Clay County AlArchives History .....Life & Times on the Randolph/Clay County Alabama Line Part 2 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ 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 2 ---May - sheep cleaning and shearing, cutting off some of the cows and mule’s tails, planting and field maintenance The Decorations Cemeteries established by early settlers who followed the traditions brought over by the Scot-Irish and continued by the early highland pioneers. Following these early practices, the graves in the cemetery are arranged in rows (north, d. south axis) so that the graves will face the rising sun in the East. Another practice was to locate the cemetery on land higher than the surrounding terrain. It is to be noted that the Cemetery is so situated. The practice of preparing the graves with white sand so that they have the appearance of mounds is an early tradition that is rapidly disappearing with the advent of urbanization. These graves, which were originally kept clean and devoid of vegetation, were "decorated" with various ornaments such as seashells, artifacts, etc. The graves are now usually decorated with flowers. The practice of decorating the graves on a specified Sunday, such as the "The 1st thru the 4th Sunday in May", is a custom that is unique to the area consisting of Northeast Alabama, Northwest Georgia, and adjacent areas of Tennessee. The Decorations were from the 1st Sunday in May until the 2nd Sunday in June, back in the late 1880’s. Flowers were picked from the flower gardens or in old time language "Prettys" from the yard were picked which were half dead by the time they got to the cemetery and after the Alabama sun hit them in mid-May/early June, by lunch or "Dinner Time" they were gone. Some ladies planted rosebush cuttings on the graves in the wintertime, while others planted Iris or Daylilies bulbs around the graves, something that would bloom around the time of the Decoration. In the early 1900’s a little house with a glass front about the size of a doghouse was built at the head of some graves. Inside was placed a small arrangement of homemade crepe paper flowers such as gladiolus and roses that had been dipped in wax. Some people just made the flowers and placed them on the graves but the first rain would usually get them. On the Saturday before "The Decoration" everyone would meet at the cemetery clean to the graves off, and then poured white sand [From the mica mine] on the graves [This is still done today]. There was not a weed or piece of grass left in the graveyard, plus it was always swept with a grass-broom [Made from dogwood tree spouts]. There was not one bit of trash left in the cemetery. In the old days the men would bring the mules and plows and plow around the edge of the cemetery to keep the weeds down, to keep some poor old widow woman or a child from getting snake bit. The women would spend the night before cooking dinner for the next day and rolling their hair on corn shucks to make it curly. That morning everyone put on their best Sunday dress or Sunday suit and shined their shoes, all jumped in the wagon, and off they went-not without those top hats and Sunday bonnets! In later years after the Automobile came into the picture, people would come from as far away as the "Sand Mountain" [Marshall/Jackson County] to the Decorations in the 1940’s until current. Some of the people came from as far away as Texas. The young men would take their sweethearts, with the sweetheart walking behind them [In those days a woman never walked beside a man, always behind]. The married couples walked in much the same way, but most of the time each was carrying a child. After the morning service picnics were spread as far as the eye could see. In later years most Churches had tables built, and by the 1980’s in Randolph County just about every Church had built a "Fellowship Hall". The afternoon service was singing "I fairest of ten-thou-sand to my soul; The Lilly of the Valley ta-tion He’s my strong and might-y tower, I have all for Him for sak-en live by faith and do His bless-ed will" plus ‘’When the Roll is called up Yarnder’’, ‘’On Heaven’s Bright Shore’’ "Antioch", "Oh how I love Jesus", "Bringing in the Sheaves", "Onward Christian Soldier" and many many more from about 1pm until 3 or 4pm. The idea of the Decorations was to honor the ancestors buried in the cemetery by cleaning off their graves and placing fresh flowers on them. "The dead is those that are forgotten” that is why some Churches today always make sure that no grave is without at least one single silk flower in their memory. Flowers/Herbs Clover In the middle ages the clover was seen as the symbol of the Trinity because it had three leaflets. Legend has it that when St. Patrick reached the Emerald Isle in the 5th century, he used three-leafed clovers to teach the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. It is said that Biblical sheep grazed upon it. Tiny posts of bright green shamrocks appear on St. Patrick's Day. The small, pale, white and pink flowers have been used in healing ointments since ancient times. Three-leaf clovers are important in weddings and matters of love, symbolizing a prosperous, joyous and long marriage with happiness and good fortune. It is said to protect the household. No bride should go down the aisle without clovers present in both shoes. Clover was an ancient protective herb. The Druids considered the trefoils symbolic of the eternal verities of Earth, Sea and Sky. This is why most charms are repeated thrice. The Celts saw the clover as a sacred, magical plant. It is sometimes referred to Mary. The 4-leaf clover is a sign of good luck. The 5-leaf clover is seen as a token of good marriage. Clovers with more than 4 leaflets are seen as un- favorable. Considered good luck omens, a four-leafed clover is a charm against snakes, witches, the devil and other dangerous creatures. Besides, it is said to give the gift of second sight enabling one to see fairies. Daylilies Who has not been driving down a road in this part of the world in early June and not seen daylilies blooming along the roadside? Traders along the silk routes brought the plants to Europe from China. Daylilies were used as food and medicine in China and Japan. They were dried or pickled in salt or cooked as vegetables. The Romans used them medicinally. The young leaves when eaten are said to be intoxicating. Daylilies were a popular garden plant in North America during colonial times but soon began to grow along roadsides. Dill Said to be used heavily in the Middle Ages in witchcraft and magic spells although, it was also known for providing a good night's sleep if taken in tea just before bedtime. It can also be used to sweeten the breath. Dill when hung at the door protects one from harm. It is also carried in protective sachets. When placed in a cradle it protects the child. Dill seeds are used in money spells. When added to the bath is makes the bather irresistible. When dill is eaten or smelled, it stimulates lust. Dill was a popular general-purpose drug in the middle ages. Dill water has been used for centuries as a tonic for babies with colic. It is a popular culinary herb. Dill, Cattails and Devil’s shoestring were also used in Witchcraft in the South. Mostly Dill was used in canning pickles in a stoneware container. Most people had a few stalks in the edge of the garden and today it can still be found around old home places. Forget-me-not According to Christian lore, when God was walking through the Garden of Eden after the Creation, He noticed a small blue flower and asked its name. The flower, overcome by shyness, whispered, "I am afraid I have forgotten, Lord." God answered, "Forget Me not. Yet I will not forget thee." Foxgloves According to legend, fairies used to give the blossoms of the flower to foxes to wear as gloves so they would not get caught raiding the chicken coop. With magical powers, the foxes were able to move without making a sound. Some believe the name actually comes from ~Folk~ Gloves, since the blossoms were worn by fairies and wee folk as mittens. In Ireland the flowers were called ~Fairy Thimbles~ and in Wales ~Goblin's Gloves. Supposedly, if you picked a foxglove you would offend the fairies. If the fairies stole your baby, the juice of the foxglove would help you get it back. Glads Gladiolus grew abundantly and wild in the Holy Land and the waste lands along the Mediterranean coast of Africa. They were thought to be the ~lilies of the field~ that Jesus referred to in the Sermon on the Mount. Today, you can go to an old home place in this County, and find the salmon colored Gladiolus, still growing strong in the weeds. Mashed gladiola roots were used in medicine for drawing out splinters and thorns. Dried gladiola seedpods were ground to powder and swallowed with goat's milk as a remedy for colic. However, modern medicine has proven these gladiola remedies to be untrue. Iris From the Greek word-meaning rainbow, The Roman Catholic Church ascribed the lily as the special emblem of the Virgin Mary. Due to its three petals, it has also been used to represent the Holy Trinity. The Iris is another old southern flower that can be found growing around old home places, and in old cemeteries. Most of the old irises have white, yellow and purple blooms, the flowers bloom from around the end of April into early may. Morning Glory Yet again something else that is beautiful and a pest, and that is not native to this part of the world is the Morning Glory. The Morning Glory is native to the Tropics and has become naturalized in North America. It is a fast growing vine, useful for covering a wall or trellis. The Aztec priests used the seeds, mixed with tobacco and insects, to rub on their bodies before performing sacrifices. They believed that the morning glory would guarantee the victim would pass through death and be reborn. The seeds are hallucinogenic and were also used by the Aztecs in drinks when communicating with spirits from the world of the dead. Also Cannas, Sweet peas, Old Maids [Zinnia] Petunias, Peonies, Tiger Lilies, and many other "Prettys" have made their home in this area for many a year. ---June - mowing hay crop and raking it into piles, canning vegetables and fruit June Brides A young man had to always ask the father for permission before he even said ‘‘hello’’ to a young girl, and if the father said No he meant No, if the young man went against his wishes he might find himself shot. There were not really very many church weddings in this area, there were some, but most couples married at the bride’s home. If a Father of the bride was fairly well-off he might build a house for the young couple, but most of the time the father gave his daughter a few acres of land. The mother of the bride made the couple a double- wedding ring quilt, and sometimes the bride’s parents would make the couple a mattress and bed frame. The young lady