710 research outputs found
Edith Södergran
No full textShort presentation of Finland-Swedish author Edith Södergran and translation of four poem
Historic Webster Vol. 9 No. 4
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.HISTORIC~
11 r w :, I e: t e 1 o f 1 tv; Web s 1 e 1 H 1s t o 1 1 c a I Soc 1 e t y 1 n c
V-O-LU-ME- I-X, -NU-M-BE-R -4 --W-E-BS-TE-R, ~NO~RT~H CAROLINA WINTER, 1983
Edith Moore Hall, Mountain Lady
David McKee and Edith Moore Hall were in Webster when this photograph was
made. They were married in 1915 and moved to Sylva where Hall was in business.
The Webster School and the Courthouse are in the background.
By Hannah Lou Rawlson
On a frosty morning ,
February 18, 1898, Edith Enloe
Moore was born at 25 Oak
Street, Asheville, the first born
of Frederick and Lelanora
Enloe Moore. In the following
years she was joined by
Frederick, Jr ., Margaret
Hooker, William Enloe, and
Daniel Killian Moore.
When she was ten her father
passed away. His dying wish
was for the family to move to
Dillsboro, to be near her
mother's family. Following a
year in Dillsboro, Lela Enloe
Moore decided to move her
family to Webster because of
the excellent school there. And
when Edith was eleven years
old they moved into the Terrell
house. Soon though they moved
to the Hedden home.
During her years in Webster
she studied art and music
under the able direction of
Mrs. Robert Lee Madison. Today
you can see the results of
her art classes on the walls of
her home in Sylva. There are
various pastoral scenes and a
number of Gibson Girl
portraits.
One of her fondest memories
is of the Christmas season.
First, there was the opening of
gifts under the Christmas tree
at their home, then on to the
Lewis Broyles for Christmas
breakfast. She says she can
still taste Aunt Lily Broyles'
delicious boiled custard and
pound cakes. At night there
was the sumptuous Christmas
dinner at the home of Scroup
Enloe, Edith 's uncle, in
Dillsboro where all the family
gathered.
While living in Webster she
met and fell in love with David
McKee Hall, the eldest son of
L. C. and Hannah McKee Hall.
They were married Monday,
May 31st, 1915.
To this union were born five
children. The first was
Margaret Moore Hall (Mrs.
Joe Dowdle who now lives in
Continued on page 2
Edith Enloe Moore was born in Asheville in 1898. She was eight
months old when this Taylor photograph was made. After her father's
death, the family moved to Webster and was a school girl when this
photograph was taken. In 1981 the portrait of Edith Moore Hall was
painted by Laura Shuford, an Asheville artist.
Page 2, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter, 1983
Edith Hall inspires the family and COl
Continued from page 1
Asheville). David McKee Hall,
Jr., came next and at his death
was a member of the United
States Congress. Carolyn Hall
was next in line but she lived
only four years. Robert
Cromwell Hall was number
four. He is now vice-president
of North Carolina National
Bank in Asheville. Lela Moore
Hall was the baby of the family
and at her retirement was
head of the Welfare Department
of New Hanover County
in Wilmington.
Following the marriage
Edith and David moved to
Sylva where David was in
business. He owned and
operated the Sylva Supply
Store which is still an important
store in the town. They
lived first in the old Commercial
Hotel, which does not exist
today. They next moved into
the J ames McKee home
(James McKee was an uncle
of David's) where they stayed
until moving into the home on
Keener Street where she lives
today.
In September, 1938, death
claimed her husband and left
her with three children to put
through college and a son who
was crippled with osteomyelitis.
In 1944 Mrs. Carrie Bryson,
the house mother of Moore
Dormitory (named for Edith's
uncle Judge Walter E. Moore)
at Western Carolina Teachers
College, was leaving her position
to become the dietician
and manager of the college
dining room. Dr. H. T. Hunter,
president, and Ralph Sutton,
business manager of the college
came to see Edith and
asked her to take the job of
house mother. She insisted
that she was not capable of doing
the job. They told her that
they would be the judge of that
and if she would take the job
they would both shout. She
said she would do it if for no
other reason than to hear them
shout. She remained at the college
and university for twentythree
years where she was
also Assistant Dean of Women.
During the 1960's a favorite
prank of the men students was
a panty raid on the girls' dormitories.
When Moore Dormitory's
time came Edith Hall
met them at the back parlor
door as they were sneaking inside.
She slapped the first boy
who came through the door in
the face. She said, "There is
not one gentleman in this
crowd or you would not be acting
like hoodlums." Unable to
get past Edith the panty raid
was a failure. To the best of
anyone's knowledge, this was
the only panty raid in the
United States that was stopped
by a house mother.
In 1959 she was honored by
the State of North Carolina as
Mother of the Year.
When Edith retired, the girls
in her dormitory donated
money to have her portrait
painted. This picture was to
remain in the lobby of Helder
Dormitory. This was given in
love and appreciation for her
many years of service and
devotion to her job and to
The Moore children, Edith, William, Dan, F re(
house.
Western Carolina University.
David Hall: farmer, businessman Following her retirement
she did not sit back and take
things easy however. She has
been very active in the Sylva
United Methodist Church,
president of the C. J. Harris
Hospital Auxiliary, an officer
in Daughters of American Colonists
local chapter and the
Twentieth Century Club, and
on the board of the American
Cancer Society whose job was
to raise funds.
By Joe P. Rhinehart
Though a business and civic
leader in Jackson County,
David McKee Hall seems to
have had as his first love, his
land, his farm. He was successful
in business, and as a
young man, twenty six years
old, he took over the Sylva
Supply Company, and with his
business ability, he made it into
Jackson county's best
known store. He later engaged
in other business ventures -
the Sylva Supply Market, the
Mercantile Supply, the Pure
Oil Company - but farming
was his life.
Born in Webster at Sunnybrook
Farm in 1887, the son
of L. Coleman and Hannah
McKee.Hall, David attended
the Webster and Cullowhee
schools. He then left Jackson
County to attend North
Carolina State University in
Raleigh where he studied
agriculture.
The Jackson County Journal
said that he was "born and
bred on the farm." He was
"especially interested in the
farms and farmers of the
county, and endeavored in
many ways to better conditions
on the farms and to promote
better agricultural
methods, both in production
and in marketing. The results
of his labors along this line will
be felt in the county for many
years. He believed in good
farms , good homes, good
crops, good stock , good
marketing, and hard intelligent
and telling work, and
that in them lay the future prosperity
of the county, for he
realized the independence of
all the people of the town and
county."
David Hall married Edith
Moore in Webster in 1915, and
they became the parents of
five children, Margaret,
David, Carolyn, Robert, and
Lela Moore. They moved to
Sylva where he managed the
Sylva Supply. Mr. Hall passed
away in Sylva on September
30, 1938, a respected farmer,
businessman, and civic leader.
David McKee Hall was a
direct descendant of the
Reverend Joshua and Sara
Sellers Hall who came to this
area in the early 1800's. Their
oldest son, Joshua Hall, Jr.,
was married to Mary Jane
(Jennie) Queen in 1807. David
Fonzie Hall was their first
child, born on Savannah.
Following his marriage to
Rachel Wilson they made their
home in Webster. To this union
were born three children,
Lucius Coleman, Mary Jane
(Molly), and Laura. Lucius
Coleman married Magdelean
Angeline Allison. They had one
child, Florence. After the
death of Magdelean Angeline,
L. C. Hall married Hannah
Margaret McKee. To this
union were born three
children, Rachel Grace, David
McKee, and Lucius Coleman.
David McKee Hall married
Edith Moore in 1915.
Young David McKee Hall
David McKee Hall became the husband
of Edith Enloe Moore in 1915.
It was in 1959 that Edith Hall
was named North Carolina 's
Mother of the Year. It is true
that Mrs. Hall has presided
over nearly every club and
organization, civic and
religious and patriotic, in
Jackson county, but becoming
Mother of the Year is her
greatest honor and her most
natural one.
She and David Hall had five
children. Carolyn, their second
daughter, died at fou r .
Margaret married and lived in
Franklin until she moved to
Asheville to teach at the
Eliada Home for Children. She
has two children, Charles and
Carolyn in Franklin.
David, a Jackson county
lawyer, lived in Webster until
he was elected to the United
States Congress and moved to
Washington. He died in 1960.
His wife, Sarah McCollum and
their daughters Anne, Allison,
and Hannah live in Virginia.
Robert and Anne Osborne
Hall live in Asheville where he
is vice president of the North
Carolina National Bank. Their
children, Robert, Allen, and
David are Asheville residents.
Lela Moore Hall has retired
as Director of Social Services
for New Hanover County,
Wilmington, and now lives in
Sylva.
Winter, 1983, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Page 3
nmunity with love and understanding
!erick and Margaret, in front of their Asheville The Hall family home, Riverview, in Webster, sits on the banks of the Tuckaseigee River.
Four children who are her
monuments to motherhood
plus all the hundreds of
students she influenced at
Western Carolina University
plus the hundreds of children
and their children who use the
Jackson County Library
where she instituted the
Friends of the Library plus
children whose futures she
guided in PTA .. plus ... the
list could just go on- a monument
to the mother.
Her friends, neighbors, and
relatives recognize Edith
Moore Hall for all the things
she is.
"She is a devout Christian
woman and mother embodying
the Christian virture of
love and service in the finest
ways," wrote the Reverend
Milford V. Thumm, the former
minister of the Cullowhee
United Methodist Church.
Ann Enloe, her cousin in
Dillsboro, says, "She is the
proverbial 'Pillar of strength.'
All my life the whole family
has always been prone to 'call
Edith' or 'send for Edith' or
'tell Edith' first in any family
crisis."
Mrs. Reid, former Western
Carolina University president's
wife, in her nomination
of Mrs. Hall for Mother of the
Year, said, " Mrs. Hall comes
as close to being the idea
mother as it is possible for
anyone to be. She has inspired
not only her own four children
but all who know her because
of her unfailing courage, her
strength in the face of adversity,
her calmness and her
cheerfulness. Many of these
qualities are hers because of a
deep, abiding faith in God. She
has been tested many times,
some would feel that she has
had more than her share of
trials and tribulation, but her
courage has never weakened,
and she has given strength to
those about her. Above all,
Mrs. Hall enjoys life, and she
makes life pleasant for all who
come in contact with her. She
has poise, charm, and warm
friendliness. She loves people
and understands them, and
she is always ready to help
them. In return people love
her.''
Hannah Lou Brown Rawlson
is a frequent contributor to
Historic -Webster. She is a student
of local and family
history.
The Hedden House in Webster, home for eleven years, and the Sylva Supply
have been very important in Edith Hall's life.
The
Hall
Children
Carolyn
Margaret Moore
Robert Cromwell
David McKee
Lela Moore
Page 4, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter, 1983
Reflections by Janice Monteith Blanton
David McKee Hall, Jr.
The David Halls were my " employers" during my
teens in Webster. Come to think of it, many of my
neighbors were my employers in one way or another
as I grew up- I was a hairdresser for some, a cleaning
lady for others, and for the David Halls, a baby
or " child" sitter, as I'm sure their three daughters
would have preferred at the time I be called.
On the nights or weekends when I stayed with the
Hall girls, David (Mr. Hall as I called him) would
always pick me up and take me home. He'd pull up
in front of our house, usually on the way home from
the office, in his big black Buick (I think it was a
Buick), I'd jump in the car and away we'd "fly"
down the Webster hill to his house. Being paralyzed
from the waist down, David used a cane to accelerate
and brake the car. This, added to the fact that he was
a VERY fast driver, often served to raise the hair
on my head as we sped down the hill. Many times,
I silently wondered if we weren't going to end up in
the Allman's living room at the deep curve above the
River. Sometimes I suspected he gave me these exciting
rides just to test my nerves or for the pure fun
of it.
himself. Rather, he appeared to me to be a man with
very high goals and objectives which he was determined
to achieve.
Family-wise, I believe David was a lucky man. He
had an absolutely lovely wife and three beautiful, intelligent
daughters who thought their father was
a great guy. In fact, his beautiful wife was one of his
greatest assets and a great contributor to his
achievements. Mrs. Hall was one of the most
graceful and elegant women I've ever seen. Tall with
sparkling black hair and a very soft spoken voice and
sweet smile, she was very much in control of herself
and the Hall family arena. She was the "enabler"
in the family- the one who made things happen. She
was the organizing and stabilizing force of the family
and a very strong and compassiona te woman.
Child-sitting for the Halls meant that I saw very
little of Mr. and Mrs. Hall themselves. However, I
remember my teen-age interaction with that family
and feel very proud to say, "I used to baby-sit for the
Halls," because I admired the David Hall family
very much and feel that families like this are what
made Webster such a great place for me to grow up.
Edith Hall's family recipe
for pound cake
By Edith Moore Hall
This recipe was given to me by my greatgrandmother,
Mrs. Jack Allison, who got it from her
mother, " Nanny" Bryson.
POUND CAKE
1 pound butter
1 V. pounds white sugar
1 pound eggs ( 11)
1 pound flour
11h teaspoons vanilla
1'h teaspoons lemon
11! teaspoon salt
Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the flour and
eggs alternately, in small quantities, stirring constantly
until all are added. Mix in vanilla, lemon, salt
and beat well. Bake in a pan with a stem which has
been buttered and floured at 350• for 11h hours or until
done when tested with a broom straw.
With this cake at Christmastime, we like to serve
ambrosia. To one quart of orange sections, membrane
removed, add one quart sliced bananas and
one cup of freshly grated coconut. Sweeten to taste
and chill before serving.
I liked David and I certainly admired him. He was
instinctively likeable, very kind and friendly to me,
and my observation was that he thought a great deal
of his family and they of him. Usually when I was
there they were on their way somewhere so my opportunity
for observation was really minor, but the
children's Jove and admiration for their parents
came through in many ways in their absence. Once
David was playing some kind of hand game with the
children and they wanted him to try it with me. I approached
his wheelchair a little apprehensively and
he grinned and asked me to close my hand into a fist.
Then he pressed a spot on my wrist and asked me
to open my hand - I couldn't do it! The girls got a
great kick out of this.
Edith Moore Hall provided
home and support for family
I admired David because, in spite of his handicap,
he had in my opinion achieved considerable success,
both materially, career-wise, and family-wise.
