| BHS |
Katherine, when
were you born? |
| KEA |
[deleted to
protect privacy - LHR] |
| BHS |
And where were you
born? |
| KEA |
in
Brevard. |
| BHS |
so you're a
native? |
| KEA |
uh-huh (yes), we go
back three generations. |
| BHS |
So you have lived
in the county all your life; how
many years is that? |
| KEA |
83, (laughs) I
would have taken better care of
myself if I had known I was going
to live this long. |
| BHS |
Who were you raised
by; who were your
parents? |
| KEA |
Dr. Edwin
Strawbridge English and Lela
Pickelsimer English |
| BHS |
And where was the
location of the original family
home. |
| KEA |
Where I was raised?
It's over on Cashiers Valley Road
across the railroad tracks from the
old Transylvania Tanning
Company. It was a great
big farmhouse; my father had a farm
there. He had to have a farm to
feed all the children he drug in to
feed. |
| BHS |
Who were your Dad's
parents? |
| KEA |
Alexander Fletcher
English who established the English
Chapel up on Davidson River. His
wife was Elmina Young. |
| BHS |
Were they natives
also? |
| KEA |
Yes, they helped
settle Davidson River. |
| BHS |
O.K. because that
was very early. And who were your
mother's parents? |
| KEA |
Ransom Johnson
Pickelsimer and I can't remember
her name. She had one of those
strange old-timey names like my
grandmother English. |
| BHS |
Do you know what
her maiden name was? |
| KEA |
She was a
Merrill . |
| BHS |
She was a Merrill?
O.K. If you think of the name,
we'll go back to it; that's not a
problem. Did you have brothers and
sister? |
| KEA |
Oh, yes. |
| BHS |
O.K. can you name
them starting from the oldest to
the youngest. |
| KEA |
Oldest was Edwin
Stuart English, sister Gladys Leila
English, Langdon Broughton English,
and Jean Young English, and
myself. |
| BHS |
Are you the
youngest? |
| KEA |
uh-huh
(yes). |
| BHS |
Are any of the
others living now? |
| KEA |
Just my sister
Jean. |
| BHS |
and where does she
live? |
| KEA |
She lives out on
Maple Street |
| BHS |
So she's here in
Brevard. Oh that's great, that's
good. Do you have any other
significant relatives in the area
that you want to mention at this
time. Aunts or Uncles or anyone
else that was important to
you? |
| KEA |
Charles Pickelsimer
is a first cousin. |
| BHS |
Oh is he? Now are
you talking about the current
Charles Pickelsimer that owns the
telephone company? |
| KEA |
Uh-huh. Let's see,
they're about all gone. Stuart
English, which is Edwin's son,
still lives here. |
| BHS |
And of course
Stella Trapp is your niece (current
publisher and editor of the
Transylvania Times
newspaper). |
| KEA |
Ed Anderson and
John Anderson were brothers and she
is Ed's daughter. |
| BHS |
and your husband
was.........? |
| KEA |
John, John Inge
Anderson, Jr. |
| BHS |
And where was he
from? |
| KEA |
He was from
Reidsville, NC |
| BHS |
How did he end up
in Transylvania County? |
| KEA |
Well, Ed bought the
(Transylvania) Times and
John came here to run it back
before the war. And then John
served his hitch in the armed
services and then came
back. |
| BHS |
Where did you go to
elementary school? |
| KEA |
Here in
Brevard. |
| BHS |
At Brevard
Elementary? And where was that
located? |
| KEA |
It was right across
from the library there on the
(southeast of South Broad and
Jordan St,) corner which is now the
Social Services Building, (I mean)
the Sheriff's offices. But that was
a different building. |
| BHS |
Where did you go to
high school? |
| KEA |
At the high school
they tore down. Where the Arboretum
is now. (South Broad between Jordan
and Varsity Streets). |
| BHS |
The big high school
they tore down that was built in
1925? Where did you go to
college? |
| KEA |
I went one year to
University in
Greensboro. |
| BHS |
Was that
WC? |
| KEA |
Yeah. |
| BHS |
Women's College
(later UNC-Greensboro) |
| KEA |
And then I went
from there to New York, the
American School of Design, in New
York City, for three
years. |
| BHS |
Really? When you
say design............. |
| KEA |
I was studying
design, it was a commercial course,
mainly worked with black and white
for newspapers. Back then, they
didn't photograph much; our artists
drew ads. |
| BHS |
Oh, so that's the
kind of design you're talking about
(graphic arts). Tell me anything
that you remember specifically
about your school days that was
either very interesting or even
funny or any big event or any
special teacher. |
| KEA |
Well my favorite
teacher was Agnes Clayton. She
taught me in the 6th grade and I
remember things she taught me to
this day. She was the best teacher
I had. She was great. I know in the
7th grade we were herded up into
the 7th grade room and there was a
fire escape up the side. A bunch of
us went out the window. I don't
know why or where we went but I
remember crawling out the window
behind one of the girls. |
| BHS |
So it was playing
hooky.... |
| KEA |
Yeah, it was the
last day of school, so we slipped
out. |
| BHS |
You were never in
the military service but you say
your husband was. And was that
during....which World War was
that? |
| KEA |
World War
II. |
| BHS |
And where did he
serve, do you know? |
| KEA |
Well he served in
the European Theater: England,
Belgium, France. |
| BHS |
And he came home
safe? |
| KEA |
Yes, he was with
the general hospital
unit. |
| BHS |
This is a pretty
broad question I'm going to ask
you, I want to know about your
employment, your profession. When
you got out of college, what was
the first thing you did? |
| KEA |
I came home sick my
last year in art school and I never
actually....I lacked about 2 months
finishing the course and I came
back here and Ecusta had opened up
so I went down there and got a job
in the file department. And then I
met John Anderson and I never went
back to art after that. And I
started raising babies. |
| BHS |
And how long did
you work at Ecusta? |
| KEA |
Three
years. |
| BHS |
And then you began
having children? |
| KEA |
Yeah, I had my
first child and then he was shipped
overseas. John was. |
| BHS |
Your husband was
shipped overseas. (Kitty nodded)
Who were your four
children? |
| KEA |
John Edwin which is
an attorney in Jackson Mississippi.