had to go to the house they were going to live in and sweep the floor, this was to sweep out all the bad luck. Very few wedding bands were exchanged. The men did not wear wedding bands, and the women got theirs, most of the time, years after they were married. Some of the bands broke in the middle on the inside of the hand from years of hoeing in the field. Cutting Hay Hayracks were made from slips and tree limbs. Three slips were tied at the top, and then the slip was spread out and limbs tied at the bottom. When finished it looked like triangle. This is an old Irish custom that is still used today in Ireland. The fresh cut hay was thrown onto hayracks and let dry for a few weeks, and then taken off and forced through a homemade hay bailer and tied with oak splits or hemp. One of the many things the women on the farm did was pick and can the produce that was grown on the farm. The families had several acres in peas, butter beans, snap beans, okra, sweet corn, squash, tomatoes, cabbage, and Irish potatoes. The girls got up before daylight to go to do the gathering for canning. The mother helped with all of the different jobs pertaining to canning and preserving. When they got enough fresh produce prepared, she started the cooking of the vegetables to be canned. This was a very hot job. The women’s dresses would be wet with sweat by the mid-morning. The women always kept the jars from the past year, for the next canning of all the vegetables. During fruit season they put up peach preserves, and pickled peaches. Also fig preserves and blackberry jelly/jams and preserves. When the cupboards were full the women started wrapping the boxes of jars in old quilts and started pushing them under the beds, this was to keep them from freezing at night during the wintertime after the fire was put out. Fishing and Trapping ‘’Give me the hook; give me the line, Give me the gal they call Caroline, Set my hook, give it a flip; First thing I know, Dad's old lip. Hook would break; pole would bend; Bottom of the river old Dad would send’’ Fishing was a ‘’Art’’. Everyone had different kinds of fishing bait from dug earth worms to baking bread with some kind of weeds to catch fish, but no one ever dreamed of fishing on Sunday-bad luck. Fish Traps were placed all up and down the Tallapoosa River. The traps were homemade from White oak strips and some families built some dams in the river to place their traps. The problem with fish traps is: The fish had a way of just up and walking away by themselves. If you did not keep your trap cleaned out at least every other day, then you might come back and find you did not have any and sometimes not only was the fish gone, but the trap itself was gone. The Trap had two large adjustable funnels where the fish entered the trap. The trap had carrying handles on each end and a large door in the top to get fish out of the trap. The trap was tied with some kind of a rope and thrown into the water. Turtle Hunting The Tallapoosa River was once upon a time full of Eels, Catfish and Turtles. Cloudy days are best for turtle hunting. The turtle is hulled and dipped in flour and salted and fried, it is said that each part of the turtle tastes like another kind of meat. It is also said the turtle will wiggle in the skillet until it is done. BEWARE if a turtle or crawfish bites you it won’t let go until it thunders. Frog Gigging ‘’Way daown yander in Arkansaw, The Bullfrog said, "Ker-chow ker-chaw." Way daown yander in China-rank, The Bullfrog jumped frum bank to bank’’ When it’s going to rain all the bullfrogs start croaking and it also means it is time to go Frog Gigging. Grappling a try, into murky, scummy streams, sticking your hand into some hollow log or wherever else catfish were supposed to be. There were other things in the water of the Tallapoosa River. Mothers worried about their children getting snake bit, since the banks of both the creeks and river were overgrown with bushes. Frog gigging is simple, equipment wise. You need a paddle battoe, a gig, and some kind of a bucket with a cover. When frog gigging you must always wear gloves because handling a frog with bare hands will cause warts. The frogs were taken home, the legs removed and fried. Blackberries When you walk into an old cemetery what is the first thing that happens? You scratch your leg on a blackberry briar, or one of those old running rose bushes. Believe it or not, Blackberries are not native to this Country! Blackberries are native to Europe. The Blackberry was considered to be a holy plant as well as one of the earliest foods known to man. In the Scottish Highlands it was called it the "Blessed Bramble". A wreath of bramble, rowan and ivy could keep off evil spirits. Blackberry is a symbol of remorse and is associated with alleviating several illnesses. The ancient Greeks used them as a remedy for gout and in England the leaves are used in as a remedy for burns and scalds. In this area, many late spring day, the ladies of the house have been out in the pasture picking blackberries for jelly, jam, preserves and blackberry wine was also made, this wine was vowed to cure anything! Insects/Pests Back in the 1800’s to mid-1900 when someone in Randolph County said "Good night sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite" they were not kidding. "Chinches" [Bed Bugs] left a little mark x around of the edge of the mattress. A bed bug is flat, brown, and wingless. After it has taken a blood meal, the color changes from brown to purplish-red. The size and shape also change, and leave a red itchy bump on the person. Another problem was mites or bird mites, and chicken mites. These mites are parasites on birds and are usually found on the birds or in their nests. Thus, under normal circumstances, bird mites go unnoticed. However, on occasion, bird mites wandered away from the bird nests and were found indoors. Sometimes the "chimney sweep", a small black bird would build a nest in the chimney in the summer time. This was a good way to get mites inside the house. Most people ran a long pole up the chimney and would roll it around to destroy the birds’ nest and burn it. Silverfish are pests primarily because they are a nuisance and an annoyance. They may consume or stain foods, fabric, paper, books, or wallpaper, these things got inside every drawer in the house. AND who has not been blackberry picking and got covered with chiggers? Back in the old days people thought these bugs spread disease and would stop at nothing short of burning the house to get rid of them. This meant getting the old wash pot to boiling and washing everything down with hot water and lye soap. ---July - harvest grains, bundle sheaves, weeding gardens, Patriotism, Dog Days Snakebites "Stay out of them weeds-you will get snake bit!", "Get away from the woodpile, you will get snake bit!" "Get away from the edge of the barn, you will get snake bit!" "Get away from them rocks, you will get snake bit!" "Put your shoes on, you will get snake bit" "Don’t stick your hand in that hen nest before you look!" Mothers have screamed those words for years in this County. During "Dog Days" in the summer, snakes are said to go blind and will strike at anything that moves, even if a rock comes rolling by them, [talk about a headache]. Trails to the barn and spring had to be kept clean. This meant that several times a year the men would take the Sling-blades and cut the weeds along the trails, because if you got snake bit, there was not much that could be done from you. Sometimes gangrene would set up in the bite and the person would die or if a young child got bit most of the time the child would die. Turpentine the miracle product was made from pine tar and was used on snakebites and to remove a "wolf" from an animal’s neck. It was mixed with lard and applied to the chest for nasal and throat complaints. Some modern chest rubs still contain some turpentine. It was also used for lamp oil, soap, ink and had many other uses. Black racers snakes were said to chase you. If you stopped the snake would stop. Whipsnakes were said to wrap around you and beat you to death. One lady that lived around Cragford was driving somewhere when a whipsnake jumped her mule and started beating it. The mule starting/started running, the wagon turned over and the lady was killed. The Cool of the Evening After a long day of canning during the hot Dog Days of summer, the women would spend the evening cutting up fruit to dry. Peaches had to be cut in half long before they began to ripen. Only tart apples could be used to dry. Sweet apples had much too much juice and would never dry, so they were used for jellies. Meanwhile there had been a war going on all day between the grandma and the hornets. The old porches were always full of flies, and the hornets would fly in and try to catch a fly. The older people would sit out there most of the day in a rocking chair where it was cool, and would WHAM the hornets with a strawbroom, and get a few flies in the process too, then sweep all of them outside. The children played on the porch and grandpa would sit out there with a fly flap in his hand swatting flies. The fly flap was made with a stick that had a piece of leather in the end of it. By the Cool of the Evening both the hornets and flies went to roost Most of the time people would burn dry cow patties in an old bucket to keep the gnats and mosquitoes away, so they could sit outside until bedtime. Young boys would whistle up quails by whistling "B-O-B White" because at dusk or at night they would not allow them in the yard, with out a light, because they could get snake bit. The young girls played with their shuck dolls or stick dolls. This was a time to rest and talk about "Old Times". The grandpa would tell about growing up in Georgia or the Carolinas, or tales of wild Indians or the Civil War. Forth of July With all the young men named George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Frances Marion in this County, Patriotism was a very important part of the County in the early years. Someone could remember grandpa telling about how his grandpa was in the Revolutionary War. The Sunday before the 4th of July began with "The Star-Spangled Banner", in later years came "My Country Tis of Thee" and "America the Beautiful". The Sunday afternoon was for making Ice Cream and having picnics by the Creek or River and maybe a few photos taken at the ‘’Summer Watermelon Cuttin’’ Drying Fruit The fruit was cut off late in the evening because July days were very busy with canning vegetables or fruit. The fruit was spread out in the early morning, in the old days it was spread out on guano sacks and later cheesecloth on rocks or anything that drew heat. In later years after tin housetops came to this area, the fruit was spread out on the tin which had two wooden handles nailed on each side. It took two women to carry the fruit outside, then it was placed on two wooden horses, by