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Full text of "E.M. Coulter: John Ellis Coulter, Small Town Businessman
Of Tarheelia "
See other formats
JOHN ELLIS COULTER
Small-Town Businessman
of Tarheelta
By
ELLIS MERTON COULTER
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1962
JOHN ELLIS COULTER
Small-Town Businessman
of Tarheelia
This book is limited to 99 copies.
THEIR MARRIAGE.
F
JOHN ELLIS COULTER AND LUCY ANN PROPST ABOUT THE TIME 0}
Copyright (c) 1962 by
Ellis Merton Coulter
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
| SEIS ee i a cr ts I
H. Yours asp Mapper... =
Tl. IN tHe “NatION”--FIELD AND FoREST.-—-—-W.--_.- 24
IV. In tHe “Nation”—OTHER Business... 36
V. Happy Home-Icarp-ConNeLly SPRINGS... 50
NE, IRON > ects ta cs eae ae oe lareertates 66
Wl, SPRUE ee trates entities cepacia aaa 78
VII. Home anp Farni.-..------ pepe seietatteoaneeanes 100
Te SRUOCICIAONT gecesi tetenreces cee anni cnenins anacotaearonemmacin i 115
X. MIDDLEMAN AND AGENT. _.-----—--—-——-——---.----------- Se $88
XI. Tue Rise anp DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS WWW. 145
XII. Rutuerrorp Cotiecr, VALDESE, AND MorGaNTON_.......... - 163
sl Potnics ann Law ENrorcemesrr__—.__._.__.________... 182
XIV. EpvcationaL, Reticious, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES -..-....- 194
Se 5 emmy a ee 201
Be Wil, ROOST TOC aac eee eee $23
Pet, ae TER Oe TI en ete 234
ILLUSTRATIONS
John Ellis Coulter and Lucy Ann Propst
about the “Mime of thetr Marriage cnc ecsceecee Frontispiece
Following Page 24
Marker on Old Coulter Cemetery
Old Coulter Cemetery Knoll in the Valley of the South Fork River
Log Barn near the House-Site of Martin Coulter, Jr.
Philip Coulter Log House as it Appeared in 1962
Catawba County Belles of the 1880's
Calling Cards of the 1880's
[v]
Cousin Emma Hildebrand
Coulter’s Marriage Certificate
Following Page 40
Coulter’s Early Spencerian Script
Loom and Weave House, Holly Tree, and Old Philip Coulter Log
Residence
Map of Burke and Catawba Counties
Mills at Tucker Shoals on Jacobs Fork River
Coulter’s Early Letterhead (1888), Using “Connellys Springs” Post
Office
Map of Connelly Springs in the Early Twentieth Century
Following Page 56
Stewart Place (Renovated), in Connelly Springs
Coulter Residence, Built in 1893
Store Ledger Account Book, Burnt in the Fire of 1897
Pond, Built in the Middle 1890's
Signatures of Kin, Friends, and Businessmen
Follouing Page 72
Postmarks of Towns in which Coulter had Business Dealings
Letterheads of Coulter's Businesses in Connelly Springs
Statement of Account Due, Order on Merchant
Letterheads of Coulter (Agent) and Coulter Companies
Blank Quotation Sheet, Used during the 18g0’s
Checks Given by Coulter, 1883-1893
Following Page 120
Checks Given by Coulter, 1903-1929
Livestock Letterheads and Business Card
Southern Railway Station
| vi |
Hoosiers Knob, Looking East from Railway Station; Standpipe in
Foreground, Cotton Mill Beyond
Train Approaching Connelly Springs from the West
South Mountains, Hoosiers Knob on the Extreme Left
Following Page 152
Uncle Billy Hill
Hugh Southerland, Sr.
George A. Hauss, Railway Water Tank in Background
J. M. (Mort) Sides, Railway Station and Pink Hudson’s Store in
Background
Connelly Springs Hotel, Hotel Springhouse, and Morganton
Courthouse
Letterheads of Connelly Springs Business-Houses
Various Letterheads, Connelly Springs and Elsewhere
Letterheads of Organizations in which Coulter was an Official
Following Page 168
Letterheads of Various Organizations with which Coulter Dealt
Bob Reese
Rutherford College
Waldensian Church
Following Page 216
Coulter and Wife, off for a Sunday Visit
Coulter’s Office
Rutherford College Commencement Crowd in 1899, Coulter Second
from Right on Ground; Uncle Billy Hill, Fourth from Left on
Ground
Coulter in Middle Age
[ vii ]
PREFACE
HE information on which this book is based has come from
the John Ellis Coulter Collection of manuscript materials, from
newspapers, books, pamphlets, county official records, and other
documents; from the researches and memories of several people, and
from the memory of the author himself.
In his business affairs and correspondence Coulter had the habit
of never throwing away anything except rubbish; but in his later
life and after his death some of this collection disappeared. However
there was left more than ten thousand pieces, mostly business records
and letters addressed to him. He made copies of ‘little of what he
wrote. For a few years in later life he kept a diary. This collection
has been basic in the narrative which follows.
The most valuable newspapers were: Western Carolinian, Press and
Carolinian, and Times Mercury (all published in Hickory); and
Morganton Herald, Burke County News, News-Herald, and Farmer’s
Friend (all published in Morganton). All of these papers were con-
sulted in the North Carolina State Library in Raleigh.
Several books came in handy on certain topics, as George B. Watts,
The Waldensians in the New World (Durham, 1941); “and reports
and minutes of several organizations provided important information,
such as the annual reports to the stockholders of the Western North
Carolina Rail Road Company, the minutes of several of the synods
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the minutes of the Board
of Education of Burke County. The Deed Records in the courthouses
of Catawba and Burke counties were consulted for land transactions.
For the early history of the Coulter family (but not including the
theory of its Scottish ‘origin), Dr. Victor A. Coulter, formerly “Pre.
fessor of Chemi istry and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts ‘of the
University of Mississippi, gave invaluable assistance. Mr. John S.
Johnston of Glasgow, Scurland, an authority on Scottish emigrations,
gave outstanding help on the subject of the Coulter families of
Scotland.
Mrs. Jesse M. Teas (Laura Coulter), irs. R. L. Quickel (Louise
Coulter), Mrs. B. L. Long (Lois Coulter), Mrs. J. Guy Cline (Lura
[ viii ]
Robinson), Mrs. Louis S. Setzer (Cora Bolick), Mrs. Agnes McLean
(Agnes Connelly Lowe), Mrs. David W. Alexander (Junie Aber-
nethy), Mrs. J. C. McGalliard (Jennie Hudson), the late Mrs. Jennie
Cannon Wilson, Mr. Fred Hudson, Sr., Mr. Hugh Southerland, Jr.,
Mr. Eubert P. Rutherford, and the late Horace Connelly Goode—
all were helpful on certain topics.
The General Services Administration of the National Archives and
Records Service, Washington, D. C., obligingly responded to many
inquiries on the post office history of Connelly Springs, as did the
General Services Administration, Federal Records Center in St. Louis,
on matters relating to the Rural Free Delivery service.
No attempt a been made to engage in “fine w riting,” but rather
the purpose has been to use in many instances the idiom anal vernacular
of the time and the place, as the best method of capturing the
atmosphere of a century that has past—John Ellis Coulter was born
in 1861; the manuscript “of this book was written in 1961. It is hoped
that the made-up word of Tarheelia in the title, from Tar Heel
(North Carolina, the Tar Heel State), will offend no one’s eyes or
sensibilities. Although it should appear to any reader that here is
much economic, as well as social, educational, and religious, history,
yet this book has been written primarily for John Ellis Coulter's
descendants, his kith and kin, and for those who knew him or who
knew well anv of his children; and for all these it should be of
interest and by them best appreciated and its trivialities understood.
E. Me CG.
[ ix ]
CuaPTer |
ANCESTRY
ie historical times the Coulter family first appeared in Scotland,
and more particularly in southeast Lanarkshire, where between the
upper Clyde and Tweed rivers there were in modern times two
villages (Culter and Culterhaigh), two peaks (Culter Fell and Culter
Cleaeh Shank), and a stream (Culter Water) attesting the ancient
prominence of the family. The name from the beginning went
through various spellings: Culter, possibly Kultre, Kolter, Colter,
Coalter, and Coulter. The last spelling came to be almost universal
for the family name. In 1962 the name was not uncommon in Scot-
land, there being a village by that name in Aberdeenshire, and in
Glasgow alone there were about fifty families by that name.
The geographical concentration of the name indicates that the
family was Lowland Scotch, and, therefore, actually English in earlier
times. The movement of many of the Lowland Scots to North Ireland
in the time of King James I gave the family a location there also,
and the great migration of the Scotch-Irish to America in the
eighteenth century brought along some of these Coulters.
The American origin of the Coulter family under discussion here
does not conform with these explanations. The ancestor of this
particular branch of the Coulter family came to America not from
Scotland or Ireland but from the Lower or Rhine Palatinate. And
he came under the name of Johann Martin Kolter, and not as one
of three brothers (that ancient and widespread persistent myth com-
mon among many families as to their American origin). He sailed
from Roreerdain on the ship Dragon and landed at Philadelphia on
September 26, 1749.
Of course it now becomes necessary to explain how he could
have been of the Scottish family of Coulters. It is well known that
the Scots migrated in great numbers as early as the so-called Middle
[1]
JoHN ELLis CouLTER
nN
Ages, at first going to the continent of Europe and later to America.
A competent authority has estimated that during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries “several hundred thousand Scots” went to
Central and Northern Europe. In the early sixteenth century a large
number of Scottish mercenary archers in the employ of Francis I
of France were left stranded in Northern Italy after the disastrous
defeat of the French there. They moved into a mountain village in
the Piedmonte, intermarried with the natives, and still in the twentieth
century their influence was evident in more than 800 words of
Scottish origin.
Farther ta the northward in the Rhine Bolatiaate other Scots un-
doubtedly settled and became a part of the permanent population.
It is not unreasonable to suppose that the ancestors of Johann Martin
Kolter were some of these Scots; but when they came is unknown.
It is likely that they came in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth
century; for as will later appear, though these Coulters “Germanized
their name into Kolter, Johann Martin was not to so completely
Germanize himself as to want to remain on the Rhine or to marry
a German. (It should be understood that the Scottish origin of
Johann Martin Kolter is an assumption without proof.)
He was probably in his ’teens when he landed at Philadelphia in
1749. He Anglicized his name into Colter, which soon came to be
almost universally spelled Coulter. Anglicizing the German names
of the Pennsylvania Dutch became a common practice. Johann
Martin Kolter now became simply Martin Colter, dropping the
Johann. He was soon settled in Berks County, where he came in
contact with the Boones and other English families, and may well
have become acquainted with some of the Coulters who had preceded
him, coming directly from Ireland as well as from Scotland, for at
this time there was 2 considerable number of Coulters in America.
Five Coulters from New York were in the French and Indian War;
and the first United States census, in 1790, records 41 families of
Coulters, living in every state from Massachusetts through New York
> : oe pt :
and Pennsylvania to Georgia, with 26 families living in Pennsylvania
alone.
At an unknown time Martin Coulter married Catherine Rosanna
Boone, who was a daughter of Joseph Boone—Joseph being a brother
of Squire Boone, who was the father of the famous Daniel. The
migration of English and Pennsylvania Dutch families to the south-
ward was now in full swing, and Martin Coulter became part of it.
It is thought that he might have come with the group which included
the Boones. Coulter stopped in the valley of the South Fork River
in the Province of North Carolina, while the Boones settled in the
ANCESTRY 3
Yadkin River Valley, to the eastward. This South Fork region was
in Anson County from 1749 to 1762, in Mecklenburg from 1762 to
1768, in Tryon from 1768 to 1779, and in Lincoln from 1779 to 1842,
when it became part of Catawba County. It was possibly in Buree
County before 1782, when part of Burke was annexed to Lincoln, and
the boundary line was obscure until 1826 when it was finally run.
The first grant of land which Coulter received was on April 6,
1765, amounting to 520 acres. Ir lay on the east bank of the South
Fork, about two miles below the point where Jacobs Fork and
Henrys Fork flowed together to make the South Fork River (a
tributary of the Catawba River), and a little less than a mile north
of the Rocky Ford on the South Fork. He built his home, made of
logs, over a spring for convenience and especially so in case of Indian
attacks. In 1769 he acquired additional land.
His son, Martin, Jr. moved farther up the hill, where he con-
structed a “roomy log house, two large rooms with a chimney and
a huge fireplace built of native stone and a roomy attic reached by
an enclosed winding stairway, with no partitions in it” (as described
by one who had this information from another who had seen the
house).
Martin Coulter and his wife Catherine Rosanna had four children:
Martin, Jr., John, Philip, and Catherine. Martin, Jr. died in 1847
and was buried in the Grace Church Cemetery, not far away.
Both Martin, the Pioneer, and his son Martin, Jr. took some part
in the Revolution against King George II. Years later a grand-
daughter of Martin, Jr. remembered “the great interest with ‘which
she "aieent listened to her grandfather tell of his or his father’s ex-
periences in the war and of the anxietv they, at times, felt for the
success of the colonies; how, about the year 1780, the father, though
past military age, went with his son to the front and joined the
ranks. Particularly vivid was her recollection of the description of
an encounter with some of Cornwallis’ men, in which the father
came perilously near being captured.” (Told to her kinsman John C.
Coulter sometime before 1925). Thus, it appears that Martin, Sr. and
Martin, Jr. were in the Battle of King’s Mountain, though the father
mav have been going along with ie son more as an individual than
as an officially enlisted soldier. It was stated in the pension petition
of Martin, Jr. that “in consequence of his being seized with what
was called camp-fever he obtained a furlough and was taken home
by his father.”
In 1797 Martin, the Pioneer, sold to his son Philip for 100 pounds
a tract of 402 acres lying to the northward up the South Fork River,
where Philip built a log house, which, with additions, served his
4 Joun Exxtis CouLTEer
family and succeeding generations of his descendants into the twen-
tieth century. The house was still standing, unoccupied, in 1962.
Philip married Clara Wise, and by her there were seven children:
Henry, Daniel, Elizabeth, Catherine, Mary, David, and Anna. When
he died he was buried in the old family cemetery on a knoll near the
banks of the South Fork River, on the land of the original grant to
Martin Coulter, the Pioneer. He was born in 1763 and died in 1840.
Also his wife Clara (1764-1841) was buried there. It seems that this
spot had been selected as the site for the family cemetery in 1793,
when Ephraim Coulter, a son of Martin, Jr., was buried there. He
was followed by Martin, the Pioneer, in 1808, and by his wife
Catherine Rosanna Boone in 1813. None of the graves was marked
except by rough unhewn stones, and not until 1961 was this old
cemetery properly identified and marked with a list of those who
were supposed to be resting there.
Philip’s son Daniel (November 26, 1787-July 23, 1862) married
Nancy Ann Stilwell (March 31, 1799-June 28, 1858) and to this union
came eleven children: Eli Summey, Harriet Louise, Elisha Monroe,
Mary Caroline, Elizabeth Emily, Catherine Malinda, Ann Angeline,
Eliza Fertima, Sarah Tobartha (twin of Eliza), Louise Minerva, and
Philip Augustus.
Daniel, as well as his ancestors, was a middle class yeoman farmer.
The Coulters were not large slaveholders (as, indeed, there were
none such in Catawba County), though some Coulters owned a few
slaves. Martin, the Pioneer, owned one, and some of his descendants
owned more, but Daniel owned none. All possessed a hundred or more
acres of land each. For instance, in 1850 Daniel owned 148 acres, 100
of which he cultivated. He had 3 milch cows and 3 other head of
cattle, 12 sheep, 18 hogs, and 3 horses. When the census man came
around, Daniel had on hand 600 bushels of corn, 50 bushels each of
wheat and oats, 31 bushels of sweet potatoes, 15 bushels of Irish
potatoes, 50 pounds of butter, 2 tons of hay, 15 pounds of flax, 2
bushels of flax seed, and a smokehouse containing $80.00 worth of
slaughtered animals.
He listed no cotton, because if he had raised any he had sold it or
more likely he did not raise that staple at all. Catawba County had
not yet gone into cotton-raising, in 1860 it produced only 173 bales
of 400 pounds each. Neither was the county a slave-plantation region,
where cotton could best be produced. Out of a total population of
10,729, only 1,664 were slaves. There were 32 free Negroes. The
farms in the county numbered 1,078 with only two having from 500
to 1,000 acres. There were 209 farmers owning from 100 to 500
acres. Daniel Coulter came in this group. All the other Catawba
ANCESTRY 5
County farmers owned farms of less than 100 acres. So, it is evident
that Daniel Coulter was considerably better off in his farming opera-
tions than the great majority of the farmers in the county.
With other possessions in varying amounts, some of which the
census man was not interested in, Daniel and his eleven children
led respectable if not affluent lives. He was either a Lutheran or of
the German Reformed Church—the various branches of the Coulter
family were scattered among both of these denominations. The Daniel
Coulter line of the family had intermarried with the Boones, the
Wises, the Stilwells, the Conrads, the Frys, the Smiths, the Raiders,
the Detters, the Johnsons, the Harrises, the Pooveys, the Bosts, the
Hildebrands, the Setzers, the Huffmans, the Plonks, and even others—
all of whom were in varying degrees part of the kindred or “the
connection,” a word often used to denote the kindred. At least two
important church houses in the vicinity were long used by both
denominations—Grace and St. Pauls.
Philip Augustus was Daniel’s youngest child, out of this very con-
siderable brood of eleven children. He was born on June 15, 1834
(died January 17, 1903) and on September 7, 1858 married Mary
Elvira Plonk (January 8, 1834-February 2, 1925) of Gaston County.
By 1858, when Philip Augustus married and when in the same year
his mother died, the household had become practically empty, for
he was the youngest and was now twenty-four years old—the others
having married or otherwise moved out. His sister Eliza had married
Israel Hildebrand and had gone to Paris, Texas, to live. The others
had remained in North Carolina.
It was rather to be expected that Daniel would want his son Philip
Augustus to set up house-keeping in the old home and take care
of him for the remainder of his days. And so it was, for on March 8,
1859 Daniel sold his son Philip Augustus the home place with its 148
acres, but with the provision that Daniel should retain “a life interest
in one half of said Lands and privilege of the dwelling home & out
buildings the same as may be necessary for his comfort & convenience
during lifetime & the said Philip Coulter & heirs are to render him
such attendance in sickness as the said Daniel Coulter may need.”
The marriage of Philip Augustus to Mary Elvira Plonk brought
in more of the Pennsylvania Dutch line of descent. A typical ex-~
pression of the Gaston County Plonks to their kin in Catawba County
was, “I am anxious to hear from you Catawba Dutch.” The North
Carolina pioneer of the Plonk family was Jacob Plonk, who had
migrated from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He had a son Jacob
(11), who had a son Jacob (III); and it was this Jacob who was the
father of Mary Elvira Plonk. Her mother was Katie Costner and her
+6 JouHN Exriis CouLTER
maternal grandmother was Barbara Rudisill. Katie Costner, who mar-
ried Jacob Plonk, was born June 25, 1793; she died October 11, 1862.
The Plonks, like the Coulters, had fought in the war of the Revolution
against their King.
Philip’s and Mary’s first child, a boy named LeRoy, was bom
July 24, 1859, and died in infancy when a little more than a year old—
September 30, 1860. The next child was born March 22, 1861, on
Friday morning at 8 o’clock, and was given the name John Ellis. His
familiar title was Ellis or John or John Ellis. Thereafter five more
children were born: Catherine Augusta (Katie) (February 6, 1865-
January 28, 1952. Married Raymond W. Robinson. Children: Lura
Mary Lizzie [Mrs. Joseph Guy Cline], Russell Alfred, Philip Homer,
. and Essie Lea [Mrs. Robert Beverly]); James Franklin (Frank) (June
4, 1866-September 14, 1944. Married Della Parker. Children: Ruth,
Robert, Margaret, and Frances); Claudius Craig (Claud) (July 18,
1872-July 28, 1936) (For Claud’s family see page 43); Philip Elkana
(Phi, “Ton”) (January 31, 1875-April 12, 1958. On November 27,
1895, married Nancy Catherine Finger [October 25, 1876-November
6, 1961]. Children: Harry Bryan, Lois Elizabeth [Mrs. Benjamin L.
Long], Philip Plonk, Margaret Finger [Mrs. Percy Noell], James
Daniel, Albert Sidney, and Nancy Mills); the last, a son, died in
infancy, less than a month old (July 17, 1877-August 10, 1877).
Philip Elkana carried among his kindred a nickname throughout
life, “Ton,” a name which was derived from the way he called
himself in childhood, “Tonny Boy,” for “Sonny Boy.” One of
Frank’s childish tomfooleries always remembered was: When sitting
out on a rail fence, supposedly preaching a sermon, he would shout
out, “Who made the rooster to crow? I didn’t. Who made the birds
to sing? I didn’t. Who made the crows to fly? I didn’t.”
Exactly three weeks after John Ellis had been born, Confederate
soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, at the entrance of Charleston harbor—
a shot if not heard round the world, was heard all over the Con-
federacy and throughout the North. For a generation bitterness had
been developing between Northerners and Southerners over the
question of slavery and other issues. It had come to a head in Novem-
ber, 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United
States. South Carolina seceded from the Union in December; and in
May, 1861 North Carolina followed. The Confederate States of
America had been organized in the preceding February, which finally
' included eleven states (some people say there were thirteen) of the
old Union.
Great excitement prevailed everywhere, and probably Philip Au-
gustus Coulter was not among those least carried away, though it
ANCESTRY ‘|
would seem that this excitement would not have propelled him into
volunteering; for he had a wife, an infant child, and a widowed father
to take care of. Apparently he took steps at once to enlist but the
company he joined was not accepted, as was noted by this sentence
in a letter which his cousin J. T. Conrad wrote him on July 9, 1861,
from Camp Carolina near Norfolk, Virginia, “I am sorrow that
your company will not be receive only as regular.” Conrad had
joined the Catawba Rifles, who were now spoiling for a fight. In
giving the army news, he told of one of the soldiers on guard duty
going to sleep and how he might have been shot for it: “it is a shoot-
ing matter. That is the worst thing a man can do in camp. I stood
guard the other night and I wasent well and I had lost a greateal of
sleep and I had liken to went to sleep on post but I tell [you] I thought
of the concequencies and that was enough to keep enny body a wake.”
He was hungry for news: “Tell me all about the times in Catawba
[County]. Tell me how many shock of wheat you raised and whether
it is good or bad.”
The death of Daniel, Philip Augustus’ father, in 1862 might have
made it easier for the son to go to war despite the fact that his wife
Mary Elvira with her child John Ellis, scarcely a vear old, would
have to shift for herself; but whether or not his zeal for fighting had
been assisted by the Confederate Conscription laws, on July 1, 1862
he went over to Newton, the county seat, and enlisted in Company
E of the Fifty-Seventh North Carolina Regiment of Infantry, which
was destined to become one of the most heroic units of all Tar Heel
troops. This company was soon on its way to Salisbury, where it
guarded prisoners for a short time, and then went on to Richmond,
taking a few prisoners along. General George B. McClellan having
failed in the late spring and early summer to capture Richmond, the
Confederate capital was now free from any immediate danger. Here
the Fifty Seventh entered a camp for training and instruction until
early November, when it was transferred to the main Confederate
army on the Rapidan River, in Northern Virginia.
In early December the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg took place
and here the Fifty Seventh did its first fighting. It went through the
baptism of fire in heroic fashion, losing in killed and wounded 250
men. It went into winter quarters at Port Royal, below Fredericks-
burg. From April 22nd to May 11, 1863 Philip Augustus was at his
home on sick leave and thus missed the great Confederate victory at
Chancellorsville in early May. The next month General Lee was on
his way to carry the war into the North, ending in the Battle of
Gettysburg, from July ist through the 3rd. The Fifty Seventh was
part of General Jubal Early’s Division, in General Richard S. Ewell’s
8 Joun Exiis CouLter
Corps, which on its way northward had fought the Battle of Win-
chester, where the Confederates captured General R. H. Milroy’s
whole army. Then the Fifty Seventh with Early crossed the Potomac
River into Maryland and marched on into Pennsylvania as far as
York, before being recalled to join the other Confederate armies,
which were now in southern Pennsylvania. On July ist the Fifty
Seventh was part of Early’s army, which drove the Federals through
the streets of Gettysburg and encamped on the other side. The next
day they charged up Cemetery Ridge and reached the top, but being
unsupported they retreated and left the Federals to fortify the hill,
which on July 3rd the Confederates under Pickett unsuccessfully
attempted to take. The Fifty Seventh after the second day was not
actively in the fight. They were in the rear as Lee retreated back into
Virginia.
Taking up a position on the Rapidan, the Fifty Seventh later moved
downstream to the Rappahannock and took part in the disastrous
fight at the Rappahannock Bridge, in November, 1863, losing in killed
and captured nearly all its men who were not in hospitals or on special
duty elsewhere. Its ranks having been recruited, it was sent in De-
cember into Eastern North Carolina, but it is possible that Coulter
was on detached service and did not go, for on December 6th he
wrote to his wife from the camp at Raccoon Ford, on the Rapidan,
complaining of the cold weather and hoping that he might be able
to be at home by Christmas. Whether or not he went along on the
expedition into Eastern North Carolina, the Fifty Seventh was soon
back into Northern Virginia to join Lee, who early in May (1864)
was engaged in battles against General Ulysses S. Grant in the
Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Courthouse.
On the 22nd of May Philip Augustus was captured near Milford
Station and sent to Point Lookout Prison, below Washington, on the
point of land between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay, a
low, swampy, unhealthy region. He remained there until October
30th, when he was exchanged. He was never afterwards able to clear
his mind of the memory of the filthy conditions he underwent at
Point Lookout. His stay in prison so undermined his health that
soon after his exchange he was granted sick leave to recuperate at
home. His Cousin J. E. Rhyne wrote in early January, 1865: “I heard
a few days ago you had got home from your Kingdom. I heard you
was sick but I did not learn your disease. I should like to know how
the yanks treated you and where they kept you during your con-
finement.”
While Philip Augustus was in prison, General Early with the Fifty
Seventh along, in early July, 1864, made his famous raid to the
ANCESTRY 9
very outskirts of Washington. When Coulter returned to the war,
General Lee’s army was spread out in the defense of Richmond and
Petersburg to the southward. Bur the days of the Confederacy were
now numbered in figures so large that all who would could see.
On April 3rd Richmond was given up, and six days later Lee sur-
rendered his whole army to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. But
Philip Augustus Coulter was not one who was surrendered, for accord-
ing to one record he was captured at Richmond on the 3rd, but
another lists him as having been captured on April 6th at Farmville,
a town between Richmond and Appomattox.
He was held a prisoner until June 14th, when he took the oath
of allegiance at City Point, Virginia. He was now free to return
home. What method he used in reaching there is not known; but
that summer he walked the last mile down the red dirt road to his
home. His young son, John Ellis, now a little more than four years
old, contended for the rest of his life that he clearly remembered
seeing his father walking down that road, at last home from the wars.
Philip Augustus Coulter was described by those who administered
to him the oath of allegiance, as having dark complexion, dark hair,
blue eyes, and being 5 feet and 9 inches tall. If not throughout the
war, at least in the latter part, he had been assigned to the wagon train
as a teamster.
Philip Augustus was a farmer, as had been his father, his grand-
father, and his great-grandfather (all the generations of his ancestors
in America). They had found a market for their products and a source
of those few supplies which they could not produce at hore, by
joining up with their neighbors in wagon trains and driving to
Fayetteville or Columbia or Charleston. Philip Augustus had gone on
one of these trips to Charleston, and in South Carolina he had seen
aspects of the slave system which he did not like.
With the war over, he continued to be a farmer, but now there was
no necessity to drive all the way to Charleston to market. The
Western North Carolina Railroad had been completed through Ca-
tawba County and on westward into Burke by the time war had
broken out; and now there was no need to drive more than three
or four miles to Newton to market. In 1869 he added a little more
than four acres to his farm, buying it on the South Fork River from
Logan Conrad, and paving $:00 for it. Three years later he bought
from Conrad 28 acres in the same region, paying $100 for it; and
in 1885 he bought another acre from Conrad, for which he paid
$14.45. He always kept considerable livestock, and in 1889 he was
Director of the Sheep and Swine Department of the Catawba Agri-
cultural and Industrial Association Fair held in Newton.
10 Joun Exxis CouLTer
Philip Augustus Coulter had no political ambitions and played no
conspicuous part in politics, but he was a staunch Democrat, at least
so after the War. He may have been of Whig ancestry, for his oldest
brother, Ei Summey, was a Whig until that party disintegrated in the
1850's. But, of course, during the Reconstruction and afterwards it
would have been unthinkable for him to join with the scalawags,
carpetbaggers, and Negroes in supporting the Radical Republicans.
In line with most respectable people of his county and state, he
strongly opposed the Radical Reconstructionists, who had got control
after the War; and when the Ku Klux Klan was organized in the
state he joined it. However, he was never active in it, and never went
on a “ride.” But when the Federal government attempted to break
up that organization by arresting everyone suspected of being a
member, Philip Augustus was indicted and arrested in 1871. In 1872
he with many others was taken to Statesville to be tried in the Federal
court sitting there. He was not convicted; but he was highly incensed
by being confronted by a jury with Negroes on it~and he never
forgot to tell with indignation of how one of the Negro jurors leaned
forward and asked, “Wus you eber on a wide [ride]?”
Philip Augustus was a Lutheran and with his family he attended
St. Pauls Church, which had been organized before the Revolution
and was first called the “Dutch Meeting House’—its “Dutch” charac-
ter being well attested long afterwards by the German inscriptions
on its early gravestones. This church building was used alternately
by the Lutherans and by the German Reformed faith—branches of
the Coulter family being members of both of these denominations,
as previously mentioned.
In his older age Philip Augustus enjoyed his pipe of tobacco and
the company of his loyal little feist dog named “Snap.” He did some
reading in his leisure time: the Peerless Bible (for which he paid
$7.00), World Wonders; various other books, and especially a half
dozen newspapers of the day. Among these papers first came the
Newton Enterprise (edited by George A. Warlick in the 1880's), and
then such other papers as the Raleigh Observer (after 1880, the News
and Observer), the North Carolina Farmer (Raleigh), sometimes the
Statesville Landmark, and in the 1890’s the New York World.
The Coulters were a fairly long-lived people. Martin, the Pioneer,
who died in 1808, was probably in his middle or late seventies; his
son Philip was 77, and his son Daniel was 75. Philip Augustus was
never very robust after his war experiences, in prison and out, and he
died on January 17, 1903, being five months beyond his 68th birth-
day. He was buried in the old churchyard of St. Pauls, between
Startown and Conover. His wife Mary Elvira lived for almost a
ANCESTRY 11
quarter century thereafter as a widow, dying on February 2, 1925,
being slightly over 91. She was buried in St. Pauls Churchyard.
Through inheritance and purchase, John Ellis came into possession
of about 79 acres of the estate, including the original old log house
erected by his great-grandfather Philip, and the additions made by
subsequent generations. His brother Claud received 49 acres of the
estate, which added to his other holdings constituted his home place
where he lived at the time of his death in 1936.
