Oral histories of the families of Green River Cove, Holberts Cove and the Silver Creek area of Polk County, NC

Part 1

Families mentioned include ARLEDGE, HOLBERT, THOMPSON, JOHNSON, BRADLEY, HENDERSON, GARRETT, LAUGHTER, STOVER, GREEN, DENTON, COVIL

Storytellers (1981): Hall Arledge, Etta Johnson, Annie Thompson, Gay Thompson, Horace Thompson, Tootsie Arledge

These are excerpts of transcriptions of tape recordings made in the summer of 1981 by Pam Wilson wilsonpam@mindspring.com. I've tried to retain the flow of the conversation and the vernacular speech in the way I've transcribed the conversations. I hope you enjoy these. It's brought back wonderful memories to work with these transcriptions. Sadly, most of these speakers have now passed away.

Pam Wilson, Marietta, GA, June 2000

7 August 1981

SPEAKERS: Etta Thompson Johnson (E), Annie Thompson (A), Pam Wilson (P) and Tootsie Arledge (T). We are sitting on the porch of Etta's home in the upper part of Holbert's Cove, Polk County, NC.

E: Oh yeah, I remember that 1916 flood. It was really bad.

T: Now wasn't that the same flood that, uh, up in the French Broad River and all through there?

E: Oh, it went everywhere! All the way back down here--it reached around everwhere. Just tore up things!

A: And tell her how it looked the next day.

E: Oh, everthing was just swept. My uncle lived down here--you goin' down this way?

P: Yeah.

E: Well Annie, you show her where Uncle John lived and where he had the crop there. And it just swept the whole thing down the creek.

P: Now which--this was Uncle John?

E: John Thompson, my Daddy's brother.

A: John Thompson.

P: Yeah-- Who was your mother?

E: And it was terrible.

A: She was a Garrett, Molly Garrett.

P: Oh, she was a Garrett.

E: And my Daddy and Mother, they had gone to town--you know back then they didn't have no cars

A: Had the wagon!

E: They took the wagon and went to town and, oh, they got-- you know over here they wasn't no bridges. But they forded the creek three times! And as they got back they just barely got over this one. They said it (laughs)--Gay can tell you 'bout the horses swimmin'! (chuckles)

T: For goodness sake!

A: Was he with them--Gay?

E: Well, let's see, I believe they said Horace was with 'em…

P: Your brother?

E: My brother, yeah-- And he told about the horses swimmin'. And they just barely got over. And Annie was about a year old. Oh, I'm about to tell Annie's age now.

T: It's all right! I know one thing--I know I'm older than Annie! So--(chuckles)

A: Well I'm 66

E: (to T) You look so young

T: I'm 69.

A: Well you don't look it!

E: You sure don't look it. Isn't that the truth!

T: Well, I sure feel it! (chuckles)

E: There's some folks in my church that are forty year old and nearly white-headed.

A: She's--guess how old she is!

T: Well if you're in your sixties, I'd say you're seventy two?

E: Eighty two

P: You're kidding!

T: Now I just--I was guessing now. I wouldn't have said 72 if it hadn't of been for …

E: Is that right.

P: You look so young!

E: I was born in 1899.

A: She don't look it, does she?

E: You see, Daddy was married twice't, and he had the two girls first, Gertie Laughter's wife and Bee Arledge's wife--course she's dead--and then my mother had ten children. Me and Annie's the only girls, and there's eight boys.

P: Now what were the two older sister's names, your half-sisters?

E: Mamie and Essie.

P: Now Essie married Bee Arledge--

E: That's right

P: That was the one that's Thurston's uncle

A: Yeah, that's right

E: And she's dead now. And Mamie's in a Saluda rest home,

T: Now I know her cause she was Gertie Laughter's wife.

E: Yeah, that's right.

T: I used to go…

A: She use to work in Tryon a lot

T: Well Jack used to go up to Saluda to see Gertie and I'd go with him and

E: Is that right?

T: Umhmm--see her.

A: He was a policeman, you know, and a politician.

T: Yeah.

E: I never did see Jack but everbody liked Jack.

A: Her husband?

E: Yeah. I never did see him.

A: Well I saw him lots of times

T: He was a fine person

E: Yeah, they said that he was

T: And he was, he was like Pam--he loved this area in here. I think she inherited it from her granddaddy. He loved all this area up here, and I never knew anybody that he didn't like.

E: Is that right?

A: Really!

E: What about that!

T: He liked everybody.