the time it hit the tin it was covered in flies and yellow jackets. In the summertime in July and August you never knew when a little shower was going to come up. The women would almost kill themselves running outside and to get that drying fruit inside-because if it got wet it would have to be thrown away and started all over again. After the fruit was dried it was taken inside and baked for so long in the woodstove in pans. This was to kill the worm eggs, but this did not always work, sometimes a lady would start to stew some of fruit to make fried pies and find her fruit was full of worms. Children would roam the fields and woods in spring and summer and/to pick wild flowers, and sweet gum. They would pick the gum off the sweet gum trees and get some saw briar berries, take the rubbery skin from around the seed and mix it with the gum and chew it. The children could also blow bubbles with the rubbery skin mixed with the sweet gum and it wouldn't stick to your teeth. There needed to be a wound in the tree to cause the gum to drain out. In the summer after crops were laid-by, the father and the boys would go huckleberry and blackberry picking and the mother would can them, making jelly and jam. When they were there, the whole family would go out to pick blackberries and huckleberries. Summertime canning was a pretty busy time, with all the peaches, wild plums, other fruits, and vegetables coming on. They had a wood cook stove and they would come out to our farm to get wood to cook with. They had a little one seatter car with a little trunk behind. The older daughter's job was to wash the fruit jars to can in. They would use a washtub filled with soapy water. They would wash 1/2-gallon jars until they would get so tired they could hardly stand up. In the hottest time of the year, quilts, bedspreads, feather beds, mattresses and pillows, or anything that was too heavy to wash was dragged of the house out and "sunned", then dragged back inside by sundown, this was usually done several times during the summer. This was to remove odors and to freshen the beds up and it also helped with the bed bugs. The sun would be so hot on these items that it would bleach the color out. Sauerkraut To make sauerkraut, layered shredded cabbage and kosher salt was placed in a stoneware crock (a regular stoneware plate fit inside it just to fit)...about 2" of cabbage and a tablespoon or so of salt, then mash it with a wooden masher until the juice comes up over the cabbage. Then another layer of cabbage and salt and more mashing...continuing this until it comes up to the top of the crock. Always leave about 3 to 4 inches from the top, then with a white cloth She then put the plate on it with a weight (they used a quart jar of water). Then it was stored in a warm dry place. Bubbles are seen when the fermentation begins. Each day they had to remove any scum that formed from the cabbage. This was done for two to six weeks. This had to be done in the hottest months of the year. After the fermentation stopped the kraut was heated, then the kraut was ready to be canned in glass jars and later served with smoked sausages and "Cracklin" cornbread. With all the kraut made in this County down through the years tells us somebody back there in our Ancestry was German. Watermelon No Fourth of July picnic was complete without watermelon. Watermelons were planted in the spring [You never walk in a watermelon patch bad luck]. Nothing ever went to waste on the farm even the rinds of the watermelons! They were cut up into small pieces and soaked overnight in vinegar and sugar to pickle them, then canned in glass jars. BUT never ever walk in a watermelon path before they are ready to pick-very bad luck. ---August - threshing and winnowing of grains, grinding of grains into flour and meal The Children would have two months of summer school while the crops were laid by and before cotton-picking time, then let out of school for two months to get the cotton picked. School would begin November 1st. They would go to school in July and August, these were months when there was really nothing to be done farm wise. In those days, education was second to the farm. In late August the muscadines started getting ripe, and the children would spend hours picking and eating them. Since this was a native berry, and most of these people were Scotch-Irish and Anglo and not natives, they would have an allergic reaction to these berries that makes the mouth itch around the lips. But it did not stop them from eating them and making jellies and wines from the berries. The Corn was shelled off the cobs in the old days then it was taken to the mill. There the corn is/was put through a drying process when it arrived at the mill. It was then cleaned, steamed and the tough outer hull was removed. The germ was grounded into meal, then brought home and placed in the Meal Chest. The Revivals In the beginning of the County many of the Churches began as a large bush arbor. As the days passed more and more and more interest was manifested with several converts. People were coming from miles around on ox wagons, mule wagons, horseback, or on foot, anyway they could to get there. By the time the meetings closed there was talk of organizing a church and after holding monthly services under the arbor for two or three months, they would organize the church. The people then went out into the surrounding woods, and cut logs and placed them under the arbor to be used for pews. In later years log cabins were built and the Churches also doubled as the local schoolhouse. If the Decoration Day were on the 1st Sunday in the May, then the Revival would be on the 1st week in August, if the Decoration Days were on the 2nd Sunday in May the Revival would be on the 2nd week in August, etc., starting on Sunday night and running though Friday night. A guest Minster would come from another church and preach. It began with singing and then the Minster would preach and during his preaching some people would "Testify". One lady always had to go and buy a pint of Whisky, drink about half of it, then bite a "Agion" [Onion] so no one could smell the Whisky and they said that night the "Sprit" hit her and she testified like no other.” She bounced like a grasshopper". Another lady got up to testify saying "Oh dear God only you know what I face everyday [Looking at her husband] but I know with your help I can stand anything!" "I feel the power!" [With a few Amen’s here & there] and getting into the sprit she did something that was so horrible, something that was such a sin, something that was so disrespectable to the church that it made jaws drop. Songbooks dropped on the floor, and one lady nearly fell-out [Luckily there was a lady close to her that started fanning her]. The woman that was testifying was Dancing! The Minster was so shocked that he took her aside and ask her to leave. Later she was almost turned-out of the Church. Most of the Revivals were a very joyous time. It was a time to renew the Christian spirit "Send a great Revival in my soul, in my soul, Send a great Revival in my soul, Let the Holy Spirit in my soul, let it take control and send a great Revival to my soul!" Or ‘’ 'Give me that ole-time religion, En' it's good enough fer me. It was good fer our fathers, En' it's good enough fer me. It was good fer our mothers’’ repeating throughout the family. The Revival was also the time for young teenagers to join the Church, then they were baptized in the river or a deep creek the following Sunday. If they did not want to join the church the young person was always seated on the end of the bench, so the relative sitting next to the young person could give them a push when there Minster said ‘’Is there anyone here tonight that wants to come forth and expect the Lord in his heart?’’, that is when the relative would push the young person into the isle. ---September - Dry Beans and peas, pears canned, Sow turnip greens seed, Syrup making In Southern Language: ‘’I tried to tell her if she did not do something about that roof it was going to be to wet to plow and to dry to sow Turnip Greens, but she would not pay me any attention, now it fell in’’ Trip to the Big City Around the end of August, first of September most families made the trip to "Annie’s Town" [Anniston Al] or "Oxanna" [Oxford Al] to sell the bales of cotton and buy supplies for winter. A group of the neighbors would get together and go in a mini-wagon train to the "Big City" in covered wagons, ox or mule drawn. Anniston is about 35 plus miles from anywhere in this County, this meant by dark most people might have been on the Cleburne County line, so they carried enough food for three or four days, and cookware, coffee pots and quilts to bed down on the cotton. The men would trade places throughout the night, someone had to keep the fire going plus keep watch with a shotgun. The women were awakened around 3 or 4am to make breakfast so by daybreak they could be off again. Too the young children the "Big City" was magical. The adults would do their trading, buying a barrel or two of flour, green coffee beans that would have to be parched and ground by hand, and bolts of cloth to make cloths in the winter, and shoes for the family, and maybe just maybe a few toys for the children on Christmas. Sorghum Syrup In 1860 in Randolph County there were 565 pounds of Cane Syrup produced. Sorghum was introduced to the United States from Africa in the early part of the seventeenth century. Harvest time begins in the middle of September. The Sorghum plants are stripped by hand and transported to the mill, where it lays for about a week to season. Pure Sorghum Syrup is produced by crushing sorghum plants (not corn or sugar cane) and extracting the "juice". This is boiled down, much like maple syrup, to produce a dark sweet syrup similar in flavor to molasses without the bitterness associated with molasses. It can be used in any recipe calling for molasses. Sorghum syrup and molasses are not the same. Molasses is a byproduct of the sugar industry. Sorghum does not need to be refrigerated and it will not mold. It however, can "sugar". To return it to liquid, just reheat it. The Preparations for making syrup: First the pan is fired with seasoned pinewood, Second: A mule or horse is hitched to the cane mill and walks in a continuous circle turning the giant roller, squeezing the juice from the hand fed stalks of cane. The green juice slowly fills the 50 gallon barrel, making its way uphill with force and gravity through a pipe into another barrel beside the syrup pan. The juices flow over into a 10 gallon copper pan making its way around each cubicle, which is separated by wooden bars made out of poplar tree. As the juices begin cooking, it takes about two or three hours to cook the water out, then the "Roping" begins and the syrup is ready to jar. Goobers At one time, southern farmers had their own "goober patch" where they grew a supply