CHAPTER II
YOUTH AND MARRIAGE
Joux Ellis Coulter, with his sister Katie and his three brothers,
Claud, Frank, and Phil (“Ton”), grew up on his father’s farm,
the boys doing the customary work outdoors and Katie helping her
mother in the house. Among the very early activities of John Ellis
was to plant between the house and the barn a holly tree that grew
up as he did and continued to grow and live after the whole family
had passed on—and was still thriving in 1962. In it the guineas and
chickens soon found a place to roost. Below the barn Philip Augustus
built a fish pond, fed by a small stream, and here the children tried
their luck at catching the German carp which swam provokingly
around, kicking up little waves, but refusing most of the time to be
caught. For water in the home there was a well, but also there was
a spring at the foot of the hill near where the river bottom began.
The task fell to the boys to fetch water now and then and also the
butter and milk which were cooled in the spring box kept filled
by the water as it ran away.
At certain times there was a school held in the neighborhood, which
lasted only two or three months during the year. John Ellis always
remembered with great affection his teacher W. L. (“Billy”) Killian,
who taught at one time or another at the Quince Wilfong Schoolhouse
and at the Eli Rhyne Schoolhouse. John Ellis remembered also with
equal affection his schoolmates and never failed to note in after life
that “so-and-so” was his old schoolmate, when such a name was
mentioned. Webster's “Blue Back Speller” was the old stand-by, but
there were also readers (the Sanders’ New Series) and arithmetics
(Sanford’s).
John Ellis had a retentive mind and he crammed it with poems
of heroism and patriotism, which he could recite without a hitch even
[12 ]
YouTrH AND MarRrIiAGE Te
after he was more than eighty years old. A special favorite was
“Hohenlinden,” by Thomas Campbell, consisting of eight stanzas:
On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.
But Linden saw another sight,
When the drum beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery.
* * * * *
The combat deepens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory, or the grave!
Wave, Pinntch! all thy banners wave!
And charge with all thy chivalry!
Few, few, shall part where many meet!
The snow shall be their winding sheet,
And every turf beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier’s sepulchre.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner”
was another of John Ellis’ favorites, though he did not memorize all
the 143 stanzas and probably had little understanding of what the
poem was supposed to mean—even as the wisest yet may not be in
agreement. John Fllis memorized stanzas for their imagery and he
especially liked the albatross, which his teacher (who lived far from
the sea and its terms) allowed his pupil to pronounce with the accent
on the second syllable. These stanzas stuck in his mind to the end:
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
“By thy long gray beard and glittering eye,
Now w herefare stopp’st thou me?’
* * * * *
“The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
14 Joun Exiis CouLTER
“At length did cross an Albatross:
Through the fog it came:
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hail’d it in God’s name.
* * * %*« *
Water, water, everywhere,
And al] the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
* * * * *
“God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the friends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look’st thou so?” —“With cross-bow
I shot the Albatross!”
One poem, all of which John Ellis learned never to forget, was
entirely out of keeping with the spirit of the good Southemer that
he was. It was entitled “The Volunteers,” and since it was a good
rhyming poem with a good moral and was in Sanders’ Second Resder
(The School Reader. Second Book) he memorized it. It was in fact
an attack on the United States for fighting the Mexican War, por-
traying the Abolitionists’ point of view. There were nine stanzas.
These are samples:
“Father, I’ve seen the volunteers
Dressed out in red and blue;
And I should like to have you tell
What they intend to do!
“They are our country’s soldiers, boy;
And they intend to go
To fight their country’s battles,
Away in Mexico!
And the conversation continues between the father and son in which
the son wants to know what the war is all about and fears that people
will get killed. The father says that Mexicans deserve to be killed
and that their towns should be burned down because the Mexicans
YoutH AND NIARRIAGE 15
owed the United States money which they refused to pay. The son
now gets a bright idea:
Well; Peter Jones is owing me
A sixpence for a knife;
Pll go some night and burn him out,
And take the fellow’s life.
“What, Take his life? What do you mean?
That would be very wrong,
You would be tried for murder, boy,
And on the gallows hung!
“Then why not hang the volunteers?
Is it more wicked, then,
To shoot and kill a single boy,
Than kill a thousand men?”
John Ellis had an unusual amount of ambition for a country boy
living three or four miles from a town of any size~Newton; Startown
was Tue nearer (on the way to Newton) but there was nothing
there except a post office, a store, and a few residences. There wae
very little ready money to be made on a farm, especially for a boy
in his "teens, who had no special claim on the income, except for
his upkeep. He could make some spending money by cutting and
selling cordwood, but he soon learned that he could make more money
by taking this same cordwood and burning it into charcoal and then
selling the charcoal for five cents a bushel. A person burning charcoal
had to be very careful not to let too much air into the mound of
smouldering timber covered over with earth, else instead of charcoal
there would result a nice mound of fine ashes, which no one would
buv.
Farming was not detested by John Ellis (he would alwavs be
interested” in a certain amount of it), but it was not a sufficient
objective for his ambitions. Primarily he had his sights set on becom-
ing a business man. Just what his business would be, time would have
to tell. Institutions called business colleges were springing up widely
over the country—some called themselves commercial colleges; but
their chief interest seemed to be in teaching penmanship. They em-
phasized that a good handwriting was necessary for any businessman,
and if a person entered a business not as owner, part-owner, but
merely as a secretary, then, indeed, he must have an attractive hand-
writing. These were the days before the coming of the typewriter,
16 Joun Exxis CouLTEr
which led people to quit writing with their hands and made hand-
writing practically a lost art. At this time the fine Spencerian script
was the accepted form, and there were certain institutions and even
individuals designed to teach only handwriting in what were called
“Writing Schools.”
John Ellis corresponded with several of these institutions and indi-
viduals. There was “The Commercial (or Business) College of the
Ky. University” at Lexington; the Eastman National Business Col-
lege at Poughkeepsie, New York; and the Jersey City Business College
at Jersey City, New Jersey, which got out a publication called The
Penman’s Gazette. These institutions all were soliciting John Ellis’
attendance, except the last-named, which taught its students by the
correspondence method. It offered Gaskell’s Complete Compendium,
consisting of various lessons and exercises in penmanship—all for
$1.00. Then, there were individuals without any organization, who
offered to appear wherever sufficient interest was shown, and there
organize a writing school, while others required attendance at their
fixed locations. There was E. W. Scott in Monroe, who would like
to have students enroll there; L. F. Shufford of Happy Home (later
Connelly Springs), who was willing to come and set up a writing
school at an opportune time; and a Mr. Hinson of Rutherford College
seems to have been a writing schoolmaster, who was willing to sell
John Ellis gold ink “at the regular price.”
It is not known just where or under whose tutelage John Ellis
took his writing lessons, but in 1880 he was busily limbering his wrist
in various curlicules and shadings of script~of course, all Spencerian,
the famous penmanship script devised by Platt Rogers Spencer (1800-
1864), the well known calligrapher of New York. At this time John
Ellis seems to have had in mind becoming secretary of some business
firm somewhere. He developed a beautiful handwriting which was
the admiration of his associates and acquaintances and not until he
reached his eighties did his hand begin to tremble and waver.
Some of his training in penmanship as well as in composition he
got through a long and interesting correspondence with his cousin
Euea Hildebrand ‘of Paris, Texas. His Aunt Eliza, his father’s sister,
had married Israel Hildebrand and they had migrated to Texas, as
heretofore stated. Emma was greatly interested in her kindred back
in North Carolina and she and her “Cousin John” got up a cor-
respondence in early 1880 which lasted until the middle of 1882, soon
after which time he became married; and thereafter he developed
interests too numerous to allow a continuance of the correspondence,
though he always held in grateful remembrance his “Cousin Emma.”
John Ellis carefully saved all (or apparently all) the letters he re-
YOUTH AND MARRIAGE 17
ceived; but unfortunately those which he wrote have long since
disappeared. Educated people of those days got some of their most
satisfactory entertainment out of corresponding, especially with their
kinfolks, but also with just friends and acquaintances. That sort of
entertainment in writing and receiving letters was almost completely
banished by twentieth century automobiles, radios, movies, television,
and other conveniences and empty pastimes, leaving many people
poorer in the keener sense of values and sensitive natures.
Emma had a strong personality, an affectionate feeling for people,
a love of reading and learning, with a sprightly style of writing, and
withal a teasing good-natured frivolity. She had rerurned once or
twice to visit her kindred in North Carolina, apparently when she
was quite young: “I can remember the last time I was in Newton,
how I liked to stay at Uncle Philip's, how we used to go in the orchard
and eat and gather apples and plums. How we used to wade in the
branch. Do you remember those happy days? I wish I could go back
to N. C. once more to see you all; I would like to see you all so eel. i
Again she wrote that she always remembered the weeks she spent
at her Uncle Philip’s “as the most pleasant of my life. We had so
many nice plums and fruit of all kinds, but strange to say I don’t
remember very much about you.”
John Ellis, apparently about this time, had serious thoughts about
beginning his career in Texas, and may have started the correspondence
with his Cousin Emma by writing her to find out what conditions
were like out there. In March, 1880 she wrote, “Dear cousin, you
asked me to advise you whether it would be best to stay at home, or
come out here. Dear cousin, I would be glad for you to come out
here; but I must tell you, this is a rather hard country. Unless you
have capital to go into some kind of business, you have to work very
hard. . . . Labor is verv cheap; a great manv are going from here to
Colorad to the gold mines.” Her brother Wallace was working on
a farm for $15.00 a month. Cousin John had apparently suggested
that he might want to go out there as a clerk, and Cousin “Erna
wanted to know what kind of clerk he wanted to be. But she was
not trying to scare him away, for a little later she wanted to know,
“When are you coming to Texas? Papa told me to tell you that you
must not expect to find money growing on trees. But J think Texas a
good country for anybody who is willing to work. And I know you
are not lazy.” A vear later she was more insistent: “Cousin John, I
just want you to fix yourself for a migration next fall, and come to
Tex. If you like farming Tex. is the country, or anything you like.”
That year (1881) her brother made ten bales of cotton on fifteen
acres.
18 Joun Exviis CouLTER
Cousin Emma was busy going to school-—“am trying to prepare
myself for a teacher. I glory in being independent as much as one
can. When I get rich teaching, I will come back and pay you a visit.”
The final examinations were a sort of commencement and lasted three
days with great crowds of people attending. There were compositions
and orations. “I did very well, a great deal better than I expected to
do. We all had to have original compositions, my subject was ‘All
the World’s a Stage,’ and read them before a crowded house.” With
school out in 1880, “I am thinking of going to school again next
year. I am going to make a ‘school marm’ of myself. What business
do you follow? for of course you follow some kind.” Her Cousin
John must have told her that he was going to writing school, for
Cousin Emma remarked, “I would like to learn the muscular move-
ment very much myself but there is no teacher here.” Emma wrote
a very clear hand, as it was. Back in school that fall, she wrote, “I
finished Geometry & Trigonometry last week; what do vou think
of that?” There was fun as well as work in sehodl: “Cousin John, are
you going to send me an April-fool? Last April we all ran off and
went fishing, but I don’t guess we will do that way Friday.” The
teacher promised them that if they did not run away on April the
first, he would give them a day off in May to go fishing g, “which
will be a great deal nicer.” It was now June, 1881 and school would
soon be out: “We will not have much of an examination on account
of our new building not yet being completed. It is a handsome house;
I wish you could see it. It has a "oui on each corner and also one
in front in the center; this one will be four stories high while the
corner ones are three.”
With schoo! out what would Cousin Emma do now? “I have been
wanting to go somewhere on a visit this vacation but haven’r any
ro]
where to go; don’t you feel sorry for me?” As a matter of fact, no
Texan ever failed to have a place to go. Living in the biggest state
in the Union, Texans could choose any kind of place to go to and
still be within their state. So Cousin Emma decided to spend two
weeks in the country, where she “had a splendid time with the coun
boys. Had quite a catastrophe to befall me by falling off a trotting
horse (the saddle turned). I had a young lady behind me; of course
she fell too. We had gone black-berrying and failed to find any, so of
course we had to do ‘something to create a sensation. We never went
any where though, but what something happened to us.’
In a state as large as Texas there had to be all sorts of weather, and
whatever the swemher was it would likely g go to greater lengths than
weather in any other state. “It is getting "real warm here.” Cousin
Emma wrote in July. “I like winter better than summer don’t you?
YouTH AND MarRIAGE 19
Paris is tolerably dry in summer.” “Do vou have anything like rain
in Newton?” she asked. “We have not had a storm this summer.
Paris is all dust. We can scarcely get any vegetables at all, everything
dried up. We have plenty of ice cream though.” But in the winner
there was a different kind of weather to sentte about. In January she
wrote, “We have had beautiful weather all winter until within the
last week, it has been raining regular. We haven’t had a bit of snow
so far, have you? You never will know how to appreciate wind until
ou come to Texas and experience one of our ‘Northers,’ you will
think then that you had never felt any wind before. And you don’t
know what a level plain is, except by hearsay, until you have seen
the prairies of Texas.”
As was the custom in those days, kinfolks as well as just friends
and acquaintances did a lot of exchanging pictures. Very soon Cousin
Emma and Cousin John had exchanged pictures, and Emma remarked,
“T had a plume in my hair, which “don't take well, and it spoilt the
expressions of my face.” In describing herself beyond what the
picture showed, she said, “I weight 124 “Ibs and 5 ft-8 in. in height,
what do you think of that.” Cousin Emma might have added that
those proportions were normal for real Texans, whether male or
female. If Cousin John should come to Texas, he certainly would
have to visit his kin in Paris. “Do you like poor folks, for we are as
poor as ‘Job’s Turkey.’ You won’t see much I must tell you, when
you see me. I am one of these kind of people who are poor but hold
their heads high. I alwavs go in the very best of society and have
a good many “influential Prionids. ? In referring to feminine society,
che remarked, “I must tell you, there are very few pretty girls out
here .. . but my motto is ‘Pretty is as prettv does.’ Looking at things
in that light, we have a great many pretty girls in Paris.”
Cousin “John’s picture must have been rather striking: “There was
a voung lady at my house the other day who wished to borrow
your picture to foo] some young men with; of course I let her have it.
Now don’t vou feel yourself” highly complimented, having young
ladies borrowing vour picture. I won’t tell you all the compliments
they pass on you; it would make you vain.” She wrote that her
mother “says to tell you, that she never saw an ugly Coulter, but
I must not tell you what every body says, for fear of making you
vain. Hurry and get ready to come out here as I want to see you
real bad. Mama savs she is afraid I am falling in love with vou. Isn’t
that a good joke ‘on me? Mama thinks I have to love everv body
that I admire. I like all the boys but never have seen one vet that
I loved; I don’t know what love is vet. You said that I must be a
‘Fortune Teller, no I am not, but I am a pretty good judge of
20 Joun Extis CouLTer
character. You were afraid to venture upon a description of myself. =
But Cousin Emma was not afraid to venture, in her imagination,
a description of Cousin John: “I imagine you to have brown eyes,
real pretty ones, brown hair, tolerably fair complexion, height 6 ft
five inches (I bet I am taller than you are [some of Cousin Emma’s
bantering, as she had not yet described herself], tolerably heavy set;
I won’t try to guess your weight correctly, for I am not good at
guessing pounds; but let us say, ~ elton a hundred and forty or six
You are a good sober young man, neither drink, gamble nor use bad
language, love to go with the girls and have fun with them. In fact,
just such a young man that I like. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you one
thing, you are not stingy. | mean not so stingy that you won’t take
the girls to any thing they would like to go to. I don’t like to see
any body too free or too stingy.” Later she added, “You neither
drink, chew, nor smoke I know. I don’t mind young men smoking,
but I do detest chewing & drinking.” She wrote in January, 1882,
“Paris succeeded in getting all her saloons closed this year. And I
hope they will stay closed.”
Cousin Emma liked to put on a half-teasing, half-conscious attitude
in her letter writing, though properly senkinsentel she was not going
to be swept off hier feet Ter any circumstances. “I have an idea
of living an old maid; all my friends say they know I will be one
anyway.” Two years later she wrote, “I am going to live an old
maid and spend all the money I make traveling.” Teasingly again she
wrote, “I would send you a picture of my fellow if I had one, but the
boys don’t like me; consequently I haven’t any fellows.” But apparently
she did have fellows, anytime she wanted them, as these remarks would
indicate: “Well, I believe Barnum’s big show has been in Paris since
I wrote to you last. My stingy fellow took me. I won’t tell any bad
tales on him, but he is awful stingy; he thought he was doing” me a
downright to take me, -- perhaps he was. Any way I was nearly dead
to go. There are to be several theatre troupes here next week (Paris
has a splendid Opera house).” “I was at a little sociable night before
last, one of my old-time beaus escorted me there and back; he said
he loved me as much as ever; but I don’t love him, so what am I to
do?”
It is evident that Cousin Emma was not a giddy, giggling, girl.
Apparently she belonged to no church, but she went to Sunday
school, and preferred the Baptist because she liked immersion. In
April, 1882 she wrote, “The Methodists of Paris have been carrying
on a big meeting for five weeks and still I am a sinner.” This same
year she commented on the hard times: “Times are very dull at
present. Last year was considered a hard year on the farmers, nothing
YouTtH aND MARRIAGE 21
did much good except cotton; corn was a perfect failure. So was
fruit of all kinds.” In the election of 1880 Winfield S. Hancock and
William H. English were runnning for the presidency and vice presi-
dency respectively on the Democratic ticket and Texas voted over-
whelmingly for them, though they lost the election. Paris was duly
excited and Cousin Emma was too: “Well, we have the Hancock and
English flag floating over our town still, but will have to take it down
Tam afraid. We had one jolly night any way though. The city was
illuminated and we had speeches and a torch light procession; every-
thing looked grand I can tell you.”
Tonsin Emma was quite bookish or literary: “We organized our
Reading Club again last night. I am Secretary.” She wanted her
Cousin “John to send her “anything pretty to read.” And she wanted
to know, “What kind of literature are you fond of reading? Novels?
Poetry or Prose? Don’t you think the ‘Hermit’ by Goldsmith is
retty?” Again, “Have you anything good to read? Have you ever
read Mark Twain’ s ‘Innocents Abroad’, it is splendid, extremely funny
sometimes. | haven’t read a good saved lately. I have been trying to
read some of Charles Dickens’ but I don’t admire those I have, much.
Have you read ‘St. Elmo,’ that is good.” At one of the meetings of
the Reading Club she read “ ‘Darkness’ by Byron... . We are allowed
to select any thing we please.” Santa Claus seemed to know what
she liked: “I received several books Christmas on the tree. One was
‘Owen Meredith’s Poems.’ Did you ever read Lucile, written by him;
[ think it is perfectly beautiful.”
Texans at this time and later liked to think of themselves as a bit
different, more self-reliant, more sure of themselves, than the common
run. Cousin Emma was a good Texan: “Cousin, what do the girls
ro]
in your neighbor-hood do to make money or do any of them try?
I am an independent kind of a creature, love to ask nobody any odds,
and so I love to make my own money. I am going to be a teacher
and an old maid! Not a mean but a good one.’ She - kept in mind her
gradual approach to both. In 1881 she wrote, “Dear cousin, I expect
I will be quite an old maid next year when I go to teaching. Are you
coming to Texas this fall? I ber you never ie come. No, | dow: bet,
but anyway I bet you don’t come.’ ’ As a matter of fact, Ciuisin Timms
did not wait until “next year” to begin her teaching career, for in
early December of 1881 she wrote, “Well I must tell you I have been
teaching for two months; I am assisting in the ‘Aiken Institute,’ the
largest “school in Paris. We have about two hundred pupils, and a
handsome new school house in which to teach. I have been fussing
all day today, I just know boys are the meanest things imaginable—
and the sweetest too!—there are three or four boys "in my classes
22 JoHN ELiis CouLTER
that worry me nearly to death. I feel like I am getting old and
wrinkled with scolding so much.”
And here Cousin Emma is left teaching. Did she become an old
maid? The correspondence with her Cousin John runs out here—
if there was more it has not resisted the ravages of time, mice, and
silverfish. It would be intriguing to know what happened to the
wholly admirable Emma Hildebrand. All efforts to find out have
been of no avail. But one may suspect tragedy—an early death, per-
haps? For her mother wrote to her Nephew John in 1893 in answer
to a letter from him, that she was glad he “had not forgot us. I
shead tears over your letter with joye. I remember Dear Emma long
ago corresponded with you and loved to get your letters, but how
things have changed.” All her children had scattered: Willie and
Wallace were living in West Texas, in Wilbarger and Donley counties
respectively, and Nannie was living in San Francisco. No further
mention of Emma.
John Ellis was during these days not only writing long letters to
his Cousin Emma, but he was also writing many shorter ones to the
young ladies of Catawba County, who were not his cousins, putting
into practice that same fine Spencerian script. “Compliments of J. E.
Coulter to Miss Katie Cline respectfully soliciting the pleasure of
her company this eve.” “Katie Cline returns compliments to Mr. J. E.
Coulter and will accept his company this eve.” And the same to
Sallie Cline, and “Sallie Cline returns compliments to Mr. Coulter
and will be pleased to have his company Saturday eve.” And “A. L.
Rhyne returns compliments to Mr. J. E. Coulter and will with
pleasure accept his company to church.” And “Compliments of A. L.
Blackburn to Mr. J. E. Coulter and will be pleased with his company
Saturday eve at 7 Oclock.” And compliments of J. E. Coulter to
Dora E. Miller and to Lizzie Smyre and so on, and their complirnents
and pleasures returned. And then there was J. E. Coulter's compliments
to Lucy Ann Propst (September 21, 1862-May 5, 1952) and the
answer: “L. A. Propst returns compliments to Mr. J. E. Coulter
and accepts his company with pleasure.” And more compliments
of John Ellis to Lucy Ann and her compliments and pleasures in
return.
Soon these compliments and pleasure notes were to come to an
end, and this document was recorded in the family archives: “This
is to Certify that John Ellis Coulter and Lucy Ann Propst were
united by me in Holy Matrimony at the Home of Julia A. Huit
[Huitt] on the tenth day of August in the Year of our Lord, 1882
in the Presence of Jacob Y. Propst and Sidney Propst. Signed Reverend
R. A. Yoder, Pastor E.{vangelical] L.{utheran] Church.”
YouTH AND MARRIAGE 23
Lucy Ann Propst was the daughter of Julia Ann Propst and her
husband David Franklin Propst. Lucy Ann’s father had on July 4,
1862 enlisted in the Fifty-Seventh Regiment, North Carolina In-
fantry (interestingly enough the same regiment in which John Ellis’
father had enlisted), and had died in camp. Since his daughter Lucy
Ann was born the following September 21st, she never saw her father
and he never saw his little daughter. Some years later her mother
married Moses Huitt, a widower, who had died by the time of
Lucy Ann’s marriage. Julia Ann had been a Smyre before her first
marriage. She was born October 14, 1829 and died May 1, 1920,
being almost ninety years old. ,
Lucy Ann had grown up in the Saint James community, near
Newton, in the midst of a large family of children, sisters and brothers,
step-sisters and step-brothers, and a half-sister. Her full sisters and
brother were Martha, Jane (March 14, 1859-September 22, 1890), and
Sidney (October 4, 1860-October 26, 1941). (Martha, born March 27,
1852, died April 18, 1948; married Jerome Bolick; children: James F.,
Virtna [Mrs. Francis E. Mennen], D. Edgar, M. Loy, Nona [Mrs.
Lignell W. Hood], Perley Jerome, Rolland K., Oscar W., Mabel
[Mrs. Joel S. Williams], Cora [Mrs. Lewis S. Setzer], Walther T.,
and Stella). Her step-brothers and sisters numbered more than a
half dozen, but Lizzie became the constant playmate of Lucy Ann,
who never forgot to tell about the childish activities and excapades
of “me and Lizzie.” These step-children were, of course, the children
of Moses Huitt by his first wife. Lucy Ann’s only half-sister was
Cora, born to the union of Moses Huitt and his wife, Julia Ann Huitt.
(Cora married Casper S. Coiner; the children were Gertrude, Myrtle,
and Sophia).
After the death of her second husband, Julia Ann Huitt moved
to Conover, where Lucy Ann attended Concordia College (founded
in 1881), and became sufficiently interested and proficient in music
to play her organ for her own amusement and for her family’s enter-
tainment in later years. When she was a girl of sixteen she had
purchased this organ (made by J. O. Weaver, York, Pennsylvania),
with money which she had received as an inheritance. When Lucy
Ann was married, her mother gave her a milch cow, a bedstead, a
washpot, and a high chest of drawers with a mirror. Ever after, even
into her eighties, Lucy Ann was never content without a cow or two
on the place.
CuaPTer III
IN THE “NATION’”—FIELD AND FOREST
T O enter immediately a business career required more capital
than John Ellis could command, now that he had acquired a
wife, with the additional expenses incident to a married life. If he
took a honeymoon, it did not extend far. Soon he set about building
a house on the ancestral estate or, perhaps, only adjoining it, and for
the’ first year he engaged apparently with his father and brothers in
farming. Servants had never been in the Coulter family tradition,
and though Lucy Ann came of a family whose background had been
touched lightly with the ownership of a few Negro slaves, yet she
was removed as far as any Tar Heel woman could be in her attitude
toward having servants in her home, whether black or white. Yet
soon after her marriage she made as a part of her home an orphan,
“a small girl by name M. J. Bolch,” whose given name was Mintie
(December 19, 1870-February 12, 1943). Mintie remained for six
years in the Coulter family, more as one of the family than as a
servant, and as long as she lived she was a favorite person for the
Coulters to remember and visit.
In the summer of the second year (August 3, 1883), John Ellis
entered into an agreement with his father to farm the old home place
and each to receive one half of the crop. It was also agreed that his
brothers Claud and Phil, when not going to school, would help—and
also on John Ellis’ part Mintie should do light work when she could
be spared from the home.
Manifestly such an arrangement was only a stopgap until Coulter
could hit on something better. When he was building his house,
he must have sensed the possibilities that lay in the forests—lumber,
shingles, laths. Here were business opportunities almost unlimited,
when he noted the great virgin forests to the westward in Catawba
County along Jacobs Fork with its waterpower waiting to turn the
[24]
Top: MARKER ON OLD COULTER CEMETERY. Bottom. OLD COULTER
CEMETERY KNOLL IN THE VALLEY OF THE SOUTH FORK RIVER.
jr. Bottom:
NEAR THE HOUSE-SITE OF MARTIN COULTER,
LOG BARN
Top
1962.
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In rHe “NatTion”’—FIELD AND FoREST 25
machinery of sawmills and the burrstones of gristrnills. As the crows
fly (assuming that they fly a beeline, a very bold and, in fact, incorrect
assumption) it was only a half dozen miles to this promised land;
but by the meandering country roads the distance was little es
than a dozen miles. This region lay in Bandys Township, which the
Coulters affectionately dubbed the “Nation.” It bordered on Burke
County, and much of the great forests extended into Lower Fork
Township in this country. Bandys joined Jacobs Fork Township on
the east, which had been a Coulter stronghold for more than a century.
On February 14, 1884 the Coulter wagon train set out on its trek
westward to a spot about a mile from the north bank of Jacobs Fork
opposite what was known as the Tucker Shoals. It must have been
a wagon train of at least more than one wagon, for household and
kitchen furniture had been accumulated in the two years residence
in Jacobs Fork Township. There was also one child, Alvin Augustus,
born September 2nd of the previous year. Mintie was along, and
someone must have led the milch cow, which Mother Huitr had given
Lucy Ann, as a wedding present.
There was no milroed within ten miles, but country roads were
plentiful and confusing to travelers who were strangers to the region,
for no one thought it necessary to erect sign pointers. Everybody
knew that one of the roads went to Hickory, about fifteen miles
away, at least; another road went to Happy Home (later Connelly
Springs), Burke County, about ten miles away; another road went
to Morganton (county seat of Burke County), probably twenty miles
away; and there were various other roads which went to Conover,
Newton, Maiden, Shelby, and Lincolnton. All of these towns were
on railroads, either the ‘Western North Carolina (later Richmond &
Danville, and finally the Southern) or the Carolina and Northwestern
(later absorbed by the Southern). The road to Morganton crossed
Henrvs Fork near where Laurel Creek entered it. The Laurel Road
was well famed for the frequency with which it crossed the Creek
and for the absence of any houses which made it, indeed, “a lonesome
road,” to travel.
Coulter’s post office address was Mull Grove, but he also received
mail at one time or another at Henry (in Lincoln County), Chesmut
(in Burke), and at Connelly Springs (before he finally moved there).
Less than a week before moving to the “Nation,” “Coulter bought
from George W. Chapman for $1,200 (February 9, 1884) a tract ee
land containing 169 acres on which there was a substantial tw o-story
house. Into ghiy house the Coulters moved and continued there as
long .as they lived in the “Nation.” Apparently Coulter paid cash
for. this property, excepting $400, for which he gave Chapman two
26 JoHN ELLis CouLtER
notes of $200 each, one falling due February 15, 1886 and the other
a year later. He cleared all this indebtedness by January 5, 1888.
Important as it was to have a place in which to live, it was equally
important to have a place wherein a living could be made. To secure
power for his lumbering business, on February 28th Coulter bought
from Samuel and Lucinda Tucker, his wife, three acres surrounding
the shoals on Jacobs Fork, paying them $600 for it. Here a dam
was built and power secured for Coulter’s several mills which he
erected. A few years later (May 28, 1888) he secured from Lucinda
Tucker (now a widow) the right to use a small tract of land as a
log yard “or any other purpose he may desire” (for instance stacking
lumber and shingles). For the use of this land he paid Lucinda 75
cents annually as long as he should desire this use.
A favorite expression of Coulter’s was, “There is no more land being
made.” Acting on this aphorism he proceeded to acquire more land
not only here in the “Nation,” but even more actively when he moved
to Connelly Springs. On July 4, 1888 he bought 25 acres from George
W. Wilson for $3.00 an acre. At other times he bought land on both
sides of Jacobs Fork, and by 1891 he owned in Lower Fork Township
in Burke County (only a half mile to the westward) 149 acres on
Camp Creek, 85 acres on Douglass Creek, and 115 acres elsewhere.
Coulter wasted no time in erecting his mills and preparing to market
his timber products. Most of his mill machinery was under one roof
on the north side of the river. There were a sawmill, a shingle
machine, a planer for dressing lumber, and other necessary equip-
ment. There was also a gristmill, designed principally for grinding
corn meal by means, of course, of millstones or burrstones; but the
mill also ground wheat for bread. Roller mills and their so-called
“patent flour’ were not yet heard of.
The water power of the river could be harnessed through either
an overshot wheel or turbine. A steel overshot wheel twelve feet
in diameter would cost about $100. One made of wood was cheaper,
but it would not remain in balance if allowed to rest when not in
use, since it would become waterlogged and consequently heavier
in the lower part, which remained in the water. To prevent this
defect, it could be kept running slowly all the time. Coulter decided
on a turbine wheel, which he bought from A. W. Haag & Company
of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, who were dealers in “Reliance Turbine
Water Wheels and Mill Gearing.” He paid $216 for the wheel, and
$58.57 for equipment—bevel wheels, shaft, flanges, and gate fixtures.
