Clay County AlArchives History .....Life & Times on the Randolph/Clay County Alabama Line Part 1
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 January 31, 2006

Written & Copyrighted by Linda Ayres

Some Life & Times on the Randolph/Clay County Alabama Line Part 1

The Scot-Irish people are a very self-reliant people. They believed in 
standing on their own feet. They were clannish and had the "staying" 
qualities: always a staunch friend, but not very talkative. They were 
rough; but many of them were worthy, honest-hearted people, who brought 
with them, besides their Scot-Irish names and many Scot-Irish words, 
their native sturdiness of character and love of liberty. Others there 
were, no doubt, of more questionable condition men who loved fighting 
better than work, and freedom better than the restraints of the law. 
These people were not ‘’Simple minded’’ but they lived very ‘‘simple’’ 
and did not like change.  

Sweet Home Sweet Alabama 

The houses built in the beginning of the County were made of split logs 
app. eighteen by twenty feet long covered with rough boards, dirt 
floors covered with pine straw, much like the Creek Indians Wig Wogs.  
It is very possible, that after the Creek War in 1836 and the removal 
of the Indians some of the whites may have lived in the old Wig Wogs 
until their own cabin could be constructed. The first thing built was 
the rock chimney of the fireplace.  The rocks were pasted together with 
a mixture of red clay and salt, then covered with white mud, dug out of 
the bank of a ditch. White mud mixed with water was used as a paint. 
The chimneys and fireplaces were made of flat creek rock or field 
stones.
Occasionally an iron bar ran across the fireplace to hang pots and 
Kettles. Generally stews, soups, and breads and cakes were prepared in 
Dutch ovens, and set directly on hot coals in the fireplace. They would 
bury roasted potatoes, corn, and nuts in the ashes and then placed hot 
coals upon them.  Meat was roasted using forked sticks propped over a 
bed of hot coals.  This  may be why so many of those old chimneys are 
still around old home places today. Maybe no one has lived there in 
fifty or more years, but the chimney still stands. This mud was also 
used to seal out air in between the logs in the cabin. In later years 
lumber was sawed by hand with a whipsaw or crosscut saw. The logs were 
schlepped and lined.  The cord was dipped in Polk berry juice to make 
straight lines on the cord. In later years everyone had wood stoves, 
this was a terrible problem in the summer time. By the 1900’s, most 
people’s homes were two large rooms attached by a walkway.  One room 
for cooking, and one room for sleeping. Some homes had a cookhouse out 
to itself, and the rest of the house to itself. 

Tall and small diameter trees were chosen for the cabin walls, the 
favorite being the yellow poplar. Felled by axe, or scorched around the 
base the previous year and left to die and season. The trees were 
hauled to the building site by horse or mule. Logs for a round log 
building were laid up whole with saddle or "V" notches.  But most of 
the homes were constructed from logs that had been hewn by axe along 
two sides, thus removing the softer sapwood and reducing the weight. 
Cut to size they were laid up, and by chiseling half-dovetailed notches 
at the ends, they would lock securely together. Barns, corncribs, and 
mills were made in similar fashion with horizontally laid hand split 
boards, one or two stories high.

A foundation may have been built out of solid rock or a few flat stones 
serving as pillars to support the sill. [These old foundations are 
still around old home places/churches] Hinges and hasps for doors were 
made from wood, as were the pegs that held the frames to the walls. The 
floor of the house was made with split logs, called puncheons that lay 
upon sleepers notched to the sill. The first roofs were constructed by 
notching logs to stepped gables. Later roofs were constructed of whole 
or split log rafters and light lathing, then covered with split 
shingles. Soft woods like poplar, pine, and chestnut were used for the 
walls, joists and floors of the buildings. Harder woods like oak, 
hickory, maple and locust were used for fence posts, tools, and simple 
furniture. The pioneer buildings were constructed using wedges, 
mallets, and mauls made from hardwood limbs of hickory and oak and axes 
and nails made of iron.

Nothing was more heartbreaking than to find a rat bed or a big hole in 
your grandma’s double-wedding ring quit that she was given when she 
married

Cats were not really wanted inside the house, but the rats would have 
cut up everything in the house without them. So a "Cathole" was cut at 
the bottom of the door, so they could go in & out. With rats, came 
snakes [Really harmless black king snakes] but nothing short of giving 
the people inside a heart attack. 

Most doors were locked with a latch.  This consisted of three pieces of 
oak or other hardwood. For the handle, they use a piece of wood shaped 
into a flattish knob on one end, and about 3 inches long. Work down the 
rest so as to pass through a 1-inch auger hole. A knob was shaped on 
the other end by flattening the sides. The latch is made of a piece of 
wood about a half a foot long. They bored a 1-inch hole for the handle 
3 inches from the edge of the door. Then pushed the handle through the 
hole and marked on it the thickness of the door; then bored in the 
handle a half-inch hole for the latch.

By the 1930’s most farms had a "storm pit".  This was one of the most 
frequently referred to styles. It consisted of a shallow cave dug in a 
strategic spot in or near the farm home which, with a top and door, 
provided safety during the toughest, most violent storms that came 
along. Back in the day, people were terrified of storms.  If a bad 
cloud was going on at night, no one went to bed, and if a violent storm 
came late in the night everyone in the house got up and got dressed. 
After Electricity came to this area, most people had one room inside 
the house that was not wired for electricity.  This is where everyone 
went during a storm.   

During the wintertime, trees like China Berries, Oaks and other trees 
were set out in the front yard.  A nail or wire was placed in them.  
This was to draw lighting away from the fruit trees. If a fruit tree 
got hit in the top by lighting it would die.  

Electricity did not come to rural areas Randolph County until the early 
1940’s most people did not have a television until the late 1950’s, 
people born in the late 1880’s could not understand television, some 
ladies actually thought ‘’those people on television could see them’’ 
and put on their Sunday cloths to watch TV. Also not very many people 
had telephones until the late 1940’s some into the 1960’s and most of 
them had to share the line with as many as four other parties on a 
‘’Party Line’’ this meant everyone had trouble with their neighbors 
listening in on their phone calls. One lady had a phone call asking her 
if she needed a cat? She said yes the rats are about to eat me up! The 
next week she had a yard full of cats! Also people thought if someone 
called them who had a cold, they could catch it through the telephone.      


Education 

Lavina
(Origin: Latin)

Louisa/Louiza
(Origin: French) 

Malinda
(Origin: Greek)

Sophronia
(Origin: Greek.)

Theophilus
(Origin: Greek.)

When writing a genealogy you will find just about all of these names in 
the tree somewhere. This tells you the first settlers in the area were 
very educated, intelligent people, but after the Civil War there was no 
money for teachers and anyone with a fourth grade education that was 
over sixteen years old could teach school. Down through the line, 
education became second to the corps.  

Children would leave for school, and go up this hillside and down 
through the cotton patch to crossing the branch to school. The children 
would be soaked in dew in the mornings. They carried their slate and 
slate pencil for writing in school, but if a child fell down hard, he 
or she would sometimes break their slate.  They would not get another 
one until the next year.  At lunchtime the children were sent to the 
spring to get a drink of water and bring back a fresh bucket of water.  
They each ate their lunch from a small white oak lunch pail.  They 
would play games like "Ring-a-Ring-of-Roses", "London Bridge" and ball 
games. Then it was back inside the one room school or Church until 
turning out time. Then it was time for the walk home maybe a game or 
two along the way ‘’See-saw, buckety-waw, for my lady's daughter; Give 
her a ring and a silver spoon, and let my lady come under. Finger in 
the sugar-bowl!’’ 

The wintertime was very hard on the children.  Most of the time the 
children's shoes would be covered with frost by the time they got to 
school.  Their feet would be wet. Most of them would stand by the old 
wood heater in the corner until they got warmed up. If it were rainy 
weather or really cold the mothers would not send their children out 
into the rain or cold. The County came up with the first school buses 
in the early 1900’s which was a two-horse covered wagon painted black.


Furniture 

Before the 1940’s in this part of the world, no one had living rooms 
suits. Most of the time when you entered a house in this part of the 
world you entered the kitchen first. A large room with a homemade table 
and chairs, a wood stove, meal chest/flour bin and maybe two cupboards, 
and a big dishpan full of water for washing dishes. Their dishes were 
made of pewter and their forks of reed, pocket knives were also used to 
eat with. 

The rest of the rooms were bedrooms.  In the early years, their 
bedsteads were made in the corner of the house.  Holes were bored into 
the logs, and pieces of fence rails were sharpened and driven into the 
holes. The ends resting upright, forked post boards were placed across 
for bed cords, the padding was made out of pine straw.  In later years 
the bed frames were wooden with boards placed across the bed frame for 
support.  These beds had large high headboards/bedposts and very high 
footboards. When people went to visit each other most of the time the 
beds were used to sit on when the chairs ran out. 

Most canned vegetables, soups, etc. were wrapped with an old quit and 
pushed under the beds. This was to keep them from freezing.  At night 
sometimes they would hear a jar come unsealed.  That meant the next day 
the women would have to pull every box out, pull each lid down to see 
if it was still sealed until they found the right jar.  The jar of 
"what ever" would have to be cooked that day or it would spoil.  

It makes you wonder how those people went to sleep with all that stuff 
they hid under the mattress. Things like: underclothes, "headrags", 
pocket knives, yellow root [for toothaches] cotton stockings, papers, 
thread, quilt squares, and yes, money. 

A table stood in between the beds with a glass kerosene lamp, and 
washstand with a bowl and pitcher of fresh water. This was not done in 
the wintertime because it would freeze and burst [Yes it got that cold 
inside the house] The washstand was for the men to shave in the morning 
with a straight razor.  In the old, old days men would cut off their 
beard and then use nut hulls to pull out the rest of their beard a few 
hairs at a time. By the Civil War era most every man had a straight 
razor, shaving took hours, first he had to cut off his beard, then 
place a hot cloth on his face for a while, then shave. That is why you 
see a lot of those old men with such long beards in old pictures.  Plus 
the beard was warm in the wintertime, but by summer because it was so 
hot, plus the lice, one way or another it had to go!

