SILVER THREADS

 

Written and Published Online by John Silver

w/contributing articles by various Silver cousins

 

 

Hello Cousins and Friends,

 

Our 2007 Silver Family Reunion has come and gone. Regrettably, I could not attend this year but hopefully I will be able to in the future. So far, I have only talked to Laura Cowan Cooper who says things turned out well. I’m sure I’ll be able to give you a full report next month.

I did receive a copy of the article that appeared in the Morgan News Herald, thanks to our good friend, Nancy Puckett. Here is the article:

Cousin John

 

 

Silver family gathers to compare secrets

Silvers: Family gathers to talk about infamous members

Public invited to listen in

 

BY APRYL BLAKENEY

ABLACKNEY@MORGANTON.COM

 

MORGANTON – Laura Cowan Cooper grew up wading through whispers about her family history.

“My fourth great grandma took an ax to my fourth great grandpa and was hanged for it,” Cooper said. “That’s something I didn’t know until I had children of my own.”

Her ‘ah ha’ moment came on a drive through the mountains in 1974.

“That’s when I realized all the whispering was about our heritage of the Silver family,” she said.

Now Cooper talks about her legendary lineage openly and invites the public to the Annual Silver Reunion this weekend.

The curious can learn a thing or two on Saturday during the genealogical and historical portion of the reunion. Nearly every article ever written about Frankie and Charlie Silver will be on display. People can also page through books, photos and letters passed down through the family.

You may even learn a little about your own lineage. The family archived nearly 50,000 names.

Cooper learned of her historical link at the age of 25. Since then, she’s used the tidbits as an icebreaker in presentations or when others are embarrassed to share their skeletons.

“It’s just a murder,” she says.

A murder that many law students use as mock trials and most kids read about in history books.

As a family member; Cooper gets many questions from the curious who want more details than the books can offer: The most common one: “Why is Charlie buried in three graves?”

Cooper says answering family questions isn’t hard, it’s part of history.

“John” Silver became interested in the story 20 years ago, at the age of 54.

“It was kind of a shock really,” I always thought my heritage was English.”

Silver is sort of the family history buff. He’s updated this year’s archives with a thousand new names.

 

---

 

Grandmother fought loneliness by helping others

 

By Lorraine Baker
Citizen-Times Reader

 

WEAVERVILLE – My grandmother, Bettie Silver, was a special person in my life. We called her “maw” as did every other kid in the neighborhood. She was also very special to some other young ladies; her foster children, Dianne, Yvonne, Judy and Margie.

When my grandfather died in 1969, my grandmother was alone in a big, two-story house. Her granddaughters stayed with her for a while at night but as they got older and married they couldn’t stay any longer.

My grandmother was lonely and couldn’t sleep at night. She heard noises and slept with the light on. Then she had the idea of  keeping a foster child. She would be helping someone else and the child would be company for her.

She called the Department of Social Services which sent someone out to examine her big, old house and she was approved. That same day, a little girl named Diane came to live with my grandmother. Each child had to have her own room or at least a room shared with another girl, but the little girl was afraid when all the lights were turned off except the hall light were turned off, so she brought her pillow to my grandmother’s room. My grandmother turned back the covers on the other side of the bed and the little girl crawled into her bed and spent the night.

The next day, DSS brought Diane’s sister, Yvonne, and they shared a room in my grandmother’s house. Then a 17-year-old-girl came but stayed only a few weeks until she turned 18. Soon after, my grandmother welcomed Judy and Margie into her home. Judy only spent a short time until her parents could once again care for her.

Judy was the oldest of the girls staying with my grandmother. She had been through a lot in her short life. She had been in several foster homes but had been mostly raised by neighbors.

Judy wanted to learn and work as other children but she needed someone with a lot of patience. My grandmother taught her how to make a bed, vacuum, cook and do other chores and Judy eventually became a big help.

When Judy turned 18, my grandmother told her she could stay on even though she was no longer in the foster care system.

But, Judy chose to go back and live with the neighbor who had cared for her before my grandmother.

My grandmother bought pretty dresses for the girls and took them to church every Sunday. When Diane wanted to learn to play the piano, grandmother bought a piano and paid for her lessons.

Yvonne and her sister stayed for a long time but when my grandmother was in her 70s, DSS would no longer let her keep the foster children and once again she was alone in the big house. Her children invited her to live with them but she valued her independence.

When a big stray cat showed up on the porch one day, grandmother fed it and the cat stayed. At night, when my grandmother heard noises, she would tell herself that it was only the cat.

Yvonne came back with her family to visit several times before my grandmother passed away in 1990.