He's a banker and an attorney. And
my oldest daughter is Marianna and
she is in Atlanta and she is a
dental hygienist, my middle
daughter is Penny (Penelope Jane)
and she is in Richmond. Virginia.
She works in a hospital; she's a
social worker. and my youngest one
is a teacher in Ft. Pierce Florida
and she is a reading
specialist. |
| BHS |
And her name
is.......? |
| KEA |
Roseanne. |
| BHS |
What did you do
after you had four kids. I know
you've been involved in a lot of
things after your
kids...... |
| KEA |
After working in
Ecusta and after getting the
youngest up old enough to go to
kindergarten, I told John, I wanted
to do something. See, we were
living with my mother. when John
got back from overseas and we
wanted to move out, she just put
her foot down and absolutely, " I'm
not going to live here alone.
You'll have to stay here." So we
stayed there for 17 years. And she
had a housekeeper that helped me
raise my children. So John needed
someone down at the station he said
that he could trust to tell the
truth of what was going on so he
asked me to down there. The job of
bookkeeper came open and I had had
a short course in
bookkeeping. |
| BHS |
Are you talking
about the radio station,
WPNF? |
| KEA |
Yeah, and so I went
to work down at WPNF as bookkeeper
part-time. And as time went on, he
made me office manager. Then when
he died, the board of directors
made me manager. |
| BHS |
OK, how did the
family acquire WPNF? How did that
happen? |
| KEA |
Well, Ed started
it, Ed Anderson. |
| BHS |
So there was no
radio station? |
| KEA |
No, there was not.
And John had stock, Ed had stock,
Ray Bennett. I don't remember who
else. |
| BHS |
Who is Ray
Bennett? |
| KEA |
He was
superintendent at
Ecusta. |
| BHS |
Did Stella Trapp
have some interest in it,
also? |
| KEA |
Well, she was just
a little thing then, She was 7
years old when John and I were
married. And she was in school and
she didn't really take over until
her Uncle John died. And then she
came to Brevard and took
over. |
| BHS |
So she had some
some percentage in WPNF
later...... |
| KEA |
Oh yes, oh she
inherited what her father
had. |
| BHS |
Oh OK, of course.
So that was your main working
life. |
| KEA |
Yeah, that's where
that typing came in
good. |
| BHS |
Now you said
farming, that your family had a
farm out on..... |
| KEA |
Cashiers Valley
Road. My father was a doctor and he
started practicing medicine on
horseback in 1901. He and my mother
bought this farm. He loved to grow
things, so did she and so he
supervised this farm. He always had
a tenant farmer to do the daily
work. He never actually worked any
of it except he played in the
garden with my mother - she loved
to garden, so they gardened
together. |
| BHS |
How big was the
farm? |
| KEA |
It was about
80-some odd acres. |
| BHS |
Did they do a lot
of home food processing and storage
and that kind of thing? |
| KEA |
Yes, SHE did. She
canned... |
| BHS |
A lot? |
| KEA |
A lot. Because you
couldn't go to the store and buy
what you wanted, you had to
preserve it, some one. You had
potato banks and celery banks and
all that..... |
| BHS |
Are you talking
about bank houses into the
bank..? |
| KEA |
Yeah, underneath
their house there was some that was
dirt and you could bury your
potatoes in that, keep them, and
your celery and all of that,
preserve it. Also, we had an apple
house. The farm we bought had an
apple orchard on it and it had a
concrete block apple house. We
raised those apples and preserved
them. and they would
last...... |
| BHS |
How did you
preserve them? |
| KEA |
Well, they were in
crates. The house was cool, and
that's how we kept them. On rainy
days, the tenant farmer would go in
and go through the crates and pick
out all the (bad) apples and so
they wouldn't spoil the others. So
we had apples just about all the
time. |
| BHS |
Do you remember the
name of the tenant
farmer? |
| KEA |
He went by the name
of Dead Boy |
| BHS |
Dead
Boy? |
| KEA |
Good Boy and Dead
Man. Everybody called him
that. |
| BHS |
Was this a white
man or a black man? |
| KEA |
Black man. He
worked for my father for 15
years. |
| BHS |
But you don't know
his real name.? |
| KEA |
Well he had
two.Giddis Woods and the other one
was Jesse McDonald |
| BHS |
Why did he have 2
names? |
| KEA |
He'd probably been
in and out of trouble
(laughs)...... |
| BHS |
Do you remember the
name of your mother's housekeeper?