A: Well I like everbody too, and I love everbody, but there are some things about some people I disapprove of! (Laughter)

E: Yeah, that's right. I was listenin to the radio yesterday bout a man's preachin', and he said to love your neighbor as yourself. Not all of us do that all the time, do we?

A: Pretty hard to do,

E: Yeah, love your neighbor as yourself. And says forgive your debts as you forgive your debtors--if anybody owes you, well forgive em. But (laughs) don't pay--

T: (chuckles) That's the hardest thing for most people to forgive!

E: I know it, it's the truth!

A: Well, you know, I had a brother Reagan. He was 69 years old when he died, and he had cancer. And he worked with the Western Union telegraph company for years, he just worked everwhere, Atlanta …

E: Till he retired!

A: And when he retired he came home, didn't live too many years, and I've heard him say, many the time he said, if you wanted to make enemies, loan money!(Laughter) Well, I didn't know what he was talkin' about, didn't believe it-- well after that, I found out it was true! With a certain class of people!

T: Yeah, because if somebody owes you some, owes you money and doesn't want to pay it or can't pay it, they'll avoid you and you've lost a friend.

A: They'll get mad at you.

E: It's the truth.

A: And they won't pay it!

E: Yeah, that's right.

A: That is true of a lot of people!

E: Sure is the truth.

T: Who were some of the first people that moved into this cove? Somebody said Bradleys.. .

E: I tell you, the first I ever knew of was Holberts. I mean I didn't know of 'em but, I've heared my Daddy talk about 'em,

A: John Holbert--

E: My Daddy's,let's see now--grandfather. Now my Daddy's mother was Caroline Holbert, and her people moved right down here--we call it the John place as you go down the road? And that's the first I've ever heard of bein' in here.

T: Now the Arledges married the Holberts.

P: Yeah, we have Holberts up in there. Our great, great granddaddy--

E: Is that right?

P: Cause Greenberry Arledge, who was my grandfather's grandfather--or great grandfather--married a Sally Holbert.

E: Is that right?

T: And Rebecca Holbert, and

P: There were three Arledge brothers who married three Holbert sisters.

E: Is that right!

P: The girls--and they were all daughters of Benjamin Holbert, and he was the son of John Holbert. So I don't know which

A: Etty, you remember Ben Holbert. She said Benjamin.

E: Well now Ben Holbert, the one I knew, he wasn't married, he didn't have no children.

P: This one might be his son, though--that might be the son of this other one. There were 3 girls who married 3 Arledges, and their names were, uh…

E: I bet you Orphy--

P: Sarah, Sarah was the one that married Greenberry Arledge, they called her Sally--

E: I bet ya Orphy can tell you that

P: And then Elizabeth married Orpha's husband's grandfather, who was

Clem

E: That's right!

P: And then Rebecca married Isaac Arledge.

E: Is that right? Orphy can tell you that now. But the first I remember of was, let's see, my Daddy's grandparents--Bennie Holbert, and Charity. Now his mother was Caroline. Well, that was her people, and they lived down here, we call it the John place--Annie can show you when you go down? And they lived there, and they was the first I knew of and the Arledges too. Arledges and Holberts.

P: Now you say Ben and Charity?

E: Charity and Ben,

P: Were they married?

E: That was my Daddy's grandparents

P: Well, those were the parents of those three girls I'm talkin about!

E: Is that right!

P: So that means we're cousins! (laughs)

E: Well what--now what was the girls' names? . . .

E: And the Arledges, of course, they married, like you said they mixed up and married

T: Well, one story that was told was that the Arledges lived over in Green River Cove and the Holberts lived here in Holberts Cove

E: Well now probably that was, I don't remember.

T: And that they used to, that they use to court-- they'd meet up on the mountain -- between the two coves? (Laughter) Said the girls would go pick blackberries (laughs) That was their excuse? (Laughs) And the boys would go out hunting or (laughs) something, you know--

A: And they'd get together!

T: And they'd meet up on the mountain! And that's the way they started doin' their courting. (Laughter)

E: Is that right.

. . .

E: So I think the Holberts and the Arledges just sprang from both coves!

A: Well now, Hose and Spurgeon and Fred, their Daddy use to live down here

E: Yeah, Annie, when you . . .

T: That's Preacher John,

E: . . . go down the road you show 'em where John Holbert use to live. It's growed up till you wouldn't know it, but up in that mountain out above where John Holbert lived, Preacher John Arledge raised a family up there! ...Kinda at the foot of the mountain--it wasn't high up. After you pass the John Holbert place just up the edge at the foot of the mountain. And I'm like Annie--I don't see how they did it!

