Document text
January 12, 1939.
Morrison Baynard and family (white)
Turkey Creek,
Srevard, N. C.
Farmer and huntsman
A. A. Lon" writer
Edwin Bjorkman, reviser
UP HOMINY CHEZ&
Or/az/nal Name
Morrison Baynard
Turkey Creek
Thelma Baynard
Marie Baynard
Harry Sitten
Evelyn Sitton
cTi
-'hanged .2ame
Harrison Bender
Hominy Creek
Lula Bender
Sophie Bender
Larry Minor
Be4ty Minor
His name is Harrison Bender. Under the influence of a
aoutnern sun and of the soft mists resting upon the mountains,
it is easy to slur the letter r, and so the neighbors have
long called his Beeson. There is also a tradition in the
family that the last name was something elms originally, bat
nobody today knows for certain. Ti* Senders have been small
lsmdbolders on these mountainsides for perhaps a hundred years.
The ancestral habitat of the family is Hominy Creek, which
rises in the National Forest and flows eastward into the French
Broad. It zroeses a state hiighway sus,* few miles north of the
count, seat. At this point a dirt road leads west, up Bonin/
Creek. About three miles up tne creek is the small farm of
Harrison Sender. At the point were the dirt road leaves the
highway is his mail box, al:o it is at this point that his chil-
dren, after a tramp of three miles down the mountain, meet the
school bus that takes tnem into town. Hominy Creek is a rather
well known locality, partly because of tile Baptist church
named after it, and partly because u. tars and fisnermen
travel this route.
Writer
A.W.Lont
Brevard,N.C.
January' 12,1930.
Material for this story has been gathered from nany casual
conversations with Morrison Baynard and his three daughters.
They did not suspect what the writer was after.
Mr.S.F.Allison, merchant, Brevard, a sportsnan who has
hutited often with Baynrd'x will no doubt vouch for the
authenticity of this story.
Morrison Baynard's addreps is Turkey Creek, Brevard,N.C.
The address of his oldest dau6hter, Mrs Harry Sitton,
is Pisgah Forest P.Ov; N.C.
Avk 4.4.67/
His naae is Mov04-eon—lattynal.4
Under the influence of a Southern
sun and of the soft mists resting upon the mountains, it is easy
to slur the letter r so the neighbors have long called him
Mai,Leeqq—Bate.aP4,—Anti there is a tradition in the family that the
eZe..
last naklie was Mandr originally, but nobody to -day knows for certain.
Atpm.14-e, A
The igftreciade have been small landholders on these tountair1ides
for perhaps a hundred years.
The ancestral habitat of the lia*.noia4 family is Tu Creek,
which rises in the P.I.otaii National Forest and flows eastward
444--
into the French Broad. It crosses t;4elet6HOmpriii4ghway (Z80
.*-40)•.w G•7••• /e -e •77
authrtiles north of eira64., At this point a dirt road leads
west, up Creek. About three miles up t4t4..e creek is the stall
farm of
A
leF,ves the Ilicjiway is nis viail box, and it is a t3 pc.jrit
At the point where
tic r:iirt :road
that his children, after a tramp of
three miles down the mountain,
meet the school bus that takes them into Brevard. reek is
a rather well known locality, partly because of the Turkey Cncok
47,
Baptistiehurchem( partly because hunters and fishernen travel
this route.
I happen to i now Msrr1oø1 ayna1 and his family because two
of his dauchters, T.4elmiti sind Meeria, high school girls, have
worked as cooks durint school vacation in the house of my aunt.
TAte-pr*.teft hiAself looks more like a hunter than a farmer, with his
corduroy cap and jacket of medium heicht, lean, sinewy, bricht-p-
eyed and hookPnosed. He is -poised in manner, but speaks snappily
and crisply, without drawl. His 7nclish is better than mieht be
expected, sprinkled with localismsond he is amiable when
unruffled. He has crown slichtly sophisticated by reason of associatiotu
with isitine hunters and fishermen. 1.14-3.11.1-nvit ou to hi's
house, t.e.4.1.1.46 ou to'bome wirt and see how a real hillbilly lives.
His farm of fifty acres was elven to him by his father when
he became a youne married an. He built .the usual lot house with
a half story above and a shed in the rear. Very near his house runs
one fork of
Creek. His barn and corn crib are of lots.
The sheds of the barn shelter his ox, his cow, and his waton.
Now the waton ha 8 been turned out into the ratm.and second. .0
A
hand truck run in to take its Illace.
Inside the dwellinL bear skin rues are scattered over the floor
and the skins of bob -cats and coons are tacked on the walls.
The kitchen has a stove. One of the eirls saved enouch money last
summer to buy a sewinc machine,and the two girls take a 'ride in
makinc their own dresses. They study the models they see summer
visitors wear and those they see in store windows. They also
study clothes and manners they see in the ovies. They are as well
3
dressed and mannerly as most town Orls. One would never suspect
they lived in a lo e; house ur the fork of the creek. For years
they have walked the three miles down the Ualmimoyiereek dirt road
and waited on the hibhway, in all weathers, for the school bus to
come alone,.
