turned them loose . The next thing I could remember, buddy, was right in that room, right in there, my mother was standing there trying to pour sweet milk down me . I could always blow an old French harp. �6 My paw, he was sittinr, there and he said, " son, let's .~ear you play some on your French harp. Be said that I said, "where's the dad-blame thing at.'~ rle gave me that French harp. Instead of holding it the way I was supposed to, I was blowing in the back of it. He said that I said, " I can't blow this dad-blamed thing." And I throwed it at him and bearly missed him in the face. So I count it that I been tight one time in my life. Then one other day we went to Johnson City. Feller up here, Lee Ward, went with us, cattleman. I bought me a calf. Coming on back ... Willie, my oldest boy, he lives down here by Ernie Tripplet, by Connie Yates out there. Lee says to Willie, "I want to p.sk yo u something. I want the truth and Willie I want you to tell me. Did you ever see your papa turn up anything to drink?" Willie says, " No sir, not in my life I ain't." Coming back outside of Johnson City there's a place Mister Lee can 't pass to save his life without stopping and ~etting him a pint. But when he does he says, "Mister Cart there ain't no use to offer it to you. You won't drink it." And he'll set it behind the seat. And I'll take an ~ oath anytime you want me to that I never saw a bottle turned up to Lee Ward's mouth while he was behind the steering wheel. Lee said, " I want to ask you again . Did you ever hear your daddy swear?" He says, "No, only when he was talking after somebody else and telling what they said." I brought that calf back ... Mister Lee says, 11 Mister Cart, before you put that calf on that rich cows milk you better give her something for the scaires. I've got the medicine." I said, "Mister Lee, I 'd just soon pay you as anybody." He got that old calf and took it over there to the barn. In the barn set an old Pepsi bottle with about that much clorox in it. He just pick that stuff up and poured it down that calf and that calf went about half way across tne yard there and just fell over. I said, ''looky there Mister Lee." He said, "Goddamn." I said, "there ain't no Goddamn to it. It's a dead calf." It just kick two or three kicks and it was dead right quick. He said, "what was in that bottle?" I said, "you had it poured down that calf so quick, I couldn't tell you." It was clorox Andrew had over there bleaching his Stallion's mane. He came out with his checkbook to write me the money for the calf. I said, "no Mister Lee. That money's worth advertising your doctoring. He said, "Cart, don't you ever tell anybody about this." Well if I'd promised the man that I wouldn't have told it then I'd not told it, but I never promised that I wouldn't. I swapped horses with him one time and he gave me fifty dollars to boot. He said, "I'll swap with you if you'll never tell anybody I booted you." I said, "that's the reason I want to swap with you Mister Lee; so I can tell everybody that I got a little boot in a horse swap.'' Well a little later on over here at the stock sells in Boone, we were all standing up on the bank watching the rotation. Right there about middle ways there layed a two year old that was just bearly milk broke. He was just a shaking. One of them, a fellow called on Mr. Fred Greene. Me and Lee were standing right together watching them run the cattle in there. One of the fellows said, "Fred here's one down the milkboard. He called on a fellow, Johnson, to get some ~oys and drag him out of the way so the other ones would quit runnin~ over him. He said, "I'll get him up from there directly. I'll give hirr. a dose of penicillin." I said, "Mister Taylor if you can't get him up Mister Lee here can." We had a lot of fun together. Interviewer: What did he intend to give the calf? Mr. Ruppard: He figured it was \Tater and he mixed this powder with it, but he �7 poured that clorox down that calf . That's what killed it . It just walked there and i t didn't kick three kicks. He just poured that powder in that Pepsi bottle . He never asked if it was water or coffee of liquor no~ nothing. Interviewer: Well the man that gave you the drink of liquor, did he make it? Mr. Ruppard : Oh, no sir. A fellow right down here this side of Elk Park bootlegged all the time. His daddy did up till he died then old Hoove Eller . .. old man Ben Eller, he made it and sold it all fiis life . After Ben died Hoove ran it, he sold it. Anybody wants a gallon of liquor they go down to Hoove Eller ' s . Me and his oldest brother, a crippled fellow, took a load of lumber over tp Elk Park, broke a wagon wheel down, didn't get to come back that nigpt . A fellow down there name Williams fixed our wagon wheel, and we slept with Uncle Ben in what he called his liquor house . There wasn ' t much roof to it, but it had a good floor and it was good and warm. Thomas and Ben made an agreement about something . Ben moved our bed where he had a lid there and he raised it up and reached down there and pulled up two gallons of liquor. That bo-x was sitting just as full of gallons and half gallons just _ pretty as you please . as We stayed there over night . Sometime during the night it come to snowing one of the prettiest snowa I believe I've ever seen. That always did me good too. It would snow and we could pull our logs easier. I bet you the next morning that snow three or four inches on us. Ben said Reese .. . he was laying over there behind. He was way bigger than me or Reese was . He said, "Reese. What do you want Mr. Boss . " He said, "Reese, it ' s time to start a fire . " He says, "OOOOOOH Mr . Boss." I can see .him just as plain as if he was here talking. Ben said, ''you coming out from be~ind there Reese?" "OOOOOOH Mr . Boss I don't believe I can." Be said, "I be dad-blamed if you don ' t." He picked a little of the cover up on on his arm and rolled all of that snow back on Reese . He said, "wait Mr. Boss . Wait Mr . Boss . I'm acoming." Two or three fellers had stayed there on the floor and you couldn ' t tell them from snow. Ben ran them up from there. Now this fellow I was telling you about, I courted his girl, he kept it regular, too, buddy. He kept his liguor . Interviewer: When did you get married? Mr. Ruppard: Oh, I was about 23 years old. She was 16 . What I was going to tell you about the liquor business now. Two fellows were shot over there at Foscoe on Christmas Day . That liquor came from down in a whole where we lived at Watauga Gap . Old man John Townsend, they claimed, could come nearer to making pure whiskey than anybody they knew of . Well from Saturday evening to Sunday night they kept the road full going down there. They'd go down there and spend theit money and go on back home . They never bothered a thing at our house except just passing back and forth . Two fellows, I forget their names, but they fished all the time. They were sitting up under a big oak tree and one said he wished he had some of them fried up, he loved to eat them . Well somebody said, "if you like fish so much why don't you eat them ~·a..; . He said, " by God I can." He caught one that was four or five inches long and he put it in his mouth and swallowed it. They'd had bet 25¢ and it cost him twenty-five dollars to operate to. get that fish out. He swallowed it alive. Well anyway, them same two fellows come up through there one day, had them a gallon a piece and started to come in the house. My daddy stopped'em . Said they weren ' t bringing that stuff in the house with all the youngins in there. They tried to come anyway and my daddy had to drag one of them out by his ankles. That was the only �8 trouble we had the whole time we lived there . But after that killing took place . .. my daddy knowed all four of ' em, worked with them. The high sheriff of the co~nty, Luther Farthing, Coe Perry, Ed Shipley, and old man, I forget his name; we d g~ne to b:d, mama and us children. We slept back in the bedroom and papa slept in here in front of the fireplace. I wasn\t asleep and somebody knocked on the door . Dad said, "come in . " · If he hadn't ask where I was at I wouldn 't have cared so much. Sheriff said, .. he called my daddy grandpa all the time . .. he said, " Grandpa, where is Carter a:t?" I got up and came in there and we sat there and talked to eleven o'clock . Finally he turned around to me and said, •:carter I want to tell you my business." I said, "What's that Sheriff? What have I done or is it something I ain't done . " He said, "no, I brought these three men with me for you to be swore in here as deputy sheriff if it won't be too much trouble for you . " I said, ,. Thank you Sheriff. That's as nice as can be t. asked of anybody . I been here thirteen years and I can't do enough to get people to stop going down there let alone being a target propped up out there to be shot at . " I went on back to bed. He finally deputized one of my brothers, Coy, to help him catch one of Dave Chirley's boys . They was making liquor up in the hollar up there . Bill Whiter's boy, Paul ~'hiter, ¥as up at Blowing Rock courting. About your size for the world and not a finer hoy on the Blue Ridge . He had to pass here and on up through Dave's where they was making the liquor . He come ridinf through in a buggy and they hollared halt at him and didn ' t hear them. They was laying out there on a stack out, Coy and the Sheriff . Coy shot the boy right through the arm there as purty as you please . Talk about somebody giving up their job in a hurry, now Coy did . I never had a run in with the law. I ' ve been in court one time and the judge scared me, I could _ haye_ gone out the top of that building . I went up there and I was a butcher for the Boone Fork Lumber Company while the ban mill was running . I had two sheep to kill and a beef to kill every week. Old man Judge Wagner was the man to pay me, giving me three dollars a day . Now this is the way it went . He went down to Ed Shipley I was telling you about and he give him twenty-five dollars a ewe, a hundred head of ewe. He