He was getting other machinery from various suppliers. Making
shingles one of his major operations, less than two weeks after he
arrived in the “Nation,” he was buying a shingle machine for $240
In THE “NaTION”—FIELD AND Forest 27
through the agency of Horace W. Connelly & Co. of Happy Home,
who were deep in the lumber and shingle business at that point. Then
for transferring power to the machinery, belting was being sought
and secured—gum belting as well as leather. By the end of April,
1884, Coulter was about ready to begin operations. In ordering belting
at that time from New York, he added, “Please ship at once as I am
standing still.”
In entering into the lumber and shingle business and the manufac-
ture of other timber products, Coulter began equipping himself with
various aids—publications which would keep him abreast of the times,
and handy calculators. He subscribed for the Tradesman, A Southern
Trade Journal Devoted to Manufacturing, Mining, Mercantile and
Industrial Pursuits, a semi-monthly published in Chattanooga; also
Rand, McNally & Co.’s Record of Lumber Mills and Lumber Dealers,
United States and Canada. An especially handy device which he
bought was Scribner's Lumber & Log Book; For Ship and Boat
Builders, Lumber Merchants, Saw-Mill Men, Farmers and Me-
chanics. . . . It was written by J. M. Scribner and published in
Rochester, New York in 1882 in a revised and illustrated edition.
It was a ready calculator for measuring lumber of all lengths, widths,
and thicknesses and a compilation of useful information relative to
lumber, logs, and timber.
Now for the buzzing noise of machinery in action, punctuated
by the long whines of the saw as it cut off lumber from the logs,
and the short whines of the shingle saw in quick succession as it cut
the shingle blocks into wide slabs ready to be trimmed into three
inch and four inch widths. The first and last (outside) slabs from the
shingle block were called “juggles,” and when split up they made
good stove wood. Also over and above this din of whizzing noises,
there could be heard in distinct over-tones the rhythmic rumbling
of the burrstones as they whirled round and round grinding corn into
meal and feed-stuffs and wheat into flour.
The logs and shingle blocks came not only from Coulter’s timber-
land but also from the landowners of the surrounding regions, who
hauled them on ox carts to the log and block yard. Also Coulter
had his own yokes of oxen, which hauled many logs to his mill, one
of his finest oxen was drowned while fording the river at the
crossing just below the milldam. Logs and shingle blocks were also
floated down the river and fished out at the obstruction above the
dam. On one occasion, in 1888, Coulter paid Joe Friddle $1.00 for
pulling logs out.
Logs from the great yellow pines were the main supply, but there
were also some of white oak, poplar, and birch. Sometimes Coulter
28 Joun Exvis CouLTER
bought logs for as little as 32 cents apiece; also he bought them on
the basis of 25 cents for 100 feet of lumber cut from them. He bought
many shingle blocks, obtaining from Calvin Smith in one period 1,031
on the bank of the river, ready to be thrown in and floated to the
mill. Sam Tucker, from whom Coulter had bought the shoals, cut and
hauled logs until his death in March, 1888.
On June 4, 1884 Coulter wrote to his cousin O. L. Lowe: “I am now
prepared to fill orders for shingles, hope you will favor me with
yours. I can cut 20,000 per day. We will guarantee shingles to be all
yellow heart-pine and to hold out in number at the following prices
4 in. gaged at the mill $2.15” per thousand and in other specifications
at lower prices. Shingles were packed in bales of 250. Ten days
later Coulter leased for six months to L. M. (Mon) Williams a fourth
interest in his shingle machine for to cents a thousand shingles.
Probably this was a round-about way of securing the services of
Williams without paying him a salary. Soon Coulter was selling
shingles far and wide: to Philadelphia, ‘Baltimore, Asheville, Greens-
boro, and to markets closer to home. It was a common practice for
prospective customers to request samples, which Coulter would always
obligingly send.
Apart from lumber and shingles, standard timber products, Coulter
developed certain specialties in his wood-working operations, as an-
nounced on his letterhead: ““Tobacco and Goods Boxes, . . . Lumber,
Lathes, Picket Palings, Heart Sawed Pine Shingles, Dressed Flooring,
Ceiling, and Weather-Boarding. Also Bevel Siding & Patent Weather-
Boarding.” He was soon to add egg crates. It is doubtful that he cut
many laths at this time; though he had them to seli, for he bought
them from suppliers. In 1892 he bought about 100,000 from R. L.
(Russ, Ruff, Roof, Roff) Huffman at 90 cents and $1.00 a thousand.
Coulter soon developed a market for lumber and shingles, also,
bigger than he could supply with his own production; and as a con-
sequence he bought much, especially shingles, from other millmen.
During 1890-1892 he bought at least a half million shingles from
Pink Stilwell. Other suppliers were: Andy, Mart, and Richard Young;
R. L. (Bob) Asherbranner, Lewis C. (Lew) Taylor (January 8, 1847-
March 16, 1920), with whom he would be dealing for many years
to come; J. J. Hicks; Richard F. Stephens; James Hildebran; Alex
Hudson; S. M. Wilkie; J. P. Allran; Marion Huffman; and G. W.
(Wash) Pendleton. Some of these men sold Coulter both lumber and
shingles.
Jacobs Fork might float logs and blocks to the mill; but Jacobs
Fork could not float lumber and shingles to market. The nearest
railroad town, Happy Home (Connelly Springs after 1886), was at
In THE “NatTIon”—FIELD AND Forest 29
least ten miles away—these were the successive names of the post
office, but strangely enough the railroad station was called Icard.
There was a point on the railroad about two miles east of the town
where the road to Hickory crossed, known as Bowman’s Crossing
(confusing enough, later to be called Icard when a settlement grew up
there), arid hee was a sidetrack, which made it possible for. cars to
be loaded. The point was often referred to as the “Switch,” and here
many cars were loaded with Coulter’s lumber and shingles when it
was not necessary or desirable to continue to Happy Home—Connell
Springs—Icard. Occasionally he loaded some of his lumber and shingles
on cars at Hickory and at least once or twice “at 62 mile siding,” later
to be named Hildebran. In addition to Coulter's own wagoning
operations, there were others who furnished their own teams and
wagons, and among them were: the Brittains (Will, Wade, Jonas
[March 22, 1830-November 28, 1905], and James), Anderson Hudson,
Dan Johnson, and Russ Huffman. A man with his own team and
wagon did hauling for $3.50 a day. A driver for Coulter’s outfit
received 50 cents a day.
Though Coulter had run away from farming at his old home place
back in Jacobs Fork Township, he was not going to neglect it here;
for he had the habit of including in his meiieas activities anything
which he could fit into them. OF course, farming was not his main
concern here, but it was important. He raised principally grain, wheat,
oats, corn, and rye. Also he produced some sweet potatoes, molasses
cane, and, of course, kitchen garden vegetables. In 1888 he had five
acres of oats. When it was ready to harvest, he paid Abb Simpson a
day’s wages to hunt up the necessary hands. Grain was cut with the
scythe and cradle. Cradling was back- breaking and brought $1 a
day; those who followed and bound the grain into Shisny es com-
manded only 4o cents a day. In 189: Russ “Huffman worked seven
days at 50 cents a day, making molasses.
Coulter during his stay in the “Nation,” hired a couple of dozen
workmen, most “of whom, if not all, he always remembered with
affection in later life, noting when something important happened
to any of them (as their deaths) that “so-and-so” worked for him in
the “Nation.” When Sidney G. (Sid) Hartsoe died on February 26,
1934, Coulter noted that Sid “was the first man I ever employed,”
and that was in 1882, the year Coulter was married and two years
before he moved over to the “Nation.” Sid followed him there and
this is the text of a contract made between them, for the year June 18,
1891-June 18, 1892:
“This certifies that I, S. G. Hartsoe, of the first [part] do hereby
agree to work for J. E. Coulter of the 2nd part for a term of 12
30 Joun Eris CouLTer
months from date at 50 cts per day for all work except Harvest labor
which I am to have the customary price of the country, that I will not
loiter or lose time during my employment unnecessarily but will on
the other hand do all work to the best of my knowledge or ability
to the best interests of my employer, that I will give due notice if
I want to lose a day, that I will make good all time lost wontonly
or maliciously and all repairs accrued by my carelessness and neglect.”
“I, J. E. Coulter, of the 2nd part do hereby agree to and accept
the above, and will pay to the said S. G. Hartsoe the Harvest prices
of this country for all work done in the wheat & oat crop and fifty
cts per day for all other work, that I will sell him all his supplies
& goods needed, at the cash price & pay ballance due him in cash,
that I will charge nothing for the teams to move him, provided he
complies with the contract, that I will furnish him firewood, patches,
& house rent free & a horse & plow free to cultivate patches, and
team free to haul up his firewood free, that I will give regular em-
ployment whenever possible. That I will pay interest from day to day
of expiration of time if not paid on that day, that I will if I give
party of the first part any trouble to collect amt. due, pay all cost
& allso pay him 75 cts per day for all time lost in coming for his
av.”
. Avery Fry was another of Coulter's workmen in whom he put
great trust and confidence. They remained good friends long after
Fry ceased to be a workman for anyone except for himselé and
family—even to the time when Fry died on January 4, 1940. These
are the texts of labor contracts between them in 1890, although
Fry had been working for Coulter some years previously:
“This certifies that I, Avery, do agree to work for J. E. Coulter for
Eleven months from Jan. 1st except when hindered by sickness or
have leave of absence. That I will give several days notice when I
want to loose any time. That I will see that all the stock is fed accord-
ing to directions. That I will drive to the best of my ability and see
that any other driver does the same & when necessary give him such
assistance as may be necessary & give any instructions that I can and
not abuse nor talk harsh nor abusive to him. That I will curry my
team & Boy [Coulter’s favorite riding horse] or any horse that may
be kept in ‘his stead. That I will not beat nor abuse. any of the stock
nor use any thing heavyer than the lash of the whip and see that any
other driver does not and if he does, promptly notify said J. E.
Coulter of the same. That I will not go off the direct road nor get
drunk nor under the influence of Liquor while at work. That I will
not drive faster than is necessary. That I will not use any obscene
nor profane language within the hearing of the house nor children.
In THE “NatTIon”’—FieLtpD aND Forest 31
That I will if I am the only party that has hogs in the pasture &
they get out make such repairs as will keep them in or if others
have any in do my proportional part. The same with the Cattle
after the fence has been made. That when my time is out & if I
doant hire I will give possession of the house at once. That if said
J. E. Coulter complies with his contract I will in no wise leave the
employ before my time expires. That I will do the above for $13.00
per mo. of 26 days. That I will buy such goods & wares of said J. E.
Coulter as I may “need provided he sells as cheap as any one else. That
I will board Bob & Sam Fry & Sherill. That if I brake the Buggy
or any other implement while using same to my own use & con-
venience will pay for such repairs as will make said article as good
as it formerly was. That I will use all care in driving to protect the
wagon from” brakage or strain possible & also notice that any other
driver does the same. That I will forfeit out of my wages $10.00 if I
wilfully or designedly fail to comply with the ae It is further
understood that T will not tell the price I pay for my Flour or Bacon.
Nor in any other way do any thing to the disadvantage of said J. E.
Coulter but on the other hand work to his interest generally. In
witness whereof I have this dav set my hand and seal. Jan. 27th 1890.”
“This is to certify that I, j. E. Coulter, do accept the agreement
of Avery Fry and do agree to give him Eleven months “york from
Jan. 1st 1890 to Dec. 1st 1890 whenever the weather will admit of
hauling or I can otherwise give him employment without conflicting
or causing any interruption oath the other hands. That I will give him
50 cts per day for the same and give him his truck patches, house, &
firewood ready cut on the newground, teem to haul the same also
horse & plow to tend patches, Free.
“That I will fence pasture at my expense & give him use of sare
for one Cow & his present stock of Hogs free. (he to help to keep
same in repair to the proportion of stock he has in).
“That I will sell him such goods & wares as he may need as cheep
as anv one else or if not give him the Cash to buy same & in the
event I havent the cash to get the same for him at same price it was
offered although it may be at a loss to me. That I will give him the
piece of ground he cleared free for another crop & furnish a horse
& plow to cultivate same free. That if he needs any more forage &
it does not take over 4% day I will furnish a teem free to haul same.
“That I will let him have my buggy if not too frequent free to
take his wife to her fathers.
“That I will not use any obscene or profane language in the hearing
of his house or family.
“That I will not do any thing to injure his reputation or lesson
32 Joun ELiis CouLTER
him in the minds of any one unjustly, but on the other hand if he
complies as agreed to give him such a recommendation as he deserves.
That if I fail when it is possible to give him regular employment
I will pay him any damage he may sustain thereby.
“That if I fail to comply with the above malliciously or designedly
I will forfeit or pay to said Avery Fry the sum of $20.00. Given under
my hand and seal this the 27th day of Jan. 1890.”
These contracts in slightly amended form were written in May and
their texts follow:
“This certifies that I, Avery Fry, do hereby agree to work for J. E.
Coulter for Eleven months from Jan. ist 1890 at any and all kinds
of work that I am requested to do at 50 cents per day or $13.00 per
month. That I will do all work as directed as near as possible. That
I will not loiter [or] loose any time unnecessarily without making
due recompense for the same. That I will drive to the best of my
ability avoiding all stumps routs [roots] or holes in the road and other-
wise drive as directed & see that any other driver does the same &
report same promptly if they fail to do so. That if the fence needs
repairs from high water or winds will do my proportional part of
repairs. That if my hogs g get out I will do my part at repairs or if none
others are in will repair myself. That I will not abuse any team &
if any other driver does report the same at once. That | will see that
the feeding is done according to directions and see that no extravi-
gance is camel on in feeding etc. That if I get any goods whatever
of J. E. Coulter at a lower price than usual not to tell the price to
any one. That I will by [buy] all goods I need whateaver of said
J. E. C. provided he sells the same as cheep as I can buy elsewhere.
That I will not say or do any thing nor make any statement whatever
to any one that will be calculated +0 injure him in any way. But will
when needs be do all I can to his advancement. That I will help feed
on Sunday and if I desire to leave home see that some one does it.
That I will not use any profane or abscene language in the hearing
of J. E. C.’s family. That I will in nowise speak any harm of J. E. C.
to any one. That if I think or see that anv thing has been done by
J. E.C. aside from the contract speak to him of the same & not say
anything to any one else. That if I fail to comply with any of the
above contract will forfeit out of my Wages to said J. E. Coulter
$10.00 for each & every offence. Given under my hand & seal this
May 15th 1890.”
“Know all men by these presents that I, J. E. Coulter, do accept
the above agreement ‘of Avery Frv’s & will give him 50 c for every day
that he labors for me from Jan rst for 49 months as per above agree-
ment and will give him his pasture, House & firewood free alee the
In THE “NaTION’—FIELD AND FOREST
33
patches I assigned him & a horse & plow to cultivate them free. Also
a teem to haul his wood free. That I will sell him such goods as he
needs or provide a way for him to get them if I havent them as
cheep as he can get them elsewhere or pay him cash to get them
elsewhere. That 1 will not speak or disclose anything whateaver
that is injurious to him so long as he is in my employ & complies
with the contract. That I will settle with him at expiration of his
time and pay him cash for amt. due him. That I will forfeit $20.00
if I fail to comply as above for each & every offence. That I will give
him as regular employ as possible so long as he performs as per
contract. That I will forfeit $20.00 if I fail to do so for every offence.
That if he fail to comply as above I am under no obligation to give
him employ & will charge $1.00 per month for all time that he stays
after forfeiture. Given under my hand [and] seal this May 15th 1890.”
Apart from the mill and logging operations, the principal work
to be done was the transportation of lumber, shingles, and other mill
products to the railroad shipping points. And it is seen from the
Avery Fry contracts that he was a sort of head wagoneer. But Avery
did other things besides act as a teamster and teamster overseer. In
1889 he “worked” five and a half days hunting rabbits, at his regula-
tion wages of 50 cents a day. It is not clear why he was set to hunting
rabbits, whether to provide part of the “makings” of rabbit hash for
the Coulter kitchen or to rid the Coulter garden of a pest which
had been eating too much cabbage. On occasion Avery would avail
himself of Coulter's agreement to let him buy goods at other stores
than his own, as when Avery on one of his wagon trips to Connelly
Springs bought good to the amount of $3.90 at a store there. On
one occasion Avery levied on Coulter for a little pocket change when
on his way to a Negro campmeeting.
Wages in Catawba County as reported in the First Annual Report of
the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of North Carolina for the
Year 1887 ran from 45 cents a day downward for men, including
board, but only a fourth was paid in cash—the remainer being traded
out in stores either owned by the employer or stores with which he
had special arrangements. Women were given only 25 cents a day.
There was no difference between wages paid to white and colored
people. Coulter reporting for farm labor, rated it as inferior. He
added that good hands could save enough to set up for themselves
and that land was cheap, being about $2.00 an acre. “Any man can
get a home that wants it,” he noted. The wages which he paid were
well up to these standards and some were beyond. Cradlers (those who
cut grain with a scythe and cradle) customarily received $1.00 a day.
Sawyers (those who ran the log carriages at the mill to saw lumber
34 JouHNn Exxiis CouLTer
and those who cut shingle blocks into shingles) received 75 cents a
day, and others in less skilled work received 60 cents, 50 cents, and on
down; Coulter always rated his workmen by their skill and industry.
Abb Simpson frequently drove wagons to the “Switch” and other
railroad points, getting 50 cents a day. For his dinner in Hickory he
was allowed 15 cents extra. But ordinarily Abb received only 25 cents
a day when piddling around.
With as varied activities as Coulter was engaged in, there were a
great many kinds of work to be done, petty and more important:
“cutting clover,” “handling load of cane,” cutting logs, grinding
feed knives, making horse collars, plowing, hauling wood, ditching,
digging up stumps, making pasture fence, greasing harness (on rainy
days), splitting rails, carpentry work, clearing new ground, planting,
reaping, hoeing, and the various tasks at the mills.
Coulter was by no means a hard taskmaster, but he expected honest
and efficient toil from his workmen, and he was handy at docking
the wages of those who were guilty of the infractions of well-known
and sensible rules. Andy Young was docked 27 cents for “fooling
in the creek”; R. C. (Ray) Crow was docked for “beating two oxen”;
others were docked 75 cents for losing a hatchet, $1.00 for “bad con-
duct,” 1o cents “for mashing an oil can,” 45 cents for “breaking 6
Doz & 8 Eggs,” and various amounts for “fooling about” and trifling
around.
Coulter had a sense of humor in recording the names of some of
his workmen, giving them high-sounding titles, such as Prof., Rev.,
Hon., Sir, Royal—“Rev. Abb Simpson,” “Alexander Hudson the
Great,” and “Sir Pink Smith.” He boarded in his home some of his
workmen, and when their board was not counted in their wages, it
was generally $8.00 a month. In addition to those already mentioned,
there were among others: Pink Bolick; Lenoir Brittain, who was paid
$17.40 for clearing a new ground; Marion Brittain (August 11, 1850-
November 23, 1942); James Hartsoe; John Herman; John Hoover;
John Hoyle; David C. (Dave) Johnson; Alex Keller; Jake and John
Linn; Bill Martin, Pete Pruitt (Pruit); John Propst, Lee Rhoney
(whose death on May 6, 1932, Coulter noted with sorrow); Bob and
Mon Shuford; Jerry and Lee Smith; Pink, Abb, and “Hoot” Smith;
Pink and Sid Wilkie, George and Perry Wilson, and Edgar Young.
Working for Coulter did not indicate that a person was not a sub-
stantial citizen in the community.
While living in the “Nation,” Coulter’s interest in livestock went
little beyond the work stock necessary for his farm, and for hauling,
and logging operations. For his own traveling around, often to Happy
Home—Connelly Springs, Morganton, Hickory, Newton, Con-
IN THE “Nation” —FIELD AND Forest 35
over, and Lincolnton he rode horseback. His favorite riding horse
was “Boy,” a large gray steed, which he valued at $165, born in 1883,
and which sericimnent forbade him from ever selling. Sometimes, but
not often, he would use a road cart, a vehicle popular in those days.
For visiting, with his family, the kinfolks around Startown and Con-
over, of course, he used a buggy; and in later years with an increased
family he used a surrey. Until the automobile age, he was never with-
out a good riding horse or two. For solid pulling, the dependable mule
could not be beat; though for steady but slow going with a heavy
load, a yoke of oxen was almost indispensable. In 1888 and 1889 he
bought from H. W. Connelly of Connelly Springs two yoke of oxen,
a bay horse named “Sam,” and a wagon and a cart; in 1890 he bought
from M. F. Hull four head of oxen, a mule nasred “Sam,” a wagon,
and a road cart; and from others he bought work animals and equip-
ment. A good ox would sell from $12.50 on up. In 1890 Coulter
sold to Pink Stilwell a mule for $135 and a wagon for $40.37. One
of his favorite mules was “Mike.” Now and then he would hire a
mule to some workman or neighbor for 25 cents a day. For raising
mules in the neighborhood he stood a jack, whose management was
assigned to Sanford Cline (December 26, 1868-October 20, 1936),
who as long as he lived was almost as close to Coulter as a brother.
In 1892 in some unknown way Coulter became a co-partner with
Perry Chapman in standing a jack in Wilbarger County, Texas.
CuarTer IV
IN THE “NATION”—OTHER BUSINESS
HE country store was long a vital part in the economic and
social affairs of any region. It was a relatively easy undertaking
to set up a small store, where barter for country products was the
general rule; and anyone in a business large enough to require a few
workmen found merchandising almost a necessary as well as a profit-
able appendage.
One merchandising house, which was not a country store, but was
as well known throughout rural regions as if it had been located
at every crossroads, was J. Lynn & Co., a New York novelty house,
which sold by mail anything from 2 cents up to $1.00 or possibly
a little more, mostly trinkets of all kinds—and it always enclosed its
catalogue wrapped around the article. Coulter now and then ordered
from J. Lynn things for his customers, for what J. Lynn had to sell
would never be found in a country store, and there would, therefore,
be no competition.
It seems that Coulter entered the mercantile business soon after
moving to the “Nation.” Probably his store was operating before his
sawmill on the river had been set going. The store was across the
road from his house. A few years later he ran for a time a store
about five miles to the westward, in Burke County. His workmen
traded out most of their wages in Coulter’s stores—especially the one
near his house. In addition to country produce from the fields and
forests, including goobers (never at that time called peanuts), the
greatest specialties in this barter trade were chickens and eggs brought
in by the countrymen. In fact this trade became so important that
Coulter added to his mill business the making of egg crates. This
whole section of North Carolina was now booming in the chicken
and egg business. During the first two months of 1888 there were
shipped out of Hickory alone 37,500 dozen of eggs—going almost
[ 36 ]
In THE “Nation”—OTHER Business 37
entirely to the Northern markets. Coulter hauled most of his chickens
and eggs to Connelly Springs, where he shipped them to various
customers, or sold them to the local merchants. In one shipment in
1891 he sold to a firm in Washington 252 dozen eggs at 10 cents a
dozen. He sold smaller consignments of eggs and chickens to cities
near home. In 1890 he sold to the Glen Rock Hotel in Asheville
32 chickens at 13 cents apiece and 30 dozen eggs at 16 cents a dozen—
though eggs in the 1880’s and 18g0’s were generally selling for 10
cents a dozen and chickens for the same apiece. Large chickens
brought a little more.
Among the other items of country produce brought in to barter
for supplies out of the store were blackberries and melons, cider,
butter, tallow, corn, apples (fresh and dried in slices), and fresh fish
from the river. The country store handled a little of everything that
a countryman thought he might need, food, feed, hardware, and “dry
goods and notions.” As detailed in Coulter’s ledger books the most
frequent purchases for the kitchen and dining room were: salt (1 cent
per pound, go cents a sack), coffee, pepper, vinegar (20 cents the
gallon), cinnamon bark, essence of peppermint, “Tube Rose” flour
($2.50 a sack), butter (10 cents the pound), lard, molasses (40 cents
a gallon), syrup (45 cents a gallon), fresh fish from the river (about
1 cent apiece, depending on size), fresh and dried beef (fresh, 4 cents
a pound), souse, boneless ham, breakfast strips (9 cents a pound),
bacon (10 cents 4 pound), sweet and Irish potatoes, krout, rice,
onions (50 cents a bushel), Arbuckle’s coffee (20 cents a pound),
borax, soap, and jars.
For the household came: toothbrushes, “hair restorer,” “Dr. King’s
New Discovery,” laudinum, pills, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, straw
hats (20 cents apiece), pants, socks, coat and vest ($3.80), celluloid
collars, suspenders (25 cents), gloves (35 cents), overalls ($1.45),
full suit of clothes ($5.65), boots ($1.80), shoes ($1.15-$1.60), Sunday
shoes ($2.00), brogan shoes, sole leather, buckets (25 cents apiece),
lamp chimneys, kerosene oil (15 cents a gallon), pocket knives,
“Christmas tricks” (60 cents), calico, linseys, ginghams, alamance
(6 cents a yard), needles (5 cents a package), and thread (5 cents a
spool).
The following items might be termed “workman’s delight,” since
they catered largely to his appetite and they were sometimes bought
in such combinations as these, “coffee, tobacco and snuff,” “coffee,
snuff, tobacco & goobers,” and “molasses and snuff.” Added to these
items were: cider (30 cents a gallon), wine (15 cents a quart), brandy
and whiskey (not for sale at Coulter’s store, but he gave orders to
workmen to get these items “at Johnsons”), powder and shot (for
38 JouHn Evtis CouLTer
rabbit hunters), sardines, soda crackers, “oysters & crackers, 10 cents,”
and candy. Tobacco came in plugs and twists (mostly chewing in
the “Nation,” little smoking), and were in 5-cent and 10-cent sizes.
The Favorive plug brand was “Dan Maginty”; favorite twists were
“Gray Mule” and “Oliver Twist.” Goobers were irresistible and sold
at a pocket full for 5 cents.
For the barn, the fields, and the outdoors generally, people bought:
oats (14 cents a sheaf), straw, corn, pea meal, bran and ‘ ‘middlings”
(also “shorts”), cattle powders, chicken cholera medicine, axle grease,
machine oil, horse shoes (5 cents each), mule shoes, saddles, bridles,
bridle bits, curry combs (15 cents each), plows, plow points, hoes,
- hammers, handsaws (65 cents apiece), pocket rulers (25 cents apiece),
files, nails (4 cents a pound), shingle nails, hinges (10 cents a pair),
axes (go cents apiece), log chains ($1.45 apiece), and bolts.
Coulter obtained some of his merchandise from stores in Hickory
and Newton, but he depended to a very considerable extent on larger
wholesale houses in the North. He bought much from D. J. Foley &
Co. of Baltimore. He bought some of his tobacco from country pro-
ducers nearby. A supplier at Jacobs Fork post office wrote him,
“I Send you a box Toba that I know will Soot you.” He bought
also from the Richmond Tobacco Company, Richmond, Virginia.
In the capacity of a merchant, Coulter did not sell pigs, but now
and then there appeared in his mercantile ledgers the sale of a pig
for $1.00. That was the customary price for pigs, not quite giving
them away, but about like the price of a calf, which was considered
a more suitable present than a pig. Pigs and calves were above cats,
which were given away; and anyone accepting a cat was doing a
special favor to the donor.
More related to the mercantile business were certain agencies which
Coulter annexed and as time went on he was to make agencies an
important part of his business activities, beginning his letterhead
“J. E. COULTER, Agent,” and then listing his various manufactures
and then his agencies. At this time he was agent for Piedmont Wagons,
made in Hickory, and also in a minor capacity for fertilizers. He did
his banking first with the Catawba County Bank, in Newton, and
the Citizens Bank of Hickory; but by 1892 he seemed to be banking
exclusively with the First National Bank of Hickory. Paying by
check was throughout his life his fixed custom; and occasionally when
he found himself out of his office and without a small check book,
he would improvise a check on any piece of paper at hand, and the
bank would honor it. But it was even a more unusual method of
checking on a bank account, to write a letter to the cashier, as for
example: “Connelly Springs, N. C., Sept. 30, 1896. Mr. K. C. Menzies,
In THE “NaTIon’—OTHER Business 2
39
Cas., Hickory, N. C. Dear Sir:— Please pay Mr. T. R. Glass $100.00,
One Hundred Dollars, and charge to my acct. Respy., J. E. Coulter.
N.B. I am out of check book. J. E. C.”
All of Coulter’s business enterprises and activities were firmly based
on credit throughout his life, and it was credit that worked both
ways. He was constantly borrowing by giving notes and mortgages
and likewise he was accepting notes and mortgages to secure debts
owed to him. He began his career in the “Nation,” as has been noted,
by giving two notes of $200 each on his first purchase of land there.
Scarcely any land or other property he ever owned was long with-
out carrying a mortgage. He mortgaged his original 169 acres to
secure a loan of $195; he mortgaged the Tucker Shoals as security
for a loan of $168.25; in 1891 he borrowed from his father Philip
Augustus $900 and gave as security a mortgage on 349 acres.
In 1888 for a debt of $250.80 that John Robinson, Miles M. Deal,
Sid Deal, and John Deal (May 28, 1866-January 13, 1949) (all of
Burke County) owed Coulter, he accepted a mortgage on a shingle
machine; joiner, packer, and belt; two Piedmont one-horse wagons;
one two-horse wagon, and a milch cow. To secure a debt of $240 owed
him he held a mortgage on a sawmill building, a fifteen-horsepower
engine, and other mill equipment. For small loans which he made
he held chattel mortgages on almost anything which the borrower
possessed. For a loan of $12.00 he held a mortgage on the entire grow-
ing crop, “one Red & White spotted cow five years old valued at
$20.00, and one Black & White spotted cow 5 years old valued at
$20.00 Dollars.” Also he held chattel mortgages on horses, mules,
sheep, shoats, colts, “one Black and White spotted stump Tailed
horned Ox and one Mooley Red Cow,” corn crops, wheat crops, shot
guns, rifle guns, and so on. Later he was not to bother himself and
others with such trifling debts due him and even many much, much
larger ones—and much to his financial loss; and even when he held
such papers often he was to allow them to ran out of date and become
worthless. All of which would re-enforce the fact that being a “Shy-
lock” or strict collector was as far from his nature as the upper and
nether poles of the earth.
Never ambitious for political office, yet Coulter was always vitally
interested in politics; he was a Democrat of the staunchest kind. He
lived in a county which for years had proudly born the honor of
being the “Banner Democratic County of North Carolina.” One of
his greatest desires was to keep it so. He had grown up during the
Reconstruction era and had learned to detest the treatment the Radical
Republicans had given the South, and to detest even more these
tormentors. He scarcely ever called them Republicans, but rather
40 Joun Exits CoutTEr
“the Radicals.” And though he was a good neighbor to all without
regard to politics or religion, he felt a slight contempt for a mild
Republican and a vast contempt for a blatant Radical. Sometimes he
would remark, “I had rather be a wart on the hind leg of a yaller
dog than to vote the Radical ticket.”
