SIDE TWO

Powell: . . . and I said well I ain’t got no money, other than uh, the Treasurer's money. I, I don’t guess I’ll buy no candy. So I’ll go by the store like I’m goin’ home, and they’d hang around thinking I’m gonna give them a nickel or a dime or something. And I said no, I can’t spend this money. I’m putting this money in the ummm, in the ???, in the thing, in the box. So they, standing around over there, and couldn’t bum a nickel, or a dime, so they go on down the road. And I go on back down to the store, buying Mounds and uh, and Hershey Bars.

Fred: Hershey Bars!

John: Now where was the store? There used to be a little store back there?

Powell: Down, down the road. Mamma and them run a little store down the road.

John: Used to run a little store?

Powell: Yeah.

Estellia: mmmhmmm.

John: Oh . . .

Powell: And uh, ??? then when we got ready ??? broke up, well we might as well divide this money up. And uh, I said, well ain’t but a dollar and some cent left. And they said where did it all go? And I said, SPENT.

Estellia: Ha ha ha!

John: Right. Overhead!

Estellia: Yeah!

Powell: ???? So I was ??? and everything, spent the ???.

Bonnie: Did you all churn? Did you have an ice cream churn?

Powell: We had one of them crank, hand cranked.

Bonnie: Did you use rock salt and everything . . .

Powell: Yeah.

The Store

Dolores: Mom never uh, moved their store, later on, they moved the store, right down to that little building where my brother had that barn. They had a store up here, for a while. It may be how many years? Maybe 3 or 4 years.

Estellia: Yeah, about three or four years.

John: Okay.

Estellia: I had sold flour and candy and all , little canned stuff. And a lot of people would hire me to take them to buy a bag of flour. I had flour , and they’d hire me, time they got through paying me to take them over to Bluefield, they could’ve bought my flour. I had the best flour, cans in perfection and all this, good brands. I never did like bad flour. So they would hire me to take them over to Bluefield and buy them flour.

John: Okay. Well, I guess really, it was, I mean, the only other place, they’d have to go to Rocky Gap to a store, right?

Estellia: Right.

John: So ya’ll had the only store up here.

Estellia: Right. A lot of people would buy stuff but some, some of them would hire me to take them to Bluefield. To buy flour. And I had flour . ..

John: And you had butter . . .

Powell: I was, I was the biggest customer on pop and candy.

Dolores: I was the biggest customer, on candy!

Powell: And umm, when we’d run out, I was down in the bottom there plowin’, and they’d run out candy. And uh, I’m plowin’ a team of horses, I was about 12 then I guess, and I said, well, ain’t no candy, up there, I just might as well get me a chew of tobacco, they got me working like a man, I might as well chew tobacco like a man. So I got me a big chaw. Put that in my mouth. But uh, about two or three packs of Tea Berry chewing gum up there, and the boy in me told me get me some of that Tea Berry chewing gum and mix it all up together. Well, the first batch I spit out, then the next batch, it was too sweet to spit out, I swallowed that. I seen them old guys drink water with tobacco in their mouth. So I did that, and the horse sitting down there, just standing down there in the field, and something telling me to go to the spring and get a drink of water. And that’s why I went out there chewing that tobacco, got sick, hee hee . .. ??? got sick as horse .. .

Farming

John: I reckon. Yeah. So ya’ll, used to, used to farm with horses, and . . .

Powell: Yeah. ???

John: OKay. And ya’ll, what would ya’ll use, what did you used to plant?

Powell: Uh, corn.

John: Corn?

Powell: Mostly corn and oats, wheat . . .

Estellia: Beans, and . . .

John: Wheat?

Powell: Yeah.

John: Okay. So you didn’t, you didn’t grind your own flour?

Powell: Huh-uh.

Estellia: No.

John: Alright. But you used to long ago, right?

Estellia: Right?

Powell: Yeah, but years ago, just we’d grind our own, Daddy’s daddy grind his own flour. But uh . . .????

John: Well would ya’ll take it, there used to be a mill in Rocky Gap?

Powell: Yeah we’d take it down there.

John: To uh, what, Taylor’s?