She was a very generous lady and always helped anyone who needed her. We all miss her very much.

{Lorraine Baker lives in Weaverville}

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > Rev. Jacob Silver > Alfred Leonard Silver > Tilman Blalock Silver > George Delbert Silver > Foy Hopson Silver m. Betty Estie Ray.)

 

 

‘Big Tom’ Takes First Auto Ride

 

Asheville Citizen-Times
July 17, 1960

   

“Big Tom” Wilson, the mighty Yancey guide and hunter, went to his enduring fame as the man who found the body of Dr. Elisha Mitchell.

And, through the years, his other exploits and adventures as the greatest hunter-guide of the Southern Appalachians have become well established.

But, one of the big events in Big Tom’s life came when the old man was well into his 90s.  The story, recorded by a reporter of that day, had dropped from sight and forgotten.

On Wednesday, October 2, 1907, he saw for the first time in his life an automobile and had a ride in it with his equally aged and astonished wife.

And as incredible as it may seem, the car ride took place at Big Tom’s house, far over on Cane River in the virgin wilderness, 40 miles from Asheville.

There, despite the mountains and rivers and lack of passable roads, George Causey took his big red Thomas touring car under its own power and brought it back to Asheville laden with two deer killed by himself and those who constituted a hunting party.

Big Tom had never seen an automobile. He had never heard of one, in fact, because his ninety-odd years had been spent in the wilderness in the utmost recesses of the Murchison boundary in Yancey County.

But his wife had heard something of automobiles, although she had them slightly mixed with locomotives.  When Cathey’s chauffeur, Jack Mason, ran the machine up to the cabin and she and Big Tom were invited to ride, she exclaimed: 

 “Wal, I more’n expected to see an elephant up hyer that one o’ them things.”

She and Big Tom clutched the tonneau in terror as the machine started, more afraid of it than a thousand wild cats.

 “If I wa’nt so old,” said Big Tom, “might run hit to a standstill and git a deer.”

When John Y. Jordan organized the party for his usual deer hunt in the Murchison boundary, George Cathey determined to take his car.  Everyone who knew the country which must be traversed to Big Tom’s cabin laughed incredulously and believed Jordan was working a joke on Cathey.

Jordan himself let fall a hint or two that he would like a picture of a dozen oxen drawing the car through the rivers and over the peaks.

However, there were 60 horsepower in the machine and somehow or other it forded the low water streams and shoved over the trails and reached Big Tom’s.

In the party beside Jordan and Cathey W.F. Stoner, F.A. Fanning, Pink Merrill, H.F. Addicks, Fabe Morris and R.A. Watson, who came from Burnsville.  Also in the group were a Capt. Shaw, a Mr. Savage and a Mr. Simpson.

The car left Big Tom’s the next morning about 9 o’clock for Asheville. It took until about 5 p.m. to make the 40 miles, leaving behind a mountain man still marveling at the wonder of it all.

Big Tom’s first automobile ride was probably his last. He died four months later on February 1, 1908.

 

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > Rachel Silver m. Edward “Big Ned” Wilson > David Thomas “Big Tom” Wilson.)

 

 

Memories of a departed Silver cousin

 

Henry Lee Silver

 (1909 – 2001)

 

Growing up in rural North Carolina

 

Henry Lee Silver was born May 13, 1909—a seventh generation descendant of George Silver Sr., via his father, David Alonzo Silver and grandfathers, John, Alfred, Jacob and George Silver Jr.

The following is an account of his life as told to nephew John Silver Harris in 1993:

When I was a small boy, we lived in the mountains of Burke County, North Carolina, where my daddy operated saw mills.

We kept a horse to ride and to pull our buggy or sled, as well as for light garden work. That horse could pull our buggy as fast as a Model T Ford could go. He wore big shoes and when he got into a sandy spot on the road, he’d throw sand all over you.

We also kept a team of mules for plowing in the summer and logging in the winter.

When we went to visit my grandmother (my father’s mother), we’d go by train. Riding that old steam puffer was a thrill for me. The train came up from South Carolina through Hickory, Lenoir, Warrior, Setzer’s Gap, Collettsville, Adako, Mortimer and on into Edgemont in the mountains of Caldwell County. It was a day’s trip. The train crew would then spend the night at the Edgemont Hotel and make the return trip the next day.

There was a “Y” in the track at Edgemont. The engineer would pull the train up on one side of the “Y,” back into the other and then come back out. That’s how he turned the train around for the return trip. The seats in the coaches were reversible.