. . .

P: Well didn't he preach up at Friendship Church?

E: Yes he did.

A: He did. Once't a month!

E: And you know what he'd do? He'd ride a white mule. He left out here and went to Warrior Mountain. And he'd ride a white mule to Silver Creek, once't a month, and one--what's?--Midway Church down yonder, and Friendship, and preach one sermon a month at each church. On a mule.

A: And, uh, reckon how much money he got a Sunday? Do you remember?

E: I don't know whether he got

T: (laughs) Very little.

E: One dollar.

A: Maybe a dollar.

E: Dollar or two.

E: And then he left Warrior Mountain went to South Carolina. Like you say.

T: Umhm. Went down to Landrum.

E: That's right.

A: Etty, was he the one--there was some preacher up at Friendship, uh, I dunno whether it was him or not--that chewed tobaccer?

E: Yeah, he chewed tobaccer (smilimg).

A: And while he was a-preachin he'd chew tobaccer! (Laughter)

T: Ohhh!

A: Isn't that all right?

E: (laughs) He had tobaccer in his mouth, yeah. But he was a good man, never heard a . . .

T: He'd have to, he'd have to cut the sermon short sometime too I expect, wouldn't he? (Laughter)

E: That's the truth!

A: Go spit!!

T: (to P) I'll have to tell them the story on Jack's grandfather (laughs). Jack's grandfather was, uh, they called him J. P. Arledge.

E: Yeah.

T: And he chewed tobacco, too. (Laughter) And he'd go to church, and he'd know just about what time the preacher would get through preaching. So he'd put him a piece of tobacco in his mouth (laughs) for it to be mellowing until the church was out. And then he'd get outside, you see, to spit! (Laughter) And he put his tobacco in one Sunday, and the preacher had a little more to say than usual (laughter), and he kept talking, and (Laughter). . . The preacher would call on different ones, you know, to dismiss the service?

E and A: Sure, sure. Umhmm.

T: And Mr. J.P. was sittin' there-- (I can just see Jack's daddy tellin' this!)--he was sittin' there with his mouth just full of Amber (laughs). And hopin' the preacher would hurry up and say

A: Say the Amen, the last word!

T: And the preacher looked down and he says, "BROTHER ARLEDGE, WILL YOU DISMISS US WITH PRAYER?" (laughter) Said, uh--Jack's daddy said--he looked this way and he looked that way, and there wasn't a place he could get rid of that, that mouthful of Amber! And he says (in a garbled voice) "LORD, GO WITH US TO OUR HOMES!" (Long laughter)

(laughing) Said that was the longest prayer anybody ever preached!

A: Lord go with us to our homes!

T: "LORD, GO WITH US TO OUR HOMES"! (garbled)

A: (Laughing) You oughta tell Gay that, he just loves such as that

E: (laughing) Don't you forget to tell Gay that, Mrs. Arledge. He could tell some good. . .

T: He said, he said that and then he just made a dive for that door to get out! (Laughter)

E: Now Lis Arledge was Preacher Arledge's brother, and they sure can tell some good ones on him now.

T: I'll bet!

E: He was a rounder, Lis was. (laughter)

T: Lis Arledge, did you say?

E: Umhm, Lis... . Ulysses, but they called him Lis, a nickname. And he lived back over here on the mountain not very far from, from old Uncle John's place.

And he had a girl that was a-drivin' a yoke of oxes or somethin' and she got killed back there in that mountain--

T: Umm.

E: Yeah, I've heared them talk a lot about it. . .(solemnly)

(Laughs) They can tell some good uns on him, he was a rough one!

T: He must've been, from all I've heard.

P: Was he the one that made moonshine?

E: Seems like he did. But Gay could tell you

A: That's the way they made a livin' then

E: Yeah

A: Either sawmillin' or makin' whiskey. That was the only two ways they had of makin' money.

E: I don't know how in the world they'd ever raise a family, really. And Preacher John Arledge raised a big family. So did my Daddy down here.

T: Uh, the reason I was askin' you if Spurgeon didn't marry a woman named Lela

E: Lela Green.

T: When I was justa little child they didn't live too far from us. And they didn't have any children. And, uh, she was so, she was so

E: No, I'm wrong--Lela Denton, Lela Denton!

T: . . . so sweet to me.

E: He first married a Green.

P: Della, wasn't it?

E: Yeah, Della Green. Then he married Lela Denton. He was married twice't, you see.

