Chapter 3 - Lillian Dawn – The image of Life and Happiness

In case you missed the beginning of the story...
Back to the Beginning of the Blog 
Jump to Chapter 2    

Lillian Dawn – The image of Life and Happiness

  

Mom was born in HotCoal, West Virginia. The town no longer exists. It became a ghost town when the coal was depleted from the local mines. 
 Shortly after Lillian, was born, her parents, Tom and Margie Hodges, decided to return to North Carolina in 1925. Margie’s brother, Taylor, also brought his family out of West Virginia. After experiencing the grueling life in a coal town, the young families grew homesick for their home turf. Margie and Taylor worried about brother Wyatt who decided to remain as a foreman in the coal mine. 

Tom and Margie settled in the small town of Mount Airy, just a few miles from the Hodges’ farm in Dobson. Tom found work as a salesman at the local grocery store and they rented a house on Mineral Street. They had room for Tom’s brother, John Henry, who also worked at the grocery store. The 1930 census showed that they had a boarder named Carl Hawks. The boarder was likely Margie’s cousin, as her maternal grandmother was Thursa Hawks. Carl worked in a button factory. Life in Mount Airy was pretty good for the Hodges in the 1930s.

Mount Airy is a little town in North Carolina. Besides the granite quarry and farming, people found work in textile, furniture, and tobacco factories.  The fictional TV town of Mayberry was inspired by Mount Airy, the hometown of the actor Andy Griffith who was a schoolmate of Lillian. Andy’s family lived a few blocks from the Hodges on Haymour Street. Mount Pilot on the TV show reflected the real-life neighboring town of Pilot Mountain, named for the very distinctive rock formation that the Saura Indians called “Jomeokee,” meaning “great guide” because it served as a beacon.  The European settlers of the1700s wiped-out the Saura, not by armed conflict but by the diseases they brought from Europe. They had no natural immunity to small pox and other diseases endemic to Europe. There is archeological evidence of the Saura in the area but little else remains.

The Andy Griffith museum is a popular tourist attraction in Mount Airy today. In the basement of the museum is an exhibit highlighting the life of two other famous residents of Mount Airy. The world renowned conjoined twins, Eng and Chang Bunker from Siam, who came to be known as the original Siamese twins, settled in Mount Airy in 1845 after touring Europe and the United States. For a while they were part of PT Barnum’s freak show. They married sisters Sarah and Adelaide Yates; they had 21 children and their grandchildren would have been contemporaries of Lillian and her sisters.

As I researched the Mount Airy newspapers, I discovered that the town was not the bucolic, southern Shangri-la represented on the TV sitcom. My great-great grandparents would have viewed Mount Airy as a busy, dangerous place. In fact, there was a reputation attached to the town. Mount Airy was a sort of “Gretna Green” for runaway lovers. This means it was like Las Vega, a liberal place for a quickie wedding. The term “Gretna Green” refers to the original Scottish town where, in the 18^th century, young British couples would flee to get married without parental consent.       

It was common for area farmers to take their harvest to Mount Airy to sell in the wholesale markets. In 1921 my great-great grandfather, Wiley Nations, brought his tobacco crop into town, spent the evening, and returned to his Dobson home the next day, but not without incident. On the way home, he got into an altercation with an African-American women, named Bess Gwyn. She hitched a ride with great-great grandfather. Halfway home he stopped to pick up groceries while Bess continued to walk. For some unknown reason, Wiley would not let Bess back on the cart. When she held onto the cart, he threatened her with his horsewhip. Angry Bess threw rocks that caught Wiley in the head. This incident was reported in the Mount Airy News and is all the more interesting when you consider that it happened in “Mayberry”. How do you think Sheriff Taylor would crack the case?

Surry county and the rest of North Carolina had a drinking problem. Even before the country as a whole addressed it, there were many who were firmly opposed to the demon rum. North Carolina was the first state in the South to ban drinking. Alcohol Prohibition became federal law in 1920 with the passing of the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution; however, North Carolina had already passed voter supported referenda forbidding the manufacture, transportation, sale, or use of alcohol. From 1908 to1920 North Carolinians had to bootleg their booze from Virginia and South Carolina. Mary Hodges (great grandma) was not shy about her support for the anti-drinking laws. In 1959 she supported the ban on liquor stores in Mount Airy. When national prohibition ended in 1933, North Carolina remained one of the states which did not ratify the 21^st amendment. In 1937 an Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) system was established to sell spirits. However, some counties remained “dry” for years. Today Graham county is the only dry county in North Carolina. In reality, the laws did very little to curb the consumption of alcohol. The courts were overwhelmed with cases of people charged with alcohol related crimes.

