Bertie County NcArchives Biographies.....White, Estus 1856 - 1923 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Larinda Lassiter varcsix@hot.rr.com June 27, 2022, 3:42 pm Source: Laurinda Lassiter Author: Martha Lena Whtie Memories of Martha Lena, d/o Estus White. Shared by: Laurinda Lassiter whose husband Bruce was son of Martha Lena. "I found this when going through some boxes of Bruce's papers. He never threw away anything, "paper trail, Lau, paper trail". I am so glad to rediscover this memory from Bruce's mother. She was a talented musician, played the piano and organ. She went to Chowan College which was probably unusual for a woman during that time. Bruce had often talked about coming to Colerain to see his Grandmother. He recalled having to travel over dirt roads to get to his grandmother's home. That particular piece of land in Colerain was sold but some of the property remained in his uncle's name and now belongs to White cousins." WHY I WROTE THESE MEMORIES My grandson, Gaddy Lassiter asked me to write down some of the experiences I had in my early life. He couldn’t believe that people used to live without electricity, indoor plumbing, refrigerators, electric stoves,T V 's, radios, automobiles, super markets, etc. My father, Estus White was born in Bertie County, January 28, 1856. His parents were Rev. Joseph White and Martha A. White. His paternal grandfather was Rev. Henry White. His maternal grandfather was Martin White. Both of these men served in the war of 1812. Papa had 3 brothers (a) Wi11iam (b) Jim (J .H.) (c) John; 2 sisters (a) Mollie (b) Minnie. Papa and Uncle Jim married sisters, daughters of Henry and Cornelia Modlin of Union, NC in Hertford County. They had 6 sons and 3 daughters. The 6 sons were: Herman, Bob, Jim, Bunn, and Raymond, The daughters Were: Ursie, Rosa and Nancy Estelle (my mother). Uncle Jim married Aunt Rosa. Papa was Uncle Jim’s best man, Mama was about twelve years old and papa told her that he was coming back and marry her. I don’t have any dates but Papa did marry her. He was eighteen years older than she was. Papa Born: January 28,_ 1856 Died: November 25, 1923 Mama Born: March 22, 1874 Died: March 30, 1952 Papa and Uncle Jim were partners in farming Black Rock Farm. They were also successful in the lumber business for many years . Three of my brothers were born on Black Rock Farm: Lodwick Henry(1893) William Ernest (1895) Manly Herring (1897) . In 1898 papa got tired of the partnership so he went to work for Forman and Blades Lumber Co. logging in Columbia, NC in Tyrell County. I was born in Columbia, NC, November 6, 1899. I was named Martha Lena, Martha for my grandmother and Lena for a friend who died the day I was born. Six weeks later we moved back to Black Rock. Papa bought out Uncle Jim's share in the farm. Uncle Jim moved to Windsor, NC. Our family lived there until we moved to Colerain in 1909. My family lived at Black Rock nine more years after I was born. Papa was a member of Capeharts Church, founded by his father, Joseph White, who preached there many years. Papa was a member there for 54 years. He was a deacon when we moved, I have a copy of 1900 minutes of West Chowan Associational Meeting at Potecasie NC. Papa was a delegate from Capeharts Church. He attended. Uncle Jim was a delegate from Cashie Church in Windsor, but did not go. I have many fond memories of my life on Black -Rock farm. We lived there 9 years after I was born. Papa had a fishery also. remember that they would catch thousands of fish every day. People passed through our yard going to the river to buy fresh and salt herrings. Papa had a motor boat and we did our shopping Edenton. I remember going with him many tines. Papa had many horses and mules used for farming. There was a large barn with stables and a loft where the fodder was stored. Papa also had a general store across the road from the house. About the only thing I remember being sold were the big boxes of sugar cookies about six inches in diameter, and apples stored in barrels. Our house was a two-story building with an attic. There was a wing on back which was the dining room and kitchen also a back porch. The steps to the attic was where I had my doll furniture. I spent many hours playing with my dolls with a sawdust body and a china head, hands and feet. We also had chickens and geese. I will never forget the tremendous size of a goose egg. There were the times when Mama and help on the farm would pick the geese to get feathers and down for pillows and feather beds. It must have been in the fall of the year because they had a fire close by. My brother, Ess was playing around the fire and he got burned on his buttocks which left a terrible scar. The days I spent by his bedside was a most traumatic experience. 1 thought he was going to die. He was two years younger than I was. There was a large bedroom on the first floor that had two double beds in it and a fireplace We sat in this room most of the time. The one room school was also a memorial experience. A cousin Virgie Garris, taught us. It was really a family school with uncle John’s 5 children. Aunt Minnie had 5 children. Aunt Mollie had four children and the five of us. The county paid for only four of five month’s salary and Papa paid for an extra month's salarv. He also gave her room and board. here were more boys than girls. The boys were all older so we didn’t get much attention. I can't leave Black Rock without telling about the rides to church in a surry with a fringe on top. Papa wore his duster and cap driving two beautiful horses. The most outstanding meeting that I remember was when the Associational Meeting met at Capehart’s Church for two days. The preachers always stayed at our house, so we had to be on our Ps & Qs. Mama prepared baskets of food. Ham, chicken, fried in a batter, you couldn’t tell the back from the breast. There would be vegetables, cakes, and pies. After the first days session, she would go home and make more pies and cakes for the next day. Papa would entertain the preacher. I almost forgot the open well and the large can of milk that hung at the end of a rope that was dropped into the water