Evidence of material success could be seen in the
Hall house - a lovely old, and beautifully restored,
house on the Tuckasegee River. Being a lover of
history and particularly of old houses, I was
delighted with the frequent opportunities for sitting
at the Halls. To me, spending time there was a
somewhat romantic experience and, I suppose, offered
me opportunity to dream of the day when I'd
Jive in such a home and setting myself. At times, the
girls and I would go out to the shallow parts of the
river and play and throw stones, and I would
periodically glance back at the house and revel in its
stately beauty. The house was essentially divided into
the "back" and "front. " The back part of the house
consisted of the den, kitchen, bath, and one bedroom,
and this was the heated area of the house where the
family Jived. The girls' rooms were in an upstairs
attic-type section off the den. I would go up and turn
on space heaters for them some time prior to their
bedtime so their rooms would be warm when they
went to bed. Being an adult who has to pay heating
bills on a large two-story house, I can now understand
the practicality of this arrangement. Actually,
the only other area of the house I ever saw in my
periodic stays at the Halls was the living room and
front foyer. I saw this area one Christmas when the
girls took me to see their large Christmas tree
located in the foyer. Now, you'd think that as intrigued
as I was with the house, I would have asked
the girls to see the rest of it or slipped around and
looked at the other rooms when they were asleep, but
I didn't. I stayed there all those times dying to see
the remainder of the house, but too conscientious to
peep and too backward or self-conscious to ask!
Career-wise, David, from all appearances had a
successful law practice. Also, at the time I stayed
with them he was a state senator; this perhaps
precipitated many of their social engagements at the
time. As a young person I was very impressed with
his professional status and personal achievements
because I surmised that to accomplish what he had
with his handicap must have required a great determination
and "stick-tuitiveness" which many socalled
normal people don't have. In my contact with
David, I never heard him complain or feel sorry for
By Dan K. Moore
I could write a book about my relationship with
David and Edith Hall, both one-time residents of
Webster. The legal relationship, that of sister and
brother-in-Jaw is only a foundation on which many
years of Jove, assistance, and support have been
built.
My mother, Lela Enloe Moore, died while I was a
freshman at the University of North Carolina. Since
my father had died several years previously,
thereafter, I made my home with my sister Margaret
Council and her husband Jim and Edith and David
- mostly with the Halls as Margaret and Jim frequently
moved because of Jim's work.
To say that the Halls furnished me a home is to tell
only a small part of the story. David provided me
with a job during vacation at the Sylva Supply or the
Mercantile Supply, he endorsed my notes at the oid
Tuckaseigee Bank so that I could complete my
education at the University and its Law School, but
equally important, both Edith and David always
gave me the support, encouragement, and advice
that every young person so badly needs.
When I returned to Sylva to begin my career as a
lawyer, I again had a home with the Halls plus their
continued assistance in every way possible, and it
was not until 1933, when Jeanelle and I were married
and established our own home, that I left the
Halls.
To summarize, life as I knew it, would have been
impossible without the Halls, otherwise, I might
never have studied Jaw or followed the path which
later took me from Sylva into different fields and opportunities.
To say that I will forever be grateful to
the Halls is the biggest understatement of the century.
Actually, words are insufficient to express this
gratitude.
By Margaret Moore Council
Edith Moore Hall has been more than a sister to
me since our father, Judge Frederick Moore, died
when I was not quite six years old. She, the oldest
of five children, helped our mother, Lela Enloe
Moore, rear us. While we thought she was often pretty
" bossy," as the years passed we reauze that this
was part of the responsibility thrust upon her when
she was only ten years old.
When Edith married David McKee Hall and moved
to Sylva, she was greatly missed in our Webster
home, but we soon realized that now we had two
homes, as she and David always made us feel so
welcome.
Our mother, having moved to Sylva, died in
February, 1924. After a brief attempt to keep her
home open, we rented it and made the Hall home our
headquarters. At that time my brother Fred was
working in Lafayette, Georgia, Dan and Enloe were
in school in Chapel Hill, and I was teaching in
Brevard.
My husband, James H. Council, and I were married
in the Sylva Methodist Church and our wedding
reception was given by the Halls in their home. Jim
was immediately absorbed into the family and has
loved and honored Edith and David as I have. Among
our happiest memories are those holidays spent with
them and their four children in their hospitable
home.
By Jeanelle C. Moore
My experience involving a relationship with Edith
and David Hall was one of the most rewarding and
happiest of my life. In 1933 I came to Sylva as the
bride of a handsome, young attorney Dan Moore,
brother of Edith. And if I had been hand-picked and
approved my first welcome into the wide, wonderful
world of the Moore family could not have been
more genuine and loving- a relationship which exists
today after fifty happy years of marriage to that
lawyer.
Edith became my sister, advisor only when I
sought advice, and my friend. Perhaps I can best explain
how I felt about this wonderful lady by telling
you that when our first child, a daughter, was born
·it was my expressed wish that
Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan
No full textTen thousand years before Neolithic farmers settled in permanent villages, hunter-gatherer groups of the Epipalaeolithic period (c. 22–11,600 cal BP) inhabited much of southwest Asia. The latest Epipalaeolithic phase (Natufian) is well-known for the appearance of stone-built houses, complex site organization, a sedentary lifestyle and social complexity—precursors for a Neolithic way of life. In contrast, pre-Natufian sites are much less well known and generally considered as campsites for small groups of seasonally-mobile hunter-gatherers. Work at the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site of Kharaneh IV in eastern Jordan highlights that some of these earlier sites were large aggregation base camps not unlike those of the Natufian and contributes to ongoing debates on their duration of occupation. Here we discuss the excavation of two 20,000-year-old hut structures at Kharaneh IV that pre-date the renowned stone houses of the Natufian. Exceptionally dense and extensive occupational deposits exhibit repeated habitation over prolonged periods, and contain structural remains associated with exotic and potentially symbolic caches of objects (shell, red ochre, and burnt horn cores) that indicate substantial settlement of the site pre-dating the Natufian and outside of the Natufian homeland as currently understood
Una modificación de la doctrina del tiempo y del ser según Edith Stein. : Reflexiones acerca de La filosofía existencial de Martin Heidegger
No full textThe paper analyses the short writing titled Martin Heidegger's Existential Philosophy from Edith Stein. She knows at that time (1935) only the four published texts by Heidegger and has, therefore, a different picture of the author as in present days. Stein argues that what Heidegger calls Being is restricted to the human being. Infinite Being or God is not part of his thought, because his approach aims rather to a human understanding of being than to eternal fullness. For her part, Edith Stein thinks that philosophy has to show the eternal foundation of finite being.El artículo analiza el breve escrito de Edith Stein titulado La filosofía existencial de Martin Heidegger. La autora solo conoce en ese momento (1935) los cuatro textos que Heidegger ha publicado, de modo que tiene una imagen diferente del autor que la actual. Stein argumenta que aquello que Heidegger llama ser se limita a la existencia humana. El Ser infinito o Dios no es parte de sus ideas, pues el enfoque del autor apunta más a la comprensión humana de ser que a la plenitud eterna. Por su parte, Edith Stein estima que la filosofía tiene que mostrar la fundamentación del ente finito en el eterno
Historic Webster Vol. 5 No. 1
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA WINTER, 1978
Congress10an David McKee Hall
The lights burned brightly
that November 4 night in the
old Victorian farm house on
the banks of Webster's
Tuckaseigee River. It was
election night 1958, always an
exciting time in Western
North Carolina. This night
was more so, for it was the
first time a man from west of
the Balsams had been elected
to go to Washington as the
Twelfth District 's Congressman.
No person according
to an Asheville Citizen
editorial was better prepared
by "heritage, training, and
character to represent the
rugged mountain country."
David McKee Hall had that
night reached a peak for
which many only strive. He
had been a most unlikely candidate
for that office, or for
that matter, any office or any
job. David Hall was not a normal
man-not in the sense
that the word is often used. He
had not been normal since he
was fifteen. That was David
Hall's age when he was
stricken by osteomyelitis, a
bone infection that cut his
spinal cord and from 1933
paralyzed him from the waist
down. Never again would he
walk unaided.
Mrs. Edith Moore Hall, his
mother now living in Sylva,
recalls a football game, when
David was twelve, that might
have caused the injury. But it
could have been a number of
factors because David was
just as active as any other
teenager. He hunted and fished
with his father, David Sr.
He swam "like a duck," his
mother said. He picnicked
with his family at Dills Falls.
He was an active Boy Scout.
The illness could have been
the end of the world, for most
people, normal people that is.
The doctors felt his case was
hopeless. His friends felt that
too and often his family was
near despair. But David Hall
did not give up; nor did he
allow anyone else to do so.
He had been a student at
Sylva High School when illness
struck. He did not
graduate, but that did not stop
the studying which enabled
him later to become a special
student at the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Again there was little hope
that he could complete college,
and certainly not the
pre-medical course he at first
attempted, or the law course
to which he changed. Even his
professors, according to his
mother Mrs. Edith Hall, did
not think that he was a student
to be reckoned with
because they felt he would
never live to complete his
studies. And one time he very
nearly didn't.
The phone rang in the Hall 's
Sylva home and university officials
said that David had
been taken to Duke Hospital
with a temperature over 106.
Mrs. Hall should come at
once. Doctor Hedgepath,
head of the medical clinic at
U.N.C. asked permission to
try penicillin which had never
been used with a longstanding
case of osteomyelitis. It
would be an experiment and it
might not work. Its use could
be fatal. David had already
given his consent, but ... The .
treatment was started at 2:00
A.M. By eight the next morning,
David was talking with
his mother on the telephone.
After trips to local
hospitals, hospitals in Atlanta,
Duke and University
Hospitals, David in 1946 went
to the Institute for Crippled
and Disabled in New York City.
Mrs. Dorothy Parris, a
Sylva newspaper woman, was
in New York while David was
an Institute patient. She saw
him, after three months of
concentrated, difficult training,
demonstrate his power
before the Congress of
Physical Medicine. He
jumped to an eighteen inch
high platform, returned to the
floor, and, according to Mrs.
Parris, was up again in less
than thirty seconds. For
David, arms and shoulders
were the key to walking.
Hall did not stay in New
York as the Institute doctors
had hoped he would. He
returned to Chapel Hill and
within two years, again after
concent rated and hard
academic work, often more
than double the number of
courses University students
usually take, completed his
education. By 1948 David Hall
was home in Western North
Carolina, ready to practice
law. He left Chapel Hill with
an outstanding university
record : president of the national
law fraterni ty Phi
Delta Phi, officer of the
University Law Association,
adviser to the dean of men,
president of the dormitory
council, and in 1947 "Law Student
of the Year." He was the
first special student to
graduate from the Carolina
Law School and to receive an
L.L.B. degree.
Hall returned to the mountains
with his wife, Sarah McCollum
from Bradenton,
Florida. She had been his
nurse at Duke Hospital and
they had married in July of
1944. Like his mountain kin,
he was soon involved in the
political, social, and spiritual
life of Jackson County.
The Moore relatives, his
mother 's family, had been in
'Western North Carolina since
1776 when Captain William
Moore, a native of Ireland,
was directed by General Griffin
Rutherford to destroy the
Middle and Valley towns of
the Cherokee. For this mission
he was granted 450 acres
on Hominy Creek in Buncombe
County, where Enka is
now located. Here he built a
house and became the first
white settler to live west of
the French Broad River.
Judge Frederick Moore,
David Hall's grandfather, had
opened his law office in
Webster in 1892 with his
cousin Walter Moore. He
moved to Asheville in 1895,
and in 1898 became a Superior
Court Judge. Walter Moore
also became a Superior Court
Judge, a member of the North
Carolina House of Representatives,
and the only Speaker
of the House from west of
Asheville.
David Hall's grandmother,
Mrs. Lela Enloe Moore,moved
to Webster with her
family after her husband,
J udge Frederick Moore died.
The Moores lived first in the
Terrell house and later in the
Hedden house while the
children attended school
here.
In 1915 Edith Moore, who
later became David's mother,
married David McKee Hall of
Sylva. Through the years she
has continued to carry on the
family tradition of public service.
She has founded and
been president of numerous
civic organizations in many of
which she is still active. The
United Methodist Church of
Sylva counts her as one of its
leading members. She spent
twenty-three years in service
at Western Carolina College,
beginning as a dormitory
hostess and ending as an
assistant Dean of Women. In
1959 Edith Moore Hall was
chosen North Carolina 's
"Mother of the Year". Her
brother Dan practiced law,
became a judge, and was
North Carolina's governor
from 1964-1968. He plans to
retire this year from his position
as an Associate Justice of
the North Carolina ·supreme
Court.
David McKee Hall, Sr. also
had his roots deep in Western
North Carolina history. His
grandfather was Joshua Hall
who left Burke County in 1829
to move west and settled between
Webster and Cowee on
Savannah Creek.
The Hall home here in
Webster had been bought by
David Tonsa Hall who had
been a gold miner. He and his
wife Rachel Wilson lived
there on the banks of the
Tuckaseigee until they passed\
the farm on to Lucius Coleman
Hall and his wife Hannah
McKee. David McKee Hall,
Sr., was born here on the
farm in 1887. After school in
Webster and Cullowhee, he
attended North Carolina A.
and M. (now North Carolina
State University) in Raleigh.
He came back to Jackson
County to operate the
Builder's Supply and later
took over the Sylva Supply.
He passed away in 1938.
It seemed natural that
David and Sarah Hall would
come back to Jackson County,
and it did not take them
long to assume their place in
the community. Within two
years they had bought the
Hall farm and restored the
house to its country Victorian
style.
As a lawyer, Hall was a
member of the American
Bar, the North Carolina Bar,
and the Jackson County Bar
Associations. He became the
attorney for the towns of
Sylva and Webster. He was
Chairman of the Board of the
Continued On Page 2
Congressman David McKee Hall
Page 2, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter 1978
David McKee Hall •••
Continued from page I
Sylva Methodist Church. He
was elected president of the
County Chamber of Commerce,
a worker to employ
the handicapped, secretarytreasurer
of the Jackson
County Savings and Loan
Association, a director of the
United Fund, and Regional
Fund chairman of the Red
Cross. He became a member
of the National Rivers and
Harbors Congress.
In politics, Hall was soon
elected president of the county
Young Democratic Club, a
member of the executive
committee of the North
Carolina Young Democratic
Club, and vice-chairman of
the county Democratic Executive
Committee.