brought 'em up there and had a divided field with fifty on one side and fifty on the other side . Right here was a white spring and an apple tree stood over there where I had my block hung for butchering. My orders were to kill the two best out of the left hand side of the field until they was used up before I was to kill any on the right hand side . They had jerseys, gernseys, holsteins, all kinds in there . I had an old collie dog, if I had it now I wouldn ' t take five hundred dollars for it. I clip his ears and cut off his tail and =I betcha he weighed 125 pounds. People would come to see that dog catch a sheep. I get my block hung, then I pick out the best one in the bunch and I'd hit that one on the back with a peice of bark of a stick and I ' d say get her Red . No matter hiw many times he ' d chase the sheep around the herd when he finally got it seperated he would get it by the legs and drag it to me . Well that morning my daddy was up there with me and he said, "look coming up the hill." There wasn ' t a road to get up there and a bunch of people from the lumber company were coming up the hill . They got up there and the boss says, •:son which one you gonna give us today?" I said I hadn ' t had time to look them over yet. · Hell the ones on the left side were all nasty looking and had what I call snot-slinkings coming out thear mouth and nose . He picks one out of that bunch and says to kill it and not to kill another one till he sends me word. The next day I was down by the sawmill and Mr . Jud Wagner come up riding a great big old horse and he said, "Hey Mr. Ruppard you back fron killing sheep already?" I said, "No, I ain't killed no sheep and back already." He said, "Well ain ' t the day sheep day . " I said, "No, ' �9 today ain't sheep day . Mr . Richard told me Tuesday morning to kill that one and not to kill any more till he sent me word . " He got mad said he was gonna tell them all off . He swore tnar he rode that horse up to where they was and cussed them all out. I know he was l y ing' cause if he ' d rode that horse up there he would have nad to ride it across two train trussels and there's no way he could have done tnat . Thursday week here comes the deputy sheriff and sentence my daddy and me to Boone to go to court . What it was, the company was sueing Ed Shipley f or putting diseased sneep off on 'em . Jud was sueing Ed Shipley for putting then off on him . Well, they called the case and they said, "tell us your ousiness up there with them sheep . And I told him I was the butcher for the Boone Fork Lumber Company. I told, I had had orders to kill two sheep a week and a beef . I was supposed to take the best two out of the left hand side. The judge was sitting up there behind me and he said, "look around here son." Buddy I could ' 9- went out the top of that court house . He said , "what do you mean the two best out of the left hand side?" And told him the right hand side had more snotty noses and nasty behinds and germy sheep . You know from that day till this they never did settle that unless they compromised some how. Tnis fellow I was telling you about natl this old leather saddle. Nice saddle. I had one . Anyway he was a big old fat fellow and he had that open end saddle on that big old horse he was riding. There was this woman that lived up above us, she could plow as good as any man ever could. She could take a team of horses and handle them better than a man . Well old Ben went up to her house on that big horse and while he was there , she turned that saddle around on his horse and you know he rode that horse all the way back down there to Foscoe before he turned that saddle around, nearly ten miles . You should have seen that fellow . He was sore and black and blue up under there where he ' d rode that saddle backwards all that way . Yeah . We had our ups and downs; ups and downs . Interviewer: Did you get to go to school very much? Mr. Ruppard: I never got to go to school over two months in my life. I was talking to a feller the other day . His daddy was the only teacher I ever went to. He smite me . He hit me . He was a little feller . . . Ralph Wilson's daddy, Frank Wilson, alittle fellow . Rignt there at Willow Dale where I'm telling you, right over there a little farther. There was an old well there, That ' s the reason they built the st:hool there. They cleaned that well out a little later and you'd be surprised at the old dead dogs and cats and chickens and things they got out of that old well . Right on above now us boys had us a swimming hole. It was long as from here that old building up yonder and it was about ten or twelve feet deep. About middle ways there was an old apple tree limb sticking out over the water. And we were playing 'mad dog ' we called it. \{ e were always playing that, us boys . I could run then . The person that was it would say, " innie minnie miny moe, catch a guinie by the toe," then you would light out after them. I had caught all of them except for one boy . He went up that apple tree and I went up after him . He started out on that limb and I was right behind him. Well he got out there and I started shaking the limb . Ee fell in the swimming hole and nearly drowned. I ended up having to jump in there and pull him out. Well there was this girl up there watching and she says she ' s going to tell the teacher . I lite out after her to make sure she tells �10 the truth. Well she told him and he sends me to get a switch. You needn'.t come back with one with just one switch on it, it had to have two switches on it. He switched me, boy he switched me. � 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. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview. Pursley, Tommy Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed. Rupard, Carter Interview Date 6/17/1974 Location The location of the interview. Boone, NC Number of pages 10 pages Date digitized 9/16/2014 File size 7.54MB Checksum alphanumeric code 9452ab507801e9bf1d4f158da784e47a 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_tape292_CarterRupard_transcript_M Title A name given to the resource Interview with Carter Rupard [June 17, 1974] 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 Pursley, Tommy Rupard, Carter 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 Farm life--North Carolina--Watauga County--20th century Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Mountain life--North Carolina--Watauga County Logging--North Carolina Sawmill workers--North Carolina--Watauga County Rupard, Carter Description An account of the resource Carter Rupard talks about growing up on a farm in Cove Creek with his many siblings. He says that they "lived better than we can now" and that "we hardly ever went to buy anything unless it would be a poke of flour ever once in awhile." His family was totally self-sufficient with their farm, and they had to work very hard every day of the week. Banner Elk Blowing Rock Boone Fork Lumber Company butcher Carter Rupard courting Cove Creek Doctor Fybes Doctor Perry farming Irdell County Johnson City Judge Wagner liquor business logging Matney North Carolina sawmill Shull's Mill Watauga County N.C. https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/74f1927f4e7baa04fde1ffc3c674d110.pdf 2cee9b841fba1c3ba7b9ee2453db9121 PDF Text Text Tape # 46 Outline I. Name and birthplace of parents. II. Parents schooling. III. Occupation. IV. Churches in the area. V. Community A. Formation. B. Change. C. Decision makers. D. Minority groups E. Population. VI. Politics A. Change. VII. Transportation A. Layout of roads and railroads B. Building of railroads. C. First cars. VIII. Mountain crafts and customs. A. Courting. IX. Outlaws X. Legends, folktales, supersitions XI. Depression XII. Shull's Mill XIII. Honorary degree of Kentucky Colonel. �This is an interview with Mr. N.D. Shull for the Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill Brinkley on March 27, 1973. Q: Could you give me the name and birthplace of your parents? A: Well, my father was born here at Shull's Mill. My mother was born over on Cove Creek. Q: What were their names? A: R. L. was my father's name; Mamie D. Graybeal was my mother's name. Q: Did you have any brothers and sisters? A: None alive. Q: But you did have some? A: Two. Q: What were their names? A: They died when they was small. William, and I forget the other one's name. Q: How much schooling did your parents have? A: I have no idea. Q: What is your occupation? A: Engineer. �3. Q: When you lived in this area, what sorts of churches were here? Have you lived here all your life? A: Well, I was born here and stayed here until I was about 18. Q: What sorts of churches were in this area when you came back, or in the earlier days? A: Well, in the early days the same churches were here except Hebron bought out the Presbyterian Church. The other churches were the same. Q: To which of these churches did most of the people belong? A: Well, they were divided. There was no particular preference. Q: How do you think that they have changed over the years, if any? A: I can't see any change. They still have the same beliefs they had earlier. Q: HOT# did this community get its name? A: Four brothers came over, one of them settled here, had a mill out here on the river, and it was called Shull's Mill. Q: How was it formed in the first place, just because of this mill? that reason? A: That's where it got its name. Q: How do you think the community has changed over the years? For �4. A: It was strictly a rural farming area, and now it's gone into a summer resort area. Q: Who have been the community decision makers? Mainly the Shulls or other people involved also? A: I don't see that there was any one person that was the community decision maker. It was all handled through the individuals that owned the property. They made their own decisions. Q: Are there any minority groups in the community? A: None. Q: Has the population changed greatly in the community? A: Well, since Hound Ears and some of the other resorts being here, of course the population has