And so in the “Nation” he worked for the success of the Demo-
cratic Party every time an election came around. Generally he was
a delegate or alternate to the county convention, as in 1888 when
both he and his father Philip Augustus were alternate delegates. That
year Bandys Township voted 125 for Grover Cleveland for president
and so for Benjamin Harrison. In 1892 he was a delegate to the
county convention and was appointed to the Committee on Credentials,
was made a member of the Executive Committee, and was elected a
“senatorial delegate” and a “Congressional delegate.” For his work
in the Congressional election of 1890 he received a letter of apprecia-
tion from John S. Henderson, the Democrat, who was re-elected:
“T wish to return to you my cordial thanks for the splendid work
you did in Catawba County during the late campaign. Major Shuford
wrote to me that you were the very best worker in the county. It
may be some satisfaction to you to know that your work for the
party is thankfully appreciated in by your Representative in Con-
gress.” Coulter re-enforced his political knowledge and Democratic
ardor by constantly subscribing for and reading Joseph Pulitzer’s
New York World. Also he induced some of his neighbors and work-
men to take it.
The Coulters made friends easily and it was not long before they
were learning to know and visit with their neighbors, and long after-
wards to sing their praises and to remember their little foibles. Some
of the families in the “Nation,” including part of Burke County were:
Asherbranners (variously spelled Asherbraners, Ashbranners, Ashur-
branners, Ashurbrannurs, etc.), Boyles, Brendles, Brittains, Buffs,
Burnses, Chapmans, Clines, Crows, Foards, Friddles, Frys, Fullbrights,
Hickses, Hildebrands (also spelled Hilderbrands, Hilderbrans, and
Hildebrans), Hoyles, Hudsons, Huffmans, Hulls, Johnsons, Lails,
Linns, Martins, Mostellers, Mulls, Pendletons, Propsts, Reeps, Rein-
hardts, Rhoneys, Rudisills, Sains, Seagles, Shufords, Smiths, Speagles,
Tallents, Tuckers, Warlicks, Whistnants, Wilfongs, Wilkies, Williams,
Wilsons, and Youngs.
After Coulter moved away he kept track of many of these people
and long had business dealings with some of them. Before he left,
Hosea Burns moved away to Missouri, and when he died at the age
of 82, Coulter remembered him as an old friend in the “Nation.”
Three or four years after Coulter had gone, J. J. Hicks, who was
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IN THE “NaTION”’—OTHER BusINEss 41
continuing to do business with Coulter, after seeing him on a visit,
wrote, “May God Bless you he has Blessed me since I saw you Mr.
Coulter.” When the Coulters were living in Connelly Springs they
looked forward to some Sunday when they might hitch up the horse
to the buggy and drive over to the “Nation” tS see old friends—or
after the automobile era to drive over and back on a Sunday and be
able to have a longer visit.
Life in the “Nation” was pleasant even if there were no towns of
any size nearer than Hickory and Newton. Lucy Ann Coulter liked
to “exchange visits with Dempsey Huffman (wife of Russ) and others.
She liked to remember little stories about Betsy Boyles and “Hoot”
Smith, who helped in the garden and sometimes helped with the
family washing. Any woman who had taken on the gentility and
gentleness of old age was likely to be referred to as “Granny.” There
was Granny Kate Brittain, but the Granny most affectionately re-
membered was Granny Tucker.
Granny Tucker was the wife of Sam Tucker, who had sold the
Tucker Shoals to Coulter when he moved to the “Nation.” Sam had
died in early March, 1888 (the lumber and nails for his coffin cost
$1.00), and left his wife a widow for the remainder of her life.
Coulter and two others (M. F. Hull and D. M. Brittain) were ap-
pointed to “lay off? a year’s support for Granny and to make an in-
ventory of her household and kitchen furniture. They listed the
following items in her little cabin home: 2 beds, a table, 3 books, a
map, 5 bottles, a honey dish, 3 chairs, 5 pounds of tallow, 2 table-
lathe, 8 towels, a satchel, 5 pounds of wool yarn, 5 plates, 3 dishes,
a sugarbowl, a butter dish, a smoothing iron, a pan and lid, a coffee
kettle, a candle molds, 3 tin pans, a bucket, 2 cups, a set ‘ak knives
and forks, 2 water buckets, an oven lid and pot rack, a shovel, wheat
worth $25.00, bacon to the amount of $10.00, some salt, a cow, 2 hogs,
a straw stack, and chickens worth $1.60. There was also a note ef
Coulter to Tyeker amounting to $208.80 (probably i in part payment
for the Tucker Shoals), which with the above items made Granny’s
estate worth $300.
From this time on Granny became a sort of appendage of the
Coulter family, and it became the order of the day to make visits
frequently out to Granny’s cabin, which was on the hill a little way
up above the mill. Granny was a constant customer at Coulter's
store, buying Arbuckle’s coffee, sugar, snuff, tobacco (she probably
smoked a clay pipe as well as “dipped” snuff), candy, syrup, soda,
a little fertilizer for her garden, and various other needed items for
her house and her comfort. Coulter kept her supplied with wood,
with Abb Simpson cutting it for her. He also saw that she was kept
42 Joun Exvris CouLTer
supplied with chicken cholera medicine, for Granny’s chief stock
in trade at the store was eggs and chickens. Of course, she never
suffered for want of anything she needed, for Coulter made frequent
small payments on the note he owed, which served as a sort of endow-
ment or social security system for Granny.
After the Coulters moved to Connelly Springs, they remembered
to visit Granny Tucker at every opportunity. Coulter wrote his
father Philip Augustus in June, 1895, that “We all” went over to
Mrs. Tucker’s last Sunday. She had been sick a long time and had
sent word that she “wanted to see us” before she died. In 1899 a
neighbor of Granny’s wrote Coulter informing him that Granny “said
tell you that she was still able to be about a little but is very weak.”
In January, 1900 Granny wrote Coulter that she wanted him to come
down and she ended her letter by saying “So tell Mrs. Coulter houdy.”
In the following March she wrote that she was sick and was getting
no better, and that she wanred Coulter to come down: “So come
down at once, and fale not as I want to see you So come down.”
Before the month was ended Granny died. She had appointed Coulter
her executor in her will, which she made July 4, 1894. Her estate
amounted to $35.00 after expenses had been met, and this she had left
in her will to St. Johns Baptist Church in Burke County. The
Coulters were never to forget Granny Tucker, and the Coulter
children likewise held Granny in grateful memory, for they had
always liked to visit Granny Tucker in her cabin on the hill over-
looking Jacobs Fork River.
Mintie Bolick, the orphan girl whom Coulter had taken into his
household before he moved to the “Nation,” remained until 1888,
when she married Robert M. Hudson (May 13, 1866-April 17, 1958),
who was working for Coulter. Mintie was always a favorite of the
Coulters. In 1898 Robert was bit by a mad dog, and he came
immediately to Connelly Springs, to which place Coulter had moved,
to secure aid for a trip to New York to receive treatment at the
Pasteur Institute. A collection from the citizens was taken up for
him; he went to New York and was cured. A Morganton newspaper,
The Farmer's Friend, in noting the occasion remarked that Hudson
was “an excellent citizen but a poor man.” In a letter to Coulter
this “country boy” who had never been in a town bigger than
Hickory, gave some impressions of the City of New York: “New
York is a Bige place the people ar so thick tha Bloc the strets Some
times I Cant Under Stand this lan guede [language] tha is So many
Jermans and all Kinds I Cant Under Stand more than half these
people sa”
The country doctor who served the “Nation” was Fred T. Foard
IN THE “Nation”—OTHER BusINEss 43
(September 3, 1855-June 17, 1914), who was a lifelong friend of
the Coulters. His remedies were generally efficacious, including even
colored water and lightbread pills administered to certain patients
who insisted that they were sick. Dr. Foard knew human psychology.
Lucy Ann Coulter enjoyed telling how the doctor had administered
the colored water and lightbread pills to certain people whom she
knew.
It was Dr. Foard who presided at the birth of the three Coulter
children who were born in the “Nation”: Beulah Belle (September 28,
1885), Clyde David Franklin (October 17, 1887), and Ellis Merton
(July 20, 1890). These children were baptized in the Sardis Lutheran
Church, about five or six miles away, where the Coulters held their
membership.
The Coulters were good at visiting their neighbors, and they also
kept track of their kin, farther away. In Conover lived Julia A. Huitt,
Lucy Ann’s mother, and also Lucy Ann’s sister Martha, who had
married Jerome Bolick, and also Lucy Ann’s half sister Cora Huitt,
who sometimes later would marry Casper S. Coiner of Virginia.
There was much visiting back and forth, and Sister Cora was espe-
cially attracted by the country life in the “Nation.” At one time
she hoped to set up a little school in the Coulter “mansion,” where
she and Lucy Ann would teach a few children in addition to the
Coulter “young ’uns.”
Then, there were the Coulters in the Startown community of
Jacobs Fork Township, John Ellis’ father and mother, Philip Augustus
and Mary Elvira, and his sister Katie, who married Raymond Robin-
son and lived not far from the old home, and his brothers, Claud and
Phil (“Ton”). Brother Frank was much in the “Nation” for most of
the time John Ellis lived there, working for John Ellis in the lumber
and shingle business and now and then running a little business of his
own. The ten or a dozen miles to the old home was not a long drive
for a half day or less.
Brother Claud seerns to have spent a short time in the “Nation,”
working in John Ellis’ establishment in 1891: but the next year he
married Lillian B. Sigmon (January 17, 1875-5eptember 5, 1956), and
began a family, numbering eleven children in all: Nora (Mrs. C. B.
Armstrong), Annie Lee (Mrs. C. B. Lutz), William Philip, Katie
(Mrs. D. R. King), Ila (Mrs. H. B. Little), Vernon, Louise (Mrs.
R. L. Quickel), Lillian (“Dimple”) (Mrs. E. V. Tolson), David,
Charles, and Richard. Caught in the Texas fever, which was flourish-
ing considerably in Catawba County and elsewhere, Claud moved to
Bowie, Texas, arriving on November 7, 1895. He remained there
44 JoHN Extis CouLTER
until early in the twentieth century, engaging in farming and wagon-~
ing. The call of the old home brought him back.
Besides visiting his neighbors and kindred and making business
trips to the nearby towns and to Asheville and other farther-away
places, Coulter now and then rode away on “Boy” to Hickory,
Newton or Morganton on social and business occasions. The Press
and Carolinian, a Hickory newspaper, reported on January 8, 1891:
“While Mr. Ellis Coulter was enjoying the Piedmont Wagon supper
on the night of December 31st, some villain stole his horse from the
stable on the ‘alley’ and rode it out into the woods beyond the wagon
works and hitched it, where it stood without food or drink for two
days and nights before it was found. A human being who could thus
treat a dumb animal is too mean to live.”
In the “Nation” a man was not properly dressed unless he wore
boots; there were boots for ordinary work and boots for Sunday—
though Coulter’s store sold some “Sunday shoes.” Another custom
peculiar to the “Nation,” but if not so it was not to last long else-
where: To usher in the New Year in a becoming manner, parties
formed and went around about midnight firing their guns and pistols.
The “New Year Shooters” made their annual visits to the Coulter
house. It is not recorded in the archives whether or not these
“Shooters” expected or received a “hand-out” of cakes and cider
for this special friendly recognition. The Halloween “Trick or Treat”
barbarism had not yet been invented.
A lifelong friend of the family with his two children George and
Eben was L. M. (Mon) Williams. In the late 1880’s Mon was clerking
in Coulter’s store at 48 cents a day and by the early 1890’s he had
been raised 2 cents a day to exactly 50 cents. George and Eben were
typical country boys, chock-full of mischief. One of their es-
capades was: both to ride an opinionated mule which had made up
its mind to carry only one of the boys at a time. Their strategy was
for one to get on the mule and then ride under the limb of a tree
on which the other was perched and let him drop down on the mule.
Old gentleman Mon remarked, ““Them boys would ride the devil if
they could get on him.” After Coulter moved to Connelly Springs,
Mon clerked for him there for a time. Mon was a great favorite with
the Coulter children, especially with one of the boys after he had
presented him with a Confederate flag, which Mon had brought back
from a Confederate soldiers’ reunion—Mon had been a brave Con-
federate soldier. The Williams boys got the Western fever and
roamed far beyond the Mississippi River. George became a doctor
of medicine and practiced in lowa and Nebraska. From the latter
state he wrote humorously in 1901, “Business is only moderate. The
In THE “Nation”—OTHER BustNeEss 45
health is distressingly good.” But he saw hope in the future: “A
rythum of good health is sure to be followed by a storm of sick
folks.” In his later life Mon spent some months in Lincoln, Nebraska,
on a visit to his son. If there was anything which Mon liked better
than his family and friends, it was his tobacco chewing. He was
scarcely ever to be seen without a chew in his mouth, except at meals
and in his sleep.
Coulter’s closest and longest-continuing business association was
with Sanford Cline. It was more than a business association; it was
a friendship which lasted as long as Sanford lived. Sanford Cline was
a mechanical genius, a dreamer who never quite reached success in
anything, who was beset by many misfortunes, disappointments, trials,
and tribulations. He never soured on the world, though he thought
deeply and tried to find remedies for the ills he saw around him. He
was Coulter’s handiest man around the mill, whether it was looking
after the machinery or hauling logs. Sanford was a lad of less than
16 years of age when Coulter first moved to the “Nation” and came
in contact with him. Coulter saw that he was an unusual boy.
In 1892 preparatory to moving to Connelly Springs, Coulter sold to
Sanford two-thirds interest in the Tucker Shoals and mill and 7
additional acres—the shoals tract being slightly over 3 acres. They
now formed the firm of “J. E. Coulter & Co. Manufacturers of Lum-
ber, Shingles, Laths, Picket Palings, Goods and Tobacco Boxes, Meal,
Molasses, etc.” Sanford had a little business of his own, with which
Coulter did not care to be associated, though the same letterhead
with a rope of dividing lines separating the names of the two firms
was used for both. The part of the letterhead belonging to Sanford
individually read: “Sanford Cline Manufacturer and Retail Dealer
in Pure White Corn Whisky. A Fine Article.”
Sanford, who lived on the hill above the mill and not very far
from Granny Tucker's, succeeded in adding to his business by getting
established on November 11, 1893 a post office named Millstone, of
which he became postmaster, running it in his own yard. The post
office was a weakling which never grew. On one occasion in 1895
Sanford wrote Coulter to send him $3.00 worth of stamps and postal
cards, because his supply had run out. The office was discontinued
on September 9, 1897. Sanford did not prosper as a member of J. E.
Coulter & Co. He was soon badly in debt to Coulter, and the mill
continued mostly Coulter’s financial concern. The company was
dissolved sometime before 1900 and soon afterwards Sanford organized
the firm of “Cline & Wilkie,” whose demise was noted in Sanford’s
own letterhead: “Office of Sanford Cline, Successor to Cline &
46 Joun Exxiis CouLTEer
Wilkie, Manufacturer of Finished Lumber and Shingles. Orders So-
licited.” He gave as his post office address, Henry.
By this time Sanford’s mechanical genius was beginning to assert
itself in a planer and matching machine which would polish off and
groove the roughest lumber passing over knots and curls as smoothly
as over the rest of the plank. This invention seemed to be the answer
to the lumberman’s dream; but to build this planer with all the parts
necessary was a slow and costly job, and for some years Sanford
was constantly working to make improvements. In June, 1901, he
wrote that he was “moving on building my invention. It is costing
Steep.” By 1905 he thought that he was ready to have it patented, but
in 1910 he was still working on improvements. The next year he wanted
to set it up at Coulter’s mill in Connelly Springs, where the public
could better see it work. He had already been running it over in the
“Nation,” and his customers said that it was doing the finest work
they had ever seen. He soon set it up down at Lincolnton and was
about to sell the invention for $11,000, but the contemplated company
was unable to raise the capital, which was to be $35,000.
He brought the machine back and in 1914 he believed he had won
out with it in a deal he had made with the Carolina Foundry & Ma-
chine Co. of Winston-Salem. They were going to manufacture it
“true to my own idea of a machine of merit.” He was now much
encouraged and felt that he would soon be out of debt and his
financial worries ended. In May, 1914 he moved to King, a small
town in Stokes County, near Winston-Salem, where he organized
the “R. P. Reese Company,” consisting of Reese and himself and
capitalized at $35,000, but Sanford had in the company only his
machine and a job. He now expected to pay Coulter all he owed.
As he said a little later, “I will be awfully glad if I can get square
and even once in my life.” He hoped that Coulter could sell the
shoals and all of Sanford’s land thereabouts and his house, for enough
to satisfy Sanford’s debts to him and leave a little for Sanford himself.
Sanford thought it was high time to get rid of the property, for the
buildings were falling down, people were dynamiting the river for
fish and someone might soon dynamite the dam because of complaints
of landowners above that their bottom lands were being ruined by
the water which the dam backed up. There was nothing more to be
made at the shoals, he said: “As I see it big Biz. has taken the place
of little Biz. and I cant see much to a little man anv more.” No sale
was made. ;
More disappointments; his fair hopes at King vanished; he was
soon back in the “Nation”; but what to do now? In 1912 he had
Jaunched out on a little undertaking (a sort of side-line) which he
In THE “Nation” —OTHER BUSINESS
47
thought might bring in a little money. He had studied the “science
of phrenology,” sind announced that he would feel the heads of people
and read their character for them at 25 cents a reading, and include
a chart with all this information recorded for an additional 75 cents.
But the phrenological game had by this time exploded, and Sanford
soon retreated from this venture. But here he was back again at the
Tucker Shoals in 1916 where he had dreamed dreams and seen
visions—back where he had started with nothing but disappointments
and disillusionments. But he was determined to use the power at the
shoals, if not to saw lumber, then to make electricity. He set up an
electric light plant and provided lights for all who would contract
to take them. Times were now hard and he could secure only five
customers, for people could not afford to put up lines and have their
houses wired. At this same time Sanford had begun to make concrete
drainage tiles and large ones for incasing wells. Coulter allowed him
to display them on his land and to aid in their sale, but little came of
this.
In the spring of 1906 Sanford had been on a trip and returning
late one night, tired and cold, he sat down in front of the fire and
dozed off. He fell and before he could recover himself his celluloid
collar blazed up and burned his face badly and destroyed one of his
eyes. He went to the Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte for treat-
ment, where the doctors grafted skin on his face and healed his
burns. But one side of his face remained disfigured and his recovery
was not entirely satisfactory. In 1915 he went to the Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore for further treatment. On September 1sth he
wrote Coulter, “I have entered the hospital here to get my eye and
face mended up,” and early the next vear he gave this report on his
condition: “I have been pretty tore up and made over and am in some
better shape than I was.”
Had Job of old been more beset with adversities, misfortunes, and
disappointments than Sanford? By 1915 Sanford had begun to wonder
whether there must not be something wrong somewhere else than in
himself. Soon he began reading The Appeal to Reason, a Socialist
propaganda paper published in Girard, Kansas, and through it he
received much assistance and direction in his thinking. In his cor-
respondence with Coulter he turned to philosophizing on the ills of
the times, how things were out of joint, and it was high time that
something were being done. He sought to show Coulter he was living
in a sort "of fool’s paradise. “T am mailing you under separate cover
a copy of The Appeal to Reason. 1 hope vou will read it and pass it
to your intelligent friends.” He said that it gave information “that
other papers dont tell.”
48 Joun ELvis CouLTER
Sanford thought that a new political party and a new religion were
necessary to bring relief. He began to see a struggle between capital
and labor and he thought the laboring man should look more to his
own interests. “As you no doubt are aware,” he wrote, “that there
is an industrial struggle going on with labor organized against capital
in every known civilized nation and it is behooving the people that
work to come in line with their own interest before they are... .”
Sanford said that he was in debt and saw no way to get out except
through a new dispensation. “If the workers produce and market a
great abundance,” he asked, “should they (with a just government
administration) be as prosperous as they are productive? If not, why
not? And my friend, you say you want to offer me some of the
best advice a man in my condition ever had—to quit abusing my mind
with Socialism and join the Dem or Rep party. My friend according
to the light you have allowed yourself to accept on Socialism I believe
youre fully sincere in this advice. But my friend can you back up
this advice by your success and the prosperity of the workers and
planters of the country under 50 years administration of these parties?”
Getting much of his argument from The Appeal to Reason, Sanford
continued, “The war between capital and labor is growing fiercer
day by day and must of necessity be fought to a finish. We must win
or perish... . My friend Socialism is a big subject. It appeals to the
mind of intelligence. I cant write the whole subject, but if you learn
it you must study it.... I am searching my way out the best path
I can find.”
Coulter’s side of the correspondence has long since disappeared,
but it can be easily inferred that he thought Sanford was about to
lose his mind, and that he should be pitied more than blamed. He
believed that Sanford had become an atheist and so charged him;
Sanford denied that he did not believe in God but admitted that he
did not accept the orthodox kind. He believed that a revolution was
coming and he hoped that his friend Coulter would be found on the
right side.
Sanford was an honest but disappointed and disillusioned man. The
highest test of a man’s honesty was in a horse trade. On one occasion,
Sanford in offering to swap his mule for a horse of Coulter’s gave this
honest description of his mule: “The little mule is a good one of its
size. It is young suple and quick & never kicks or squeals any for us
but she dont like a stranger.” He never got out of debt to Coulter,
and as late as 1935 Coulter was paying the taxes on the Tucker Shoals,
although he owned but a one-third interest. Later Sanford’s son
bought Coulter’s interest for $200. On October 20, 1936 Sanford
had started to Hickory and when he reached Hildebran he suddenly
In THE “Nation” —OTHER BusINEss 49
dropped dead. This was sad news for his old friend Coulter. Sanford
was not quite 68 years old. He was buried in the “Old Chapman
Cemetery,” a beautiful and well-kept spot on the top of a hill near
the banks of the Jacobs Fork River.
CHAPTER V
HAPPY HOME -— ICARD — CONNELLY SPRINGS
HEN Coulter moved to the “Nation” in 1884 he settled within
\ a half mile of the Burke County line, and had, therefore,
become almost a resident of that county. Much of his business was
carried on with Burke Countians, many of his logs and shingle
blocks came from that county, and soon he was to own more land
in Burke than in Catawba. His main railroad outlets were in Burke,
Happy Home-Icard-Connelly Springs and Bowman’s Crossing (the
“Switch”). By 1888 a set of letterheads gave his post office as Connelly
Springs. His wagons in hauling lumber and shingles to that point
did much trading in items not available in the “Nation,” and he
carried on important transactions with the main businessmen of that
place. It was only natural, therefore, that this railroad point should
act as a magnet inevitably drawing him to locate both his business
establishments and his residence there.
As early as 1887 he may have been thinking of moving to Connelly
Springs, for he was being offered this year $2,000 for his home place
or $1,500 for some farm land and a half interest in his mills; but he
did not choose to sell at this time. However, preparatory later to
moving, he sold to D. F. Huffman 24 acres for $110, excepting all
timber. Later he sold to Richard C. Young 60 acres for $385. Al-
though he was getting ready to move to Burke County he sold in
1892 348 acres in that county to G. W. Hildebrand and C. C. Cook
for $1,395.40; but this land was in Lower Fork Township near his home
in the “Nation.” As previously mentioned, he sold a two-thirds
interest in the Tucker Shoals to Sanford Cline, and organized with
Sanford as a partner J. E. Coulter & Company. So, sometime in the
year 1892, probably in the fall, Coulter moved to Connelly Springs.
He had prospered in the “Nation,” his taxes increasing ten-fold, but
he would do better at a railroad station. His influence in the “Nation”
[ 50 |
Happy Home -~ Icarp — CoNnNELLY SPRINGS 51
had had a marked effect there, and the stimulation he gave this com-
munity was long to be felt and remembered.
Pioneers had been pushing into the Burke County part of North
Carolina before the Revolution, settling first the fertile valleys of
the Catawba River and its tributaries. Burke County had been organ-
ized in 1777 and included most of the western part of the state.
A spring near the south bank of the river became the nucleus of a
settlement first called Alder Spring, but after General Daniel Morgan
had won his resounding victory over the British at Cowpens, the
settlers honored him by calling it Morgan. It then became Morgan-
borough and finally Morganton. It was incorporated in 1783, ‘and
commissioners were appointed to erect a courthouse and jail. As the
county seat Morganton became the most important town in all Western
North Carolina.
Connelly Springs had its beginning as a tavern on the Great West-
erm Stage Line running from Salisbury to Morganton, and on across
the mountains, in the course of time, to Asheville, which was laid out
in 1794 and first called Morristown. Three years later its name was
changed to Asheville. Connelly Springs was almost half way between
Salisbury and Asheville, the 68 milepost being in the village—it was
71 miles on to Asheville. These were measurements on the railroad
when it was built.
The first settlers who were to make the village which grew up
around the tavern, had come into this region soon after the Revelation
and had secured land on both sides of the Catawba River. Prominent
among these families were the Connellys (Conleys). Bryan Connelly
seems to have been the pioneer of this farnily, securing land on Free
Mason Creek in 1782. Part of this tract he sold to James Connelly
in 1788, who sold it to William Connelly in 1796. William apparently
was the progenitor of that branch of the family which became
prominent in the founding and development of Connelly Springs.
It is assumed that William Lewis Connelly (September 3, 1805-May 23,
1855) was his son and it was William L. who moved from Free
Mason Creek (probably an early name for the present Gunpowder
Creek), a northside tributary of the Catawba River, to the site where
Connelly Springs grew up. Here he set up a tavern and a way-station
on the stage line.
William L. Connelly probably did not move to the Connelly Springs
site before 1838, for that year he served as captain of the 79th Regi-
ment of Volunteer Militia raised to remove the Cherokee Indians
to the West. At that time, mail was addressed to him “near Morganton,
Burke Co., N. C.” and also “Love Lady, Burke County, N. C.” Love
Lady had been made a post office in 1834 and was on the northside of
52 Joun Exttis CouLTer
the Catawba River, but when Caldwell was cut off from Burke, in
1841, Love Lady fell in Caldwell. In 1887 its name was changed to
Granite, and the next year to Granite Falls.
Among the other families who settled early in the vicinity of
Connelly Springs were Ephraim Abee, Joseph Huffman, and Joshua
Ballew. About a mile west of the tavern, a graveyard was begun,
which came to be called the Huffman Graveyard, and nearby was a
one-room structure, which may have had its origin as a church, but
years later it was used as a schoolhouse for this region.
Probably the first house in Connelly Springs was a log structure
(later added to) built by William L. Connelly. It is thought that the
first post office was located in this house, since the first postmaster
was William W. Connelly (December 14, 1834-January 27, 1892),
a son of William L. Connelly. This same house later came into the
possession of James Alexander Stewart, who sold it to Jones Hudson
in 1892; and into this very house the Coulters moved when they came
to Connelly Springs. They rented it at $4.00 a month from Hudson,
and they always referred to it as the “Stewart Place.”
William L. Connelly, who died in 1855 (struck by a bolt of light-
ning), had other children in addition to William W. They were:
Horace W. (1845-June, 1905), Pink (killed in the Civil War in de-
fense of the Confederacy), Louise (August 1, 1849-October 13, 1925,
who married the Rev. D. P. Goode [June 29, 1846-December 14, 1913,
who was a brave Confederate soldier]), Emma (who married Alex
Perry, a fearless officer of the law), and Lizzie (who married J. M.
Sides, another Confederate veteran). These men were prominent
citizens of Connelly Springs and helped to make up a great family
clan.
William W. Connelly became possessed of much of the land on
which Connelly Springs grew up and of considerable acreage in the
vicinity. Besides being the postmaster, he was also the depot agent
(when the railroad reached that point), and in addition he was the
principal (if not the only) merchant in the village for some time.
And his mother ran a boarding house, which took on greater im-
portance than a tavern stop when the railroad reached the place.
In 1861 he married Agnes Elmira Franklin (February 14, 1842-
February 27, 1935), a lady from Georgia, who outlived him for
many years, and was familiarly known as Mira Connelly.
The first post office was established in Connelly Springs on
March 5, 1857 under the name of Happy Home. As far as names
were concerned it was quite an attraction to live in a place so called;
but the attractiveness was increased when the local division took on
the name of Lovelady Township, a name which it was not to give up.
Happy Home — Icarp — CONNELLY SPRINGS 53
But the name Happy Home was given up on October 2, 1886 and
changed to Connellys Springs. The post office name continued with
Connellys always ending with the s, but it was easier to say Connelly
Springs, and that form was universally used except on the postmark.
The change in name was brought about by the discovery of a
mineral spring in the midst of the village, and according to tradition
it was found in the following way: Mrs. William L. Connelly fre-
quently noticed that clothing when washed in the waters of a spring
branch took on an unaccounted-for brownish hue. Investigations
were carried out and it was discovered that the water flowing out
of the head of the branch had various mineral deposits in it. A spring
was dug out and the water was immediately advertised as having
valuable medicinal qualities. Very soon a large hotel structure was
built, which for years was the making of Connelly Springs.
Down into the twentieth century, countrymen on their way to
Connelly Springs referred to the place as Icard. This was enough to
confuse anyone. Here was a place still remembered as Happy Home
but now officially Connellys Springs, and yet it was being called Icard.
The name came in this way. When the railroad reached the place,
then called Happy Home, for some reason, the road authorities did
not like the name, and they decided to call their railroad station
Icard, for pioneers of that name who had long lived in the vicinity.
So officially the post office was Happy Home but the railroad
station was Icard, and Icard remained the name down until the post
office was changed to Connellys Springs, and it was still used by
some people for years thereafter. But Icard as a place name was not
lost, for on April 19, 1898, a post office was established at Bowman’s
Crossing (the “Switch”) and it was called Icard.
In the late ante-bellum times the State of North Carolina decided
to build a railroad into the western part of its dominions. This road
was called the Western North Carolina Rail Road and it proceeded
slowly westward from Salisbury. Various surveys were carried out
along the route before the final choice was made. From Hickory
Tavern (Hickory) westward through eastern Burke two surveys
were made: one along the Catawba River and the other on the ridge
farther to the southward. The river route would require less grading,
but more and larger bridges would be necessary. Beginning near the
Horse Ford Shoal of the Catawba, and proceeding westward there
were Drowning Creek, Jumping Gully, Cold Water Creek, Bridge
Creek, Double Branches, Ward’s Branch and other streams on to
Morganton. The prominent points on the ridge route, with their
distances from Salisbury were: Drowning Creek (64.55), Connelly’s
Gap (65.78, this being the gap at the foot of Hoosiers Knob and re-
54 Joun ELtis CouLTER
quiring considerable grading), Cold Water Creek (67.07), Bridge
Creek (68.71), the “Ridge between Bridge Creek and Double
Branches” (69.39), Double Branches (70.85), Twigg’s Ridge (72.09),
Hunting Creek (75.27), “Ridge between Hunting Creek and Morgan-
ton” (76.72), and Morganton (77.65). This ridge route was selected.