Both The.inA and f have boy friends, one an intelli6ent
youn farmer andthe other a /rue
worker i4he Xumber Altpany.
The courtinL is done in Ford cars and 144- to movie houses.
Lone distance courtin6 is done in the
It
The Lirls may study to be nurses or
the youn6 men they are thrown with. In either case they
have more of the comforts of life than their parents had. They
would not care to work in mills or stores. They would prefer to be
Creek Baptist Church.
stenoraphers or they may marry
ill probably
cooks or waitresses even at lower wa6es.
I asked Tiaelima, about her ambitions in life. She lauLhed at first
It
and iLen looked reflective.
"I'm tired of Loint, to school. I'm not a scholar like 4:
She miLht make a teacher or a nurse or a steno6rapher, but I am
tired of trainL II', the mountain and down a ain in all sorts of
weather. I souetimes Let home at niblat soakinL wet, then help
about surer, and later have to study lessons until eleven o'clock.
Next morninL, we beLifl to stir at dayliLht. Day after day. It
XIMMMR kind ol wears you down. I'm nearly throuuh hi,h school,
but It Loin' to quit. I know when I Lot enoubh. I think I'd like
to live as itt,y older sister
does. She tramped down the
4
mountain to school until she caubht pneu onia and nearly died.
t;er
After she bot well, she went into 14140wfsaaa4 and lived in a
preacher's family for several years
throubh hibh school at the same time. After she bradiated she
0-7-7e 4
married a
A
a job with the C.41,r Zuaher oyipar*. They own their own house
and lot--i-a.u.sa—Ail: six rooi.::s wi
Tbter and el Hctri ci anxi
have an auto and a barden full of vebetables and flowers, and
A-
cute babies and wear nice clothes when they 6o out in the car.
zzy
keens bees in the back yard and sells honey. They have two
L-;147'
'ai4rtoma". Whereat she blushed.
A
"41614%, and if I don't find him, I can cook and aind children.
I don't like iills. I don't like the people there)and I don't like
the confinement. When I work in a nice faaily,I nave pleasanter
company and tore time off. Aaal.0_ Work in a store is A nz confini.
the cooking and
boy who has
V puts up plenty of fruit and ve6etables for the winter,
A
Cu:
and froa tiae to tiae they aro/144inc better furniture the house.
All of that looks 600d to me."
1 "The thiht; for you then," I said,"is to find another
I was raised in the hills, you know."
144)4244.44C:p4.4 had asked nie to coae up to see 6i44, -;e1.67
persuaded Ply old Ford to crawl up -T74:1a4 Creek and over the shoulder
of the mountain. I found hia at his huntini lode, a larLe lob house
of one room with onen fireplace and bunks arranbed around t*e
walls. Plenc.of bear skins for coverinb. He built this lode
about a wile from his house and in the edge of the woods.
He rents it to hunters and fishermen in season.His farA is about
two miles from the boundary line of the 14-eci4k National Forest
and game frequently spills over into his land and his father's )pillair-
adjoining farm. He depends upon it largely for his meat supply,
supplemBnted by his hog pen. This game that wandefs down from the
lorest sometimes proves a nuisance. Bears strip his apple trees,
sometimes breaking the 1:tbs. Once he found a bear wallowing in his
spring. Deer would eat his garden truck had he not fenced it in with
wire. Chicken coops must be protected against weasels and foxes
and possums. These small animals he catches in traps, mainly for
their skins.
Nere you born here?" I asked.
"Right here, on the next farm, my daddy s. I married early and
built the house we are now living in. I had to enlarge it a little
as time went on.It's been a scramble to bet along, but. we have
managed it somehow. My wife was never very strong and she has worked
herself nearly to death. You saw her in the house there to -day.
She looks mithty peaked and she can't do much more now than
look after her chickens and get in the vetetables. I took in
a young woman and her two chillun--a weakminded 6a1 whose
husband had left her --and she does all the heavy work about the
house. We still wash clothes down by the branch that saves totin'
water from the sprint. My two tals help when they cone hone
from school at nithtland they also help hoe corn in the busy season)i
but they don't like it much. They'd ruther work in summer as
6
cooks and waitresses so ag to make money to buy their clothes
and school books and go to the movies. And I don't blame 'em."
"You've given your children a good education," I commented.
"I've done the best I could by 'em. I've had mighty little
schoolinl myself a little in the winter in a loG school house.
We boys thought book learnin' was sort lik o' sissy. We'd ruther
play marbles or hunt possums. I wisht I'd studied more 4)1 can't
spell even now hardly at all and figgerin' comes hard to me."
"How did you manage to bring up a family on this small farm?
I see you don't raise much besides corn and cabbages."
