Document text
4)ril 6 17, 1939.
Jim tocDowell (nuro),
rryon, L.
io
laborer.
Adyleen c.ikierrick, writer.
Mary it. xi4;orthrop, revisor.
DLit"
1.0riuk1 names
Jim LcDowell
Sis Ueori,ie
Asheville
iaudin's creek
horse -hoe -,:urve
Atluda
Capin Chase
:kook liff
Velrose Lt.
Caps': Jarrett
,ryon
Gentry Redding
illa
kr. Geor6e
Cnikaimili DAUM&
Joe iatterson
6is thetay
Asheville
Carters* Creek
hair kin Curve
ticome
Capin losks
iii4t Cliff
Ae.phtil t.
.per, j0144
Hotvale
Larry Thompson
r. henry.
WJq qiimosita
The thicket on the all pushed dogwood and redbud towards
the sun and Joe waa planting in the flat patch below,
putting in early vegetables. It wasn't his gardeh, it was
Jis -etsy's, but she had gohe wrong ih the head and couldn't
work it. :evel-al months before Atte,/ had suffered a atroke.
-he had sua-ie:Aly felt queer ev,d ill one zorning while work—
ing it. ner white folks kitchen. No one knows just when this
stroke cae but later w,,en they fou:4 her lyi in tne
kitchen se waa u!,conacious, her right aide helploass
After a etay of several month in the hospital where
she responded to the care and treatiLeht _iven her, ,Attay
was sufficiently recovered to be taken home to her little
cubin alt:1 after a while was stron< enough to "it about
sort cC carefta like." lier mind soe dais would be reasonably
clear and tneh would codas tie ahadowe when -tettii iiined
she was being spied upon, or that people were getting Ler
roney which hid a.:43 then could not ftld again. Upon
these occasion se gri.w particularly cunail and evaded
the watchfulness of ttw,ae io waited upon ,ler. he would
pour i7to the ear of s.isitra tales of ill treat‘Lent from
them and tell how people were stealihg all she had.
Now 6is etay hung cver V:ze feL.ce watchir,g Joe with
the uncertain stare of the sick and weary. tier head was
bound in a healing rag to cure the pain and the Mn of her
faded old gingham dress brushed the ground. joe was clearing
the patch for more rams and made a big pile of trash and
rocks in the fence corner. is Betsy talked and talked to
him, telling him senseless mumbled things. Every now and
then be flung back a patient answer but Sis Betsy paid no
attention. She didn't bother Joe. Be was glad to have
her there because it kept her out of mischief. Since she
had first been taken with spells she had been like a bad
child and it was a job to watch her. She had &twirl loved
her garden and Uncle Joe hoped the sight of the work being
dions might steady her mind.
for a long while I sat an a stump at the edge of the
thicket and watched them. After a time is Betsy's interest
legged and she wandered off, singing a high-pitched tuneless
song with words that were only sounds. It was so areal' that
Joe wiped his face and shivered.
*Aye. Land." he said. °Ste Betsy sho is wand/man'
without no staff.
°I seed you sittin. there, honey. but I knowed you'd
wait till Sic Betsy left so us could talk. Just drop
down here by you and rest a spell. because I mean to tell
you what I can remember about the days dons gone.
81 hope you'll souse the way I looks. I Just come off
work and 'lowed I'd ley out is Betsy's garden while the day
was fair and time 0 the moon was right for plantins.*
The legs of his patched work breeches were stuffed into
rubber boots that came above his knees. His ragged cotton
underwear and faded denim shirt showed from under a torn
army coat. A piece of flannel about his neck kept out the
damp, he said. Around his wrists sweat -blackened leather
armlets were tied with 8turnbacks* to word off cramps from
heavy lifting. A wreck of an army hat ley beside him on
the ground.
"I tint 4ot no way in toe world if Wilke to the day
bow old I is, he said, "but I come here to live Wan I was
Just a chap. tle used to belong to Mr. Bony Hampton, least-
wise the old folk.* did, and we lived down yonder on his
plantation near Green River.
*Grandpa got sold away from urandme eadurint the war
and me tint never hoard tell of him since. Ma went to
Tennessee to work and I VS4 born there. Then us come on
to Asheville and Ma stayed with Miss Gallagher till she
died. I can't remember such about taat time or how it was,
beim' so little. I heard folks say La had a mighty hard
time. I stowed on with Miss Gallagher. was raised fron
her cupboard and sus turned in and whipped me whenever she
took a notion, just like Ma would& done.