If the Happy Home post office was in the Connelly-Stewart-Coulter-
Hudson house, then the 67.07 milepost would mark its distance from
Salisbury, for this house was on the north side of the survey on Cold
Water Creek, about a quarter of a mile from the point where the
survey crossed the creek. The town was to grow up a little to the
westward around milepost 68.
R. C. Pearson, president of the “Western North Carolina Rail
Road Company,” in his report for 1860, stated that the road was in
operation from Hickory Tavern “to a point within 13 miles of
Morganton. The cars are now transporting passengers to this point,
and within a short period we will be enabled to carry both passengers
and freight to Icard Station, 11 miles from Morganton, at which point
a depot has been located.” On August 28, 1861 the chief engineer
reported: “The cars are now running to Icard’s station and west of
that point for five and a half miles.” This point was called by the
natives “Speagle’s Turnout,” a name long to be used by the country-
men; but the railroad listed it “H. R.” (Head of the Road). To the
westward a town grew up in later times, called Drexel.
At this time the railroad had 5 locomotives (bearing names, not
numbers), 2 first-class passenger coaches, 2 “second class or Mail
cars,” 2 baggage cars, and an unstated number of box cars, flat cars,
gravel cars, and section cars. According to the timetable issued in
1861, “Passengers going west will dine at Icard’s,” thus providing
considerable business for Mrs. William L. Connelly’s boarding house.
For many years thereafter this little village became famous as the
stopping point for meals, and when finally the trains no longer
halted there for meals, lunch boxes were sold through the windows
on the sides of the coaches, supplemented by smaller containers filled
with peaches and grapes for the passengers whose appetites did not
call for a full lunch. In 1888 Connelly Springs was marked on the
timetable with an asterisk (*) explaining “Dinner Station,” and a
comment that it was a place “that hungry passengers delight to reach”;
and it might well have been so, for the westbound train did not
arrive until 1:46 p.m.
According to the schedule in effect in 1861, the westbound train
arrived at 1:40 p.m. and it departed at 2:10, thus allowing 30
minutes for lunch. The eastbound train arrived at 10:50 a.m. and
departed at 11:00. While the passengers were eating lunch the loco-
Happy Home — Icarp ~ CoNNELLY SpRinGs 55
motive was taking on wood and water—there was a woodyard here
(locomotives were wood-burners) at this time. The water-tank was
kept filled by a never-failing supply of water brought in by a gravity
pipe line from the Sook Branch (a small tributary of Cold Water
Creek and named for Sook Connelly, a slave, who lived on its banks).
Since there was only one train operating on this end of the road, no
dispatching was necessary; and, indeed, none could be done, for there
was no telegraph line along the track until 1865, when the American
Telegraph Company began building a line. It was first announced
that in exchange for the right-of-way, the telegraph company would
do “all Rail Road business free of charge,” but the superintendent
of the telegraph company denied that such an arrangement had been
made.
The railroad business as well as other activities of life were greatly
interfered with from 1861 to 1865, for during those years the great
Civil War was being fought; but before military operations reached
this part of North Carolina, the railroad had been built on to a point
within three miles of Morganton. At the end of the road there had
been built a training camp for soldiers, named Camp Vance in honor
of the wartime governor, Zeb Vance. The presence of this camp
brought in the devastations of war.
During the last two years of the war, Federal raiders were operating
freely in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and fanning out
through the mountains to the eastward. Ordered out from Knoxville
by Major-General J. M. Schofield, Captain George W. Kirk with
about 150 to 200 men (“Indians, negroes, and deserters”) passed
through the mountains of Western North Carolina, and early in the
morning of June 28, 1864 fell upon Camp Vance, where about 240
Junior Reserves had been assembled but not yet armed. According
to the Federal report “he destroyed a large quantity of rebel property,
including 1 locomotive, in fine order, and 3 cars, the depot and
commissary buildings, 1,200 small-arms, with ammunition, and 3,000
bushels of grain, besides capturing 277 prisoners, who surrendered
with the camp.” The Confederate report gave a somewhat different
account. By the terms of surrender, the officers were to be paroled
“and private property respected.” “The officers present secured their
goods and chattels, and then the incendiary’s torch was stuck to
every building except the hospital, which the surgeons by their
blarney and ingenious persuasion saved intact. The officers and men
were all taken off under guard, except the surgeons, who were paroled,
and about seventy men, whom they managed to get on the sick list
and crowd into the hospital. The surgeons succeeded in saving about
all of their supplies, all the cooking utensils of the camp, and ex-
56 Joun Extis Coutter
tinguished the flames in two double cabins of officers’ quarters and
one row of privates’ cabins. There were 250 bushels of corn burned,
about 6,500 pounds of forage, some 100 bushels of rye, and 50 of
oats; also some 250 guns and accouterments, a goodly number of
which were in bad condition, about 1,500 pounds of ammunition, &c.
They burned all the office books and papers and all papers and
documents in the quartermaster’s and commissary departments. They
took off 4 government mules and 4 private horses, leaving the 2
wagons and : set of harness.”
Outriding ‘raiders hit Icard where they destroyed “the Station
House and cars” and sent the inhabitants scurring into hiding for
their safety. The railroad inspector reported August 31, 1865, “The
depot at Icard’s Station is entirely destroyed,” but he added that the
“water tank at this Station [has] been substantially rebuilt.” Other
casualties reported at the railroad stockholders meeting in 1865 were
“the Depot and cars at the Head of the Road, and a Steam Saw-Mill
recently purchased and located five miles east of Morganton.” Some
of this damage might well have been the result of the raid General
George Stoneman made against Morganton in April, 1865, when the
war was practically over.
Although there was not much in Happy Home to be destroyed
during the war, at least the war had not made this little village any
happier. Even so, it seemed to have had a hard time getting over
its war devastations, for on June 24, 1867, unable to support a post
office any longer it saw the office discontinued; but after two years,
times seemed to have picked up, for on May 10, 1869 the post office
of Happy Home was re-established. William W. Connelly had re-
mained postmaster from the beginning down to January 5, 1860, when
Robert L. Abernethy became postmaster and continued throughout
the Civil War. He had been conducting a school a mile or two to the
northward, which later would blossom into the well-known institu-
tion of Rutherford College. Abernethy was succeeded in the post-
mastership by W. N. Conley on August 24, 1865, who held the
position until May 7, 1866. Edgar F. Jennings now became the post-
master until the office was discontinued in June of the following
vear. When. the office was re-established in May of 1869, Mattie
R. Abernethy became the village’s first postmistress. She held the
position until June 13, 1873, when James P. Little came in. He re-
mained for less than a year, and was succeeded on February 20, 1874
by Miss Emma Connelly who became the village’s second postmistress.
She was the daughter of the pioneer William L. Connelly and a
sister of William W. Connelly, the first postmaster. She held the
position for the next thirteen years, serving out the remainer of the
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Happy Home — Icarp -~- CoNNELLY SPRINGS 57
Happy Home era and on into the Connelly Springs era for almost
three months. She continued until February 20, 1887. She married
Alexander Perry. The postmastership was not a very lucrative
position, vet when run in connection with a mercantile establishment
in a corner of the same building, it was worth fighting for. George
A. Miller, who was postmaster as well as a merchant in 1808, received
as postmaster $319.51 for the year.
As time went on, Happy Home took on some gradual but not
spectacular g growth. More people moved into the village or settled
in the outlying regions to the southward into and across the South
Mountains and as far northward as the Catawba River Valley. Happy
Home could not expect to draw the trade of people living more
than five or six miles to the westward or the same distance. to the
east, since Morganton and Hickory respectively drew upon them.
A few merchants set up stores to offer a little competition to William
W. Connelly in his mercantile activities. Among them were McEntire,
Warlick & Co., who were also “Manufacturers of and Dealers in
Plug, Twist and Smoking Tobaccos,” and the “Alliance Stock Com-
pany,” which was what its name indicated, a co-operative set up by
the Farmer Alliancemen.
When Coulter came to Connelly Springs i in 1892, there was quite
a number of old established families in and aeennd the village. As
has already appeared the Connellys and their family connections
were outstanding; but most likely the family to first settle near where
the village grew up were the Fin-Cannons. It is not known when
William hin Camen came to America or from what country, but
he soon settled the old Fin-Cannon homestead a mile or two away
on the foot of the South Mountains. His son Peter lived on the land
of his father and built the house (still standing in the twentieth
century, with additions) in which he lived and died. His son Jefferson
M. (March 8, 1845-March 12, 1911) lived his whole life in this house.
He married Sarah (Sallie) Glass (October 7, 1848-August 7, 1921)
and became the father of six children: Frank, Jason, Jennie, Emma.
Effie, and Charlie. The death of three of these children from typhoid
fever in the summer and autumn of 1898 was a tragedy not only
to the family but also to the Coulters and to their children, who were
neighbors living not far away: Effie, not quite 17 (December 12,
1881-July 10, 1808); Emma, not quite 19 (December 27, 1879-August
20, 1898); and Charlie, a little more than 11 vears (August 3, 1887-
October 14, 1898). Jason L. (September 30, 1873- -January 8. 1889),
almost ten years before, had preceded them to the grave, when a
little more than 15 years old. Jennie, who had typhoid fever in 1808,
recovered and lived until November 19, 1961. The third generation
58 JoHN Extis CouLTER
dropped the “Fin” from the family name, making it simply Cannon.
Probably as early as the coming of the Fin-Cannons, a family by
the name of Winters settled far up Cold Water Creek, near its head
in the South Mountains. There are no records of when they came
or when they left or where they went—only a disintegrating old rock
chimney (no graveyard) and the tradition of the “old Winters Place”
remained into the twentieth century to mark the spot.
In addition to the Cannons, a family with whom the Coulters came
to be close friends, were the Hugh Southerlands, who lived to the
northward across the railroad tracks to a distance of about a half
mile. As the name implies, they came from Scotland and settled in
Edgecombe County. Hugh (October 24, 1845-August 7, 1919) was
raised in Duplin County, and first came to Happy Home in 1882
from Caldwell County. He was a good practicing Methodist as was
his wife, who had been Miss Katherine Glover Mobley of South
Carolina. Hugh for many years was superintendent of the Methodist
Sunday School, and his wife was long the church organist. Hugh
spent. most of his business career in mercantile activities, being clerk
and manager in Connelly Springs stores. Two of his sons, Alex and
Sam, caught the Western fever in 1897 and went to Indian Territory,
where they took up land. It was a great occasion in Connelly Springs
when these two young “Westerners” would come back on a visit.
On such occasions Coulter would announce to his family: “Alex and
Sam Southerland are in from the West.” In 1898 Hugh visited his
sons and clerked in a store in Minco for some months.
Also from Scotland (Perthshire) came Daniel F. Stewart (September
26, 1821-November 29, 1891). He migrated first to Canada, where
he was married, and later he continued to Happy Home, North
Carolina. He died in 1891 and was buried in the Rutherford College
Cemetery. His daughter Jessie M., born in Canada, January 11, 1862,
had preceded her father to the grave by seven years, having died
August 1, 1884. Daniel Stewart’s son James Alexander had inherited
the house which Coulter rented when he came to Connelly Springs,
but by that time Stewart had sold his property to Jones Hudson and
had moved with his mother to Chapel Hill, to continue his education,
which he had begun at Rutherford College. He completed his college
education at the National Normal University in Lebanon, Ohio, re-
ceiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1894. Not at that time
being permanently separated from Connelly Springs, he gave that
place as his address; and thus he was the first college graduate to come
out of Connelly Springs. He later made his home in Minco, Indian
Territory, where he set up a mercantile business. (J. Harley Goode,
a son of D. P. Goode, was the next person from Connelly Springs to
Happy Home — Icarp — CoNnNELLY SpRINGs 59
enter college, going to Trinity College [Duke University] for one
year, 1899-1900. The records of Rutherford College, nearby, having
been lost in a fire, that institution is not being taken into consideration
here, though it did grant degrees at that time).
Another well-established family in Connelly Springs when Coulter
moved there were the J. M. (“Mort”) Sideses. Coulter had alread
had business dealings with him and would long continue. Sides had
interests in Mitchell County and for a few years during the late
1890’s he lived in this mountain county at Ingalls. In 1917 he was
struck by a passenger train at the crossing in front of his home, and
from injuries he received, he died. Sides was part of the great
Connelly clan through his marriage to Lizzie, a daughter of William
L. Connelly. Sides was later married twice more.
Another old Connelly Springs family was headed by D. P. Goode,
a merchant, a millman, a Methodist preacher at times, and a brave
Confederate veteran. Also he was a member of the Connelly clan,
having married Louise, another daughter of William L. Connelly.
One of his sons, Horace Connelly Goode (August 12, 1874-January
1, 1961), Was a young man of 18 when Coulter moved to Connelly
Springs and first came to know him. Horace was a mechanical
genius, who had a long and successful career as a shopman and
manufacturer of specialties such as wheelbarrows, porch swings,
harvesting cradles (“Connelly Springs Reapers”), and also wagons
and buggies. A letterhead of H. C. Goode & Co. (G. W. Aiken being
the other member of the company) noted: “Makers of Handmade
Wagons and Wheelbarrows and Manufacturers of Bent Rimming,
Plow Handles and Hubs. Also Dealers in Lumber, Shingles and
Laths.” In 1901, a news dispatch said that Horace Goode “a very
worthy young gentleman with marked mechanical talent” had married
Daisy Glass, “one of the prettiest girls along the sweeps of the
Catawba.” When automobiles first appeared he did not buy one;
he made himself one. He used to insist that he had perfected a per-
petual motion machine, but he later gave up the idea. Fearless as a
man, for many years he was one of the “pillars” in the business life
of Connelly Springs and of the Democratic Party of Burke County—
the last of the Connelly clan, which had so long played a prominent
part in the life of the village.
Horace W. Connelly, after the death of his brother William W.
Connelly in 1892, continued as the most prominent of the Connelly
tribe in Connelly Springs (though living for a time in Morganton).
Coulter had many business dealings with him before he moved from
over in the “Nation,” as well as afterwards. Connelly during the last
60 JoHN Exvis CouLTER
year of his life bought the Connelly Springs Hotel and ran it. After
a few years of bad health he died in 1905.
One of Lucy Ann Coulter's most cherished and valued neighbors
was “Aunt Lum,” the wife of “Uncle Lum” (Columbus W. Aber-
nethy), who was one of the early settlers and extensive landholders of
Connelly Springs. When the railroad removed its gravity line for filling
its water tank, and installed a pumping station on Cold Water Creek
where it ran under the railroad through a culvert, Uncle Lum
became head of pumping operations. He was a constant reader of the
Charlotte Observer, and whenever the train missed bringing it, he
was greatly put out of humor. His son Ed was a farmer, road builder,
and manager of public works.
Two ladies who became fast friends of Lucy Ann’s were Miss Ann
McGalliard and her sister Mrs. Corpening (“Copenny” to those who
knew no better). They lived by themselves in a neatly-painted white
house, with a small front porch and another on the second story;
and just across the Morganton road was the Methodist parsonage.
Lucy. Ann enjoyed having them come up for dinner and spend the
da
a neighbors of the Coulters after they had moved from the
Stewart Place to their own house on “Huckleberry Street,” a road
leading across the South Mountains, were the William Ennis family
(with Bob, a son, long a workman and associate of Coulter’s) and
J. W. Dorsey (Joe), living on the road farther toward the mountains.
Elmer, a son, was a great friend of the Coulter children and they
were sorry to see the Dorseys move to Rutherfordton.
Families who were to continue for many years to be prominent
in the business and social life of the village were the E. Jones Hudsons
and the Midas Hudsons—Jones and Midas being brothers. Jones
(December 30, 1848-May 16, 1925) moved to Connelly Springs about
two years after Coulter came, and as previously noted, he bought
the Stewart Place, immediately before Coulter moved in. The Badsars
were part of that migration to the Catawba River Valley, of an
excellent type of settlers, whose social and business interests gravitated
to Connelly Springs. Daniel Pinckney (July 20, 1875-August 23, 1928),
a son of Jones, became one of the principal merchants of the village,
with a little time out in 1905 when some Yankee promoters of “Red
Top Snuff” induced Pink to become traveling agent for this snuff,
which had a strong birch-bark flavor. Another son, Jones Edna (July
16, 1886-April 8, 1952) was also a merchant of Connelly Springs, being
present in his establishment always except when acting as telegrapher
and depot agent for the Southern Railroad. Fred, a son of Midas
Happy Home — Icarp — CONNELLY SPRINGS 61
Hudson, also for many years ran a general store in the village, and
his brother Edmund was the postmaster in the 1950’s and 1960's.
John D. Cassels (September 23, 1848-September 7, 1938) was an-
other one of those Catawba River Valley settlers. His house was near
the ferry across the river, which was later replaced by a bridge and
this bridge was being superceded by a better one in 1961-1962. His
daughter Jeanette was married to Lee Goode, a brother of Horace.
Though he never moved away from his river home, he was a frequent
visitor in Connelly Springs and was a good friend of Coulter’s. He
was a great power in the Democratic Party of Burke, and any political
meeting in Lovelady Township not attended by John Cassels was to
be remarked at.
Another outstanding Catawba River Valley family was headed by
John D. Glass (November 24, 1830-October 5, 1905), who chose
to live his life in the old homestead, but he was much in Connelly
Springs, and his daughter Daisy married Horace Goode, as before
stated. His son J. Weber Glass (October 16, 1872-August 21, 1950)
was associated for a time around 1904 in the lumber business with
Coulter under the firm name of “Glass & Coulter. Manufacturers and
Dealers in Rough and Finished Lumber, Laths and Shingles, Flour,
Meal, Farm Implements, White Hickory Wagons a Specialty. Breeders
of Thoroughbred Essex and Berkshire Hogs, Angora Goats and
Guernsey and Holestine Cattle.” All of this business except lumber
was in fact Coulter’s alone. Another son Theodore also had large
lumber and shingle dealings with Coulter.
The Lutheran preacher for the scattered flock of eastern Burke
and Caldwell was David A. Goodman, also a resident of the Catawba
River Valley. Later he moved to Connelly Springs.
Living to the northward of Connelly Springs, but not quite in the
Catawba River Valley was Jessie Cook (January 4, 1857-September
29, 1942). He ran a mill on Cold Water Creek, turned by an overshot
wheel, fed by water from a race leading from “Jessie Cook’s Mill
Pond,” a favorite spot for picnics and swimming. Jessie took as his
second wife Clara Abernethy, a daughter of Uncle and Aunt Lum.
Among the other families tributary to Connelly Springs, living to
the northward but not in the Valley were Cyrus P. (“Cy”) Ballew
(June 16, 1816-July, 1902) and other Ballews, Ham and John.
Farther down this creek nearer its junction with the Catawba River
lived the Hamlens, whose land Coulter bought and always referred
to it as the “Hamlen Place.” A pond here provided water power for
a mill and was always called “Lail’s Mill Pond,” suggesting that in this
region north of Connelly Springs there lived some of the Lail clan.
Only a mile or two south and southwest of Connelly Springs began
62 Joun Exiis Coulter
the foothills of the South Mountains (sometimes on old maps called
the Montague Mountains). An outlying protrusion of these mountains
directly east of the village was Hoosiers Knob, and on the southwest
the highest point was High Peak. Across these mountains and in them,
too, lived families who did much of their trading in Connelly Springs,
bringing apples, chestnuts, tan bark, and other products of mountain
fields and woodlands. Alex Hilderbrand (June 6, 1852-August 4,
1905) lived in a cove surrounded by these mountains on all sides
except the east, his fields and apple orchards extending to the tops
of some of them. He would come across the mountains with a load
of tan bark, his wagon wheels squeaking with too little tar to
lubricate them, and when he neared town (he never gave up calling
it Icard) he would halt in front of the Coulter residence and give the
children red limbertwigs or a pocket full of chestnuts. Alex was un-
educated, but he was a wholesome dependable citizen. A story often
told on him, which may not have been true, related to a discussion
of paper money: “Alex, do you know money? Of course, I know
money. Alex, what is this [showing him a one-dollar bill]? That’s
a sixteen-dollar bill; my Uncle Dan Burns had minny-a sixteen-dollar
bill.” Other families who lived in the northside foothills, in, or across
the mountains, were the Burnses, Ogles, Huffmans, Speagles, Shoups,
Lails, Robinsons, Cranfords, and Taylors.
Living about two miles west of Connelly Springs was the Harvey
McGalliard family with their children John Calvin (April 20, 1875-
November 30, 1933), Theodore, and Sally. Like the two Southerland
boys, Cal and Theo left for the West in the same year that the
Southerlands went to Indian Territory. The McGalliards got only
as far as Missouri and soon decided to return. Cal married Jennie
Hudson, a daughter of Jones, and became a merchant in the village.
Theo moved to Chapel Hill. Farther to the west lived George A.
Hauss (July 31, 1852-December 3, 1945), a citizen the like of whom
was too seldom to be found, a schoolmaster, a merchant, a rural letter
carrier, a sage. He and Coulter grew to be great chums in their old
age. In the Hauss neighborhood (later to be known as “Hauss Ridge”)
lived W. J. G. Cranford, who had a midget son Pat; Perry Bumgart-
ner; and Perry Bollinger, a justice of the peace for those parts. To
go farther west would encroach on the village of Valdese, which
is a special subject in itself.
South and west of Connelly Springs also lived David W. Lowman
(February 8, 1869-January 24, 1950), a man of many interests in-
cluding the license to preach, a facile tongue, a hunter-fancier of
hound dogs, a Republican. Dave married a daughter of Sylvanus
Deal (November 1, 1832-July 30, 1899) and raised a large and re-
Happy Home — Icarp — CoNNELLY SPRINGS 63
spectable family. Sylvanus Deal had been a Confederate soldier who
in the company of other Tar Heels, fired with the laudable desire
to be at home, without leave, left the war before it was over. For
this precipitancy they were mercifully pardoned by President Jeffer-
son Davis after having been sentenced to death by a court-martial.
Deal became a leader in his community, a big landowner from whom
Coulter bought many acres, a merchant and property owner in
Connelly Springs. Another important family clan in this region
was the Abees. Jefferson (“Jeff”) Abee (December 28, 1852-October
29, 1924) Was outstanding among the Abees, being a merchant in
whose firm Coulter became a member. Philip (“Phil”) Icard of the
Icards could take pride in the fact that Icard Station had been named
for his tribe. Without treading on the toes of the village of Rutherford
College, the Griffins should be included in those tributary to Connelly
Springs. The Griffin brothers, W. L. (“Bill”), Joseph F. (“Joe”)
(December 6, 1861-July 21, 1954), and Theodore (Theo) (October
10, 1869-June 11, 1932) were not only excellent brick masons and
brick makers, but also equally prominent as music makers, fiddlers,
and banjo-pickers. They operated under the firm name of W. L.
Griffin & Co.
East of the depot down the railroad track about a half mile lived
Joseph E. (Joe) Berry (September 12, 1858-January 13, 1942). He
was the railroad section foreman for many years, keeping the track
in good order. He joined the Mormon Church and developed the
habit of going to Utah to live. By 1901 he had gone there three times,
but three times he had returned; and the railroad company obligingly
kept open his position of foreman, well knowing that he loved his
railroad section more than Utah and enjoyed working his Negro
men (Cornelius and Bill Jenkins and others) and at the end of the day
riding home on the section car powered by these same Negroes
working up and down the handle bars. Joe raised a large family.
Two of his boys (Charley and Frank) caught by the Western fever
from being exposed to Utah, went West. Charley after a few years
faded into oblivion, and Frank was killed in a sleighing accident
in Pocatello, Idaho. One of Joe’s daughters, Nona, married Gib
Perkins, who lived in the regions east of Connelly Springs. Among
others of the Perkins tribe were Doc and Cleveland.
Eli Tavlor, Sr. (1805-1893) lived about three miles east of Connelly
Springs. He was famed as a tobacco farmer. In 1888 he cleared $100
an acre on his tobacco. He left a family of three sons and six daughters.
His son Eli also raised tobacco. Coulter bought tobacco from him
in 1894 at 23 cents a pound.
At a certain time of the year as the sun swung northward and
64 Joun Eris Coulter
southward with the seasons, any of the Coulters up early could see
it rise through the “Mart Lowman Gap” in the hills to the eastward.
Mart, a Confederate veteran and a longtime workman of Coulter’s,
lived beyond that gap. A little farther on to the east lived Poley
Townsend, distantly related to Coulter. The Coulter children during
one year in their schooling passed by Poley’s house on their way to
the Drowning Creek Schoolhouse. They never forgot the wonderful
yellow sweet-apples with which Poley invited them to fill their
pockets and bellies.
Farther on down the road lived Reuben (Rube) Morgan, a man
of substance and importance in his community, who enjoyed sitting
in Coulter’s office whether he had business to transact or not. He
greatly enjoyed the soothing effects of whiskey, though he adhered
to the slogan: “The Lord in His wisdom made fools both great and
small—big fools drink too much, and little fools not at all.”
Eli Martin owned Hoosiers Knob and lived at the foot of it. He
died on February 14, 1899 and left it to his widow. The story was
told on a Martin boy, that on one occasion when he had a puncture
of his bicycle tire, he said he could fix it if someone would get him
a needle and thread. In 1897 it was being rumored that George
Vanderbilt who had been buying land around Asheville as early as 1889
and who had completed his famous Biltmore House in 1895, was
now interested in buying Hoosiers Knob to be used for the site of
a resort hotel, and that he had offered $5,000 for it. The rumor may
have been groundless, but later the story grew up that Martin refused
to sell because the purchase would take in his calf pasture where old
“Buck” was grazing, leaving “Buck” no place to go.
Others who lived to the eastward of Connelly Springs were George
and Joe Aiken (and Bill and Avery) who were the best blacksmiths
for many miles around. Then farther over toward the Catawba River
lived W. W. (Waits) Aiken, who ran a country store and who did
much business with Coulter, selling him country produce, especially
peas. Also in this general region lived the Zimmermans, Glazebrookses,
Childers, Ingles, Pages, Fowlers, Knoxes, Watsons, and the Silas and
Henderson Berrys.
No Negroes lived in Connelly Springs, though there was a settle-
ment of them in the Shady Grove neighborhood with their church
Israels Chapel. (“High Day” at Israels Chapel was their way of an-
nouncing special occasions for praising and shouting and for convert-
ing the wayward). George Johnson was one of their leaders, important
enough to be a preacher when not busied working for Coulter. Also
there were families of colored Connellys, Jenkinses, Erwinses, \ichers
(Michaeux), and Wallaces. A few families lived to the westward,
Happy Home — Icarp — CONNELLY SprRINGs 65
principally the Reeses and the McGalliards. Most of them, men and
women, looked to Connelly Springs for their subsistence.
All of the foregoing were some of the people who lived in and
around Connelly Springs when Coulter moved there. With a few
of them he had already had business dealings. Others he would soon
know through social and economic contacts. In the course of time
additional families would be moving in, just as Coulter had done in
1892, to play their part in the development of the village and region
round about. And some would move away and scatter as the Dorseys,
the Gunters, and the Connellys.
CuaPter VI
MERCHANT
F OR more than a half dozen years Coulter had been engaging in
merchandising as one of his enterprises over in the “Nation,”
and it was to be that he would continue for a decade after he moved
to Connelly Springs. Even before he announced “J. E. Coulter & Co.,”
Millstone, N. C., with Sanford Cline as a partner, he was using a
letterhead of “J. E. Coulter & Company,” which presumably did not
include Sanford as the other part of the company, but it is not known
who filled the place. This letterhead was being used as early as
January, 1890, and included these details: “Manufacturers of Dressed
& Undressed Lumber and Heart Pine Shingles. Dealers in General
Merchandise, and Agents for Grain Drills, Road Carts and Piedmont
Wagons.” And it carried this interesting information: “Post Office
and Shipping Point Connelly Springs, Burke County, North Caro-
lina.” But even in an earlier letterhead being used in 1888 and probably
earlier (details of which were quoted in Chapter V) and being
entitled only “J. E. Coulter,” the location was given, “Connellys
Springs, Burke Co. N. C.” And in the “In Account with J. E.
Coulter” part of this stationery, these further details of his business
were given: ‘Manufacturer of all kinds of Rough and Finished
Building Material, Sawed Heart-Pine Shingles, Goods and Tobacco
Boxes, Picket Palings, Feed and Bread Meal.—Orders Respectfully
Solicited and Promprtlv filled. Dealer in General Merchandise and
Country Produce, &c. And Agent for the Celebrated Piedmont Wagon,
Buggies, Carts, Grain Drills, Sawmills, &c.”
But it is pretty evident that Coulter had no actual business establish-
ments in Connelly Springs until he moved there in 1892. But after
arriving it took him little time to become a partner not only in a
merchandising firm but also in the mill business. He became a member
of “D. P. Goode & Co., Dealers in General Merchandise, Country
[ 66 ]
MERCHANT 67
Produce, &c.” The other member besides Goode and Coulter was
J. M. Sides. This company soon dissolved, and there emerged “‘Sides &
Coulter,” also trading as “J. M. Sides & Co.” Added to “Dealers in
General Merchandise” were these details: “Manufacturers and Dealers
in All Kinds of Rough and Finished Building Material, Heart Pine
Sawed Shingles and Laths. Agent for Piedmont and Spach Wagons,
All Kinds of Machinery, Fertilizers, etc.” Notable are the additions
of Spach wagons and fertilizers. In this company, Sides was president
and Coulter was secretary and treasurer. On August 1, 1894 Coulter
bought out Sides, and now it became “J. E. Coulter, Successor to
D. p. Goode & Co., and J. M. Sides & Co,,” with the remainer of the
letterhead being almost the same as for the old company.
On November 6, 1897 Coulter’s first great business misfortune
befell him; his store burned up. By dangerous and heroic efforts his
account books (eleven in all), were sav ed, but the tops of them were
consumed—an additional misfortune, since the names of the debtors
were burned off as well as some of the items for which thev owed.
The only bright spot about these charred records was the fact that
the index with the page numbers of their accounts was mostly intact,
and by restoring the page numbers, the names of most of the debtors
could be determined.
Letters of consolation came in from all sides. George E. Nissen &
Company of Winston-Salem wrote, “We regret very Taneli to know
of your loss by fire. You are fortunate fo have the insurance and
trust vou will not have anv trouble to collect it.” Oliver D. Revell,
a lumber dealer of Asheville, wrote, “I am awfully sorry about the
fire. I hope you are insured well and be smart or the companves will
get vou. I had a fire once and they will beat you in the adjustment
everv time.” An Ohio firm said, “We are verv sorry to learn that
vou have been burned out.” Adolphus Blair & Sons of Richmond,
Vi irginia, expressed their sorrow and added that in all their dealings
“sith vou we have alwavs found vou correct.” The Dr. Harter
Medicine Company of Davton, Ohio, famous for their “Little Liver
Pills” and their “Wild Cherry Bitters,’ deducted $17.38 from their
account against Coulter.
It was difficult to determine the exact loss; but Hugh Southerland,
who was in Minco, Indian Territorv, at the time of the fire, had
taken an inventory of the stock the preceding summer, and it was his
guess that the total loss amounted to $5,000 or $6,000. Coulter esti-
mated that his insurance would be at least $1,800; but for some reason
he got onlv $425, probablv bearing out Rev ell’s prediction. The in-
surers were the Virginia Fire and Marine Insurance Company of
Richmond, Virginia.