No one knew what a closet was.  Everyone had a homemade 
Wardrobe/Clothespress/Shiffarobe in the corner of the rooms and a safe 
in the other corner.  This was used to store tablecloths, handicrafts 
etc.  The clothespress had one or two doors to store Sunday clothes, 
and a shelf in the top for hats, belts, quit tops, bedspreads, Guano 
sack sheets and pillowcases, etc. 

The safe was used to store the ladies Sunday Hats and Sunday bonnets.  
By the 1920’s most women had a hat for every occasion.  A woman was not 
allowed to wear a hat on the inside of the house [bad luck] the hats 
had a long hat pin that went through their balled up hair to hold the 
hat on, and they would always put the hat on after they were outside, 
and wear it to church, but before they entered the church they took it 
off. Also most of the time when they came inside they took off the 
bonnet and placed it on the back of a chair and at night most of the 
time they placed it on the headboard of the bed. 

No home, rich or poor, was without a trunk. Some had flat lids that 
detached from the bottom and some a round top lid that just leaned 
back.  This is where the important documents such as land deeds and 
family photos, keepsakes, jewelry, wedding dresses and the Confederate 
money was kept. 

The trunks were made out of very thin wood and lined with paper.  This 
could be devastating when they found a rat hole in the back of it, 
opened it and found that the family treasures had been cut into a rat 
bed. 

By the 1900’s most homes had a pedal sewing machine, but in the old 
days the women would make themselves a needle from a fish bone.  

By the late 1800’s most general stores had a telephone, and the general 
store was also the local post office.  

By the 1940’s many people had a battery-powdered radio, but it was not 
turned on but maybe once a week to hear the news and maybe a program or 
two. 


Clothing 

Cotton lint was washed and made into cakes, and dried before the fire.  
The women carded and spun the lint into thread on a spinning wheel. It 
was then woven into cloth on handlooms.  Wool was done mostly the same 
way.  

The women wore homemade cotton dresses.  The unmarried girls/women worn 
light colored dresses and the married women wore dark colored dresses. 

A Sunday dress was made for preaching on Sunday, or to be buried in.  
This dress was the ladies pride, made from her favorite colors.  She 
had such a choice, to dye the thread to make her dress.  She could 
choose: Polk berries [a wine color], green walnut hulls [a greenish 
tan], also onion skins, flower blossoms, china berries, blackberries, 
cranberries, bark, leaves, beets, red cabbage, tea, grass, red mud and 
even beetles were used.  The cloth was placed in a pot with the Polk 
berries or whatever, and salt was added, and then boiled for a few 
hours.  It was then washed and let dry.  This was also used to dye the 
backing for a quit. 

In later years, way into the late 1950’s, chicken feed came in cloth 
sacks.  These sacks came in all colors and had many different designs 
printed on them. The sacks were used for dresses, curtains, tablecloths 
and quilt backings. Underwear was made from white flour sacks, while 
printed Dixie Lily flour sacks were used for curtains, dish towels, 
wash cloths and even dresses.  

Ladies did not wear dresses with large print or bright colors.  Any 
kind of print over the size of a nickel was too large a print for a 
dress.  Also a woman never wore anything with a lot of red in it. A 
woman wearing red lipstick would have been talked about for months. By 
the 1920’s young ladies began to wear a little make-up such as pink 
lipstick and maybe a little pink rouge, dresses got shorter and young 
ladies began to ‘’Bob’’ [cut] their hair short-much to their mothers 
disapproval on all accounts, and causing their grandmothers to call 
them ‘’Jezebels’’ ‘’Oh, she has just gone wild, she has bobbed her hair 
off, and came in with her dress half way up her leg, and had that mess 
on her face’’ Oh my Lord, I just know my mama is turning in her 
grave’’. 

Some early 1900’s everyday dresses had a shirtwaist with "Bone buttons" 
up the front and a long skirt that came down just above the ankles. The 
ladies wore their hair in a ball in the back with side combs or a 
‘’Ratt’’ made from their own hair, a woman never threw her hair outside 
when she combed it, ‘’All kinds of things could happen if something or 
someone got some of her hair’’ 

The men's clothing was dyed with copperas and hickory bark. Most of the 
men's hats were made from wheat straw with a snakeskin band. By the 
1900’s most every man had a few pairs of overall, maybe a small braid 
on the side [Scot-Irish tradition], by the 1900’s it was a disgrace for 
a man to have long hair.  Most of Scot-Irish males have beautiful curly 
hair, while most the female’s hair is straight as a stick.        

Sunday clothes were kept in the Clothespress or Shiffarobe, while 
everyday clothes were hung on nails in the bedrooms.  Coats usually 
hung by the door.  Shoes were put under the beds, and underclothes were 
hidden under the mattress. 

A "Kiss me quick" was a Sunday bonnet with lace around the front of the 
crown and tied under the chin.  This was only worn to Church.  A 
regular old, field bonnet had a round back and several pieces of cloth 
sewed together to make the crown and a piece of cloth as a tail.  

‘’What would you give to know her name, and know her name? What would 
you give to know her name among the white-lily dandies? Mary is her 
first name, Mary is her first name among the white-lily dandies, Smith 
is her last name among the white lily dandies’’  

Young ladies were not allowed to work in the field unless every part of 
their bodies was covered.  If a lady got tanned in anyway, it was 
almost like a scar on her in their minds and no man would ever want to 
marry them, because he would think she came from poor breeding. Even in 
the hottest times, the women wore gloves and cotton stockings. Their 
bonnet was pulled down over their faces, and long sleeves and skirts 
that almost touched the ground. After a woman married she could dress 
somewhat lighter.  But with years of hard outside work, the hard 
winters and hot summers, by the time the women were in their late 
fifties, most of the female’s complexions were so weathered and 
wrinkled they looked almost like Indians. 

A male child also wore a little dress until he was about two years old.  
It was called a dress, but really it was just a long shirt.  When the 
mother was working in the kitchen she could place the edge of the dress 
under the leg of the table or meal chest and the child would have to 
stay put and did not get into trouble. 

Most little girls had a little over-all apron over their dresses to 
keep them clean.  A little girls dress had to be light colored and it 
could not have print on it over the size of a dime. Most little girl’s 
hair was kept braided a few wore their hair down. 

No matter what age, no adult left home without a walking stick-just in 
case. 

Cookware

Home was not a home without a set of iron cookware.  There were several 
different sized iron skillets, a black pot, and an iron kettle.  The 
fireplace was not complete without a skillet & lid, a small boiling pot 
and of course two iron Irons [which most of the time were not used to 
press a dress], they were set in the fire until they got hot, then 
wrapped in an old quilt and placed in the wagon to keep the driver warm 
in the wintertime. The skillet and lid were used to bake bread over a 
small amount of hot coals, which was raked from the fire onto the 
hearth and placed under the skillet, while the top lid was covered with 
coals. Pots and skillets were taken outside and cleaned with a small 
amount of lye soap and sand.  An old rag was rubbed on the soap then 
dipped in sand, and the pot or skillet was cleaned then dipped in water 
several times, and dried.  Occasionally, the pots were dipped in animal 
fat and baked in the stove.  This prevented the pots or skillets from 
rusting.  You could not use lard, because of the salt that was in it 
would only speed up the rusting process.  Sometimes the lady would 
place her cookware in the fireplace and let the fire burn off the 
build-up on the outside of the skillet or pot, then it was oiled and 
stored.      

The Wash Pot

No home was without a Wash Pot, some homes had several. During "Hog 
Killing Time", in the winter, the neighbors would bring their wash pots 
to help boil out the lard. The wash pot was also used for making 
hominy, from fresh-shelled corn.  And of course it was used to boil out 
those "Guanner" [guano/fertilizer] sack sheets, as white as snow.  

Before the ladies had wash pots, they had to beat the clothes on rocks 
down by the creek or branches.  Even after all that beating, the 
clothes were not really that clean. The wintertime was very hard on the 
women with babies that had to wash diapers by hand. The women’s fingers 
would crack from the cold and bleed.  They did not have lotion or 
anything to rub them with, except maybe a little beef fat. They were in 
terrible pain and the next day they had to put their hands in that 
freezing water again-Remember that next time you visit your great 
grandma's grave. 

One day of the week was usually designated as "Wash Day".  Most of that 
day was devoted to that task. This day was Saturday or Monday. Those 
who chose Saturday usually lived so far from town that they just stayed 
home and washed. Those who lived closer went to the town and did their 
washing on Monday.

There were two iron loop handles cast with the pot, one on each side. 
In addition to the wash pot, the women had two wooden tubs made from 
cedar and sealed with tar. She would take the wash from the boiling 
water with a stick or paddle and dump it in the rinse water tub, then 
gave it a good washing on the "Rub broads or washboards" then twisted 
them out and threw them into the second tub for a final rinse.  The 
clothing was then taken to a "clothes line", bushes or barbed wire 
fences, what ever you could hang them on, and straightened out and hung 
to dry. 

Washing a quilt or blanket was a nightmare.  They both would soak-up 
the water, and it would take two people to "wring them out”.  Most 
clothes were soaked over night. Quilts were not usually washed, they 
were taken outside and "sunned".  Washing was not done in the 
wintertime, the ladies fingers were already cracked from milking and 
the rough winter, and they would not stick them in water unless it was 
something like diapers for the babies or something that just had to be 
washed. 

In the summer time a homemade soap was made from the ashes in the 
fireplace or stove.  These were placed in a "Hopper" then water was 
poured over the ashes and left to drip into something underneath. This 
was made from two pints of water and one can lye - ashes in your pot 
then stir it until this dissolves good; then add grease to it. Then 
stir it for twenty minutes." 

Today if you walk down a creek or branch in this County, you might find 
a rock circle were a fire was built years and years ago to heat the 
water in the wash pot.

The wash pot was so valuable even cousins have killed each other over 
them in this County.  