I should have asked you when you
were talking about it. |
| KEA |
Melissa
Garren. |
| BHS |
Melissa Garren? Is
this a white lady? |
| KEA |
White
woman. |
| BHS |
I will get back
more about Dr. English; I'll go
into more detail in a minute. OK?
Were you or any of your family
involved in any of the lumber and
tanning (operations)? Do you
remember much about those at
all? |
| KEA |
Only thing I know
that my father was the company
doctor for Carr Lumberand the
Gloucester Lumber Company.
|
| BHS |
OK, and so he went
out there on regular
days? |
| KEA |
Yeah, called on
patients. |
| BHS |
Did you know the
Silversteens? |
| KEA |
Oh, yes. |
| BHS |
You did? So you
knew the daughters too, when they
moved up into
Silvermont? |
| KEA |
They were all older
than I am. Adelaide was the age of
my 2 older sisters. I didn't tell
you about the cousin that my mother
and father took care of from the
time she was 2 years old. Her
mother died. Elizabeth
Ramsaur. |
| BHS |
OK, I've heard that
name locally... |
| KEA |
My mother and
father took her in and her father
was a civil engineerfor Southern
Railway and he was killed when
Elizabeth was about 10. He was
standing on a depot waiting for the
train to start, talking to a man,
and the train started and he turned
around and grabbed it to swing
aboard and it swung him underneath;
cut his legs off. He lived long
enough to make out his will and he
left my mother and father as
Elizabeth's legal guardian. So she
was raised with us from the time
she was 2 years old. So she was
like a sister. |
| BHS |
Oh sure, yeah. Is
she still living? |
| KEA |
No,she died
too. |
| BHS |
So they had 80
acres out there. Do you remember
anything about land costs at that
time? |
| KEA |
No, but I imagine
if they paid $2500 for that piece
of land, was a big
price. |
| BHS |
Even for 80 acres
and a big house? |
| KEA |
Yeah, they rebuilt
the house. Mama had it rebuilt and
had it made into a summer boarding
house. |
| BHS |
So she boarded
people? |
| KEA |
Yes, she ran a
tourist home, they called it, to
help. You know doctors, there
wasn't much money around here then
and doctors got paid in produce and
labor. The only cash crops that
came in here were the campers and
the tourists. Let's see, how many
bedrooms did that thing have? Four
on the 3rd floor. One, two, three
four,five, six on the next floor
and two on the downstairs floor.
She fed 24 people in a
meal. |
| BHS |
How long did she do
this? How many years? |
| KEA |
It was right after,
not long after the banks failed. We
moved into town on Jordan St. That
house is still standing but it
looks like the people living in it
are going to tear it down. She
converted it to apartments. Made 2
apartments upstairs and it had a
garage apartment. My mother was
always a money-maker. She had a
millinery shop when she and my dad
were first married. |
| BHS |
In
Brevard? |
| KEA |
I don't know how
long she ran it but there was an ad
in the old Transylvania
Times when she announced her
millinery shop opening. |
| BHS |
Let's get back to
the boarding house for a minute.
That was their main house, they
moved out of it? Did you say? And
moved to Jordan St? Or they just
bought the house..... |
| KEA |
No they sold it and
bought the one uptown because my
mother didn't drive and my father
was 15 years older than my mother
and she said she needed to be where
she could walk to town. |
| BHS |
Did she have a name
for the boarding house? |
| KEA |
Yes, Willow
Springs. We had a spring and a lot
of willow trees around it. Natural
spring that had the best water and
the coldest water that you ever
drank. |
| BHS |
Do you know how
long she ran it from just after the
depression until when? |
| KEA |
Oh, it was way
before the Depression. I can
remember the stationery that she
had on it when I was a kid. I guess
she ran it for close to 20
years. |
| BHS |
And how long did
she have the millinery shop? That
was prior.... |
| KEA |
That was way back
when the women wore the big
hats. |
| BHS |
Do you remember
when she had that,
about? |
| KEA |
No it was way
before I was born. It was not too
long, I guess, after they were
married. |
| BHS |
So you all moved to
the Jordan St. House? |
| KEA |
Yeah, it think it
was about 19 and 37 I think that we
moved into town. |
| BHS |
When were you
married? |
| KEA |
In 1943 |
| BHS |
Where did you all
live in Brevard at first?
|
| KEA |
Well, my husband
was in service. You mean us, the
two of us? He was in service and I
was still at home with my mother.
We were married while he was in
service. |
| BHS |
Oh I see, and when
he came home where did you
live? |
| KEA |
We lived with
HER. |
| BHS |
Oh that's right,
you said you lived with her for 17
more years. |
| KEA |
I decided we were
never going to have a house of our
own unless we went ahead and built
it and she tried to talk us out of
it. She said, "I'll leave you this
house." And I said, "Momma, this
house is too old; I couldn't keep
it up." So we built a separate
bedroom for her with a bath with a
shower with a seat in it, and a
special thermostat. |
| BHS |
You talking about
in this house? (Kitty nodded
yes). |
| KEA |
I said, "Well
Momma, it's time we got started
moving,"and she said, "Well, you
all lived with me in peace, but I
don't think I can live with you.