increased. But if you discount that, the population is about the same as it was when I was growing up. Q: On politics* do you have any memoires of specific elections, local or state? A: When I was growing up, they always had a big fight, and everybody got about half drunk, that's about all I remember. Republicans wouldn't vote a Democrat ticket, or vice versa. Q: How do you think the politics have changed over the years? �5. A: I don't think it's as clean now as it was; it's a dirty bunch of politics, a dirty bunch of politicians. Q: How did the people get around in the community? What sort of transportation did they use? A: Horse, buggy, foot. Q: Where did the roads and the railroads run? A; Well, the railroads ran from Johnson City to Boone, that was Tweetsie. With the exception of this new 105 they built in here a few years ago, the old roads were essentially in the same location, but they weren't hard surface. They were just dirt roads, the first ones, maintained by county labor. Q: When were the railroads built? A: About 1914. Q: Do you remember the first cars in the community? A: Well, my father had about the first car that was right in this community. It was, I believe, a 1914 Ford. That's somewhere around '20 I guess, '18 or '20 when he got it. Q: Do you know very much about the mountain crafts and customs? Soapmaking, curing, weaving, anything like that? A: No. �6. Q: Are there any mountain cures that you are familiar with? A: Well, there's an awful lot of them that people use and talk about, but I'm not familiar with any of them. I believe in a good ol' doctor. Q: How would you compare the courting then and now? Dating back then? A: Well, back then you either walked or rode a horse. You usually stayed at the girl's home, didn't wander around much. Now, I don't do any courting now. Looks to me like they're all over the country. Q: It was more back then, you traveled in groups didn't you? If you went to the girl's house, weren't you more with a group than like now it seems that they're alone so much? A: No, I'd say you were more by yourself back then. Q: I was thinking that maybe a group of them got toether in a horse and buggy, went somewhere, picnicking or something like that? A: Oh, well. When you got together, that's right, on an outing or something, you traveled in groups. When you went courting, you went by yourself. You had no competition or interference. Q: Bedtime was pretty early back then wasn't it? A: They sure was, but getting-up time was a lot earlier. Q: Were there any badmen back in the area during that time? �7. A: Oh, sure. We had a few that were considered a little wild, but I don't imagine they would be considered bad now. Q: No outlaws ? A: Not in this particular section that I know of. Q: Are there any folktales and legends associated with this community, or any superstitions that were maybe passed down from your father or mother? A: There's a lot of tales about how tought living was back then, as far as legends, I don't know . DEPRESSION Q: When did it start as best you can remember? A: Started in the early '30's, maybe '29. Q: How many years did it last? A: Well, I believe you could feel it up until the war started in,the '40's, '41. Course, it wasn't as bad in the latter part of the 30's as it was in the early part. Q: Were you living here at the start of the Depression? A: No. Q: Where were you living then? A: Tennessee. �Q: How many were in your family? A: There was just my mother, my father, and myself. Q: Did anyone else live with you? Any boarders? A: No. Q: What was the effect of the Depression on your family? A: Well, you just didn't have the money t o spend, didn't buy the clothes and food that you normally would. You made do with what you had. Q: How did it effect the working conditions? A: There was no work to be found. Q: Were you working during the Depression? A: No, I was in school when it started. I got out in '32. Q: Did you ever hear of any government projects, WPA, CCC? A: Yes, had WPA here, and CCC camp was not too far from here. It wasn't in Watauga County. Q: What did they do exactly? A: Most of the WPA workers worked on the roads, including the roads, highways; and the CCC Boys were brought in and taught how to survive in the wilderness. They built trails, and I think they grew some timber. �9. Q: When did the welfare program, start? A: Are you still speaking of WPA, CCC. . . ? Q: Yes, something like that. A. Best I recall, it was in the early '30's. Q: Was any of your family affected by those projects? A: No. Q: Was there a scarcity of food? A: Not in this particular section, because as I said before, this was strictly a rural area and all the local families raised their own food. Q: What crops did you raise? A: Oh, outside the gardens which we raised everything we ate, main crops were cabbage and potatoes. Q: Did you have any animals? A: Well, we always kept a cow. I had a pony when I was growing up. dogs, normal animals on a farm. Q: Were prices higher or lower during the Depression.? A: Prices were lower. Cats, �10. Q: Were there any new ways of making money that arose, such as maybe people took up making moonshine, gathering ginseng? A: Well, I don't know if people took it up or not, but that's been going on in this section of the country as far back as I can remember. And it's still going on. Q: Do you remember any of the banks closing? A: I remember when the President closed the banks in order to get them reorganized back then. Q: Do you remember any in this area particularly that closed? A: Well, they were all closed for a few days. Q: What was the community reaction to the banks closing? A: Oh, I guess, it was pretty evenly divided. Some thought it would never open again, and others agreed with the President's idea. Q: What date was it that the banks closed? A: '31, 1931, I'm sure. Q: How was the community affected? Was there any profound effect, or did things stay pretty much the same? A: Things stayed pretty much the same. �11. Q: Was there anyone that you blamed for the collapse of the banks? A: The bank's didn't collapse here. The banks were financially in good shape. And as for other sections of the country, I have no idea, poor management, I guess. Q: Did the schools change during the Depression? A: Yes, they did. We had better buildings, we built some new buildings. Course, I believe we had better schools. Q: How about the churches and businesses, the country stores? A: They was about the same. Q: What do you think caused the Depression? A: Well, looked like the stock market was in pretty bad shape; too many people over bought, caught up with them and from that it snowballed into a very uncomfortable situation. Q: Who was hurt worst by the Depression? A: Small investors. Q: Do you think there was anything particularly good about the Depression days? A: Well, at least during the Depression days a dollar was worth a dollar, and if you wanted somebody to work for you or if you wanted to work for somebody else, you could put out a day's work. All in all, I think our economy �12. was healthier than it is now. Q: How is life different today than from the Depression, such as the family life, education, etc. ? A: Back then, all you had was a newspaper and a radio, and the newspaper got here when the mailman rode his horse. Now, you got television, good automobiles to travel, and naturally you have a little more interest in what is going on. Q: What do you like best about today's way of living? A: Retirement. Q: If you could change anything about the way they are now, what would that be? A: I'm not too fond of these subsidies that the government hands out for not growing some crops. I believe that the old law of supply and demand would help us a lot. Q: What I want to get you to do now is to tell me all about Shull's Mill if you would? The founding. It's effect on the community. The history of it. A: Well, the founding and the effect of the community, I don't know anything about that. My grandfather was the postmaster back in 1879. That's a grant that was given to him. The fact that the railroad came in here, and then Whiting Lumber Co. moved in here, and cut out all the timber on Grandfather. �13. Had a little narrow gauge railroad that went up to Boone's Fork, hauled logs in on that. Plants were just across the river from here. They had quite an operation here. At one time they were here. We had a hospital, summer drug store, a big commissary, theatre, I think it was 500 families. large, or larger than Boone at that particular time. It was Course, after the timber supply was depleted on Grandfather Mountain, they all moved to Butler. Families, of course, migrated out of here. There's very few of them left, in this section now. The older families that were here before the mill, their descendants are here. Q: What was the mill exactly? A: Just a lumber mill. They made lathes, you know wooden lathes, that they used in place of metal lathes. They were strictly a lumber mill. They cut timber in the woods, hauled it in, ran it through the mill. Then they dried it and sized it and shipped it out. Q: Did they ship it all over the United States, or just to North Carolina? A: It was shipped out of here on Tweetsie. After it got to Johnson City, I don't know where it went. Q: What is the Kentucky Colonel over there? I noticed that last time I was in here. A: My wife and I both were appointed Kentucky Colonels a few years ago. �14. Q: What is that exactly? A: It's an honorary appointment that you get from the Governor of Kentucky. Q: What is that for? A: It's just one of those honorary commissions that they give you. Q: You got it from the Governor of Kentucky? How did you manage that? A: Well, it was managed through my sister-in-law. She's the one who had the influence. � 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 2014-02-19 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 N.D. Shull, March 27, 1973 Description An account of the resource N.D. Shull was born in Shull's Mills, North Carolina and worked as an engineer throughout his life. Mr. Shull and his wife were appointed Kentucky Colonels through the Kentucky governor. Mr. Shull describes his childhood including topics such as church, politics, and transportation, specifically cars and the railroad. Mr. Shull lived in Tennessee with his parents during the Great Depression, and describes what that was like. He also explains the background of Shull's Mill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brinkley, Bill Shull, N.D. 