In 1955 David Hall was
elected by the North Carolina
Thirty-second Senatorial
District, made up of
Haywood, Henderson,
Jackson, Polk, and Transylvania
counties to go to
Raleigh as a state senator.
Because of his confinement to
a wheel chair, it was imperative
that he have physical
assistance. And it was this
kind of help that Ernest Burch
continued to render. As Hall's
personal aid in Webster and
Sylva, he accompanied him to
Raleigh. During the senate
session he and his family lived
in the capital in order that he
be readily available, in many
capacities, to Senator Hall.
Burch was also of assistance
to him in those early congressional
days in Washington.
During the early part of his
term as North Carolina
senator, Hall introduced a bill
to reactivate the municipal
government of the Town of
Webster in Jackson County.
The town had been incorporated
in 1859, but after the
county seat was moved to
Sylva in 1913, Webster's
charter had lapsed. In Hall's
bill a mayor, Ernest Penland,
Sr., and five aldermen: Lewis
Cannon, Claude Cowan, Doug
Davis, Goldman Monteith,
and Joe Rhinehart were appointed
to serve until their
successors could be elected
and qualified,
North Carolina's Governor
Luther H. Hodges appointed
Hall to the State Board of
Water Resources in 1956, but
Hall did not complete his
senatorial term.
Two years later, in the May
31, 1958 Democratic primary,
Congressman George
Shuford, the incumbent
representing the Twelfth
District, was nominated for
his third term. In this voting
Shuford had defeated
Waynesville industrialist
Heinz Rollman and three
other candidates. Rollman
had come in second, behind
Shuford by 19,000 votes, in a
hard fought nomination.
During the general election
week, Mr. Shuford was admitted
to an Asheville hospital.
His entry was not announced,
but when it became known,
word went out the admission
was only for 111inor surgery.
The illness was much more
serious, and Mr. Shuford was
transferred to Bethesda Navy
Hospital, near Washington,
for treatment of paralysis.
Shuford would not run in the
November election against
W. Harold Sams of Asheville.
Shuford had won the
nomination, but he would not
be in the general election.
Who would be the Democratic
nominee? Heinz Rollman
demanded the position. Buncombe
and Henderson Counties,
the population centers of
the Twelfth District, wanted
to control, as usual the
nomination.
It fell to the district executive
committee of the
Democratic party, two
delegates from each of the
district's ten counties, to pick
the nominee.
The committee, along with
Hall's loyal and hardworking
backers, met in the packed
courtroom of the Swain County
Courthouse in Bryson City
on July 31. On that hot summer
day it soon became evident
that the only person who
would get the nomination
would be David Hall. David
Hall, from Webster, west of
Asheville, accepted the
Democratic nomination to
Congress. "I accept the
nomination with a great deal
of humility. I pledge to expand
every effort toward victory
this fall for all
Democrats-in district, state,
and nation, and I will work
untiringly for not part, but all
of the Twelfth District."
Two days later the
Asheville newspapers commented
editorially that
"many thousands of citizens .
.. are mighty happy about the
new situation. We consider
this a thoroughly wholesome
and desirable development-
good for Western
North Carolina and the
Democratic Party. Mr. Hall
possesses all the qualifications,
in his fine mountain
background and place of
residence as well as in his
splendid character and
abilities, to represent
Western North Carolina in
Congress."
"Not only does he know the
needs and interests of his
home county, but he is
familiar with the desires and
aspirations of the entire
district . . .During the four
decades of his life he has been
steeped in a family tradition
of public service, a heritage
that has given impetus to his
own desire to serve . . .In
selecting a congressional
nominee, the Democratic
committee reached into a
central county of the district
and tapped a man who, by
heritage, training, and
character, is equipped to be
an excellent representative of
the Democracy of this rugged
mountain country. He should
be elected."
David Hall wasted little
time getting into the congressional
campaign. His district
was a large one-from the
Black Mountains of Bun-combe
to the Tennessee line,
west of Murphy. Never once
did he slow down. He had long
been able to drive his car, and
his message as he crisscrossd
the hundreds of miles of this
western district was unity, a
forgetting of political
jealousies, and a regional
solidarity to promote "the
best interest of all Western
North Carolina."
David Hall would represent
the district with courage, intelligence,
and devotion. "He
must know his district intimately,
its needs and
aspirations. He must be well
grounded in State and Na-district
. . .and I trust that I
can in my work merit the confidence
you have placed in
me."
In early January, the Halls
of Webster became the Halls
of Washington. The family
moved into an Arlington,
Virginia house and the girls
enrolled in school there. On
January 7, the Hall family,
consisting of David's wife
Sarah, their daughters Anne,
Allison, and Hannah,- his
brother Robert of Asheville,
his sisters, Mrs. Margaret
Dowdle of Franklin, and Lela
Moore Hall of Harnett County,
and his mother, Mrs.
The Hall Home In Webster
tiona! Government. He must
understand politics and be a
good politician himself. He
must be a sound party
man-in this case a
Democrat-because to get
good results in Washington a
congressman must function
effectively as a member of his
party's legislative team."
David Hall would tell his
listeners that he had never
considered himself an invalid,
even though he could
not walk. "Never," he said,
"never have I thought of
myself as being other than
normal. The fact that I was
confined to a wheelchair at
fifteen apparently didn't affect
my abilities to earn or to
participate in civic, church,
and political affairs."
The election in 1958 was
held on November 4. The
Asheville Citizen called Hall's
triumphant defeat of
Republican candidate Sams a
"political anti-climax". By
over 20,000 votes 52,609 to
31,524, Hall had won despite
considerable Republican
campaign activity.
So the lights burned brightly
at the Hall farm that
November 4 night. Hall and
his wife left the constantly
ringing telephone to awaken
their three daughters and
give them the victory news.
"Daddy, you beat him. I
know you did," cried Anne.
Then her sisters Allison and
Hannah joined in the wild,
happy celebration.
Hall, in his acceptance
speech pledged again to
dedicate himself and his office
to "true representation of
all the people of this great
David Hall of Sylva, along
with other kin and close
friends gathered in the
gallery of the United States
House of Representatives.
The occasion was the
swearing-in ceremony for the
newly-elected representatives
of the 86th Congress.
The oath was administered by
Speaker of the House Sam
Rayburn of Texas.
David Hall had asked for
assignment to the House Interior
Committee, one important
to Western North
Carolina because of the large
public land holdings of the
Federal Government. The
Cherokee Indian Reservation
is also under the Department
of the Interior.
What could have been farther
from the land of Western
North Carolina than the
moon? Yet Congressman Hall
was assigned to the new committee
of Science and
Astronautics.
Americans and their
government were just beginning
to realize the importance
of space. The Russians had
developed Sputnik only a year
before and the United States
was feeling the pressure to
compete. Congressman Overton
Brooks, committee chairman,
reminded the members
that "we have no time to lose.
. .The national security
aspects of space vehicles
should be stressed now. "Hall
became the top ranking
freshman member of the
committee.
Much of the work in Congress
is done through the
committee system. Here,
small groups of members
become knowledgeable about
the committee topic. In the
fall of 1959, Hall with other
members of Space and
Astronautics flew to Londonto
attend the International
Astronautical Federation. In
London, Hall worked with
other delegations for proper
ground rules and effective
regulation of international
scientific associations.
David Hall arrived in
Washington in January 1959.
He had just received his committee
assignment and had
just entered into the ways and
workings of Congress. Early
in the term he had been
chosen treasurer of the
Eighty-sixth Congressional
Club composed of the sixtythree
freshmen Democratic
House members.
Suddenly in February, Hall
had to undergo surgery at
Bethesda Naval Hospital for a
kidney problem. A second
operation followed in March.
In November at St. Joseph's
Hospital in Asheville physicians
found a malignancy in
the scar tissue. In New York's
Sloan-Kettering Institute in
December an operation to
remove the cancerous growth
was performed. Hall was
returned to C. J. Harris Community
Hospital in Sylva and
died there, at age forty-()ne,
January 29, 1960.
Congressman Herbert C.
Bonner of North Carolina's
First District announced to
the House of Representatives
David Hall's death. "His life
was carried on with determination"
said Congressman
Bonner. "He was dedicated to
the welfare ... of the Government
of the United States, and
his own area of our State, the
Twelfth District."
Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr.
announced Hall's death to the
Senate. "I have never known
a more gallant spirit." Both
Houses of Congress adjourned
after a committee of
members, twelve from the
House and two from the
Senate, were appointed to attend
the funeral in Sylva's
First Methodist Church on
Sunday, January 31.
Over 600 people, neighbors,
old and political friends, and
Washington dignitaries
crowded the brick church that
David Hall's father had
helped build in 1917.
"David had a strong will to
live in a large world. He had
drive, control, and discipline
of his natural abilities. He had
a desire to grow, to learn, to
accomplish.
"He had faith in himself,
boundless energy, unceasing
hope, a sense of duty and mission
although he knew he was
living on borrowed time."
Hundreds of David Hall's
friends followed the procession
through the rain to the
Webster Cemetery where he
was buried near his father
and grandfather, those early
Carolina pioneers in whose
footsteps he had followed.
Beyond the hilltop cemetery,
rising in tier after tier are the
Continued On Page 4
Page 3, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter 1978
David McKee Hall (I9I8·I960)
Just after he was sworn in as a member of Congress by
Sam Rayburn.
David with his family at the home in Webster-Mrs. Edith Hall, Hannah,
Allison and Anne hall and wife Sarah . November 5, 1958.
A conference with Senator John F. Kennedy.
David at four . Eleven years old and mascot of Sylva
Scout troop.
David as a senior in high school.
Page 4, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter 1978
Tom McClure Recalls Duties
With Congressman Hall
and His Washington
I was Mr. Hall 's personal
assistant in addition to being
a member of his staff.
I traveled with him
always-to about everyfunction
or meeting. Mr. Hall was
a member of the House
Science and Astronautics
Committee. I attended all
committee meetings with him
and took care of all his affairs
in that connection. This required
a Top Secret Security
clearance.
taut; Jean Mauney Green of Murphy, secretary ; Tom McClure, Sylva, personal assistant; Sue
Moreland of Asheville and Washington, secretary.
Committees usually met
during the morning hour and
the House would go into session
at noon. Following the
morning committee
meetings, Mr. Hall and I
would return to the office for
a brief period then go to the
House floor around noon. I
usually sat in the family
gallery and when Mr. Hall
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needed something he would
turn around to me, nod, and I
wo uld go down to the
Speaker's gallery just outside
the floor of the House to see
what assistance he might
need.
I handled much of the correspondence
in the office and
met many visitors for Mr.
Hall, showing them around
Capitol Hill , after their
meeting with him.
During some of this time
Mr. Hall was confined to the
Bethesda Naval Hospital during
which time I would take
the morning mail and go to
his suite at the Hospital where
we would go over the mail and
correspondence. I would then
return to the office and leave
in the late afternoon with mail
going out and go back to Mr.
Hall's hospital suite. After
that I wou
From L2 immersion to subjectivity emersion: self-narration in teaching migrant women Italian
No full textThis paper focuses on the suitability of self-narrative strategies in second-language teaching of migrant women so as to acknowledge and enhance their plurilingual competence and facilitate their identity (re)construction process in the country of immigration. Implementing ready-made notional-functional syllabi and tailored textbooks for migrant women has its advantages but also risks confining them to a preconceived role. This leads the author to consider widening communicative L2 teaching praxis to encompass self-narration within the framework of a critical feminist approach to language teaching. Drawing on narratives of migrant women and class observation of Italian L2, the paper then discusses the extent to which language autobiography and an overall self-narrative methodology may bring a change into the multilingual classroom, by complementing the present “immersive” approach to second language and culture, with a teaching modality favouring the emersion of language affectivity, learners’ personal histories and voices in/through the L2
Historic Webster Vol. 4 No. 3
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA SUMMER, 1977
Judge Felix Eugene Alley
Felix E. Alley was born in
Whiteside Cove, Jackson County,
North Carolina on July 5, 1873. He
died in Waynesville, Haywood
County, North Carolina, January
6, 1957 at age 83, and is buried in
Green Hill Cemetery along with
his wife and other members of his
family.
On March 15, 1899, Judge Alley
was married to Mary Elvira
Hayes, a daughter of Alexander
Hamilton Hayes and Margaret
Leatherwood Hayes, of Whittier,
Jackson County, North Carolina.
Four children were born of the
marriage, three sons and one
daughter - Felix E. Alley, Jr,
J . Hayes Alley, Robert Cline
Alley, and Edna Louise Alley
(Mrs. J. W. Ray).
Judge Alley's father was Col.
John H. Alley, great-grandson of
Cedric Alley, remote ancestor of
the Alleys in the South, who came
from Liverpool, England some
years prior to the Revolutionary
War.
His mother was Sarah
Whiteside Norton, born August 8,
1828, and said to be the first white
child born in Whiteside Cove. She
was the daughter of B·arak
(Barackl Norton and Mary
Nicholson Norton.
Judge Alley received his
education by home study, in local
public schools and in Cullowhee
High School, later known as
Western Carolina Teachers
College. He was graduated in
1896, at the age of twenty-three.
In 1898, he was elected on the
Democratic ticket to the position
of clerk of the superior court of
Jackson County, and served one
term of four years, studying law
at home in the evenings.
In 1903, he was admitted to the
North Carolina Bar. Later, he
was admitted to practice in the
States of South Carolina ,
Georgia, Tennesse~ and Virginia,
as well as in North Carolina and
in the United States Supreme
Court.
In 1903, he opened a law office
in Webster, North Carolina, then
the county seat of Jackson
County. He remained in Webster
until January 1914, when he
moved to Waynesville, where he
resided and practiced law until
1933.
In 1905, during his practice in
Webster, he was nominated by
acclamation for the Legislature
on the Democratic ticket and was
elected.
During the term he served as
Representative in N. C. General
Assembly, he was influential in
getting increased appropriations
for the College at Cullowhee, and
its name changed to Cullowhee
Normal And Industrial School. At
that point it became a State
school for the training of teachers.
In 1910, Felix E. Alley was
elected Solicitor of the Twentieth
Judicial District composed of the
counties of Cherokee, Clay,
Graham , Haywood, Jackson,
Macon, Swain.
In January 1933, Governor J.
C. B. Ehringhaus appointed
Solicitor Alley Judge of the
Twentieth Judicial District to fill
a two-year vacancy caused by
the death of Judge Walter E.