You didn’t make reservations or buy tickets to ride the train—you just stood out by the railroad and flagged it down when it came along. Then you’d climb aboard and pay the conductor.

We would ride the train from the mountains to Hickory and then take another train into Morganton.

While my dad was in the sawmill business, we would move from site to site in the mountains. At each site, we would throw up a small, but warm and comfortable house that we called a “sawmill shack.” When the timber harvest at that location was finished, we’d just move off and leave the house standing empty. Then we’d build a new house at the next site.

In October of 1921, we ended our nomadic way of life and our family moved from the mountains to a little country community called, “Joy,” at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was about 13 miles north of Morganton, off what is now NC Highway 181. The community consisted of an elementary school, a post office, a general store and two churches—Smyrna Baptist and Fairview Methodist. All that remains now are the churches.

It was a different way of life back in those days.

Spring meant getting your crops planted. And then you plowed your corn crop at least four times—the last time was called, “laying by.” You also had to hoe it at least three times.

Every little tillable nook was planted with something—potatoes, popcorn, melons, whatever.

Back then, people didn’t use funeral homes. In fact, I didn’t know anything about funeral homes until I was a good-sized boy. Our neighbor, John Childers, who operated a grist mill, also made caskets. He had a small workshop and kept a supply of handles. When someone died, he’d run in and make them a casket.

Zennie Page was a blacksmith. He would repair our tools and wagons.

And, it was a colorful rural neighborhood. Rugg Webb, who lived on a mountain farm above us, had 14 children. He was exempted from military service because he had so many children.

Whenever we boys wanted to go ‘possum hunting and we had a little money, we would go over to Frank Sanders’ country store and buy bologna and cheese to take with us. This was a treat. Sometimes one of our families would give us a chicken, which we would kill, pluck and cook.

Our favorite place to gather was an old abandoned farmhouse on Simpson Creek. Ellis Lingafelt had lived in it but had moved out and it just stood open. It had a big fireplace, so we’d make our headquarters there. We’d build a fire and cook the chicken if we had one.

In addition to hunting ‘possums, we would also trap rabbits. We caught them in rabbit gums (box-like traps with a door that would fall shut when a rabbit entered to get the food used as bait).

We’d take our gums back into the woods, cut up an apple, rub it around the door of the gum and then throw it into the back of the cage. Rabbits loved apples and cabbage. Sometimes I’ve caught as many as three or four in a single morning.

When you found a gum with the door closed, you had to be careful reaching in to pull the rabbit out. First of all, it might be a ‘possum instead of a rabbit. If you reached in and it was a ‘possum, it would bite you. And if it was a rabbit, you had to make sure you got him by the hind legs—otherwise, he’d scratch you to pieces.

We’d skin our rabbits, wrap them in newspaper (Papa always subscribed to the three-times-a-week edition of the Atlanta Constitution). When they were wrapped, then we’d take them to out to the road and wait for the mailman. We’d give them to him to take to town and sell. After splitting the money with him, we’d get about 15 cents for each one.

At that time, our mail delivery was on a contract route called a star route. One of our neighbors would contract to pickup the mail in Morganton, about 13 miles away, and deliver it to boxes along the route.

When we’d catch ‘possums, we’d skin them, let the hides dry, then bundle them up and send them to Sears & Roebuck. The hides went to a department called “Johnny Muskrat.” They’d grade the hides and give each one an evaluation. If the hide was torn or bloodshot, they’d note it. And then they’d send you a check. If you weren’t satisfied with what they paid you could return the check and they’d send the hides back to you.

We didn’t do any trapping. But our neighbors did. One family had about a hundred traps set and down the creek. They caught muskrats and minks.

After every summer rain, then the creeks were muddy, we’d go down there and fish. For some reason, they seemed to bite better when the water was muddy. We’d catch sunfish, perch, a lot of horny heads, catfish and once in a while, we’d be lucky enough to catch a small bass.

Our favorite fishing and swimming spot was where the Upper and Steele’s Creeks joined. There was also a deep hole below the old iron bridge near our house that was great for swimming or fishing. We called it the baptizing hole—because that’s where the preacher baptized people.

The country store served not only as a source of supply of needed items not grown on your farm, but was a community gathering place.

The Frank Sanders family owned and operated a country store at Joy Crossroads near where we lived. It was always a treat to go to the store—although it was close to a mile’s walk each way—because we’d have a nickel or dime to buy something.

Frank kept a supply of basics—a few canned goods, candy, coffee, tobacco and snuff—things like that. He also sold kerosene, and when cars began being used in the neighborhood, he added gasoline.