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 3/27/1973 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. 14 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_tape46_NDShull_1973_03_27M001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Boone, NC Subject The topic of the resource Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Watauga County (N.C.)--History automobiles cars Great Depression Kentucky Colonels Politics railroad religion Shull's Mill transportation https://omeka-test.library.appstate.edu/files/original/bcb8e34ed9f141e0226083baba8ab6fe.pdf 9f07fcc91c91623b41fee6c94065b856 PDF Text Text //' /- This is an interview with Mamie Graybeal Shull for the Appalachian Oral History Project by Bill Brinkley on April 3, 1973. Q: I'll be glad to know anything you can tell me about the area. have you been living in this area? A: I come here in 3-906, and I've been here all that time practically, except ten years. But this has always been home and our home post office and everything. Q: How did the mill get it's lumber? Did it buy the lumber from the people or just go in and cut it off or what? A: The mill? Q: Yes, Shull's Mill, didn't it deal in lumber? A: The first old original part didn't. it? Q: What was it then? A: Yeah, Whiting Lumber Company was in here. They come in here in 15 or .16 or somewhere along there. I don't just remember. But you see, Shull's Mills was here long before that. Q: What vas the reaction of the people toward the lumber mills? A: Well, they seemed to like it, didn't they Dean? of people around here. Q: Was there any bad fedlings about the lumber being cut off? A: Not that I know of. Q: I thought there would be some resentment. A: Not that I know of. Q: During the depression, what was that like? A: Well, we lived in Elizabethon duiing the Depression, down there in that town. It wasn't too bad for a lot of people but for some people it was. People with a business it was kind of hard. Q: Did you grow your own food? A: Not down there. have any land. How long Where Shull's Mill got it's name wasn't Whiting Lumber Company? It brought work to a lot Mr. Whiting you see bought the timber and cut it. What was your family life like? We did here but not down there we didn't, cause we didn't We lived in town. �Q: Did you grow any kinds of crops in the area? A: Here? Well, we had just our garden and a have.-enough land to be what you'd call a farmer. own stuff and we'd sell alittle once in a while. Q: Was there anything you liked about the depression? A: Don't know that I did. Lived on soup. We didn't live on soup, but a lot of people did, they say. I don't know. No, I didn't like it. Q: Since you've lived in the area so long, I bet you know a lot about home remedies for different things. A: I don't know. Yeah, I used to. My mother's mother was sort of a doctor around this country, you know along time ago. That was before I came here. And we didn't have doctors everywhere. There was a doctor in Boone, and Grandma Shall knowed alot about that. I heard her talk alot about it, and law, I don't know. Its been so long since I've used any of them. One home remedy that people might think is foolish now, if you had any kind of infection if you was about to take the blood posion or anything, go out here to some of these red clay banks and get you some red clay mud and put it in a pan and pour cold water on it and stir it up and sort of make a poultice and bind a cloth around it and you could draw that inflamation all out. Q: How does that work? A: I can't tell you, but I've done that and I've seen Grandpa Shull do that. Q: Were there any more that you can think of? A: I can't hardly say right now, that one just came to my mind, because people thought it was so foolish, would now. I was '-thinking the other day I reckon thats why I thought of it today. Now, I used to just tell them. Can you think of any honey? (Son-says touch-me-nots) Oh yeah, touch-me-nots, you know these wild touch-me-nots. That is good for poison ivy. You can take that you know its green, green plants and you can just take it up and rub it in your hands and it would kill the poison ivy just like that. They used to make a medicine out of it. It was made in Knoxville, but they don't make it anymore. I don't know why.. It is called Jewel Weed, That is the right name for it, but we call it touch-me-nots. Q: A: patch was all. We didn't We had enough to grow our > Is there anything for fevers or colds? For pneumonia fever they used to use lard, turpentine, and lamp oil, and onions, work your onions in a pan in some water and put that lard and turpentine stuff in there and cook it all up good together, and take snorts, what we used to get from our^wheat. They took the wheat to the mill and they got shorts. You thicken it all up with that and put it across your chest and bind the cloth around and that was a sure cure for pneumonia. Granny Shull doctored with pofticf "l . i t 1 r S 1 " -fie\> Dr'Mck Bln*ham had them t0 «-ket the �: ._; Shezkept stirring it, cooking it, and mashing it until it made a salve that would nearly cure any kind of sore. And 1*11 tell you another thing that will kill poison ivy. Grandpa Shull used is aid motor oil. Q: Motor oil? A: Now, it will stain your bed, it will just stain everything. Dean used to have it so bad, and pappy said to me one time "If you would take some old motor oil and grease him. Take some old rags and wrap around it because it will stain your bedclothes, and that will cure him*'' Q: I have that pretty bad, maybe, I should try some of these old remedies to get rid of it. I take it easily. A: I'll tell you another thing that will cure it to, and you can do that any time of the year is to make you some real strong balck coffee. Just boll it, don't perk it, just boil it strong and black. Strain the grounds out and let it cool and put epsium salts in it. Then wash it in. Q: Is that right? A: Claude Dean had it one time until his eyes were nearly closed shut. Him and his wife came down to Lhe store and got some epsium salts and it cured it on him. You can have that anytime whether you get the Jewel Weed or not. Dean; Hemlock tea is good, A. Yeah., hemlock tea is good when you have your teeth pulled and have a plate put in. Take the little green parts and put some water on them and steam boil it and let it cool and wash your mouth in that and it will toughen your gums and you can wear your plate, and want have to put anything in there to hold you teeth in with. No povder or nothing. Q: Doggone. Lots of people in my family could have that it they had known about it. They really had trouble with their teeth. A: I know that; water, Q: Their's were about that way. They would take them out and leave them out a few hours and pat them hack in and wear them again. They just really hurt them bad; A: Wash your plate in salt water and that will toughen your gums. Q: Is there something about sassafras tea? A: OK Yes, it is good for spring of the year. If a fellow could get a hold of some this time of the year it would be fine. It thins your blood. You get all sluggish in the winter time because you don't have all these green things to eat and sassafras tea will jsut perk you up right now. The red will but the white don't do no good. Q; w4#/do you mean by red and white? A: There is red sassafras and a white sassafras and you use the bark off of the I*ve had my mouth so sore that I couldn't even hardly d,r,ink, �roots. The roots off the red are red and you dig down in there and the roots are white. You can make it, but it is not as good as the red. But if you dig down and the root are red just peel that bark off and make a tea out of it. Q: Do you know how to make it? A: Make the tea. You just put your bark in an enamel pot and boil it down a while and stream that off and sweeten it and drink it. Q: Any spring tonics that you can think of that were used back then, say sulpher and molasses. Was that a spring tonic? A: Mother used to mix sulpher and molasses and we young ones loved it. Dean: Whiskey and rattlesnake. Q.: Whiskey and what? A: Rattlesnake. Q: Rattles/j^ke? A: uh huh. Q: You mean rattlesnake meat or what? A: Yeah, just pour you some whiskey over rattlesnake and it will cure T.B. Q: You marinate the meat in it, or what? A: I don't know. I reckon you do. know much about it. Dean: Dean knows more about it than I do. I don't This guy up here had heart trouble and died and they revived him with mistletoe tea. A: Oh that was Zeb Brown and he had high, blood. He had high blood until he couldn't even walk across the house without holding to a chair or something. And he drunk mistletoe tea and he lived a long time after that and got so he could do a right smart bit of work and everything. And Merfie Dyer, had high blood, and he drunk mistletoe tea. It helped him. He used to work for the school, Merfie did. Q: Are ther any legends that you are familiar with. Al AbTDUt old Lum and his bears. This is a true story. It was before I come up here but I've heard them talk about it. There was an Aldridge and he was a great bear hunter. He lived up the river. He had a big family. His boy farmed but he didn't do much of anything but hunt bear. On time he was up there and had him a cabin and he kept hearing noises that was a panther. That evening when he was coming home in from his bear hunting. He had killed a bear and had the meat there in his cabin and kept hearing this panther squaling around but didn't think to much of it. That night something woke him up on top of his house just raking and raising cane up there. He laid there and got hold of his hatchet and directly a big old claw came through there and