Bonnie: Taylor’s.

Powell: Taylor’s Mill.

John: Right. Right there at the Gap. And ya’ll would take it down there and you’d get it ground there.

Powell: Yeah. We had took wheat over at uh, Wytheville, Reed . . .Reed Creek.

John: Reed Creek?

Powell: Yeah.

John: Right. Now that’s still in operation, right?

Powell: Uh uh, yeah. I believe so, we carried 100 bushel over there one year. We raised a hundred bushel one year.

John: Uh-huh.

Powell: Of wheat.

Dolores: What was it Uncle Ruben used to do?

Powell: Well, he’d thrash . . .

Pillow Ticks

Estellia: He would thrash, wheat and . . .I mean . . ???? what would . . . wheat, and then we would use the straw for ticks.

Powell: Ticks.

Estellia: That, that was our bed.

John: Right. Okay.

Estellia: And, how did we do it----

Powell: Every year---

Estellia: Every year we would change---

Powell: Every year they would change---

Estellia: Change it and put new straw in it.

John: Right. Right.

Estellia: That was, that was, I mean that was good sleep then . . . and I . . . now you got mattresses and all this stuff . . .

John: Right.

Estellia: I mean, this was old timey.

Powell: And uh, they weren’t much trouble . . .

Estellia: . . . and he had to have a bed . .. some ticks we had ticks. .

John: Right.

Powell: And uh, these tick beds start out about that high, and then after you sleep in them maybe , a month, or two, they’ll go down, sink down.

Estellia: But the next year we would fill them up.

Powell: Fill ‘em up every year.

John: MMMMmm.

Estellia: We’d pack ‘em, just put ‘em thick in there . ..

Powell: I don’t think I’ve had a good night of sleep since I got, off them, ha ha, straw. I bought a Sealy mattress, Posturepedic, and uh, they don’t sleep like them straw ticks.

John: Right.

Estellia: I don’t think I want to go there.

Bonnie: No, I don’t either.

Chickens and Cows

John: So you used to, so ya’ll raised cows, and I guess you had chickens and . . .

Bonnie: Pigs . . . ???

John: And pigs and . . .

Estellia: Pigs and all that, all that stuff.

Powell: We had chickens . . .?????

John: And you . .. yeah okay. So you had all your own beef?

Fred: We would kill about five hogs a year . ..

John: Okay. What about your cows? Would ya’ll kill them or would you just sell them?

Powell: Mamma--Mamma and them never did start killing no cows until I got old enough to kill ‘em. They used to get this guy down the road and he’d go to Bluefield, and get all drunk for about a week, and Momma said have you seen Nate Charleton? And I said he’s in Bluefield drunk. Well, he’s supposed to kill my cow! And I said why don’t you ask me? Well, can you kill it? And I said yeah, and I was about ten then.

Estellia: He always thought he could do an--I told him he could do anything he set his mind to, he always. . .

Powell: They supposed to come this morning to kill my cow, and I haven’t seen ‘em! And I said, I’ll kill it! Ain’t nothing to do but kill him and skin it and hang it. Well who are you gonna get to help you. I don’t need nobody to help me. I’ll get him up there! So I dunno if I had a winch or what, but anyway, I tried to hang it, big cow weighed around 1200. Well I didn’t know you could kill no cow! I said you never did ask me. But I, I don’t never remember being no boy, that I can remember.

John: Yeah.

Powell: Them other boys come up here and read funny books, I’d pay them a dollar a day well, daddy would pay them, they’d have a bunch of funny books in their pocket, and they said do you know old Dick Tracey? Jumped outta of that window! And I said what? And the ?????? done this, man I don’t give nothing ‘bout that stuff, I said, I don’t read no funny books.

Estellia: I told him that I ???? don’t read that stuff. . .