Moore. In the June primary of
1934, Judge Alley was nominated
to succeed himself and was
elected in the November election
of that year. He served as a
Superior Court Judge for fifteen
years.
Judge Alley said of. his
family , in one of many
affectionate expressions, "My
wife has remained at home and
toiled incessantly in the rearing
of our children, so that I might go
out into the world and seek such
opportunities as were within my
reach. She and my hosts of
friends have made it possible for
me to achieve whatever of
success I have enjoyed. They
have made it possible for me to
give to my four children a better
chance in life than I have had -
the advantage of a college
education such as I yearned for
but could not have. They have
made it possible for me to give
my three sons their legal
education in the best law schools
in the State; and I have been
permitted to live to see them
enter the noble profession of the
law, which I love so much, with
success within their reach, and
waiting only for them to reach
out and grasp it. And so the dark
clouds pass ; but the blue sky
abides forever . I owe a debt to my
friends that can never be
repaid."
******
News release, May 11, 1952 -
Sunday, Ashevr.lle Citizen,
Cullowhee, N. C.
Two distinguished citizens of
North Carolina Judge Felix E.
Alley and D. Hi den Ramsey will
receive honorary doctorate
degrees from Western Carolina
Teachers College at the 59th
commencement program on May
26, 1952.
President Paul A. Reid
announced the granting of the
honorary degrees, the first in the
history of the institution.
Judge Alley, of Waynesville,
outstanding jurist and suthor,
will receive the degree of Doctor
Of Laws , while Ramsey , of
Asheville, newspaperman, civic
and education leader, will be the
recipient of the Doctor of Literature
degree.
Conferring of these degrees
will take place during the
graduation exercises on Monday
morning, May 26, 1952, at 10 a.m.
in Hoey Auditorium.
Final selection of the degrees
and recipients was made by the
Board of Trustees of the college,
which had considered candidates
suggested by a faculty
committee and approved by the
entire faculty."
Judge Alley, a native of
Jackson County, is an alumnus
of the college, having graduated
from Cullowhee High School,
from which Western Carolina
Teachers College developed.
Continued On Page 2
Lombard's Lodge (the Alley place> in 1800's. Whiteside Mountain in the background. Courtesy Frances
Baum ~arner Lombard.
Pa11e z HISTORIC WEBSTER, Sammer, 1177
Alley - C•t1118ed From Page I
He baa b-. an active public
speaker ill Western North CaroIIDa
and adjoining areas, addresline
political, religious and educational
groupe. In 1941, be was
tbe author of two published
boob "Random Thoughts And
the Musings of a Mountaineer,"
and " What Think Ye of ChristA
History."
Copy of news release In The
Allleville Citizen, Asheville, N.
C., Monday, January 7, 1957.
Waynesville - January 6, 1957.
Judge Felix E . Alley, a
Superior Court Judge for 15 years
and one of the best known
lawyers in Western North
Carolina, died in the Haywood
County Hospital January 6, 1957.
He was 83 years old.
Judge Alley was widely known
as an orator and author. He had
written two books as wen as
mountain ballads.
He was a seH-made man,
youngest in a family of ten
children. By working to earn
money and studying in his spare
time, Judge Alley became one of
the best educated and respected
jurists in the State of North
Carolina. He attended Cullowhee
High School, later Western
Carolina College, and the
University of North Carolina.
Survivinj! are the widow,
Mrs. Elvira Hayes Alley ; a
daughter, Mrs. J. Wilford Ray;
two sons, F . E . Alley, Jr., and J .
Hayes Alley, all of Waynesville,
N. C.; five grandchildren and
three great-grandchildren ; a son,
Robert C. Alley, <predeceased).
Funeral services were held for
Judge Alley, Monday at 3:00
p.m., in the First Methodist
Church of Waynesville. The
Reverend Earl H. Brendall
officiated, and burial was in the
Green Hill Cemetery.
Pallbearers were W. Roy
Francis, M. G. Stamey •. Alvin
Ward, Glenn Brown, James H.
Howell, Jr., and William Medford.
Honorary pallbearers were
members of the Bar of the 30th
Judicial District; Rufus Siler and
W. F. Swift. Crawford Funeral
Home was in charge of burial
arrangements.
As a jurist, Judge
wide recognition for
1111iform courtesy, impartiality
and fairness. In cases on appeal
from his court, he had a record of
93 per cent in affirmations in the
State Supreme Court.
A judge who believed in
tempering jtmtice with mercy, he
prided himself on the belief he
saved many men and women
from Jives of crime by giving
them a chance.
He was a devout Methodist, a
member of the First Methodist
Church of Waynesville, and
wrote extensively and delivered
many addressed on religious
themes.
Judge Alley was widely known
as a political campaign orator.
In the presidential election of
1932 he made 20 political
speeches in as many Western
North Carolina counties. He was
a delegate to the State
Democratic Convention and the
National Democratic Convention
that year and sup~,>orted
Roosevelt. In the 1916 elechon1 he
was a member of the Electoral
College and voted for Woodrow
Wilson."
Excerpt from article by Author
and Columnist John Parris, in his
July 7, 1957 Column In The
Asheville Citizen, "Roaming The
Mountains."
TO HIM, WESTERN NORTH
CAROLINA WAS HEAVEN
BY JOHN PARRIS
"WAYNESVll..LE - January
6, 1957 - Felix Alley was the
synonym
Mountaineer.
for Carolina
Nobody ever did more to give it
dignity and respect and none
ever wore the name more
proudly.
To him , Western North
Carolina was heaven and heaven
was his home, for the mountains
contained everything good and
big and wonderful in life - the
things that made people human.
Many will remember him
because he was their friend, their
neighbor , because he was
tolerant and just and kind and
humble, because he never forgot
his beginnings.
Felix Alley's story is really the
story of Western North Carolina
Colonel J . Heywood and Satah Whiteside Norton Alley, about 1870.
Judge Felix E. Alley's parents. Courtesy Frances B. Lombard
the origin, history,
characteristics, development,
and progress of the Carolina
Mountaineers.
No one will ever say h!' was a
man of distinction but all who
knew him will agree that he was
a distinguished gentleman.
Felix Alley was the synonym
.for Carolina Mountaineer.
From "Random Thoughts And
The Musings Of a Mountaineer-
1941, First Edition."
" When I was eight or nine
years of age, one of my brothers
made for me a banjo, using for
material a cheese hoop, a tanned
ground-hog skin, and wood that
he worked into shape with knife
and drawing knife , for the
banjo's neck. We made the
strings of " J . & P . Coat's Spool
Cotton," by twisting strands of
thread into the properly varying
sizes, and then waxing them with
homemade beeswax. When the
banjo was finished I soon learned
to play on it, not only hymns, but
ail the old mountain melodies
that I had ever heard; and for
years, being the only person in
that area who could play a banJO,
I made the music for the
mountain dances in my own
section and in the adjoining
counties, not only in North
Carolina, but on occasion, in
South Carolina and Georgia.
''There came a time when quite
a flood deluged our mountain
valleys. There were no bridges
spanning our streams .
Coincident with this disaster a
man by the name of Childs, and
his sister, both of New York City,
were waterbound at my father 's
home for several days. One day
this gentleman saw my banjo and
asked what it was, and I told hun,
it being the only banjo I had ever
seen up to that time. He asked me
to play for him. I told him I had a
broken string, but that I could
soon make another one. I asked
my mother for some thread from
her sewing basket, and then from
a spool of "J. & P. Coats" I made
and waxed a string and played
for the gentleman all the tunes I
knew. Wben I had finished he
asked to see the thread. He then
said: "I own the majority of the
stock in the Company that makes
this thread. I knew it was good
for many things, but did not know
before that it was good for
making banjo strings. When I
return to New York I shall send
you the best set of banjo strings
that I can find in the City." Upon
his return he sent me, not only
many sets of strings, but a very
expensive banjo, the best one m
fact that I have ever seen. It was
after this that I commenced
playing for the mountain dances.
At that time the "Trade-mark"
for this thread, which was seen
posted on the store fronts, trees,
and other public places, had on it
the picture of a barefooted hoy
standing on a brookside, fishing
with a line made of this thread.
Printed on the sign were the
words, "J & P . Coats' Spool
Cotton is strong." A few months
after my receiving the banjo
from Mr. Childs he wrote me that
he had induced his Board of
Directors to change the picture
on their advertisement, and soon
thereafter was seen posted on the
store fronts and other public
places the same advertisement
as before, but with the picture of
a barefooted boy playing a banjo
with strings made of J . & P .
Coats' Spool Cotton.
Legislator Alley
Receives Hero's
Welcome
Jackson County Journal, 1905 with several salutes, after which
they, in company with the other
Dear Editor ; representatives of the school ,
You ask if we have any news including two wagon-loads of
to write from Cullowhee? Most young ladies (that is to say about
assuredly, I must answer "yes". two tons of beauty) and a hack
Fortune has again visited us as a containing Prof. R. L. Madison.
school, and the great state of Mrs. Madison, and others, esNorth
Carolina, through the ef- corted Mr. Alley, who was acfo
rts of our worthy Representa- companied by Prof. J . N. W. In
tive, Mr. Alley. aided by Prof. front of the courthouse in WebRob!.
L. Madison, Hon. Walter E. ster, Prof. Madison gave public
Moore, Hon. C. C. Cowan, Prof. J . recognition to Mr. Alley's sueY.
Joiner, Prof. E. P. Moses and cessfullabors in behalf of Westothers,
has given us 1,000, in behalf of the faculty , the
student body and the entire
making, in all, from now on, an county and state, for his noble
annual appropriation of 3,500 special appropriation marks hy presenting Mr. Alley
is to furnish the new building with with a nice volume.
adequate furniture and to pay for Aiter a few brief, but hearty,
a heating plant. The furniture words of response from Mr.
has already been installed, but Alley, in which he paid a noble
has not been paid for yet. The tribute to Cullowhee High School
Legislature of No rth Carolina and its successfull leader , the
also changed the name of our entire party moved on down the
institution from "Cullowhee High street and halted in front of the
School" to "Cullowhee Normal residence of Mr. Alley. When he
and Industrial School"· Hence- had alighted and kissed his wife
forth, the work of the institution and little ones, the military
will be of a wider and more company again saluted him and
comprehensive nature. gave the school yell. In the mean-
On Tuesday, March 7, the time, our company had been
faculty and the la rger part of the increased by the presence of
students of Cullowhee High Judge D. D. Davies, Mrs. ThoSchool
met Mr. Alley, Repre- mas A. Cox and Miss Daisy
sentative from Jackson, at the Davies. After the ceremonies of
depot at Sylva , and escorted him the military company were over ,
to his home at Webster. The the party returned to the public
military company, under com- square and halted for lunch , after
mand of Mr. Thomas A. Cox, Jr ., which they all returned to Cul-j~~~
m~mmtiliijl~ij~~mffii~m~m~itl~illi~iliiiJt}}}}}}}}J
"Kidder Cole" From "Random Thoughts" ...
Now, in order to satisfy the
hundreds who are continually
writing me about it and asking
for copies of it, I will here tell the
story of my banjo ballad,
"Kidder Cole" It was composed
when I was sixteen years of age.
It was my first, last and only
attempt at poetry, and of course
there is not a line of poetry in it.
Except for the fact that Miss Cole
did not "change her name to
Alley," the ballad speaks for
itself, and adheres rather closely
to the facts as they occurred.
The ballad has been sung over
the radio from various stations
for many years. It is sung and
played with banjo accompaniment
wherever the mountam
melodies are used. The ballad
and various stories as to
its origin have often appeared in
many of the daily newspapers
and magazines, and the ballad
itself has been included in
several different editions of
"Folk Songs." Let it he here
understood, however, that all this
has been without my knowledge
or procurement. Like all songs
that are handed around by word
of mouth, many words, and
sometimes whole lines of the
ballad, have been changed. After
writing the ballad, I composed
(by earl the music or melody to
which the words are sung. When I
have heard it over the radio I
have observed no change in the
tune or melody, although some of
the words were slightly varied.
In its issue of October 10, 1936,
The State Magazine, of Raleigh,
North Carolina carried the story
and the correct version of my
ballad, the story having been
written by one of its reporters,
John A. Parris, Jr. , formerly of
Jackson County, and now a War
correspondent in Europe. Mr.
Parris published his article and
the ballad without my
knowledge. I here quote the lines
as they appear in the magazine:
"My name is Felix Eugene Alley,
My hest girl lives in Cashiers
Valley;
She's the joy of my soul
And her name is Kidder Cole.
I don 't know - it may have been
chance,
'Way last fall when I went to a
dance,
I planned to dance with Kidder
the livelong night
But I got my time beat by Charlie
Wright.
So, if I ever have to have a fight,
I hope it will be with Charlie
Wright,
For he was the ruin of my soul
When he beat my time with
Kidder Cole.
Wben the dance was over I went
away
To bide my time till another day,
When I could cause trouble and
pain and blight
To sadden the soul of Charlie
Wright.
I thought my race was almost run
When Kidder went off to Ander-
Sh~~ent to Anderson to go to
school,
And left me at home to act the
fool.
Page 3 HISTORIC WEBSTER, Summer, 1977
"Kidder Cole"
But she came back the following
spring,
And Oh, how I made my banjo
ring;
It helped me to get my spirit
right,
To beat the time of Charlie
Wright.
Kidder came home the first of
June,
And 1 sang my song and played
my tune;
I commenced trying with all my
might
To 'put one over' on Cbarlie
Wright.
I did not feel the least bit shv.
On the Fourth of the next JulY.,.
When at the head of a big dele-gation
I went to attend the big Celebration.
When the speaking was over we
had a dance,
And then and there I found my
chance
To make my peace with Kidder
Cole,
And beat Charlie Wright; confound
his soul!
Charlie came in an hour or so,
But when he saw me with Kidder
he turned te go
Back to his home with a saddened
soul,
For I'd beat his time with Kidder
Cole.
I've always heard the old folks
say
That every dog will have his day ;
And now all of Charlie's joy has
passed
For I've succeeded in beating
him at last.
Oh, my sweet little Kidder girl!
You make my head to spin and
whirl,
I am yours and you are mine,
As long as the sun and stars shall
shine.
Oh, yes, my Kidder Cole is sweet,
And it won't be long till we shall
meet ,
At her home in Cashiers Valley
Where she'll change her name to
Alley.