68 Joun Extis Coulter
This business tragedy seemed to put Coulter back where he was
before he had gone to the “Nation” to begin his career. Willing to
start anew with nothing in order to play fair with all his creditors,
he went before the proper county officials and recorded a document
assigning all his property to a trustee. Coulter “being embarrassed
in business mainly by reason of his losses by fire, and being indebted
to various and sundry persons and being desirous to secure the same
has hereby bargained, sold and conveyed to John T. Perkins Trustee
[a Morganton lawyer] . . . all my property whatsoever,” including
about 300 acres, a town lot in Morganton, his lumber, laths, and
shingles, and $1,800 insurance. He exempted his homestead and $500
of personal property to be valued by three justices of the peace to be
named by Perkins. Preferred debtors were to be Trustee Perkins, for
his commission; a debt of $30.00 to Mrs. Julia A. Huitt, his mother-in-
law; a debt of $100 to Philip Augustus Coulter, his father; a note of
$200 held by the First National Bank of Hickory; $190 owed Shuford
Hardware Company of Hickory; $90.00 due E. L. Shuford; $250
due D. P. Hudson, a Connelly Springs merchant; all wages due his
hired hands; $15.00 owed Geo. W’. Hall; and $100 to D. P. Goode.
“All other just debts and amounts prorata.”
Perkins entered onto his task of settling Coulter’s indebtedness
according to these stipulations. After some time, Coulter was very
strongly advised by J. T. Pearson, another Morganton lawyer, to
“take the bankruptcy act.” He said “yours is peculiarly one whose
only remedy is the Bankruptcy Court.” When Perkins should wind
up his assigneeship, Pearson continued, “you will have a balance on
all your debts hanging over you for life. By going into Bankruptcy
you have a clean record and owe no man anything. You surrender
all your property and give an inventory of it. You’ give a list of all
your creditors, ntHONRE of their debt and their PO address.” The
court would then appoint a trustee, who would mark out the home-
stead and pro-rate the assets among the creditors. When this trustee
should be appointed, then Perkins would turn over to him all of
Coulter’s remaining assets.
It is not known whether or not Coulter took Pearson’s advice and
“took the bankruptcy act,” but very soon he was back in business—
not as “J. E. Coulter” but “J. E. Coulter & Co.” Apart from the
necessity of bringing in operational capital, this was an expression
of Coulter’s lifelong proclivity of associating himself with others in
some of his business activities. The letterhead of “J. E. Coulter &
Co.” was the same as that of “J. E. Coulter,” except for the addition
of the agency for “Nissen Wagons.” Coulter’s brother Frank was the
other member of the company, with John Ellis holding down his
MERCHANT 69
customary position of secretary and treasurer. Within a short time
another member was added to the company (if only for a short time),
he was Benjamin Abernethy, who was destined to continue through-
out Coulter’s lifetime and on beyond in the business world of Connelly
Springs and as Southern Railway depot agent and telegrapher. In
fact Ben seems to have been a partner in this Company only momen-
tarily, for all in the year 1898, the Company had been organized
and dissolved, and Ben had set up as an independent merchant, ‘dealing
in fertilizers, lumber, and wagons.
“J. E. Coulter & Co.” was “succeeded by “J. E. Coulter, Agent.”
He now added to his mill business “Dealer in Hardware, Agricultural
Implements, Agent for Geo. E. Nissen, Spach, and Band- made Wa-
gons [a product of H. C. Goode’s shop], Pivoted Axle Wagons.
Pise Plows a Specialty. Patentee of Bicycle Propulsion. Also Dealer
in General Merchandise.” On another letterhead of the same period
emphasizing his mill business, he added items which would engage
his attention as long as he remained in any business and would finally
be his only business: “Also High Grade F ertilizers, Phosphates, Etc.”
(A discussion of his “Bicycle Propulsion” patent will appear later).
“J. E. Coulter, Agent,” was to continue in fact, whether or not
so noted on any letterhead, as long as he was in business; but this fact
did not prevent him from associating himself in a company. In May,
1899 there was a Connelly Springs mercantile firm known as “‘Abee
& Deal,” the partners being J. P. Abee and Sylvanus Deal, whose
storehouse and all its contents burned up. Two months later Deal
died, and Abee decided to continue in the business in the organization
of a company known as “J. P. Abee & Co.” This company was formed
August 11, 1899, to continue for one year, with J. P. Abee, J. E.
Coulter, and A. L. Lefevers as co- partners, every one putting into the
firm $136, with profits to be divided equally. At the end of the one-
vear period, Lefevers, who was interested in merchandising in the
nearby village of Rutherford College, withdrew, and Hugh ‘Souther-
land became associated as manager at a salary of $20.00 a month.
Supposedly J. P. Abee was the president, and, of course, J. E. Coulter
held down his specialties, the secretarvship and the treasurership.
Southerland in addition to being the salaried manager was a member
of the firm. Learning from past experience, Coulter, who through
his position was in charge of collections, devised a special form to be
sent out to all customers indebted to the company, a facsimile of
which appears opposite page ????
But with all of Coulter's skill or lack of skill in making collections,
the company after two years was forced to the wall. The following
document composed by Coulter explained the situation: “Connelly
70 JouHN Evtis CouLTER
Springs, N. C., Aug. 25, 1902. To the Creditors of J. P. Abee & Co.,
and Whomsoever it may Concern:
“We, J. P. Abee, H. Southerland and J. E. Coulter trading as J. P.
Abee & Co., doing 2 General Merchandising business make the
following statement:
“Being financially embarrassed in business and it being our heart-
felt desire and honest purpose to pay our friends who so kindly
extended us credit their money in full, and while we could assign
or go into bankruptcy yet rather than accept this lawful plan we
prefer to and have sold our entire stock of merchandise to George A.
Miller and O. M. Yoder for cost. J. P. Abee and J. E. Coulter giving
them as an inducement two years storehouse rent free by getting 100
cents on the dollar. We will be able to settle with our creditors,
whereas if we had gone into bankruptcy and claimed a homestead
as the law allows our creditors would not have received over 50 cents
on the dollar, if that, but J. E. Coulter waives his homestead and
exemption and surrenders all, and J. P. Abee and H. Southerland
waive their homestead as to this stock of goods and only claim a
homestead outside the stock of merchandise, and J. E. Coulter and
J. P. Abee have never withdrawn any of their stock and have payed
their accounts in full. H. Southerland owes an account of about
$275. which he says he cant pay. J. E. Coulter has been elected
trustee by the Company for the creditors and he has accepted and
will honestly pay over to the creditors as their just interests may
appear all moneys coming into his hands and will use all means to
collect the outstanding accounts and will take the necessary oath for
the faithful discharge of his duties, or if the creditors desire will give
bond in any bond Company they may designate at their expense.
The stock of goods inventure $2021.90; the book accounts to
$ .... the liabilities amount to $....G. A. Miller and O. M.
Yoder executed notes and mortgages as follows: Dec. 11, 1902 $500;
Jan. 1, 1903 $100; April 1, 1903 $150; July 1, 1903 $150; Oct. 1, 1903
$100; Jan. 1, 1904 $150; April 1, 1904 $150; July 1, 1904 $250; Aug.
25, 1904 $471.90. The creditors and the amounts due them will be
found on the reverse side.” (The form document not yet sent out,
of course, had nothing entered on the reverse side).
Despite Coulter’s efforts to be scrupulously honest in settling up
the business of “J. P. Abee & Co.,” after about two years, on April
11, 1904, the United States District Court declared it in bankruptcy,
and appointed W. S. Pearson the referee. On August znd following,
the bankruptcy was discharged. From this time on, Coulter stayed
out of the general merchandising business, though he was long to sell
staple products, but only as a commission merchant or middleman.
MERCHANT 7k
Hereafter his dealings with general merchants was as a customer
(he and his family), and through giving orders on the various Con-
nelly Springs merchants, to allow his workmen to make purchases
for stated accounts. Coulter would later pay the merchants and
subtract the amounts from his workmen’s wages. These orders were
written on a special form designed for that purpose, unless such form
was not at hand, in which case Coulter would write out the order
on any scrap of paper available.
When Coulter had been in the general mercantile business, he rented
his storehouse (sometimes for $7.00 a month), or had a part owner-
ship of the building, or was sole owner. He and Abee built the
storehouse used by “J. P. Abee & Co.” Some of the carpenters and
other workmen who built it were Logan Abernethy, Poley Town-
send, John Deal, Avery Ledford, and Mart Lowman. Although no
longer a merchant, Coulter continued to have an interest in Connelly
Springs storehouses. In 1904 he paid $400 for a half interest in a store-
house, which had formerly been owned by H. W. Connelly. In 1908
Coulter insured a storehouse for $800, which he sold the next year
to Henry L. Vanstory for $1,000. He bought back this building in
i913 for $1,375 and three years later sold it to Calvin McGalliard,
for $1,550.
Among the merchants of Connelly Springs who came and went,
from around the turn of the century were: Miller & Wilson (John
Miller and C. L. Wilson), Miller & Miller (John Miller and George A.
Miller), Daniel Pinckney Hudson, B. B. Abernethy, L. M. Hull,
Miller & Yoder (George A. Miller and O. M. Yoder), George A.
Miller, Kistler & Hauss (H. F. Kistler and George A. Hauss), L. M.
Brower (1855-1912), Henry L. Vanstory, David W. Alexander (1884-
1959), Alphonzo H. (“Pete”) Abernethy, J. E. Hudson & Company
(J. Edna Hudson and Fred Hudson), and Fred Hudson. By 1960
there was not a general merchant in all Connelly Springs (all that
was left)—only a furniture store.
Excepting D. P. Hudson, the merchant who continued longest
in the business was D. P. Goode. Back in the 1880’s he was merchan-
dising under the firm name of Goode & Deal, then D. P. Goode &
Company, Goode and Hudson, and finally D. P. Goode. In 1900
he sold out to L. M. Hull and moved away to Patterson Springs down
in Cleveland County. But soon he was back to live out the rest of
his life in Connelly Springs and the nearby village of Rutherford
College.
Merchants from the Coulter period on down sold almost entirely on
credit, a. practice which resulted in many uncollected accounts. On
one occasion D. P. Hudson sought to spur collections by offering
ws Joun Extis CouLter
a Piedmont wagon as a prize to the lucky drawer in a contest which
could be participated in only by customers who paid their accounts
during the subsequent ninety days.
The chief suppliers for Coulter’s mercantile firms had been: for
general merchandise Stebbins, Lawson & Spragins of South Boston,
Virginia, Guggenheimer & Company of Lynchburg, Virginia; and
the Baltimore Bargain House—for groceries, Adolphus Blair & Sons
of Richmond, Virginia—for hardware, Shuford Hardware Company
of Hickory; Morganton Hardware Company; and Frank B. Ingold
of Hickory—for boots and shoes, E. L. Shuford of Hickory—and for
harness, A. S. Abernethy of Hickory. Coulter bought cider and soda
water (no beer) from Augusta Brewing Company of Georgia and
R. W. Lawson & Company of South Boston, Virginia; grain, hay,
and seeds from N. R. Savage & Son of Richmond; and bran, shorts,
and flour from Asheville Milling Company.
From his kinsman Levi Plonk of Newton, Coulter bought tobacco,
harness, and saddles; he bought sweet potatoes from his brother
Claud of Startown,; and from his former neighbor Henry Blackburn
of Blackburn, Catawba County, he bought crocks, jugs, and other clay
ware. Most of his tobacco (plug, twist, and smoking) he bought from
the Richmond Tobacco Company; P. Whitlock of Richmond; R. J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company of Winston (Winston-Salem); Ogburn,
Hill & Company of Winston; R. F. Morris & Son of Durham; Irvin &
Poston of Statesville, Greene, Rea & Company of Yadkin College; and
Shore, Adkins & Company of Kernersville.
There was a special kind of supplier of ready-made clothing whose
product appealed to the most countryfied of the country trade because
of its cheapness, both in price and quality, the pawnbroker merchant.
It is not known how far, if any distance at all, the pawnbroker mer-
chants were able to push their trade with Coulter; but there were
at least two who bombarded him with their high-powered advertising
leaflets. These were H. Levy & Co. and M. H. Friedman & Co., both
of the City of New York. These companies supposedly bought up
their supplies from pawnbroker shops. The Levy firm explained that
its clothing included articles “which rich men are sometimes compelled
to part with”; that its goods were strictly all wool; and that there was
“a big demand for such goods among the working classes and colored
people.” It announced these prices: men’s suits, $3.00 “& up”; Prince
Albert coats, $1.25 and up; boys’ suits, $2.50 and up; and other
wearing apparel at corresponding prices. Friedman apparently had
his competitor Levy in mind when he composed his folder: “We give
you our exact prices and will not tell you we have goods from such
a price and up and then charge you twice as much.” Here were some
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#1 we wAHUERe Us Wh uh awe LRAT be FH
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Bat CL OM pcre Es
££, COULTER, Agent,
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Rough & Trintohed Lumbor, Paths
CANES. FEOSR AND MEAL, GUAM IS, FARM EMPL EM ENTS,
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a bas OVS ~. One Gave
Left: STATRMENT OF ACCOUNT DUE (Top Part), orper ON MERCHANT
(Banow Part). Right: terrenunaps oy COULTER (AGENT) AND COULTER
COMPANIES.
“s~ J. E. COULTER, Agent, atin
~ MAIOT AE TUES ge anv on Usha 1 te tem
Rough and Finished Wukiy Walesial, Heart Saeed Telow and Whie Te Stine, ahs,
vows PLOUH AND MEAL, ~—~—
ated ATIVE Ae
Niweon & Saauch Wagons; Duyggian, Agricultural iinet @ Machinerys
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rt wetty overae wb wludt dare oe best athalew, J va
Fitg Roo tfaile,
4. E. COULTER, Agent.
Bank of Hickory,
i 4c
Pay tet) be re Ber ee, ee su ORs
db heey ees DOLLARS,
g » i i hare)
PRES Seay as |
ateieet ey" NE. Leu oy ON OR
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Uo A-Ratawba County Bauk, |
Hickoty,N C, Jo seosd LF 189/ No. 7 FP
Citizens Banh of Hickory,
hes to (hak. Koes or Hencer F (=
EB une — ao “DOLLARS, 4
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tov eveee veacecensone: a eae g
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Che: Hora foannl We
SA Gnd
Left: BLANK QUOTATION SHEET, USED DURING THE 1890's. Right: cuecKs
GIVEN BY COULTER, 1883-1893.
MERCHANT 93
of his prices: men’s coats, 75%, $1.00, $1.25, $1.50, $1.75, and $2.00;
men’s pants at the same prices; Prince Albert coats, $1.00, $1.25, $1.50,
$1.75, $2.00, and $2.50; prices of other items, accordingly. Coulter
became sufficiently interested to have his kinsman Sid J. Smyre, who
lived in New York, to inspect the wares of M. Silver, another “dealer in
pawnbroker clothing.
What Coulter’s stores over in the “Nation” sold and what his stores
in Connelly Springs thereafter sold were, of course, much the same;
but it should be expected that the clientele in Connelly Springs would
have a little more sophistication and call for a slightly higher grade
of goods and a wider variety. As for what the elite families of Connelly
Springs were buying at their village stores about the beginning of
the twentieth century, a list of purchases by the Coulters (including
the children) should give an insight into what the family thought
it needed for the household and for businesses outside: rice, flour,
ginger, sugar, soda, eggs, fish, lemons, oranges, bananas, oat meal,
cabbage, bread, sweet corn, canned peaches, sardines, crackers, candy,
lemonade, coffee, potatoes, butter, ginger snaps, chewing gum, flavor-
ing extracts, sausage, fruit powders, heealefae bacon, chipped beef,
sarsaparilla, cordials, castor oil, dyspepsia tablets, black draught, dye
(for Easter eggs, no doubt), kerosene oil, lamp chimneys, ‘buckets,
gold dust, pencils, day books, shoe polish, pie pans, oil cans, flower
vases, dippers, turnip seeds, matches, brooms, cloth (alamance and
other kinds), tuck combs, suspenders, stockings, thread, shoe strings,
horse shoes, mule shoes, files (rat-tail, handsaw, and others), axle
grease, belt hooks, bolts, plows, leather, nails (horseshoe, shingle,
ten-penny, shoe, and others), hame strings, rope, stock food, shorts
(wheat bran with some of the ground grain included), plow handles,
clevises, rosin, gate hinges, rivers, rawhide, and axe handles.
For dress goods and other clothing for men, women, and children
Lucy Ann made her trips regularly to Hickory, ten miles away, each
way requiring two hours of steady driving her favorite gentle horse.
There she patronized her favorite merchants and special clerks (never
liking to trade with a woman clerk). She would trade with none other
than men.
The children made frequent visits to the Connelly Springs stores,
where their chief purchases were candy, ginger snaps, oranges, and
bananas. A celebrated occasion in the Conlter family history was
when one of the youngsters asked for a dollar's worth of candy,
as he proudly displayed in payment a one-cent piece, and on receiving
his candy he was asked by the clerk if he wanted a receipt. The
youngster not knowing what a receipt was accepted it, and later
on attempting to use the receipt for another “dollar’s worth of candy,”
74 Joun Exvis CouLTer
he found out that it “would not spend.” But anyway he kept the
receipt a long time as a souvernir of an important mercantile trans-
action.
Much of the candy in the Connelly Springs stores came in great
barrels, and was made up of a variety of gum and hard pieces of
various flavors (lemon, orange, cream, and so on). There was licorice,
which children generally did not like very well; but also there was
horehound, which they did like and which was considered good for
colds. The Coulter children now and then would seem to have bad
colds in order to get a stick of horehound candy. Rock candy, cry-
stallized around a string in the middle, was a favorite because it was
too hard to chew and had to be allowed to melt in the mouth, thus
being somewhat like the “all-day suckers,” which were pieces of hard
candy on the end of small sticks.
Some items not included in the Coulter purchases mentioned above,
but extensively sold in the stores, were the products of the hog:
short ribs (64 cents a pound), fat back (5% cents a pound), sugar-
cured ham (114% cents a pound), pickled pig feet (3 cents each),
and pork sausage (8 cents a pound). The Coulters had their own
swine and their smokehouse, which contained meats more tasty than
what could be bought at stores.
Some other items never found on the list of purchases by the
Coulters were snuff and tobacco. Coulter was strongly opposed to
the use of tobacco “in any shape or form.” Yet his store sold much of
it, for he was not out to reform his fellowman in this respect. There
was tobacco for dipping (snuff), for smoking (cigars, cheroots, and
cigarettes), and for chewing (plugs and twists, the twists often called
“pig-tail tobacco”). The favorite snuff was Sweet Scotch, a must for
most of the Negro women. There were various brands of cigarettes,
selling for as little as five cents a pack, and one of the most popular was
Steamboat, but Piedmont was not far behind. Other brands were
Home Run and Sweet Corporal. No cigar or cheroot could compare
with Old Virginia Cheroots, in the light blue pack picturing in a
circle in the center an old ante-bellum darky with his fringe of white
hair and scraggly fringe of beard and his six-sided spectacles on his
forehead. They were five for ten cents, and were made first ay BD.
Whitlock and later by his successor the American Cigar Company.
The favorite cigars were Cremo, Florcdora, Primos, and Cubanola—
five cents each, and made by the same company.
There were at least 150 brands of smoking tobacco for pipes, but
by far the favorites in the Connelly Springs region (and probably the
only brands for sale there) were Bull Durham, Duke’s Mixture, and
some sales of Nigger Head and Plow Boy. These tobaccos were also
MERCHANT 75
rolled into cigarettes by the purchasers, and such cigarettes were
sometimes facetiously called “makums.” These bags were five cents
each.
The common method of consuming tobacco was chewing it, spitting
out most of it, but consciously and unconsciously swallowing a little.
The number of brands of chewing tobacco fell little short, if any,
of the smoking variety. These were the brands which could be found
in the Connelly Springs stores at one time or another: Star, Piper
Heidsick, Good Luck, Horse Shoe, Battle Ax, Drummond Natural
Leaf, Rich and Waxy, Monarch, R. J. R., Schnapps, Strawberry, Early
Bird, Apple Jack, O. N. T., Red Elephant, Brown’s Mule, Rough &
Tough, Annie Rooney, Sweet Belle Mahone, Honey Dip, Gay Bird,
Sweet Mash, Musk Melon, Heavy Weight, Sally Jay, Hill Billy,
Black Mammy, John’s Ox, Bull of the Woods, Horse Apple, Tar
Heel, Bill Bailey, Little Marion, Yellow Pine, Our Two Pets, Rock
and Rye, Stars and Bars, 16 to 1, Back to Dixie, Little Cuba, Hard to
Beat, Cannon Ball, Georgia Melon, Red Ham, Limber Twig, Apple,
Cut Short, Ram’s Horn, Red Bird, Big Run, Mountain Dew, Old
Sol, Red Coon, Bunty Rooster, Old Black Joe, Fat Boy, Boot Black,
White Sails—and these were not all.
Of course the Connelly Springs dudes for the most part were
smokers, but they did some chewing. These gentlemen were not
strictly of the working class, but on occasion when stern necessity
required it, they stooped to a little work for wages. They were,
however, not steady in such low practices. They were the fast sons
of the upper middle class. They made up a very small part of the
Connelly Springs population, and were by no means given to com-
mitting petty infraction of the law. They might be said to be the
only leisure class in the village. Here are the items of purchase found
on their store accounts, which were the standard by which dudes
were set apart: cider, which came in barrels as well as bottles, and
sold for five cents a glass and also in five-cent and ten-cent bottles;
soda pop (coming in bottles, of course, with an inside rubber seal,
which was released by pushing in a protruding metal gadget); sherbets
and milk shakes; pickles, oysters and crackers, bologna sausage, and
pickled pig feet; sardines and cheese with crackers; goobers and chest-
nuts (in season, in the fall); candy, apples, coconuts, bananas, raisins,
and chewing gum; also banjo strings and Hoyt’s German Cologne.
Others besides dudes partook of some of these delicacies, but not
so constantly as the dudes.
As Christmas times approached, merchants began to lay in special
supplies characteristic of these festive holidays. Nuts (“nigger toes,
especially”) and raisins and special candies and oranges and coconuts
76 JoHNn Extis CouLTER
were on the list, but principally items associated with Christmas only.
Coulter in 1894 ordered the following for his store: 6 boxes of “Pop
Crackers,” 2 dozen Roman candles (firing 8 balls) and 1 dozen (firing
12 balls); 24% dozen toy pistols and 2 gross paper caps for them; 2%
dozen dolls; and various other items, mostly gastronomic.
No store whether country cross-roads or village could afford to be
without certain stock remedies for the sick, some patented and some
long standing by common consent. There were various oils, such as
Japanese Oil, British Oil, and Magic Oil. And there was opodeldoc,
a camphorated soap liniment of a soft semi-solid consistency; and
also there were the liquid liniments and turpentine. As for patent
medicines, the Dr. Harter Medicine Company was far in the lead
with its various products: “Dr. Harter’s Little Liver Pills, German
Vermifuge, Lung Balm, Iron Tonic, Soothing Drops, Dr. Duchines
Nerve Pills’—and that most popular medicine with a “kick,” “Wild
Cherry Bitters.”
Little devices of chance were beginning to appear. Probably the
first to make its way into a Connelly Springs store was a scheme
for drawing a lucky” number and winning a prize. The draws were
ten cents enélt and a Connelly Springs “angle might often be seen
trying out his luck. The punch board was not far behind. A scheme
to popularize a new baking powder, Sweetheart Baking Powder,
made its appearance about 1900. In each can there was a letter used
in spelling S-W-E-E-T-H-E-A-R-T. The first customer to get the
necessary letters was to receive a complete set of dining room dishes.
The Coulters set their hearts on getting this set of dishes; but as hard
as they worked (and some of their neighbors worked for them) they
were unable to get the missing letter S. It seemed to have been “an
inside job,” whereby the can containing the letter S (and there was
only one of these letters in the word and only one in the shipment)
was never put out for sale. A family related to the clerk got the can
containing the magical S, and, of course, the set of dishes.
As before seined, credit was almost universally extended by mer-
chants to their customers. There were almost no cash purchases,
though barter was rather common. Cash, credit, and barter prices were
all the same. Many a customer came to the store with a basket full
of eggs under her arm or a rooster, a hen or two, or a few pullets
held in her hand, and sometimes she brought a few cakes of butter,
and in season some garden vegetables, some blackberries, and even
a few gallons of huckleberries, gathered in the fence rows of fields
and in the hills. In exchange for these she made her purchases or
accepted a due bill, which was good for future purchases only at
that store.
MERCHANT 77
Some preferred customers were allowed to run up accounts to as
much as a hundred dollars or more before making settlements. One
of Coulter’s customers in making her settlement in 1895 for a bill of
$90.00, paid a little cash, brought in a few eggs, and made a final
payment with a mule and buggy and set of harness. It was not cus-
‘omary to charge interest on these accounts.
CuaPTer VII
MILLMAN
HEN Coulter moved to Connelly Springs he brought with
him the combination of millman and merchant; and it took
him no longer to begin milling than merchandising. The resident
lumbermen of the village had for some years been Horace W. and
William W. Connelly, brothers, and their brother-in-law David P.
Goode. They operated under the name of H. W. Connelly & Com-
pany until 1888, when Horace and David dropped out and the firm
continued under the name of Connelly & Sides—J. M. Sides being
another Connelly brother-in-law, now completing the firm. This
year a news item noted that they were “doing an excellent business
with their mills.”
Coulter was having considerable business dealings with this firm,
while he was still over in the “Nation,” selling them lumber and
receiving their assistance in looking after loading on freight cars
some of his products. When William W. Connelly died in January,
1892, the firm came to an end just in time for Coulter to buy from
Connelly’s widow her late husband’s part of the business, to fill
the vacancy and set up the firm of Sides & Coulter. As has already
appeared, this firm also dealt in general merchandise. Coulter in co-
partnership with Sanford Cline still had his mill on Jacobs Fork in the
“Nation,” and he also owned a three-fourths interest in Brittain &
Company, a lumber plant in that vicinity, and a one-fourth interest in
a shingle machine belonging to that company. By the turn of the
century he set up a mill near Enola, a few miles south of Morganton,
on a small stream draining into Henrys Fork, where he was eonesrncd
principally with sawing shingles.
As has already been noted, Coulter bought out Sides in 1894, and
continued in both the milling and merchandising businesses under
the names of J. E. Coulter, J. E. Coulter & Company, J. P. Abee &
[ 78 J
MILLMAN 79
Company, and Glass & Coulter; and true to this proclivity to have an
associate in business, he got out a letterhead “_......_. & Coulter,”
making it easy to keep up to date by filling in the name of his latest
partner. But from the early 1900's he actually went it alone until he
quit the milling business in the 1920’s. It should be noted that in con-
nection with "his lumbering and wood-working mill in Connelly
Springs he engaged in grinding grain, using burrstones. The flour
and corn meal he manufactured was a minor part of his business,
and was never marketed under a trade name. For the most part,
farmers brought in their grain; the miller took his toll and ground
the rest for the customer.
On July 10, 1910 Coulter suffered the misfortune of losing by
fire his whole mill establishment in Connelly Springs. This was the
second time he had been burned out in a business establishment, the
first fire consuming his store in 1897. Letters of sympathy came from
many parts of the country, from friends and from business firms who
had read about the loss in the Manztefacturers Record. His old friend,
Sam Asbury, wrote: “ am indeed sorry to hear of your misfortune.
I for one having gone through the same trouble at two different
times know heey to "sympathize with you.” A customer in Henderson-
ville said “I am very sorry indeed to hear of your great loss by fire,
and I assure you that I sympathize with you very much, and [| trust
that you have Insurance that will help you out of some of your
losses. How did the fire start? Do you intend to go on doing business
as before? Are you still going to “make lath? It is certainly a great
misfortune to be burned out as you have been.”
Many dealers from which Coulter had bought machinery were
quick to offer their sympathy and solicit the opportunity to supply
him with new equipment. Joshua Oldham & Sons of Brooklyn, New
York, who had supplied him over the years with saws and who had
given him a liberal commission (50% plus 10%) to act as their agent,
wrote, “Learning of your recent iece by fire, we can sympathize
with you, as a ee years ago we ourselves enfkernd a total loss.”
Thev ‘offered their services in Teconditioning any saws which were not
too badly damaged.
Over the vears from the time Coulter had bought a turbine water-
wheel for his Jacobs Fork mill on down, he had been dealing with
various firms who supplied him with their specialties. Not only did
he buy for himself, but he also acted as agent for most of them. The
parts of machines which needed more Constant attention than any
others were saws—large lumber saws, shingle saws, and lath saws.
Saws needed hammering to take the warps out, they had to be filed
frequently to sharpen the teeth, and retoothing w here the teeth were
80 Joun Exvvis CouLTER
replaceable. Much of this work could be done at the mill, but saw
works were required to do special skillful jobs. Besides Oldham &
Sons, Coulter dealt with Henry Disston & Sons of Philadelphia,
Chattanooga Saw Works, Southern Saw Works of Atlanta, and South-
ern Saw & Machinery Works of Augusta. For belting he depended
on Gandy Belting Company of Baltimore.
One of the most exacting machines in a wood-working plant was
the planer, which dressed lumber, putting tongues and grooves to
fit the planks together in buildings, and ornamenting (when desired)
by a bead going down the center of the plank. The hum of the
planer knives putting a smooth surface on the planks and the whirling
of the matcher heads or cutter heads making the tongue and grooves
interrupted by a lowering of the pitch when knots were gone over--
all this was an operation which must be watched closely. The “Shimer
Cutter Heads” were standard with Coulter; they were made by
Samuel J. Shimer & Sons of Milton, Pennsylvania.
For founder and machinist work, Coulter dealt with the Salem Iron
Works, the Raleigh Iron Works Company, Sergeant Manufacturing
Company of Greensboro, and the Mecklenburg Iron Works of Char-
lotte. For small jobs, castings and other items, he could hardly have
done without J. W. (John) Bailey (“Founder and Machinist”) of
Hildebran nearby. Coulter depended on Bailey from the very be-
ginning of his mill business to the very end. Bailey was a genius as a
mechanic but not an expert at all with his native language, as a doleful
letter to Coulter in 1934 indicates: “no bisnes no moar to be had...
Dr’s wont low [allow] to work a lik ir [or] weary [worry] over
eney thing.” He had a bad heart and “i am all so hopen to improve but
cant tell which way i am goan.”
For the grist mill part of Coulter’s establishment, there were the
burrstones which never had to be replaced unless they should go
through a fire, as his did. But the grooves on the upper and nether
millstones had to be sharpened occasionally with special chisels. And
the cloth that sifted the ground grain had to be kept in perfect
condition. A well-known supplier of this fine silk cloth was Robert
L. Lattimer & Company of Philadelphia, who had been making “Old
Dutch Anchor Bolting Cloth” since 1835.
