Ledford Side

Robinsons

      To start with the Ledford side of my family you would probably have to go back to the late 1880's.  Now I don't exactly know the exact date:

      My great-great grandfather Robinson  was a landowner in Yancey County North Carolina.  His daughter was Mary.  She was my great grandmother, and was known to me as Granny Mary.  When Granny Mary was a little girl the KKK came and hung my great- great grandfather.  Granny Mary hid around the barn and watched as they hung her father.  When they left she cut him down.  Fortunately, this did not kill him.  It did however leave him in a mentally retarded state.  The reason for the KKK hanging great-great grandfather was because he helped a slave escape.  They decided his punishment should be death.  This is an important note in my mother's family history. 

Angels

      After these happenings Granny Mary being the oldest girl in was left to tend the farm.  She later married Sam Angel.  They worked and bought 100-acre farm on Elk Shoal.  They had three girls, Sylvia Geniva, Choe, May, Lucille, and baby Mary.  Great Grandpaw  Angel was a hard worker.  Not only was he a tobacco farmer he was also an entrepreneur.  He was a type of traveling merchant in the rural community.  He sold farm equipment and supplies from door to door.  He was on his way to being a wealthy man.  At one time him and Granny Mary had over $12,000.00 in the bank.  At this time this was a great deal of money.  

      Some of the neighbors began to be jealous of Grandpaw Angel- even his own family.  They wanted him to fail and began to plot against him.  They were  A man in the neighborhood (which I forgot his name) planted some of his turkeys on the Angel farm and reported to the authorities that Grandpaw Angel stole them from him. 

      Two days later Sam Angel was placed in the Yancey County Jail.  He wrote diligently to Granny Mary.  He instructed her to withdraw $12,000.00 from the bank and contact his attorney in Raleigh.  In prison he was treated very badly.  The guards abused and mistreated him.  All the while he proclaimed his innocence, declaring in letters that he, "was as innocent as a newborn babe."  Grandpaw's attorney was making head way in his case.  The neighbors who plotted against Grandpaw Angel caught wind of this through a corrupt prison guard.  They paid the guard to kill Grandpaw Angel and he was beaten to death.   

      Granny Mary and the girls were left to take care of the 100-acre farm.  To make matters worse the Great Depression hit the country.  Food and clothing prices soared sky high.  With no sons to take care of the farm, this left Sylvia the oldest daughter to take care of the farm.  Sylvia was my grandmother.  She had to split wood, milk the cows, and plow the fields.  Slowly this began to take a toll on the family.  100 acres began to be sold plot by plot until the Angels were left with a mere 20 acres-- nearly 1/5 of what they started with. 

     

      The winter after Grandpaw Angel died the entire family came down with Scarlet Fever.  No one in the community would help Granny Mary and girls for the fear of the catching the fever themselves.  They had no money for the doctor either.  It seemed as all hope was gone.  But there was one family that came to the rescue.  The black family of the slave that Great-Great Grandfather Robinson helped escape came and nursed them.  Granny Sylvia always referred  to the black man that helped them as “ Joe."  She did not mean this in a disrespectful way.  If it had not been for this family and their kindness the whole family would have died.  Baby Mary was the only one who did not survive the fever. 

Papaw pranks............

About a year ago my papaw decided to play one of his many tricks on my momma..... He told her he was going to cook a boston butt pork roast for her to barbaque it.  Now that was fine and good and well, however, he decided to add, (in his words) "Bout 2 tablespoonze of habanara pepper powdur...."

Yes he did...... Later that evening we were all around the table eating the first bites of barbaque... and that was it.  All of us but papaw could not eat more than two bites......

Papaw @ 20 on the right.......

We find out via Bobby Burnett (my boyfriend) a day later what Papaw had...... hahahbahbhbhahhh..... actually not that funny at the time but it sure is now.

A blue roof on the porch??? To keep haints away and huh Outhouse?

Granny's porch.... and outhouse, and yes we still use it!
Over the Mountain and up some more to Granny's house we went.......................

I can remember going to her house as a little girl.  She lived way on top of a mountain off a road called Roaren Fork.  As a young child, I could not understand why Granny did not have a TV or a phone.  She still cooked on a wood stove even though she have an electric one.  We would sit out on her porch with the roof painted blue.  I remember never understanding why my momma just wanted to sit out there and talk or why that roof was painted blue on the porch.  Now of course I know why, but the answer to those questions always perplexed me as a child. 

Some Mountain Stories from the wilds of Western NC....

Misc. Mountain Stories

      I remember as a little girl my mother and I would "go uh visiten" on the mountain there in Yancey County N.C.  It took an hour to get there from our house.  You would have to cross through the mountain through Madison County and go up Highway 19.  After you drove a stretch on Highway 19 you would turn right onto the road beside an old two story farm house.  Granny's house was still a good 30 minutes up the mountain from the  highway.  We would always stop at Buster Fender's store before we went on up to Granny's.  I would get a Browie to drink and some candy. 

      Before we went on up to Granny's we would stop and see Arnie Pate.  Arnie was a veteran of World War II.  He fought in Europe.  He was also a worker for the TVA.  He played the guitar, and he sung at my Granny's funeral when she died.  I can remember Arnie Pate playing and singing, "What a day that will be." on his front porch.  I remember him praying with my mother and praying for me.  Arnie Pate was a one of a kind fellow, and he probably never knew it but he touched my life.  I know that he prayed for me and the sure does mean a lot.  

      Another person we often visited we Lil' Marget.  Lil' Marget was my mother’s aunt so that made he my great aunt.  Lil' Marget lived in a small house with an old school bus attached to the back of it.  In the spring, summer, fall, or winter so would always have a fire going.  She dipped snuff and had about 20 cats. 

      Every time we or anyone else ever seen Lil' Marget she was in her own words, "Just bout dead!"  She would say, "Now youngens let me tell you about my spell lass nite.  If wuz a big un'.  I though I'ze haven a heart attack sure as the world!"   When I was five years old and I heard her say that I really took it to heart.  We later stopped on down the road to see Alice Ramsey.  She asked us how Lil' Marget was doing, and I remember saying, "Well Lil' Marget is just bout dead!  She had a awful spell lass nite!   I thought they were all crazy cause the just started laughing. 

      Lil' Marget always had a boy friend that lived with her too.  The last boyfriend that I can recall living with her was Lil' Lester.  He some pet pidgins, which interesting enough survived the cats.  Lil' Lester had a daughter that was obsessed with non other that Boy-George.  Not really obsessed, she had his pictures all over her wall---- totally oblivious to the fact that Boy-George was not partial to the "fairer sex."  I always thought that a little funny.

The view from behing Granny's house..................

Granny's rock in the tobacco field.........................