The Depression in Letters

A few weeks ago, I took my children for a hike on the Kephart Prong Trail.  Beginning at a pull-off on the right about a mile past the Collins Creek picnic area, the trail is gorgeous, especially in the fall and spring.  On this day, our destination was the shelter that lies two miles up the trail.  But one of my favorite sections of the trail lies only about 0.2 miles from the trailhead.  The Kephart Prong Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp,  Company #411, was established on 25 May 1933 and operated continuously through 1942, at which time it was abandoned by the CCC but was subsequently used as a work camp for conscientious objectors during World War II. Several vestiges of the camp remain, including the signboard, boxwoods, the chimney for the barracks, and a water fountain. 

Chimney at Kephart Prong CCC Camp

The water fountain at Kephart Prong CCC Camp

The CCC, part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 'New Deal' program, offered hope for economic survival to the families of young men aged 18 - 25.  First begun in 1933 and operating until 1942, the CCC employed these young men in natural resources work throughout the country.  The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was but one of the many natural areas that benefitted from this program.  Workers were sheltered, clothed and fed and paid a wage of $30 a month, $25 of which was sent home to help support their families.  For families receiving these monetary fruits of their sons' labors, the $450 this equates to in 2013 currency meant the difference between having a home (however humble) versus living on the street, or eating beans and rice versus starvation.  

The Great Depression hit Swain County hard.  Though those of hardy stock in the mountains, who were used to 'making do or doing without' weathered the time better than those in the cities, it was still an era during which families barely scraped by.  With unemployment in 1933 hovering around 25%, the opportunities presented by the CCC must have seemed like a god-send to desperate families.  Many in Swain County applied for the precious few positions available to 'local men' for work in the Smokies, or for work elsewhere.

John T. Needham
GSMNP Superintendent
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

CCC Recruits in front of Park Offices in Bryson City, 1933
Courtesy:  www.nps.gov

 The park archives at Sugarlands contain page after page of names of our county's men, young and old, who applied.  Some were interviewed, and many were not.  Most were turned down.  Eighty years later, a few of the letters of application to John Needham (acting park superintendent at the time) can still be found in the park archives, and that is what I have chosen to share with you today.  For ease of reading, I have transcribed these letters, however, in order to stay true to history, I have left their grammar and syntax as they were written. They provide a poignant glimpse of life in Depression-era Swain County.
 

Granville Isaiah Calhoun 1875-1978

May 22 1933
Mr. John T. Needham
Bryson City N.C.
Dear Mr. Needham
I wish to file my application for a forman place to handle the men on the road up Forney Creek.  I have had a lot of experience in building all kinds of roads here in this part of the country building trails in the Smokey Mountains wagon Roads and R-Road work.  I built the first 5 miles of Railroad up Hazel Creek for the W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. whos head office is in Columbus Ohio.  I worked for N. Carolina Mining Co. for most of 2 years and worked for the North Carolina Copper Mining Company and _____ there agent there for 33 years and am agent here for them now.  I dun open cut work and under ground work.  I had charge of 125 men for them while the was ________________ for copper and I had 125 men working under me when I was building R-Road for the W.M. Ritter Lumber co. on Hazel Creek in this county.  I have had considerabl experience in __________ powder and hand drilling with common labor.  I can do nice tunnell work under ground.  I am 58 years old, way (sic) 220# and am in good health.  I have had Typhoid Fever in 1908 and bin vaxinated since several times.  I have had Small Pox in 1910.  I never have had any venereal diseases in my Life.  I have had measls mumps.  Never have had Pneumonia..
If any further information is desired would be glad to furnish it.
Yours Truly, 
G. I. Calhoun

Granville Calhoun's second CCC letter, pg 1
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

Granville Calhoun first CCC letter, pg 2
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Thomas Cole (1887 - 1965)

(Forney) Bushnell
June 14 1933
Mr. J.T. Needham
I understand you are going to have some carpenter work done at camp here at Forney.  I would like to help you out in that line if you are going to be in need of a carpenter are another Blacksmith.  If you don't need a carpenter I have had a quiet a lot of experence with a drilling crew in rock - and blasting if you would need a man like that.  I live here at church by side of Monteith.
Yours 
William T. Cole
P.S. When you was here getting names I was not thru my corns but am most done now.