he grabbed that thing by the foot and cut its foot and it was a panther a coming Any old tales or anything? �in thereafter his meat. Another time he was up there hunting and tracked a bear into a den and he crawled in after Mr. Bear and he had him a pine torch and he saw that old bear's eyes. There was two in there and the other one ran out over hime and liked to have killed him. That hole was to little. That is about the only two right now that I can think of. Can you think of anything else, Dean? Dean: Not right now. A: There is lots of them but I can't think of any right now. I've heard people laugh about them. He was the great grandfather of Boss Aldridge. He was their great grandfather. Their daddy's name was Linville. Q: They called him Rolling Bum. A: I don't know remember the have if they I don't know Q: Probably because he was rolling around when that bear ran over the top of him. how you spell it. I've seen it, though. There is a book. I don't name of it. There might be one over there at Boone. They should don't have. They had the story and they called him Rolling Bum. why they called him that, except he was a bear hunter. A;, Might have been, I don't know. Q: Can you remember when the first cars came into this community? A: Yeah, I can remember. Q: What was the reaction to that? A: Most people was afraid of them, and wouldn't ride in them. Q: Scared the horses alot, didn't it? A: Oh, boy, yes, they saw the danger. There wasn't many. Wasn't but one for a long long time. There was just one up the river here. Hub Wagoneer had it. He is dead now. He was a young boy then. My husband thought they were the grandest things that ever had been. He always wanted a good horse to pick up and go. These cars could go faster than a horse and that was fun, Roby thought that was the grandest thing that had ever been so he was crazy to ride in that car. He just wanted to ride in that car so bad. That has been years ago. So one day he went up to Foscoe and Hub brought him back down home in it. Roby come in and said "Come out here. I want to show you something." And it was the car. Was the first time £ had ever seen one. He said Hub come down to take you a ride and I said "not me in that thing," Roby rode back up to Foscoe with him and walked back down, rt iv&. only two miles up to J?oscoe and we walked up there. It wasn't long though, until, I don't remember who had the next car. In other words, it wasn't to long until Whiting's Mill came in here and there was several car. But that is the first car I can ever remember seeing. That must have been about 1912 or something like that. Q: Can you remember your first experience in a car? A: I didn't ride in Hub's car. Pop got one not long after that. A Ford. �A: The first car I can ever remember, right now, was in West Virginia. No that wasn't the first one I'd ever seen. Hub Wagoneer''s was the first one I'd ever seen, Roby went to West Virginia to work and he had two cousins who worked in the mines and one Sunday some man took us up to the mines in his car. That was the first time 1 had ever rode in a car. Q: What was your feeling about that? A: I didn't like it much. The roads were rough and they would just beat you to death and I just didn't enjoy it much. I liked my horse and buggy. I loved horses anyway. I liked my horse and buggy. I'd take Dean when he was just a little bitty thing, so little he couldn't sit up and hitch up that horse to that buggy and go anywhere I wanted to. And I could take him up on my lap and ride a horse anywhere I wanted to. He had on a long dress. He was little. Babies used to wear long dresses, now they don't do that. Q: Were there any major accidents caused by horses and buggys running away on the account of cars? A: Yes, I expect there was, but right now I can't remember any bad ones. They would scare the horses, but the people was usually nice. They would stop their cars. Alot of places in the roads you couldn't pass. The things that scared the horses were these old motorcycles. They would scare them nearly to death. When Mr. Whiting had the mill over here there was this fellow had a motorcycle and he would scare the horses literally to death. He could ride it out to the side of the road anywhere and stop. I don't remember any of them ever having any bad wrecks but the horses would just jump and rare and pitch and go on. Q: You were talking about Mr, Shull wearing the dresses and the way child rearing was back then. How would you compare that with today's way of bringing up children and how has it changed and things like that? A: Well, we live in a different time. Different enviroments and everything. We raised our children the way people raised them and dressed them the way people dressed them. Now they do the same thing so I guess if I was young and a raising my family I would raise them like they do now. Of course, maybe I wouldn't leave them by themselves as much as people do but some of them can't help it. They have to work and get out and do tMngs. Back then mothers didn't work as much as they do now . They were mothers and homemakers. Now its got so that the wife almost has to work, when you think about it. The two things, I guess if I was raising mine now, I'd just raise them like other people do. I'd try to teach them to-jnind a little better than some of them do, but so far as the general raising is concerned it is just a different era and time we live in. Q: Do you think that the mothers place is in the home? A: Personally, yes I do. And I believe that there are alot of mothers who are working had rather be in the home if they could. But they can't. If you just stop and think about it. I think especially if she has children. There is nobody who will take care of your children like mother does. If she is a real mother. Q: Do you think if the mother were in the home now<-a-days that things would be differently concerning the student uprisings and such things as that? Ai I think so, * I really think so. If they could be in the home and raise the �children and take care of them. The children seem to think that their parents don't care for them, because they can''t be with them enough. I don't know whether this causes so much of this or not but it has affect on children. Most of them have babysitters, and the babysitters are all right. I've got something against them, but they don't love the children like the mother does. Q: Alot of them feed them and put them to bed right away. play with them. They don't have time to A; There good to them and see that they are fed and kept dry and warm and everything, but that's still not the mother. To me, I might be wrong. Q: I agree with you. I agree with you one hundred percent, I think that a child can tell the difference between the mother and say another woman. A: Sure they can, yes sir, they certainly can. Q: People say stuff like when the baby is small they are not really aware of their surroundings. A: Don't you tell me that there not, You take a tiny little baby, maybe a month old that knew their mother*s voice from anyone elses. Q: Is that right? A' Yes, I have. But a week or two, well, they don't notice much, If they're normal children and everything by the time their a month old they can tell their mother's voice. You take a little baby who is a month or six weeks old, and its mother doesn't wear glasses, and someone takes it who wears glasses, and it will look at them and squal, Nine times out of ten. Don't feell me they don't know the difference, Q: There is something there just in bodily contact where they can tell the mother, A: Yeah, and anyone else can take them and pick them up and out of their bed or take them off of their mother's lap, sometimes they don't care, but with some, the first thing they will do is cry. When their mother's take them they ffuit and don*t tell me they don't know the difference. Now the little things know. There is something about them that knows. Qi Do you think that healthier babies are breast fed? A: Yeah, I really do. That is if their mother ±s healthy. No some mothers if they have T.B, or something like that their babies are not healthy. If their mothers are he&ltRy their babies are better. Grow better, I think. There is not many of them anymore. Q: How did you discipline your children when they were growing up as compared to^the way it is now? A: If Dean did what I told him not to I paddled him, Thats all I can say, Taught him to mind. Not to sass you and not to talk back to you, and things like that, Q: Crafts, did you ever do any of the weaving? A: No, I've never done any weaving, but I knit and Today, this day and time, they can. Crochet sometimes, and do some �sewing and stuff like that, But I've never been to any of the places where you • make this stuff. I've just never had any chance to go. Q: Did you ever make any soap? A: Oh, yes, Q: How did you go about doing that? A; Well, we burnt wood. We always burnt wood and in the winter time if we could get hold of any hickory wood or maple, Hickory made the best soap. We had an ashthopper. Daddy built an ash hopper. This was when I was a girl, Me and Grandma Shull made soap after I came up here. We would put all those ashes in that hopper and keep it covered up with something to keep rain and snow from comming in on it. When warm weather come we would save all the scrapes from the hogs, all the bones and scraps and everything. We would put water on the ashes in the hopper and when it run out in a little box it was lye. It would eat the hide off your hand, and we would put that in a little iron wash pot and put a fire under it and start it to boiling. Then we put pieces of meat scraps in it and stirred it with a sassafras stick. We stirred and stirred it until the lye eat all that up. It would boil and get thick. We would let it sit there and cool. My mother never did make any that you cut out in squares, Some people did. We had a big barrel! we put it in and that was what we washed clothes with and washed our dishes with. We had other kinds of soap to wash our hands and face with. But, we washed our dishes and clothes