I'm not moving." She didn't
move. |
|
BHS |
So she stayed
there. When did she pass
away? |
| KEA |
In 1978. |
| BHS |
So she lived to be
how old......? |
| KEA |
94. |
| BHS |
How long did your
Dad live? |
| KEA |
He died when he was
75, he died from a perforated
ulcer. Blood clot, passed into his
heart. |
| BHS |
How long did John
live? |
| KEA |
He was 57 when he
died. |
| BHS |
Not very old.
That's terrible. |
| KEA |
And he died of a combination
of prescription drugs. He had
high blood pressure and they
put him on a prescription for
that. That was fine. Then he
developed arthritic gout. They
gave him another pill. And then
he became a diabetic, and gave
him another one. And three
years after he started that
pill he was dead. Too
much. A combination of all
these medications, and there
was nobody that could find out
what was the matter with
him.
|
| BHS |
They'd know now. Do
you remember the
Depression? |
| KEA |
I was a child. I
thought the world had come to an
end. I could hear the old folks
talking about it. It didn't mean
anything to me. because I had
plenty to eat and clothes to wear
and my father would buy leather
from the tanning company and
half-sole our shoes himself. He had
an old time cobbler's bench that
was his father's, so I never felt
denied of anything. |
| BHS |
So the Depression
didn't hit you all too
hard? |
| KEA |
Well it was rough
on my mother and father I
know. |
| BHS |
Did they have a
hard time, like, were they paying
on the farm and was that hard to
do? |
| KEA |
I would suppose so,
that's why she ran that boarding
house, too, but that started before
the Depression. |
| BHS |
Where did most of
the people come from that stayed at
the Boarding House? |
| KEA |
I can remember a
family from Mobile,Alabama, and
Savannahand through Georgia and
Florida. South Carolina, they would
come up. |
| BHS |
Anywhere we might
label the low country? or hot
country or Deep South? |
| KEA |
....and they'd stay
all summer. Some families would
stay all summer with us. |
| BHS |
Yeah I knew that
that happened. I saw somewhere the
statistics,that at the turn of the
century, that early, that there
were something like 30 boarding
houses in the county. And anybody
who had a big house had at least a
couple rooms that they rented out.
What is your Church
affiliation? |
| KEA |
First United
Methodist. |
| BHS |
Has that always
been your church? |
| KEA |
Yes. |
| BHS |
Do you have any
special hobbies? |
| KEA |
Not any more. I've
done so many things, though. I used
to do needlepoint. I made all my
children's clothes, the girls.
there was a lot. I made my own for
years. Back in the days when you
couldn't afford to buy anything but
a piece of cloth, or (laughs) a
flour sack. I guess sewing and
mixing up patterns. I had a course
in that at school, design, clothes
design, too, and I used to mix my
patterns up and make my own things
and the children's too and
embroidered them, I guess you could
say that was......and I started
doing oil painting. But I haven't
done any in a long time, there's
some of them. |
| BHS |
Oh they're quite
nice. WOW. |
| KEA |
And I did the tile
in the fireplace. |
| BHS |
What kind of
entertainment did you all go to a
lot before everybody sat in front
of television. |
| KEA |
Oh well, we used to
love to go out to the old country
club, which is now the log house
out on Country Club Road. |
| BHS |
The barbeque
place. |
| KEA |
It used to be the
Country Club house. And all the
young people, particularly after
the war would congregate there. And
just have almost a party every
night. John used to work until 10
o'clock at night, come home, pick
me up, and I had someone there at
the house to look after the
children, and we'd go out and stay
an hour or two, socialize. That's
what we did. And we'd play penny
poker. That was another thing we
did. They played at my mother's
house because I was the one with
little children and none of the
others had any children then. That
was our recreation,
really. |
| BHS |
Did you go to the
movies much here? |
| KEA |
Back before I was
married we used to go quite
frequently. |
| BHS |
Where did you
go? |
| KEA |
Up here. |
| BHS |
To the Co-Ed or the
Clemson? |
| KEA |
Uh-huh. |
| BHS |
Did you ever to go
to movies upstairs above Plummer's
Department Store? They had a big
auditorium up there. |
| KEA |
I just barely
remember that. It had a steel pipe
in front of the ticket office. I
can remember swinging on that. That
was the days of silent movies. And
that's all I can remember about
that. |
| BHS |
I've also found
evidence apparently where they
showed movies in the Paul's Produce
Building (on Caldwell St.).
|
| KEA |
I don't remember
that. |
| BHS |
And even in the
building that is now the Forest
Place? |
| KEA |
Yeah, I remember
that. The Mulls built that building
and started a movie
house. |
| BHS |
Did you ever go in
that? |
| KEA |
Maybe so, maybe
once or twice. We usually went to
the Clemson. |
| BHS |
OK, I just was
curious but I've heard these things
and I didn't know. In fact, I heard
the person that may have been
involved in building what we call
Paul's Produce and having movies
there was Mr.