of peanuts sufficient for their families use throughout the year. A favorite of Southerners was parched peanuts, these are peanuts roasted in the shell, and most people would sit by the fire eating peanuts, and then throw the hulls in the fire. The women would get up with a lap full of hulls and skins, walk over to the fire and shake them off into the fire. Peanuts had to be harvested before frost, most of the time right after a rain so the ground would be soft enough to pull the peanuts up out of the ground. The area was also plowed up and raked to make sure all of the nuts had been harvested. The nuts were picked off the plants, then dried and stored for the winter. Goldenrod The Goldenrod is another flower or pest you would think is native to this Country - but wrong. The Goldenrod belongs to the Sunflower Family. It is native to Europe. Goldenrod has often been blamed as the chief cause of hay fever. Brews of goldenrod were popular and witches were said to have used goldenrod in potions. In Europe, the leaves were sometimes concocted into what was called Blue Mountain wine. Teas were brewed in both Europe and in North America. --October - gather nuts, roots, berries, and mushrooms, field’s plowed and empty fields sown with winter wheat, repairing and cleaning equipment, grapes picked and pressed for juice and wine. By 1900 there were very few Blacksmith shops left in Randolph County. Most every man had a small blacksmith shop, or his brother did! There was a grinding stone for sharpening tools. The grinding stone was about 12 inches in diameter mounted on a frame with a small hand crank for one person or one hand, to operate while another sharpened tools. If the grindstone ever got broken, it would then be broken into smaller pieces to sharpen knifes or a straight razor or what ever on. In 1860 there were 2,903 pounds of Beeswax and 30,660 pounds of Honey harvested in Randolph County. Most men preferred the little yellow bees rather than the black bees because the yellow bees were not as bad to sting. They used a hollow tree to saw blocks for the Bee Gum, they put some cross sticks near the center, and then tacked a large board on for the roof, they placed them on a flat surface with a notch at the bottom for the bee to go in and out. When it was time to "Rob" the bees they would cut it down at the cross sticks and leave the rest for the bees to live on during the winter. In 1860 there were 114,802 bushels of Sweet potatoes grown in Randolph County. There was probably very rarely a fire built in a wood stove without the bottom of the oven being filled full of Sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are plowed up in the fall. They must be out of the ground and washed and dried before frost. Some people built what they called a "Tater hill", which was a wooden building about three feet off the ground covered with tin. The potatoes were placed in the Tater hill in the fall. A hole was dug under the building. The potatoes were placed inside the hole and covered with straw and cornstalks. The sweet potatoes would last well into the spring. Some people made Muscadine or Scuppernong Wine. For a gallon of wine: 1 quart mashed fruit, 3 quarts water, 6 cups sugar, yeast. Dissolve sugar in the water, put mashed fruit in with water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Do not stir till the next day then stir every day for a week. Strain off liquid and place in a container with an air lock of some type for 6 weeks to allow fermentation to complete itself. Strain off again and bottle; cap lightly for 3 days to allow for any more fermentation to cease. Cap and store in a cool place. This recipe works with muscadines, blackberries, even apples. Makes a good tasting old fashion type wine. In the fall it was common to dry some Catnip leaves for children that were teething or had the colic. It was also believed to deter the evil eye from children given to fits, this was due to because of its ability to calm an extremely agitated child and diminish nightmares. Also adults would make Catnip Tea for them to sleep better at night, but if the tea was made to strong the person could go to sleep and never wake- up. Haunted History [Note: these are old tales, there is no documentation that these events ever took place] Long before the Creek Indians were run out of Randolph County, there was an Indian brave who displeased his Chief. The Chief was so angry that he cut off the nose of the brave. The brave soon died. Indians believed that the body had to be whole in order to travel to the ''Happy Hunting Ground’’. He had to find his nose!!! At night.... you can still see that Indian brave hunting for his nose on "Cut Noise Creek". On Mad Indian Creek here in Randolph County, they say there was a Indian that went insane [Indians believed if one was insane that the rest would come down with it too, so they would run the crazy one out of the village] This poor old Indian yelled and screamed, ran into the woods, ran up & down the creek "Wild as a rabbit" until they found him dead. Till this day people say on rainy winter nights you can hear him running up and down that creek screaming. During the Civil War, there were many men who refused to enlist in the Confederacy or were deserters. The Home Guards were formed to find these men and send them to war. There were times that the Home Guards would kill a man. One such case was on "Triplett’s Creek" in Randolph County. A man was hung. When he was hung, his head just popped right off! For years this Headless Man was seen walking around Triplett’s Creek. Another Civil War Soldier was hung during the Civil War. He had been hiding in the woods. Every night, his wife would bring his supper to him. One night she brought his supper and could not find him. After looking for hours, she found him hung in a tree. To this day, he still walks up & down the Tallapoosa River looking for his wife with his supper. One night, a man was walking by Union Hill Cemetery, and he realized that a Confederate Soldier was walking right beside him. The soldier asked, ‘’Have you seen my wife? She has my supper’’ the man was so scared that he took off running. The soldier chased him to the river bridge. But the soldier would not cross the river. So remember, if you are walking by Union Hill Cemetery, watch for that soldier trying to find his supper. And keep a keen eye out for a quick way to get to the river bridge! There is a single grave near Wadley Alabama of this lady that died in the wintertime, the ground was so frozen the husband could not dig very deep in the ground, he dug as far as he could and placed her in the grave, covered the grave with as many rocks as he could to keep the animals out. Into that summer at night if he heard a dog or any kind of racket out there he would get a lantern and go to the grave and check and make sure those animals had not tried to dig into the grave. To this day they say at night if there is any kind of sound around that grave you will see a light go to that grave. A long time ago an old lady died and it was just a regular funeral and burial just like any other, but that night her family was sitting by the fire and there she was, a ghostly shape just standing there. This went on for weeks, and finally a neighbor told the wife "Just ask her what in the name of the lord does she want?" So they did and the ghostly shape of the old lady went to the fireplace and pointed to a rock in the fireplace, the next day they family pulled that rock out of the fireplace and there was several rocks of gold they old lady had been saving. There was a lady who lived in Wedowee. She was called a "witch". One time, this lady witch wanted to buy a cow. The owner would not sell the cow, so the woman cast a spell on the cow. The cow went wild, running and kicking up her heals, rolling on the ground. The owner of the cow knew he could only do one thing to break the spell. He dipped his gun in some water and hung his gun over the door. The next day the cow was back to normal. The woman that was said to be a witch was said to be able to go behind a door and come out with anything she wanted, one day she wanted some cream to go in her coffee, but there was no cream in the house so she went behind the door and came out with some cream in her coffee. [If this was true why didn’t she go behind the door and come out with a jar of money?] In the late 1800’s early 1900’s it is said that there were several witches in Randolph County. People were always wearing a shirt or bonnet backwards to ward off a spell. Some even burned buttermilk. It was said that when you burned buttermilk, the spell goes back to the witch. Her skin would start to burn, and she had to come to you and hug you to make it stop. Then, you had to forgive her. There was one such case where the woman would not forgive the witch. The witch threw some kind of wild flowers on the woman's table. This was some sort of spell and it would not let the milk turn. The woman had to go to a relative’s home to get some buttermilk to burn. She was extremely mad. It just so happened, her family was cutting and raking cornstalks to burn. She pored that whole bucket of buttermilk on that row of raked cornstalks [About 20-30 ft long]. The witch started to burn and she cried out for help. But no one could save her, and she died. Another lady that lived on the Tallapoosa River was also called a witch. She put a spell on this woman’s baby and the baby cried all night long. Her cousin told her to "Burn Some Buttermilk". The next day, the baby stopped crying. There is a statue of a World War One soldier on a tombstone in a cemetery in Clay County, they say at the stroke of midnight the statue gets down off of the tombstone and walks around in the cemetery until daybreak, but when daylight starts to come, he gets back on the top of the tombstone and freezes back up. During WWI, a soldier from Randolph County was killed. His mother decided she would let the Army bury him, and not bring him back to Randolph County. Strange things began to happen. Doors would open and close by themselves...boards creaked. At night, you could hear a man crying. Someone or something woke the old woman up in the middle of the night-but there was no one there. She decided to bring her son home after all. After the young man was buried, the strange things stopped almost as fast as they had started. Back in the early 1900’s when someone was sick or thought to be dying there were "Sit-ups". Different people from the community would come and "Sit-up" with the dying or sick. On one such night, a man was walking home, after sitting up with this old woman. He came upon a headless woman dressed in white and surrounded by light. It was such a frightening and eerie sight he just about killed himself trying to run away. The next night the old woman died. This fellow being of Scot-Irish decent probably thought he had came upon a "Banshee". Since all