In 1927 it was not unusual for owners of cars and horse-drawn buggies to battle over the hilly roads in Surry County. Sometimes the two cooperated. It was not uncommon to tie up a team of horses to pull a mud bound auto onto dry ground as great-grandpa did one day.  Nathan Hodges’ neighbor, Fred Lewellyn, slid his Ford coupe off the road into the mud near Nathan’s farm. Nathan's horses easily pulled the car out of the mud. As the car reached dry ground, Fred was slow to pull the brake. The car continued to roll, spooking one of the horses. The horse reacted by kicking the snot out of the coupe’s radiator. The story made the evening news. I guess it might still be newsworthy if a horse kicked a car today.

Life was good in Surry County. Tom and Margie enjoyed taking their four girls to visit their grandparents, the Stantliffs in Fancy Gap, VA, and the Hodges in Dobson, NC. Nathe and Mary enjoyed the visits. Mary especially liked having some girls around. She loved her daughter-in-law and her little girls. Mom once told me about visiting Dobson in the winter time. They were caught in a blizzard coming home from church one Sunday.  Papa Wiley Nations(great-great-grandpa) had sheltered the girls under blankets on the back of the horse-drawn wagon. As the blizzard raged, the girls were cozy under the blankets but the girls decided to check on the weather. Giggling, they poked their heads out to see a very undignified Papa Nations. His normally gray beard was now white, completely covered in ice and snow. Under his nose were two frozen icicles of snot.  The image surprised the girls, they shrieked in delight, and then giggled and squirmed back under the blankets. Mom had a bit of a giggle in her voice when she recited the memory. The vivid memory seemed to have been seared by the extreme cold and the telling of it seared it into my memory too as if she had imparted the memory to me.  

Margie was glad they returned to the mountain area where they had so many loving relatives. Margie had four brothers and one sister, while Tom had five brothers. There were many noisy gatherings of grand parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The Stantliff's origins trace to my 6^th great grandfather, James Stanclift, who immigrated to Connecticut from Yorkshire, England in 1680. My 4^th great grandfather, William Stanclift, married Esther Adams who was the daughter of U.S. President John Quincy Adams.  William Stanclift’s grandson, Oliver Stantliff, brought his family to Virginia around 1810.

One of Lillian’s uncles was a fast-talker. He was an auctioneer. Margie’s brother, Gollie Hasten(GH) Stantliff, was an auctioneer and a real estate agent. He regularly had his picture in the advertising section of the Mount Airy news. He had the look of a serious businessman. He wore glasses. He was tall, six foot one. He was broad shouldered and weighed 215 pounds. In December of 1929, he received a little too much attention in the news. 

One Sunday he took a potential buyer, Marcus Prevette, for a ride in the country to review some property. They were accompanied by two others. All of this driving in the dusty hills made the friends thirsty for “mountain dew”. I am not referring to the popular soft drink but to the moonshine, which was quite illegal at the time. Returning home, they took the curves too quickly on Pipers Gap Road. The car overturned. All four survived the crash and remained in the car. As Marcus climbed out of the car, it rolled over onto him. He cried for help, but the others could not save him, and the weight of the car crushed the life out of poor Marcus Prevette.

GH Stantliff was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence of liquor. He took a good tongue lashing from both his wife, Martha, and his mother, Rachel (Faulkner) Stantliff.  Clearly, a moment of poor judgment can forever change lives.  The support of family and friends is what got GH through this very trying time. Similar to today’s crowdfunding, his neighbors rallied and raised the bail to get him released from jail. There would be several court appearances and many character witnesses. The case was eventually dismissed.  

GH changed his ways after that. Eleven months after the accident the newspaper reported that he had joined the Missionary Baptist Church in Chestnut Grove. Chestnut Grove was in Lambsburg, Virginia- just north of the border from Mount Airy. GH didn’t go to church alone. Lillian’s mother, Margie, joined the church that same day. Both were baptized the next Sunday. Missionary Baptists, like Southern Baptists, were the ones holding tent revivals and sending missionaries out into the world. The Primitive Baptists did not believe mission work was necessary because only “the elect”, those chosen by God himself, would be granted salvation.  Missionary Baptists, being more progressive, allowed instrumental music in their church services, offered Sunday school, and believed universal salvation by faith. It’s in these church services Lillian came to love the hymns we heard her sing.  It takes little effort to bring to mind her joyful sounds that filled our home. - “Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in Thee” and “Amazing Grace, How sweet how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”.

Meanwhile, back in West Virginia another uncle of Lillian’s, Margie’s brother Wyatt, had some troubles of his own. Wyatt was the foreman of a coal mine. Late one night in January 1931, he was shot to death by another foreman. Herbert Canterbury claimed he fired in self-defense while he and Wyatt were quarrelling. Like today’s perp-walk, Canterbury was marched into court attached to the chain gang. He was found guilty but there were conflicting news accounts of his sentence.  It was either five or eighteen years of prison along with road construction for the murder of my great-uncle.