Plowing

Powell: . . . Momma had me thinking that well, I was, Daddy told me, now don’t you let them horses strut now,‘cause ?????? because they ain’t been worked all winter, they gonna be rough. And don’t you whup them! Said to momma, I told momma you wake me up about five oclock, I gotta feed them horses. And don’t you, you just feed them, don’t you go up there and put the harness on. And I said, well, you just might as well not told me that. I said ‘cause I’m gonna have them working when my daddy comes ????. And I brought them ????????. ????? too much now. Young horses, they come out, been fed up inthe barn all winter, but I got to get ‘em down across the road down that bottom, if I get them down there and make one round with them I’m gonna get them calmed down ???? So uh, I brought that boy on out, and he still on his hind feet, both jumping and kicking, and I said what in the world am I gonna do. So something says just tie that one up go get the other, tie that one up, then you know, hook them together, so I took that plow, you know how a plow got places where you adjust to the distance?

John: Right.

Powell: So I put in that top beam. Got him hooked up put the line across his neck, tightened the lines up, before he could run back in the ??? you know. So then I plowed him, a street from that barn all the way down to the road. And headed over to that bank and I mean they was walking on their hind feet. When I got to that soft ground down there, I took them around about, plowing about that deep. And finally they started sweating. And I said well I gotcha ya now! So when daddy come in about 10, 11 o’clock, I done plowed about a half a acre. Daddy said uh, you gonna, you gonna kill them horses! You didn’t tie ‘em up? I said no I didn’t tie ‘em up, I said I believe they’ll stand there. You better tie ‘em up, they’ll run off, I said, where’s that, they got nowhere to run!

John: Yeah.

Powell: ??? About ten o’clock, ha. Now I told you not to work them horses, and I said oh they wasn’t too bad.

John: Yeah.

Powell: And they come out of that barn on their hind feet.

Milking

Estellia: We used to milk cows. They milked cows uh, all the time when we was raising cows.

Dolores: My sister and I milked cows. We used the ???? first started and got some cows, because we just loved it. ??? We got a little bit used to it, we would fuss and we wanted Powell to milk the cow. But Powell would never milk, so my sister and I, we always, milked . . .

Estellia: I used to learn how to milk like this, set the bucket down and milk . . .

Powell: I told ?????, I said ya’ll come in a minute got something to show you! And uh, that old cow with tits about that long, we’d catch ‘em and squirt him, squirt them tits, they’d come down and I’d squirt the milk all over them, in the head and in the face. ????There’d be milk all over the head ????

Dolores: He was mischievious.

John: Yeah. Sounds like it. Did ya’ll, did you have more than one milk cow?

Estellia: Oh we had---

Powell: We had---three or four.

John: Three or four?

Dolores: Yeah.

John: Okay.

Powell: And uh, but uh, I, I milked so bad, I could, I knowed I could get out of milking, I milked so bad I got one of the tits hot, and uh, she’d kick the bucket over. And I’d take the empty bucket to the house. I had done milked all of it, and then I’d get in a hurry you know . . . And I guess I was making her tits sore, and she’d kick that bucket over. Now I’d take the bucket to the house, Mamma said, Mamma said uh, what happened to the milk? I said the cow kicked it over. Well I ain’t gonna let you milk no more.

Estellia: That’s my son.

John: Yeah.

Runaway Horses

Dolores: He didn’t tell you about the horses running away with him did he?

John: No. Mmm-mmm.

Dolores: He, he went somewhere, bought this old-timey wagon, you know like, covered wagon?

John: Right.

Dolores: And uh, he had some new horses he hadn’t broken in. So he had the blue cover over the wagon, and he came out, he went up the road, with the horses. And he done hooked it to the wagon, and so them horses got away, they weren’t broke, so they took him up that rode in the wind. I just knew that umm, that uh, that wagon, and he was gonna turn over, so, I saw this blue streak past my house. He couldn’t get them stopped! And uh, our cousin out here, lives down the road, he says, he got in his car and followed him because he knew the horses was, he just looked to pick him up up there ‘cause they would not stop! So finally he got them to stop, but then . . .

Estellia: I think they run into something didn’t they?

Dolores: What did you run into?

Powell: I just, I just, stayed with them, until they’d run out.

John: Yeah.

Dolores: So anyway, they---

John: Didn’t have much choice did you?

Powell: Yeah. I didn’t have too much choice, so I didn’t have to take a cast of ????. Might’ve had a broke leg and I was starting to jump, then I started to get out on the tongue, you know, like you’re in the western?