of these old Irish tales and been told for generations. A "Banshee" is Irish for fairy woman. The wail of a banshee pierces the night. The Banshee always announces a mortal's death. She is a solitary woman fairy, mourning and forewarning those only of the best families in Ireland. Each Banshee has her own mortal family and out of love she follows the old race across the ocean to distant lands. Her wails or keen can be heard in America and England, wherever the true Irish have settled. When a member of the beloved race is dying, she paces the dark hills about his or her house. She sharply contrasts against the night's blackness; her white figure emerges with silver-gray hair streaming to the ground and a gray-white cloak of a cobweb texture clinging to her tall very thin body. Her face is pale, her eyes red with centuries of crying. The White Lady of Sorrow some people name her, and Lady of Death. Unseen, banshees attend the funerals of the beloved dead. Although, sometimes she can be heard wailing, her voice blending in with the mournful cries of others. What he probably saw was a sheet somebody had hung up to scare off the Hawks that would explain why it had no head. Around 1900, a young girl had a baby out-of-wedlock. Her father did not want another mouth to feed, so he dug a hole and threw the baby in and covered up the child, burying it alive. It is said you can still hear that baby crying on rainy nights. So remember, when you come to Randolph County, don’ be surprised if a few doors open and close by themselves. You might possibly hear boards rattle and chains clank. Late at night you just might hear a mournful wail, or see a headless soldier, or even catch the faint smell of buttermilk burning. But do not fear!!!! It's just the ancestors trying to get your attention. ---November - firewood gathered, split, and stacked for themselves and the lord, pigs and cows slaughtered and meat smoked, flax and hemp processed to make thread and rope In order to start a fire, first thing you need is some lydiard and couple rocks and some cotton lint, you beat the rocks until a spark flies into the cotton lint and as it catches fire stick the lydiard to it and there you have it. Lydiard is the heart of a very old dead pine tree, that has been split in very small thin pieces to start a fire, at night families were afraid the leave a fire burning, in the winter during an ice or snow storm someone would sit up and watch the fire making sure a spark did not pop out and set floor on fire, most nights the fire was covered up with ashes, so there would be some hot coals left in the morning, the first person up would place a few pieces of lydiard on the coals and fan it a little, when it started to smoke, soon it would catch fire and that would get the fire going. Firewood had to be cut after the sap went down or it would have water in the grain and the wood would rot in the wintertime. Mostly Oak and was used for firewood because Popular is called Popular for a reason-It Pops and can pop out of the fireplace and set the house on fire. Flax One folk tale tells how Holda/Bertha lured a poor farmer into a magical cavern on a mountaintop. She appeared as a beautiful queen surrounded by handmaidens, in a room full of precious stones and gold. Holda asked the farmer to name a gift that he desired. He asked for the flowers she held in her hand. The blooms were of the flax plant, which were then unknown. Holda gave him a bag of flax seeds and when the crop was ripe she taught the farmer's wife to make linen cloth from the plants. Flax was used for rope and to bottom chairs and also used as cording for beds. The flax is the flower of the goddess Bertha, whose eyes shone in its blossoms and whose femininity was filled by its fibers. When harvesting anything in the fields always but always it was custom to leave a little behind for the "Fowls of the air and the Poor’’ ---December - trim trees, grape vines pruned, and hunting "Its cold enough to kill hogs!" The smell of a hog farm was horrible! Most people built the pigpen far away from the house and traded something to the hog farmer for a couple of young pigs. After the first hard freeze in the winter, the young hog was killed, dressed and the meat put in a wooden box and salted down, the meat had to stay in the salt for so long. No one was allowed to cook "Green Meat" until it seasoned. The remainder of the meat was boiled out in a wash pot. The "cracklins" and feet were canned in glass jars, with the lard being poured into a "Lard Can", which was about a ten-gallon tin can. If a woman was expecting a baby she was not allowed to clean the hog’s head, this could cause the baby to be marked. Hang and cut the hog’s jugular to drain blood. Scald hairs off in boiling water and scrape with knife. Gut the hog and cut off its head. Slice the sides for bacon, and chisel the ribs off the backbone using a hatchet and hammer. Cut the remainder into hams, shoulders, loins, and backbones (for chops). Souse meat is made of every part of a hog from the ears to the tail, "its just like Sausage" Trust me it is not! The head or "souse" is prepared after cutting off and saving the ears, jowls, snout, and tongue. First, cut out the eyes, then halve and quarter the head with an axe, removing the brain. Put the meat into a pot to soak overnight. After soaking, rinse and put the quartered pieces into a pot of salty water and cook slowly until the meat begins to fall off the bones. Season with sage and black pepper and fry in a skillet until runny then place a plate on top and squeeze out the rest of the grease. Pour off the grease and put the meat and then canned. Slice and serve hot or cold. The jowls should be fried. For tongue, the hairs are removed with boiling water then scraped. Boil until tender, slice and serve hot. The snout is cleaned and roasted. The brains are "skinned" in boiling water, then seasoned with salt and pepper. The ears are boiled in salt water and eaten alone or used in the souse. The feet can be roasted, boiled or pickled. Sausage is made from the lean meat of hams and shoulders. The meat is ground with salt, pepper, sage, and brown sugar and fried until browned and canned in the grease. The smokehouse was a separate building located far enough from the home to prevent fire if the smokehouse ignited while smoking meat. The buildings ranged from about 6 X 8 feet up to maybe 10 X 16 feet. The building sides were about 8 feet high, and it always had a tall "A" shaped roof to provide for cool smoking of the meat and to provide a large amount of rafter space for hanging meat. The sides and roof were reasonably air tight to confine smoke during the meat curing process. Smoking cured the hams, shoulders, bacon slabs and sausage. The cuts of meat were individually rubbed with salt and placed in a barrel between layers of salt. The dry salted cuts of meat were removed from the barrels after about ten days, brushed off and inspected carefully to make sure the salt had penetrated to all parts of the meat. Wire hooks would be inserted into the pieces of meat and then each piece was hung from nails in the rafters of the smoke house. The sausage would be looped over a long reed pole mounted across the joists of the smokehouse. After the meat was all hung, the smoking process was ready to begin. An old washtub with a couple of inches of dirt in the bottom often served as the basic fire pit for smoking. This firebox was placed on the floor of the smoke house under the meat and fueled with the desired smoke wood- everyone had their own choices. The fire was kept going each day and required careful attention from anyone in the household who had time to watch for flares ups, which might cause the smoke house to burn. The smoking process required about two weeks, the meat was inspected frequently to check on the curing process and to sprinkle on pepper, molasses or other concoctions desired by each family. Sometimes borax was sprinkled on to keep flies away from the cured meat. Chitlin Suppers Chitlins are the intestines of the hog dipped in batter and fried. It is still common here today in the wintertime for people to gather and have a Chitlin supper. A couple of days after the hog killing, the chitlins were cooked by boiling. The odor from cooking chitlins is indescribable and unpleasant. Cooking requires several hours with various seasoning depending upon preference. It has been said buzzards would circle back in the old days when chitlins were being cooked in a wash pot. Hunting When you are out walking in the woods and you find an arrowhead, don’t jump to the conclusion you have found an "Indian artifact". Understand both the Anglos and the Scot-Irish used bow & arrows, and common sense tells you when the whites first came to this area some of them had been soldiers in the Indian and Mexican wars and did have muskets. But in order to get gunpowder, he would have at least had to go to Carrollton, Georgia or make some kind of homemade gunpowder. Also the first settlers of this County wore skins and furs just like the Indians. The Scot- Irish made most of their cloths from wool for the winter, while the skins and furs are part of the Anglos heritage. Bird Thrashing Bird trashing was a common event in this area. It was done at night, after the birds went to roost in the trees that had been cleared for the New Ground to be planted. The idea was to take a limb of some kind and trash the piles of trees branches. The roosting birds would fly around unable to see at night. Quails were dressed and gutted and hung by the fire on sticks until cooked, while turtledoves were made into a stew, most other birds would be let go, but in the cold winter "You ate what you could catch". There have been reports of people cooking Coon and Groundhogs. Red tail Hawks were a terrible problem. Most people would hang old sheets or old dresses in trees to try and frighten them away. The adult Hawk could pick up a fryer size chicken and fly away with it, but most men kept a twelve-gage shotgun handy, loaded with birdshot and would take them down. Possum Hunting ‘’A 'possum up a 'simmon-tree; I winked at him; he winked at me; I picked up a rock and hit him on de shin; Sez he, "Ole feller, don't do dat agin!" There is no "O" in Possum in Randolph County. In the daytime men hunted for Possums by climbing trees and looking in hollows. For those who don’t know what a hollow is, it is a cavity in the trunk of a tree that has rotted out and left a hole anywhere from a few inches to several feet deep. "Possums", as well as several other forest creatures, slept in these places during the day. The holes could be as high as fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, or might even be a hollow stump almost on the ground. There weren’t many families in this isolated area, and it was a good hunting range. Men seldom made the rounds without getting three to five "possums". The possums were really just "Buzzards with four legs" so they were kept in a coop far from the house for about two weeks and fattened up and all of that "Buzzard meat" was gone from their systems. These coops were built out of strips wide at the bottom but just enough room at the top to feed the possum. When the two weeks were up they killed and skinned them and they were carried on stretchers to the house. The stretcher was a long tapered board. The hide was turned inside out and pulled over it and hung in the smokehouse to dry. The possum was baked with potatoes around it. In Southern Language: ‘’Best durned Taters you ever eat’’ The Fox Hunt Yes they hunted Foxes in Randolph County just like in England, but somewhat different, the foxes were chased with dogs-but on a moonlit night. The men would go out on horseback by night and the dogs would almost carry a tune, sometimes they would stay up practically all night chasing those foxes and they could be heard for miles. A fox is a beautiful animal but it is deadly to any kind of barnyard fowl. Smaller hunted animals In this County, if it was a varmint-shoot it! Some animals like Foxes, Skunks, Coons and Weasels roomed the countryside side, they were deadly to a chicken so they were killed because of their danger to the fowl in the barnyard most any time of the year, and they were also killed for their fur. A Polecat is really a skunk. The polecat was once widespread in Europe, and since the skunk also sprayed a terrible pungent musk, the first people in this area thought the skunk was some kind of a Polecat, and they are related. So they also called them polecats. The skunks are solitary hunters and are active mainly at night. The skunk sprays its scent when frightened or angry, like say at a barking dog. The smell of a skunk will last for days on end, and the only way to get rid of it is a bath in Tomato Juice. Skunks will break into a henhouse and kill the chickens without carrying a single one back to the woods with them. Squirrels Squirrel hunting is still done in the County today. There is probably not an older person in the County that has not eaten "Squirrel dumplings". The southern squirrel looks like a small rodent when it moves along the branches of a tree, but when it glides through the air it appears to have the grace of a bird. A squirrel does not fly in the true sense of the word. It does not have wings to power itself through the air like a bird. Instead, it glides for a long distances, traveling from tree to tree by extending a fur covered membrane that is attached to its hind and forelegs, they prefer a Hickory, black walnut or pecan tree to make their nest. Rabbits "Ole Molly-hare, what you doin' dare?" "Runnin' through the 'backer-patch hard as I can tear." "Ole Molly-hare, what you doin' dare?" "Settin' in de brier-patch, pickin' out de hair." Cottontails are hunted most anytime. After a rabbit was killed and dressed the meat was soaked in salty water for several days, then boiled and then fried. This sport mostly died out in this area due to the fear of "Rabbit Fever" [Tularemia]. After eating a rabbit with "Rabbit Fever" the person would experience sudden chills, fever, weight loss, abdominal pains, tiredness, and headaches. Patients with Rabbit fever could develop an unusual pneumonia that was fatal. Christmas Thanksgiving has never been very important here in the County. Old folks still say ‘‘just another day to me’’ Christmas has always been the main holiday in this County. As I am sure all of you know the majority of the people in this area are of Scot-Irish, Anglo Saxon and a few German of descent. These people brought their heritage to these two Counties, and these traditions were lived way into the 1940s. What you may not know is the Christmas celebration in this area from around the 1840’s to the early 1900’s in this area was much different from today. The Christmas traditions also had to do with the celebration of the end of the harvest. Most of the time, the corn would not be in the barn until mid-December. After that, the men would sit around the fire until hog killing time, or are cutting the cornstalks, there was really nothing for them to do until spring, and the women would sew on what ever crossed their path to pass the time. You would think the Christmas tree would have been pine, since there is a pine tree around every corner. The tree of choice was a cedar or holly. The holly was used most of the time because of it beautiful red berries. The tree was decorated with real cotton balls, paper chains, and real burning wax candles. The paper chains were made out of paper bags and homemade glue that was really flour and water mixed together as a paste. In Western England it is said sprigs of holly around a young girl's bed on Christmas Eve are supposed to keep away mischievous little goblins. They also put a sprig of holly on the bedpost to bring sweet dreams. In Germany, a piece of holly that was used in church decorations is regarded as a charm against lightning. In England, British farmers put sprigs of holly on their beehives. On the first Christmas, they believed, the bees hummed in honor of the Christ Child. The English also mention the ~he holly and the she holly~ as being the determining factor in who will rule the household in the following year, the ~she holly~ having smooth leaves and the ~he holly~ having prickly ones. In Wales, family quarrels are thought to occur if holly is brought into the house prior to Christmas. If decorations are left up beyond New Year's or Twelfth Night it is said that a misfortune will occur for each leaf and branch remaining. According to legend taking holly into the home of a friend or picking holly in blossom will cause death. In Germany, it is unlucky to step on the berries. A piece of holly kept from the Church decorations is said to bring good fortune throughout the year. Similarly, if holly is hung in the barn, animals will fatten and thrive. If picked on Christmas Day, it will serve as protection against witches and evil spirits. In some areas little lighted candles are placed on holly leaves and floated on water. If they float it is a sign that the project that the person has in mind at the time will prosper, but if they sink it is as well to abandon it. The Serenadin tradition is mostly based on the English " The Day of Misrule" when the poor could visit any home and ask for food. In celebrating this tradition, everyone must be unrecognizable, meaning painted faces, leaves and rags, whatever would hide their identity. In this area, the mothers would make a "Doughface" for their children out of an old pillowcase or whatever. A Doughface was embroidered around the eyes and mouth with a cotton filled nose. The adults would paint their faces or cover their faces with leaves. Sometimes the men would even wear their long johns over their overalls! The wagon was filled full of hay to keep the kids warm and off they would go to the neighbor's homes. Care was taken to approach the homes as quietly as possible, then let loose with the most racket possible. When they were welcomed into the home, no one would say a word. The neighbor would have to guess who they were. When they were recognized, the party began. There would be singing, dancing and laughing [and I am sure some drinking]. The neighbors would always have sweets ready for the visitors. If hospitality was not offered, the Christmas spirit would be taken away from the home. They might also come back in the middle of the night and take the man out of his bed still in his long johns and leave him on the side of the road. Sometimes the serenadinors/serenadors would not come in, but the next day the neighbor would know they had been there. Everything would be backward; the cow hitched up to the wagon, a milk bucket under the mule etc. One man awoke one Christmas morning to find his wagon took apart and the wheels on top of his house! Rooster’s feet tied together and placed on a nest. Another tradition you would not think would be done at Christmas was the shooting of fireworks. This tradition was for "driving away evil sprits" and also to awaken the sleeping seeds in the ground. They would also pack their pockets with two-for-a-penny stick hard candy or trinkets. When meeting someone a common greeting was saying, "Christmas Gift". After the words were exchanged, each would give the other a piece of syrup candy or a trinket of some kind. Sweetbread was a common Christmas treat. This was really just a homemade yellow cake without icing. Teacakes were also a favorite, and the beloved baked sweet potato. Everyone had a hog or a brother-in-law with a hog, so at Christmas there was always a "Christmas Ham". The Christmas stockings "hanged by the fire" with care came into play around the early 1900’s, the stockings were stuffed with fruit, nuts and peppermint sticks, the boys most of the time got a horn or yo-yo, the girls most of the time got a small rubber doll. By December 31st all of the Christmas decorations would be taken down. This prevented bad luck. This is still a tradition here today. On New Year's Eve, the women would have to 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. Also, 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. Also all leather much be tanned before Christmas and all coats or shoes made of leather must be made before the New Year, or this is very bad luck Now we have "Toys for Tots”. Back after the Civil War and up until the early 1900’s the Ministers and their wives would go all over the community to "Beg Alms for the Poor". In this area there was always a widow woman who had lost her husband to the "Fever", with small children that did not understand why they did not have anything for Christmas. Alms was anything anyone could spare, an old patched pair of overalls or an old pair of shoes that were to small for little Tom, or an old doll Sallie Fannie did not play with anymore, a rooster or a single "Tater" or a pound of baked "Goobers" or shelled "Peacons", or a child’s top made from a old wooden thread spool cut in half and whittled into a point and stick to make it spin. Speaking of a proud two-thirds Scot- Irish woman, I am sure there where some of those full-blooded Scot-Irish women who possibly told them "the road goes both ways, get in it" but I am sure there were others who were very grateful for the acts of kindness. In this area there was not much caroling at Christmas, the Christmas songs were sung in church. One of the oldest Christmas songs is "O’ Come All Ye Faithful" written in the Eighteenth Century, followed by "Silent Night, Holy Night" "Gentle Mary Laid Her Child" "The First Noel the Angels Did Say" and many more. The last Sunday in December songs like "Another Year is Dawning" "Father Let Me Dedicate and "Ring Out the Old" were sung. This area was very poor after the Civil War, but the people were very rich in many other ways. They found joy in the holidays without spending a