The Well

To find water, it must be done in the spring when the sap is rising.  A 
branch with a fork in it from either a peach or cherry tree, about the 
width of a pencil was used. Break or cut the limb about 20 inches in 
length below the fork and strip off any leaves or extra branches, as 
you only want the forked section.  Holding the 'y' of the branch, 
splayed in your upright palms, the stick pointing forward, you walk 
very slowly with this grip on the twig until the tip begins angle 
downward, this would indicate that water was found.   This is called 
"witching for water".

Many families had the traditional windlass under a small roof over the 
well’s opening. But there were also many other systems rigged up by 
early pioneers to get the water to the surface. Some simply had a 
bucket on the end of a rope that had to be pulled up. Other wells had a 
large wooden beam over the top of the well opening, with a cable going 
from the bucket, up through a pulley on the beam, then the cable was 
hooked to the harness of a horse or mule which pulled the water up in a 
very large bucket.  Those old wells often doubled as refrigerators in 
the old days. Milk, cream, butter, and anything they wanted to keep 
cool was often lowered down into the coolness of the well shaft.
       
Digging a well was amazingly difficult work, fraught with danger if not 
done correctly. More than one well digger has lost his life from the 
sidewalls of the well caving in on him or gases have killed them. The 
typical well shaft of 150 years ago was square, rather than round. And 
instead of bricks, the walls of the well were reinforced with rough 
boards commonly referred to as curbing. Digging the first few feet was 
always the easiest with the dirt and rocks thrown out of the well by 
the person digging it. But just as soon as the well got a little depth 
to it, digging became at least a two-man job with an additional person 
on top. His job was to raise the bucket filled with dirt, empty it, and 
lower it back down into the well. The person in the bottom of the well 
used a pick, shovel, and sometimes a long, heavy steel rod maybe 6 feet 
long. The rod was thrust down into the ground, breaking up the rocks, 
clay and gravel. Then he’d fill the bucket, give a shout, and the 
bucket would ascend yet again. The person on top not only hauled the 
earth up but he also lowered the boards, nails and hammer into the 
well. After digging down another two feet, the person in the bottom of 
the well would stop digging. Using the boards lowered down to him, he 
would box the walls in, preventing a cave-in. Some men built steps in 
the side of the well to go in and out, because the well had to be 
cleaned out.  Sometimes it would be just leaves, but once in a while a 
rat or frog would drown and the well would have to be cleaned out. 

No well was without a water bucket made of cedar. There were several 
sizes of these vessels those used for water buckets would hold about 
two and one-half gallons. The dipper was made of a gourd hull cut in 
half or a small turtle hull. In the wintertime the top of the water 
would have a thin coating of ice-yes it was that cold inside the house. 

In the hot summer someone would say "I think I will got to the spring 
at get a cool bucket of water" or "I think I will draw a cool bucket of 
water from the well".  It is not uncommon to see an old family photo 
and in the background see the old water bucket sitting on a table.

During the days in the field the wife would come to the house and get a 
fresh bucket of water and take it to the field to her husband, what he 
did not drink was given to the mule or oxen. 

In the "Cubboard" 

The Cubboard [Cupboard] was in the corner of the house it was full of 
pewter or stoneware dishes and clay mixing bowls, butter molds, wooden 
bread tray and some cheesecloth, coffee grinder, a sack of sugar, a box 
of salt, baking soda, round sifter, jars of syrup or honey and a lard 
can sitting at the bottom, and if you did not go in there everyday 
maybe there was also a rat bed at the bottom. 

Since just about every woman in the County dipped snuff, every cupboard 
in the County was full of snuff glasses.  Today anyone can walk around 
an old home place and find snuff glasses in the woods around the old 
place. 

Sweet milk

After the cow was milked and the milk was strained to get the gnats and 
flies out, the milk was poured into a Milk can, you had two options:
One: take the milk to the spring and hope something or someone did not 
come along and spill it or steal it.
Two: If you were lucky enough to have a dug well the milk was lowered 
into the well with a rope to keep it cool. In the wintertime you could 
bring it inside the house and place it somewhere where it would stay 
cool, but not freeze. In the wintertime milking was terrible, the 
ladies fingers cracked and busted, their hands hurt so, they could 
hardly milk.      

Buttermilk and Butter

The churn was a crock or wooden container made out of white oak or 
cedar and would hold about three or four gallons of milk. The lid fit 
loosely in an indentation on the top and had a hole in the middle. A 
contraption called a "dasher" went through this hole. The dasher handle 
was about the size of a broom stick and the bottom was fitted with a 
wooden cross made of one by two inch pieces of lumber about five inches 
in length. A half-gallon to a full gallon of clabbered milk was put in 
and agitated by the up and down motion. The person doing the churning 
sat in a chair with the churn between her legs and worked the dasher up 
and down. This operation usually took from thirty minutes to an 
hour.... sometimes longer. When she finished she would dip the butter 
out of the buttermilk, place it in a bowl, add some salt and beat it 
with a butter paddle for a while.  This would make the extra milk come 
out of the butter.  Some people went to the trouble of using a butter 
mold, but most of the time it was poured in a regular bowl, covered and 
set in the cupboard. In the wintertime the churn had to sit by the 
fire, being turned once in a while to get the milk to turn.

The Old Peddler

From anywhere around Tallapoosa River Wedowee or Lineville was a day’s 
walk, and you would have to know somebody to spend the night with or 
sleep on the ground, this was just for a pound of coffee or a block of 
salt.

The Peddlers drove a team of mules and a wagon filled with bolts of 
cloth, needles, thimbles, spools of thread, forks, knives and spoons, 
and a grinding stone, staples, nails, mule harnesses, frying pans, 
boiling pots, washtubs, and mason fruit jars. The Peddlers were most of 
the time from Wedowee or Lineville. Sometimes a few from Anniston came 
to this area to trade goods throughout the County.  The peddler did 
business almost exclusively with the women, trading for eggs, chickens, 
quilts and/or what ever she had to trade.  The peddlers usually had a 
store in town and left the their wives in town to run the store while 
he went on the road. Some of these peddlers carried all kinds of 
Medicines and tonics which very possibly was just colored water. The 
people also ordered everything from Sears and Roebuck, from shoes to 
water tank cypresses.  
 
Roads and Trails 

Every old section one of land in this County at one time had trails 
from place to place and house to house, these trails were a clean 
beaten path, but they had to be kept cleaned out and the bushes cut 
back with sling blades to keep the people from getting snake bit in the 
summer. In the old days every man was responsible for the road through 
his land, he had to keep the road passable for wagons, meaning the 
ditches had to be kept cleaned out on each side, and filled up in the 
road, the bushes had to be kept cut back, washed up rocks had to be 
broken up with sledge hammers, if he did not do this-he would find 
himself in jail. 
In later years the County took over and would place chain gangs up and 
down the roads, and finally the landowners signed the right away of the 
road through their land over to the County to keep cut back.  

The Census Takers

Most people had no use for the Census Taker, "How many kids they had 
and how much land they had was their business and none of his".  Some 
people would not go to the door and some people would order him off 
with a shotgun, but somehow, some way by talking to neighbors down the 
road he managed to get the names of all the kids and their ages.  And 
for all his hard work we all are most grateful! 

Sharecroppers

Sharecroppers were mostly African-American and poor white people, some 
moved from County to County, moving into a community in the early 
spring and gone by the next, while others made their homes in tenant 
houses on large farms for several years. The practice was to split the 
crop in halves, but the landowner also had to take out rent for the 
tenant house. They would get all the seeds, food, and equipment they 
needed from the community store, which allowed them to run a tab 
throughout the year and to settle up once the crops, usually cotton, 
were gathered. When accounting time came, the farmers were always a few 
dollars short of what they owed the landowner, so they invariably began 
the New Year with a deficit. As that deficit grew, they found it 
impossible to escape from their situation by legal means. The hard, 
backbreaking work led to stooped, physically destroyed, and mentally 
blighted people who could seldom envision escape for themselves or 
their children; their lives were an endless round of poor diet, fickle 
weather, and the unbeatable figures at the community store. The 
Sharecropper was in danger of all kinds of disease due to the poor 
living conditions of the tenant houses, infant deaths due to 
malnutrition of the mother was common. Many of these babies were buried 
in the backyard at the tenant house or a church cemetery in unmarked 
graves, lost in the past. 

Sharecroppers also would also trade their services for land, one such 
case in Randolph County ‘’ In consideration for twelve 1500lb bales of 
cotton to be delivered, 3 on 11/1/1884, 4 on 11/1/1885 and 5 on 
11/1/1886 for 20 acres of land cancelled the promissory note’’ Since 
these people had no education they had no idea what they were signing, 
and 10 acres of land may have produced one bale of cotton it would have 
been impossible for one family to have been able fulfill their 
obligation to the note. 
     
The Battoe

Many a battoe has went across the Tallapoosa River, in some places in 
the river you could wade across but most of the time you had to jump in 
your battoe and paddle. The 16-foot batteau (battoe) with a 42-inch 
beam and 19 inches of freeboard originally she was set out to be a 19 
footer, but building space forced us to shrink her to 16 feet.  She has 
cypress ribs, a cypress stem and stern, she is planked with birch and 
the gunwales are made out of oak, but this would never have floated in 
the Tallapoosa river, so she kept getting smaller and smaller down to a 
two seatter or just big enough to take a coffin across the river. The 
origin of the batteau is thought to be French, but is also talked about 
in Scottish heritage.  

The Dogwood

Young children spend many a day looking for "The Indian’s Gold".  The 
tale was, "Before the Indians were run out of Alabama, they buried pots 
of gold, set out a dogwood spout on the spot, and then put rocks around 
the dogwood, leaving a trail back to the spout by cutting shapes of 
birds or hands etc., cut into the trees".  The children would spend 
their days looking for these markings and a Dogwood spout. One day 
several children were playing in the woods near their home.  They found 
what looked like a butterfly cutting on a tree, and just below was a 
young Dogwood tree.  The children started to dig, and about two-feet 
down they found what they called a bread-tray turned upside down.  The 
older children thought it was a grave, and the children panicked and 
covered it back up and ran away.  