"It was purty hard scratchin•. We had a cow and chickens
and hogs Mid a good garden, and there was game in the woods.
In the winter I did logging with my ox and I sold firewood,
but it was always a scramble to pay taxes and doctors' bills.
lial;gitt;V When my oldest daughter who married was
4 temt
down with pneumonia, the doctor from Bpowriad charged me five dollars
a visit. But I don't blame him. The weather was bad and he had to
plough through the mud coming over the shoulder of the mountain.
When I go down the mountain in my truck in bad weather, I have
to fasten a log to the rear axle with a chain to keep the darned
old truck from slidint down to kingdom come. But it comes Marc rim
a poor man to pay five dollars a visit to a doctor, 'specially when
he comes often."
"But you make something on your hunting lodge."
"Yes, that Ft hello. Some of the same hunters coine every year
even front as far away as Ohio and In-dian. They get to be almost
7
like the family. They are a jolly bunch. When they code, the
chillun think it's almost as 600d as the circus. I sometimes
take the family up to the lode after supper and we tell jokes
and sine till the roof nearly comes off. I act as buide for them
in the Forest)and we sell them chickens and ebe,s and honey and
vebetables. When they bo, they often leave us a600d lot of
canned 600ds and other odds and ends. They are mi6hty esood fellows."
"What do you do after tne huntinb season is over?"
4 I, n
1 I haul lo 6s in my old truck+6.whenever it takes a notion to
run-.A.from the other end of the county to the C41332/iumberiompany.
Last summer I was pretty hard put to it to pay ay taxes. I was only
A401/
a few jumps ahead of the sheriff, so I went to work for the E8ka442%
cibarette paper mill when they started to put up their buildin6s.
I worked there until the huntinb season opened. The sheriff never
bot me."
"You have only one son," I believe.
"Only one, about brown. He sta:cd at home durinb all the
hard times. Most boys did. They couldn't 6et work in towns,
stayed on
so they alualimamitthe farms where they could at least 6et shelter
and a bite to eat. My boy now has a steady job with the
mill and still lives at home. He will soon buy himself an
old car. And I reckon he'll be marryin. one of these days.
Most of lest do©"
hog.04-/
There was very little readin- matter in the Baryitftta4. home
except a few ma6azines the hunters had left. No books to 8_11teak of.
subscribed to no newspapers, but his married daughter
took an Asheville daily newspaper and she sometimes gave a bundle
of papers to her father. The family were grateful for any
picture magazines friends mitht give then. They had no radio.
They attended the Tik-Pk-e
Creek 3717,tist Church.
"Do you go to church retularly?" I asked BAynard.
"Yes, more or
"What do you do there?"
I sometimes
my baby, junior in hith school, who can tell you more
about the church than I can."
AL
was flittint joyously about the place 1 peepinb in at the younb
chickens, gatherinf a handful of flowers, or sto pint to listen to
take a nap," he said with a brin. "But here comes
just released from school for the summer vacation,
the babblinb of the brook.
I said, "our dad has just told me he bets a nap in
church. Is that so?"
"You bet he toes to sleep every warm day. He wouldn't wake up
if Gabriel blowed his trumpet." Her eyes twinkled.
"And do you to to church to get a nap," I asked.
"No, sir I 6o to sine, and to see people. Daddy does the sleeping
for the family, Mom does the praying, and I and Tha do the sinting.
When we sin 6 ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, I feel like marchint ur the
aisle, out the side door, and around and around the .church.
It makes me feel all-over-ish. And I lik that hymn about the
P"
cherubim and seraphim castin down their crowns alone; the glassi5ASIAL.
9
I don't know what the sea looks like)but I can just see then golden
crowns whirling through the air. It rakes Ae think of bi6 snow
amas flakes swirlint, down."
"I supIose you never look at the boys when you go to church,"
I ventured.
"Now you are getting at it," chuckled her father.
dropped her eyes for a second."Most of the boys are not
worth looking at, but there are one or two nice ones."
"One or two7lau6hed her father. "This week it's Johnny and
next week it's Bill. Nobody can tell which way the cat will
"The cat's not juAling just yet", lau6hed
I suppose you are tlad to et horie for the suer vacation," I
suggested.
"Yes,
I'm having a lot of fun with the little deer that
stra,yed in here from the Forest. We cave it Ailk one day and now
it coes back every day for its bottle. It runs around the house like
a do. It's really a Hlenber of the family. I expect to see it come
to the table someday. We've put a little bell on it and named it
Nancy. It's cute as it can be."
j
Isn only afraid, said 113143wiapd .vealay aerlauRly, 'that some
of them hellians across the creek will kill it soAeday.If th42
"Well, I iliust
be gettint on back down the mountain," I said.
alkimoe Arir
"Think it over, krou know my aunt wants you to come
A_
this summerowParg—Lor—..11.e.r... Th6 only l'7oTe 11 Ylt7717/111 he to
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