to keep it cool. We always had a plenty of fresh milk and butter. We lived on Black Rock farm until 1909. Two more brothers and a sister were born there. Estus in 1903 and Joseph Raymond in 1905 , Estelle Modlin in 1907. We moved to Colerain in 1909. Papa bought the Etheridge home, one of the oldest in that area. History of the Etheridge Home The earliest inhabitants of the region along the Chowan River were the Indians in 1585 Chowan River was explored by colonists from Sir Walter Raleigh’s settlement at Roanoke Island. In 1685 the first white settlement near the mouth of the Chowan River is now Bertie County. In the 1700s the beginning of the development of these properties into plantations In 1743, John Campe11, a captain of the British navy purchased 8OO acres of land on the west side of the Chowan River. He named it "Colerain" after his hometown in Ireland. His estate was called "Lazy Hill". A ferry operated across the river to Chowan County. Josiah Holly was first Postmaster in Colerain in 1818. Campe11 was the first owner of Colerain Beach. He sold the beach and his other lauds to Josiah Holly. His sister, Mary Holly married William Etheridge, a sea. captain from Roanoke Island. Their son inherited his property. Later it was sold to my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Estus White. In 1909 we moved to Colerain and two more children were born, James Othelow; 1909 and Margaret Aileen; 1914. Our family moved to Colerain because of better church, school and social advantages. In 1907 one of the first public schools was built. These were good days when the children walked 3 & 4 miles to school. Our home had a room on each end of the house connected with a long hall. The front room between the other two rooms, the parlor. There were two windows, one on each side and a bay window with windows. It had beige carpet with sprays of flowers on it. The windows had heavy Lace curtains. The hall was divided into the front and back hall. The dining room was back of the ha11 which was divided by heavy wine curtains. The stairway was in There was an entrance to the halls on each side of the parlor. All around the front of the house was a porch with a railing around and fancy trim around the top. There were two entrances to the porch, one in front of the bay window and the other one on the left side of the house. There was a kitchen back of the dining room but Papa didn’t like food oders in the house so he built another one off from the old kitchen with a passage way between. We used the old kitchen for an everyday dining room Soon after we moved there, Papa built a large bedroom back of the everyday living room. It had a door to the front and back porch. Up the stairs was a large bedroom over the everyday living room and the back hall. It had three double beds in it. Each of them had a leather mattress on and it was my job to make those beds every day. It was called "The Bull Pen". This was the boy's room. The hall started from there. A small room on the back of the hall was used as a storage room. The feather beds and quilts were stored in there during the summer. Over the parlor was my bedroom. it had a bay window just like the one in the parlor . Elle guest room was on the end of the hall over the bedroom on the first floor. Soon after we moved there Papa added a bedroom over the dining room and a bathroom. There was no electricity in the towm at that time but there was a little house off from the kitchen that generated the electricity. Until then we used lamps and lanterns. There were no screens, and I remember that when we had company we ate in the dining room, twin girls who lived on the farm would stand on each side of the table and fan the flies away with homemade fans. They were made by tying a newspaper on the end of a piece of moulding and cut the paper into slits about 1 or 2 inches. I remember very vividly the front yard. There was a rose arbor at the entrance of the walk leading up to the house. On either side of the walk were flowers of every variety from sweet betsys to roses, forsythia, violets, blues etc. There was no yard to mow. I think that when Papa made an ice box that was put on the back porch was the most exciting thing that happened to us. It would hold a whole block of ice and had trays to put bowls of milk and other things. It was wooden outside with sawdust between to the outside and am inside wall of steel. The milk was poured into flat bowls about 3 inches high. The cream would rise to the top. Mama would skim off the cream and put it in a quart jar. It would be my job to shake it until it would turn to butter. I sang a little song while shaking it. "Come, come, come butter come. Somebody’s out there, waiting for some. We always had plenty of fresh milk to drink and cook with. A number of things keep coming up in my mind, like the hog killings. As many as 75 hogs were killed. There was a smoke house back of the kitchen where the hams and shoulders were cured. The side meat or middlings were cured in large barrels with a saltwater brine that had to be salted enough to float an egg. Most of this meat was given to the tenants on the farm. Every part of the hog was used. The feet, ears, head were cleaned and boiled until tender, then made into souse or eaten with vinegar. All of the hams, shoulders, and middlings were trimmed and the fat was made into lard leaving crisp cracklings. The meat trimmed tes made into sausage, The backbone was salted or boiled or baked when fresh. Ham cured or baked fresh was served at almost every meal. The winters were so cold that papa would buy a quarter of beef and hang it in the smokehouse until we ate it up. Most of it turned out to be country style steak with gravy. I can see "Gal" the cook, beating it with the side of a plate to tenderize it. She would cover it with flour, and fry it, then place it in gravy and steam it until ready to serve with creamed potatoes or yams. We used a wood stove. It had an oven and a warmer on too. There were four eyes. I will never forget the ham boiler that fit over two eyes. Usually a whole ham was cooked at a time. In summer when we had fresh vegetables they would be