A big roll of Bologna hung on a timber placed across the ceiling of the store. If you wanted to buy some, he would take the roll down, and, with a butcher knife, cut off what you wanted and weigh it. Then you’d pay for that amount. That was the best bologna I’ve ever tasted. It was a lot better than the tasteless bologna you buy today. And yet, it was kept there without refrigeration. There was no refrigeration in those days.

Frank would have a big round hoop of cheese. You’d estimate how much you wanted, and he’d take a special cheese knife and cut off a hunk. Then he’d weigh it and you paid accordingly. But, it didn’t cost much back then.

Back in those days, jobbers and wholesalers didn’t make deliveries to country stores. So our neighbor Sam Beck would take a wagon every two or three weeks and go to town to bring Frank a supply of goods for the store.

Sam would take a barrel and get it filled with kerosene, which was what we used for lighting. People had gallon cans they’d bring to get filled with kerosene from a little hand pump on the barrel.

Coffee came in bean form in a big sack. You had to grind it after you got home. I remember we had a little coffee grinder attached to the wall. The hopper on top would hold just about the right amount of coffee we needed each morning. Before we youngsters got up in the mornings, Mama or Papa would grind the coffee. We could smell it all through the house. It really smelled good.

 

(Johnny has promised a continuation of Henry’s life story in the future. Thanks Johnny, for a great article. ED.)

 

 

OBITUARIES

 

SAMMY THOMAS

 Sammy Dean Thomas, 57 of the Gouges Creek community passed away Monday, June 25, 2007 at his home. He was the son of Monroe and Maude Trivett Thomas of Spruce Pine.

Sammy was a serviceman for Superior Heating and Air Conditioning. He could repair anything. He enjoyed working on cars and anything mechanical. Sammy was always ready to help out a friend or neighbor.

Survivors include, in addition to his parents, his wife, Pam Poore Thomas of the home; daughter, Olivia Thomas Smith and husband Lucus of Spruce Pine; granddaughters, Kayla and Alyssa Smith; brothers, Kenny Thomas and wife Mary Jo of Newland, Wayne Thomas and wife Stella, Tommy Thomas and wife Mary and Donnie Thomas and wife Susan all of Spruce Pine; sisters, Bonnie Benfield and husband Oscar and Diane Garland also of Spruce Pine and lots of nieces and nephews. Sammy was preceded in death by a brother, Dennis and a sister, Janice Thomas.

The funeral service will be 11:00 am Thursday in the Gouges Creek Baptist Church of which he was a member. The Revs. Tommy Thomas, Donnie Thomas and Brad Hughes will officiate. The burial will follow in the church cemetery and the family will receive friends from 6-8 pm Wednesday at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice of Mitchell Co. Condolences may be emailed to the family at condolences@webbfh.com. Webb Funeral Home is assisting the Thomas family.

 

 

Murphys, Calaveras Co., CA
February 12, 2007

EVELYN FARRISH

 

     Evelyn Lucille Dixon Farrish, 84, passed away peacefully at her home in Murphys on February 11, 2007.  Evelyn was born in Clarkson, Washington on August 31, 1922. She grew up in southeast Washington and was the Salutatorian of her high school in Anatone, WA. She attended Washington State University with her future husband, William T. Farrish.  William was an executive of United Airlines who preceded her passing in 2002. They were married for 59 years having met in the playpen over 80 years ago.

     Evelyn left Washington State University in 1944 to attend a technical drawing program sponsored by Boeing Aircraft Company. Evelyn worked for Boeing on the team developing the B-29 during the war years while her husband was overseas with the U.S. Navy. She worked as a Librarian for Washington State University and volunteered with the Los Altos Library. She was also trained as a Braille translator and transcribed many books for the blind. Evelyn traveled extensively with her husband and was very well read. She was an avid golfer and was past president of the Forest Meadow Ladies Club. She loved birds, flowers, stargazing and enjoyed gardening. Evelyn was a proud resident of Calaveras County for nearly 30 years and was an early resident of Forest Meadows having built their home there in 1979.

     Evelyn is survived by her daughter, Cindy Gray of San Jose and her son Tom Farrish of Murphys, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

     A Celebration of Life for Evelyn is scheduled for Saturday, March 3rd at 2 p.m. It will be held at the Hilltop Park in Forest Meadows. Friends are welcome.

 

(George Silver Sr. > George Silver Jr. > William Jacob Silver > Mary Alice Silver m. David Pinkney Chandler > Pearl Alice Chandler m. Luther Carlyle Dixon > Evelyn Lucille Dixon m. William Thomas Farrish.)