William Thomas Cole CCC Letter
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

James Monroe Cole (1888 - 1961)

East La Port, NC
June 15 33
Mr. Needham;
Dear Sir,
I am sending in my application to get work with Smoky Mountains National Park as a road builder or any forest work.  I was borned and reared in Swain Co., Have wife one child, mother and invalid brother whom look to me for dependence.  If can't get in just now hope you will file my applications & remember me, if you are adding on more men. 
Very Truly,
J.M. Cole
East La Port
North Carolina

James Monroe Cole CCC Letter, pages 1 and 2
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

Silas Henry Greene:  1896 - 1995

Judson NC July 25th 1933
Mr. Needham Park Mgr.
Dear Mr. Needham,
I would be glad if you can furnish me employment in the Park as I am a world war veteran.  Was over sea with the 30th Div, and have never had any help from the Gov.  I am in hard luck financially and I have a family of 7 to support.  If you can place me on any kind of job to help support my family will certainly apprecate the position.  Thinking you in advance for anything you will do for me in obtaining a position, of any kind of labor. 
I am yours truly
Silas Greene
Judson, NC

Silas Greene CCC Letter
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

Granville Calhoun, follow-up letter

Bryson City NC
Oct 25th 1933
Mr J.T. Needingham
Bryson City NC
Dear Mr. Needingham
I was told today that the new camp on deep creek had no Superintendant yet and that the place was going to be given to a local man.  one who nows (sic) the mountains and who has had experience in these mountains and who nows how to build roads and lay out trails in the mountains.  I think I could fill the place and handle the men all right.  I would apreciate a chance at the place and if I failed I would wilingly step down and let some other man take my place.  I looked for you this evening and did not find you to talk to about this job.  I can do the work ______________________as has been dun at Forney Creek just as good as any man, I think and would like chance at the job as superentendant same as Mr. Greer has at Forney.  Please let me know if you think I would stand any chance at getting the place. 
Yours Very Truly
G. I. Calhoun

Granville Calhoun's second CCC letter, pg 2
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives

Granville Calhoun's second CCC letter, pg 1
Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives
















There can be little doubt that the simple prose contained in the letters these proud mountain men penned, imparts a much clearer depiction of the Depression in Swain County than mere statistics could ever hope to show.  Regrettably, I do not know whether these men were ever provided the opportunity to obtain the much-needed work they so desperately desired.  It is certain, though, that most every young man who had the opportunity to work for the CCC had a similar story to tell.

But with every trail these young men built, every road they constructed, and every seedling they planted, a ray of hope was borne into the lives of their families....who were impoverished not only of money but also of spirit during those bleak days of the 1930's.  These letters allow me to 'see' the Depression in Swain County and how it unwittingly helped to make the GSMNP the rare gem that it is today.  They make me appreciate our county and our park in a way that I never could have before.  I hope they will do the same for you.

CCC Camp 411 Enrollees in front of barracks
Courtesy:  www.nps.gov

________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Annette Hartigan, Former GSMNP Librarian
GSMNP Archives
www.ancestry.com
www.nps.gov

A Remarkable Woman



Annie Clark Cagle, taken at Deep Creek homeplace
(Courtesy:  Glenda Cagle Garland on www.deadfred.com)

I frequently find the inspiration for a story when I look at old pictures, and today's is no exception.  This beautiful woman is Annie Clark Cagle (1876 - 1954), who lived in Swain County from the late 1800's until 1929.

As one leaves the Deep Creek section of the Park via the graveled Galbreath Creek road, at least 5 old home sites are passed before reaching the Park boundary.  One of these, lying to the right side of the road where Tom's Branch passes under the road on its way to becoming a beautiful waterfall, was the home of the Lee and Annie (Clark) Cagle family. 

Google Earth view of the area near the Cagle homeplace
(Google Earth)

It was once quite an impressive homestead, as is outlined in the North Carolina Park Commission document shown below.



Assessment of the Lee and Annie Cagle Homestead by the N.C. Park Commission
(Courtesy:  NC Archives and Don Casada)

Annie Clark (1876 - 1954) was deeded this land by her brother, David Hardy Clark; it  was a part of her father's farm that he had established after moving his family here from Haywood County.  Around 1891 at the age of 15, Annie married Henry Lee Cagle and they settled on this land, close to family, to make a home.  Between 1894 and 1919, Annie gave birth to 13 children, (four girls and nine boys) and raised them here.   In 1929, the family was forced to sell their beloved home in the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and relocated to Bartow County, Georgia, where one of their married daughters was now living.  They took with them all of their children still living at home, including son Winfred, who had been born in 1915 (the 11th child).  Being homesick for the mountains, Winfred returned to Bryson City just a few years later and lived here for the remainder of his life, dying in 1993.  Winfred was a great teller of tales about the early days in these mountains, and was interviewed in the early 1970's by several different people.  The recordings of these interviews are retained at the Park Headquarters at Sugarlands along with the transcripts, which total nearly 150 pages.  The transcripts provide a fascinating glimpse into life as it was in the Deep Creek and Galbreath Creek area in the 1920's, and I plan to share much of this in later blog entries. 