Power for Coulter’s mill in Connelly Springs was generated by a
steam engine and boiler, fed by planer shavings, sawdust, slabs from
logs and lath timber, “juggles” from shingle blocks, old railroad
crossties, and cordwood cut for the purpose. Planer shavings made
good litter for horse stables, and when more than was needed for
fuel accumulated, Coulter used this material for that purpose—and
sold it for 5¢ a wagon-load. It was dangerous to have much of this
MILLMAN 81
flammable material lying around near the fire-box of the boiler; and it
may have been the cause of the mill burning up in 1910, but it was
long believed that the fire was of incendiary origin. Within a year
or two Coulter built back his mull, but the grist mill was not re-
placed. J. P. (Jule) Ingle (March 8, 1871-July 27, 1936) was the
principal firearm. In 1899 he was receiving 60¢ a day.
No fewer than a hundred or two workmen supplied Coulter
with man power, though not all at one time, and not all in the mill
business for he had other interests to be served. In the heydey of his
business career he hired from fifteen to twenty hands. For short
times, some of thern were youngsters of the elite of Connelly Springs
and vicinity: Alphonso H. (Phonz, “Pete”) Abernethy, Oscar Cassels
(of the Catawba River Valley), Malcolm Dorsey (son of Joe),
Weston Finger (store clerk), Horace and Lee Goode (sons of D. P.),
Lionel Greenwade (of Rutherford College), John Calvin (Cal), and
Theodore (Theo) McGalliard, George Miller (son of John, the post-
master), Samuel (Sam) Southerland (son of Hugh, Sr.), and Clarence
Wilson. Coulter’s sons when old enough to work and not in school
were prevented from growing up in idleness; and his brother Frank
was frequently a hired hand as well as now and then an associate
in business. His brother Phil (“Ton”) did some special work such as
carpentering and clerking in the store.
There were various workmen, hiring for a time, who were farmers
with teams and wagons or men of affairs in some other field: Oscar
A. Abee (March 24, 1889-September 23, 1944, domg some preaching
in the Baptist Church); Tom Barber (running a small lunch counter
and store); Doc Berry; Henderson Bivins, Valentine Bounous
(Waldensian of nearby Valdese); Jerome (Romey) Bridges; Perry
Bumgarner; Labe (Laban) Chester; Jack Deal (blacksmith si son of
Sylvanus); John E. Deal (carpenter, planer, and cobbler); Philmore
(Phil) Deal (brother of John E., constable, and expert singer); Sid
Deal (farmer); Robert (Bob) Ennis and his father William; William
(Bill), Joseph F. (Joe), and Theo Griffin (brick makers and brick
masons); Alex Hilderbrand (South Mountain farmer); Dave Icard;
John Knox; Babe Lail (farmer, teamster, and railroad hostler); David
W. Lowman (Dave) (farmer and preacher); Lew Lowman (farmer
and wagoner); Walter Riddle, Aaron Robinson; Dan Settlemyre;
Poley Townsend (farmer); Tot Zimmerman (farmer, lumberman,
and ‘thresher); and others.
Then there were many who made laboring for wages their prin-
cipal occupation: Avery Aiken (later a blacksmith); Pink Arney;
Pink Ballew; Ed Barnes (later a farmer and teamster); the Joe Berry
boys, Charlie, Ed, Gene, Frank, Gordon, Tom, and Walt (occasional
82 Joun Exiis CouLTEerR
workers); other Berrys, Port and Sumner; Sarah Ann Bowman’s
boys, George, Lawrence, and Oliver; Lester (Less) Bumgamer, the
Childers clan, Arthur, Billy, Elihu, Lafayette (Fate), Israel, Jeff,
Logan, Titus, and M. W. (Wib); Luther Crump; Walter (“Cap”)
Deal; Cicero Franklin; Well Franklin, Max Griffin; Sid Hartsoe (who
once worked for Coulter in the “Nation”); Joe Helms; Bill Helton;
the Hicks family, Joe, Mary, and Oscar, Charlie, Jess, and Sol
Hilderbrand (sons of Alex from over the mountain); Stanley Hilde-
bran (August 4, 1868-April 27, 1932) and his son Presley (Press);
Charley Hood; Dave, John, and Lee Hubbard; Gentry M. Ingle (May
28, 1888-May 27, 1959); Ed and Pink Kanipe; Avery Ledford; Alf
and Mon Link; John Lowdermilk,; Dewey, Earl, and Lee Lowman
(sons of David W. Lowman); Harl, Jim, Marshall (“Shine”), Mart
(Confederate veteran, died in February, 1920), Mun (brother of
Marshall), Sellie Lowman, Walter McNeely; John Henry (lived on
slope of Hoosiers Knob), Lum and Sol Martin; Noah and Pink Page;
Cleveland, Doc, Gib, and Jeff Perkins; Jule Pruitt (preacher); John,
Sr. and John, Jr., Refour (Waldensians) (August 20, 1850-February
16, 1941; March 3, 1878-June 3, 1958); Jack Setzer; Sam Shufler; Bob
and Mun Shuford; Harl and Will Stamey, Alex, George, and Lon
Stamper; Pat Taylor; Calvin, Sol, and Zeke Townsend; Bob, Charlie,
Jeff, John (1880-1957), and Theo Watson; Albert Wilkie (Coulter’s
ward); H. C. (“Highpockets”) Williams; and Ellis, Israel P. (July 19,
1881-October 20, 1918), Midas, and Pink Zimmerman. There were
others during Coulter’s long period of hiring extending over more
than sixty years.
Among those mentioned, something should be said about Walter
(“Cap”) Deal, Stanley Hildebran, Marshall (“Shine”) Lowman (Au-
gust 16, 1886-October 27, 1918), and Lum Martn. “Cap” Deal, son
of John (one of Coulter’s most versatile and dependable workmen)
Was an unusually industrious boy. He appeared one day unannounced
and began working at odd jobs around the mill and lumber yards.
He soon took on an air of such importance that the nickname of
“Cap” naturally descended upon him, a name which he and his father
did not at first like very much but did not resent. In his young boy-
hood days he spent most of his wages for candy. By 1902 he was
being listed in the time book as “Cap ‘Deal. ” He continued into young
manhood, working for Coulter.
Stanley was famous for the versatility of his activities and for
wearing a mustache all slanting in one direction rather than being
parted in the middle. Among the tasks Coulter set him to doing were:
mending shoes, bottoming chairs, loading shingles, cutting lath tim-
ber, reaping wheat and oats with a scythe and cradle, helping thresh
MILtMAN 83
grain, carpentering, shearing sheep, stacking straw, and butchering
hogs.
Bor long service and faithful dependability, none of Coulter’s
workmen excelled Marshall (“Shine”) Lowman (son of Emma Low-
man-Berry). Marshall seems to have got his nickname from the
expression, “Arise and shine.” He began working for Coulter in
September, 1904 and continued on without interruption to his death
in 1918. This Lowman family lived on Coulter's place southeastward
across Cold Water Creek, a half mile away. “Shine” never married,
and lived with his mother and brother Mun, who did not care for
work. “Shine’s” greatest joy was plowing his favorite team and
smoking Prince Albert tobacco in his ripe pipe. He was never a mill
hand, but always worked on the farm. Generally he stayed close
around home, but now and then he would hire a horse and buggy
from Coulter to take his mother across the mountains to their old
place, which they never sold, or “to go berrying.” In the great flu
epidemic of 1918 “Shine” passed on. During the night of October 27th
Coulter awoke and was unable to go back to sleep, for thinking that
all might not be well with “Shine,” who had been suffering with the
flu for some days. As Coulter wrote one of his children: “I got out
of bed and went over, getting there a short while before he died.”
It was 20 minutes past 4 o’clock Sunday morning.
The next day the funeral was held at Warlicks Chapel and “Shine”
was buried in the graveyard above the church. During the exercises
Coulter gave this little eulogy: “It is quite a pleasure for me to be
able to say in behalf of the Deceased that he was the most faithful
hand ever in my employ, and it has been my lot to hire continuously
since 1882, and in that time have employed hundreds of people, and
I dare say they were a representative lot of people ranging from
young to old, and many were most excellent help, but far length of
service the Deceased has worked for me longer than any one ever
in my employ. By referring to my time book I find that he began
work on September the first" 1904; therefore he had been in my employ
for more than 14 years. He was most faithful in his duties; never a
day that it was suitable that he did not come to work, and if it was
unfavorable, and I had indoor work to do and called he would
respond. I never called on him that he did not respond. In view
of this long continued and faithful devotion to duty I contemplate
erecting over his grave a monument setting forth in fitting words
this long service for me and my appreciation of it. I have a family
of 8 children, and most of them are away, and they write often, and
it is a rare occurrence that they do not write about Shine, as he was
familiarly and affectionately called. On yesterday and today I have
84 Joun Exxis Coulter
received letters from my sons in the army, and in both letters due
inquiry was made as to Shine, they not knowing that his spirit had
taken flight to the God that gave it. My first thought and act after
he died was to write all my children, notifying them of his death,
and I am sure that genuine sorrow will abide in the breast of every
one at hearing of his death. Because of the writing them, and looking
after the digging of the grave, etc. I had to leave off the writing
of these few lines until this morning, and being interrupted a number
of times while doing it, I have not said what I would have liked, nor
in as fitting words as I would have liked, but the spirit that prompted
the writing is the same, and the forbearance of the hearers is asked.
Peace to his ashes.”
In due time Coulter erected a marker over the grave, using the
name “S. M. Lowman,” giving the dates of his birth and death, and
according to the old custom detailing his exact age as 32 years, 2
months, and 11 days. This sentence appeared at the bottom of the
stone: “This tablet donated by J. E. Coulter because of 14 years
Service.”
The Lowman family saved very little of “Shine’s” wages, spending
it through orders on merchants which Coulter gave and through
cash when wanted. Under this system Coulter made no monthly
settlements. A final settlement showed that Coulter owed $338 which
he gave in three separate checks to “Shine’s” mother “Miss Emma,”
as she was always called.
As Coulter’s workmen left his service he remembered them and
when any occasion (as death) suggested a comment, generally he
had some kind remark to make. Referring to Lum Martin in 1911 he
said that Lum was one of the best hands he ever had and that he
“was not afraid he would do something,” a remark which indicated
that some of his workmen might have been otherwise.
Coulter paid wages in keeping with the times, graded according to
the skill required by the task as well as by the ability and industry
of the workman himself. For the first ten years after he had come
to Connelly Springs, his daily wage scale ran in this wise, as indicated
by his time books: 20¢, 30¢, go¢, s0¢, 6o¢, 65¢, 70¢, 75¢, 80¢, and
$1.00. Most of the workmen in this period received from 4o¢ to 60¢
a day. Bob Ennis, Charley Hood, and John Deal were in the top
bracket, receiving 90¢ to $1.00 a day, because they were engaged in
mill work requiring special skills. “Shine” Lowman, who was always
a farm worker, received 60¢ a day. By 1920 Coulter was paving his
best workmen (in mill work) $2.50 and $3.00 a day.
Most of Coulter’s workmen were white, but he generally had a few
Negroes working for him. He did not let the color of the skin of his
MILLMAN 85
workmen determine their wages. For equal skills, white and colored
fared the same. The Connelly Negroes were the most numerous,
being descendants of the slaves of the Connelly families. There were
Elliott, Durant, Gorman, James, Jordan, Joe, John, Lawyer, Monk,
and the Connelly women who did washing, Ann, Alice, and Et. There
were John and Willis Ervin (father and son); Bill, Conellis (Cor-
nelius), George, Ches, and Sam Jenkins; George Johnson (an im-
portant preacher type); Burr and Lark McGalliard; Linn Misher
(Michaux); Bob (August 15, 1840-May 14, 1925) and Nelse (son
of Bob) Reese; and Andy Wallace.
Willis Ervin was Coulter's favorite Negro workman. Willis worked
at many jobs, but mostly away from the mill. digging ditches, building
rock walls, mowing fence rows and ditch hanes, and doing some
plowing. His wife Martha for a long time did the washing and
laundrying for the Coulters. Willis “began working for Ponies
soon after he had moved to Connelly Springs; but for long spells
Willis would leave and go to Middlesboro, Kentucky, to w rork in
the coal mines. Martha adi Willis did not get along very well to-
gether, and it seems that they later separated. Martha was ambitious
for her daughter to go off to college, and in appreciation of a
Tecemurentiaticis Coulter gave the daughter, Martha wrote him,
“After reading the Kind w ee from your hand, as a Greate Pensman,
and, an foecorabls Gentileman, Sir, I ‘Cannot Express My Thanks To
You In words how I appreciate the High Recommendation, that
you has Digested through your Excilent Tecedionn In behalf of my
Daughter.”
The most colorful of Coulter’s Negro workmen was Bob Reese,
a big six-footer with a strong back and hard muscles. Bob was born
a slave in Jasper County, Georgia, and when General William T.
Sherman on his march to the sea came through that region Bob joined
the throng of camp followers and continued on through South
Carolina and into North Carolina, finally making his way ® Burke
County where he settled near Connelly Springs. Bob’ s job was always
heavy work—such as loading shingles into freight cars and unloading
fertilizer. It was a familiar sight fo see Bob ith a bale of shingles
resting on a pad on his back making his way up a ramp into the car.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Bob loaded with shingles
more than a hundred cars. He was loading shingles in Connelly
Springs for Coulter while John Ellis was still living over in the
“Nation.” At this time Bob was drawing 75¢ a day—high wages for
that day and generation.
Andy Wallace was not a constant workman for Coulter, but he
was good at hard labor digging ditches or chopping wood. Andy
86 Joun Eris CouLter
was one of the principal workmen digging an ice pit, which Coulter
maintained for a few years on his place, filling it every winter with
ice cut from a pond he built on Cold Water Creek. Andy, like all
Negroes swinging a pick or a sledge hammer, worked with the
rhythm of some song interspersed with grunts. One of Andy’s
favorites was:
When you hear my bulldog a-growlin,
Somebody round (grunt), somebody round (grunt).
When you hear my pistol a-firin,
Somebody dead (grunt), somebody dead (grunt).
Coulter's first Connelly Springs mill, while he was associated with
Sides and some years thereafter, was located a short distance south
of the railroad depot. He later located it northeast of the depot, near
the banks of Cold Water Creek. In neither case was there a spur
track of the railroad leading to the miull, and this fact made it
necessary to store lumber, laths, and shingles ready for shipment,
in sheds near the railroad side track. Because the sheds should be on
the railroad right-of-way to afford easy access to the railroad cars,
Coulter was required to get permission to build them and the fee the
railroad company charged was $5.00 a year.
Before lumber was ready for shipment, either dressed or rough,
it had to be dried. It could be dried on the lumber yards near the
mill by hacking it up, the layers being separated by sticks to admit
a ready flow of air. This method required from two to three months.
For quick drying, within a week or ten days, Coulter operated a dry
kiln. This was a building enclosed on all sides, with large swinging
doors at one end to admit a stack of lumber on trucks running on a
track. Beneath the track was a long passageway, running the length
of the building, enclosed in hewn rock through which heated air
made its way to a chimney. The firebox was at the end of the structure
opposite the big-door entrance. Wood was burned and the fire must
be kept constantly going, day and night, requiring two firemen
each working twelve hours—8-hour days had never been heard of
then, though labor unions in the North were chanting “Fight hours
for work, eight hours for play, eight hours for what you will.”
Unless very carefully constructed, there was danger of a dry kiln
of this type catching fire and burning up, with thousands of feet of
lumber inside. And here took place the first of the series of big
fires of business establishments, which plagued Coulter for the ext
decade and a half. The kiln burned in 1896 with a total loss of the
building and everything inside; but he soon built it back on the same
spot.
MiLLMAN 87
Coulter did not manufacture all the lumber, shingles, and laths
which he sold. Since he received many more orders than he could
fill from his own manufacture, he depended heavily on suppliers
in the vicinity and farther away. Some of his suppliers specialized
in one kind of timber product, while most of them made some of
all of the three standard items, lumber, shingles, and laths. Lew
Taylor with his mill across the South Mountains on Henrys Fork
sold Coulter millions of shingles over a long period of time. Coulter
was dealing with him as early as 1890. During one short period in
1895 Lew delivered to Coulter at “6z Mile Siding” (Hildebran)
140,000 shingles and at Hickory 35,000. Lew was a big fat man,
weighing about 300 pounds. He generally traveled in a cart, filling
up the whole seat. If Lew could write he did not always choose to do
so, for some of the checks he received from Coulter were endorsed
with “his mark.”
Most of Coulter’s suppliers lived across the South Mountains and
eastward in the “Nation,” where there was still a great deal of virgi
timber left. Among these were Dan Johnson; J. J. Hicks of Mull
Grove; J. P. Icard of Sawmill; Jule Brittain; D. B. Mull; Amos Huff-
man of Pearson, Lew Lowman; Russ Huffman; Carswell & Huffman;
and south of Morganton around Enola were R. C. Chapman, Mace
Brothers, J. R. Kelley, and W. T. Carswell. The Glass brothers
Theodore and Weber (but not as a firm) were deep in the lumber
and shingle business~Theodore generally living in Morganton but
doing business and receiving mail at Warlick and Enola. Weber
operated nearer Connelly Springs alone or as Glass & Coulter or
Abernethy (B. B.) & Glass. Also in the Connelly Springs vicinity
was Gib Perkins.
Coulter was frequently heavily pressed to fill orders and he urged
his suppliers to hurry up. W. T. Carswell of Morganton, R.F.D., as
evidence that he was doing his best, sent Coulter a copy of a letter
he wrote to J. T. Knox, complaining about a machine Knox had
borrowed: “Dear Sir you never Brung my mill back like you told
me that you Would as hartle [Hartle Knox] throad hit of [off]
at fred Recors and you told me that you Would Pay me 25 cts on
every thousand feet you cut and you never done Nothing you
Promist me you Would now i hate to do hit but if you dont send
me my pay for the rune of my Mill at once i Will gave hit to a
lawyer for clecting and also for not Bringing my Mill Back cording
to contract. Now John you Please Pay me at once and save trouble
as 1 am in nede of hit Bad John dont fale to send hit at once and
oblige me.”
A few finished lumber products Coulter advertised, which he did
88 Joun ELtis CouLTER
not make at all but depended on suppliers wholly. Doors, window
frames, and other wooden house fixtures he bought largely from
the Dudley Lumber Company of Granite Falls, who gave him a
very large discount and promised that they could give him “prompt
attention and as good work as any factory in this country.” Also
J. J. Hicks sold Coulter such material.
Singles were packed in bales of 50, 100, 200, and 250; but the
smallest bales were generally preferred—though Bob Reese loaded car
after car with the heavy bales of 200 and 250. An ordinary freight
car would hold from 75,000 to 80,000 shingles. Shingles were 16 and
18 inches long and 3 and 4 inches wide. When put on the roof 5 or
5% inches were exposed to the weather. Poplar shingles could hardly
be sold and likewise shingles cut from Nigger Pine or old field pine.
The standard shingle was heart yellow pine; though in sawing shingle
blocks there had to be some sap shingles, it was hard to dispose of
them. If the sawyer became careless or his machine was not kept in
good order, he would probably saw some shingles so thin on the
thin end as to make them worthless. Such shingles were known as
“feather edges,” and if any got baled up with the good shingles, there
were loud complaints from the buyers. Other imperfections in
shingles were worm holes, mill-dewed or blued, rotten ends, and
wind-shaken. It was a custom for buyers to ask for samples, as
previously noted.
As early as 1906 asbestos and tin shingles were coming into com-
petition with wooden ones, and after 1920 when Coulter was prca-
tically out of the mill business, he continued to sell shingles but not
of local manufacture—the fine shingle timber in this region had now
been exhausted. He now dealt extensively in red cedar shingles from
the Northwest and British Columbia. At first he began buying them
from Mixer & Co. of Buffalo, New York; but soon he by-passed
this middleman and got closer to the maker. In the late 1920's he
bought many car loads from Fred A. England Lumber Company
of Seattle and from Robert McNair Shingle Company Ltd. of Van-
couver, British Columbia. These shingles were very expensive com-
pared with prices of shingles Coulter had manufactured a few years
back. The red cedar shingles were reputed to be longer lasting, but
the freight on them greatly increased their price. In 1925 in one ship-
ment Coulter bought 231,000 for $1,006; the freight on them was
$446. Two years later on another shipment amounting to $916 the
feright was $440. Both of these shipments were from Vancouver.
There was the additional drawback of poor railroad service. The
Seattle firm informed Coulter on one of its shipments that they had
MILLAN 89
requested the railroad “to keep an urgent wire tracer after his ship-
ment and do all they possibly can to hurry it through.”
Although Coulter sold a few laths before coming to Connelly
Springs, he probably manufactured none while in the “Nation”;
but after coming to this railroad village he entered extensively into
manufacturing, buying, and selling laths. Laths were cut from smaller
timber than could be used for lumber or shingles. By 1906 he was
manufacturing millions of laths, and also buying many from suppliers.
A good outfit (bolter and 6-saw machine) could cut in a period of ten
hours (the ordinary day then) 50,000 laths. The standard size laths
were % by 1% inches and 4 feet long, and were put up generally
100 to the bale, though some customers preferred 50 to the bale.
If put up in bales of 100, the bale should not weigh more than 50
pounds—if more, they were too green or wet. Old field pine timber
made very poor laths, because such laths were given to warping,
buckling, or crooking. One customer declared that his plasterers
refused to work with such laths.
Coulter’s mill work in Connelly Springs was concerned much more
with sawing shingles and laths than lumber. He bought most of his
lumber from mills nearer the timber or he, himself, ran small mills
there, and hauled the lumber to his Connelly Springs mill, where
it was stacked, air dried or kiln dried, and then dressed as weather-
boarding, ceiling, and so on.
Prices of lumber, shingles, and laths varied with the quality and
the times, but in unison with all other products they steadily in-
creased (with a few sags) as the dollar became less valuable for
reasons which the economists were not always in agreement. Of
course, prices varied slightly almost from day to day; and to register
these changes or indicate whether these prices were f. 0. b. (freight on
board cars) at Connelly Springs or freight paid, Coulter devised in
the 1890’s a blank form for filling in the prices of various lumber
products. On April 13, 1898 he quoted these prices (per thousand
feet or numbers) with delivery in Asheville (where he did a great
deal of business): Framing up to 20 feet long $7.50, Knotty Boards,
$7.50; Weather Boards, $8.00 (first class), $7.00 (second class),
$6.00 (third class); German Siding, $13.00 (first class), $10.00 (second
class), $8.00 (third class); Flooring, $12.50 (first class), $10.00 (second
class), $7.50 (third class); Ceiling, $12.00 (first class), $9.00 (second
class), $7.00 (third class), Basing Boards, $13.00 (first class), $10.00
(second class), $8.00 (third class); Pine Shingles (per thousand),
$2.10 (first class), $2.00 (second class), $1.90 (third class); Laths
(per thousand), $1.50; (forest pine), $1.25 (second growth). Of
course, prices f. 0. b. Connelly Springs would be considerably less.
go Joun Eris CouLTer
Yellow pine heart shingles (“the best shingles on the market”)
were selling in 1902 for $2.35 per thousand; white pine brought $2.00,
but four years later they were selling for $3.25, and yellow pine for
$3.50. In 1903 Coulter was offering heart pine shingles for $3.50.
In 1906 he was quoting sap shingles at $2.25, while at the same time
suppliers were offering them to him at $1.75. But profits so large
were not the rule; he often made only 1o¢ per thousand. Around 1900,
laths were selling for $1.15 or slightly more; from 1906 to 1913 they
were around $2.00; but by 1919 (war prices) they were selling for
$5.50. And for a short spurt in 1920, they brought $17.00—“Never
heard of anything like it,” Coulter remarked. The price immediately
began sagging during the hard times of the early 1920's, returning
all the way back to the vicinity of $2.00.
In the heyday of his lumbering business Coulter would have on
his yards and under his sheds a half million or more feet of lumber
and some hundreds of thousands of shingles and laths. As has been
indicated, much of his business was that of a middleman. Of his own
manufacture in 1905, he reported to the United States Government,
1,650,000 shingles, 1,000,000 laths, and 685,000 board feet of lumber.
In building up a market for his lumber products, Coulter adver-
tised widely in the newspapers, he distributed cards listing his special-
ties, and he gave them conspicuous attention on his letterheads. His
friends and kinsmen would often refer customers to him. He de-
veloped a market as wide and varied as those who wanted what
he had to sell. He sold to individuals, large orders and small; to
contractors and builders; to lumber yards and suppliers; to churches
and schools; and to agents who sold on a commission. He would allow
5% to some responsible person, who might be running some other
business such as merchandising, but who was willing to keep a supply
of Coulter’s lumber on hand or merely get orders for him. D. C.
Clark, “Contractor and Builder” of Clyde, sold for Coulter there,
in the early 1890's. Another agent with whom Coulter had extensive
dealings in Clyde after Clark was out of the picture, was L. C.
Reno. He began dealing with Reno in the latter 1890's, giving him
10% commission, and promised not to sell to anyone else in Clyde,
but if under some unusual circumstance he should do so, he would
still give Reno 10% on the sale.
When the Negro church, Israels Chapel, several miles northeast
of Connelly Springs, was being built or repaired, Coulter sold the
congregation a bill of lumber, and when Rutherford College was
rebuilding after the disastrous fire of 1890 Coulter supplied much of
the needed building material. When George Vanderbilt was erecting
MILL MAN gl
his immense castle near Biltmore (a suburb of Asheville) he depended
on Coulter for some of his materials.
In nearby Hickory the Piedmont Wagon Company (the first big
business of the town) and Hutton & Bourbonnais, “Manufacturers of
Lumber, Boxes and Mouldings” (the next large Hickory firm, which
was set up by a French Canadian and his partner from Michigan)—
both of these companies bought largely from Coulter. Farther to
the eastward he dealt with E. B. Springs & Co., “Fertilizers, Vehicles
and Storage,” of Charlotte (S. C. McNinch, Successors); High Point
Hardwood Manufacturing Co. (which in March, 1906 wanted 60
carloads of yellow pine heart shingles, which Coulter was unable
to supply); Snow Lumber Company of High Point; and W. H.
Worth & Co. and Zachary & Zachary, both of Raleigh.
To the westward at Old Fort was Walter Graham (a builder and
patentee and owner of an axe blade, a drawing of which he displayed
on his letterhead) was a frequent customer. By-passing Asheville,
which was Coulter’s little lumber empire, the listing of customers
jumps to Waynesville, where J. K. Boone & Co. and S. C. Sarter-
thwait, “Builders Depot,” held forth; to E. B. Goelet in Saluda; to
J. N. Mease of Canton; on to Hot Springs to include Hot Springs
Barytes Co. and the Mountain Park Hotel; and to A. M. Fry of
Bryson City.
Leaving the Tar Heel State, Coulter dealt with several firms in
Virginia, including the Hickson Lumber Co. of Lynchburg; Price &
Son in Washington, D. C. bought extensively; and passing on to the
Empire State of the North, Coulter sold to firms in the City of New
York and in Buffalo. In 1905 Henry W. Peabody & Co., “Export and
Import Commission Merchants,” wanted quotations on 1,000,000 laths.
Returning to Coulter’s Asheville empire, there was a small host of
firms dealing with him in little and big amounts. W. H. Westall and
O. R. Revell were his oldest, largest, and longest-lived customers.
Others were George F. Scott, not far behind; Thomas L. Clayton;
and W. T. Hadlow.
Of all the people Coulter ever dealt with, in the lumber business or
any other, Revell was the most personable, friendly, frank, and
humorous. He was a sort of “jack of all trades” which related to lumber
and real estate. He was “Contractor and Builder’; he dealt in “Real
Estate and Loans”; he had “Houses for Rent, All kinds and Sizes,
from Boarding Houses, small Cottages, also Apartments and Flats,
furnished and unfurnished. Persons wishing to locate in Asheville
would do well to Address or Call on O. D. Revell, No. 31 Temple
Court, Asheville, N. C.” For a time he operated under the name of
Revell and Wagner, but for most of the time it was simply O. (Oliver)
92 JoHn Exiis CouLTEr
D. Revell. Coulter began dealing with him as early as 1892, and that
year Coulter allowed him 5% on an order Revell got for him. From
that time on, Revell was advising Coulter who to trust and who to
avoid unless it was a cash transaction. In 1896 Revell wrote that he
was recommending him to lots of people but at a little higher price
than Coulter gave Revell “so you can get more from them than you
do from me; then that will allow me to get things still cheaper.
Dont you see old man, so good buy.” The same year he wrote, “I
Recommended you to a new Contractor by the name of John white
sides, but be Careful in selling him.” More advice: “You had better
be careful about filling church bills. You no Every body gets in
trouble on church work; no one in the church feels Responsible
for its debts.”
Revell was especially scornful of some of the Waynesville con-
tractors, and chided Coulter for dealing with them: “I am surprised
that you let parties at Waynesville have lumber with out paying for
it in advance; what do you mean. I told you not to let it go that
way.” Revell could not resist having his fun with Coulter on his
Waynesville business: “Hope you ae well and got the money from
your friends at Waynesville.” And when Coulter succeeded in getting
a payment Revell replied, “My dear sir and only friend I am so glad
to heare from you and especially that you have got the money from
Waynesville; they will ketch you napping yet "aE you dont mind;
they are bating you.” Again: “You always Get into Trouble witha
you fail to take my advice, I am going to have you a guardian ap-
pointed at once to ‘take care of you.”
Revell, himself, was sometimes slow pay. In 1893 he wrote in reply
to a request for a settlement of a bill: “We never was so HARD UP
for money—cannot collect a dollar”; “We are very sorry that we
cannot comply with your request at once, and we appreciate your
kindness, but realize the fact that appreciation does not pav the bill.”
Jokingly he wrote in 1894, “Hoping you are having a good trade
and Collecting from other people faster than you do “trent us.’
A week later: “I dont see sow Revell and Wagner can pay any thing
more by the 2oth as they ar so hard up, and by the way if I was
you I would not Credit them any more, as | think they ar bad pay
also. So hoping | you will obey orders, I Remain your “faithful Boss
and adviser.” More pleasantries instead of money: “I did not find
any mistake this time. I am glad you have got so vou do not make
mistakes especially in your favor. Well what ar vou going to do for
Christmas. Ar you going to send me a nice Christmas present. I will
trv and hold mv rearh until I get it. Well I will admit that it has
been a long time since Revell and Wagner has paid you any thing
MILLMAN 93
but they will pay before long. They are not able to Pay you Just
now but they will pay you soon. It is a good debt if you never get
it but you will get it shore. You charge me enough for lumber to
allow you to wait a while and you know I am always happy to pay
you.” In sending a check of $76.16, Revell remarked, “I must thank
you for being 50 good to wait on mee; you are a good man to deal
with.” Sending him another check, of $106.68, Revell said, “I thank
you so much for your cind [kind] leniancy, ond will always think
of you in my dreams. | will never forget you nor forsake you ab
men.” Yo another of Coulter’s requests for money, Revell replied,
“Dont send to me for money for some time; give me a Rest.” Coulter
one time inquired in Asheville as to Revell’s worth. When Revell
found out about it, he wrote Coulter, “I hope you found out what
{ was worth from Mr Brevard; you kneed not get scaird as to my
worth. I can buy you and all your mills and all your men and not
miss the money.”