Silverstein. |
| KEA |
I don't know who
built that but my first memory of
that was it was a garage where they
repaired cars downstairs, I'm
trying to think of the
man.........a Smith, I
think |
| BHS |
I think we have that in
archives somewhere............
Did you participate in any kind
of special sports or recreation
or did your family? Were they
involved...........
|
| KEA |
Not really. Daddy,
my father hunted. Harley Lyday had
a hunting club, he and two or three
other men had a hunting club up on
Sutton Creek. They used to have
organized hunts. It bordered on
thegovernment (Pisgah National
Forest). And they used to could run
deer with dogs but the government
stopped them so they just hunted
(unintelligible) told you in what
direction to go, not toward
somebody'sbullets
(laughs). |
| BHS |
Did your family do
much fishing in the
rivers? |
| KEA |
Yes, both my
younger brother and my Dad I know
fished; we'd have fresh
trout. |
| BHS |
Did they ever catch
any muskies before they disappeared
out of Davidson River? |
| KEA |
I don't
remember. |
| BHS |
Do you remember,
did anybody in your family collect
Indian artifacts? |
| KEA |
My brother did, but
he swapped them year ago when he
was kid, to another boy. |
| BHS |
Do you remember
where he generally hunted for
them? |
| KEA |
Over on our
farm. |
| BHS |
I'm sure you don't
remember the 1916 flood, that was
before your time. Did you hear
about it from your parents and what
they went through? |
| KEA |
Yeah (from) the
other kids, the house sat up on a
hillside, kinda terraced down and
the front yard made a swimming
pool. The older kids went swimming
in itand it went up to the fence
about that high (indicates about
waist high). There's a story about
Dad, in that flood, too. Well, they
called him and said someone had
been hurt up by his old homeplace
which was up above English's
Chapelon a hillside. And he
[Section of transcript
garbled]. |
| BHS |
No. |
| KEA |
A strong
purgative (laxative). He used to
take a piece of paper and this is
the way he always made out his
prescriptions. He would tear little
squares like this and he would turn
down one corner (side) and he had a
blunt bladed knife on his pocket
knife he would go, and carry his
own medicine..... |
| BHS |
So he tapped the
knife... |
| KEA |
Yeah and go in this
jar and get a little(medicine
powder)this bottle, get a little,
and mixed his own medicine right
there. |
| BHS |
And then he'd get
them on his knife blade and then
he'd tap the knife blade
to.........(measure the dose and
let it fall into the paper). |
| KEA |
And then he would
fold it like this and fold up the
ends of it and there was your
medicine. |
| BHS |
Yes, I've heard of
doctors putting medicine in paper
before like that |
| KEA |
They had to be a
pharmacist too, people could not
get to the drug store |
| BHS |
How did he get word
that she was sick in the first
place? |
| KEA |
I don't know. I
have no idea, somebody must have
called. I guess a certain amount of
telephone connections, I don't
really, can't say. |
| BHS |
In 1901? |
| KEA |
He told her now, he
gave her one, he said, "if you're
not feeling better in 3 hours you
take another one and 3 more hours,
you take the third one" (Laughing)
And he said he bet she had the
cleanest innards in Western North
Carolina. |
| BHS |
That'll teach
her. |
| KEA |
Can you imagine
riding that far....... |
| BHS |
...for nothing
really. |
| KEA |
Probably didn't get
a thing for it
(payment). |
| BHS |
He may not have.
What else do you remember, you said
you had a few stories that were
pretty good (about her dad). |
| KEA |
Another one that
every time he saw the man on the
street he wondered. He got a call
that a fellow had been hurt at the
depot and he needed a doctor.
So he went down to see
if he could help and there were 2
doctors sitting on the step there
swapping tales. Dad said, "I heard
there was someone that was hurt
down here, where are they?"
And they said, "oh,
he's laying back over there and he
ain't going to make it. No point in
wasting your time on him." Dad said
he couldn't think of somebody being
injured and not trying to help him.
So he went back there and there was
this black man that had been in a
razor fight and said his innards,
his stomach was cut open. |
| BHS |
Oh, he was what
they called
disemboweled? |
| KEA |
Yeah, and said he
was laying there and they had
throwed tote sacks over him and
they used to bring ice into this
county in tote sacks packed with
sawdust. And said he was literally
full of sawdust. Daddy said hegot
hot water,uncoiled his innards,
washed them out as best he could
andsewed him up, the man
lived. |
| BHS |
He DID
live...........? |
| KEA |
And Dad said every
time he saw him walking down the
street, he wondered how much
sawdust he left in him
(laughing). |
| BHS |
Well if he didn't
get infections and die he must have
gotten most of it out. |
| KEA |
He said he
delivered a baby one time in a bed
so filthy, he just knew the woman
and the baby both were going to
die, she survived it; didn't have a
bit of trouble. Well, if you're
used to your own filth, I guess you
can overcome it. |
| BHS |
Do you remember any
other doctors that were in practice
at that time? |
| KEA |
I remember Dr.