In North Carolina, the Mount Airy news first reported that Wyatt had been killed in a mining accident(Fake News) and that he had many friends and family that mourned his passing. Imagine the family’s shock when they learned that my great uncle was actually shot to death.  Tom and Margie lamented that if Wyatt had not remained in West Virginia, their family would have been spared this tragedy.  

Life goes on. Tom and Margie worked hard to make a happy home for their four girls: Lorraine, Lillian, Tommy Lou, and Ramona. Tom was happier than he’d ever been. Walking home from work he anticipated the greeting that awaited him. He would be smothered with hugs and kisses and called “sugar” as Margie encouraged the girls: “Daddy’s home. Let’s give him some sugar.” Margie kept up the home and the girls went to the local public schools.

“Red- Red, Curly Head”..that was how the kids would tease Lillian.  She had a beautify head of red hair which set her apart from the other children in her class. Kids can be cruel. They annoyed Lillian and nicknamed her “Red”. Oh, she hated it! Her father told her she should ignore them. “They only tease you because they get a reaction”. Even though the advice never worked, Lillian passed it on to her sons when they would be hurt by name-calling children. ”Sticks & stones may break my bones” and so on.  Tom would take off his hat to reveal his bald head with fringes of auburn hair.  “You can blame me for the red hair,” he told her. Still, she found no solace. Years later she would look back and think those were the good ol’ days.

Lillian was 10-years old in February 1936 when her 71 year old grandfather, Nathan Hodges, died. Tom’s father had endured a two-year ordeal after being diagnosed with cancer in his eye and ear. I take small comfort in knowing that morphine was commonly available to help patients endure the pain that accompanied that dreaded disease. Many friends and family came for the funeral in Dobson to care for and comfort his wife, Mary (Great Grandma Hodges).  A few weeks later the family would gather again, but this time it was a happy occasion, the wedding of Lillian’s sister.  Lorraine married Roscoe Closson on March 28, 1936. She was 16 when she married and moved to Roscoe’s dairy farm in Madison, NC. Before the end of the year, there would be another gathering - another funeral.  This time it was Lillian’s father, Tom, who had succumbed to lung cancer. Mary Hodges grieved over the loss of another son, while Tom’s girls were devastated at the loss of a husband and father.  The Hodges brothers: Batie, Frank, John Henry and Lonzie were shocked too. They had no memory of the brother, William, and the other siblings that they knew were buried in the dinky forsaken cemetery on their father’s farm. But their mother remembered each baby as if it were yesterday. Mary wept bitterly even as she tried to console Margie.

Margie was concerned about how she would care for her three young girls aged, eleven, eight, and three. She found part-time work as a seamer at the knitting mill. Ten months after Tom’s death, she married Bill Hastings, an auto mechanic, and moved to a house in White Plains, part of Mount Airy. The girls’ step-father would sign their report cards which they brought home from White Plains Elementary.  It was here in White Plains, at the age of 13, that Lillian, like other girls her age, started sneaking and smoking cigarettes.  Not that it would have made a difference, but cigarette packages did not have the warning labels they carry today.  Margie and Bill would later divorce, and in 1944, Margie would marry her third husband, a plumber named Edgar Haynes and her fourth husband, Jesse Geer in 1954. To my brothers and me, he was Grandpa Jesse. We remember him as a happy, warm, and tender man who bore the calloused hands and dark wrinkled leather skin of a southern laborer.

Mrs. Killinger's Sixth Grade 1939-1940

Lillian’s uncles must have given the four girls great comfort-keeping the memory of their father alive. I know that visiting with Uncle Lonzie and the other uncles helped me to envision a grandfather I never met. Lillian was a typical brooding teenage girl. She got pretty good grades in school. Her best and favorite subject in school was music.  Her favorite thing to do on Saturdays was to spend the day watching movies at the Earl Theater in Mount Airy.  For the ticket price of ten cents, she could enjoy two features. She liked the musicals most of all. She enjoyed Top Hat with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers. In 1939 the Wizard of OZ was first released. She dreamed of singing in movies like the young Judy Garland. Shirley Temple movies were another staple of the time.

Musically, it was a special time to be growing up in the Appalachian region. Isolated, as they were, caused the residents to learn to entertain each other. Socials such as husking bees would include work and merriment. There would be all sorts of music and dancing.  Settlers brought the quadrille from Europe, which the country folk adapted into their popular from of square dancing. Clogging was another dance style embraced by the southern Appalachians. In fact, clogging is the official state dance of North Carolina. Its origins credit Irish, English, Scottish, and Cherokee dance steps mixed with African rhythms and style. Lillian and her sisters were great cloggers. One time while visiting Aunt Tommy Lou, she organized a party and dragged me out to clog up a storm. Dancing with my aunt was pure joy. She clogging like a pro and me doing “I don’t know what” induced that endorphin high on the dance floor similar to what athletes describe as ‘runners rush’.