One young man never forgot the tales of Indian gold, and when he found 
some signs on a tree, and a dogwood spout, the poor old fellow dug and 
dug until it/he had a hole the size of a house, but he never found 
nothing/anything.  This became the trash dump in the area for the 
Ran/Clay County line, dead animals, furniture all kinds of trash was 
thrown in there, it is still there today and still used occasionally.     

Dogwoods also have meaning to the white people also. According to legend 
the dogwood was the size of the oak and other forest trees. Being firm 
and strong, it was chosen as the timber for the cross, during the 
Crucifixion of Christ. According to stories, the tree was distressed for 
being used for a cruel purpose, and Jesus being nailed to it, sensed 
this and told the tree, "Because of your regret and pity for my 
suffering, never again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be 
used as a cross. Henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and 
its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross, two long and two short 
petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail 
prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the middle of the 
flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see it will remember..."   

A brass broom was used outside, this broom was made from Dogwood spouts. 
A long time ago anyone who had grass in his or her yard was thought of 
as "NASTY".  All weeds/grass had to be dug up, and all leaves had to be 
kept swept out of the yard with a brass broom.  But the brass broom can 
also be used as a weapon. A lady's son came home from school with marks 
on his legs.  This made the woman so mad she took the brass broom to the 
school and beat the teacher, who was a man, might near to death.  He had 
her arrested and it took a whole bale of cotton to get her out of jail!    

Dogwoods are one of the first things to bloom in the New Year, dogwood 
bark has been chopped off of trees and used as medicine for sick stock 
mixed in with their feed, but it is never used as firewood-back luck. 

Music 

‘’Turkey in de bread-tray, scratchin' out dough; "Sallie, will yer dog 
bite?" — "No, chile, no! "Workin' in de pea-vines, oh, no!’’ 
‘’Danny Boy’’, ‘’Oh My Darlin Oh my Darlin on my Darlin Clementine’’ 
‘’You are my Sunshine’’, ‘’Jesse James’’ ‘’The Old Gray Mare’’ ‘’The 
Sheep’s in the Meadow, Cows in the Corn’’ ’’When Irish Eyes are 
Smiling’’ ‘’Frog went a Courting Do Da’’,  ‘’Skip to My Lou My Darlin’’ 
‘’Monkey sitting on the end of a rail’’ ‘’She’ll be coming around the 
Mountain’’ are just a few old songs that were sung in the early 1900’s 
in this County, played on the piano, organ or even a jug! Some families 
owned phonographs and ordered 78 records. The music had an Irish 
Jig/Bluegrass feel to it. The music was enjoyed by old and young but 
couple dancing was never allowed except maybe a little slight touch 
around the waist or arm when spinning around from partner to partner or 
a group holding hands. ‘’Jigging’’ it just standing in one place and 
tapping as fast as you can. Not really much dancing went on in the 
County because most people thought it was a sin. It seems to derive its 
wickedness from the instrument, which accompanies it. An instrument of 
music is considered the special property of the Devil. Not many churches 
would allow even an organ in their buildings and some religions STILL do 
not have any kind of music in their buildings. 


Children Names 

By Scot-Irish Tradition the first born son was to be named after the 
husband’s father and the first born daughter was to be named after the 
husband’s mother, second born son was to be named after the wife’s 
father and second born daughter was to be named after the wife’s mother 
[That is why in writing a genealogy you see brothers with all their kids 
named the same name!] All of ‘’William and Mary Elizabeth McDonald’’ 
grandchildren did not go by William one and William two or Elizabeth one 
and Elizabeth two, each of these kids had some kind of a nickname: Will, 
Willie, Bill, Billy, Little Will, Big Bill even Budd. Mary Elizabeth 
could have spun off into Mollie, Lizzie, Eliza, Betsy, Beth or even 
Polly. The practice of giving nicknames was universal among these 
people. Very few boys grew up without being called by something other 
than the name his parents gave him. Sometimes the nickname of the father 
would become a patronymic, and serve as a surname for the children. Some 
peculiarity of personal appearance, speech, or habit, or some action, in 
which the man has been involved, usually serves as a basis for the 
nickname.  

---January- Sit by the fire

The Quitting Bee  (Should this be Quilting Bee)

The women in the community or church groups would get together in the 
winter and form a "Quilting Bee".  Hour after hour was spent quilting 
and talking about their "Old men" and "Old Times",  "Mother-in-laws" and 
"that white trash that lives over the hill down in the hollow".

The tops would be quilted on a set or sets of wooden quilting frames. 
The frames were long slender bars usually made out of pine [pine is a 
very light wood] that were arranged in a large square.  Each of the four 
bars was about two inches wide and about ten feet long. Tiny nails were 
hammered into the bars about two inches apart and the quit top was 
slipped down over the edge of the bars to hold it while being quilted.
In the afternoon the frames were raised to the ceiling with a rope to be 
out of the way that night so the family could gather around the fire.
The next day the frames were let down so the ladies could take their 
place and start quilting on the edge of the quilt, making their way to 
the center. 

In the summertime at night women would sit around and piece a "star of 
night" on newspaper. [Some old quilts tops have been found with 
newspaper backing, dating back to the late 1800’s] 

If a daughter of the group was "fixing to get married in the summer" a 
double wedding ring quilt was quilted for couple. A double wedding ring 
is very hard to piece because it is made in with very tiny pieces in 
which two wedding bands are joined. These quilts were usually pieced in 
dark blue and gold.     

The quilt squares were made of scraps left from making a dress.  When 
the dresses had been patched to many times they were ripped up and the 
tails were saved for quilt squares, because the tails and hems usually 
were not faded bad. 

Names of quilt squares include: 
Basket, Basket of Chips, Bear's Paw, Bow Tie, Bricks, Broken Dishes, 
Buzz Saw, Carolina Lily, Carpenter's Wheel, Corn Rows, Crazy Quits, 
Crosses and Losses, Court House Steps, Diamonds, Double or Triple Irish 
Chain, Fan, Flying Geese, Four Patch, Half Log Cabin, Hearts and 
Gizzards, Hen and Chickens, Herringbone, Hole in the Barn Door, Jack in 
the Pulpit, Jacob's Ladder, Lemoyne Star, Log Cabin, Lost Ship, Monkey 
Wrench, Nine Patch, North Star, Odd Ball, Pin Wheel, Pine Tree, Rail 
Fence, Railroad Crossing, Rob Peter to Pay Paul, Roman Stripe, Six-
Pointed Star, Square-in- a-Square, Star of Bethlehem, Streak of 
Lightning, String-Pieced Star, Sunshine and Shadow, The Drunkard Path 
and many many more.

Many quilts have many different squares.  One quilt could have as many 
as twenty-four different squares. 

Rules of quilting:

It's bad luck to patch an old quilt, but it's fine to darn small rips or 
tears. 

Always wash coverlets in snow water. This will keep the colors from 
fading and, some say, ease the spirit of the dead woman who made them 
years ago. 

Once stretched on the frame, a quilt must "never be turned around" or 
one of the quilters will go blind or her hands will be paralyzed. 

Packing textiles away with sassafras leaves keeps bugs away, but only if 
you recite a secret incantation when you do it. 

Unless you live in Texas never ever make a Lone Star quilt-this is 
terribly bad luck, one lady made a Lone Star back in 1932 and they lost 
everything in the great tornado in 1932, and everyone had told her it 
was bad luck, but she paid them no attention, but she learned her 
lesson. 

At a quilting bee, "shake up a cat" in the newly completed quilt, then 
stand in a circle around the quilt.  The woman standing toward where the 
cat jumps out of the quilt will be the first to marry

At a quilting bee, wrap an engaged girl in the double wedding ring quilt 
and roll her under the bed this will ensure a long and happy marriage.   

A bride may not sell whatever dress she's married in, but she can wear 
it, give it to a younger sister, or cut it up to be used in quilts. 

In The Playhouse

Little girls had what they called a "Play House" this was about two to 
four wooden horses and an old quilt covering them.  Inside were some 
rocks to sit on and maybe something made to look like a table.  The 
girls would sit on the rocks and have a "Tea party" with old cups.  Or 
they would have a place at the edge of the woods, where they could have 
a few old pots and fill them with weeds and water or fill a old can with 
dirt and water and make mud pies, then make believe they would cooking 
up a storm and feeding their stick/corn shuck/rag doll children. Any old 
things the mothers threw away from the kitchen the girls took it and put 
it in their playhouse. 

The boys were never welcomed inside the "Playhouse", so they played 
ball. Place a round rock in the center and cover it with strips of bark 
to make a homemade ball.  Later, children used an old inner tube from an 
old tire covered by an old sock. Boys also made homemade kites and 
played horseshoes. 

Both boys and girls played "Ring-a-Ring-of-Roses", "the fox and the 
geese",  "London Bridge", and marbles. The marbles were really just 
little round pebbles back then.  They also played jacks and jump rope, 
and in the summer children would catch a ‘’June Bug’’ and tie a thread 
to one of its legs and play with it for hours. There was always work to 
be done on the farm and so fun & games were something to do late in the 
evening. 
 

The New Year

Because January 1st is the first day of the New Year, connection has 
been drawn between what we do on that day and how it affects our lives 
for the rest of the year.  The people in this area really believed in 
superstitions and signs and really let these sayings rule their lives.
By December 31st. all of the Christmas decorations must be taken down. 
This prevents bad luck. This is still a tradition here today. 
On New Year's Eve, the women must do all of the cooking for the next 
day. There was to be no cooking, cleaning or anything. Whatever you did 
on New Year's Day, you would do all year long.
There was no washing done on New Year's Day.  If you did washing, you 
would be "laying out a family member" that year, meaning there would be 
a death in the family.

Kissing at midnight not only shares the celebration of the New Year's 
coming, but when done with our significant other, wards off a year of 
coldness

Wear something new on January 1.  This increases the likelihood of 
receiving more garments in the New Year.

Never lend money or pay loans on New Years Day.  If you do, you will be 
paying out all year.