T: Mmm. And, uh, I went--I'd go by to see her, and she'd always have cookies or somethin' she'd give me. I went to see her one day and she had somethin' in her mouth (E Laughs). And I asked her what she was eating (pause)

And she said, she said, uh, "YOU DON'T WANT THIS, HONEY"

And I said, "YEAH I DO!" I said, "LOOKS GOOD TO ME. I'D LIKE TO, TO--I WANT SOME OF IT!"

I was just a child.

So she gave me just a little pinch and she told me it was cinnamon. And I put it in my mouth and swallowed it.

And it was snuff !

E and A: AWWW!

T: And I didn't--course I didn't know--she didn't want to let me have it but she didn't want to refuse to let me have some of it. And I got home and I was SO sick. And Mama said, "HONEY, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" And I said, "I DON'T KNOW." And she said, "WHAT DID YOU EAT OVER AT MIZ ARLEDGE"S?" And I said, "SHE GAVE ME A PIECE OF CINNAMON, A LITTLE, LITTLE PIECE OF CINNAMON!"

Mama said, "CINNAMON, MY FOOT! I KNOW WHAT YOU'VE HAD!"

E: Is that right!! (Laughter)

A: Well now, that was awful dirty of her doin' that.

T: Well the thing about it was, Annie, she didn't want to refuse to give me give me something.

A: Umhmm. But didn't think it'd hurt you.

T: When I'd, when I'd asked for it she didn't, she didn't want -- and thought maybe just givin' me a little little piece like that it wouldn't bother me. But it made me so sick! Oooh!

E: Is that right!

A: They say it's the worst sick there is.

E: He first married the Green then he married the Denton.

T: And he had, he had some children by that first marriage.

7 August 1981

SPEAKERS: Gay Thompson (G), Annie Thompson (A) and Pam Wilson (P); sitting on the porch of Gay's house in Holbert's Cove, Polk County, NC. Also present were Etta Johnson, Horace Thompson, and my grandmother Tootsie Arledge, but they were engaged in another conversation.

G: My father and mother, and my oldest brother Hoyt, and uh, my aunt--she lived down here-Well they had a two horse wagon and a cover over it, you know, the old boss (?) they called it. . . . Well they left town, and it rained all that morning and they set the horses for, and they stopped up there at John Walker Thompson's house. John Walker says,

"WELL, BUCK, STAY HERE, IT'LL CLEAR IN A LITTLE BIT"

and he says,

"NO, I'M A-GOIN' ON IN IF I CAN GIT THERE"

[and] John says "IT AIN'T GONNA QUIT!"

And he got over here--they had a upper ford and the middle ford, the first ford--the upper ford, the middle ford and the lower ford--Well the middle ford where you'd cross was deeper. You know, it was more narrow, and anyhow it was always deeper than th'others. Well, I've heard my daddy tell many a time my brother --

He's long conceded that he shouldn't have gone down there.

He said they made it through the upper one.

He said they got down to the lower one, he stopped and says

(ominously) "I DON'T KNOW IF WE'RE GONNA MAKE IT OR NOT"

And said there was logs a-washin and everthing

Says "IT LOOKS PRETTY GLOOMY"

And he said he stood up and had his hickory and had an old mule--aw, wadand an old mule, she was a young mule, and the old man was, uh, he'd raised her, oh, and he called all of em by name, he was a ball of fire--

They went and he called, he got up with a hickory and got on that old mule.

Well, here they come, through that water 'bout that deep!

(Laughter)

And said the back end of the wagon (laughs) washed down, and they just kept a-diggin! He said the old mare, told me different times, the old mare swum about eight feet, you know! And that was the last wagon that ever crossed there!

P: And then it just got washed away, right?

G: He said if it'd been five minutes later he wouldn't of made it.

P: And what, just all you children were back here?

G: And the water just risin' like fish, you know!

A: Who, who--how many children were along? Do you know who was along?

G: Just Hoyt. They told this--I dunno how true it was, but anyway I'll repeat it. I might added sumpand to it myself, but--

When they first settled over there wasn't but two or three families, they was all related, you know. So and so's brother'd build here, and so and so's cousin.

Tom--let's see, there was Tom Pace with a family, Logan Newman with a family, and Eli Bradley with a family.

Well when they just settled in there, kept expandin', you know, they kept a-marryin', you know,

And the only way they had to town was a trail, they walked!

And they'd walk a way up by the Narrows, you know, and come in to the back of Saludy.

P: Now where was the narrows?