John: Yeah yeah. Right.

Powell: But umm, they just too far away from the, you know, the wagon. And I, I did have to keep them in the road. I couldn’t hold ??? and then had an old check line.

Dolores: Well was it---I thought sure ----

Powell: ???? bottom making money.

Dolores: I thought---

Fred: You thought ?????

Powell: They was in the wind, but I ain’t ???---

Estellia: ??? Ya’ll didn’t see ???? heads ?????

Dolores: So I said well, he’ll leave them alone now. But soon, he got ‘em stopped. He came back down the road, and loaded that wagon up full of rocks and now pulled it . . . Finally got them broke!

John: Yeah.

Powell: Well I’ve been broke. I’ve rode rodeo, eh, one time the show come through town. And I had a big cowboy hat on, and a cowboy coat, and---

Estellia: He done everything except went to heaven.

Powell: I was working the railroad, I got a job on the railroad, and I’m up there to the rodeo show. Took my wife and baby with me. And a boy said well what are you gonna ride tonight? And I said I think I’ll ride that big bull. And uh, he said well, if you ride one, I’m gonna ride one. So the time comes to ride the bull, they said we not gonna show that bull tonight. Ya’ll can pick you a horse. So I picked the biggest horse out there. Great big old horse ???. And uh, he was that wide, and uh, so, I said he can’t hardly walk let alone buck. And he said don’t pick that big horse, that horse will kill you! No, that old horse can’t get his feet up off the ground hardly. So they named umm, I was in ??? number one from Rocky Gap Virginia, riding Buckshot, and about that time they opened gate. That booger came out of that bucking and kicking. And I done gained weight, I’d done stopped smoking, and I had gained a little weight. And he throwed me to the side, and I pulled myself back. Second time I just didn’t have enough strength. He throwed me, and I broke this arm.

John: MMM.

Powell: ?? I stayed on him eight seconds. And uh, went to old doctor Rob, doctor Rob says, you gotta broken arm. Now what was you doing? I said I was rodeoing. Who, who told you you was a cowboy anyway! I said I didn’t know if I was a cowboy, or if I wanted to be a cowboy.

John: Yeah.

Powell: But, I broke that bull---

Estellia: He done everything except went to heaven and I’m trying to get him to go there now.

Powell: But uh, at the railroad, then I’m off of work four months at the railroad. They said what’s the matter with you, what’s gonna happen to your arm? And word got back I was riding rodeo. You gonna quit the railroad and get a job at the rodeo show!

John: Yeah.

Powell: But I have experienced a lot, so I’ve been around a little while.

John: Yeah.

Bonnie: Sounds like it.

Powell: Yeah.

John: But you, still come home every day.

Powell: Yeah. Yeah I live pretty close to Bluefield State College over in Bluefield.

John: Yeah.

Powell: And I---

John: So it’s not too bad of a drive.

Powell: Yeah. I’m over here, seven days a week.

Delores

John: Uh, have you lived back here your entire life?

Dolores: I, when I got married, in ‘52, I moved to Tazewell. So, uh, in 1980 I moved back.

John: Okay.

Dolores: So I was born and raised here, and . . . ummm . . . I got married when I was too young, and moved to, and I moved to Tazewell and lived out there for around 20 some years.

John: Where’d you meet your husband?

Dolores: Uh, met him---well, at Tazewell. Back then, we went to Tazewell County High School.

John: Right.

Dolores: Tazewell County High School.

John: Before they de-segregated.

Dolores: Right. So, uh, I met him there. And, umm . . . in ‘52, we moved to Tazewell, lived in Tazewell for, up until 1980. So, then I moved back. We had a, small house, and it was up on the hill. My husband got hurt in the mines, in 1969, he got uh, he was running a loader, and it came back, well, he had sixteen loads, and the belt broke and came back on him. And it cut his, left leg off. Well it crushed both legs, but one of the legs got saved. So he had, that was in ‘69. And, so we . . . we stayed . .. we raised our kids. We have four boys and a girl. We raised all of our kids there. Except now Wert, my youngest son, he went to school down here, and he graduated in ‘86.