Empty pockets or empty cupboards on New Years Eve were a sign of a year 
of poverty   

Loud noises at midnight on New Year's Eve scared off evil spirits.

A child born on New Year's Day brought fortune and prosperity to the 
household

At the stroke of midnight the head of the house should open the doors 
and let the old year pass out and the New Year come in.

If a young woman looks out of her bedroom window on New Years day and 
sees a man passing by, she will be married before the end of the year.

It is bad luck to let a fire go out on New Years Eve.

The first traffic crossing the threshold on New Year's Day should be 
coming in, rather than going out.

The first person to enter a home after the stoke of midnight will 
influence the next year.  The "first footer" should be a dark-haired 
tall and good-looking man.  He should be bearing a gift of a lump of 
coal, a bit of bread, or some salt.  Female first footers should be run 
away before they bring bad luck to the household  [who knew that women 
had such amazing power].  

If a mirror was broken in the house it was a sign of evil things to come 
in the New Year.

If the farm animals have a thick coat, that is a sign of a hard winter.

If the nuts have an extra thick hull, that is a sign of a hard winter.

If the corn has an extra thick shuck, that is a sign of a hard winter. 

Broom straw grass grows wild in the South.  Until the last few years, 
the grass would reach   four to five feet tall.  Years ago everyone 
would make a straw broom… this grass must be cut by New Year's Eve.  If 
it was cut after New Year's Eve it was very bad luck.   If a room were 
swept on New Years Day, you would be sweeping out the blessings for the 
coming year.

All bills must be paid before New Year's Day or you will start the New 
Year in debt. 

Everyone knows on New Year's Day you must eat some Black eyed peas 
seasoned with hog jaw for change in your pocket.  You must also eat some 
kind of ‘Greens’’ for dollar bills to spend in the New Year.   I have 
been told that the reason the hog jowl was added to the black eyed peas 
is because a hog cannot look backwards, they can only look forwards 
[toward the coming year].

Never hang a calendar up or take the old one down before New Years Day-
very bad luck! 

The first twelve days of the New Year will predict the weather for the 
next twelve months.  It is said that if January 6, is a bright sunny 
day, then June will be a bright sunny month. 

Also remember, in a Leap Year a woman can ask a man to marry her, and if 
he says ‘’No!’’ he must buy her a new dress. 

---February- cut back rosebushes and set out cuttings, burn 
off the woods  

There are many ways to root a rose bush cutting, including sticking the 
cutting in a potato and burying it, placing a glass jar over the 
cutting, placing the cutting in muddy water, or just plain digging a 
hole in the ground and sticking the cutting in the ground as far as you 
can push it.  But the one thing they agreed on is-This must be done in 
February before the sap rises. 

There is a Cemetery in Tallapoosa County where there is a grave, that 
rocks have been put around to create a form.  This grave is covered with 
fieldstones and red clay.  At the head of this very old grave is a 
thornless pink rose bush.  The lady that set out the cutting, maybe a 
hundred years ago, was making sure there would always be a rose on her 
ancestor’s grave. 

There are many varieties of old roses in this area.  The most common 
rose bush in this area is the "Seven Sisters".  These rose bushes bloom 
throughout the summer and into the fall. Most are red or dark red and 
some are pink colored.  Other names include: Robin Hood [Red], Kathleen 
[Pink], Sweetpea [Mauve], Joseph’s Coat [This bush has five different 
color blooms of white, yellow, red, pink and orange].  There is also a 
wild rose that grows in this area.  The blooms are very similar to a 
blackberry bloom with just a slight pink tone to it. There are many old 
places in this area that in the springtime around Mother’s Day, you can 
pass by and see an old rose bush blooming in the woods or in an old 
cemetery.  It is not uncommon to see an old rose bush blooming around 
decoration time.   

There are fields of running pink roses bushes in this County.  In the 
spring, these rose bushes and the honeysuckle are twisted together.  The 
smell of heaven flows through the air. These old roses bushes will climb 
trees, old houses, anything that is in their path.  There are two kinds 
of these old rosebushes, one is a double bloom and one is a single 
bloom. There is also a red running rose bush in this area but this bush 
is not as common as the pink. 

A Talmudic legend tells how the rose became red at midnight.
Before the vernal equinox, when Cain and Abel were to make their 
offerings to the Lord, their mother, Eve had a vision. She saw a little 
lamb bleeding its life away on Abel's altar, and the white roses he had 
planted about the altar were suddenly full blown and red. 

A long time ago the farmers burned off their land.  This helped keep 
insects down, burned up seeds that had fallen out, and burned up dead 
limbs and trees.  It also helped keep the woods from growing up.  As 
long as the sap was down, the fire would not hurt the young trees.  
Since everyone did it, there was really no real danger of the homes 
burning.  They believed if there was enough people burning off their 
land at one time, then it would come a rain.  People also believed if 
you burned a tree for firewood that had been hit by lighting, then 
lighting would strike the house. 

Toothbrushes

In January and February it was time to cut toothbrushes.  While the sap 
was down in the blackgum tree, the mother of the family would cut twigs 
about the size of a pencil and then the bark was cut off the end.  They 
would divide the blackgum twigs, giving everyone in the household 
several.  They would chew the end till it was soft.  They would mixed 
equal amounts of soda and salt, wet the soft end of the brush and put 
the mixture on it, and brush their teeth.   

Courting

If a young lady threw a piece of string out her window far enough her 
future husband would come walking up with the end in his hand. 

If a young lady lit a white candle and sat or put it in a window late at 
night her future husband would see it.   

The "Box Supper" was a way for a young man to get to court a young lady 
[Without her father getting the shotgun].  The churches and schools did 
this to raise money. They put two shoeboxes together in a way that 
formed a cross, and then covered it with crepe paper. The box was filled 
with food that the young lady had prepared.  If a young man were really 
interested in the young lady, he would bid high for her company for the 
afternoon. 

The young women were taught to smile and say all the right things to 
impress potential suitors but not to dominate over them. Fathers made 
sure that the girls dressed appropriately so as not to reflect on the 
fathers in a bad way.  A young woman who had a child out-of-wedlock was 
always looked down on. The woman was told "you can get forgiveness from 
God for this one, but if you have another, you will split Hell wide 
open".   If she ever married, it would have to be a man her fathers age 
or older who had lost his wife. 

Father’s and society felt certain rules must be followed during 
courtship. The church played a role in many courtships. Church 
courtships allowed parents to know the person that their daughters were 
being courted by and the extent of the relationship. The church provided 
picnics, bible studies, and other social gatherings for young couples to 
come and partake. 

If a Father did not want his daughter to marry a young man, the marriage 
did not take place. Young girls have been locked in the rooms to keep 
them from running off and getting married-and some have slipped out the 
window at night and run off to Georgia and got married. 

Jonquils

Who has not written a genealogy and found back there somebody named 
Narcissi?  Jonquils have made their home in this County for a very long 
time. 

The Jonquils are the first sign of spring in the South.  When driving 
down the highway in February or early March, you notice the Jonquils in 
a pasture or on the roadside and you think to yourself "that must be an 
old Home place".  No signs of a building remain, but the Jonquils are a 
reminder that someone called that place home.  

Narcissus is the Latin name for all daffodils. Daffodil is the common 
name for all members of the genus.   Narcissus is a member of the 
Amaryllis family. Some attribute the naming of the flower to its 
narcotic fragrance while others believe that it is associated with the 
poisonous nature of the bulbs.  Native to Spain and Algeria, it was the 
favorite flower of Queen Anne. She wove patterns of jonquil blossoms in 
her delicate needlework, which included carpets, tapestry and dresses. 
She was inspired by her love of jonquils to establish Kensington Palace
Gardens, the first public gardens in England. 

If the first flower you see blooming in the New Year is on a Monday this 
means good fortune.  If you see the bloom on a Tuesday, this means your 
attempts will be good ones.  If you see the bloom on a Wednesday, this 
means someone is going to get married.  When you see the bloom on 
Thursday, this means bad luck.  If you see the bloom on Friday, this 
means wealth.  When seen on Saturday, this means misfortune.  And if you 
see the bloom on Sunday, this means Good Luck all year.  


---March - work in the fields, plowing and cultivating. 

Gee Haw Get up Here!

Every farmer had a mule or oxen and breaking either to plow was not 
easy.  Most of the time, the animal was beaten until it lost it will.  
The bridles were made from rope and chains and mulberry bark for 
hamstrings.  Many a mule or ox fell dead in the County from exhaustion.
It is unknown why everyone in the old days had a mule named ‘’Nell’’ she 
was always very gentle and the children could ride her and smart too, 
and when she died at around the age thirty it was almost like a member 
of the family had died. ‘

Trees and bushes-not to forget the rocks! These were the problems.  
Trees had to be cut down then pulled up by the roots by a mule/ox or 
team of mules/oxen.  The brush could be dug up by hand, but most of the 
rocks had to be placed on a groundside and dragged to the edge of the 
field.   
     
Mules/Oxen were also hitched to hay mowers, fertilizer distributors and 
turners. The mules were taught "Gee", meaning to the right, and "Haw", 
meaning to the left.  These commands date back to the mid-1600s in 
England. Mules also learned "Whoa" and "get up".  They also learned the 
"kissing" sound for forward motion.  The next step is teaching the mule 
to stand quietly, drop the head, tip the nose to the left and accept the 
halter. This is also the foundation to accept the bridle.

The farmer’s day in the field began at daylight.  Many a man in this 
County has been wet to his waist with dew until it dried up in the day.  
By afternoon he was wet again with sweat. The wife would leave the field 
when the sun got so high in the sky.  She would go to the house and make 
dinner. He would keep plowing until she rang the dinner bell, then he 
would turn the mule or ox loose and let it pick or what ever it wanted 
to do and he would go to the house and eat or if they were in a rush to 
get something in the ground, the wife would carry dinner back to the 
field for them to eat. 