The Appalachian region also spawned unique musical styles. What was first called “hillbilly music” became “old time music” and then Bluegrass was produced using string instruments like fiddles, banjos, and guitars. One very particular style of this genre is called “Round Peak”. It’s named for the town in Surry country adjacent to Dobson and Mount Airy where Lillian grew up. Round Peak is a particular style of music created by differently tuning the fiddle and a fretless banjo. Famous Round Peak musicians include Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. Lillian loved music, and the music that was part of her DNA was “old time music”, “hillbilly music”, and Bluegrass. Movies and music was Lillian’s refuge. 

In 1943 Margie divorced Bill Hastings and moved the girls to Winston-Salem. In May of 1944, Lillian’s younger sister, Tommy Lou, married a local man named Wm. K McDaniel. Margie married Edgar Hayes in November.  Surrounded by married women, Lillian grew impatient. She desperately wanted to have a family and, at the age of 19, had little confidence and no prospects. She agreed to marry Ed King, the first suitor who came along. It didn’t take long for the three women, Margie, Tommy Lou and Lillian, to realize that they had all been too anxious to marry. Their hasty unions would end in divorce. The three women would find enduring love in their next marriages. Tommy Lou would marry James “Dennis” Hendricks in 1951. Margie married Jesse Geer in 1953. The youngest sister, Ramona, married Bill Ramey in the same year.

Sisters: Ramona, Tomy Lou, Lillian, Lorraine, cousin Kenny Hendricks (1956)

In 1947 Lillian found work in a beauty shop in Winston-Salem. Like many women of the age she wanted to train for a profession, so she enrolled in a Texas cosmetology school to become a certified beautician. She shared a Houston hotel room with Ruth-Ann, a fellow student where each night they laughed and complained about their no-good husbands. Lillian told her roommate how she lost her hearing in one ear, the penalty for back-talking the wrong man at the wrong time. With their new certifications, they felt independent and emboldened.  With linked-pinky-fingers they sealed their solemn oath: “Neva goin’ back!”

To celebrate their graduation, Lillian and Ruth-Ann went out to see a movie. That was the evening Lillian was captivated, she met Albert Bennett. She was momentarily angered when Albert called her “Red,” but she was instantly charmed by the handsome Yankee in the aviator jacket.  They went into the theater together; Lillian sat between Ruth-Ann and Albert. Lillian was so entranced by Albert’s charms it’s unlikely that she would have heard any of Ruth-Ann’s warnings: “You don’t know anything about him,” ”He’s a Yankee,” “You just got out of a bad relationship.” However, Ruth-Ann’s admonitions literally fell on a deaf ear. Lillian’s auditory impairment allowed Albert to have Lillian’s undivided attention. She fell deeply in love that night, followed him home, and with the aid of New York City, Albert completely seduced Lillian.  

Irresistibly Albert

On a date - Albert & Lillian in NYC circa 1947

To be continued ………

What to do next ?

 NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS

FAMILY TREE

Back to the Beginning of the Blog 

Jump to Chapter 2   

EXPLORING THE NEWSPAPERS FROM W.VA & N.C.

Wiley Nations (Great-Great Grandpa) AGE 72 - ATTACHED WITH STONES - Feb. 10, 1921

Great Grandpa(Nathan Hodges) Horse vs Car - Jan. 20, 1927

Wyatt Stantliff (Great-Uncle) shot and killed in West Virginia - Jan. 14, 1931

Wyatt  Reported in Mount Airy as mining accident - Jan.  15, 1931

WYATT'S KILLER GETS 18YR SENTENCE  

OOPS MAYBE IT'S 5 YEARS.. ..HARD TO KNOW

MOM'S UNCLE GOLLIE - G. H. STANTLIFF

GREAT UNCLE GOLLIE AUTO WRECK MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE - DEC. 5,1929

GREAT UNCLE GOLLIE'S TRIAL POSTPONED - JAN. 9, 1930

UNCLE GOLLIE NOT GUILTY BUT A CIVIL CASE WILL FOLLOW - JUNE 11, 1931 (Note: the result of the civil case is not known.)