G: The Narrows, hit's--you turn up the mountain, the cove, you go up there about, oh, it's a pretty good ways up there. Don't never go there, it's the roughest place I ever seen in my life!

A: Pam, the whole river runs through a little place about like this--you could step over it.

G: It's too rough for a fox to go!

P: Now is that what they call Fishtop, or is that someplace different?

G: No, Fishtop's different--use to have a Post Office down there and they called it Fishtop. But old man Tom Pace, it was in his house--he operated the Post Office.

And what I was gonna tell you--

They told, when they got--they kept expandin', you know--they got, they got together

"WE'VE GOTTA DO SOMETHIN' BOUT A ROAD!"

And they made two, three meetings together and finally decided that, uh, they'd just dig a road out up that mountain. And said that they (pause) hold (?) up one to survey it

And said they was all drinkin heavy, and someone says, "HOW WE GONNA SURVEY IT?"

So ole man Eli, the one that had the beard way down to here (laughter) said

"THAT'S NO PROBLEM. WE'LL ALL GET A STOVEPIPE!" (Laughter)

And they told, he went and borrowed a stovepipe. Guess one old man, ole Thornton Bradley, had a stovepipe. Well, they borrowed it.

P: Was he Eli's father?

G: No, Thornton was--he must've been a brother to ole Flytrap!

A: I don't know about that...

G: Well anyhow, they got together, and they're goin' along pretty good, they said they got up to that mountain-- it was level, you know, as they was goin' up there--and they was doin' pretty good. And they got up there and they saw what they was again'[st]. They got up there, just mountain and mountain and mountain and mountain. . . .

Tell you, what were they gonna do now?

(Laughter)

Said that ole man Sober(?) was always getting' high as a kite, says "PUT THE ELBOW ON!" Said they put the elbow on the ole stovepipe and hit that mountain!

And they all got drunk and forgot to take it off!

Went all the way to the top! (Laughter)

That's how that road got like that, isn't it! Made the road crooked!

7 June 1981 (Arledge Reunion)

Hall Arledge (H), Marvin Arledge (M), and Pam Wilson (P); standing around after the annual Arledge reunion at Harmon Field, Tryon, Polk County, NC.

H: Old Uncle Lis, they said, lived at, uh, aw, this was back in the 1800's some time or other that, uh, he ordered him a woman!

P: (laughs) From where?

H: From, from out, out in the midwest somewhere--Kansas, I think--

And she come in on the train. And the way they was to know one another; they was to tie a white band around the right arm.

And, uh, and old Lis, the Devil, uh, he was pretty sharp -- he had his white band loose but he kept it in his pocket 'til she got off the train where he could take a look at her, see what -- (Laughter)

And he didn't like the looks of that one, and he never did put his white band back on!

P: And she never found him?

H: And she stayed around the depot till the next train run, then she got on the train and went on.

And he ordered him another one, and she stayed about a month (laughter), then she went to Saludy and she caught the train!

And then he married this, uh--[Drucilla]. . .

SPEAKERS: Hall Arledge (H), standing in middle of Holbert's Cove Road [Polk County, NC] beside my car; I (Pam Wilson [P]) am sitting at steering wheel, and my aunt Susan Arledge Robinson (S) is sitting in passenger seat. Hall is standing next to my window; sometimes sits down in road or moves out of road to let a car pass by. We had just been to visit his mother in hopes of finding him at home but he was out in the fields harvesting corn.

H: Well now, down below this, over in over in what they call the ole, ole Cochran bottoms, and round over in there's where old Amos and Jonathan lived... But ole GranSir Clem lived on this--my great grandfather lived on this side of the river up at just above that access place there.

P: So the Arledges lived pretty far down the river--they didn't live up in the cove?

H: No, the ole Bradleys and Hendersons had the upper end covered.

P: The Arledges lived down here close to Silver Creek

H: Several of em married Hendersons and Bradleys, and this that 'n th'other. Ole Uncle Thornton--I think he was a Bradley.

P: I've found a lot of the old marriage records... up in the Rutherford County Courthouse,

H: Well back when they got marriedd, I guess this was Ruth'ford County. I mean, they took some of Rutherford and Henderson in, I guess 1855, somewhere along there, and made Polk County.

P: Well see, this was back in the early 1800's, it was before Polk County was made.

H: You know Cousin Lis--when was he born--1844, wasn't he?

P: Sometime around there, cause I found an 1850 census for Levi. Now he was--I don't know why, but Levi was the only Arledge counted in the census back then!(Laughter) I wanna know where they all went?!