Late in the afternoon the women would leave the field and come to the 
house and do the "Thangs".  If the children had been school, they would 
come home and do the "Thangs", meaning milking, feeding the animals, 
picking up the eggs, what ever needed to be done.   If the children were 
also in the field, this meant the mother and daughters had to do it all 
by themselves. The men stayed in the field until the sun was almost 
down, and then headed for a branch or creek, even the river, jumped in 
fully clothed.  This "killed two birds with one stone" he cleaned his 
body, plus got some of the dirt out of his work clothes.  When the men 
came to the house, after a long day in the field, they left their work 
clothes on the back porch or the barn.  They washed up, changed into 
other old clothes, maybe just a pair of overalls.  The next day he would 
put on that same pair of work clothes and go back to the field.   



"The Luck of the Irish" 

ALWAYS BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER: If you are lucky enough to even be 1/8 Irish 
you are lucky enough!

We have all heard the "Break a mirror seven years bad luck", "never walk 
under a ladder" and 
" All the black cats tales".  Well we have them too, but here is/are 
some you may have never heard that go all the way back to Old Ireland.

In Southern Language: ‘’done told gew not to do that, its bad luck!’’ 

If a mirror falls off the wall and breaks, when you clean it up, it is 
very important that you not look at yourself in the pieces.  Very bad 
luck. 

Never ever work on Sunday, this can cause all kinds of bad luck.
One lady sewed up a hole in her bonnet on Sunday and one her best laying 
hens was caught by a fox just hours later, and she just knew if she had 
not sewed that hole up, it would not have happened. 

When you enter someone’s home-Always but Always- go out the same door 
you came in or it is very bad luck.

When giving someone flower or vegetable seed, never take them through 
the house or they will not come up.

Never walk with one shoe on and the other shoe off, very bad luck. 

When you go to a Funeral, never buy anything new to wear always wear old 
clothes.

If someone gives you a "Pretty" [Flower], you never say Thank You, 
because if you do the plant will die. 

If you give somebody something sharp, a knife or nails etc, always give 
him or her a penny or it is bad luck. 

If a lady is getting dressed and her dress tail turns up, she is to kiss 
it, and turn it down.  If she doesn't, she will be mad by the end of the 
day. 

Never sleep with your shoes higher than your head.  One boy left his wet 
shoes hanging on the headboard of the bed, and he came down with the 
"Fever" and liked to have died. 

Never turn socks in each other or that will turn trouble over your head! 

If it thunders before seven, it will rain before eleven. 

Never sit under a bird.

Never sit down on a bee.

Killing a cat will bring seventeen years of bad luck. 

When you comb your hair-never throw it outside! The birds will get it 
and build a nest, and you will have a headache until all of the birds 
leave the nest. Also the witches will get it and put a spell on you!

If you start somewhere and a rabbit runs across the road in front of 
you-Go back! Or draw a circle and spit in it or you will have bad luck 
before you get back home. 

If you start somewhere and you forget something, if you go back and get 
it, you will have bad luck before you return home. 

You can prevent lightning from striking you by sitting on a feather bed.

Never have a dog inside the house when it is lighting, the dog hair will 
draw lighting.

Never have your hand in water when it is lighting.

When somebody leaves on a trip-do not watch him or her until they are 
out of sight, or harm will come to him or her before they get back home. 

Never let a man sweep the floor, cook or clean or do any woman’s work, 
this is very bad luck. 

Never sweep the floor after sundown, very, very bad luck, but if you 
must-burn the trash and never ever sweep it out the door after dark! 

Never sweep over a young woman’s feet or she will never get married. 

Before a young woman gets married she must go to the house they are 
going to live in and sweep the floor, to make sure she will get to sweep 
that floor for the rest of her life. 

Never milk the cow after sundown or she will not give milk the next day. 

Never burn a dead fruit tree for firewood or your living fruit trees 
will never bear fruit again. 

If a bat comes down the chimney inside the house it is very back luck. 

If you button up your clothes in the wrong hole it is very bad luck.  

If there is a grave in the cornbread, there is going to be a death in 
the community-the best thing to do is throw it away and bake another pan 
of cornbread.  

When somebody comes to your home and the sits down on your cushions, 
make sure when they leave to turn them over. 

Never sit down where someone has been sitting if the chair is still 
warm.   

Roosters always crow for midnight and daybreak, but if the roosters 
start crowing right after dark, there is going to be a death in the 
community. The best thing to so is try and shut them up, since most of 
the time, they roost in a tree, if you hit the limbs a few times and 
scare them, they will shut-up. 

When a person dies always cover up the mirrors, if you don’t, the 
person’s soul will see itself in the mirror and go inside and get 
trapped.
[It is said if you see a mirror that has turned black or faded that 
means a soul is trapped inside] 

Also it is said if a mirror is not turned over when a person dies the 
next person that looks in the mirror will die. 

Always keep a knot tied in a handkerchief, this keeps off evil, always 
keep children’s teeth tied in a handkerchief, this will keep evil off of 
them.   

When a person dies always cover up the pictures inside the house.  The 
person’s soul will see his or her relatives and go to them and get 
trapped inside the picture 

If an owl starts hooting outside your window at night, tie a knot in 
your undercoat and he will shut-up, because if you don’t run him off, 
there will be a death in the community. One woman made a joke out this 
and she let that the old owl howl, well about three months later 
somebody in her family died, and she just knew if she had tied that knot 
in her undercoat that person would not have died. 

As welcome as the echoing sounds from the ghostly shades of the pine 
thicket, and the whippoorwill at dusk, is in the early Spring, meaning 
winter is over and it is time to plant crops.  If a Whippoorwill comes 
too close to the house or if one is seen in daylight it is a sign of 
death. 

When the July flies come, if you want them to shut-up, turn you pockets 
inside out, and they will shut-up.

If you want it to rain throw salt in the air, but always make sure you 
throw a little over your shoulder to prevent bad luck.

If you drop a fork in the floor that means a woman is coming.

If you drop a spoon in the floor that means a woman is coming

If you drop a knife in the floor that means your enemy is coming! 

Never cross knifes, very bad luck, this could cause a fight in the 
house.

It is said that if it rains after a funeral then the person has gone to 
Heaven and if it comes a hard rain that means the person was a very good 
person.

If a person led a good life flowers will grow on the grave, if the 
person led a bad life weeds will grow on the grave.

You should never leave a Funeral before it is over, it is bad luck. 

If a tombstone leans over that means the persons soul is not at rest.

If the left eye twitches then there is going to be a death in the 
family.

If you dream of a birth that means there is going to be a death, if you 
dream of a death that means there is going to be a birth.

If you kill a snake and hang it upside down about say maybe four inches 
it will rain, BUT beware if the snake is left hanging to high that could 
cause a "Hairikane".

The Irish people believe snakes are a sign of evil, one more reason St. 
Patrick is held in such high regard for driving the snakes out of 
Ireland.

A snake will wiggle until the sun comes up the next day, another sign of 
evil or the undead, even if his head is cut off, he will still wiggle. 
The first snake you see in the spring you must kill it or you will have 
enemies all year long, if you kill it, then you have killed you enemies 
for that year, next spring it all starts over. 
 
Snakes were also used as a sign of religion, if you were a true 
Christian a snake would not bite you, but if you were a sinner then you 
were dead.   

When you get up out of a rocking chair make sure the rocker is not still 
rocking when you leave-very bad luck.

Never rock in a straight chair-very bad luck.

Never sew up a hole or put a button on clothing while you are wearing 
it, it is very bad luck 

If you want your hair to grow cut it during the "New Moon" or "Growing 
Moon", if you don’t want your hair to grow cut it during the "Full 
Moon". 

Never plant any kind of seeds during a Full Moon, the bugs will eat them 
up. 

If you shiver without cause then someone is walking over your grave.

If you dream of crossing muddy water someone in the family will soon 
die.

If you kill a toad, your cow will go dry.

A woman should never wear a hat inside the house-very back luck.

Never open an umbrella inside the house-very bad luck. 

If you find a straight pen and it is pointed at you, that is a sign of 
"Good Luck". 

In the old days if you had chicken for supper in it was common to throw 
the bones in the stove or fireplace-But you never ever burn any kind of 
bread it is very bad luck. 

If in the spring you blow a kiss at a redbird it will bring you love or 
money in the following year. 

If you start doing anything on Friday, you must finish by sundown on 
Friday. It is very bad luck to start something on Friday and not finish 
it.  

If you open a pocketknife, it is bad luck for someone else to close it.    

If you go to a graveyard, always go somewhere else before you go home; 
never ever take graveyard dirt into your home, if that dirt gets 
anywhere near your garden or fields they will never bear again. 

"My nose itches and I smell peaches, somebody coming with a hole in 
their britches” If you want them to come rub your nose down, if you want 
them to stay at home rub your nose upwards. 

If you feel a pain in your left eye you are going to hear some bad news, 
if you feel a pain in your right eye you are going to hear some good 
news. 

If your left ear burns somebody is saying bad things about you, if your 
right ear burns somebody is saying good things about you, but all you 
have to do is wet your finger and stick it in your ear and they will 
shut-up. BUT if you want to know who is talking about you, throw some 
salt in the fire and that will give them a toothache then you can find 
out who was talking about you. 

If you want your cow to have a heifer you must breed her after 12pm if 
you want her to have a bull you must breed her before 12pm.  

If adults cats run and play like kittens there is going to be a 
windstorm. 

If a herd of cows all lay down in the middle of the day, it is going to 
come a rain. 

If the sun comes out when it is raining that means it will rain the same 
time the next day. It is also said that when the sun comes out when it 
is raining the Devil is beating up his wife. 

If a broom falls over in the floor and you step on it or over it 
accidentally, that means you are going to get married within the year.  

You must always put your hens to setting before the end of June for the 
chicks to be females and good layers.

If you want your hen to stop setting, throw a tub of water on her, it 
will make her so mad she will forget all about that nest. Ever heard the 
phase "She was as mad as a wet hen?" 

If your right hand itches you are going to get some money, if your left 
hand itches you are going to spend some money.