penny. Their Christmas joy was found in each other, with family, friends and neighbors, the people that they depended upon daily. Throughout the year Almanac Still today, in the late fall, every older person in the County has to get to the bank and get an Almanac and Calendar and it has to be a calendar that is "some account" with the planting signs on it. Tradition and signs was the proper way to plant and harvest their crops. The twelve signs come around every 28 days and are divided into elements: fire, earth, air, and water; and body parts: head, neck, breast, bowels, loins, knees, feet, legs, thighs, kidneys, heart, and arms. Using a calendar or almanac that delineates the days of the month by signs, a farmer would pick the series of days with the most favorable signs for planting or harvesting his crops. In addition, many believe that the best time to plant crops with yields above ground is while the moon is waxing, and plant those crops with yields below ground (root crops i.e. potatoes, radishes, peanuts, etc.) while the moon is waning. There are many other rules for planting, harvesting, plowing, transplanting, even cutting timber, romancing, hunting, cooking, or cutting your hair. Aquarius Good for above ground crops, social events. "Women born under the Aquarius sign would have strong sons" Pisces Good for planting and transplanting above ground crops, trees and shrubbery. Good for fishing and weaning babies and animals. Aries Good for cultivating the ground, planting beets and onions, and hunting. Bad for planting and transplanting other crops. Tarus/Taurus Good for all root crops and above ground crops, hunting and fishing. Gemini Good for planting all crops, also for preserving jellies and pickles. Cancer Best for planting both above ground and root crops Good for cooking and fishing Leo Good for sports, romancing, job-hunting, and hunting. Bad for planting or transplanting Virgo Good for trading. Bad for planting Libra Good for planting above ground crops and flowering plants. Scorpio Best for flowers and above ground crops. Good for all other crops, fishing and hunting. Sagittarius Good for hunting jobs, trading, baking and preserving. Bad for transplanting Capricorn Best for root crops Good for flowers and above ground crops. Plant fruits, seed flowers, and vegetables that bear above the ground when the moon is waxing, from the day after the moon is new to the day before the moon is full. Plant flowering bulbs and vegetables that bear below the ground when the moon is waning. That is, from the day after the moon is full to the day before it is new again. 1st and 2nd Quarter (moon is waxing) Plant above ground yields. Do not plant on the day the moon is new, full or changing quarters. Graft trees just before the sap flows. 3rd and 4th Quarter (moon is waning) Plant crops that grow underground in the third quarter. A waning moon is good for harvesting most crops, canning and preserving vegetables and jams. Kill weeds and trees, Turn the soil, slaughter livestock in the 4th quarter before the new moon. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, infectious diseases were the most serious threat to health and well-being. The most common causes of death were the respiratory diseases pneumonia and tuberculosis. The second most common cause of death was the cluster of diarrhea diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Childbirth Fever/Infant deaths Milk Leg or childbirth fever was a death that is caused by bacterial infection during and after the process of birth. In the late 1800's the disease was considered to be a common and dreaded consequence of motherhood. Women gave birth at home with a midwife in attendance. In the l800's childbirth was second only to tuberculosis as the leading cause of death in women in their childbearing years. The possibility also existed for the woman to hemorrhage to death or to die from convulsions or "fits", blood clots in the legs might also cause death and be listed on the death certificate as milk leg. A woman had to stay in bed for nine days after the birth of a child, in these nine days no one but one is to sweep under her bed-bad luck. If a child was born out-of-wedlock the parents had to wait eighteen days before they married. Some babies were not named until months after they were born. That is why you will see tombstones "Infant of- born May 10, died Aug 23" One lady said "I lost two infants at birth, and a two year old, they all three hurt me terribly, but the two year old hurt the most, because I was so use to carrying her around, my arms felt so empty" Consumption/TB [Tuberculosis] Tuberculosis most commonly affects the respiratory system, but may affect other parts of the body. TB may be acute or chronically progressive. It is spread by the act of breathing by people with an active case of the disease. 100 years ago one in every seven people died from TB. The progressive wasting and emaciation of the individual gave rise to the term consumption. TB was a slow death sentence. Coughing prolonged fevers, bloody sputum and wasting are the primary symptoms. This was another highly contagious disease that terrified the Community. After the person [s] died most all of the time their home was burned to the ground [And you wonder why there is aren't that many early pictures?] A man in the Ophelia Community wife died along with most of their children in the late 1880’s early 1900’s with TB. The man would not let his home be burned. This meant water would have to be boiled in a wash pot, and the walls washed down with boiling water and lye, plus just about everything inside would have to be burned that was not wood. Consumption-2 Another kind of consumption was also a killer in this County, the consumption of the Whisky Bottle that is. There is not a creek or branch in this County that has not had a Whisky Still on it [Maybe several] in some areas it is called "Moonshine" but this County it was called "Making Liquor" or "White Lighting". This is how, way into the late 1800’s early 1900’s, many men made their living. It was made from a mash of fresh corn, some sugar and water, which was cooked for so many days. While this was going on, the still was covered with green flies [This could not be helped, it was summer time] then distilled some way. The smell of a whisky still is said to have been so bad, vultures would circle it, and if the thing did not have some kind of a cover, "Buzzards" have been found in it! One old man in the County said: "Yea when we got it done it was covered in maggots, we just took a sardine can and dipped them out". ‘’This stuff was so pure men have gone blind after drinking it or have died of Alcohol poisoning’’. One man was so sick of his brother getting drunk and running his wife and children off from home into the woods at night, he decided he would come up with a plan. It was late at night, he went to his brother's home and cradled under the floor to the bedroom where he knew his brother was half asleep and half drunk, he said ‘’John’’ and John replied ‘’Who is there?’’ the man said ‘’It’s the Lord’’ John said ‘’Oh dear Lord what do you want?’’ and the man said ‘’I want you to go stop drinking and start spreading the gospel’’ and after that ‘’John the drunk’’ became ‘’John The Baptist Minster’’. The old’ timey still was crafted from copper sheets used sparingly due to the cost. The furnace was constructed from natural stone and chinked with red clay. The construction of the still was exacting -- there could be no leaks between the top and bottom halves of the still, the flue should draw well and the cap should be airtight. The copper was molded using a wooden mallet and beaten against a tree stump. The pieces were fastened together with brads and soldered with tin. Pure corn whiskey was made without sugar (later used to increase the yield). First, a bushel to a bushel-and-a-half of corn was soaked in warm water and allowed to sprout. During the summer the tub of corn and water could be left in the sun, during the winter the tub would need to be heated by fire. In either case, the corn needed to be stirred daily and would malt in about 5 days. Then another six or seven bushels of corn would be milled and cooked, first by boiling a half bushel of ground corn malt in the still, running it off into a barrel and adding a gallon of raw meal, filling six or seven barrels one-by-one. Water was added to the barrels until the mash was thinned. The barrels were capped and left for the night to ferment. It was not uncommon to find the barrel full of rats the next morning. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - known as the Prohibition Amendment - was adopted in the 1920s and made the making, selling, possessing, and consuming of alcoholic drinks illegal. When bootleggers got the news the Sheriff was on his way, they would hide the Whiskey bottles in the fish baskets in the river, stump holes, even under the floors of Churches, these people had no shame. Anyone even thought of turning anyone in could find himself being shot at or worse. Croup Most children with viral croup are between the ages of 3 months and 5 years old. Croup is most likely to occur during the winter months and early spring, and symptoms are most severe in children younger than 3 years of age. People back in this time period thought if you cut a sour gum sprout the length of the child’s height and placed in the loft of the house, the child would not get the Croup or Whooping Cough. Dropsy [Congestive Heart Failure] The term generally referred to people who were swollen with water. They were prone to dropping things because the brain was also affected by the swelling causing neurological side effects. Common folk medicine treated dropsy with foxglove leaves. Digitalis, purple foxglove or heartleaf plant found growing wild in the woods. The leaves, flowers, and seeds of the plant are all-toxic and may be fatal if ingested. Just about every old person in Randolph County had "Dropsy" or thought they had dropsy. Another Dropsy/Kidney treatment was to boil peach-tree bark and drink about three glasses a day, this was said to flush water from the body. The "Fever" Typhoid fever is characterized by the sudden onset of sustained fever, severe headache, nausea, severe loss of appetite, constipation or sometimes diarrhea. Severe forms have been described with mental dullness and meningitis. Contaminated polluted water was the cause, many people in this area died with "The Fever". Any family that had "The Fever" was to mark a red X or tie a red rag on their front door, so if someone came to visit they were to stay away. But another sad fact is-very few people would go near these people, not even a doctor. He would come and leave medicine near the house, but if he got it-then who would take care of the rest? There was a black midwife that would risk her own life to take herbs and food to these people, even when their own kin would not