cooked with the ham. String beans would be strung together with a needle and thread, after the ends were snapped off. The ends of string was tied together and put into the boiler. With potatoes, cabbage and butterbeans, or peas that were cooked in a cheese cloth bag. Sometimes Gal would put in some cornbread made into cakes. Corn on the cob, when in season often went into the pot, Nothing could be better than a meal cooked this way. Sweet potatoes were dug and stored in mounds covered with straw. White potatoes were stored in a cool room . There was an orchard with apple, pear, fig, peach and cherry trees and grape vines. Naturally jams, jellies and preserves were in abundance. A fried apple jack was often found in our lunch box, along with a fried egg or a sausage cake between a biscuit or a link of sausage and a baked sweet potato Of course there were tea cakes around. There were also a variety of pickles. Cucumber, pear, peach and watermelon and pepper relish. I often wondered when my mother found the time to do the many things that she did. At one time there would be thirteen people to be fed three times a day. (One of papa's sisters died and left 2 boys and two girls. They were placed in an orphanage. After they finished high School, they lived with us until they found work. The boys went to work with Bircherd’s dairy in Norfolk. One of the girls became a nurse and the other became a teacher. Both married.) Not only did Mama feed us, she did the sewing for us. We rarely ever had any store bought clothes. Our favorite past time, after we moved to Colerain, was to go swimming. At first we went at night as a family. We wore our clothes. My father was bald headed and stayed under the water except for his head. The boys would call him the "boey". After a while we began to venture out during the day. You can rest assured that our bathing suits covered us from our necks down to below the knee. (No bikinis) I soon learned to swim and would swim out to the diving board just to sit. One day the preacher’s son pushed me off. I survived. I soon began to enjoy it. In 1920 Colerain beach was very popular. People from Northampton, Hertford, and Bertie Counties would gather down there on Sunday after noons. Soon a pavilion was built and people celebrated holidays and other special occasions with picnics, etc. Dr. Nowell from Colerain built a cottage down there and his daughter and son had house parties and invited their friends my age down for a week at the time. I think his daughter and I are the only ones living now. Both of us are in a nursing home. One Sunday afternoon, a man named Krunger flew up from Edenton on a seaplane and took people for a ride for a dollar. He would fly over Colerain. The ride I took flew over my home. Mama and Papa were standing in the yard watching. When I told them that I took the ride they almost passed out. The next time I got in a plane was in the 50s. Another thing that we enjoyed as a teenager were box parties, We would fix a box lunch and sell them to the highest bidder. We made sure that our boyfriend would buy our box because we get to eat with the one who bought our box. Sometime there would be more than one bidding on the same box but the right one always won even if it cost more than he expected. Lawn parties were another entertainment. Decorated lanterns were hung from a rope from tree to tree. Not too much light, but refreshments were served and games played. Most of the things that we did were done in groups. I never dated alone until I was twenty years old. Page 10 The community Christmas was always planned for both young and old. Everybody received a gift. Refreshments were served. Christmas music was sung and an evening of fellowship enjoyed. One time when I was 13 or 14, a boy, who had a crush on me, gave me a lavalier and Mama made me give it back to him. When I was 13 I won a scholarship pin for highest average in school. It had my name engraved on the and a placque hanging from the pin with ‘13 scholarship engraved on it. Somehow a teenage boy got the pin and I was left with the bottom half. I have had it made into a pin. In the fall of 1915 I went to Chowan College to finish High School In 1917 1 went to college at Meredith for two years. In 1919 I went to Peabody Conservatory of music for one year. I taught for two years. In 1925 my father died. My mother was hospitalized for several months after his death so stayed with her in the hospital then remained with her until I was married in 1926. The roads were so bad that I was married at nine o’clock In the morning so we could catch a ferry at 10 0 clock that crossed the river to Chowan County. From there we went to Norfo1k to catch a boat to Baltimore at four clock. This was the shortest and surest route to Norfolk because of bad roads. I mentioned earlier in the History of the Etheridge property that in 1743 there was a ferry across the Chowan River to Chowan County. I don’t know exactly when it was discontinued. I think it was in the 1930's or early 1940' s. (Nearly 200 years) My mother owned Etheridge property until she died in 1952. Her nine children inherited the property. Soon after the division of the property the house was torn down and replaced with a modern brick home. My brother, James still lives in Colerain. He has a brick home on his property facing the river. My sister, Margaret inherited Manley’s home and property in Colerain. My sister, Estelle is in a nursing home in Richmond, Va. I am in a nursing home in Rich Square, NC. I am 86 vears old. Signed, Martha W. Lassiter May 10, 1986 This was also on the front page of the notebook, Grandmama kept . LORD, make me an instrument of Thy Peace… Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there Is doubt, faith; Where there is Despair, hope; Where there is darkness, Light Where there is sadness, Joy that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; be Loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to ETERNAL LIFE. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI…. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie/bios/white139gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 18.8 Kb