Break a needle while making a dress for yourself and you won't live to 
wear it out. 

Sew after sunset and you'll be poor your entire life. 

Never put on something to wear somewhere and change before you leave, it 
is very bad luck. 

If your foot itches that means you are going to walk in a graveyard or 
you are going to get a new pair of shoes. 

If you slip some dirt from a cemetery under somebody’s home you don’t 
have any use for, it will bring him or her bad luck. 

Never have two or more clocks in one room or two or more calendars in 
one room this is very bad luck.

If you get a hair in your mouth that means you are going to kiss a fool 
or some fool wants to kiss you. 

If a bird gets inside the house, that is a sign of a death

If birds fly inside the barn or porch this is a sign of a bad storm.

And many many more!

Children are always getting holes in their shoes, in the old days at 
night the children would sit at their grandpa's feet, he would tell them 
" You hear that racket over there behind the wood pile? It’s a 
Leprechaun, he has come to fix your shoes and he is waiting for you to 
go to bed so he can fix them. Lookie, Lookie! Didn’t you see him run 
under the bed?" [And of course the children never looked fast enough] 
but by morning those children shoes would be patched! 

Polk Salad 

Polk is a spinach type vegetable that grows wild in the south. The Polk 
salad is made in the early spring. No child under the age of 12 years 
was allowed to eat Polk Salad. The plants are picked when they are no 
higher than a foot tall.  They are washed many times, and then the salad 
is boiled and washed five times.  It is then fried in lard.  Sometimes 
eggs are added, with wild green onions or turnip greens.  Flour can be 
added and the salad made into patties and fried.  One mess of Polk Salad 
in the spring was said to keep off "The Fever".  Season poke salad with 
bacon grease or fat back. The seasoning keeps it from being so toxic to 
your system. If young children ate Polk Salad, because it was so strong, 
it could kill the child. Both wild onions and wild garlic can still be 
found around old home places here in the County and Polk Salad can be 
found (growing wild just about anywhere in the County.) just about 
anywhere in growing wild in the County. Some people would pick the dried 
berries and plant a row of Polk in the gardens in late fall or early 
winter. 


Wild Violets 

Older people refer to Violets as "Blue Roosters" comparing the bloom to 
a rooster’s comb. The Flower of Modesty because it hides its flowers in 
the heart-shaped leaves, also called "Our Lady's Modesty" because it was 
said to have blossomed when Mary said to the Angel Gabriel, who had come 
to tell her she was to bear the Son of God, "Behold, I am the handmaid 
of the Lord."  Wild Violets are the sure sign of spring. 

Pasture Fence

Fence posts were cut while the sap was down, then let season, this kept 
them from rotting so fast in the ground. In the old days there was no 
Stock Law in this County. When the Stock Law was passed it passed by a 
very small margin, because people were used to fencing in their crops 
and the men already had these fences in place. The fences were made of 
split rail fencing and instead of a gate most men built "draw bars".  
These were seasoned poles built to be able to pull back and let down and 
then placed back to keep the cows or mules/horses from getting out. Two 
poles were driven into the ground about maybe a half a foot apart then 
blocks were nailed between them, the poles rested on top of the bars. 

It was an important matter to the farmer that his farm should be well 
equipped with good, substantial bars. Some farmers went to as much 
trouble in a year's time in moving the bars back and forth as they did 
driving in and out of the fields, and in chasing cattle about, the 
making of dozens of such bars as are represented here. Use round poles 
about 2-1/2 or 3 inches in diameter. Then set two good-sized posts, an 
equal distance apart, one on either side of the bar way, then nail to 
these posts, large old horseshoes, allowing the round part to stand out 
far enough from the posts to move the poles. 

In this area the people were terrified of lighting after barbed wire 
came into the picture. Most people built a long wooden slab fence around 
the barn and cow pen areas to insure the stock would not get struck by 
lighting.

In the spring the men would go around the pasture making sure there were 
no broken posts in the pasture, because "Good fences make Good 
Neighbors".  Almost nothing could start trouble between neighbors faster 
than your cow getting out and eating up somebody’s garden.

All of this had to be done before planting time begin. Most barbed wire 
fences were three or four rows. One person with a strong season forked 
limb pulled the wire while another person nailed the wire to the post. 


Agriculture 

"We plow the fields and sca-ter the good seeds on the land, He on’ly is 
the maker of all things near and far. We thank Thee then O’ father for 
all things bright and good. But it is fed and wat-tered By God’s al-
mighty hand. He paints the wayside flow-er He lights the evening star. 
The seed-time and the harvest. Our life, our health, our food."

In 1860 only 20 pounds of Flax was raised in Randolph.  Flax was raised 
for making clothes. When it was ready to reap, it was cut and dried then 
soaked in water for several days.  It was then beaten with poles and 
hackled on a board of spikes resembling a hairbrush. It was thus 
separated from the rough back and made into fine shreds and spun on a 
spinning wheel. 

Farming tools were rare and few. The plow stocks were made at home or by 
the local blacksmith.  Since iron was hard to come by in those days, 
hickory grubs were used for false coulter to keep the foot beam 
together, put on with iron bands and tightened with wooden wedges to 
hold it tight. They also used a wooden plow with a wooden moldboard to 
turn the land.

Corn and Cotton were the two main corps in Randolph County. In 1860 
there were 560,133 bushels of corn and 6,427 bales (400 lbs each) of 
cotton produced in Randolph County. From the time it was planted to the 
time it was harvested the farmers worried about it. The Corn was planted 
in early spring after the danger of frost had passed. First the ground 
had to be broken up, then after a few rains, it was plow a row at a 
time.  The women followed beside strowing guano, then the plow would be 
unhitched from the mule and the corn planter was attached.  After the 
corn came up there were problems with crows and other birds pulling it 
up.  Then it had to be thinned out, and soda strowed around it before a 
rain, but if no rain came then it had to be plowed row by row.  Weeks 
later, the corn had to be hoed to remove the grass and weeds. By late 
May the farmer could relax for a little while.  But by the end of the 
summer, he had to worry that his corn would be stolen at night by boot-
leggers to make whisky, or by the raccoons or the crows. 

Young boys loved to shoot at crows.  It was an adventure for young boys 
to keep the crows out of the corn! "One crow is bad luck, two crows is 
good luck, three crows means health, four crows mean wealth, five crows 
mean sickness, and six crows means death”. The father would soon tire of 
all this fun, "the cow stalls needed cleaning out and fresh pine-straw 
put in there", "the mule needed to be shoed" and "wood had to be cut for 
the winter", so the father would shoot a crow and hang the dead crow in 
the field, after flying over and seeing their dead relative the crows 
would not be back!  

Nothing about the corn went to waste except the cornstalk itself.  The 
corn shucks were used to feed the livestock and were also used to make 
mops and dolls for the children. The fodder was harvested in the late 
summer and tied up on the stalk to dry.  The tops of the corn was also 
cut out and fed to the livestock, even the corncobs had a place in the 
out-house, or to be used to start a fire or used as handles on files 
etc. 

After a long a day of hoeing the corn or cotton, the farmers would come 
to the house at around sundown, the first thing the farmers did was put 
the hoes in a bucket of water to soak all night. This would make the 
handles swell up, and he would not have to worry about them falling off 
the handle in the field.  

Cotton was another worry from the time it came up until it was 
harvested.  If a hailstorm came, that would be it. If the cotton got 
full of bole-weavels or saddlebacks that would be it for the crop.  The 
children would not have new shoes this winter and if the neighbor down 
the road that laid around drunk all day slipped in at night and stole 
his cotton-then there would be a killing! 

On the first moon in May, the tops had to cut out of the cotton. This 
made the plant branch out and have more cotton blooms, and more blooms 
meant more cotton. It also required hoeing.  People had to hoe a row of 
cotton on each side, scarping the edge. 

Days picking cotton were long and hard, and most people could not afford 
a pair of gloves to wear.  Sometimes by the end of the day, their hands 
would be bloody and sore from sticking themselves on the burrs of the 
cotton.  Not to forget about those stings from the "saddle backs".
There were two ways of picking cotton - actually picking the cotton out 
of the bolls or pulling boll and all. If the crop was good, the cotton 
was loose and fluffy and easily removed, then "picking" was the 
preferred method of removing it. If the bolls were small and tight and 
didn't like to give up the lint, then the entire boll was pulled off. 
The cottonseeds were also ginned to make sweet feed for the cows. 

Men that owned Cotton Gins had problems too. Some people would wet the 
cotton to make it weigh more or add rocks. The Cotton Gin was used to 
pack lint cotton into bales.  The lint was trapped then pressed into a 
long log, which was used as a lever, after the style of cider press, the 
lever being held down by logs and rocks, then the bales were tied with 
oak splits.   

70 acres of tobacco was produced in Randolph County in 1860.  Tobacco 
was another worry, if tobacco worms got in it the crop was gone.  There 
was also the threat of too much or too little rain. Tobacco was packed 
in hogsheads.  They put rims or felloes around the barrel, bored holes 
in the ends of the hogsheads fixed into shafts, and then sold.  

68,070 bushels of wheat was raised in Randolph County in 1860.  Wheat 
was a terrible problem, as with tobacco, too much rain or not enough and 
that could be it. Harvesting was done with reap hooks.  The wheat was 
thrashed and the treaded yard [dug always the surface of the clay and 
packed into mauls]. The wheat was hauled away from the field and tramped 
with mules or oxen. They took away the straw with their hands, sieved 
the wheat to get out the fine straw, and fanned it with a shoot to blow 
away the chaff. In later years it became much easier just to buy a 50lb 
barrel of flour. 

In 1860 there were 7,183 bushels of potatoes grown in Randolph County. 
Potatoes are planted   around the first of April. Some of the old 
potatoes are saved as "Seed Taters".  When the eyes sprout, the eyes are 
cut off, but you must wait 5 or 6 days before planting.  For the best 
results cut the eyes off on St. Patrick’s Day, and plant them on Good 
Friday. In about 2 months the potato plants should be blooming.  That 
means the plant has baby potatoes.  In the south it is a common practice 
to dig some of the young potatoes to make dumplings. It was also a 
common practice to make some kind of a potato dish on St. Patrick’s Day.  
This could be dumplings, boiled, baked, or dipped in cornmeal and deep-
fried in lard, and no possum can be cooked without potatoes around it.  