with that lye soap. Q: How did-',you make the other kind of soap that you bathed in? A: Daddy got it at the store somewhere. Qj Oh, I thought maybe you made that, A: No, mother never did, I don*t know if she knew how or if it was just to much trouble. We were a big family and we would buy a cake of soap ever once in a while. Q: That lye soap was pretty strong? A: Yeah, after it set for a while;,, after it got old it didn't bother you. But when you first made it, it was strong. See, we rubbed our clothes on a wash board and it would take the hide off your hands. Off the fingers where you rubbed. I*ve had my fingers so sore. Q: How often did you have to make this soap? A: We made it once a year. Just when we killed hogs and had plenty. have meat scraps and that greasy stuff. Q: That one barrel! would last you? A: Oh yes, Made a great big old wash pot full. Sometimes we made two washpots full. Sometimes Daddy would kill hogs on Thanksgiving and then maybe the last of January or the first of February. Daddy would kill another hog, and we would make some more. That's what we done, I don't know what other people done. What we called stores-bought sopp. You had to �Q: I bet you did a lot of canning back then didn't you? A: Not when I was a girl growing up. I didn't know much about canning until I married and come up here to Grandma Shull's, My mother dried everything nearly. She pickled beans and corn and aade kraut. She dried apples and peaches, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, corn and that stuff, Q: She dried corn? A; Yes. Q: How did she do that? A: Well, the way mother did it, you take roasting ears when its not too hard, Pour boiling water on it and let it set just a little bit, then take it out and drain it off and cut it off the cob in whole grains and have your oven not too hot and put them in a long black bread pan. Spread it out and set it in the stove and stir it every once in a while and dry it until it got to where it would rattle. We would put it in jars of some kind and keep it. You would have to soak it overnight and cook it like cooking corn. It was good. Q: You mean after you soak it, it was just like regular corn? A: Yea, just like roasting ears. Q: How did you fix the pumpkin? As Just peel them and cut them around and around. ^Moth^er bad a rack up over the cook stove and she hung the pumpkin up over that cook stove, Q; I've seen my grandmother dry apples. A; I dry apples every year. Q: Do you still dry apples? A: Oh yes, we love them. Q! They make good pies, don't they? A: Oh, yes, good fried pies. And they make good fruit cake. That was all the fruit cake i ever seen or knew anything about until Dean was a great big boy. Q: With dried apples. A: Yes, Did your grandmother make any gingerbread? Q: Not, that I can remember. A: Boy, you're not as old as Dean. Q: She was in her 70's when I was just a small boy. A: Well, I bet she could tell you about this. You make cookies. You make dough just like cookie dough. Its made like biscuit dough but it is made sweet. 1 didn*t dry any last year. I've got some now that I dried last year. He can remember. �10 Its got sugar and stuff in it. You roll it out and cut it out round and bake six or eight layers. You have your dried fruit cooked and mash it all up like you were going to make fried pies and then you put it between those layers of cake and let it set about a day and night and its good. That was our fruit cake. Q: That really sounds good. We had this old wood stove and she cooked some stuff on that like fried chicken and baked some bread. I believe it was the best that I had ever eaten. A: There's nothing like a good wood stove to cook on. 1 like the gas and the electric stove. They are quick and they are clean, but give me a good old wood stove to cook on. Bake cornbread, arid have shucky beans. Did your grandmother ever make any shucky beans? Q: No, whats that? A', Mother dried beans. Q: No. A: WeiV, Dean, he's never had nothing to eat. Q: Don't believe that I have ever had any. A: You take these litt/e short beans. We used to call them cut shorts and cornfield beans and when they are green and have pretty good sized bullets in them. You fix them like you were going to cook them. Sometimes I Break them up and sometimes 1 string them on a string and hang them over the stove and keep them until they are good and dry, Then you put them in a can or something to keep the bugs away from them and cook them with a piece of ham_bone or ham hock. Q: That sounds good. A: You never. Q: No, I guess I am just used to all the food comming out of a tin can. Grandma died when I was in the second grade. So I really don't remember too much of this- stuff, I do remember that cooking on the wood sto^e. Cause that sure was good. It seems like a one side there was a tank for hot water. At In your time. When I was young they had that. Now, my first cook stove didn't have that, but than, Dean can remember when my stove didn't have a water tank on it. We heated water on top of the stove in a kettle. I've got the tea kettle yet. Old iron tea kettle. Then finally, we got an enamel one, it was lighter, and wasn't so heavy to lift. And I cooked on a fire a whole lot. Q: In a fireplace? A: Yes, baked,. -bYead and boiled those shuckey beans oni-the fire. The fireplace had a crane that had three different hooks on it. And they were facing to the side of the fireplace and you could pull it out of the way or put it back on the fire. You hung your pots on that. I didn't ever have one. I just set my pots on the fire. Had to watch over them sometimes because the logs would burn into and your stuff would turn over incthe floor. If you didn't watch. We dry beans yet, Dry green beans, didn't you ever eat any? I've never heard of anything like th&t. �11 Q: We have one of those iruour house. We live in my grandmother's old house. We remodeled the inside and when they did they closed up the fireplace. What was the kitchen then is my bedroom now- They closed up the fireplace and all that old stuff, The crane is still there closed up in that wall. A: You ought to open that up. Q: Guess that we would have to tear the wall apart. A: YQu ought to open it up and have you a fireplace there. Q: We still have one of those old timey iron skillets that has legs on it. It is a great big old;;thing that is as heavy as can be. It's got a great big iron lid that goes on it to. She probably set that in the fireplace. A: No, you let your coals burn and set them out on the hearth on top of the coals, is where you baked your bread. You put your bread in there, and put your lid on and then put a little coals and hot ashes on the top. And that is the way you baked your bread. Q: We still have her old iron skillet over at fohe house. I remember when we were kids getting water out of the well. Having the old well and winding the water out. We didn't have running water when I was real small. Ai We didn't have running water either not until to long. I mean water in the house. We had a well when Whiting was over here with the mill. We had a well, I reckon, when we went to Elizabethan. That was the first time we had water in the house. Wasn't it Dean? Had water down there. Then when we come back here we still had the well for several years. Q: We left our well just like it was. it still. A: Its good for it to draw water out. Q: Weil, I think it is a lot better, than comming out of the tap. A: This old well that we use down here in the front yard. But Grandpa Shull dug one before he was married. That is Dean's grandpa. We had to have it cleaned out ever once in a while. Qj I can remember that. They had a great big wench with two men on each side and they would let them down in there and they would come out with .all kinds of toys and stuff that my sister and I had threw in there A: This well went dry and we finally brought a pump in the kitchen. put some pipe down in there. Q: Is that bird not common in this area? Dean: A: So we could go out there and wind some out of A hand pump, and Kind of rare. But they're awful "wild, They very seldom come this near to the house to feed. But in the summer you can hear them around hollaring, In the grandfather there are lots of them. We call them Joe Winks, Maybe you know them? �12 Q: No, I don't believe that I have heard that name. A: Well, thats what we used to call them a long time ago. Joe Wink. But they call them toe hoes now. They make a kind of noise like they are singing To hink, to hink, to hink. Q: Are there any animals that are extinct almost now. of hunting. A: No. I guess they are animals there is not as many. People the river. There is not many Their hides are a big price. Q: Did your husband ever sell any of his hides? A: Oh yes, that is the way he got money in the winter time. Grandpa Shull had two sugar orchards. One was right up there. Some of the old trees are still there yet, one is out yonder where the golf course is at Hound Ears. Me and Roby tended that one and Grandma and Grandpa tended this one here. We made maple sugar and syrup and sold it in the spring. That is the way we bought our sugar, coffee, clothes, and stuff like that. We would take Dean down there and put him in a box. They had a big furnace built along and a boiler like they make molasses in. You have seen them make molasses. Q: I've seen the thing they were made in. A: They had that kind of thing. Roby would work and get a lot of wood piled up and had a shed built over it.