'I went to work on the Southern Hallroad when I was
Just a chap. Started ia as a water boy totinl a bucket o'
water backiards and foreards to t.e section hands. soon
as I vowed up and was stout enough I come to to section
hand, Win' iron and placins crossties for the now rail-
road from Asheville to Charleston. I worked on that Job
twenty-two years, and them was; worige plass. I mad a
train load of old -t1 me engines go by today and it she took
as back in sly mind. May was amain' taws old engines to
the sorapyard. I bet I've rid some of those as engines
one time or another, and I know in rtsson some a 'en got
away an a1udaarads and come rum/31in' on does the mountain.
some tims they made out to stay on the track till they got
to you aids of Carter's Croak trestle *nu struck the up
grade again an the :-Jouth Carolina side, but most times
the'd get to swinging around the bends about Hair in
Curve and wreck up 0064 where 'long the line. It was always
Just Latch and go from the time those enkiines started down
telecom, Grade as to whiter they'd mak* it safe or not.
Capen Ross used to tell be always said him a prayer for
safety before ever his train started down the mountain.
°I've !Wowed the time when us cleared away twentyosewan
wrecks in one month, workin' in the rain and standin, up to
our Jobs till the way was cleared, nemmine 'bout bein' tiredi
%hole trains of coal cars would get loose some times and
sent was there a scatterment. Us niggsra would h'ist coal
till our arms seem like would cows loose at the sockets.
It took time to clear track after a coal wreck.
*Rainy summers, it would be landslides. I remember one
in particular "men there come a big slid* at High Cliff.
Seemed like the whole side of Hemphill Mountain come down
and eettled in a big cut on the railroad. Ss worked tiara*
months cloarine it off the track. had to build a spur
plumb around it, too and besides. Trains run first far
as the slide whirrs we was workin, at, and when the whistle
blood to let us know they was comint Capon Jesse would
holler, 'Lay off, jou niggsro, and beep transfer passengers.'
"It would tickle some of 'em, but others didn't care
to get out and walk around no landslide and they'd get pretty
mad about so much discommodint. After we got the spur built
trains could go round tas slide, but Lawdt how that track
would give and settle. Us always belt our breath, I'd
a-ruther walked, mpself.
fthils us was on taat Job one o' the section hands got
kilt. Btg rock slid on him and he never drawled another
breath. He never bad no family as we know'd of so Cap'n
Jones say *lido or no slide, he aimed to see that pore
Poe Doe got burial,
no took Poe Des to the old Prison Stockade not far
from where we was workinl. Back in slavery time when they
was first building t1 railroad it train load of flatcars
loaded with prisoners going to work* run away damn the grade
and wrecked Just yoa side 0 hair Fin Curve and kilt about
thirty o' the hands. They was all buried in one corner of
the old stockade and that's where we put Pee Dee at. I've
seed the place many's the times
°In them days we'd clean tracks from Asheville to
Charleston* picking up rock and dirt ell along the way.
han we'd get to Charleston we'd dump the load in swamps
along the water trent where they was making new ground.
Us Wends used to like those trips. B4411 would give us
time off after we got in, train unloaded and us could
ramble round Charleston for a good spell before time to
head back.
"One afternoon I was walking track fraa hotvale to
welcome and I come upon Mr. Larry Thompson nigh haaphill
siding. He had been getting out big timber at the railroad
tracks an the mountain side and a big log had done got away
from him and come plunging down on to uvw track with such a
rush it missmatched the rails. Mr. Larry was seared plumb
to death. heJaldn't know whichaway to run for lolp and he
never knoved woon a train would come tearing round the bend
and wreck up.
NI told him ifln he'd mind tne lower side to flag a
train I'd walk on where I had my tools hid about a mile beyond.
I put out a tar peter (tor?edo) before I started Lack with a
crowbar and wrench to ‘,.,ive a flag warning. Then I cola on
back to where tae trouble was. I knocked 'And prised till
got the rail uack in shape and pretty soon number eased on
down the grade and went on by. I struck out to the station
at .i,elrose and reported to the boss. de brought a crew up to
check the work, and I forgot all about it after that.
"ithen pay day ease I arawed my envelope same as the
rest, aria the man what give 'em to us say, 'Here's one more
for you, Joe! hen I open that other envelope, there was
thirty dollars for Le for fixin' the track, and a letter
telline me how much the railroad IpreciaU:d my helpin'
'em out. I don't know when I ever had anything do me as
much good. I got the letter yet. I'll show it to you some
time. It say in part if I hadn't acted 4uiok there sho
woulda bean a wreck. hat's right, too."
"I staid workinl on the railroad till Lille, my wife,
got so pally, then I quit so I could be home with her.
Fore Lille, she died three years ago st,.,a stems like
can't take up life *here I laid it down when she died.
The little ola house wasn't same as common no &Aare so I
deeded it to my three children. I still keeps a room there
and hob and his wife does for tie, but I don't like to
stay there /cept to +sleep. I speck you know it's 'cause
I calls to mind toumuch about the old days.