Irish Potatoes were very hard to bake in a wood stove, it took hours to 
get them done, so most of the time the potatoes were buried in the ashes 
in the fireplace next to the burning fire and left all day long.  By 
suppertime, they were rolled out, let cool and the burned black skins 
removed and served. 

Also in Southern language: "She came in mouthing off at me, and I told 
her what was what, and really Cooled her Tater".   

Cattle and Hogs was another main source of agriculture in Randolph 
County. In 1860 there were 5,391 milk cows in Randolph County and 37,596 
swine. The farmer worried about his cows, he made trips all the way 
around the pasture at least ten times a year, because if the cows got 
out of the pasture he might never find them.  He had to make sure there 
was no poison ivy growing around the creek, because if a cow eats the 
ivy it would die. When she "Came-in" [had a calf] she had to be given 
ginger for two weeks to stop poisons from setting up in her system.  The 
extra milk had to be thrown away for about a week.  This milk cannot be 
poured on the ground, it must be poured into a branch or creek or the 
cow would go dry. A few months later the calf would have to be taken 
away from its mother, and they both would bellow for days!

The cows were turned out in the pasture and the calves were left in the 
"Cowpen" until they were at least six months old. If a cow had a calf 
then she would come to the house long before sundown, but if she did not 
have a calf she would stay off in the pasture and pick, late into the 
evening, if the cow still had not come up, the farmer would call "Scook 
Cow, Scook Cow, Come on here Dollie girl", soon he would hear that old 
cow bell ringing [She knew it was supper time].  She was then milked and 
put in her stall, and given some hay and a bucket of water for the 
night.

Another very important part of the farm was the chickens, they provided 
eggs and fresh meat for the family, feather pillows and beds to sleep 
on, and the tail feathers were used to dip in ink to write with.
You did not mess with a man’s chickens! It could get you killed! 
Stealing a chicken in Randolph County was a capital offense! 

"We awoke to the chickens screaming and cackling like something was 
killing them, PaPa thought it might be a possum, but what it was, was a 
two-legged possum, he saw the light from the lantern going up the hill, 
oh he was so mad, he said "Its that white trash that lived over the hill 
and lays around drunk all day and don’t have nothing but young'ans". The 
next day PaPa went up the trail. He found a ditch along side of the 
trail, he came back to the house and got some rope and tar, we did not 
know what he was doing up there. That night we sat on the porch, watched 
the chickens jump on the cow pen then fly into the trees to roost.  Papa 
took a lantern, went over to the corncrib and sat down with his shotgun. 
That night those fools came back, tripped over the rope PaPa had tied 
across the trail, and fell into the ditch that he hard poured the tar 
out in. Papa went up there and poured feathers all over them.  When they 
finally got out of the ditch they went home tarred & feathered, needless 
to say they did not come back anymore."   

In the afternoons one of the children would take about a quarter of a 
basket of corn and a hand hammer and sit down on a rock and beat the 
grains of corn off the cob, then holler "Chick-Oh" "Chick-Oh" and then 
get out of their way! This was the perfect time to get a fryer [young 
rooster] for breakfast. Wring the chicken’s neck, or chop its head off, 
defeather, and singe the hairs off by holding over a flame of burning 
paper or candle. Enlarge the anus with your knife and, using your hand, 
remove the guts. Cut into quarters for frying or leave whole for 
broiling. When you wring a chicken’s neck it will jump around for a 
while, even if you cut off the head with an ax it will still jump 
around, and after it is dressed and cut up, it will still wiggle in the 
skillet until it is fully cooked. Many a family has had fried chicken 
and gravy and fresh biscuits for breakfast in this County. 


---April - cleaning ditches, pruning trees, and fixing 
sheds, hauling timber, repairing roofs, and planting gardens


There's a Painter Out! 
 
A long time ago, about 120 years in Randolph County, a young couple was 
working in their field breaking up the new ground to plant in a few 
weeks. From out of the bushes came a horrible beast and took their 
newborn baby from his basket! The husband unhooked the mule from the 
plow and tried to take off after the beast, but the mule picking up on 
the sense of the beast, would not move a step! 
 
The man ran off afoot after the beast, but the baby was gone for good, 
the man came back and jumped on his mule and took off down the road, 
thoughout the community he yelled "There's a Painter Out!, he's killed 
my boy!" Panic spread through the community!
 
The men knew this "Thang" must be killed, there would not be any cattle 
left in the County if that "Thang" was not killed.  A posse was formed, 
the men were carrying shotguns and lanterns and set out to hunt it down.
 
The Sheriff came out, he told everyone "This thang can jump up to 25 
feet, this thang is about 6 feet long and weights about 150 to 175 
pounds and if it gets after you, there will be no out running it, and 
for Gods sake don't have little enough sense to get in a tree! head for 
the creek or the river they hate water, but they will swim if they are 
hungry"
 
The women in the community put the [Live] stock in the barns and nailed 
the doors shut with the younger sons standing guard with a shotgun. They 
went inside and pulled dressers, tables whatever against the doors. It 
was going be a long night with "That Thang out"
 
All at once there it was, the sound echoing in the night, a sound that 
would chill you to the bone! The sound almost identical to a woman's 
scream, the roar of the "Painter"!
 
One woman sat with her children inside the house, she was sure she was 
safe, suddenly the dog began to growl, and all at once there it was, on 
top of the house growling at the top of the chimney, that "thang" was 
starting to come down, it was late spring and there was no need for a 
fire, so there was no wood inside the house, but she knew she had to 
build a fire out of something, so she ripped open the cotton mattress 
and burned the cotton a little at a time until the "Thang" left. 
 
The next morning a young man by the name "Dal Halpin" went to the spring 
to get water, he was filling up his buckets, when he heard a growling 
sound, and when he looked up--there stood the Painter and it jumped him. 
Dal had been "drafted" into the Civil War when he was only 13 years old, 
and had been given a Confederate sword, like most of the soldiers, and 
like most of the soldiers after returning home, he had whittled it down 
to a knife, which he stabbed into the Painter's heart as they went round 
and round around on the ground. 
 
The Painter was hung by its heels so everyone could come and see the 
Painter was dead, and the community was safe again. Dal Halpin had 
killed the Painter with his bare hands, Dal Halpin was a hero, and 
afterward all of Beat 13 became "Halpin’s Beat" and Dal Halpin became 
the local Justice of the Peace and later held court at Halpin’s 
Courtground. 
 
A "Painter" is also called has other names: Cougar, Puma, Catamount, 
Florida Panther, Panther, Lion, Mexican Lion, Mountain Demon, Mountain 
Devil, Mountain Screamer, Brown Tiger, Red Tiger, Deer Killer, Indian 
Devil,  King Cat, Sneak Cat, and varmint
 
Till this day sometimes after a rain a few hunters have spotted large 
paw prints in the mud, but a Panther has not been "out" in Randolph 
County since the 1930’s and with all the deer here now, it is a safe bet 
there are none around today. You might see a Bob-Cat once in a while, 
but there are very few of them still around. 


There’s a Mad Dog Out! 

From the beginning in the 1830’s up until the early 1980’s the "Mad Dog" 
was feared as much as the "Painter" in this area. If a painter attacked 
you, you would die in a few minutes, but if you were bitten by a mad 
dog, then you were sure to have a very long and painful death beginning 
with loss of appetite, headache and fever and possibly itching or 
numbness, later the person would become nervous, by this time the person 
would have been tied to the bed, then came the hallucinations and 
seizures set in and last was total madness, which would end very 
suddenly with death a few weeks after the attack. 

One couple had just been married maybe six months, they were expecting 
their first child, when a mad dog bit him, well naturally the wife 
expecting, was not allowed to be anywhere near his bedside [she would 
mark their baby). His mother took care of him, only to just get close 
enough to drop some water in his mouth.  There was no way to feed 
somebody who was having hallucinations and one tiny little bit of saliva 
on your skin and that was it. 

Back in the early 1900’s there was the old woman who told everyone "I 
can barely make it across the floor, much less anything else. I am 
almost at my rows end". She had a terrible problem with rats, and had a 
cat hole in the back door.  One morning in came a mad dog and it tried 
to bite her, well that old lady made her way to the loft of the house 
screaming "Lord have Mercy Sweet Jesus, there’s a mad dog out". 



Spring-cleaning

The spring-cleaning was done around the last week in April because of 
the family coming for the "Decorations" in May. 

Everything that was not needed was thrown in the woods and burned.  That 
meant everything, the trunk, clothespress, cupboard and the meal chest 
was cleaned out.  Sadly any quilts or bedspreads with rat holes in them 
to large to patch were burned. 

Water was boiled outside and brought inside the house. Lye and sand was 
thrown on the floor, and then the floors were mopped with a corn shuck 
mop until the floorboards were white! A corn shuck mop was made by 
putting large holes into a piece of slab that was about a foot long then 
some corn shucks that had been soaked in hot water was put through the 
holes. 

Most people did not have wallpaper because it was a nesting ground for 
bugs, and it was always falling down. Most of the walls were unpainted 
(but a few were painted,) A few were painted, either way the walls had 
to be washed. The bad thing about a woodstove is-it smokes up the walls 
inside the house.  All of the walls had to be washed down with lye soap. 

In the wintertime guano sack sheets and pillowcases were changed about 
every two weeks.  All of these dirty sheets were piled up in the house 
tied up in one. The sheets and pillowcases had to be boiled in the wash 
pot, but it was best to soak them the night before in water with some 
lye soap, in the old cedar washtubs. That night they slept on the naked 
mattress. Washing these sheets and pillowcases was an all day job that 
started at sun-up and they were hung out maybe by 10am to dry. After the 
sheets were dried they were folded and put on the beds, the rest in the 
clothespress. 




Continued................