- I would"set Dean's box right over in there where the wind wouldn't hit him, and keep him down there all day. We would take our rations with us and stay down there and boil our sugar water. We had to carry it when it was snowy and bad. Grandma Shull would keep Dean while we was carrying in the water. Then we would come back and help carry in their water. We sold our stuff in Blowing P.ock. There wasn't any sell for it right around here. Anybody who came in and wanted a hunk of sugar or a pot of maple syrup or something we just gave it to them. We sold it at Blowing Rod: and got a dollar a gallon for our syrup. Made a many of a gallon of syrup for a dollar and took it up there. That was a big price then. 0: Did you have any brothers and sisters? A; Nine. Q: Nine. A: I don't know whether I can remember their ages or not. Dean: A: Any of them gone because all through here like there was then, or course, fox and coon hunt, and catch some in traps along mink around here. They have been caught out. Thirty-five dollars for a big mink. How many were in your family? Do you remember their names and ages? Well, close to it. I could look. I doesn't matter. Well, I was the oldest. T" was born in '89. Then my sister Lucy She was three years younger than me. Austin was the next. Then Roger, Fred, claude, Frank, Ruby. I am the oldest and there two between most of us, three years between some. I could go get my was next. Grace, years book �13 and tell you just exactly. That sort of gives you an idea of how many of them there was. We are all alive but two. I have got two brothers dead. Q: Did you all go to school. A: Well,they all got a better education than I did. I was the oldest and I didn't like to go to school. I got married about the time that I got grown. I guess I got about an eigth grade education. The rest of them finished high school and most of them college. Three of them Fred, Grace, and Austin were teachers. Grace taught in college for years and Austin taught in High School in Johnson City a while and then he taught ar that College down there in Johnson City. Dean: A: Dean: The University of Tennesse Yeah, then Fred my other brother taught at Washington College until he retired, about four years ago. Two of my sisters are trained nurses. They both finished high school and they are trained nurses. Registered nurses. A: Yes, registered nurses. Then my sister next to me finished High School and went to business college and she is a bookeeper. She doesn't wonk now. She is about 80. She lives by herself and does her own work and everything. Then I had another brother he finished high school and went to work for Free Service Tire Company in Johnson City and worked there for fifty years. Last fall was fifty years when he retired. He was 70. He went to Carson Newman College. He had been there fifty years when he retired. Q: That is a long time. A: When I went to school? Q: Yeah. A: They were good schools I guess for the time. But they weren't nothing like they are now. You just had one room and one teacher. The first school I ever went to had two teachers. Over in Ashe County at Sutherland. That is where I first went to school. Then I went to school down at Beaver Creek where they just had one teacher most of the time. Professor Franklin, and of course he was a good teacher and we had to mind him. That was one thing we had to do. But they are different to what they are now. They didn't grade.:them like they do now. Thejr weren't as good as they have now. There wasn't so many people, Vie didn't have any cafeterias to eat at. We took our own lunch. They had a bi^g old water bucket setting in the corner with a dipper and we all drunk out of the same bucket and stuff like that, it didn't kill us. Played ball and stuff like that when recess and dinner time come. Q: I can remember hearing my mother talk about peanut butter and homemade biscuits and putting it into little buckets and taking it to school with her and eating it for lunch. She said that some of the rich kids brought the sandwhichas maHe our of bought bread would trade their sandwhichss for her peanut butter and biscuits. That was something to them and the sandwhiches were something to her. How were the schools back then. What were they like? �14 A: Of course. My mother never did bake bread much, but grandmother baked light bread. Baked it on the fire in that great big skillet I was tilling you about on the hearth. Put two loaves in there and raise them up. Mother didn't bake light bread so we took biscuits to school. We were always glad when they killed hogs because we would get one biscuit with a piece of sausage on it. Q: That was a treat? A: 6h yes, that was a treat. We usually had butter and applebutter. Daddy always managed to keep us a couple of cows. Had to because there were so many of us. We had to have milk and butter. Q: With nine, I would expect so. A: We had apple butter and jelly and stuff like that in our biscuits mostly. Some of the children would bring cornbread to school. We didn't have biscuits for breakfast every moring but mother almost always tried to keep biscuits for us to take to school, but we had cornbread sometimes for breakfast. We had our own corn and had our meal ground but our flour we had to buy. Because daddy didn't have enough land to raise wheat. We had to be saving with our flour. Q: How were the books back then? A: Books? Q: In the schools. A: Blue back speller. Dean didn't use it but I have got one. Dean had a little spelling book like they all had. They had the primer and then the first reader, and the second reader and all. Then, I've got all of them until he went on and finished college. I've got all of his college books. Q: Where are you keeping these? A: Yes. Q: Was there something called Stone Algebra? A: Dean, do you know anything about it? A: Now we had algebra. That was another thing I could never do no good at. But I don't remember the name of it. How old is your mother? Q: She is fifty-four. A: No, she's not as old as Dean. anything about that. Q: Did the teacher take sections in the one room? A: She had all the little ones setting up in the front. They had big long benches when I first went to school. We didn't have desks then, until I was a pretty good sized girl. The little ones would set up front because they would talk and What were they like? Have you got them stored somewhere? That is something they had later. I don't know �15 he would have to get after them. Thei,-second reader was next then on back. The bigger ones were in the back. Professor Franklin could tell which one was whispering and he would be standing up ther in the front. The blackboards were painted on the walls. I don't know whether you heard anything about it or not, but you know that school house that burned down. Shull's Mills school house that burnt over there at the Horn and the West Grounds. It was from over here. Bernard Dougherty got it and took it over there and it had one whole side of the wall painted black. That's when Dean first went to school in it. They had this thing along there that held your chalk and erasers, and T-slant. You would lay your stuff down in there. We had slates. All the children didn't have slates, but we could all go to the board and do things. He could be up there putting a writing up there on the board for us to copy off and some body in the back a whispering and he would turn around there as quick as lightening and tell them who it was and call them up there and punish them. A; Old Sutherland in Ashe County was the first school 1 ever went to. know where that is at? Do ypu Q: No. I know where Ashe County is. exactly. A: There post office is Creston. They are R.F.D. It is way back over there in the mountains close to Potter Town. You've heard of Potter Town. It is not too far from there. Q: The students didn't have pencils and paper? A: No, not when I first went to school. I've heard of Sutherland but I don't know They just wrote on slate? You didn't have any pencils or paper We had our slate and our slate pencil. We carried it home of the night. We put our salte pencil in a book or in our coat pocket. It was usually about that long and you would eventually break them. Q: What was a slate pencil like? 4: A piece of slate. Q: It was a piece of slate? A: It was about the size of that thing you have in your hand. It was sharp at one end. Some of them with chalk on their saltes, but that ruined the slate. It got it so it wouldn't write. Daddy wouldn't let us write on them with chalk. Whatever daddy said we must not do we didn't do. Later, when I went to school at Beaver Creek we had tablets and pencils. But even over at Silverstone I know I did. Q: There wasn't much emphasis placed on education back then, was there? A: There wasn't much, not like there is now. Q: Especially in girls, A: Our school was always out before Christmas when I was a child. I guess we had about four months of school and that was it. Our school was out before Christmas. �16 The week before Christmas we had our spelling bee and our school was out and then we were free until the next time school came around. Q: Do you mean that was the end of the school year? A: Yes, unless they had a summer subscription school. Daddy always managed to send the children to taht. That was when I was little. That was the end of the school year. Then they got up to six months of school and that is the most that I ever went. We would go a little while after Christinas. Now, they have the nine month. I think it was just six months when Dean first started to school. See Dean i,? 