I like her family as a whole,
But I'm especially fond of George
M. Cole:
I believe I shall like to call him
'paw'
When I get to be his son-in-law.
Some of her folks I don't like so
well,
But I may some time, for who can
tell?
And after all between me and you
I'm not marrying the whole
dumed crew."
I will say here tbat Charlie
Wr ight whose name appears in
the foregoing lines is the same
man who performed the heroic
and miraculous feat of rescuing
Baty from the brink of a two
thousand foot pr ecipice on
Whiteside Mountain, a full
account of which appears in this
Volume, Chapter XXVI , at page
490, and following. (Ref. to book,
" Random Thoughts - . . . ",
(1941 )."
The material for the article on
J udge Alley was assembled by
Mrs. Edith Purcell Alley (Mrs.
Doyle Alley) of Maggie Valley.
E"cerpta from Address by Judge
Felb: E. Alley Accepttog New
Haywood County Courthouse -
September 19, 1932.
Judge Alley was selected by a
committee of the Haywood
County Bar Association to accept
the new Haywood County
Courthouse, on bebalf of the Bar
Association and the legal
profession of the Twentieth
Judicial District, September 19,
1932.
His address was a part of the
program in celebration of a day
and event memorable in the
history of Haywood County. The
audience was composed of
citizens from every section of
Western North Carolina,
including many state officials.
In speaking, he referred to the
new courthouse as "this Temple
of Justice," and congratulated
the architect who designed it, and
the artisans who constructed it.
He congratulated, individually
and collectively, the board of
commissioners who ordered it
and supervised it, and made of it
a courthouse designed to
accommodate the increasing
needs of a growing county.
He reminded his listeners that
as is ever the case in such an
undertaking like this, there were
those who opposed the
construction of any building at
all. And, there were others who
criticised the character of the
building during the course of its
construction, but, he said, "I
confidently believe that when
time has receded until we can
bave a perspective of events, the
universal verdict of our people
will be that our commissioners
have builded wisely and well,
because their work will endure."
"This courthouse is not the
result of the thought of any one
man or of the efforts of any one
man. It is the result of the
concensus of thought and the
combined efforts of all those who
believed that Haywood County
should keep step with modem
progress in this great State, and,
but for such cooperation, this
happy day would never have
dawned.
In the building of this
courthouse, as in everything
worth while in politics, in
religion , in business, and in civic
movements, success is achieved
only by unit of purpose, combined
effort, and concert of action."
"There are some features,
however, about this courthouse
which I did suggest, and which
were accepted by the architect
and the Commissioners; as, for
instance, the enlargement of this
room beyond the size
contemplated by the original
plans, and the installation of the
Judge Alley in his law office.
gallery. And there is another
feature which was my original
thought and suggestion , and
which was adopted by the
unanimous vote and approval of
the Commissioners , and for
which I am not only willing, but
pr
Historic Webster Vol. 5 No. 2
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.VOLUME V, N0.2 WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA SPRING, 1978
Col. Lawrence C. Frizzell,
U.s. Arn1y (Ret.)
I was born in Webster Nov. 25,
1891, the 7th of the eight children
of W. D. and Ellen Long Frizzell.
Florence was the oldest; then, in
order, Joe, Julia, John, Will, Nan,
Lawrence and Walter. Walter is
buried in Arlington National
Cemetery; Joe and Will , in
Texas ; and Florence, John and
Nan are buried with our parents
in the Webster Cemetery. Will
served in the Artillery in France
and Walter in the Navy during
World War I. Julia Frizzell
Stewart (Mrs. John Stewart) and
I are the only ones remaining.
She was 96 years old Nov. 23,
1977, and is presently in Pied·
mont Nursing Home, Greenville,
S.C.
First School
My schooling began in the old
Love's Chapel Church (now
Love's Field.) The school lasted
fo ur months, from August
through November. There was
only one teacher for all grades,
and for as many as forty stu·
dents. She had an old wooden
blackboard and a few pieces of
chalk as teacher's aides. Her
methods were old fashioned, but
effective, as was the discipline
she exercised. And the discipline
was strict and certain, as we all
learned immediately. She kept a
long hickory switch in the corner,
and there was never any hesi·
laney in using it. And there was
never any parental objection to
her punishments. On the con·
trary, a kid who got a thrashing
usually got another when he got
home and his father learned
about it. At least it was that way
with me.
In these days, when "Johnny
can't read" is heard everywhere,
it is amazing to remember that
every student in that old school
could not only read, but also
could spell, write , and do
arithmetic.
We had no gymnasium nor
playground equipment of any
sort. If we wanted to play
baseball, which we all did, we
made our own baseballs and bats.
And we were quite ingenious in
devising and making other things
to keep us amused and occupied.
One of the things I remember
most clearly was a "Flying
Jenny" which we made in the
woods near the school. We cut off
a small tree about four feet from
the ground and made a spindle at
the top of the stump, then cut a
long pole about sixteen feet long,
bored a hole in the middle to fit
over the spindle, and we were in
business. We greased the spindle,
and fitted the pole over the
spindle. Then with a kid strad·
dling each end, with a bigger
student to push the pole around,
we had a crude merry-go-round.
The bolder kids would sit unright
on the pole, but the more timid
ones like myself would hug the
pole with both arms and legs. The
pusher, walking around near the
stump, could push that thing
around with terrific speed, and
the riders had to cling on for dear
life to keep from being tossed off.
The teachers I remember were
Miss Maybelle Peek, Miss Mattie
Rigdon, Miss Lillian Stillwell,
and my Uncle Will Long. Some of
them must have served more
than one term, for I went to
school at Love's Chapel from
about 1897 to 1904.
At the end of the school term we
always had what we called an
''Entertainment" . Some of the
students were selected to recite
or sing, or whatever they could do
best. We did whatever the teacher
told us to do. Professor
Madison was always ready to
assist on these occasions, and at
one of them he came with his
guitar and sang, among other
selections, "Yankee Doodle." It
was the first time I had ever
heard the song.
There used to be revival meetings
(protracted meetings as they
were called then) during the
school term . They would hold one
service at eleven o'clock in the
morning , and of course the
students had to sit through it. It
was most boring, except when
one of those hell fire and damnation
preachers was in the pulpit,
which made a lively couple of
hours. He would really roast the
sinners, and had us kids scared
half to death. The "mourners"
would come up front and confess
their sins, with an occasional
"Hallelujah" when they felt they
had overcome the devil.
Further Schooling
When the Webster School was
finished, about 1905 if I remember
correctly, everybody
started going there instead of
attending the smaller schools at
River Hill and Love's Chapel. At
Webster we had several teachers,
more and better equipment, and
even a small library, with probably
fifty books. The school term
lasted considerably longer, as
much as six or seven months. Mr.
Wike was the first principal, and
I think Tom Gribble also taught
that year. Other teachers were
Miss Gracie Hall , Miss Hunnicutt,
Miss March and others
whose names I can't recall. Mr.
Gray was principal for one year;
Professor Few Shipman, for two
years, with a Mr. Allen, if I
remember correctly, serving
between the Shipman terms.
Then we had a principal whose
name I do not remember who
served one term. He had been
superintendent of schools in Raleigh,
but his health failed and he
came to the mountains to recuperate.
Miss Gracie Hall was a wonderful
person and about the best
teacher I ever knew. She was
stern but everybody loved her. I
don 't remember that she ever
had any disciplinary problems,
but if she had she would have
handled them without any trouble.
She has always been my
favorite teacher.
Professor Shipman was a great
principal and a great teacher.
The most imaginative bit of
teaching I ever had was put on by
him one day in the physiology
class. The subject was digestion,
and he went through the entire
process, emphasizing each step.
H~ developed tuberculosis .
Hoping that the dry climate
would help, he later moved to
New Mexico or Arizona, but he
died out there at a very early age.
In those days students were
usually submissive and the
thought of defying authority seldom
entered their heads. But on
one occasion a large group of us
played truant and went over to
Big Savannah Creek for the day.
A lumber company had built
from the upper reaches of the
creek to Dillsboro a flume
through which lumber was floated
from the sawmill to the
railroad. In places it was fifteen
or twenty feet above the ground.
The flume was about three feet
wide and two feet deep, and the
water rushed through it like a
mill race, the boards floating on
and in the water. It must have
taken almost as much lumber to
build the thing as they shipped to
Dillsboro. We played along that
flume nearly all day, trying to
ride the boards in it. It was quite
a trick, and everybody had a
great time. We stopped by Mrs.
Hall 's home and she gave us
lunch. She had a big pot of beans,
which we cleaned up completely,
and bread and butter and milk,
and other foods that tasted
mighty good.
In school we studied history,
grammar, Latin, algebra, geometry,
geography, and many other
subjects. A lot of emphasis was
placed on handwriting, and most
of the students could write
exceptionally well. We had a
course in civil government, with
special emphasis on state government.
The school was called a
"graded school," but later in-·
eluded all twelve grades.
In 1911 I wen-t to Fruitland
Institute at Hendersonville for
my last year of high school. My
going there was largely due to
Professor Shipman's influence.
Lucy Hedden also went there that
year.
Looking back on that year now
it seems that I must have
"majored" in baseball. I was the
catcher ; Arthur Patillo was the
pitcher; Jim Case, Furman
Rymer and a fellow named
Tommy Hyder the infielders·
with Brookshire Sinclair, Jack
Case, and Ferdy Hipps, in the
outfield. We didn 't lose a single
game that year.
In the fall - of 1912 I taught
school at Glenville, and lived with
Andy Monteith 's family. Their
house was located near the river
about a mile below Glenville. The
site is now deep under water
since the dam was built that
formed Glenville Lake.
Enters College
In the fall of 1913 I enrolled at
North Georgia Agricultural College(
now North Georgia College)
at Dahlonega. It was a military
school where all physically fit
male students were required to
enroll as cadets. We were in
uniform at all times, and when a
cadet was caught in civilian
clothes he was cited and punished
for wearing "civies". Discipline
was very strict, but everybody
took pride in the cadet corps.
The college was a land grant
school, supported by the state
and federal governments, with no
tuition, even for an out of state
student. I worked as assistant to
the superintendent of barracks,
keeping his books and the records
of students whose parents deposited
money with him for their
expenses. I also was assistant to
the professor of mathematics the
last two years, grading papers
and taking the sophomore class
through its field survey work.
This work paid all of my expenses
for board and room in the
barracks.
Joins Army
I majored in agriculture, and
expected to spend the rest of my
life farming . But the Army,
which sponsored the cadet corps
(now ROTC) likes to recruit the
students into the Army, and the
commandant persuaded me to
try for a commission. So when I
finished the course in three years
with a BS degree in agriculture in
1916, with the war in full swing in
Europe, and the United Sta tes
about to take a hand, I went down
to Fort Screven, near Savannah,
Georgia and took the examination
for a commission. Due to
my military training in college I
had to take the exam in only four
subjects: history, English, Spanish,
and Military Engineering.
After finishing the examinations,
I enlisted in the Georgia
National Guard, which at the
time was in Federal service at El
Paso, Texas. They sent me to
Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, for a
week or so, then to join the 5th
Georgia Infantry at Camp Cotton,
El Paso. I was assigned to
the machine gun company, which
was equipped with air cooled
Lewis guns, mounted in small
Ford trucks. We spent Chr istmas
that year on outpost duty guarding
the Courchesne Bridge crossing
the Rio Grande River just
above El Paso. The sand storms
gave us more trouble than the
Mexicans . That awful sand was
in our food, our beds, uniforms,
and everything else. Needless to
say, we were glad to get away
from it.
In March, 1917, we were ordered
back to Atlanta. My commission
came through, and I was
discharged from the National
Guard, and ordered to For t
Leavenworth, Kansas, to attend
officer t raining school. The
course lasted four months, and it
was by all odds the most r igorous
period of schooling anybody ever
experienced. But being a Caval-
Continued On Page 3
Col. Frizzell <Ret.) with a golf trophy he won in 1965 In Florida.
Page 2, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Spring 1978
Brave Deeds In Battle Rewarded
The following is a reprint of an
article which appeared in The
Sylva Herald on August 5, 1976.
By J .D. McRorie
"Maj. N. Price-Born Jan. 24,
1826-Died May 12, 1892." The
inscription is on a monument at
Webster Cemetery.
A trip to the cemetery came
after receiving an inquiry from
Dr. M.D. Hart, pastor of Fuller
Memorial Baptist Church in Martinsville,
Va., and father of
Carroll B. Hart, who lived in
Sylva several years. With the
letter the Rev. Mr. Hart sent a
Xerox copy of a newspaper
feature article in the November
15, 1962, issue of The Skyland
Post at West Jefferson, N.C., on
"History Records· Brave Deeds of
Ashe County Man, Nanthaniel
Price.''
I don 't know whether the "Maj.
N. Price" was the Nathaniel
Price featured in the article. "I
would like for someonw to look up
the grave and write and tell us
where to find it," said the Rev.
Mr. Hart. whose addres~ is !204
South Askin Street, Martinsville,
Va. 24112.
Nathaniel Price saved the life
of General Wade Hampton in a
fierce battle during the Civil War.
And it was from this incident that
Nathaniel Price, ultimately,
came to Jackson from Ashe
County.
A 1957 report compiled by
Cashiers Valley Community
Council noted that in 1850 General
Wade Hampton's father bought
2 300 acres of land in the Cashiers
Valley area, as a summer retreat.
A South Carolinian, Hampton,
according to the report, was
the wealthiest citizen in the
South, in the pre-Civil War era.
"He had an income greater than
most European princes and owned
4 400 slaves on plantations in
Mis~issippi and South Carolina."
The Hampton estate, after his
death, passed into the hands of a
niece and her husband, Dr. and
Mrs. William Halstead . (Dr.
Halstead was a well-known surgeon
at Johns Hopkins.) "The
first thing he did was to name the
estate High Hampton, similar to
that of his ancestral home m
Scotland, 'High Halstead,' "
stated the Cashiers VAlley CDC
report.
General Hampton died in 1902
at the age of 83. During his war
service, he rose from Private to
Lieutanant General and was a
bold and able leader. After the
death of Gen. J.E.B. Stuart at
Yellow Tavern he succeeded
Stuart as commander of the
Cavalry Corps of Lee's Army.
(One of Hampton's daring deeds
was circling Union lines to get
3 000 head of Federal beef cattle.)