"Durin° war tiue I bot escript*o and tney sent ma to
Detroit to work in John lienry Ford's shops. I was a moulder.
I had to stay up there three lon /*are. and Lewd! was I glad
to bet hone. It looks like the white folks up there don't
understand nib4,ers like tney do down hero.
"I west to ,,lataama with kr. ne.try on after I coit.
back from -detroit. He say us was prospeotin'. r.4.-orge
sho was a case He was 400d to *mask but i...aed! how de loved
Lis liquor. C'ne LILA e say to me, Joe, us zoinl out to
arch fcr coal and os aint comin' back to tad ca Qp till
'1.13 finds it.' Iofitift /Aii rit, Lvdd.' F. Lienry Sado
frj uti up socae chicken and ooll us *owe ebbs.
Lae a oie, ol Us 46oin' af from nere.'
%hen it come the to leave, Lr. henry, he come out
to where I was at and handed we one bottle and kept another
for hiaself. -.say *e mint itiet sick ana need a dram. I
knowed t;.e sin s all ribr.t. so I .t,ot ready to look after
r.teary. he'd b,et awful rough wen he was drunk.
e rode alone, for a sell aE.4 toreckly ir. henry say.
'I'm feelin. weak. It's time for a dr.' it went on till
I begun to _et sort o' worried. seed 1.4.. -.enry was
getting pretty nibn and I uidn't want to be miAed up in no
trouble. e finally stopped to eat lunch and after that
kr. Henry dropped off to sleep. I watched him a lo ug time to
make sho he was sieepin. and I slipped hi a bottle outa hie
hand sad put all the salt in it cook bad doaa alve us for
eating aith the hard boiled ega. All afternoon tai. iienry
would take another nip, then sow* more, aad I'd spill my
dram over the aide of tae car and tell aia I was kespinl
even with him. aenry act 11 e be was turniai aaaethins
over in his mind. I knowed then the salt was workin' and be
was e.alttin' sober.
"Toreckly he stopped the car audflu that empty liquor
bottle far as he could *end it into tae usbee, and he says
to ma, 'Late get on back to camp, Joe. Linn if that liquor's
got any authorAj at alit'
"I ,-ot two ot mi fingers nurt last sear 1pia' settle
machinery at tne new ice plant and they had to be took off,
like you sae tam.; is. That laid me off a spell and when I
got over the hurting in lay haad the county nurse got as put
on this here A road w_rk. I'm a-doin' that now. Us
worked from tne ,:Taarry pluab to elcoae Lakin' over the
roads.
14 on
day we waa laatin' out roaas ia LA middle of the
road. I was carryins off a bit.chuak taraw to the bank
wen I a ed somethini curious-lookini on the uuder side.
Taey was little blue racks 'bout aize of your little finger
nail, a hole heap of tem fastened to tie rock. I atAered
me up a handful and put Itril in my pocAt, and that nit
whiles I *as u L -von I showed tem to a white entleman I
kn-wed. His eyea aort of flew wide and ha sais to me ri4Lt
(pick, t;i11 you kart with 'am? ha offered me thirty dollars
for the dandful and I ay, t!$lister, you done bought you
some rocka.' o
ekt nigAt re hunted ale u and a1 could I brihg him
some more. I went back up the road and hunted and I found
a few scatOerint ones, but the D14: rocks wes done oovered
up. r.zi seemed rio t outoone when I told blni and
sort of ispicious. ,hat you spose then:, OCks turned out to
be, and me not able t find ho more? blue ditzondsi :clue
calls 'em sapl,hires. And I'd done sold four huhdred dollars
*ortn of tem for thirty dollarsi Every once in a while
go back to tie place and di6 but I aint _ever found that
rock jet. :(Alje clay -oint to findw,.cre tnam blue
dilmonds is at, and witeaI does--
olka used to come out to the place wiAlre 1 worked
at a:A search for Lidlan treaaure. J.dere was a mound aearby
that some aal was *1,ere the Indians boricd at, tot if you'll
0.1re it attentioi w:ienever you do find oae, it'll oho be
marked by a pine tree apan on top of it, and 4ou'll always
find some thin6 like a hatonet, aome thil like an arrow,
and some tnir, reseal:lin' a creatre of some sort. It'a
just like the Indians thataway. I've found all kinds of
Indian plunder lon side t:le mou:itains, 'swat ever./ kind of
arrowasad. Indiana fit all abo-,it ia taese parts, but. taat
were lo a6 tefore my tie. 1 get to atudyin. some time 'bout
hwit oa6 it muata took 'am to
it arr.,*!‘ead aria 00WS,
ad L ii 'uout t. ous :.tey tell me
Indians m.itanipl,,ea vaminta. Is you heard ti.at e'