UNCLE GOLLIE AND GREAT GRANDMA STANTLIFF - 5 GENERATIONS -  JAN 9, 1948

GRANDMA (MARGIE) AND UNCLE GOLLIE  JOIN THE CHURCH - SEP. 29, 1930

GRANDMA (MARGIE) AND UNCLE GOLLIE GET BAPTIZED - OCT. 27, 1930

MOM'S AUNT LOMA (MARGIE'S SISTER)GETS BAPTIZED - DEC. 1,1930

GREAT GRANDMA HODGES(MARY NATIONS) AGAINST LIQUOR IN MOUNT AIRY - 1959

OBITUARIES - Click each name to open the newspaper

GREAT GRANDPA NATION HODGES - FEB. 9, 1936

GREAT GRANDPA WILLIAM STANTLIFF - JUNE 27, 1930

AUNT MATTIE STANTLIFF - WIFE OF GREAT UNCLE GOLLIE -AUG 5, 1931

IDA BURNS - WIFE OF GREAT UNCLE WYATT - SEP 26, 1995

OTHER FUN ITEMS FROM MAYBERRY - click each to open.

 

Mount Airy is called Gretna Green - Plus an Item about the conjoined twins.

Easter Prayer Meeting at Great-Great Grandpa's in Dobson (Wiley & Sara Nations) - April 11, 1928

Lambsburg mourns the lost of Great-Uncle Wyatt - Jan. 22, 1931

Baptist Church Members (not our people) Expelled for Dancing or Swimming - Oct. 29, 1936 

Titanic sinking reported in Mount Airy - April 15, 1912

Family Tree - 325 people, 128 photos, & 392 historical records.

Bennett Family Tree Click here
.

You can view the Family Tree on Ancestry.com if you logon as a guest.  Ask me for a link to our tree or just search by name.   If you don't want to register as a guest you can use Pop's logon.  Please remember to log off when you are finished.  Once inside you should click on TREES to find the Bennett Family Tree.

Use Pop's Logon:
Username = albertbenetsky
PW= hixsville1919  - This is not the actual password if you know the Bennetts you will figure out the real one.
Bennett Family Tree Click here    then click on TREES

You will be allowed to view my tree as a guest for free.  If you need help send me a comment or an email.
Once inside you should click on TREES to find the Bennett Family Tree


Bennett Family Tree Click here


If you don't want to logon to Ancestry... here are a couple of old trees you can view without logging on:

Al Bennett Family Tree


Lillian Hodges Family Tree



https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/pt/RSVP.aspx?dat=MTU3NjAyMTgxOzswNmQ4MjZiZS0wMDA2LTAwMDAtMDAwMC0wMDAwMDAwMDAwMDA7MjAyMDAyMDQxMzM0MDM7MQ==&mac=Ty6J1HTJB2tXQCtWkq6jmg==

Chapter 2 - The Southeners

                                                                                                 Family Tree

                                                                           Back to the Beginning of the Blog

Albert’s small garden gave him much pleasure and satisfaction. He loved to give free vegetables to neighbors who marveled at Pop’s green thumb. One day Pop brought home several packets of new seeds. Some of them were labelled “hybrid seeds”. When we asked our father what hybrid meant, he seemed to take unusual pleasure as he explained the nature of hereditary traits. He referenced Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants one hundred years prior. He told us that if two plants with different traits are bred, the offspring plants will have what is known as hybrid vigor – a better chance of survival. This vigor is bestowed on the offspring because each parent plant contributes one of the two genes needed to produce each of the characteristics(traits) we see in plants and animals.  Many illnesses or genetic defects are traits which only manifest if both parents carry the defect. So hybrids have a better chance in nature. Pop never missed a chance to proclaim the virtues of diversity.  He went on to boast that he chose our mother because she was so different from him, and thus his children would be blessed with this hybrid vigor. Ha! We were so gullible in those days.

Albert’s boast was so much hooey. He wanted us to believe that his attachment to Mom was a rational act—that she was his logical match. I don’t believe it. It wasn’t philosophy. It was chemistry and electro-magnetism. From the moment they met, they were completely out of control and they behaved just as the toy magnets we played with as kids. The opposite forces would strongly attract and irrepressibly spin and gravitate- North to South.

The Southern roots of Lillian Dawn Hodges ran deep. Her people were farmers who first settled in Virginia. Her 5^th great-grandfather, Thomas Hodges, arrived in Virginia in 1700 when he was 17 years old.  He grew hops in Kent, England, and started a hops garden in Goochland, Virginia.

Goochland was originally part of Henrico County. When it was formally established in 1728, the governor, William Gooch, vainly named the county after himself. This is where Thomas Hodges met his future bride, Christian Woodson. They would marry in 1701. Christian, like many Woodsons, would pass down the family lore regarding the first Woodsons in Virginia. Christian’s great-grandfather, Dr. John Woodson, came to Jamestown, Virginia, with his new wife, Sarah Isabella Winston, in 1619, one year before the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth.