One source credits Gen. Hampton
with changing, successfully, cavalry
tactics during the Civil War,
which were used thereafter during
the war.
But back to Nathaniel Price.
The following is. from the
article in The Skyland Post,
written by Mrs. C.D. Neal:
"On the afternoon of July 3,
1863, Sergeant Nathaniel Price of
the Ashe county 1st NC Cavalry
fighting at Gettysburg, saved the
life of Gen. Hampton, his commanding
officer, by shooting a
number of the enemy and this
permitted the seriously wounded
general to escape. In this Charge
General Hampton's huge figure
attracted a large number of
Federals around him and by
weight of numbers forced him
close to a fence. His death or
capture seemed a certainty when
more Confederates saw h1s phght
and galloped into the melee.
"Sergeant Price shot to death a
man who aimed another blow at
Hampton's head. With the help of
Private Jackson , a Georgian,
Price momentarily drove back
the other Federals and interspersed
himSelf between them, and
the badly wounded Hampton.
"General, they are too many for
us,' gasped Price, 'For God's
sake, leap your horse over the
fence, I'll die before they have
you,' he said as he turned to face
a fresh charge.
"Hampton, injured and half
stunned, almost blinded with
blood, was still the master horseman.
He spurred 'Butler' and the
powerful horse soared over the
fence like a bird. For the space of
an instant they hung in the air
and in that instant a piece of
shrapnel struck Hampton in the
side. Then he was safe, beyond.
Price shot the nearest of the
enemy and leaped his own horse
successfully after Hampton.
" Badly hurt, Hampton was
not caught, left for parts unknown.
"After Appomattox, the Ashe
men, hungry and destitute, turned
their faces toward the mountains
and home, and found not
peace and quiet but the country
infested with a large number of
deserters and bush-whackers,
mostly from other mountain regions
and Johnson County, Tennessee.
These outlaws shot down
returned soldiers from ambush
and knowing the 'Unionists '
would not prosecute them, roamed
at large.
"When Price and Ray returned
home they found they would have
no peace and safety from the
relatives and connections of the
men they had punished. They
were out for vengeance, and as
the county was in such an uptorn
state they were threatened and
actually fired on several times.
They would get no help or justice
Monument in Webster Cemetery to Major Price
taken from the field. ·His skull
was fractured and· blood gushed
from head and .body, but he was
able to order Col. Baker to take
command. As he was carried
away l)e urged his men to fight
and if possible keep their position.
"Afterwards, Hampton sent for
Price and said. 'Price, if we . get
out of this war alive and you ever
need help, come to see me and I
will do my. best for you.
"After Gettysburg, Nathaniel
Price and Wib·Ray, a comrade
were placed on detached service
for a period of time and allowed
to come home to combat the
crime and lawlessness going on
In the county. There were appeals
'for help from old men and
women. Price and Ray were well
qualified forthe job as both had
the reputation of being brave and
fearless ... These men, with some
others whose names we do not
have, operated in the county for a
time and a number of men were
executed by hanging and shooting,
after which the lawless men
from those who got on the
band wagon when they saw how
the war was going and were not
on top.
"They decided to find new
homes. Most of their posessions
were loaded in two wagons and
they set out for Haywood County.
Ray decided to remain there and
has descendants in Waynesville.
Price had other plans, but they
never returned to their native
county and for a good many years
no one had any idea of their
whereabouts.
" After Price wandered through
the country homeless and penniless
he remembered what General
Wade Hampton had said to him
on the battlefield at Gettysburg.
In some way he contacted the
General and found that he was
not only grateful but liberal to the
man who saved his life, giving
him a deed to a mountain farm in
Jackson county where Price lived
the rest of his days.
"We do not know how old Price
was in 1861 but records show that
he volunteered and rode out of
Ashe county as a sergeant in
Capt. Thomas N. Crumpler's
Cavalry Company. At this time
he was married and had two
children, a son and a daughter.
They resided near Creston. The
daughter never married. The
son, Thomas, became a substantial
businessman in the county ..
.he died many years ago while
visiting a daughter in California,
leaving children and grandchildren
.
"Some years before his death
he had information that his father
lived in Jackson County and
made a trip there to find him. We
went first to Wib Ray in Waynesville
and found Wib, a hale and
active old man who informed him
that his father had died, two
years before and was buried near
Webster. Tom found his father 's
grave and had a monument
erected there."
The article concluded that
Nathaniel Price, as a Confederate
soldier "was above the ordinary.
In our modern war a heroic
act of the kind he performed at
Gettysburg, a soldier would have
been in line for a battlefield
promotion and the Congressional
Medal of Honor."
Jackson County Journal
Sylva, January 8, 1909
A. B. Cunningham sold to
Robt. Garrett his meat market.
B. Norton, of Norton, advances
his subscription one year.
Miss Gertie Coward, of Cullowhee,
was in town Saturday.
Prof. E. H. Stillwell of Cullowhee,
was in Sylva Saturday, on
business.
Hon. T. G. Picklesimer , of
Bryson, was here Wednesday on
legal business.
Mrs. H. E. Hampton is visiting
relative and friends in Andrews
and Murphy this week.
Miss Inez Cathey has gone to
Raleigh, to visit friends for a
number of weeks.
Misses Sallie Henson and Leila
Henson, of Cullowhee, spent Monday
night in town with friends.
Terrell Bird, has returned from
Los ,Ingles California for a short
stay. We are glad to see Terrell
again.
Miss Lula Etta Buchanan left
Tuesday afternoon to resume her
studies at the Oxford Seminary.
E. E. Andrews, of Asheville,
was here Thursday trying to
organize a retail merchants association.
Miss Ellen Hyde, of Bryson
City, who has been visiting
Misses Mamie Gidney and Bonnie
Rogers returned home Mon'
day.
C. Ray White of Bryson is in
town this week doing cornice and
plumbing work, on the Dr. Nichols
residence.
Lewis j. Smith returned to
Chapel Hill last Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. E. L. McKee and
son Hal, left Monday for an
extended visit to St. Augustine,
Fla. , Cuba and other points
South.
Hon. R. F. Jarrett of Dillsboro,
Representative of Jackson left
Monday for Raleigh, where he
will sit in the House for the
ensuing session.
Roy F. Leatherwood and Ottis
Self, of Webster, are in Raleigh
attending the meeting of the
General Assembly. Each of them
is engaged in clerical work in the
House and Senate, respectively.
Leon D. Moody returned to the
the A. and M. College last
Sunday. Mr. Moody was accompanied
by his roommate Ralph
Hunter. It will be remembered
that Mr. Hunter was taken with
fever last summer and was not
able to enter college last fall
term.
Webster High
Class Of '41
The graduating class of 1941
holds a · very important place in
the minds of many people. This,
the largest graduating class in
the history of Webster School,
until edged out by the class of
1956, was the first to graduate
later than April in a nine months
term. The class was the first to
enter and spend four high school
years in the new (present) rock
building.
This was the first graduating
class, not only from Webster but
also from Jackson County, to hold
a class reunion. On this occasion,
held July 21, 1956, at the American
Legion Hall in Sylva, the
members unanimously agreed
that starting with 1960 the class
would hold a reunion every five
years.
Teachers at Webster High
School in 1941 were R. P. Buchanan,
principal ; Mrs. D. D.
Davis ; Adam Moses; Mrs. Burch
Allison ; J . E. Brown; and Edna
Allen.
Mrs. D. D. Davis was senior
class advisor and director of
dramatics; Mrs. Bannister Madison
and Mrs. Burch Allison were
directors of music ; and Alvin
Fullbright and Paul Buchanan
were directors of athletics.
Class officers were Lloyd Cowan,
president ; Morgan Buchanan
vice-president; Hilda Buchan~
n. secretary; and Carrie Bell
Cabe, treasurer.
Honor students were Alva
Frady, valedictorian; and Johnny
Stillwell, salutatorian.
Class colors were blue and
white; and class flow er, the
hyacinth.
"Climb Tho the Rocks Be
Rugged," was the class motto.
Oh. Aunt Jerusha was the
senior play.
The class members were:
Edith Frizzell, Andrew Allison,
Morgan Buchanan, Virginia
Buchanan, Mildred Cagle, Sara
Lou Frizzell, Maudie Lee Hall,
Carl Frizzell, Hilda Sutton, Ruth
Potts, Ottis Deitz, Lloyd Cowan,
Roy Ashe.
Willard Ashe, Mildred Painter,
Carrie Bell
Historic Webster Vol. 4 No. 1
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA WINTER. 1977
Williant Holland Thontas
William Holland Thomas was a
man of many talents whose
interests lay in several areas. He
served as a storekeeper, eventu·
ally owning several stores
throughout Western North Carolina
. He became agent for the
North Carolina remnant of the
Cherokee Nation whose cause he
championed for over a generation
. He was elected, at the age of
43, to the North Carolina Stale
Senate where he championed the
building of roads and railroads
through the Southern Appalachian
Mountains. He was a very
sophi s ticated man who read
widely in the classics and associated
on intimate terms with
many of the prominent men and
women of his day ; yet he could
hold his own in a mountain
" horse trade" and enjoyed nightlong
parleys in the council houses
of the Cherokees. Although he did
not have the wit and style of Zeb
Vance, the dramatic flair of John
Sevier and Andrew Jackson, or
the vast legal knowledge of Marc
us Erwin and Augustus S.
Merriman , Thomas contributed
more to the development cf
Western North Carolina than any
of them . Yet. fe\v monuments
ex ist to this man and , up to this
time. no books have been written
about him , except for an occas
ional chapter in several histories
of the region. It is true there is
a modest stone monument on
Sulphur Springs Road in Waynesville
to mark the spot where
he surrendered the remnants of
his Legion to Federal troops at
the end of the Civil War; it is
equally true that the massive
ridge known as Thomas Divide,
named in his honor , stretches for
some ten miles south of the main
range of the Great Smokies, But
beyond these. his tombstone ,
marked by a bronze plaque, in
Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville,
and North Carolina Stale
historica l highway marker near
the site of his home, Stekoih
Fields near Whittier in Jackson
Coun ty. there is no monume nt to
indicate his extensive contributions
to the development of North
Carolina's "Mountain Empire."
This is a pity, for Thomas, like
Zeb Vance , was a "man to match
our mountains ."
Thomas was born on February
5, 1805 at the Forks of Pigeon,
near the modern hamlet of Bethel
in Haywood County. His father,
Richard , who had come to North
Carolina from Virginia in 1803,
drown·ed shortly before Thomas'
birth , but he was raised and
educated by his mother, Temperance
Calvert Thomas. He was
distan.lly related to the Cal verts ,
Lords Proprietors of Maryland,
through his mother, and to President
Zachary Taylor through his
father . As a youth of sixteen
Thomas was employed as a clerk
in the store of Felix Walker, Jr .,
son of Congressman Felix Walker.
Jr .. at Quallatown on Shoal
A Man To Remember
Creek ncar the modern town of
Cherokee. Here Thomas traded
farming implements , tobacco.
and other items for deerskins and
gi nseng. even then a popular
medic ine in the Orient. His small
s ize and. some say. his loneliness.
att racted the attent ion of the
principal chief of the Middle
Towns Cherokees. Yonaguska or
Drowning Bear who is reputed to
ha\'C adopted him as a son. When
Yonaguska died in 1839 Thomas
succeeded him as chief.
After the Great Removal of
1838, Thomas spent much time in
Washington in a successful effort
to secure permission for those
Indi a ns who had evaded the
United States Army to remain in
Western North Carolina. In 1848
he won election as a Democrat to
the North Carolina State Senate,
remaining in that body until !862.
While in the State Senate, Thomas
served as chairman of the
important Committee on Internal
Improvements. In 1851 Thomas
helped to create Jackson County
from portions of Haywood and
Macon Count ies. In 1861 he was
elected a member of the North
Carolina Constitutional Convention
which . as its first order of
business. passed an ordinance of
secession on May 20 of that year.
In the spring of 1862 Thomas
resigned his positions in the State
Senate and the Constitutional
Convention to return to the
mountains where he raised a
"Legion" of infantry, artillery,
and cavalry for service in the
Confedera te Army. He remained
with this unit defending the
mountain passes from East Tennessee
into Western North Carolina
for the remainder of the war,
and did not surrender until May
6. 1865. the last unit east of the
Mississippi to capitulate.
After the war Thomas' health
became impaired . By the mid-
1870S he had retired from the
active administration of his affairs
. He died at the Morganton
home of his daughter and son-inlaw,
Justice and Mrs. Alphonso
Calhoun A very, on May 10, 1893,
at the advanced age of 88 years,
leaving, besides Mrs. Avery, two
sons, William Holland, Jr . and
James Robert. His wife, Sara J.
B. Love Thomas, whom he married
June 30. 1857. had died May
15, 1877.
These are the basic facts of
Thomas' life. It is certainly not
our purpose here to present his
complete biography, but to sim ply
illustrate the fundamental
aspects of his career before 1860
in an effort to learn more about
his techniques and his character.
The most important area of
Thomas' activities was his work
for the Cherokee Indians.
Much of the early history of the
United States is a sordid record of
how we mistreated the Indian
tribes we found here. Probably no
Indian tribe in America suffered
more at the hands of the whites
than did the Cherokees. From the
time of their defeat at the hands
of the British Army during the
Cherokee-South Carolina War of
1758-1761 until the signing of the
Treaty of New Echola on December
29, 1835 their history was
fi lled with one broken treaty after
another. By the terms of the
Treaty of New Echola the Cherokees
ceded a ll of their remaining
lands east of the Mississippi to
the United States in return for
S5,000,000 and the right to occupy
semi-arid lands in the Indian
Territory near those already occupied
by the Western Band of
Cherokees, even then called the
"Old Settlers."
In spite of strong protests by
John Ross, chief of the Cherokees
in Georgia , and other leaders, the
Indians were removed by United
States troops , assisted by Georgia.
Tennessee, and North Carolina
State militia , in the spring
and summer of 1838. The commander
of these troops was General
Winfield Scott, later famous
for his campaign against Mexico
City during the Mexican War.