John: Right, I taught Wert.

Dolores: You did?

John: Yeah.

Estellia: Did you know the Lillys?

Bonnie: Yeah .. .

John: Yeah . ..

Bonnie: He was a lawyer?

Estellia: Phil Lilly?

John: Yeah.

Estellia: I used to work for them for years.

John: Oh you worked for Phil Lilly?

Estellia: Oh yeah, I raised their kids.

John: Okay.

Estellia: I raised all of the kids.

****everybody is talking at once, can’t understand*****

Estellia: I told ‘em, I raised all of them, and I said uh, there’s a bad ones, I said ya’ll get bad I ain’t gonna ????

John: RIght.

Estellia: SO all of them were nice boys. And uh one girl, she had one girl. She married, she’s Tazewell.

John: Uh-huh.

Estellia: Since---????

John: Right.

Estellia: I married in 1932. And I try to tell her I was 17, I’m gonna do just momma did. I said you better go onto school, I said, wasn’t anything else for me to do at that time, just go on and get married, I thought that there wasn’t nothing else to do. So I went on, got married.

Fred: ??????

Estellia: I had cleaned off the new ground, to work, working for me. He paid for me.

Dolores: ??? I went to nursing school. I had, I had well let’s see, was touring college, and uh, the other ones were all in school. I was in nursing school all at once---all at the same time. And boy you talk about hard! It was really tough. I worked part time and, and went to nursing school, so. When I got to the clinical part, it really got rough. So I said I can’t take this, no longer, so, I gotta give this up. So mom talked to me and she said no you can go on and finish ???? and I said I can’t. We’d get up like five o’clock in the morning and had to go to Richlands, so that’s when I lived in Tazewell.

Estellia: That’s how she got married.

Dolores: Yeah. I started nursing in ‘73, so, anyway, I, I hung in there, and we had some tough instructors. They uh, they were really hard. I mean they acted like you know drill sargeants. So uh, you had to do 30 case histories, plus your, your, assignment, and plus your hospital work. The clinical work. So when we finished, we had a stack uh that tall of case history. That wasn’t counting the book.

John: Mmmhmm.

Dolores: So, we wanted to keep all this you know the things that we had to look up and we asked our instructors can we have it? So they wouldn’t give ‘em, give them to us, ‘cause what it was, they wasn’t got a grade, they weren’t going through all of that and grading it, ‘cause it was thirty some students, and uh, they wouldn’t give them to us, so we, we worked hard for that.

John: MMmmmhmmm.

Dolores: But anyway, one of the instructors told me she says uh, the very first day I was in school, she, she didn’t speak to nobody. Everybody walked in the room and she was just like a drill sargeant . And we’d ask her a question, you know about something, look it up. That’s what she’d tell us. Very, just very arrogant. She was very arrogant. So, I said to myself, ??????? But she, she, ummm, so we got to know her, she never did tell us one thing, you know. You wanted to know something, you, looked it up ???? And so one day she told me she says uh, well you’re not gonna make it. I mean this is really discouraging for me. You’re not gonna makeit because you’ve got two weeks to get those case histories in and you haven’t finished. I said okay, I had my case histories in on time. And one of her pets didn’t have hers so she give her another two weeks. So anyway that made us real mad, so anyway, Mildred ???? was her name and I never will forget her now because we was really mad!

John: Aren’t you glad you stuck it out?

Dolores: I, yes, I, I , I stuck it out and we counted the the hours the minutes and the seconds you know, ‘cause we, we all had gotten really bored with you know, with classes and everything. And with our instructor. But they were like drill sargeants. I mean they put you through the ???? So after we got out of school, uhm, they stopped making you do the case histories. So a lot of the students say we didn’t have to those histories. And I said well you better be thankful, because it, it was, it was something else to do. It took you a week to work on one case history, so. It was really rough.

Bonnie: Did that help you though?

Dolores: Oh it really, it really helped! But we wanted to keep the material to read and reffer back to it, but she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t give it back to us.

Powell: You know, a lot of people ask me why do you look so young? You don’t look like you’re 65! And I says well I’ve been in the army two years, and uh, and had a drill sargeant and I come out of the army and married a drill sargeant for a wife.