John Woodson, my 9^th great-grandfather, was born in 1586 in Dorset, England. He worshiped with the Church of England, but he fell in love with a Quaker, Sarah Winston, from Devon, England. John’s love for Sarah was overpowering. Rather than have her abandon her faith, he renounced his inheritance and his position. They were married in Devonshire.  Having studied at St John’s college at Oxford, he was a trained physician. The new governor to the Virginia Colony, Sir George Yardley, offered him the position of surgeon to his soldiers. John and Sarah Woodson boarded the ship, “George” which set sail from England on January 29, 1619, and arrived at Jamestown three months later.

There were 100 passengers aboard The George, which included soldiers to protect the colonists from Indian attacks and 60 unmarried women. Before this time, there were only male colonists, totaling six hundred in April 1619. The women sought the promise of life and family in the new world. The men who came to greet the ship would pay for their brides at the going rate of 120 pounds of tobacco, the price of passage. John Woodson didn’t pay for his voyage or his bride. In fact, he and his wife were each granted 100 acres of free land in Virginia as incentive to colonize America. The Woodsons chose 200 acres 30 miles upstream on the James River. The area was called the Flowerdew Hundred.

The colonists lived in constant dread of Indian uprisings. There had never been any real peace or confidence between the two races since the great massacre of 1622 when the Powhatan Indians attacked the colonists, killing 347 settlers. The Woodsons survived that attack. The English used the uprising as a reason to further drive out the Indians. Another attack was organized by Chief Opechancanough on April 18, 1644.

John was away from the home, attending patients when the Indians attacked. Col Thomas Ligon was visiting the home of Sarah and her two children, John Jr., 10 and Robert, 8. Some versions of the story portray Ligon as the shoemaker, there to measure the family’s feet. When the war party neared the house, Sarah bolted the door and handed Ligon the seven-foot musket rifle that hung on the wall. Sarah quickly hid the two boys- John under a washtub and Robert under the floor in the potato hole.

Ligon steadied the rifle on the window ledge and started shooting.  Meanwhile, Sarah saw her husband riding toward the house, guns ready. But the Indians saw him too. He took an arrow in the chest. Sarah had to turn away as the tomahawks approached her husband.  Just then Sarah heard Indians on the roof, so she prepared for their arrival by the chimney. She scalded the first one with boiling water, and she used the fire spit to bludgeon the second one. By now, Ligon had killed six Indians and the rest retreated. The two boys could now come out of hiding. From that day, they would be called “Tub” and “Potato Hole”.  The family would identify their clan as either “Potato Hole” Woodson or “Wash Tub” Woodson.  The old Woodson rifle is on display today at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia.

Christian’s father was John Woodson III. She was a proud “Wash Tub” Woodson. She and Thomas Hodges had ten children together. The second, Welcome William Hodges, born in 1706 also had ten children. His seventh child, born in 1752, was named Bartholomew. Bartholomew is the Hodges who brought the clan to North Carolina.   

While digging up the family tree, I discovered that some famous people are also related to Dr. John and Sarah Woodson. The first lady to our 4^th president, Dolly Madison, is the 2^nd great-granddaughter of John Woodson. The outlaws, Frank and Jesse Woodson James, are the 6^th great-grandsons, and the tennis champion Bobby Riggs is the 9^th great-grandson of John Woodson.  

In 1785 Bartholomew Hodges, in pursuit of fertile land, migrated to the Appalachian Mountain region of North Carolina. In 1805, Bart built a log cabin on his farm near the banks of the Fisher River in Surry County. The historical house still stands in Dobson today.  It’s a 11/2 story two-room house with two dry stacked stone chimneys and a metal roof. There’s a porch on the front of the house. Weathered gray slats cover the house from top to bottom. The descendants of Bartholomew Hodges were born in that house and relatives have lived there for 160 years. When I first visited this old house, my great grandmother was living there. My brothers and I thought the out-house was the coolest and creepiest thing. I was glad we didn’t visit so long that would require me to use it for anything serious. The house still stands. Our cousins have proudly fixed it up and filled it will antique furniture. They open it for visitors and family reunions.

Bart already had eight children when he moved from Virginia. Two more children were born in the house he built by the river. The eldest son, Drury, would live to be 100 and have 18 children and 108 grandchildren. Some of Drury’s grandsons would join the Confederate army to fight against the North in the American Civil War. At the age of 23, Drury and his family joined the local Primitive Baptist Church. The Hodges had been Protestants since leaving England in 1711, and it is likely they fled religious persecution like many of the early colonists.  The Primitive Baptists are similar to Southern Baptists in that they practice believer (adult) baptism by immersion. They practice the Lord’s Supper or communion, and they believe in the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible. They have no musical instruments in their church services. Primitive Baptists are also known as “Foot Washing Baptists” because they perform a foot washing ceremony to commemorate Jesus’s washing the feet of his disciples, which teaches humility and service to others.

You can find many Primitive Baptist Churches along the rural highways of the southern states. They are small white wooden churches, which are usually built next to a river to facilitate the baptism ceremony. It’s been said that it takes two ministers to perform a baptism. One minister to do the dunking and the other to hold on to the believer to make sure they are not swept away by the raging river.