Most of the Cherokees submitted
peacefully. and were sent to the
West either by steamboat down
the Tennessee River or along the
infamous "Trail of Tears." but
some of the North Carolina
Cherokees fled into the rugged
Nantahala. Balsam. and Great
Smoky Mountains. Among these
was a small group led by an aged
man named Tsali. This party had
killed two soldiers and wounded a
third who were mistreating Tsali's
wife. They fled to a cave in the
laurel thickets near the summit
of Clingman's Dome. General
Scott decided it would be impracticable
to capture the escaped
Indians before the winter of !838-
1839 set in . Moreover , his best
regiment. the Fourth United
States Infantry, was badly
needed on the frontier . Therefore.
he sent Thomas to urge
Tsali and his friends to surrender.
In a letter to an associate ,
Matthew Russel , Thomas de scribed
the incident;
Gen. Scott employed me to
assist in taking the Indians
who committed the late murders.
four <s ic) of the murderers
were taken and delivered
over. three of whom have
since been shot by the nantihala
Indians. The remaining
one Charley <Tsali )
was brought in yesterday by
some of the Indians lying out
on Nantihala by them tried
and shot near the big Bears
reserve on Tuckasega.
Thomas had been assisted in the
capture by some of the Occonaluftee
In dians who lived near
Quallatown, led by Euchella and
the Flying Squirrel. Indeed, Tsali
was executed by Euchella and
a nother Qua llatown Cherokee,
Wa-chu-cha , at noon on November
25, 1838. Thomas' ro le in the
affair was highly praised by
Colonel William S. Foster, commander
of the Fourth Infantry, in
a report to General Scott ;
I should do my feelings great
injustice were I to omit to represent
to you and through
you- to the Government , Mr.
Wm. If. Thomas, in the most
favourable light, & as an Individual
, deserving the confidence
& patronage of the
country, both for himself &
the Oco-nee-lufly Indians over
whom he appears to exercise,
unbounded influence, for good
purposes.
After the Great Removal, Thomas
went to Washington under a
power of attorney as the agent of
those Cherokees who remained in
North Carolina. His mission was
to secure the money due them
under the term~ of the Treaty of
New Echota and , ultimately, to
obtain permission for them to
remain in Western North Carolina.
His motives for this activity
were purely humanitarian . According
to his son, James, Thomas
had "an almost romantic
fondness for the Cherokee
Tribe.·· which ·'caused him to
devote many of the best years of
his life to their advancement
morally and materially ." Thomas
negotiated for years with
such prominent figures as T.
Hartley Crawford, Commissioner
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs;
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of
War, President Martin Van Buren,
Senator Willie P . Mangum of
North Carolina, and President
James Knox Polk. His efforts,
seemingly hopeless at times,
were ultimately successful when
treaties, signed at Washington in
August, 1846 and July , 1848,
permitted the Eastern Band of
Cherokees to remain in Western
North Carolina and allowed them
to participate fully in the claims
payments granted by the Treaty
of New Echola .
Thomas' efforts on behalf of the
Cherokees were equalled, if not
surpassed, by his enthusiasm for .
any internal improvements project
which might benefit Western
North Carolina. As a youth. wh1le
clerking in Quallatown, Thomas
saw the importance of transportation
and communication to
frontier settlements and businesses.
The very existence of frontier
life depended upon the mobility
of transport a llowed by its
transportation system. It was not
until he was elected to the State
Senate in 1848 that Thomas was
able to effectively influence the
development of internal improvements
in Western North Carolina,
but he noted the need long before
this. Due to the influence of
geography, isolation. the flow of
the rivers. and the existence of
only a few poor roads. most of the
trade from Western North Carolina
, before the coming of the
railroad, flowed through South
Carolina . Tennessee. Georgia.
and Virginia rather than through
the Piedmont to Eastern North
("ontinu£>d On l'agl' :~
William Holland Thomas. (From photograph of 1858 kindly loaned
by Capt. James W. Terrell>.
Pqe Z HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter, 1977
Mrs. Hannah Hall at the home or her son, Coleman, in Webster.
The occasion was her ninetieth birthday, April 12, 1956.
Married: January 27, 1897 at
the home of the bride in Webster,
with the Rev. Elder Wagg officiating,
Mr. J. E. Divelbiss of
Biltmore and Miss Florence May
Leatherwood, daughter of Capt.
F. H. Leatherwood.
A goodly number of invited
guests were witnesses to the
ceremony. Immediately after the
ceremony, the happy pair and
attending couples took a carriage
to the railroad (Sylva) enroute to
Biltmore which will be their
future home.
The following is a list of
presents to the bride and groom :
Father and brother of bride -
cream pitcher, sugar bowl, spoon
holder, butter dish and water
pitcher.
Mother of bride - linen tablecloth.
Ethyl, sister of bride - linen
napkins.
Mr. and Mrs. J . L. Broylesberry
spoon.
Mrs. Hattie Painter - sugar
shell.
Mr. and Mrs. W. A. H. Schreiber
- napkins, salt and pepper
stand, dessert dishes, sugar shell.
Dr. McLain Rogers - china
berry set and cake plate.
W. W. Rhinehart -glass tumblers.
Mr. and Mrs. M. Buchananbedspread.
Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Cowan -
rocking chair.
J. J . Wild - silver mounted
comb and brush.
Mr. and Mrs. 0. B. Coward -
sugar shell and butter knife.
Marcellus Buchanan Jr. -
cream pitcher.
James Manahale - broom.
Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Moore
- jelly spoon.
Mrs. Maggie Myers - waiter.
Mrs. J. C. Buchanan - covered
china dish.
Mr. and Mrs. J . W. Terrell -
napkin rings and collar buttons.
Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Alley -
spoons and towels.
Dr.andMrs. W. C. Tompkinstowels.
Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Haynes
(Clyde)- set of vases and box of
carnations.
Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Lewis -
sugar shell and butter knife.
Miss Nannie Mallonee - glass
pitcher.
Miss Rebecca Wilson - dessert
plates.
Miss Etta Walters - large
picture.
G. W. Bryson- salt and pepper
stand.
W. E. Tustin Jr. - silver butter
dish .
Jonah Dills - clock.
Mr. and Mrs. J . W. Divelbissmedallion.
Mr. and Mrs. T. B. Allison -
bowl and pitcher.
John Wild and Will Coward -
coffee mill.
Mrs. Florence Lusk (Cleveland,
Tenn.) -handkerchiefs.
Mrs. Ethyl McDaris (Cleveland,
Tenn.) -linen table cover.
Mrs. Hannah McKee Hall -
Cullowhee and Webster
By Lillian Hirt-1956
Next Thursday , April 12,
marks the 90th birthday of a
remarkable lady. First, it 's a
distinction to become a nonegarian.
But to reach this age and
retain an alert interest and
appreciation of what's going on in
the world is remarkable, indeed.
Mrs. Hannah McKee Hall was
born on April 12, 1866, in the
Sandy Mush section of Buncombe
County, one year after the surrender
of Confederate forces in
the War Between the States. Her
father, Robert F. McKee, had
served in the Confederate army
with the Commisary Department
in Gatlinburg, Tennessee . In
civilian life he was a merchant.
Naturally, Mrs. Hall heard a
great deal of discussion and
reminiscing about the war as she
grew into childhood. However,
she is not greatly concerned with
it now. "That's all past now, and
there's nothing we can do to
change it. The important thing is
to know the conditions of the
present age, and plan for the
future." This, coming from a
woman of ninety , is worthy of
note.
Mrs. Hall 's parents moved with
their family to Webster in 1867,
when she was two years old and
when Webster was the county
seat of Jackson County. She has
lived in th is area since that time
Snowing Again!
January 24, 1977
This is the fourth heavy snow
that has been dumped on Western
Carolina this month. Of course,
everyone is surprised, as we have
not had such severe weather for a
long time. But it could be worse,
much worse, as it was in the early
years of this century. It was so
cold the Tuckaseigee River froze
over to the extent that our
neighbor felled trees on the ice
and dragged them off with a team
of horses. Others crossed the
river with wagon teams. Children
played and skated in perfect
safety up and down the river
from the dam in front of my
home, the Hall farm, to the big
covered Webster Bridge. Even
our mother, Mrs. Hannah Hall ,
risked having a ride on a chair
pushed by my two brothers ,
David and Coleman, on the icy
highway. They had been given ice
skates which added much to the
speed of the ride.
You ask, did we suffer? Not as
we do now, with frozen water
pipes and dangerous highways.
Also our super·markets then con·
sisted in well fill ed pantries,
cellars, and backyard smokfhouses.
For water we had springs
and wells that did not freeze over.
The biggest problem was keeping
warm, but any man that was
worth his salt saw to having a
well-filled woodhouse before the
winter storms set in . · If you
needed a doctor he came to your
home on horseback or in a buggy.
With our economy and social
setup as it is today we could not
keep going for long at a time
without our modern conveniences;
but for an emergency in
the early days, we had it made.
After several weeks of frigid
weather, springtime took over.
We then stood on the river bank
and looked and listened with awe,
veneration, and wonder at the
heaving , twisting, grinding , roar·
ing, fearsome icebreak as the
Tuckaseigee struggled to become
normal again.
Grace H. Brown
and has been a member of the
Webster Methodist Church since
childhood. She had three brothers
and one sister who lived to rna·
turity- E. L. McKee of Sylva, H.
C. McKee of Webster, James
McKee of Sylva, and Mrs. Joe
Collins of Clyde. Mrs. Hall is the
only survivor of this family .
This charming lady has a keen
intellect and a retentive memory.
She recalls the romantic details
of her courtship and marriage,
when she was seventeen and her
beau was thirty·five. Her parents
were opposed to the match
because of the disparity in age.
But, as she says, L. Coleman Hall
was a good man and she loved
him. He was her Sunday School
teacher, and she reminds one
now that he was a good man even
if he did steal a bride.
Widowed at twenty-six, Mrs.
Hall proved that a fragile body
can house a so ul of great
strength , for she gained the
admiration of all who knew her in
rearing her three children. They
are Rachel Gracie, who is now
Mrs. David H. Brown of Cullowhee;
L. Coleman Hall of Webster ,
who is married to the former
Stella Broyles of Webster ; and
the late David McKee Hall of
Sylva, who was married to Edith
Moore of Webster.
The family home still stands in
Webster, having been recently
renovated and occupied by her
grandson, former state Senator
David M. Hall , J r ., and his
family. Mrs. Hall now makes her
home with Mr. and Mrs. Brown in
Cullowhee, but visits with the
otl)er families from time to time.
She has eight grandchildren and
sixteen great-grandchildren.
In addition to rearing her own
family, she took several other
children into her heart and home
and mothered them. She says
they have all done well, but she is
particularly proud of Frank Waldroop,
whom she describes as a
successful Christian businessman
of Shreveport , Louisiana.
Compassion for homeless children
is one of her most outstanding
characteristics , and even in her
later years she is supporting a
child in the Methodist Orphanage
at Winston-Salem, and wishing
she might personally care for the
child.
Naturally, one wonders about
her present activities. When
asked if she ever does any sort of
handiwork now, she replied:
"Yes, I've always been pretty
good with the needle, and still do
a good deal of mending for
different ones in the family."
However, she has other interests,
too. She said she mainly wanted
to travel, but could not do this
until her children were all grown
and had established homes of
their own.
One of the most vivid recollections
from her European trip
is the Passion Play, performed
every ten years in Oberammergau,
Bavaria. She witnessed the
last performance before the play
was discontinued prior to World
War II.
Mrs. Hall said that the present
Biltmore Estate near Asheville
was at one time the estate of her
great-grandfather Patton , for
whose family Patton Avenue in
Asheville is named. Some of her
Palmer ancestors are buried in
the old Bath churchyard on North
Carolina's coast. One of those
was a counselor and surveyor of
the king.
Well , back to more recent
years. At the age of eighty-five,
when her son Coleman was living
in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Mrs.
Hall returned from a visit to him
by way of airplane. She remarked
at the time that now she
had ridden everything from an
oxwagon to a flying machine, and
there's nothing left for her but to
ride in a submarine. Knowing the
youthful proclivities of this delightful
person, you can almost
believe she may arrange that.
Mrs. Hall can look back on a
life filled with rich and exciting
experiences. But even now in the
evening of her life , she can look
forward , too. She has an optimistic
personality, and eagerly looks
forward, to each day's experiences.
Visitors are always welcome,
and it might be added that
most visitors go away from her
considerably refreshed by her wit
and her obvious pleasure at
seeing them. Her own mother
lived to be ninety-six , and she
says with the blessing of God she
may even surpass that. All who
know her sincerely hope so.
At the time I wrote about Mrs. Hall, I was Public In formation
Officer for Western Carolina College, now known as Western
Carolina University , and local correspondent for the CitizenTimes.
I worked with Bob Hall, Alumni Secreta ry and Recruiter
of prospective WCC students. From Bob, a grandson of Mrs.
Hall, his mother, Mrs. David Hall, and his aunt, Mrs. David
Brown, I heard many an interesting story about Mrs. Hannah
Hall. I became acquainted with her and enjoyed a number of
visits with her at Mrs. Brown's home where she was living.
Upon Mrs. Hall's death, January 31 , 1962, the family asked me
to write the obituary. It was printed on the first page of the
Asheville Citizen , and that, I think, indicates some of the esteem
with which she was held in the area.
In this obituary I repeated much of what I had sa id about her
in the feature article I had written on the occasion of her 90th
birthday. In addition to that were some facts about the funeral
plans. - Lillian Hirt
Mrs. Hannah Hall, 95, Dies
The day of the funeral has not been designated, but services
will be held in Cullowhee Methodist Church.
The Rev. M. V. Thumm of Asheville, the Rev. A. A. Ferguson
of Cullowhee, and the Rev. Roger Pearson of Webster will
officiate. Burial will be in Webster Cemetery. Pallbearers will
be Charles Rowlson , Robert C. Hall, Bruce Hall, Hal McKee
William McKee, Jim McKee, Mark Dowdle, and Frank Brown:
Jr.
The family has requested that flowers be omitted and
suggests that contributions be made to the Methodists'
Children's Home in Winston-Salem.
Surviving in addition to her daughter , Mrs. David Brown, are
a son, L. Coleman Hall of Webster, seven grandchildren, 15
great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
William H. Thomas • • • Continued From Page 1
Carolina. The people of the
mountains frequently had closer
ties with these states than they
had with ot
Historic Webster Vol. 6 No. 3
No full textHistoric Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.~HISTORIC~
WEBSTB:R newsletter of the Webster Historica l Society, Inc.
VOLUME VI, NUMBER 3 WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA SUMMER, 1979
On the
Scene
with
Lawrence C.