***everybody laughs***

Powell: ????? 30 years!

Bonnie: That was in the newspaper this morning there was an article and also it was on the news the other night. The, the secret to a happy marriage. Did you see that in there?

Powell: Uh uh.

Dolores: I haven’t had time .. . ???

Bonnie: They finally decided what it was, and you just do what your wife tells you.

***everybody laughs***

Dolores: ???? every morning!

Powell: ??? I told her ??? I go eat at Acme sometimes, and uh, I ??

Bonnie: Well the secret to a happy marriage they said in the newspaper this morning, was to do as your wife tells you to do.

Estellia: Do as your wife tells you do.

***everybodys talking at once****

Powell:And I told them, I says you gotta run them drills ????? and ???? about six o’clock in the morning, and then I get out of the house and I don’t get back till they go to bed.

John: Ah that’s something. Well let me, let me ask you some questions about . . . I’m not quite sure how to . . .

Bonnie: How, how are we gonna tie this into the powerline.

John: Ah that’s where I’m beginning. Okay. Uhh, I mean, this is, this is a, this is a community you’ve got this community and you’ve had, I mean it seems like I mean when you had your school, and you had your store, I mean you really had a real community.

Dolores: RIght.

John: Back here. I mean. And I tried---

Bonnie: And the church.

Dolores: And the church.

John: And you had the, and the, the church and all that, and you still have the church and I guess that really is the center now of your community is the church.

Estellia: Right.

John: But, the, the families moving back here and owning this land. I mean land is being ???? but I mean this, you come back, you know your family is here and your land is of here, and you came back here too. Because the land is here. And a lot of these other families ???

Dolores: And also my daugher moved back too.

John: And your daughter’s moved back.

Dolores: Mmhmmm, my daughter, has land, my, well my daughter has built back down the road, down below the church. You probably came, if you could uh, you can see her house but you gotta look very close. Uh you know way up on, on the hill. Uh...

Powell: Back on the mountain.

Dolores: And uh, my son has bought land too.

Estellia: My brother’s here from Ohio, he moved back here ???

John: Moved back here. . . now who’s, who’s your brother, who is your brother?

Estellia: William Ferguson and my sister, ‘course she’s, she travels back and forth to Florida but my brother, he still stays here. You might notice the house WAAAAY back up on the hill. As you go outta of here.

John: Okay.

Estellia: It’s about, not quite a mile.

Bonnie: Is it behind Carla?

Dolores: Yeah. It’s behind Carla.

Bonnie: Okay I know where that is.

Dolores:Now Margie’s house sits, above, above Carla. Way up above there. You have to look real close . . .

Estellia: It’s on the right side ??? Then my brother’s on the right side over there. . .

Dolores: Right side going on, and Margie’s on the left. So a lot of people, you know they, they wanna come back, where it’s quiet, and you know, this is home, and, and they wanna. I moved back tohave peace myself, because in Tazewell, I lived on the highway. And, you could hear every truck every car go by. I mean, we were that close to the highway.

John: Mmmhmm.

Dolores: So I wanted, I wanted to move back for uh, peace and quietness and. . . someday, you know when I retire I wanna, you know, have that peace, you know. And . . . not be ???? from talking to anybody. Because we live close, the houses were close together, there in Tazewell. So. I , I just think you know. . .

John: Yeah. And I, I think it’s kind of unique, I mean, I wanna try to get this straight on the families okay. I mean . . . let’s see if I can take some notes here and get this. But, the first families back here were the---

Estellia: Burgesses.

John: Burgesses?

Dolores: Do you wanna know who, the, who the Burgesses????

Estellia: He’s got all of that ????

Dolores: Oh you’ve got that?

John: I’ve got that, yeah. Is that on that?

Bonnie: THat’s got it all in there?

John: Oh that’s in here. Okay. I just kinda glanced over it.

Estellia: RIght. ??? history.

Dolores: The Fergusons were the first ones.

Estellia: Did you have---??? use those?

Dolores: Yeah she game me uh, ????

Estellia: What does she ???

Dolores: Oh ??? the first ones that moved here.