From then onward, the children and grandchildren would be some flavor of Baptist including Lillian’s grandfather, Nathan Silas, the grandson of Drury Hodges. Known as Nathe, he was born in 1864 in the house that his great-great-grandfather, Bartholomew, built in the town of Dobson, North Carolina. Besides being a Baptist like his father, Nathe was a farmer. A more accurate description would be that he was a subsistence farmer- growing just enough to feed his family with very little left over to barter or sell in local markets. Nathe fell in love with the girl next door, Mary Elizabeth Nations.  My brothers and I called her Grandma Hodges. She was our great grandmother.

Mary Nations had just turned 17 when she married Lillian’s grandfather on January 2, 1890. The farmer’s daughter lived on the farm adjacent to the Hodges’ Farm. She was a short, lean beauty. She had long straight hair. Having worked aside her mother, she learned all the skills she would need to manage the women’s work on a farm. She knew how to sew, knit, and mend clothes. She could preserve and can fruits, vegetables and meat. She could tend the fire, cook and bake all the food needed to fuel the men of the farm. Her rough-skinned hands revealed that she was also used to helping the farmers when it was time for planting or harvesting. Mary’s father, Wiley Nations, is my mother’s great-grand father. Wiley was a genuine mountain farmer- long gray beard, dark hat, and toiling behind his plow. He grew tobacco. Wiley gave his blessing for the union without reservation. He knew they were a good match. The Nations and the Hodges had been farming neighbors for many years. Mary Nations was not the first of her clan to marry a Hodges. Wiley’s mother was Alice Hodges, the niece of Drury Hodges. Wiley’s great-grandfather was Bartholomew Hodges.  Nathe and Mary were distant cousins, perhaps third or fourth cousins. They were well suited, and they managed the farm efficiently albeit without mechanization.

Their first child, Betty Jane, was born December 17, 1890. Sadly, the baby was a weak and sickly child. She lived only 29 days. Across the river from their home is a small family cemetery. Little Betty Jane would rest near her grandfather, John B Hodges. Their second baby girl, Sarah Lou, would arrive on April 14, 1892. Nathe and Mary suffered with her for 24 days before she too was buried in the family plot, right next to her sister. It is so difficult to imagine their grief and sorrow.

What comes to mind is the Buddhist parable of the mustard seed. While travelling for business in Thailand, I discovered that a Thai Gideon had left Buddhist scriptures, the Pali Canon, in my hotel room. I read a very old story about a young Indian woman named Kisa Gotami. Her one-year old son had just died. She was heartbroken and completely inconsolable. She could not bear to give him up to be prepared for burial. She carried her child around the village seeking medicine that would heal her son. One man suggested that she bring her son to the Buddha. Surely, he would prepare medicine to restore her son. The Buddha told Kisa that the cure required a mustard seed that was donated by a family that had not seen death. Kisa set out to find the mustard seed. At every home she heard of their personal sorrows and stories of people that live only in our memories. The people she spoke to told her: “The dead are many. The living are few”.  Finally she accepted her loss, buried her child, and became a disciple of the Buddha.

The farm demanded Nathan and Mary’s attention, and so they grieved, endured and moved on with life. One year later Mary had a son; William Jackson Hodges would thrive to become the pride of his father and the joy of his mother. Mary had another son, Batie Turner, in 1896 and another, Daniel Thomas (my grandfather), in 1898- they called him Tom. The fourth son, Robert Lee, was born in 1900. He lived only 17 months. In that time, especially in the rural South, infant mortality was a national health focus. Even the census of 1910 asked mothers to record the number of live births and the number of children still alive.

Another son, Richard Franklin (Frank), was born in 1901. Then on November 3, 1903, a daughter, Nonnie Pearl, was born. Mary was so delighted. After so many boys, she yearned for a girl to sew dresses for as well as to have help with the demanding amount of women’s work which was needed to feed and clothe a bunch of farm men. Plus, it would be a blessed reminder of the two daughters she missed and thought of often.  On July 15, 1904, little Marvin Jasper  was born. He gave them joy for six months before he too was laid to rest in the family cemetery. Nonnie grew for a few years until she was taken to the Lord at the age of three. As if Nathe and Mary hadn’t suffered enough, they would soon face their toughest ordeal of all. Their oldest son, William Jackson, died 8 days after his fourteenth birthday.  They laid him near his sisters and brothers in the cemetery across the river. With each child Mary buried a piece of her broken heart. The causes of William’s death and the death of his siblings are unknown to me. There are many possible causes like small pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other infectious diseases. Respiratory ailments such as pneumonia and tuberculosis afflicted many children at the time. Older children often died of an infected appendix. These troubles might be easily prevented or treated today.