Frizzell
"Preachers"
We had " Preachers" not Ministers,
in those days, and their
lot was a ra ther hard one. Their
pay , if you could call it that, was
pract ically nil, and the collections
at the services amounted
to very little, most of which had
to be forwarded to the higher
echelons of the church. The
members of the congregations·
helped out with food, clothing ,
and anything else that was seriously
needed. Thinking of their
plight in these enlightened
times makes me shudder. but at
that they weren't much worse
off than the rest of us.
It is interes ting to recall some
of these preachers at the Webster
Methodist Church. One was
named Cordell (my middle
name came from hirri ), but he
was before my time. Then we
had one named Richards, or
Pritchard, or something like
that, who rode a high spirited
gray horse. He frequently rode
to our house to spend the night
with us. I admired him very
much because he had the cou·
rage to ride a horse that always
seemed about to toss him over
his head. Then there was Mr.
John Peeler, who, like nearly
everybody else, chewed tobac·
co. His favorite was "Brown 's
Mule" , which he pronounced
"Brown's Mu·el". His wife was
on of the most cultured persons
in the area , who liked to quote
poetry and other famous sayings
. Mr. Clyde, a graduate of
Furman University, liked to
organize the boys of his congre·
galion, and hold prayer meet·
ings with them in the barn back
of the parsonage. Why he held
them there instead of the
church escapes me. He prea·
ched some very eloquent ser·
mons, and combined some of
them with acrobatics. On one
occasion, to emphasize a point,
he leaped to the top of the railing
around the pulpit and balan·
ced himself there briefl y. On
another occasion his sermon
was based on a text about the
care of th flock, or congre·
galion, and the refrain through·
out the sermon was "Fee my
Sheep". His two daughters,
Mabel and Helen, come vividly
to my mind to this day. They
and Stella Broyles, Edith
Moore, Florence Rhinehart,
Jessie Stillwell , Lucy and Myr·
tie Hedden, Lena Cowan, and
Gertrude and Ina Brown for med
a very interesting group
at the school.
ColorH"I F r izzdl 's ~..:o lumn now
is a re_gular l·ea ture in I-llS·
TORIC WEBSTER and in the
next issue he will write about
"Preachers.··
Gertrude Dills McKee
N.C.'s first woman senator
This oil portrait of the late Mrs. Gertrude Dills
McKee was placed in the North Carolina headquarters
of the General Women's Clubs in Raleigh as
a memorial to Mrs. McKee. Mrs. McKee served the
state in many ways-social, political and religious.
By Joe P. Rhinehart
Part one in a series or 3
"As the mo.untains stand graceful and sturdy in the clear mountain
air of autumn, so stood Gertrude Dills McKee," began an
Asheville Citizen editorial on the death of Mrs. McKee.
"Her charm was a compound of womanly gentleness, warmth of
spirit and unselfish interest in the welfare of friends and ru:quaintances.
Her smile won over the shy person and fairly infected all
those who came in contact with her. Her loyalty was firm and
unswerving, whether to friend or to principal which she considered
worthy.
"These attributes and a keen informed sense of social responsibility
were heavily invested in the progress of North Carolina.
Mrs. McKee received many honors. But they were more than earned.
"She was the first woman to sit in the Senate of North Carolina
and would have served a fourth term in that body had she lived.
Education and so.cial legislation were her particular. fields of interest.
Laws .which she sponsored or supported became model
statutes-which is a fair test of legislative ability .and accomplishment.
In the best .sense of the phrase, Mrs. McKee was a
typical 'woman in politics .'
"To club work she gave generously of her time and abilities. Her
efforts helped to put and keep the General Federation of Women's
Clubs in the forefront of North Carolina's progress. She was no less
devoted to the forwarding of public education-in the schools of
North Carolina, as a member of the State Board of Education ; in
the Greater Univ_ersity, as a member of the Commission on Consolidation;
in the colleges of North Carolina as a trustee of three in·
stitutions, and especially as a long friend and patron of Western
Carolina College (University). There at Cullowhee a building was
named in her honor, and several years ago the Women's College of
the University of North Carolina Cnow UNC at Greensboro) confer red
upon her an honorary doctor of laws degree.
"But as much as Mrs .. McKee was devoted to the people of her
region and state, her grace and charm found full expression in the
home as wife and mother. She was a winning hostess. Young people
were attracted to her and found her keenly alive to their interests.
She had a capacious sense of humor and the humanness. which goes
with it. She was unfailingly generous, and always without obstentation.
"The stamp of the mountains was upon Gertrude Dills McKee.
And the region which she loved happily is left with a deep impress
of her loyalty, kindliness, and good works."
continued on Page 4
Early Webster was a busy place
By JOHN Pi\KKIS
July 4- Gleanings from the
horse-and-buggy era , or who
remembers back when this
hi ll·top vi llage was called Webster-
On-The-Bridge?
For a stroll down memory
lane, come along and browse
through the musty, dusty files of
The Tuckaseigee Democrat.
ITEM: Folks got mighty ex·
cite<:t around here in July of
1879.
Frank Carter had struck it
rich and Webster was destined
to mushroom into an oil town.
Workmen bormg a water-well
at the Carter residence struck
oil at a depth of 65 feet.
"For a couple days," wrote
Editor Tompkins, "the exhala tions
were as pronounced as
ever issued from any oil can.
During the same time a bubbling
noise as of escaping gas
could be distinctly heard.
.Water drawn up had oil floating
on its surface ... But as the hole
deepened the noise ceased and
evidences of oil disappeared."
ITEM: There was no stopping
a girl of 13 from getting married
back '89, particularly if her
father happened to be the
county register of deeds.
" Quite a romantic affair occured
at Webster last Tuesday
night," wrote Tompkins.
"There was a festival at the
Methodist Church, and a pretty
miss of 13 and her lover were
present.
"The festivit ies broke up
about midnight, and the young
couple left for home, as was
supposed , in a buggy. But
instead of going home they went
to Sylva, where they were
married.
"The young lady is a daughter
of the Register of Deeds of
J ackson County, and had previously
gone into her father's
office and filled out a marriage
license, which was used at the
marriage ceremony. ' '
Tompkins reported that this
"genuine runaway marriage is
the latest sensation in Web-continued
on Page 4 Mrs. Emma Long Coward
Page 2, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Summer, 1979
Pages from a Webster scrapbook PhotographsfromlsabeiAI
itil'>:;i ' ~·If~ ~~.J-h,..,... c,,."' .._.,. ,'~ ....,..K~ C.,.,o-~_,
~·~~~t..~tj ,AYM<ofl.,..e.) w~.;~_, .. '"""'" <V,\..~
'0~ -A ,l"\.~ ;fo'O ..........
I
lison q:arlton, Annie Louise Madison Reed, and Kate Rhinehart
C "-""\ ftillwcJJ ~':J ~""...:'~ ~.~'f"~
if~"
HISTORIC WEBSTER, Summer, 1979, Page 3
;:....._). ~~1lo"e. _,""'Ff.,.ef
~.,.,J.A...1,"~"'e._.~"-1
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Page 4, HISTORIC WEBSTER, SUMMER 1979
Mc:Kee was early leader
continued rrom P~ ge t
Gertrude Dills was born in
1886 in the little mountain
village of Dillsboro in Jackson
County. She was the daughter of
William Dills, legislator from
Jackson in 1889 and founder of
the town of Dillsboro. Her
mother was Alice Enloe Dills.
Mr. Dills was a business man of
unusual ability. Having three
daughters and no sons, there
seemed little likelihood that
there would be a successor to
his service. In his day there was
little or nothing known of the
possibilities of women's talents.
It would have warmed his heart
and the heart of every pioneer
worker for the women's movement
to have s.een the enthusiam
with which. his second
daughter was elected the first
woman state senator in North
Carolina.
At Peace College in Raleigh
Miss Gertrude Dills was president
nf her class and sorority.
In the class of 1905 she was graduated
with highest honors.
From her graduation until
her marriage to Ernest Lyndon
A worker
in the women's
movement
McKee, a pioneer industrialist
in Jackson County, on August
19, 1913, Miss Dills taught
school.
Mrs. McKee began her first
organization work during World
War I, when she began to attract
statewide attention for the
effective work she did for the
Salvation Army, Liberty Loans,
and savings stamp drives.
Mrs. McKee's first state office
came in .May of 1925 when
she was elected president of
North Carolina Federation of
Women's Clubs. She campaigned
for a survey of women in industry.
Although the survey
was never made, she did pursuade
Governor A. W. McLean
to order it, after he had decided
against it. However, it was finally
called off when a controyersy
_ arose over who should
conduct the investigation.
The women of North Carolina
were_ well represented when
they chose Mrs. McKee as their
leader. No matter where she
went she was fighting for the
rights of her fellow women.
At a convention in Asheville,
she told the Carolina women
that the ballot was the strongest
weapon of their sex. It was time
for them to start going to conventions
and primaries .and in
this way began to discharge
their responsibilities as citizens.
Mrs. McKee said that she saw
ation. At Charleston she was
chosen president by unanimous
vote.
Mrs. Eugene Davis of Wilson,
North Carolina, said, " If North
Carolina Club women could
have seen Mrs. McKee and
heard her address at the closing
session when she was presented
in her new role, they would have
thrilled with pride as the two
North Carolina representatives
did."
On her last day in Charleston
she reviewed the troops at Fort
Moultrie. " I know one thmg, 1
was thrilled," said Mrs. Mc.Kee,
who served as state and council
president at the same time.
In October of 1928 the North
Carolina division of the United
Daughter's of the Confederacy
<UDC) called her to duty as president.
At a meeting of this organization
in Asheville, Mrs. McKee
said, "We are filled with thankfulness
that we have lived to see
the day when the. South is the
best and safest place in which to
live." She predicted. that the
New South would eclipse all
other sections of the nation
since the foundation had been
laid by men of such sterling
quality.
Continued Fall. 1979
"The Merry Widow"waltz
A Webster Favorite:
continued from Page 1
ster," and elsewhere reported
the ceremony and named the
groom as Oscar B. Coward of
Sylva and the bride as Miss
Emma Long.
ITEM : Editor Tompkins believed
in using the pages of his
newspaper as a medium for
special ' 'bread-and-butter ''
courtesies.
To illustrate: "Mrs. Editress
Tompkins tenders Mrs. Capt.
Leatherwood her thanks for a
nice roll of Golden Drop butter,
the product of her Jersey cow. It
was nice. "
ITEM : By 1903 the young
folks had gone wild over Johann
Strauss' "The Merry Widow
Waltz. " It was all the rage. So
much so that Editor Tompkins
turned poet and aired his feelings.
It's The Merry Widow this
And The Merry Widow that;
It's The Merry Widow kiss,
And The Merry Widow hat.
" It's The Merry Widow craze,
And The Merry Widow dance;
It's The Merry Widow plays,
And The Merry Widow glance.
" It's The Merry Widow dinner,
And The Merry Widow waltz;
It's The Merry Widow sinner,
With The Merry Widow fau lts.
" It's a merry Widow wife,
And a Merry Widow brat;
I've a Merry widow knife,
And a Merry Widow cat.
''And if I die tomorrow,
Why let them play real loud,
The Merry Widow waltz song
For The Merry Widow crowd."
ITEM: J ust around the corner
a sorry fate , was waiting for
Webster. Folks over in Sylva
and down at Dillsboro were
getting ready to gang up and
move the county seat.
But in 1907, Webster was
going its merry way and mighty
proud of its progress.
to Miss Mamie Moore, later
Mrs. Eugene Bearden of Asheville,
for her portrayal of Marion
Warrington, writing that she
"shined out in all the grace and
loveliness of a daughter of the
Old Time South."
"Perhaps one of the best hits
of the even in~. " he said "was
'The Homespun Dress' sung by
Mrs. Holmes Bryson (later of
Asheville) "
ITEM: In '84, Editor Tompkins
announced to his readers
that he had a cow worth 1,000 for his horse," the editor
explained. "Felix Leatherwood
here in Webster has a yoke of
oxen which he wouln't begin to
give for Kope's horse.
"Cole Hall (grandfather of
former Congressman David M
Hall) won't give his dog, Car:
low , for Felix's oxen. Dr. Jim
Candler (grandfather of Dr.
Charles Candler of Asheville)
won't swap dogs with Cole, and
Y?Ur correspondent won't give
h1s red cow for the doctor's dog.
Ergo, the cow is worth greatly
over 7.00, and the
price of dry cleaning, I bought an $85.00 wedding dress. Somehow,
Miss Nan learned of my purchase and she apparently viewed the
situation differently. I later was told that while I walked proudly
down the aisle wearing what I felt to be a very practical,
economical, and beautiful dress, Miss Nan was sitting in the
audience in horror of the whole thing, feeling sorry for me and
lamenting over " what a shame it was that I was getting married in
a 'bargain dress'." Such was the closeness of our one big Webster
fami ly! Continued Next Issue
. , , . ~HISTORIC~
;~~r/' WEBSTEi newsletter ol lheWebsler Historical Society. Inc.
Summer. 1979 Webster, North Carolina 28788
Editor Joe P. Rhinehart
Contributors: Janice Monteith Blanton. Lawrence C. Frizzell.
John Parris, Annie Louise Madison Reed, Isabel Allison
Carlton, Kate Rhinehart, Jenny Hunter
P ~bli shed quarterly by the Webster Historical Society and
prmted by the Herald Publishing Company, Sylva, North
Ca rolina.
Women must be
interested in
politics
" Webster is still in the lead,"
Tompkins wrote. "One of her
progressive citizens, 0. B. Coward,
has put down the first piece
of paved sidewalk ever seen in
Jackson County. He has fin ished
up about 40 feet in front of
his store. "
Webster, North Carolina 28788
no reason for WDmen shying at
politics or politicians. " In these
days the woman who is not interested
in politics is neither an
intelligent_ or patriotic citizen.''
Mrs. McKee was chosen at
the biannual convention of the
Southeastern Co..uncil of
Women's Clubs which met in
Charleston, South Carolina in
1926, as the new president. The
chairmanship of the Council
was second only to the presidency
of the General Feder-
But now 50 years later there's
not a foot of paved sidewalk in
the town that died and only now
is coming back.
ITEM: Folks packed the auditorium
one night in 1908 to see
a cast of local talent present
"Under The Southern Cross", a
moonlight-and-roses epic of the
Civil War.
Editor-turned-drama critic
Tompkins tossed a big bouque
- …