The 13 children of Lee and Annie Cagle, late 1950's
Winfred is on the first row, third from the right
(Courtesy:  Glenda Cagle Garland on www.deadfred.com)

But for today, I'd like to share what he had to say about his mother, a remarkable woman of the Smokies.  (In order to preserve Winfred's wonderful mountain vernacular, I have left his speech patterns intact in this transcription.  It may be slightly harder to read, but conveys a much greater sense of the way in which it was told).
.................................................................................................................................................

The Clothier

'Mother.....well, she made all of our soap. In fact she made all of our clothes.  She made, all of our overalls.  Made our hats.  Our shirts an' ever'thing we wore she made 'em right with her fingers right in th' house.    She'd knit us mittens to wear to school.  An' we'd wear, uh wool socks that would come up, just oh 'bout well a finger length an' a half below the' knee. And ......she made 'em so they'd stay right up on your legs an' they woudln't fall down. She ribbed them at the top y' know where they'd stay snug, snug to y'r leg and they didn't, bag down into your shoes.'



Joe Queen's Barn, with pasture in the background
(Courtesy:  GSMNP Archives)

'We'd go up to Joe Queen's up on the mountain. (Author's note:  Joe Queen's home that Winfred refers to here is the cabin at the Oconaluftee Pioneer Farmstead).  ....An' we'd buy a tow sack, packed full of wool. He had a mountain...just lots of sheep up there. An' we'd buy a tow sack full of wool, for a dollar. 'S all he could pack in. Then we'd bring it down; we'd pick the cuckleburrs out of it. An' y' had two sets of cards. Now, this w's the' kind y' make, fix your wool out of. We'd pick th' cuckleburrs out of that wool. They's one of them cards you, card it with, an' it straighted it out. Then our mother took, th' other cards, an' you card it. Then y' run 'em backwards. An' it rolled it off into a little roll just 'bout as big as a broom handle an' about that long. These little rolls of this wool. Then she had this spinning wheel she put it on, this spindle. Put a shuck. Take a piece of shuck an' put it on that spindle, an' tie that, uh, wool on that, 'n' start that spinnin' wheel it'd spin that into thread. Out of th' wool. 



The Walker Sisters of Little Greenbrier, carding and spinning
(Courtesy:  The Saturday Evening Post)

Then she took that, an', put it, if we wanted say she wanted t' fix us some, uh dark brown, if we wanted dark brown socks, she'd go out to a walnut tree, an' dig around the walnut tree an' skin some of th' bark off of th' walnut roots. Put it in a pot, an' boil it. Real good.

Then take all that bark out of there an' that was good dye. Then she put that wool in there, the thread after she made it in, put it, made it into what they call hanks. I'd say it'd be about, th' string of thread strand of thread would be about two hundred fee long. Make a strand put it in that an' you'd dye it. Then you take it out an' hang it up on the clothes line, an' dry it.....

 I don't know how she done it for thirteen of us, but she did.' 

The Gardener

'We had two big gardens. An we raised a fall cabbage...my mother sowed her own seed. Raise these plants an' set 'em out late in the summer. An' they'd make, oh huge cabbage heads. Now they have the little cannon ball now, or hamburg cabbage, th' small head but, what she grew then was.....some of 'em 'd weigh six or seven pounds.' 




Old Cabbage Field
(Courtesy:  www.seedlibrary.org)

The Doctor
'My mother.....she could make, I always tell people that she could make anything she wanted to or cure anything. They didn't make that...she made her own salve, made her own medicine an' ever'thing. I guess the first time that any of us, ever had a doctor with any of us one of my brothers took typhoid fever, back in the 20's, and, he was sick for, 'bout thirteen months. An they's thirteen of us. And never, we didn't never was a one of us in hospital.....
 
 And my mother made a salve..... I'm gonna make up some, this spring just quick as the leaves comes on the trees.....and she made it, she used beeswax, bammygills buds (balm of Gilead) and this wild chestnut leaves, an' white oak bark and dogwood bark, an' slippery elm. .....you c'd just put it on any kind of cut place or skinned place and just about overnight hit'd heal, just bring th' scab right on that 'n' just hit'd heal......