Stokes and Dr. Lynch, he was a
younger doctor. That's about all I
can remember at that time. |
| BHS |
Weren't there
several Dr. Lydays, 2 or 3
generations of them? |
| KEA |
Yes the older and
younger. Couple of brothers, Dr.
Lydays. |
| BHS |
I think that there
were 2 or 3 generations,
actually. |
| KEA |
Wilson Lyday was a
descendant of that family of
doctors. Wilson was a great
diagnostician. |
| BHS |
Was he? I hear the
same thing about Dr. Hermany up in
Rosman. (Dr. Gretchen Hermany is a
Catholic nun who runs a clinic in
Rosman, there doesn't seem to be a
lot of connection to the Catholic
church, however). Were there any
particular types of old-time home
remedies that he used. I realize
medicine has come a long ways since
then but I just wondered if
you...... |
| KEA |
He developed a flu
capsule. You know he went through
the 1918 fluepidemic and he
developed a flu capsule at that
time that during the 19 and 23 flu
epidemic he had patients down at
Brevard College, in fact he had
them in dining room, he hung up
sheets between , make partitions
and about 90 kids down there with
the flu and all over the county. He
lost 2 patients. One of them died
from eating dried beans that hadn't
been cooked long enough, had acute
indigestion and diedand the other
one was a man, real old, and
died. But
he worked out this flu capsule
powder...... |
| BHS |
I wonder what it
was.. |
| KEA |
Well I have it, and
I tried to get Vicks Vaporub
interested in it and they said it
had too much codeine in it and
couldn't be patented. And they
wanted to buy it for $600 and I
said no. They'd make a fortune of
it. |
| BHS |
A percentage might
have worked out..... |
| KEA |
One other thing I
remember, he perfected. You know a
lot of women washed over open fires
and cooked over open fires and he
had a lot of women thatgot burnt.
And he worked up this serum. It
looked like, it came up like
molasses,and was about the color of
rich cream. He carried in a big
flat thing like this and he would
put that on the burn and it would
heal with hardly any scar. |
| BHS |
And you don't know
what was in it. |
| KEA |
I have no idea what
was in it. |
| BHS |
And you think of
anything else about his practice
that you would like to
mention? |
| KEA |
Well, he was,
during World War II he was trying
to go like a young man, there was
only about 3 or 4 doctors left in
the county, and his ulcer
perforated. He had delivered a baby
that night and had made 2 other
housecalls. And he came home sick.
And he died on the way to
Greenville, at Traveler's Rest, he
was on his way to surgery. But he
suffered with those ulcers for
years. Ican remember he lived on
boiled milk and soda crackers and
peanut butter. |
| BHS |
You know they know
now that they're caused by
bacterial infection in the stomach,
so they treat in similar ways to
ease it, but they also treat it
with antibiotics, I
believe. |
| KEA |
Yeah, I've had a
lot of trouble with heartburn and
indigestion, I've been checked for
that bacteria and been treated for
it. (Laughs) But the treatment
didn't make any difference. I take
a little purple pill, it's a magic
pill. |
| BHS |
And it
helps? |
| KEA |
Oh yeah. |
| BHS |
Do you remember any
public transportation. like I know
busses ran over her at one
time. |
| KEA |
You could catch a
bus in the morning go to Asheville,
shop all day, and catch a bus, come
home that evening. |
| BHS |
Where'd you catch
the bus? |
| KEA |
The bus station
that I remember is the one right
across from Sammy's. |
| BHS |
What was Paul's
Produce that we were talking about?
|
| KEA |
Yeah Paul's
Produce, right across there was the
bus station. And it seems like Mose
McAfee had something to do with it.
(This building is now the site of
Carland-Berry Accounting
Firm). |
| BHS |
Mose
McAfee? |
| KEA |
They had McAfee's
drug store. |
| BHS |
Oh yeah, well, now
McAfee's was in the McMinn Building
wasn't it? I heard that that second
set of stairs, like if you're
walking, that second door, like if
you're walking down towards the
Transylvania Times, that
second door was a place that they
loaded and unloaded passengers
too. |
| KEA |
I don't know but it
probably was on that street but
that got...... you know years ago,
that (North Broad Street, the first
block or two being called Jailhouse
Hill) wasn't even open and the
bandstand sat there and there was a
fish pond. |
| BHS |
Yeah, I've seen a
picture of it. There was no part of
Broad Street that we now call
Jailhouse Hill.
