mule got lost? Stories From Uncle Bub
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Springs Fork Adventure

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Springs Fork Adventure with Old Kate
(from Harold)

(click here for larger picture of Old Kate)

            One time Dad let me go with him to haul some corn from Uncle Eddie's place, "over on" Springs Fork. ("over on"  means over the ridge and on another creek.) He had bought a wagon load of corn from Eddie, which probably was all that was left of his entire crop, after he saved back enough to feed one cow. To haul it, he borrowed a wagon from Menefee Montgomery, the husband of his aunt Rene (his mother's sister). We went down Lacey Creek Road, which was in the creek most of the time, if you had a team of horses, or mules. At the mouth of Brown's Fork we got on a very narrow road that went down over a big rock. I was very uneasy, scared would more descriptive, about getting that team of mules and wagon down off of that rock. The mules were surefooted, but metal horseshoes and wagon wheels did not have much traction. If Mom had thought about that big rock, he would not have taken that road.  Dad didn't say anything, but I think that he knew then that he could not get up over that rock with a loaded wagon. The rest of the trip to Uncle Eddie's did not involve anything that triggers my memory.

            He and Eddie talked about the terrible wagon trail we had taken. After the corn was loaded, they tried to think of an easier way to get back home.  I did not have a voice in the discussion, but the plan was to follow a sled road that Uncle Simon Rigsby and his boys used. This was a new trail for all of us, including the mules. 

           We started on the sled road and Dad gave me the job of brakeman. I was thrilled!  I got to help load the corn and now I was to have an important job to do in hauling it. To explain: Horse drawn wagons have brakes on the rear wheels, only. They are applied using a lever located by the right rear wheel.  Dad rode up front to be near the mules. I rode in the rear, beside the brake lever, with directions to put on the brakes only when Dad told me to. We followed the small, unfamiliar, haul road without any problem, for a long time. Then we go up a little rise and suddenly Dad yells out, "Brakes, hard!".  He stopped the mules and I saw the problem. That sled road suddenly went down the steepest hill that I had ever seen in my entire life.  He sat there staring at it for a while. I thought that we would have to go back. To me it was impossible. To an adult it was a very steep bank, with about twenty yards that were really steep, including a layer of rock. After about a minute or so, he told me to keep the brakes tight, and he got down off of the wagon. He put a couple of rocks in front of the rear wheels, just in case I relaxed on the brake lever, and walked down the steep part of the hill, testing the footing. When he came back, he said that the real steep part was not very long and the ground was firm. We were going down the hill. The mules and I trusted his judgment. I was beyond being afraid.

            At that point, he relieved me of the brakeman job, which was OK by me. He tied the brake lever tight so that the wheels could not turn. We went down the hill with rear wheels sliding and Dad talking to his mules all of the way down. With firm commands of "Hold back, Kate. Hold back, Barney", which settles the mules down and keeps them calm. It did the same for me. When we finally got to the bottom of that hill, I was a very happy little boy.

            Uncle Simon's family was surprised to see us coming out of the woods into their barnyard.  So was I. The rest of the trip home must have been boring, since I don't remember anything about it. I know that I was tired and glad to be home, so were the mules. This is a story about an exciting day that I spent with a man, and a mule, that I loved. I still like mules! (don't much care for horses)



Mine Fork Adventure with Old Kate
(from Harold)

A very big day with Dad and Old Kate

One time, about 65 years ago, Mom learned that there was a cook stove for sale, "way down" on Mine Fork. She sent Dad to check it out. Dad, being the good father that he was, always tried to include his children in his life.

I got to go with him. I rode Kate. He rode Manford's little mule, Barney. The reason that I rode Kate and not the smaller Barney, was because Dad knew that Kate would try to keep me on her back. If I fell off it would not be Kate's fault.  I felt so "big" and happy to be riding the family mule all by myself. (If only little Jim Hall could see me now.) I was excited to be going to a different neighborhood, and like my siblings, I enjoyed being with Dad.     We rode down Lacey Creek past Grandpa Rigsby's, Mamaw McGuire's, and Clayton's store. Everyone we saw noticed my presence and spoke to me. (I felt so proud!)

At the mouth of Brown's Fork, the road became a path wide enough for horses to travel single file, and dropped down below a sandstone bluff into a steep valley filled with caves and cliffs. The air was much cooler and the broom sage and scrub pine was replaced by mountain laurel, rhododendron and hemlock.