.......I know, after, we moved to Georgia, they's a lady there, next door to us ..... she had some kind of a spell.... St. Vitus's Dance or something (see notes at the bottom)  an' she fell in th' fire an' burnt all of her clothes off of her an' burnt, 'bout 75% of th' skin off of her body. And....th' doctors had done ever'thing for her.....She was gittin' worse all the time. Just....she was just a solid bandage of gauze from her toes to the top of her head on one side, burnt, over half of her hair off , an' burnt th' skin off of her an' when it did grow back her arm growed down to her side. An' burnt one of her ears smooth off.

 An my mother told....her husband, she said,' if the doctors has give up and can't do nothin' for her ........I can make you some salve if you'll let me, make it an' apply it. I can heal that, an' she'll be well an' going to the field.'. He says, 'She's yours, you can have her.'   My mother made up a box of this salve and so she went there an' got some pieces of white cloth you know. An' she would warm this salve and apply it on this cloth an' then she'd put it on these places. An' hit just healed that lady right up. An' she got up an' was a walkin' an' would carry her husband's dinner to the field to him when he was a workin'.

I believe she could've cured leprosy if there'd been any around with the salve she made. 'An the medicine. She could make medicine or salve for anything, measles or anything.' 

A DIY salve for burns
(Courtesy:  www.boulderlocavore.com)

 .................................................................................................................................................
What makes Annie Clark Cagle so worthy of remembrance?  Was it her seven-pound cabbages?  The half-bushel lunch basket she packed each morning to feed her children at school?  The excellent health she kept her family in?  The clothing she made for her entire family? 



Signatures of Annie and Lee Cagle
(Courtesy, Swain County Register of Deeds)

No, in my mind what makes Annie Cagle so amazing is that she would have been an ordinary mountain woman of the time.  In a day and age in which we may purchase ready-to-wear clothing at stores on virtually every street corner, it is difficult for us to conceive of the toil these women undertook to provide something as simple as a pair of socks for their children.  In a day and age in which one may shop for their doctor and may find remedies for many ailments even at the gas station, we cannot conceive of the idea of having to plan the planting and tending of the garden for the manufacture of next year's medicine.  Yet such matters that seem so trivial to us today, consumed the daily lives of women in these mountains from the wee hours of the morning until late at night, from early childhood until their death. 

Annie, surrounded in her picture by her chickens, cows and outbuildings ... paradoxically symbolizing both domestic tranquility and grueling toil at the same time.....stands as a worthy representative for the thousands of mountain women that raised up members of America's 'Greatest Generation' here in the Smoky Mountains.

Truly, she was a remarkable woman.

Notes to the Reader:

St. Vitus Dance is the historic term for Sydenham's chorea, a disorder characterized by rapid and jerking movements, and which is a potential complication of strep throat or rheumatic fever.  A video of a girl with this disorder may be viewed at this link.

Annie Clark Cagle, her husband Lee, and many of their descendants are buried at the Mount Pleasant Church cemetery in Pine Log, Georgia.  Winfred Cagle is buried at the Swain Memorial Park.





Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, Bartow County, GA
(Courtesy:  www.placekeepers.com)

__________________________________________________________________________

Sources:

Ancestry.com for census, birth and death records
Christine Proctor
Glenda Cagle Garland
GSMNP Archives
North Carolina Archives
Photos:  Don Casada, Glenda Cagle Garland, GSMNP Archives, Swain County Register of Deeds, www.boulderlocavore.com, www.deadfred.com, www.googleearth.com, www.placekeepers.com, www.seedlibrary.com,

A Lesson in Equality



This picture captivated me from the first moment I saw it.




John A. Woody family and unknown black man
(Courtesy:  Christine Proctor)

The old man in the picture is John Quincy Adams Woody, a Civil War veteran who served as a private in the Thomas Legion from 1862 - 1863.  Presumably the others, excepting one, are some of his children and grandchildren.  But 'tis not them, nor the fine log home, nor the dog, nor the chickens in the photo that so captures my attention.  No - it is the black man in the middle. 

No one in the family is still living who remembers his name, where he was from, when he was born, how he came to live with the Woody's, or when and where he died.  But they do know one thing - John A. Woody considered him his friend.  In the post-Reconstruction era in the South, this relationship was quite an anomaly.  Blacks might have gained their freedom and the right to vote but had little else....certainly not the respect or friendship of most white folks during that time.  John was the exception, but his family - at least in the beginning - was the rule.