Do you remember when they put
Jailhouse Hill in? |
| KEA |
Vaguely. I remember
the fish pond. Daddy used to tell
funny tales about that. Gash, Bob
Gash'sfather was a widower for
years and years. Anyway the
Sheriff's office was right in that
first office (on the left as you
enter the courthouse) and he had
gotten a new secretary. Judge Bob
was trying to see, looking in the
window, looking up trying to see
her and he backed up and caught his
heels on the edge of that fish pond
and went in backwards. |
| BHS |
And went into the
pond? (Kitty nods yes; lots of
laughing). Oh that's funny. Did you
ever ride the bus over to
Asheville? |
| KEA |
Oh yes. |
| BHS |
You did? |
| KEA |
Went
shopping. |
| BHS |
Did you ever ride
the railroad any? |
| KEA |
I rode it back and
forth to New York. Going to
school. |
| BHS |
What particular
local businesses do you remember
that are no longer
around? |
| KEA |
Plummer's
Department Store, McFee's Drug
Store, Long's Drug Store,
Galloway's Cafe. |
| BHS |
Where was
that? |
| KEA |
That's where that,
right where the outlet store
is. |
| BHS |
Davis
Outlet? |
| KEA |
Davis. I think it
was only part of that. |
| BHS |
Do you remember
people doing any bartering or
trading, that kind of
thing..? |
| KEA |
I'm sure it went
on, like my father was paid a lot
in labor and produce. There was a
old fellow here that he had
delivered all his children and
never got paid for it. And he said,
"I'm just not going to deliver that
last baby, I'm just not going to do
it. I've never gotten a thing for
the others," there was about a
dozen. And the old fellow came to
him," Oh doctor, please come,
please. I've got an old sow that
just had a litter of little pigs
and you can pick out which one you
want." So Dad went and delivered
the baby, old fellow took him down
to the pigpen and dad picked out
his pig. He hasn't seen that pig
since! |
| BHS |
Oh, shoot! So he never
actually got it. Ah, it's a
shame he couldn't take it home
with him right
then . Do you
remember the early phones or
telegraphs?
|
| KEA |
Oh yes, I remember
our telephone number was
126. |
| BHS |
And where was that
was that while you were
still............ |
| KEA |
It was at the farm
and it was, in, they had a little
booth, a telephone in the
booth. |
| BHS |
In the
house? |
| KEA |
In the
house. |
| BHS |
Oh, how
interesting. |
| KEA |
Telephone Booth,
yes. |
| BHS |
And was this one
that you just picked up and told
the operator what number or did you
dial? |
| KEA |
Oh yes, no, you
just picked it up and said give me
so-and-so's house. |
| BHS |
Do you remember who
the operator was? |
| KEA |
I was! That was my
first job, working for the
telephone
company.
Course I was 15, 16. I worked in
the summer time. You had to
memorize all the numbers. Usually
people just said, "give me so-and
so" and you'd just plug it in and
ring 'em. |
| BHS |
Where was the
telephone building at that
time? |
| KEA |
It was in the
old-time jail that stood back
behind, just beyond the Times
office, in that alley (on Probart
Street). |
| BHS |
Is that the same
building? |
| KEA |
No, it was an old
jail. It was made out of great big
river rock. |
| BHS |
I've never seen a
picture of that. |
| KEA |
It was my
grandfather that built that first
jail. |
| BHS |
Which
grandfather? |
| KEA |
Grandfather
English. |
| BHS |
Do you have a
picture of it? |
| KEA |
(shakes her head,
no) |
| BHS |
I wonder if anybody
has a picture of that old
jail. |
| KEA |
I doubt
it. |
| BHS |
I mean there's plenty
pictures of the Courthouse but
we've never found a picture of
the first courthouse, which was
a little wooden structure
before they built this brick
one.
Who had the newspaper in those
days before your family?
|
| KEA |
Charlie
Douglas. |
| BHS |
Charlie Douglas had
it? And what was it called
then? |
| KEA |
Brevard
News, I think. |
| BHS |
Yeah, Brevard
News was one of its many names.
Do you remember the fire department
back then? |
| KEA |
Not
really. |
| BHS |
You don't remember
much about it? Anything special
that you remember about the police
departmentor their activities? |
| KEA |
I remember that we
had a stable here; Crocket
Hendricks had a horse stable. It
caught fire and burnt up with all
the horses in it. I was just a
child and it was back just about
where the extension to the City
Hall is. And I remember going by
there and looking down there and so
many horses died in that fire and
there were men down there in rubber
boots chopping them up to haul off
and I dreamed about that for
years. |
| BHS |
Do you remember
anything about the postal service.
Did they have rural delivery when
you were out on the farm?
|
| KEA |
Dad got the mail,
all our mail uptown. |
| BHS |
I guess one of the
main questions that's not on this
list that I want to ask you about
is, how you, well there's 2 things.