After a long ride we come to the Teakettle Rock, where our Williams family lived. This was a very rugged and harsh land.  The pioneer  Williams family must have hunted to provide food for the family, because there was only enough tillable land for a cow pasture and a couple of vegetable gardens. This was the place where my grandmother, Minnie (Williams) McGuire grew up. She said that when she was a young girl she could hear the wildcats in the caves high up in the rocks, where they had their dens. Her grandfather, John  D. Williams, was the first to establish ownership of this land. (The Indians did not believe that one could own the air, water, or land.)  His grandfather, Joseph Williams III, (about 10 years old), came to this area about 1810, with his mother, Lydia Wheeler Williams, sister, and grandfather, James Wheeler. They were from the Clinch River Valley of Virginia. John D. Williams' older brother drowned in that river enroute to Kentucky.

As we rode along, I noticed that a number of caves had rail fences in front of them and were used for barns. Dad said that when he was a young boy, some families lived in caves that had been walled up to keep out the weather. He pointed out a couple of them, but I don't recall seeing anyone around them. Dad knew most of the few people that we encountered, but I had never heard of any of them. I remember the names, Colvin, Wright, and Cantrell.

When we finally got to our destination, I was saddle sore and stiff from being in one position for so long. I don't remember much about the trip home, or if Mom sent Dad back to buy the stove. I remember being, tired, sleepy, and very happy. I had spent the entire day with Dad and Old Kate. That would make any ten year boy happy.
 
To answer the question that everyone wants to ask, no, I did not fall off of Old Kate, not even once.

Would any of you like to go down and see that beautiful, rugged, land of high rocks, cliffs, caves, and waterfalls?  I would too!  Sorry, my children, that can not happen. The progress of man has taken it all away.  First, a new, wider, improved, Jellico Road was built through the Williams homestead. A stone quarry was opened up in the barnyard.  The fatal wound was the building of Paintsville Lake. All of the area from a few yards below Teakettle Rock to near Paintsville, is under water. Like the coal mines of Muhlenburg County and the mountaintop removal in West Virginia, the natural beauty of the area has been destroyed, forever.
   
   
===>  I happen to remember: 
Our teacher at Head of Lacey Creek School, Leslie Collinsworth (great uncle of NFL player Cris Collinsworth),was going to take us on a field trip down to an area the locals called "hell's half acre". It was also located "way down" on lower Mine Fork, near our destination.  It included huge rocks, high cliffs and a cave so deep that it went beyond cool to cold in mid summer. Unfortunately it was called off. Probably too far to walk.

rock1   boat road?   rock2

Ole Kate Picture Memories

(from Darrell)

The Ole Kate picture (upper left) is about 65 years old. This is Dad (Papa Garland) and a real helpful friend of the family, Ole Kate. (Click to see larger pic) Dad is taking a bag of corn to the mill to get it ground into meal to be made into cornbread (don’t get this confused with ‘The Little Red Hen’). Harold and Darrell can remember this picture being taken with the ‘Kodak’.  They also remember the mule and how they ‘learned to drive’ from this saddle. Delano had a few rides on her back too. Kate was a kind and gentle mule, perfect for a bunch of boys to be around.

Cornbread was the daily food in KY and was on the table every day in OH as well. The corn in the bag was probably shelled (by hand) the night before by the whole family. It was white corn to be made into white meal. The bag was tightly woven to keep the corn clean and to keep the meal from ‘dusting’ out.  Notice the corn was on the saddle, not on the mule’s back where it could pick up hairs and sweat.

The bag and content was called a ‘turn’. So Dad took his turn to the mill to get corn ground.

Money was about unheard of, so about one third of this bag of meal was given to the miller for grinding the corn.  

The mill was a saw mill run by a steam engine. Steam was generated by heating water with firewood. No electric. No gasoline. The saw mill was converted to a grinder one day a week, same day every week so everyone knew when they could get their corn ground. No phones.

For those interested in genetically altered animals, Ole Kate is one of them. Matthew will tell you a mule’s parents are “one horse and one donkey”. Mules don’t give birth to mules. This cross keeps the gentleness, back strength, pulling power, agility, and survival traits of the donkey but weakens the stubbornness. Agility was a big factor for an animal to be able to navigate the terrain of Eastern KY (she probably never got to Teakettle Rock). The horse adds a little size and more speed and smoothness.