H: (Laughing) The rest of em when they seen the census taker comin' they hid out! (Laughter)

P: But Levi was--

H: Maybe they had papers on em or sump'n or other! [When they] come through takin' census they all scattered!

P: But he was the only one in the census...

H: Did you see that copy of that letter that [somebody had…]?

P: No I didn't--I want to see that.

H: Wrote to Cousin John and-- They had papers on him that was over thirty years old and they said it'd take a whole, whole great gob to get him out of that.

P: What was it for--was it for havin' a still? Was that what the papers were for?

H: Oh, Lordy, I don't know. He was a rounder--Cousin Lis was a rounder. He was continually into somethin' though.

S: He must've been.

H: They caught, uh--Did I tell you bout the time that they, uh, they caught him? They had what they called the shuck pen--he was a-sleepin' out in the shuck pen and on the dodge; on a cold night when it; too cold to stay out in the woods he'd come into the shuck pen, and the revenuers caught him in there and had him up for moonshinin or somethin'. And he told them that, uh, he was Clem--that was his brother--and Clem was fairly religious, uh, a lay speaker, such as that. And he convinced 'em that he was Clem, and they let him go. (Laughter) And he told em that Lis had gone to Saludy with a load of cross ties ! (Laughter)

P: And they went and got Clem?

H: Well naturally they went up the road and met him comin' back, and they captured Clem (laughter) and took him on back to Saludy, and run up on somebody that they had trust in up there and, uh, [they] told em it was Clem, that was Clem, said "You've got Clem!" (Laughter)

P: You've got the wrong Arledge!

S: That was good! (laughs)

H: Now ole Uncle Jonathan, he lived right up this creek right here. Not fur back up there was where he lived. Oh, a mile and a half….

P: Now which, which Jonathan was that, was that Clem's brother Jonathan? Or was that Lis's brother Jonathan? There were so many Jonathans in there--

H: I, uh, don't know, uh, this was one--this was probably Levi's Jonathan. Cause he was, uh--

P: He was younger?

H: He was Nellie Edwards's grandfather.

P: Oh, Oh, that's the one--Yeah, cause her father was Jim, that would've been-

H: T'was ole Uncle Jim's daddy. And he had--uh, you'uns probably remember Butler, don'tcha? Use to be around Tryon over there?

P & S : Butler Arledge?

H: Yeah.

S: I don't remember him.

H: He married Blanche Covil-

P: Covil?

H: Yuh ,

P: I wouldn't remember, but I'm sure Mama Tootsie does ~

S: I don't remember,

H: She would remember. He was, he was ole Jonathan's baby boy, and he was a rounder, uh, he had his, uh . . . He was the one they moved so many times they wore him out! Was buried up here at Silver Creek twice't - He died, they buried him somewhere else, then they moved him back up here--

P: After he was dead!

H: Yeah. And then they fell out with them up here and they moved it off somewhere else, and then they moved him back! He was up here twice, but I don't know just where he is right now! (Laughter)

H: Cousin Butler, you know back in them times, uh, everbody kept a little moonshine for home, for medicinal purposes (smiles).

S: Umhmm

P: Yeah

H: And uh, and uh, and uh,

P: (Laughing) He didn't use his for medicinal purposes?

H: And ole Gransir Clem went over to Uncle Jonathan's and got him a gallon jug. And Butler was a little ole boy, and uh, he got a twenty-two rifle somehow or 'nother, and between there and, and round the ole table over yonder, he was goin' up the hill up there somewhere or 'nother totin' that jug and holdin it out in his hand. And Butler shot the jug with a 22 rifle from behind him (Laughter) and he just had his finger through the (Laughs) and about lost everthing! And he told it, told the family he was gonna have to--that boy was dangerous for shootin' and killin' that jug! (Laughter)

H: Aw, I don't think it was ever any of em up for nothin' bad -- I know they were probably just all moonshinin'. They was all the time into somethin' or 'nother but they was kinda lucky, or had good friends, or somethin' or other.

I don't know as they ever spent time much.

P: I reckon they were all just--they were hidin' out up here, 'cause it's hard to find things on 'em even in the courthouse….

Sr If they were all as sly as ole Lis! (Laughter)

H: Yeah, see he stayed on this side for forty years! Fifty years!

P: He was over on this side of the mountain, wasn't he?

H: Up in this--he stayed between this cove and Green River

Cove, just stayed up there! He had forty acres back--I mean forty miles back up in there, he could den around in there. And the law men didn't come through, maybe once't a year or somethin'... .

For Part II of Tales from the Cove

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