How did your husband end up in the
newspaper business in town? |
| KEA |
John Anderson? He
studied journalism at the
University of North
Carolina |
| BHS |
And did he come
here to work? |
| KEA |
He worked for Ed in
Ashe County, Alleghany News,
and when Ed bought this paper, he
had John come down to run it. |
| BHS |
So what caused Ed
to buy it then? |
| KEA |
I have no
idea. |
| BHS |
But he was a native
living here, though. |
| KEA |
Ed was from
Reidsville, just like John was. He
was a journalist and he bought one
little paper, made it successful,
bought another one, made it
successful. |
| BHS |
Just wherever he
heard about them. And the last
thing I want to ask you is,how did
you end up becoming Mayor and tell
me about your years as
mayor... |
| KEA |
Well, after John
died, C. K. Osborne ran the paper,
Clyde Osborne,and he had an
editorial about there'd never been
a woman on city council. So I said,
"Well by George I'll just run and
see if I can get elected." And I
was. And I served 11 years on
city council. |
| BHS |
Was that before you
became Mayor? |
| KEA |
(Nods yes) And then
Opal Hahn was elected Mayor. You
know she was elected on a write-in
vote? |
| BHS |
Yes I know,people
adored her. |
| KEA |
She was so popular,
she was the sweetest
thing. |
| BHS |
I have heard that;
I heard she was
wonderful. |
| KEA |
And she died in
August but she had served about 4
months on the second term. And so
the council appointed me to fill
out her term. And then I ran twice
after that. The third time I ran, I
got defeated. Johnny Peterson beat
me. |
| BHS |
What do you feel
like, over those years, was the
most significant thing that
happened or that you did? |
| KEA |
Well, we got the
rest of our revenue-sharing money
and we rebuiltthe sidewalks and put
those grills in (drainage grills)
and I ran on a ticket to beautify
downtown Brevard. And so we got the
trees,we hired a horticulturist and
we got a beautification committee,
and on top of that, we put in a new
water treatment plant while I was
in office. |
| BHS |
Out on Wilson
Road? |
| KEA |
It's up towards,
the water plant is up
on....... |
| BHS |
Cathey's
Creek? |
| KEA |
Cathey's Creek. And
the other one, waste water
treatment is down below Pisgah
Forest, We got both of those while
I was in office. and started the
downtown beautification
committee. |
| BHS |
Are you proud of
the way downtown looks? |
| KEA |
Yes I am, I think
it's pretty and I like the way
they're keeping it
clean. |
| BHS |
I have in archives,
it's kinda funny, old pictures of
Brevard over the years. And some
years the trees will be pretty big,
then they'll be gone, then they'll
be back up, then they'll be gone. I
thought that putting together,
they're trying to do long-term
practical planning and taking their
time and I went to the planning
session that they held at the
American Legion. And I found that a
couple of my concerns that they had
heard time and again. Such as a
couple of spots where there are
just so many overhead power lines,
it's like spaghetti. |
| KEA |
Well you know, we
buried a lot of them whenwe did the
sidewalks. |
| BHS |
Yes, and there's a
couple of places that still need
it, but a lot of that was done. A
few other things that it seemed
like everybody agreed on and they
had heard enough times, that I feel
like they will be incorporated.
Well, we're coming to the end here
and I wondered if there was any
other special thing that you
remembered from the time you were a
little fellow, little gal, that you
felt like was important or special
to you or anything of that
kind. |
| KEA |
I know I felt like the world
had come to an end when the
bank failed, I could hear the
grown people talk about it and
it scared me. I was just a
little thing. But my folks were
able to send me to
college.
Well, one thing that stands
out in my mind, is I lost my
second brother in a hunting
accident when I was in school
in New York.
|
| BHS |
What was his
name? |
| KEA |
Langdon. |
| BHS |
Langdon. How did
that happen, did you
know? |
| KEA |
Yes, he lived long
enough to tell my father. He had
heard there was poachers up on the
hunting club so he went up by
himself, in a little pickup truck
we had,and he had
Daddy's .30-.30 rifle with him. My
father had made one trip out
west,big game hunting. And he
didn't take anyone with him. His
wife usually went with him but she
didn't go that morning. He got to
the cabin and parked and got out of
the truck and walked around and got
the door to get the rifleout, and
the door stuck and he jerked it and
the rifle fell down and the safety
on it was bad and it went off; went
through the door. He caught the
door with his knee and it cut
through his knee, cut a main artery
and he bled to death. He was laying
there under the drift which is why
he lived as long as he did, he was
half frozen. He tried to get a
tourniquet on his leg; he explained
it all to Dad. And he would pass
out. And finally, one of the other
members came up and found him and
put him in the back of the truck
and they brought him in. He sat on
the front porch and wouldn't go to
the hospital until his Daddy got
in. |
| BHS |
I'm amazed nobody
could save him if he got that
far. |
| KEA |
Well, it was the
year before plasma, no blood type.
They typed his blood when he died.
Daddy said he lost most of his
blood laying out there, the first
20 minutes. Dad heard that Langdon
had been shot up at the hunting
club so Dad went up there to the
first cabin,didn't find him,ran all
the way to the second cabin, they
had two cabins,didn't find him,
before he came back home, where he
(Langdon)was. |
| BHS |
This is before it
became Pisgah National Forest,
then? |
| KEA |
Well, no, it was
Pisgah National Forest, see the
hunting club bordered on Pisgah
National Forest. It was Sutton
Creek Rod and Gun Club.
Thathappened when my mother had
just made a trip to New York to see
the school I was in. And she got a
wire thinking that must be from
Langdon. They had, he and his wife
were planning to buy a house and
Momma was going to sign a note for
it. When
she opened it, he was dead. So we
all came home on the train. It was
a long trip. He was the best
looking boyyou ever saw. When I
finally went from grammar school to
high school, the older girls just
made so much of me and I thought,
"Gee, I'm the cutest thing that
ever lived and it finally dawned on
me they were coming over on the
farm to see my pretty brother, not
me. |
| BHS |
(uproarious
laughing) Oh that's
wonderful. |
| KEA |
I have a picture of
him, if you'd like to see it? It
would be in the other
room. |
| BHS |
All right. |