Ole Kate was the tractor for the fields, the limousine for travel, the truck for hauling. A sled behind her was the trailer.

Some old Risner Brother stories from Lacey
… as told and remembered by Darrell at age 72

I remember Mom sending, walking of course, Delano and me to the store, close to a mile, to get something. It wouldn’t have been much, we didn’t buy much, and the store didn’t even have much. We probably took a few eggs down and traded them for whatever they would buy. Somehow we figured a way to get a package of Bugler roll your own smoking tobacco, probably sneaked in a few extra eggs that Mom didn’t see. We didn’t dare try smoking until we passed Mama’s house on the way back home and then we lit up. Now we couldn’t bring our tobacco to the house, so we hid it down by the creek on our private lane. I didn’t realize just how sharp Mom was until I was probably 50 years old. And at that early age I sure didn’t think she would be watching us hide our tobacco and know just what we were doing. She knew how long we had been gone and when we should be returning.  She did this for eight of us for many years.

Before I tell about our punishment I must describe four of my brothers here and myself. Now I didn’t sit still too much and still don’t. I shoot, at one time worked a lot, try to learn music, cards, bowl and move. Even if it is wrong, I am doing something.  My part of having a TV is to help me sleep. I plan to read a book without being forced to someday. But that comes after watching a football game on TV. My concentration in class was on what followed class, like something fun, hauling manure or such sort of a Mark Risner and my dad thing I believe. My older brother didn’t have to move much to be entertained, or if he moved it didn’t have to be fast moving. If he had to sit in the corner or such he found a way to use it to his advantage.  He didn’t get too much punishment as I recall, most of the bad things I got blamed for and again she was correct, I did most of the bad. Delano was just a lot like Winford Harold. At an early age he didn’t read that much and moved a little faster but never got in a big hurry.  Kenneth was more speedy and liked school about the same amount as I . I think he still complains about having one half hour college credit more than needed to graduate. He also wanted to get home and do something entertaining like haul manure.  I think Gene got a little of all of us but not enough of any one of us to hurt him a lot. When he was young he acted as though he liked to go to school. He didn’t mind work and was willing to do whatever was needed . He was the one that Mom called on when she needed something. Of the older four, two were out somewhere and the other two took too long to respond and Gene got the duties. But this was sort of Allen Rd., not Lacey.

Back to my tobacco story, the punishment was go up on the hill and hunt pine knots or stay in the closet.  This was work, pine knots were used as a candle or as kindling to start a fire. We were assigned this even when it wasn’t punishment. We spent a lot of time cutting and sawing wood - it was a must. Talk about a babysitter for us boys, “go cut wood”. The choice for punishment, you guessed it, I took the hill and Delano took the closet.  Can you imagine being locked in a closet with no fresh air after smoking a few cigarettes when you were not used to smoking and only being about six years old. I wasn’t there when he vomited and I don’t think I asked about it. I don’t remember finding pine knots, but I didn’t get sick.  
  wringer washer        wood cook stove

Childhood on This Side of the River
(from Sue)
I grew up in the lap of luxury compared to the older ones in the family.  I don't know when we got a telephone but I cannot remember a time without one.  So you just thought we lived in the dark ages.  Mom and Dad had to pinch pennies so they must have thought that was an essential.  I'd guess it had something to do with having sick kids and needing to get help for them, but that is just a guess.  Our phone hung on the wall, with the crank on the right side & the receiver hung on the left.  You wouldn't guess we had a party line.  We listened for 5 short little jingles to be our ring.  Anytime it rang, all of us got quiet to see if it would be for us.  A phone call was a big deal.  The dial phone came in when I was in jr high.  It was the fancy one with the rotary dial.  All of them were the same with the receiver that cradled over the phone.  I'm thinking we may have had a choice in color.  I still snicker when I think of sitting on the porch and looking into the house to see Dad answer his first call with the receiver upside down. For years our phone service cost $3.00 with .30 tax.  Minford was about the first place around to get private lines.  Service was excellent.

We had electricity as far back as I can remember.  We had a few lightning strikes, enough to make Mom as scared of thunderstorms as she was of snakes.  We gathered in the corner away from the windows.  If it were a bad storm, she'd remove her glasses fearing lightning would strike the metal frames.  I guess if we saw fire pop from a receptacle, we'd be a little more respectful of it too.