Estellia: ?????

John: Is that in this?

Estellia: Let her look at and see if ????

John: ?? Okay.

Bonnie: Wouldn’t it---wouldn’t it be in the Bland County book too?

John: There’s a little but but I think---

Dolores: Where’s the, where’s the Bland County book Mom and Dad ?? ---

Estellia: There it is.

John: It’s right here.

Dolores: Uh-huh.

John: But I wanted a--- here, I was gonna take this and copy but I just kinda glanced at it. Is that, is that in there too?

Dolores: And she got in . . . .1880 and 1887, Nat Ferguson, and A. J. Tynes became, became Dry Fork’s first settlers. They came from Franklin County. They were free and they purchased land for farming. In 1890, and 1891, they were allowed to use the schoolhouse for worship service. Under the leadership of Reverend J. ---G. W. Wells, founder organization and pastor of the AME Zion, of religion. They learned the rules and orders, you probably won’t want that. Orders of the AME Zion church, then realizing the need for a church building, A.J. and Emma Tynes donated land to the church in January of 1901. It was decided to name the church Tynes Chapel. The land was purchased for one dollar. The first trustees were Mac H. Ferguson, ?? ???, MacDaniel Ferguson,and my mother’s father. A.J. Tynes and Ruben Ferguson, Ruben Ferguson, logs were donated, but ????, Mr. A.J. Tynes, and Mr. Henry Gray, Mr. Humphrey Hogan, that’s my great grandfather, Mrs. MacDaniel, Mr. MacDaniel, Ruben and Mac Ferguson. Mr. Powell Saunders cut the logs . . . that’s my father . . .

John: Right.

Dolores: Cut the logs at his family---at his sawmill construction. Sawmill construction began on the right, right hand side . . . I don’t have my glasses.

Powell: Here.

Dolores: Nah, I can’t see outta yours!

Estellia: Here are mine.

Dolores: Well my glasses are on top of my head.

Bonnie: That’s where I keep mine.

Estellia: THat’s what you do when you get old.

Bonnie: I’ll go around looking for mine and they’re on my head.

Dolores: Powell Saunders cut the logs at his sawmill construction. Sawmill construction began on the right hand side. Uh with Mr. Hogan driving the first nail on, on, ??????

John: Well, I, you know, I’d like to do, you know get as much as I can. I can come back sometime if ya’ll don’t mind.

Dolores: So you can ask us whatever you need to ask.

John: Okay.

Bonnie: Now when did---

Charltons

John: Now the Charltons, when did the Charltons come here? I keep hearing ya’ll say this family name. Did they come about the same time? Or where they later?

Powell: I don’t know.

Dolores: Umm, I don’t know about when they came. When did, when did Mr. Charlton come in here, dad?

Powell: Mrs. Charlton?

Dolores: Mr. Charlton, Bill Charlton.

Fred: He come in a little later than my daddy, he was about well I can’t know the year but, they come in here we was back yonder and about six years ???? in ‘70.

John: Yeah.

Fred: From Floyd County, and so they move here after Daddy moved here . . .

Dolores: So they came in later.

Powell: ??? moved from where?

Estellia: Where’d they come from?

Fred: Mr. Charlton?

Estellia: Yeah.

Fred: I think they came from Franklin County.

John: Mmmhmmm.

Estellia: The Charltons?

Fred: Yeah the Charltons.

Estellia: The Charltons---The Charltons---

John: Are there any Charltons left around, uphere?

Dolores: Yeah, uh,

Powell: One’s down the road . . .

Estellia: ?? they come over here to church . . .

Powell: He’s 80, 80 years old.

Dolores: Now umm . . .

John: Is that the one that was supposed to kill the cow?

Powell: Yeah.

John: Alright.

Dolores: Okay now . . .

John: Still go over to Bluefield?

Powell: Eh no . . .

*everybody laughs**

Estellia: He goes to church now.

Dolores: He has his sister down there and is 90 something years old. But uh, their minds ??? There’s three sisters down there, they ummm. Let’s see Gladys Gore, Evelyn Charlton. Evelyn and my father’s the same age.

Estellia: 87.