Two more boys would be born to Nathe and Mary, John Henry in 1908 and the last son, destined to be the baby of the family, Lonzie Vance, was born in 1910.  Now the Hodges’ home included Ma & Pa (Nathe & Mary) and the five boys-Batie (14), Tom(12), Frank(9), John Henry(2) and the baby, Lonzie. The boys grew to be handsome blue-eyed young men. They would gradually leave the farm to start out on their own. Eventually, Mary’s parents, Wiley and Sara Nations, would come to live with Nathe, Mary and the two youngest boys.

Lillian’s father, Tom, worked on his father’s farm until he was 20.  In 1918, he married 16-year-old Margie Payne Stantliff. Margie was the tenth child of William Henry Stantliff and Rachel Jane Faulkner, born in Lambsburg, Virginia. Like Tom, Margie had siblings that died in infancy. Rachel lost three children for which I have no information. When Tom and Margie (my grandparents) married, Margie had five brothers and one sister. Margie’s sister, Loma, married Tom’s cousin, Claude Calloway. Claude’s mother was Almedia Nations, daughter of Wiley and Sara Nations and Mary Hodges’ sister.  The Calloways lived in Round Peak. Two of Margie’s brothers, Thomas and Eldridge, moved west and claimed homesteads in Utah and Idaho.  Two other brothers moved to West Virginia to seek work in the coal mines in the 20’s. The remaining brother, Gollie, had a real estate business in Mount Airy, N.C.

When Tom married Margie, he was given a few acres of land on his father-in-law’s farm 20 miles north of Dobson in Fancy Gap, Virginia. Fancy Gap was a small town in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a good farm, but the weather was a bit harsh compared to North Carolina. Tom would struggle to make ends meet. On June 9, 1919, just 2 weeks after her 17^th birthday, Margie told Tom to go fetch the midwife. Tom didn’t have to go far. Margie’s mother, Rachel Faulkner, was a midwife. She came and helped deliver Tom’s first daughter, Rachel Lorraine. They would call her Lorraine. My Northern ears always heard it pronounced with a drawl. They would say Aunt “Low Rain”.

Tom was not a happy farmer. To begin with, he was never as successful as his father, Nathe. However, the 1920’s were not kind to any farmers in North Carolina. Even before the Great Depression, over-farming in the Appalachian Valley had depleted all the nutrients from the soil. In addition, over-production of the two cash crops, cotton and tobacco, had caused a precipitous drop in prices.  After a few years struggling with the farm, Tom decided he’d have to find another way to feed his growing family.  They decided to follow Margie’s brothers, James Taylor (called Taylor) and Wyatt. He would go to work in the coal mines of West Virginia. The trip north would take them past Hicksville, VA and over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trip was scenic, but the roads were curvy and treacherous. The gap was usually unpassable for most of the winter while dangerous winds persist all year round.

They settled in a tiny town called Hot Coal where Taylor was living. There wasn’t much in this town. And what there was, a few houses and a company store, was all owned by the coal company, Winding Gulf. If Tom wanted to buy something in the general store, he had to use company tokens called coal scrip. The Hodges and the Stantliff families tried their best, but life was hard in the coal town. In 1924, Taylor’s four-year-old son Odell died. The cause is not recorded. However, the newspaper reported that they shipped the body back to Virginia so they could bury their son in the family cemetery next to his brother, Bernard. Bernard was lost 12 years earlier at the age of six months. The sentiment on Bernard’s tomb stone reflects the feelings of many who have lost children. On the stone is carved: “You are not dead to us”.

The cause of little Bernard’s death was infantile paralysis called poliomyelitis. Parents in those days dreaded this disease which killed or impaired so many children. Jonas Salk is credited with the discovery of the polio vaccination which came out in the 1950’s. I vividly remember being marched from the classroom in elementary school to join the line of children with rolled up sleeves waiting for their shot of the life-saving medicine.

It was in Hot Coal that my mother, Lillian, was born on August 12, 1925. She came into the world with the aid of a stranger because her grandmother, the mid-wife, was 100 miles and one mountain away. Oblivious to her parents’ financial troubles, she was a happy child. I found a faded old photo of a laughing young girl. On the back was the inscription: ”Lillian Dawn, the image of life and happiness”. 

"Lillian Dawn - The image of Life and Happiness"

Tom Hodges and Margie’s brother, Taylor, agreed on one thing-that West Virginia coal country was not a good place to raise a family. Not long after Lillian was born both of them moved their families back to North Carolina. Margie’s other brother, Wyatt, a foreman in the mines, stayed behind in West Virginia.

To be continued ………

Click Here to view Chapter 3

LINKS:

Lillian's Photo Gallery
Hodges Family Tree

Back to the Beginning of the Blog