We became one of the privileged when we got water in the house. Actually, we were far from the first but I don't imagine the last to have it.  The older boys were off to seek their fortune by this time.  I was in 9th grade.  This would mean all my older brothers grew up without getting to flush a commode at home.  And, to be more specific, when we got water in the house, it was run only to the kitchen.  It was several years before we got the bath indoors.  At least we didn't have to take the water bucket out to the spring.  All of us remember that bucket setting on the counter.  We also remember a time or two when a little crust of ice froze over it.  Actually, we had two buckets of water setting there with the dipper.  Someone else will have to remember where we kept the ice because I don't remember that part.

The main part of the house had the wood stove in the living room, and Mom and Dad's bedroom off that living room.  Stairs led to two bedrooms.  The stove pipe came up through one of the rooms and put out a little heat there.  Crayons made their prettiest colors when melted against that upstairs stovepipe.   That was a little trick you just did once.   Of course, insulation was unheard of so we spent a lot of time around the stove.   There was no TV; bedrooms were too cold to run off to; we were stuck with interacting with each other.  I remember 'fox and goose' drawn up on card board and played with buttons; we probably wore the color off our checkers.   I don't remember any puzzles; I doubt we'd had a place to set one up. We listened to the radio, WSM I think.  Country. Always country. I figure we couldn't have found anything else if we had tried.  We memorized all the commercials as well as the songs.  There were all these good deals if you ordered 'by midnight tomorrow night'.  Mom did a lot of patching in the evenings.  Because I can't remember having hrs to sit around and think of something to do, I have been trying to remember how we spent the time.  Mainly, there wasn't much of it.  In the summer, we stayed out until dark, which meant it was about bedtime when we came in the house.  In the winter, most evenings we had homework.  We went to bed early.   You couldn't do too much stretching out on the couch and leave room for others to sit.  I don't remember 1 person saying he was bored.  I can imagine the tasks that would have been assigned had we even thought we were bored.  Someone gave us a piano when I was about 6th or 7th grade (or so).  Bonnie learned to make it work really well.  We spent a good bit of time around it.  I was more interested in making up goofy songs, or trying to harmonize.   You don't have to be told, this was not done when there was a house full of people.  We had a bicycle given to us maybe a little before the piano.  Bonnie could have the piano but the bicycle was my kind of thing.  I remember horrible wrecks and narrow misses.  I remember seeing John riding near the edge of the bridge on the driveway and happened to get his front wheel stuck at the end of a short board - an immediate stop.  He was airborne and landed on his feet in the grass beside the creek.  Dusted himself off.  Life was back to normal.

We had more company and visited more than we do today.  It was not uncommon for a car to come in the driveway on Sunday.  Sometimes it was for dinner (at noon).  Fried chicken was the company meal.  Mom would catch a chicken and do it in by wringing (sp) its neck.  Dad never got the hang out of how to do this.  He would give it a few twirls and turn it loose to watch it run around like a drunk and be off.  Mom learned how to give this little jerk and it was all over.  And then, we ate it!  I know if the kids I am around saw this one time, they would never have another bite of chicken.  Anyway, several hrs from the wringing thing, we would have one of these big thrashing meals.  Mom made really good cornbread and biscuits.  She could cook up one of these big hearty meals that Crackerbarrel would be proud to sell.  She made cakes from scratch (obviously) which were good then but I bet we would turn our nose up now.  She made good apple pies.  Once in a while she made cream pies.   We seldom had cookies and never saw a brownie.  She would make a point of having dessert for Sunday if we had company or not. 
We were excited to get to go anywhere.  It didn't matter.  Our trips were to visit relatives.  How Mom ever got us ready I don't know.  I know she got some ready and threatened them not to get dirty while she got the rest ready.  Picture us all loading up in the car and seems to me that car wasn't as wide as ours are now.  My earliest memories are of Bonnie & me sitting on the taller boys' laps by a back window seat.  Kenny and/or Gene probably got the middle back seat.  John sat on Mom's lap.  Someone (Gene or Kenny) may have sat between Mom and Dad.  I remember going through all of this once - got ready - got our positions manned - couldn't get the car started.  (Reminds me of a comment Bonnie always made.  We could have never lived on a flat farm.  We would've had no way to start our cars.)