John Quincy Adams and Manerva Palestine (Bradshaw) Woody
(Courtesy:  Christine Proctor)

Shortly after the man came to live with the family, two of the older boys came by to stay a night or two with the family.  It was a time during which it was common for family members and passers-by to share a bed, and this night was no exception. The boys were horrified at the thought of having to share a bed with a colored man and fought viciously with one another over who would have to do so.  But John Woody, having none of it, decided to teach his sons a lesson.  He had the black man sleep in the middle of the bed, and the boys on either side of him.  The watchful John made certain that they stayed there all night.

The lesson was learned, and the man became a beloved member of the family, residing with them for many years.

There were precious few African-Americans on the North Shore of what is now Fontana Lake.  A few families described in the 1910 and 1920 Forney Creek Township census as either 'black', 'negro' or 'mulatto', moved into the area for the logging industry, residing on Hazel Creek and in the Forney area.  Another family lived in the Epps Springs community.  However, none may be found in census records pre-dating 1910, and none are found in any records with John A. Woody's family at any time.  Who was he? 

Sadly, his identity appears to be lost to history...but is his picture?



A cartoon showing the breadth of the
North Carolina 'Spanish Flu' epidemic
(www.learnnc.org)

In 1918 and 1919, the 'Spanish Flu' epidemic swept across Swain County, claiming many lives in its relentless march. Despite its isolation, Hazel Creek was not to be spared, and there are a number of graves on the creek that attest to the epidemic's ferocity.  One of these lies on Sugar Fork, in the Higdon cemetery.  The stone simply reads, 'A Black Man'.  No one living remembers his name.....but they do remember that he was an elderly man who cared for many of Hazel Creek's flu victims before finally succumbing himself.  After he passed, he was buried at the Higdon Cemetery, but outside the fence.  Despite giving his life for the white folk on the creek, he was segregated from them in death.

The writing on the back of the Woody picture states that it was taken at Medlin, a community that lies just a short distance away from the Higdon cemetery and which was discussed in last week's blog post.  John Woody, who died in 1903, appears to be very old in the photo.  If the image was taken in the late 1890's or thereabouts, then the black man in it would have been much older by the time of the flu epidemic.   Is it possible that the Woody family's picture may reveal to us the face of the man buried in the Higdon cemetery?


'A Black Man' stone, Higdon Cemetery
(Mike Gourley, findagrave.com)

We will never know....in all likelihood it was not.  And yet, it is interesting to speculate. If the two men were one and the same, was his selfless care for the white folk of the community, which led to his own death, a way of  paying back the kindness and inclusion that John Woody and his family had provided him, a black man, over the years? 

When the park began granting access to the North Shore cemeteries, an effort was made to permanently mark the graves of those individuals who had only fieldstones denoting their final resting place.  This effort is ongoing, and hundreds of graves of known individuals have received small stones, rescuing them from anonymity.  When the Higdon cemetery was surveyed, folks recalled the man who had helped care for their kin, and the decision was made to provide a proper stone for him, despite not knowing his name.  But most symbolically, the fence was moved in order to integrate the black man whose care and devotion to the white settlers of Hazel Creek was so well-remembered some 60 or more years later.  And who might one think was one of the primary people leading the effort?  Christine Cole Proctor, John Woody's great-granddaughter. 

While his civil war service and the family of 9 upstanding citizens that he raised are noted with pride by the family, it seems that a lesson in equality, imparted to his sons  over 125 years ago and enduring to this day, was John A. Woody's greatest legacy.

 

John A. Woody Tombstone, Tellico Cemetery
(Gail Anderson, findagrave.com)

Postscript: 
John Quincy Adams and Manerva (Bradshaw) Woody are buried at the Tellico Cemetery in Macon County, North Carolina. 
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GSln=Woody&GSiman=1&GScid=48916&GRid=81014125&CRid=48916&

For those wishing to visit the Higdon Cemetery, the annual decoration day is on the third Sunday in August.  The park service provides transportation from the Cable Cove boat ramp.  For more details, please visit the link below:
http://northshorecemeteries.com/html/body_schedule.html

________________________________________________________________________
Sources:
Family story:  Christine Cole Proctor
Photos:  Christine Cole Proctor; Gail Anderson and Mike Gourley on findagrave.com
Decoration Day in the Mountains, by Alan Jabbour and Karen Singer Jabbour.
http://www.learnnc.org
http://www.findagrave.com