Dolores: And umm . . . ????

Powell: ???? married.

Dolores: ??? is 83. So there’s three sisters and a brother, they uh, they live down there in the little house across, ????

John: Alright.

Dolores: It’s right up from the church.

John: Alright so ???? was the Charlton.

Bonnie: I remember ????.

Dolores: ???? was a Charlton. She’s the same age as mom. So . . .

Powell: That ??? man Charlton, he uh, he’s daddy, who was his daddy?

Estellia: Lloyd Charlton.

Dolores: Lloyd Charlton.

Fred: Lloyd Charlton?

Estellia: Yeah.

Fred:I don’t know where that old Charlton come from.

Powell: Over by Bland I believe.

Estellia: I don’t know where he come from either.

John: Hmm.

Dolores: But, anyway, there’s Charltons here, now, and okay. When did the, the Wagners come in dad?

Fred: ????

Dolores: The Wagners. They came later on?

Fred: They come to build Bell Spring.

Powell: Bell Spring? Yeah.

Fred: From ????? Yeah.

John: Bell Spring? Where’s Bell Spring?

Fred: Heh yeah. It’s uh Woodysville Spring . . . near uh, it’s somewhere in Virginia.

John: It’s in Virginia? ????? know that?

Powell: It’s over there near umm, right going into Marion?

Fred: What did you say?

John: Towards Marion? Okay.

Powell: Marion, Marion Virgina.

John: Smyth County?

Powell: Yeah. I believe it’s back in that . . .yeah .. .

John: Okay.

Dolores: And then ???? uh, uh the Woods, the Woods . . . the ????

Fred: Yeah.

Dolores: And we live on, on the property that Dad gives to ??? us.

Powell: What?

Dolores: ???? So there’s no??? living here. They sold out. And umm. . .

Powell: They died out.

Dolores: Well most of them died, but the ?????, Mr. ????’s wife lives in Bluefield, so and their children. So uh, that’s the property that we live on.

John: Uh huh.

Dolores: And John Harris, uh, that lives right out here?

John: Right.

Dolores: He uh, purchased land from uh, Laddie ????. And Wesley ????.

John: Well where’s he from?

Dolores: Who?

John: John Harris.

Dolores: John? John is originially from Mudfork.

John: Okay. Tazewell County.

Dolores: Right. He married umm, my cousin, that’s uh Dad’s oldest brother’s daughter. Uncle ??? was the oldest? Right?

Fred: Yeah. ???

Dolores: They lived in Cleveland for about 47 years and they moved back.

John: Right.

Dolores: So they moved back, here, and, let’s see. Uh, the Scruggs, that’s Dad’s sister, she lives out there in the brick house right down below John. So it’s Scruggs, Saunders, Saunders living out here, and who else . . . okay, Dad’s other sister lives right out here. She moved back. She she uh, lived in Jersey, and he, and she built a home there, back down here, and so they moved back, her son, lives back behind and her daughter lives back behind her. So you know, it’s a lot of family has come back.

John: Right. Well I mean , people moved because of jobs I guess.

Dolores: Right.

John: So they’d have ??. But now it seems like a lot of people, you know.

Dolores: And---and of course, they’re, they have retired, ??? and her husband.

John: Mmhmmm.

Dolores: So they’re both retired. So let’s see who else? The uhh, uhh, the Tynes!

John: Tynes.

Dolores: Tynes.

John: I talked to Marvin when I was coming up here. And he, I’m gonna I’d like to talk to him and I asked him if uh, if he would talk to, a reporter Tuesday, and he said he would. He would be around. But I mean as soon as I started talking to him, he just started talking. His grandfather ?? built the house, or his great grandfather built the house, saying all the things that uh they’re recording---

Bonnie: THat’s what we need for the reporter to hear .

John: To tie the families to the land and the importance of family and to the place and all this.

Bonnie: Right.

Dolores: Right.

John: So he might, he sounded like he’d be a real good one to talk to.

Dolores: Now he’s, he’s living in the old Tynes house. And, he ???, and Marvin has moved back, Lee has moved back, George has moved back, Hazel has moved back. All of those are brothers and sisters.

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