TV?  It came to our house when I was in high school.  Channel 3 came in half way decent,  13 did ok and we could recognize the fuzzy pictures and hear distorted sounds on 8.  But, we had to go out and turn the antenna to get the fuzz on 8.  I have to think a little to remember what we watched.  You can rest assured it was only a couple hours a day.

The kitchen was off to the side and had a wood cooking stove in it.  Mom fired it up to fix our meals.  When I was younger, I remember these big breakfasts that looked like something you'd get at Shoney's.   I remember sausage balls (because they canned the sausage, no freezer), eggs, fried apples, biscuits, gravy.  I can't remember what we called bacon tasting much like our bacon.  It was salt cured and tasted pretty nasty I thought.   After she got that mess cleaned up (take a minute to think how long this took), then before long she'd have to start dinner.  In the summer that meant picking beans and digging potatoes.  Winter was a little easier because it was pinto beans and fried potatoes many days.  We ate a lot of canned corn and green beans.   Once in a while we'd have a real treat and have pancakes with homemade syrup for supper.  She knew she couldn't fry as fast as we could eat, so she would fry a stack before we ever started eating.  She did her best to fix enough at dinner (today's lunch) to have enough left over for supper.  Can you imagine doing all of this without running water?
We all remember when the wood cook stove got replaced with an electric range.  Wow.  What a good deal for the cook. 

Mom did laundry on the wringer washer most of the time I lived at home.  Dad would help carry and heat water, then get it into the washer if he didn't have to be off to do something else.  It took a couple of hrs to get the water ready.   I think all of us got to help run clothes through the wringer (jeans were fun - if the pockets got full of water, it would squirt across the room).   If you had too much thickness, the rollers would groan and unseat themselves.  Seems like you could reverse the rollers if you got your load stuck.  We were able to hang clothes out and bring them in long before we endangered our fingers with the rollers of the ringer. 

Dad got up before daylight I think to wait for daylight.  In the winter, he built the fire.  The house would be dreadfully cold.  He built a fire, and then went back to bed to stay warm until the house warmed up. But he still had some sitting around time to wait for daybreak.  Mom got up a little later and started the morning feeding.  While Mom was kept quite busy with all the cooking, cleaning etc, Dad had things outside to do (with no equipment).  I can't remember a time without cows.  We had a draft horse when I was young that Dad used to work the garden.  You know our garden was probably a half acre.  Tobacco was our cash crop. 

Our parents were second to none.  Dad pretty much let us go unless we were unreasonably out of line.  Of course, he could do this, because he knew Mom would take care of it.  I have wondered if he would've been different if Mom weren't so strict.  You realize our parents, if living, would be approaching 100.  So the things they knew were far different than today.  But, for people who were so deprived and so isolated, they would surprise you.  They tried new things once in a while.  Mom learned to drive when John did.  Now, didn't that take nerve?  She was 40 when John was born.   Mom was a bit nervous and was scared of a lot of stuff, so figure how much harder this driving thing was for her than for most people.   I don't think he ever made it, but I saw Dad trying to ride a bicycle when he was probably well in his 50's.  There was nothing they wouldn't do to make our lives better.  Mom didn't want us to make mistakes.  Expectations were high.  That came from both of them.

Dad was more adventurous than Mom.  When Delano got his new 59 Chev convertible, Dad would delight in driving it but Mom thought it was too 'showy' for poor people to be in.  He liked the rides at the fair but would only ride the ferris wheel ($$ I am sure).  Mom kept both feet on the ground.  Mom was fearful of many things.  She worried a lot about what other people thought and how things would look to other people.  When she went on a few bus trips with Dosha (after Dad died) she would not go on boat rides or up in tall buildings.  Every penny they could scrape together was spent on us.  They bought nothing for themselves they didn't have to have. 
     
I have written this as a starting point to give others a chance to add to it.  I'm sure each of us has a little different perspective.  Books could be written and not get it all told.  To give you an idea of how our house looked, I started school when Bub graduated from high school and John was born.  Picture a house with 5 or 6 kids in school most of the time.  Life gradually changed from kid #1 to kid #8.  As the older ones left home that not only lessened the expenses but they sent money back to Mom and Dad to help out.  So those of us on the younger end of the family had it a lot easier.   But don't think we were allowed to sit and watch TV; there were a few things for us to do.  No kidding, Mom couldn't stand for us to have idle time.

This was written with little attention paid to sentence structure, spelling & grammar.  It was sort of 'blurted' out.  Sorry if it's too casual for your taste.