darken their door she would try and help them. The Higgins family came down with the fever, all of the family died. Finally some men in the community knew these people had to be buried. They went to the house with their hands and mouths covered up, buried the bodies out in the yard, and then burned the house and barn. In that time period if somebody died suddenly, fearing this was some kind of disease, everything the person touched had to be burned. People that lived though the Fever sometimes had brain damage. No person was ever the same after having it. The Seven-Year Itch In the old days if you got "The Itch" you were covered with sulfur and grease to help the itching, no one really knew what caused it. Scabies are caused by an infestation of a mite known as Sarcoptes scabei. Scabies is often called the seven-year itch because of the very itchy little bumps that appear, and the longevity of the infestation. The mite is a microscopic bug similar to a tick or chigger. They tunnel or borrow under the skin, leaving behind eggs, feces, and dead body parts. Although the victim may not have any itching or other reaction at first, once the person becomes sensitized, they will have an allergic reaction to the mites and their leavings which is in the form of a rash and intense itching, most often at night when the mites are active. Sensitization can take up to 2 months after a person has been infested. The mites can live away from a person (on clothing or linens) for up to 4 days, and can infest another person that way as well. Scabies is not a disease of the poor or unclean, nor is it something to be ashamed of; it can and does affect people of all social, economic and ethnic categories. Health care professionals can even pick up the mites from their patients. Worms Human intestinal parasites worms infection air food water cause constipation stomach bloating, disease health problems. Other symptoms include anemia, asthma, diarrhea, digestive disorders, fatigue, low immune system, nervousness and skin rash. Most will not face this reality or even want to think about this subject and would continue in their suffering and died. No one really knew what caused worms, except it was thought to be caused by eating "Green Hog Meat". Green Hog meat was fresh hog meat that had not be seasoned or smoked. Lice No one can say anything about head lice without their head starting to inch! Mothers would comb their children heads for hours trying to get those lice out. A louse egg is commonly called a "nit". Lice stick their eggs to their host's hair. A nit comb is a comb with very fine close teeth to scrape nits off the hair. Then the mothers would wash the children’s heads in lye soap and this would work - for awhile. Cure Alls Charms and ‘’Yarbs’’ [Herbs] are used to heal diseases in man and beast, and sick children are brought many miles to be breathed upon by a seventh son or by one who has never seen his father. Tying a frog around a child’s neck makes the child teethe easier. Wearing a horseshoe nail ring prevents rheumatism. Boiled peachtree bark is for kidney trouble Tying a dime around your leg can help rheumatism. Swallowing three buckshot a day for three days prevents measles. Swallowing three live minnows prevents whooping cough. Always use snuff or tobacco on a bee sting. Blistering the outside surface to "draw the fever out" can treat a sore throat or chest Warts are caused by touching frogs but can be cured by soaking three times in "stump water." If you have a wart on you, pick it with a grain of corn and throw it out in the yard and let a chicken eat it, and the wart will go away. Also another wart remover is: take seven pebbles from a branch or creek, throw them over your left shoulder back into the water. Also if you want to remove a wart, steal a dishrag and take it where she will never find it and that will make the wart go away. For the Hick-ups hiccups drink nine sips of water. A potato cut in half and placed over the eyes can help sore eyes. If a child has chickenpox, sit them in front of the chicken house and scare a chicken over them that will make the chickenpox will dry up. If a child is constipated, rub castor oil on their stomach. The adults took caster oil for colds and constipation. Rub turpentine on a splinter and it will come out. Soak snakebites in turpentine. Soak snakebites in kerosene. Make a plant poltus to cure swelling. Polk roots were boiled in water as a cure for the Itch. The person was bathed in the warm water and this killed in mite’s eggs in the skin that caused the itch. Tie a bag with Sow bugs in it around your neck to ward off chest infections. Find a smooth rock and rub over warts then bury it in a secret place this must be done during a full moon. If you cut an onion and place it by the bedside of someone with a cold or flu it will help him or her breath easier Boiled Onions are also good for a baby teething, rub on the gums Whisky was rubbed on a sore tooth of an adult. Catnip Tea will make a baby’s teething easier and if you make it strong enough it will also put adults to sleep Pregnancy Did you know if a woman swallowed a watermelon seed it would sprout in her stomach and grow a watermelon? There 1000’s of women in this County that happened to. Sometime when she went to the cabbage patch she would find a baby or sometimes a lady would go blackberry picking and there would be a baby in the weeds. When a lady was expecting a baby in the old days she did not want anyone to see her until it was born, and she was terrified she would do something to mark the baby, she was told how much a woman loves a man will show in his sons, if the sons look like the father the woman truly loved him, but the sons looked like her then she only had her mind on herself. She was also told when she was in labor not to touch herself anywhere or the baby would have a birthmark on the place she touched herself. A long time ago in the south a woman expecting a baby had to be very careful or she could mark the baby. One lady went to one of those Rattle-Snake Religion meetings and a snake struck at her, when her son was born, his hand struck at everyone he tied to shake hands with. A sad fact is, back a long time ago, if a child was born with something wrong with it, this was blamed on the mother. The woman saw something and marked the baby. The most terrible thing was the woman blamed herself thinking she had touched something or looked at something that caused her child to be born like that. Death After a death in the family all the clocks had to be stopped and all the mirrors and pictures had to be covered-up or turned backwards. The coffin had to be built by two men - a relative and a neighbor would take part. Ladies in the family carded bats [making cotton lining] for inside the coffin. Neighboring women experienced in laying out the body, gathered at the house of the deceased. The body is washed. A bed is prepared for the body. [If the body is of a man, he has to be clean- shaven] and dressed in their Sunday dress or suit, then was placed inside the coffin and pennies placed on each eye. The house itself determines the place for the corpse. Tables settle or a bed in the kitchen, or one of the rooms is used. A loft may be used. That Day and into the night the Community would bring enough food to feed an Army, and some would spend the night, someone had to be with the body at all times. The next day around 12pm the body was loaded on a wagon and was taken to the church, most funerals were at 2pm in the afternoon, the body had to be buried by sundown two days after he or she died. At the church the Community family on the left side and the neighbors of the right, then over the church came "Rock of A-ges cleft for me. Let me hide my-self in Thee. Could my tears for-e-ver flow could my zeal no languor know, while I draw this fleet-ing breath. When mine eyes shall close to death" or " What a friend we have in Jesus" and "We shall meet on that beautiful shore in the Sweet by and by". The Minster would tell personal stories of the loved one and try to bring comfort to the family. The coffin was taken to the cemetery, and then Amazing Grace was sung. It was very important that no one left the cemetery until the last drop of dirt was placed on the grave [Bad luck]. There is/are very few graves in this County, that a family has not stood beside and mourned the loss of a loved one, no matter how old the grave or the shape of the grave, somebody had stood beside it and mourned. The burial of a person in the wintertime was very difficult. When the ground was frozen it could take hours to just dig down a few feet, so they dug as far as they could, placed the coffin in the ground [If they had a coffin, sometime the person was wrapped in a quilt] fill-up the grave, and covered the graves with rocks. That is why in some old cemeteries you will see graves covered with rocks. In later years dynamite was used to open a grave. These people believed once a person was buried the grave was not to be disturbed in any way. Rocks were drug up with a groundside/groundslide hitched behind a mule or horse, from where "New Ground" had been cleared. The fieldstone headstones also came from the same place, or a creek bed, or the riverbed. If someone in the family knew how to write, the name was cut into it. In some cases if there was not anyone in the family that could read or write, a bird, butterfly or even a star was cut into the marker. This way the family could find their way back to the grave. Sometimes a single sharp rock was placed on the grave to be able to locate it, or the rocks arranged in a certain way. There used to be a bell tied to the corpse's big toe with a piece of string and the attendees sat around the coffin (usually with a drop of "the crater" in them) If the bell hadn't rung by the next morning it was then deemed safe to carry on with burial. Pennies were sometimes placed on the eyelids so that if there were a flicker they would drop off and sound the alarm. Snuff powder was sometimes placed under the corpse's nose and if it were to draw a breath it would probably sneeze, if not then it had definitely ‘’snuffed it”. This was done because in rare cases the person was in a coma and the family thought the person was dead and tried to bury him or her. There have been tales of people sitting up in the coffin at their funeral or beads of sweat being spotted on the person in the coffin. An old funeral rite from the Scottish Traditions is to bury the deceased with a wooden plate resting on his chest. In the plate were placed a small amount of earth and salt, to represent the future of the deceased. The earth hinted that the body would decay and become one with the earth, while the salt represented the soul, which does not decay. This rite was known as "earth laid upon a corpse". Even today, no one ever even thinks about leaving a Funeral until the dirt is back in the grave -bad luck you know.