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Archive for the ‘Depression Years’ Category

The View From Graphite

Posted in Depression Years, Everyday life, Flood of 1916, Trains, _Interviewee: Mildred Kelly, tagged , , , on September 12, 2009 |

The McDowell community of Graphite, or Graphiteville, is located just down the mountain from Ridgecrest and takes its name from the mining activity that took place there around 1900. Mildred Kelly has lived in Graphite her entire life,  as did her mother and grandmother before her. Her home is located just across the yard from [...]

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Growing Up on Crooked Creek

Posted in Depression Years, Everyday life, Farming, World War II, _Interviewee: Willard Burgin, tagged , , on September 11, 2009 |

Willard Burgin makes his home on land originally cleared by his great-grandfather in the upper reaches  of the Crooked Creek community, barely this side of the Buncombe County line.  He’s just up the road from the old Mount Hebron Bible Institute where his parents met and where he briefly went to school himself.  Nestled peacefully at the foot of [...]

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Depression Era Programs Benefit McDowell: The WPA and CCC

Posted in Depression Years, Everyday life, _Interviewee: Terrell Finley, tagged , , on September 11, 2009 |

When Franklin Roosevelt became President in 1933, nearly one-fourth of Americans were unemployed. FDR set about immediately establishing the programs of the “New Deal” to address this critical problem. Two of the most successful were the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). The WPA put men to work constructing public buildings, [...]

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North Cove Conversation

Posted in Civil War, Depression Years, Everyday life, Farming, North Cove, Trains, _Interviewee: Clara McCall, _Interviewee: Freddie Brown, tagged , , on September 1, 2009 |

The view from Freddie Brown’s front porch Due to the rugged terrain and distance from the closest towns, the North Cove and Ashford communities in the northern tip of McDowell County remained relatively isolated until the mid- twentieth century. Electricity didn’t arrive until 1947, and telephones were rare until about 1960.  Nearly everyone farmed and the community was [...]

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Old Fort Resident Remembers the Self-Reliant Life, a Cross-Country Adventure, and the Friendship of a Lifetime

Posted in Depression Years, Everyday life, Farming, Old Fort, _Interviewee: Binkie Adams (transcript), _Interviewee: Jessica Gibbs, tagged , on August 15, 2009 |

Jessica “Jep” Gibbs was born in 1913.  The majority of her life has been lived in the Old Fort area, and she currently resides just minutes from where she grew up. In addition to her other stories, in this clip she talks quite a bit about her friend Binkie Adams, daughter of the visionary Col. Daniel W. [...]

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Memories of the Great Depression

Posted in Depression Years, Everyday life, _Interviewee: Nona Rhinehardt, tagged , on July 16, 2009 |

  Mrs. Nona Justice Rhinehardt of Marion graciously shared her impeccable archive of family photos, stories and geneology with the Oral History Project. Here, she reads an excerpt from C.J. Justice’s book,  The Story of My Life and Family Tree describing life for her family in the western North Carolina mountains during the Depression.       [...]

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