65 years old. When he first started to school it was just six months. They would get up what they called a subscription school and they would pay a dollar a month for a pupil. Say somebody had three children to send, they would pay three dollars a month. They would hire a teacher and this teacher would stay around among the pupils. She would stay one night one place and the next night another place. That way the people boarded her and what they paid in for teaching was her salary. She usually taught two months. That was when I was little. When we lived on Cove Creek. Q: A dollar per pupol was alot back then. A: When you had two or three children to send it was hard to get that three dollars a month. There was very few who could ever let very many go. They would let their oldest ones go. Daddy always managed for me to go and after Lucy got pretty good-sized he managed for her to go. Q: Did the older one come back and teach the younger ones what they had learned in school? A: Yeah, we sit down and made them learn their ABC's and learned themlto read and write before they ever went to school. Q: My mother was the baby of the family and she skipped two grades. They would come back and teach her what they learned at school. In the first grade she knew all of her ABC's. She could read and tell time. The teacher moved her up a few grades. A: I was the oldest and I can remember teaching the other children what I had learned in my books. They were just tickled to death when I came in of the evening with my books to learn them what I had. Dean knew his ABC's and could read and write lots of words when he started to school. Q: Alot of emphasis back then was placed on the children learning the way of the home life. Cooking, sewing, and things like that. The boys learned farming. A: Whatever daddy done, thats waht they done. Q: What was the reaction by the^parents when the school was increased to six months a year? A: Most of them liked it when the school was changed to six months. like the children were out to much without enough to do. Q: I was thinking that some wantedathe kids ther at home to help. A: Lots of times the older children would miss a day or half a day. Wasn't it? They felt I missed alot. �17 I guess that is why I didn't like to go because I had to stay home and help wash and iron. It is hard on the children like that. Hard on the parents, to. In the fall it was time to gather in the crops and apples and stuff. Some would keep children at hame all day to help do that. Maybe two days out of a week they would have to miss. It was hard on the children to keep up. Some of them didn't have to miss at all. They had older brothers and sisters that could stay at home and do the work. The younger ones didn't miss at all. It was the older ones that it was hard on. Q: Emphasis was placed on church going, wasn't it? back then. A: Everybody went to church. Q: What were the churches like back then? A: They were sort of old fashioned like everything else was. smart like country churches are today. Q: Were they old fashioned hell fire and brimstone preachers? A: Yeas most of them was. Q: What were the church activities? A: Go to Sunday School and they had preaching once a month on Saturday and Sunday. That was it. Q: Did you have any church socials or picnics? A: Not when I was young. Q: Do you think the churches have changed a great deal over the years? A: Yes, they have changed alot. people and the times. Q: Do you think that the beliefs have become a little bit lax over the years? They are not quiet as strict as they used to be. A: There is more denominations now through this country. Used to be just Methodists and Baptists when I was a little girl growing up. You never heard tell of anything exceot Methodius and Baptists. You were either one or the other. There was usually one of each church,in a community. They all got along. They didn't disagree. You were just a Methodist or a Baptist. Now, there are so many different kinds of Methodists and Baptists, presbyterians, the holiness folks, and all that stuff until it is just dirrerent. Q: So many of them are church splits. One group goes off to be their own church and they build a church over here and one forms out of that to. A: I don't know how it was in other communities but when I was just a girl growing up you never heard tell of anything like that in the community. There was one Baptist Church and one Methodist church and that was it. Q: To which did most of the people belong? Good preachers. Religion was really a big thing They were a right Most of them were older men. Just like the people. They change with the �18 A: I believe the Baptist in our community. Some of the Methodist churches had more members and some of the Baptist churches had more members. Q: Preachers back then were God called, weren"'t they? A: They were different. Not many of the preachers had a college degree back when I was growing up. Q: Just high school degrees? A: They were good men and good teachers. They preached the bible more than they do now. They just got up there and read their bible and preached about it. They talked about all that was going on in the world and everything. You were SHved or you wasn't. You were going to heaven or to hell and that was. about all there was to it. They just preached that and that was it. Everybody was happy. The best I can remember that was the way it was. Q: The preacher was a very respected man in the community, wasn't he? A: Oh yes. Q: Had a lot of influence with the people. A: Yes. Q: I guess that was what held the churches together. A: I was. They respected the preacher and they respected each other. The church was something sacred to them. That is about the best way that I can explain it to you. Q: There were a lot of old customs that were held to back then, wasn't there? A: I guess so, but I don't remember much about them. Q: A lot of tradition. A: Yeah. Q: Can you think of anything else that I have left out? A: No, I can't. A: That store house down there used to be turned around with the front of it down toward that other road because this road wasn't through here then. The first post office was in that building. Shull's Mills post office. I've got old tintype pictures made of that building. The front of that store house and people standing in frcont of it. Dean has got the first post office certificate in a frame. See when they built this road through here and this high bridge they moved the store house down that way. Dean had it turned with the front down that way. Then he rebuilt it and fixed it all over. Dean's daddy said he could remember when Granpa built it. Roby would be 90 years old. The man who moved it said it was the best old house he had moved since he had been moving houses. Q: It is well over a hundred years, isn't it? A: It is put together with pegs. Some not even that. Things being past down through the family. I think I've covered everything all over the county. �19 Q: Dean: A: That goes a way back, sure enough. It is .tall hand hued. Those shelves in there were already there when Grandpa Shull had the store there. Then Dean's daddy had a store there for a while. Now Dean has got a store in it. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Appalachian Oral History Project Interviews Description An account of the resource In 1973, representatives from Appalachian State University (ASU) began the process of collecting interviews from Watauga, Avery, Ashe, and Caldwell county citizens to learn about their respective lives and gather stories. From the outset of the project, the interviewers knew that they were reaching out to the “last generation of Appalachian residents to reach maturity before the advent of radio, the last generation to maintain an oral tradition.” The goal was to create a wealth of data for historians, folklorists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists interested in the Appalachian Region. The project was known as the “Appalachian Oral History Project” (AOHP), and developed in a consortium with Alice Lloyd College and Lees Junior College (now Hazard County Community College) both in Kentucky, Emory and Henry College in Virginia, and ASU. Predominately funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the four schools by 1977 had amassed approximately 3,000 interviews. Each institution had its own director and staff. Most of the interviewers were students. Outgrowths of the project included the Mountain Memories newsletter that shared the stories collected, an advisory council, a Union Catalog, photographs collected, transcripts on microfilm, and the book Our Appalachia. Out of the 3,000 interviews between the three schools, only 663 transcripts were selected to be microfilmed. In 1978, two reels of microfilm were made available with 96 transcripts contributed by ASU. An annotated index referred to as The Appalachian Oral History Project Union Catalog was created to accompany the microfilm. The catalog is broken down into five sections starting with a subject topic index such as Civilian Conservation Corps, Coal Camps, Churches, etc. The next four sections introduced the interviewees by respective school. There was an attempt to include basic biographic information such as date of birth, location, interviewer name, length of interview, and subjects discussed. However, this information was not always consistent per school. This online project features clips from the interviews, complete transcripts, and photographs. The quality and consistency of the interviews vary due to the fact that they were done largely by students. Most of the photos are missing dates and identifying information. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collection 111. Appalachian Oral History Project Records, 1965-1989 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1965-1989 Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Scanned by Wetmore, Dana Equipment Hp Scanjet 8200 Scan date 2014-02-17 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 Interview with Mamie Breybeal Shull, April 3, 1973 Description An account of the resource Mamie Graybeal Shull was born in 1889 and has lived around Boone, North Carolina since 1906. Ms. Shull begins her interview talking about Shull's Mill. She then talks about home remedies and other traditions like the legends, myths, and food. Ms. Shull explains her experiences with cars and the reaction of the community when they were first introduced. She recollects memories in the schoolhouse including school lunches, text books, and the layout. To finish her interview, Ms. Shull explains what church was like as a child. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brinkley, Bill Shull, Mamie Graybeal 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 4/3/1973 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. 19 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_tape54_MamieGreybealShull_1973_04_03M001 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Boone, NC Subject The topic of the resource Watauga County (N.C.)--Social life and customs--20th century Mountain life--North Carolina--Watauga County--History--20th century--Anecdotes Boone cars legends myths Shull's Mill traditional food