When Coulter was slow in filling orders Revell came back at him
with vigorous complaints and threats to quit dealing with him: “For
heaven sake ship mee the lumber.” Also he complained about Coulter’s
delay in answering letters: “If you are not dead answer this letter
at once”; “I was so surprised to heare from you that I almost draped
off my tects still I did not heare of your death, and supposed you
was still a live.” Sometimes Revell discovered Coulter’s lumber count
incorrect. In 1900 when he found a consignment of lumber short,
he wrote, “I am sorry it is this way but you are not hurt as the
lumber is simply not there and I dont wish to pay for what is not
there. I would not cheat you out of a cent for any thing and never
did and will not start this late day.” On another oeerion Revell
wrote, “I no I am correct; any way you will find on the framing
that I found more than you did; so you see 1 am trying to do you
Just O. K.”
Revell always liked to mix humor and pleasantries in his business
letters, and he would heighten the atmosphere by purposely mis-
spelling words. At the end of a letter in which he said that he had
recommended Coulter to several prospective buyers: “Hope you will
have a big turkey for thanksgiving. Cant you give me a present of 2
nice turkeys for Christmas. Just for luck.” On another occasion he
wanted a Christmas gift: “Send me my Christmas gift at once; a big
turkey will do or a gal. of mountain dew.” He re-enforced this open
hint with a check for $259.59. Shortly before the Bryan-McKinley
election of 1896, he added to a letter: “Hoo raw for McKinley by
gosh”—this called forth to banter Coulter on his well-known support
of Bryan.
94 JoHN Exxiis CouLTER
With all his business interests in Asheville, Revell seemed to be
somewhat foot-loose and free. Shortly before the Spanish-American
War broke out, Revell turned up in Havana, Cuba. With business on
his mind, he wrote Coulter after his return that “lumber sells well
there.” He advised Coulter to look up the freight rates: “Less see
what we can do about it, I believe there is money in it.” Soon he
was on a trip to Europe, writing Coulter from Hamburg, Germany.
After he was back and settled down again he was sending in orders
to Coulter: “I want you to furnish me the lumber, laths and shingles
like you used to.” Then a long silence and next Coulter heard from
Revell he was in Muscogee, Oklahoma, but he had temporarily re-
turned to Asheville where he still owned a good deal of property.
He said that he was now $100,000 better off than when he had left.
And here the story of the Coulter-Revell business dealings ends—
whether there was more, no records remain to tell the tale or to
reveal the future career of Revell. With all the pleasantries and
bantering that went on, there should be no question that both profited
from their business relations.
‘As much may not be said of Coulter’s long-time dealings with
E. B. Goelet of Saluda—at least Coulter was left sadder but probably
no wiser because of Goelet’s winning pleadings for further credit.
Goelet was a physician and druggist, whose ambitions and restless
nature could not be confined within the four walls of a drug store
or doctor’s office. Since Saluda was a resort town and people from
the low country were building summer homes there, Goelet organized
in 1896 “The Saluda Construction Company” and began building
these homes. Soon his vision surmounted individual houses and he
set out to organize a syndicate to erect on the center of a 200-acre
tract culminating on top of Piney Mountain, the Grand Park Hotel.
There were to be “a grand Boulevard and Drives, Bicycle Course,
Tennis and Croquet Plats, Cosey Nooks, Dells and Grottos, Bath
House and Swimming Pool. Toboggin Slide, Shooting Gallery, Or-
chard, Vineyard, a Lake for Boating, Base Ball Park, and Pasture.”
Previous to this time he had been buying lumber and other wood
products from Coulter and had been “slow pay,” but he had ample
explanations, though Coulter had asked R. G. Dun & Company to
give a rating on him. They said that he was “considered a good phy-
sician and stands well in this community . . . and is considered worthy
of moderate credit” and that he was worth from $500 to $1,000 above
the homestead.
Whenever Goelet would send in a new order he would sweeten
it a little by enclosing a check for $10.00 or $15.00, but always
leaving himself deeply in debt to Coulter. Some of these checks
MiLLMAN 95
would be dated ahead and when presented for payment often they
would “bounce.” Goelet would plead not to be cut off, as he would
“make good” as soon as possible: “Please don’t lose faith in me, I will
send you the $29.50 for that protested check.” Coulter, always kind
of heart in his business, would disclaim any lack of faith in him
and would go ahead and fill his orders. Goelet would return his
thanks: “I charle you for your good opinion of me. I am a master
Mason, and try to live up to one of the main principles of the order,
which is never to willfully Wrong, Cheat, or Defraud anyone.” On
one occasion he attempted to boost his credit by stating that the bill
of lumber he was ordering was “for Senator Aldrich, a friend of
mine.” Nelson W. Aldrich was a Senator from Rhode Island from
1881 to 1911.
Goelet would always have the ready answer that those who owed
him were slow in paving and from some he was unable to collect at
all: “J regret very much, having got behind with you, I feel very
badly about it, but it was not my fault, and I will pay you every
dollar that I owe you.’ ’ Recently he had been in South Carolina
trying to make collections, but all he could get was promises. “The
worry trying to collect,” he said, “and the disappointment at not
being able to meet my payments promptly as I wished to do, made
me sick, and I was laid up for eight days. It is a great disappointment
to me that I could not pay you promptly, as I “always wish to do,
but it has been the hardest time to collect money that I ever knew.”
For some years, it seems, there were no dealings, but in 1911, Coulter
Wrote to a person in Saluda, inquiring about Goelet and his financial
responsibility. The reply was that Goelet was still in business but
“about as usual running behind.” He was now dealing in wood and
logs and doing a little building. He suggested that Coulter might get
a small payment out of Goelet and thus renew his old account: ‘T
think his intentions are to pav everybody when he has the money.”
Under the circumstances of always being heavily in debt to Coulter,
Goelet could indulge little in the cutomary complaints that lumber-
men received anny their customers. In a sort of covert chiding of
Coulter for being late in filling some of his orders, Goelet remarked
that some of the lumbermen he had been dealing with would promise
immediate shipment, but they generally ran from two to six weeks
behind. He added, “I want to find some man who will ship at least
within a few days of when he promises to—and I will give him a good
business.” Bad lumber was another one of these complaints; * aettl
Goelet had this to sav directly to Coulter about some worthless
lumber and shingles: ‘T dont see what your men put them in for,
96 Joun Eris CouLTer
unless they are stockholders in the Ry. Co., and want to add all the
weight they can to run up the freight Bills.”
Goelet was undoubtedly an honest man, but his business ability
did not equal his honesty, and he finally left Coulter as the loser
in their long drawn-out business transactions.
The lumber business taken in its entirety, from the tree in the
forest to the plank or shingle nailed in the construction of a house,
partook somewhat of that ancient and devious profession known as
horse trading. Some lumbermen grew rich, some grew poor, some
merely maintained their heads above water, some were killed by it,
and some withdrew before it killed them, as did a South Carolinian,
who wrote Coulter, “I am glad to say I am out of the lumber business.
I think it is one reason why I am feeling so much better.”
There were frequent claims of shortages. This was a favorite
device of customers with blunt consciences to get lumber cheaper,
by receiving more than they paid for. But there was plenty of room
for mistakes in counting lumber as it was loaded into cars and taken
out, and where Coulter or the purchaser did not do it himself, there
was always the hazard of careless or inexperienced workmen. The
seller always hazarded the chances that he had made mistakes against
himself, and then it took a customer with a keen conscience to make
mention of the fact; but there were such, as an Asheville contractor
who wrote Coulter about his mistakes: “IJ have corrected one. But
as you will notice, it was mostly in your favor.” On another ship-
ment Coulter billed his customer for 96,400 laths, when according
to the customer’s count there were 114,700; but the customer surmised
that Coulter had purposely included more than indicated because
some of them were too thin and some badly damaged. Coulter had
a calculator aid, which was a handy tool under some circumstances,
but likely of little value in counting lumber when it was loaded into
cars. It was a small book entitled ‘Ropp’s Commercial Calculator. A
Practical Arithmetic for Practical Purposes. Containing a Complete
System of Useful, Accurate and Conventional Tables and Simple,
Short Practical Methods for Rapid Calculation. It was got out by
C. Ropp and first copyrighted in 1875.
Many of the troubles that beset Coulter came from his suppliers;
these were especially shortages in counting, inferior products, and
delays in making deliveries. “Coulter often bought lumber products
which the supplier hauled to some more convenient railroad point
than Connelly Springs (as Morganton, Valdese, Hildebran, Hickory,
or some stations even farther away), loaded them on cars according
to Coulter’s orders, and Coulter never saw the material, and depended
entirely on his supplier's count. Many suppliers running little mills
MILLMAN 97
were better sawyers than counters, with no thought of being dishonest.
A Swannanoa customer wrote Coulter, “I went to look at the laths
& find them to be a very inferior lot—not fit to use at all... . I guess
ar did not see them or you certainly would not have sent them to
" In an instance where Coulter put in a few extra bales of shingles
- ears up for the inferior ones which his supplier had slipped in,
his customer remarked, “I am not making any claims, for the extra
ones that you put in I think will cover the loss, but the man who
makes them, ought not to put in such stuff, they are not fit to cover
a cowshed, and only fit to make you and me pay more freight to
the R. R. Co.” He added that it was “a swindle on you for they
never put the bad ones on the outside of the bales.”
With the best of intentions and a feeling of certainty, a lumberman
might make a firm promise that a shipment would leave at a stated
time, in order to keep a contractor from having to “lay off” his
workmen for lack of building material; and when the shipment did
not arrive as promised there was righteous indignation and much of
it. A Chapel Hill customer wrote in 1895, “We have been Waiting
Waiting Waiting Waiting for the Car of Lumber. .. . We know it
has been very bad weather but hope you have been able to get it off
by this time.” Another after expecting his lumber every day for a
long time wrote, “People don’t live to the age of Methuselah in this
country.” Most of the time the blame lay with the supplier, who
promised Coulter the lumber, shingles, or laths at a given time,
and then found that he could not perform. But in some instances
the blame lay with the agents of the Southern Railway Company.
During the time when Coulter was doing most of his shipping, the
railway “agents at Connelly Springs were Wilkes E. Lowe, B. B.
Abernethy, J. P. Knox, and C. O. Morgan. Abernethy had, by far,
the longest tenure, serving as early as 1866 with some interims for
the others but continuing from 1907 on for many years—much be-
vond the time when Coulter was dealing in lumber. In Abernethy’s
case there was an apparent conflict of interests, though Coulter never
seemed to have complained about it as did his seme, Also Aber-
nethy dealt in lumber, shingles, and laths, and holding the position
he did, he could delay asking for cars when Coulter — put in orders
for them. An irate customer, who was made so by the delay Coulter
suffered in getting cars, wrote him, “There is something ROTTEN
somewhere. ... . “T am satisfied that Mr. Abernethy must be giving
you a ROTTEN DEAL on cars, and you had better look the matter
up. It looks to me like Mr. Abernethy was hardly doing the right
thing by the Southern R. R. Co. He is looking after his LATH
business better than he is the R. R. business.” A little later he reported
98 JoHN ELtis CoULTER
that “Abernethy is offering me a car but I don’t want them if I can
get them from you.” Then he added, “I hope you will arrange to
keep me in lath as I prefer not to buy from anyone else over there.”
Since Abernethy was also the telegraph operator, he would know
the contents of any message either sent or received by Coulter, and
thus be able to take advantage of inside information on Coulter’s
business. This same customer (from Hendersonville, he was) wrote
Coulter: “I will send in a COMPLAINT to the Southern Ry Co at
Washington D. C. and state the FACTS to them, and tell them that
my shippers can’t reply to my telegrams because their Agent is
running a business of the nature that shippers are afraid to reply over
the wires.” Delays were also brought about by not placing cars after
they had arrived, where they could be loaded.
The railroads allowed cars to be dispatched without a full load,
with the understanding that the load would be completed at other
stations. For this special service the railroad made a charge of $5.00
each time the car was set off. A car of the size prevailing in 1896
would hold about 12,000 feet of lumber or as before noted, from
75,000 to 80,000 shingles.
For failing to transmit to Coulter a certain amount of money left
with a railroad agent in another place, the customer said he would
“ask the R. R. agent why in the hell did they not send you your
money. I do not like no such business. . . . Perhaps they need placing
before the Pujo Committee.” This was an allusion to a committee
appointed by Congress in 1912 to investigate the “money trust.” In
another respect the railroads were guilty of late arrivals of ship-
ments, by not properly dispatching cars and keeping them moving;
but they were subject to a penalty of $5.00 a day for delays beyond
the time allowed. The railroads were allotted seven days to take a
car from Connelly Springs to Winston-Salem, but in 1906 on one
occasion the Southern took ten days, and was therefore assessed a
fine of $15.00.
Also some of the blame could be assessed against Coulter himself.
He was trying to fill too many orders with material which he did not
have but was depending too much on the promises of suppliers who
for one reason or another did not comply.
Despite complaints about delays, shortages, and bad lumber there
were some bright spots. A person wrote Coulter, “You have been
recommended to me as a good man to buy lumber from”; and another
wrote, “I return many thanks for your promptness.” An Asheville
customer in 1895 remarked, “You have been very prompt in all your
shipments and they have come in reasonably correct.” Another was
“well pleased with lumber sent me”; and Max Wiese of the Connally
MiLLAIAN 99
Graphite Works said, ‘Your enterprising spirit has left a very favor-
able impression with me. I feel that you are ambitious and keep your
promises.”
Yet compliments did not make up for the refusal of various “Black
Knights” to pay their lumber bills, either remaining silent to all
letters asking for settlement or pleading inability. Coulter made long
trips to try to make collections and in some cases, much to his dislike,
sued in the courts and got judgments, which generally turned out to
be no good when attempts were made to enforce them.
As has been mentioned in several instances Coulter tried to guard
against selling lumber to strangers without first learning something
about their credit rating. He wrote to anyone whom he thought
might know or would in confidence give an opinion—to postmasters,
lawyers, friends and acquaintances, to kinsmen, and for the more
important prospective customers he resorted to credit rating firms.
His friend Revell had always been quick to offer advice (as has been
noted) and in answer to a letter in 1895, Revell replied, “I would
not ship or sell him any thing; all ho nose him says he is a dead beat
and byes all he can and pays nothing; so better be care full.” (Revell
reveled in using flippant spellings).
W. H. Westall in Asheville when plied for pay in 1897 said, “I
never have experienced during my nine years in business money
so hard to get hold of.” Thomas L. Clayton of Asheville ignored all
duns, leading Coulter to resort to lawyers with results unknown.
George F. Scott & Company of the same place was through a suit
in court forced to pay $542; but this left of the claim, $3,440.97 un-
collected. Coulter’s efforts to collect from A. M. Fry of Bryson City
seems never to have resulted in any satisfaction. One of Coulter’s
greatest losses was dealing with Price & Son of Washington, D. C.
He placed the debt in the hands of a lawyer but as far as available
records reveal, little or nothing was collected.
Cuapter VIIi
HOME AND FARM
HEN Coulter moved to Connelly Springs in the late summer
of 1892 he intended to drive his stakes deep, probably never
to pull them up again—this was his third move. Renting the Stewart
Place was merely a stop-gap until he could secure land in the village
and build a residence. On March 13, 1893 he bought from J. M.
Sides and his wife Ida a tract of about 24% acres lying a half mile
south of the railway depot, up a road leading across the South
Mountains, facetiously called “Huckleberry Street.” (The streets and
roads in the village were never officially given names). For this land
Coulter paid $241.41.
On the edge of this tract nearest the village he soon selected a
house place and began assembling workmen and material. Activities
began in the following June when William Ennis, who lived a short
way down the “street,” and Horace Perkins, aided by John Ervin
and Bob Reese (colored workmen), began clearing a space in the
woods. They left a copious supply of well-placed saplings (white
oak and mountain oak), which by 1962 had grown into giant trees,
providing more shade than the Coulters had bargained for, almost
three-quarters of a century previously.
Logan Abernethy of Rutherford College, aided by W. L. (Bill)
Griffin, laid off the foundations; and Griffin, aided by Bob Reese and
others, began the pillars and brickwork. Some of the pillars, the
hearths, and the fire places were made of a fire-resistant rock hewn
from a quarry over in the hills to the eastward on land which Coulter
would later acquire. Miles Deal was in charge of the carpentry
work. Others helping in whatever needed to be done were Malcolm
Dorsey (son of Joe, who lived up the road a quarter mile), Bob
Ennis (son of William), Jack Deal, Joe Aiken, Jeff Cannon, Doc
and Jason Perkins, Pink Ballew, Sid Morgan, Frank Nance, Sid
[ 100 }
HoME AND FaRM 101
Hartsoe, Jones and Cicero Franklin, Charley Robinson, John Wilson,
and others. Coulter’s two brothers Frank and Philip lent a hand,
and when the roof had been put on and Philip was sweeping the trash
off he fell 26 feet and broke his left arm at the wrist, but was other-
wise unhurt.
The house was two stories, consisting of nine rooms, including
a kitchen. It was finished by the end of the year, and immediately was
painted white with green shutters. There were only three other
houses in town which equalled it in size and appearance. The doors,
mantles, and other inside fixtures were provided by Revell and
Wagner of Asheville. Coulter’s own mills and Sides & Coulter provided
much of the lumber and shingles, though Lew Taylor, John Shoup,
Lewis Page, and John Knox supplied some of the materials. Doc
Perkins and R. F. Stephens did some of the hauling. Other buildings
erected on the place were a smokehouse, a hen house, a woodshed,
and a large barn, with four stables, a gear house, two corn cribs, a
buggy shed, and a two-story hay loft. Later there were added a
sheep-stable with a feed loft and a large barn (the “new Barn”),
consisting of cow stables and feed lofts, and an additional sheep
(and goat stable,) and a basement housing a machine pulled by
horses to generate power for cutting feed and shredding corn.
Later there were erected on the place a meat house with a deep
cellar designed to keep milk and butter cool, a house with a furnace
to dry fruit, a pumpkin house, a flower pit, and an ice house. The
ice house was a square hole dug in the ground about 30 feet deep
covered with a roof. The ice was preserved by filling in layers of
sawdust between the cakes. On February 15, 1899, Coulter stored
in it 14% two-horse wagon loads of ice, hewn from his pond on Cold
Water Creek, which he had built some five years earlier.
Within a few years he added to his residence a pantry, extended
his front porch, dug and walled up a cellar under his kitchen and
pantry, and added a toilet and bathroom when he extended running
water into the house. It seems that at first, Coulter got his water from
his nearest neighbors (the Ennises on the north and the Dorseys on
the southwest); but with a mind alert to any need, Coulter had been
eyeing a spring to the southward across Cold Water Creek, and he
had not been living in his new home more than a year before he made
an agreement with Joe Dorsey, who owned that spring, to give Coulter
an easement over his land for the planting of a pipe to run the water
to Coulter’s home by gravitation. For this right Coulter first paid
Dorsey $1.00 a quarter but renegotiated it in 1896 for a total cost
of $t.oo.“and other considerations.” In 1g00 after Calvin Abee had
bought this land containing the spring, Coulter paid him $3.00 for
102 Joun Exits Coulter
the pipe-line rights. This water system was not wholly satisfactory,
for although the pipes were buried a foot underground, there were
certain exposed places (where the pipe crossed the creek and where
it emerged in Coulter’s yard) which froze and burst in extremely cold
weather.
Even when Coulter was putting in his pipe line, he was investigating
the possibilities of installing a hydraulic ram. In 1905 he bought one
from the Gould Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls, New York,
and put it to work bringing water from the creek. By going far
enough up the creek, he secured fall enough to force the water onto
his porch. With a seventeen foot head of water the ram would force
a stream to an altitude of 120 feet. Even the ram was not always
dependable, for in winter weather it might freeze up, despite the fact
that it was enclosed in a roofless rock house. Also at any time of
the year the ram might become “water logged” (that is the air
chamber might be filled with water), in which case the ram had to
be drained before it would work again. As another solution to his
water needs Coulter dug a well, to a depth of almost 100 feet, and
put in a system of drawing the water in two buckets, on each end
of a rope which went over a grooved wheel operated by a hand
crank. Sometimes the rope would break, and then with grappling
hooks the buckets would have to be fished out. When electricity
came to Connelly Springs, Coulter had his house wired; and now
it was possible to put an electric force pump in the well to bring
the water out. But even so, occasionally the well had to be cleaned
out to maintain the purity of the water, and with all precautions
surface water managed to seep in after prolonged spells of rainy
weather. With the coming of bored wells, the final solution of
Coulter's water problem was reached. Leaving the old well as it was,
he had a well bored nearby and another electric pump put in, and
from that time on there were no impurities in the well, and it took
an extremely dry summer to prevent a full supply of water from
being had.
With their house completed the Coulters (there were now four
children, the latest being Laura Elvira, born at the Stewart Place)
began life in their new home on 24% acres, but John Ellis, ever
mindful of his slogan that no more land was being made, decided
that 2444 acres was not enough for him. He soon began extending
his boundaries on all sides from this nucleus. Within less than a year
(April 21, 1894) he bought from his neighbor Joe Dorsey 11 6/10
acres, lying on up the road toward Dorsey’s house. He paid $117
for it. The next year he bought from Sylvanus Deal 35 acres extend-
ing southward into the South Mountains, paying him $2.00 an acre.
HoME AND Far 103
In 1897 Coulter went heavily into extending his boundaries, mostly
in adjoining South Mountain lands. He bought three tracts of this
land from Sylvanus Deal: 150 acres and the acreage of another tract
not given but by implication 25 acres for $350, and 140% acres for
$193. From John Shoup he bought 160 acres, paying $220, and from
W. A. Wilson, 32% acres for $44.15. This same year he bought from
J. M. and Ida Sides 4 acres lying near his residence, paying $45.93
for it.
Filling out a corner near where his pipe line emerged from the
Dorsey Spring, Coulter bought in 1899 for $6.57 a tract of 4% acres,
from Calvin Abee, who had succeeded to the Joe Dorsey lands.
Two years later Coulter bought from Jack Deal (administrator of
the estate of his father Sylvanus, who had died in 1899) 409% acres
of South Mountain land for $1.00 an acre. This same year (1901)
Coulter bought from Clarence L. Wilson 20 acres for $1.50 an acre.
This land joined Coulter’s holdings. In 1902 Coulter bought from
J. M. (Jeff) Cannon go acres for $160. Coulter was not yet through
buying land from J. M. and Ida Sides. In 1904 he bought 1% acres
for $40.00, and the next year, 10}4 acres for $150. These two tracts
joined his other land. The next year James L. Battle sold Coulter
60% acres for $103.75. This land lay eastward down the railway
on the south side and approached Coulter’s main tract. Thus by 1905
Coulter had accumulated land joining his original purchase, amount-
ing in all to 1,179 acres.
To bolster his contemplated farming activities, Coulter bought
in 1897 from Mrs. A. E. (“Myra,” the widow of William W.) Con-
nelly 144% acres for $8.00 an acre. She had originally asked $10.00.
This land lay northwest of the village, on the road to Rutherford
College. It was to become one of Coulter’s principal farming areas.
Coulter did not conform to the principle reputed to a great Georgia
planter, who said “I want only that land next to mine,” but he liked
to add tracts contiguous to what he had. So, in 1903, he bought from
the County Board of Education a tract of 344 acres for $60.00, known
as the “Huffman grave yard,” which land had been the site of an
early schoolhouse ‘belonging to the county. It extended northward
from the railroad and joined the “Connelly Place.” Adding to the
north side, in 1905 Coulter bought from J. R. Connell 7/8 of an acre
for $4.50 and the next year 40% acres for $1,025
On beyond, in Rutherford College he bought from Dr. R. D.
Jennings in 1tgo1 a tract of 2 acres for $55.00. And beyond the
College and lying on both sides of Cold Water Creek near where
it entered the Catawba River, he bought the “Hamlen Place” from
J. D. Hamlen, 354 acres for $1,239.
104 Joun Extis CouLTer
Some miles south of Morganton near Enola, in the South Mountain
hills, Coulter bought in 1908 from R. L. Wilson 50 acres at $10.00
an acre. In Connelly Springs, he bought small tracts on both sides of
the railroad, in 1896, 1898, 1899, and 1901; and in 1906 he bought
a small lot from H. C. (“Hard,” “Highpockets”) Williams. His most
extensive purchase of land lying in the village (or on its outskirts)
was 10 acres at $15.00 an acre from J. M. Sides. This land lay on
the south side of the railroad and east of the depot; part of it came
to be known as the “cotton mill hill.” Besides acquiring a dwelling
house or two in the village, Coulter came into possession of a small
house on Bailey Street in Asheville. This house, not being in a de-
sirable section of the city, was by 1904 completely torn down by
neighbors who used it for firewood. Coulter sold the lot to his friend
Revell for $60.00.
House rent did not come very high in Connelly Springs. In 1900
Coulter was renting a house to Bill Griffin for $1.50 a month. On
“cotton mill hill” he had several houses, which years later he was
renting for little more, and he was finding great difficulty in collect-
ing the rent, insignificant as it was.
This recital of Coulter’s real estate does not include all which he
owned at one time or another; but it indicates his attitude toward
the axiom that there was no more land being made. And of what
he owned he was not selfish in keeping any special part of it from
a purchaser whose situation made it very desirable for him to buy it.
Over to the eastward from his home, Coulter sold in the Mart
Lowman vicinity two small tracts in 1897 and 1904 to Jim Lowman
and two acres to Sarah Ann Bowman-also in 1905 for $10.00 an
acre, 15 acres to Port Berry. Also he sold land to W. H. and Gib
Perkins, to Joe Berry, Bob Ennis, Jule Ingle, and to Willis Ervin.
In the Rutherford College neighborhood he sold to Dr. T. V. Goode
a small tract, and eventually he disposed of the “Hamlen Place.”
Among the last land sales he made was a small tract of “mountain
land” on Cold Water Creek, to Claude Sides, a son of J. M. Sides,
with whom Coulter had had many dealings.
Coulter’s residence and the yard thereabouts were the special do-
minion of Lucy Ann, his wife, whom he called Annie. She ruled
with a gentle hand inside the house and out, and she was about
equally interested in both realms. She would have felt lost without
a garden, flowers, fowls—and, of course, the cow. In addition to
common garden products such as beans, cabbage, tomatoes, squashes,
cucumbers, pumpkins, potatoes, cantaloupes, sweet corn, sugar peas,
egg plant, rhubarb (pie plant), and lettuce, she always kept around
the edges sage, horse radish, mint, catnip, parsley, and coriander.
HomME AND FarRM 105
She prided herself in having something from her garden earl
the season. The county newspaper reported in 1897 that her ony ee
had headed and was ready for the table on the 6th of June, aad
in 1906 it noted that Mrs. J. E. Coulter had roasting ears on June
26th. In common with housewives of her generation, se would have
been deprived of a common item of conversation or a subject to write
about in corresponding with her friends and kindred, if she had had
no “hens setting” or hens with so many “peepies,” or how man
eggs she gathered on a certain day. In addition to chickens Luc
Ann waised some turkeys and a few guineas. Turkeys were hard to
raise since they “stole out” their nests and were hard to locate until
the hen appeared with her flock. If in the meantime a big rain had
fallen, probably most of the little ones had drowned. In 1897, having
found a turkev nest in time and secured the hen and her eggs to be
set in a safe place, Lucy Ann was greatly surprised to find ‘that the
hen came off her nest with 18 little turkeys when only 17 eggs
had been placed in the nest. This was news for the county news-
paper. No explanations were offered, as for instance, Lucy Ann might
have miscounted the eggs or maybe the old hen was not “done
laying” and had deposited another’ egg in the nest. Guineas were of
little or no economic value. They were ornamental to have around
to look at and to hear their “pot-rack, pot-rack” when they were not
miles away on their daily roamings. To actually find a guinea nest
was news for the whole neighborhood if not for the county press.
Guinea eggs were not en. but around Easter times they were in
great demand by children who wanted them to “fight Easter eggs”
in contests in which as they struck the little ends of the eggs together
and the one whose egg was cracked had to give it up to fhe winner.
Guinea eggs were harder to crack than ehicken eggs, and though
they were Soller, attempts were made to conceal the fact that they
were guinea eggs.
Lucy Ann was greatly interested in flowers, the potted ones as
well as those to be set out in the yard. Neighbors were always in-
terested in exchanging cuttings. Lucy Ann had a flower pit with a
glass top and shutters where in the winter she kept her potted flowers
from freezing.
Lucy Ann insisted in doing the light washing and laundering,
using a washing machine and wringer (and sernerimes merely a wash
board), bought from Dodge & Zuill of Syracuse, New York. The
heavier washing was dene by Suze Ingle, but more generally by
Marthy Ervin (wife of Willis). In the {890' sa washerwomart got 25¢
or 35¢ a dav with her lunch.
There was much house work to be done, for the Coulter family
106 Joun Exits CouLter
was steadily increasing, three more children having been born in the
new residence: Ray Daniels, March 11, 1895; William Bryan, October
22, 1896, and Herbert Lee, October 11, 1899. During ordinary times
Lucy Ann insisted on having no servants—they would be in her way.
Not until she was in her eighties would she agree to have a servant.
She made most of the clothing for her children, using a “Standard”
machine, manufactured by the Standard Sewing Machine Company
of Cleveland, Ohio.
Before electricity came, kerosene lamps were used, lamps hanging
from the ceiling as well as those placed on tables and mantlepieces.
Various types of lamps were used. The Angle lamp, made by the
Angle Manufacturing Company of New York, was spherical and
was made of a bronze-colored metal and was swung down from
the ceiling. It had wicks on opposite sides to give greater brilliance.
Then there were other lamps with a flourescent mantle, which gave
a much whiter light.
There were open fireplaces in all the rooms, but only in the main
living room was a constant fire kept going in the winter throughout
the day until bed time. The children, who got up in the cold bed
rooms and dressed, hastened by the voice of John Ellis shouting
“stir out,” bounced down the stairway to be welcomed by a roaring
fire. Breakfast consisted generally of eggs, hot biscuits, rice and gravy,
ham or bacon, and occasionally steak with a rich thick cream gravy.
There was no coffee or tea, but always plenty of milk. Only when
there was company (and always when there was a grandmother of
the children) was coffee served. Lucy Ann greatly enjoyed preparing
meals. Some of her specialties were persimmon pudding (never widely
known and almost a lost art after her passing), hot slaw (not a salad
but a main dish, cooked with vinegar and cream), “stickies” (rolled
up dough highly seasoned with sweets and grated nutmeg, baked
with a delectable coating of syrupy sweets which had oozed out and
crusted on top). No one was ever able to cook string beans or
creamed corn equal to what Lucy Ann could do.
The smokehouse, which contained many of the good things which
went on Lucy Ann’s table burned in 1895, and only by good luck
did the residence not catch fire. This was the very first of Coulter’s
series of fires. In answer to a letter of condolence from his father
Philip Augustus, John Ellis wrote, “Yes, my smokehouse etc. burned
up together with much general household goods but I don’t mind
that. I will have to work the harder and try to make it back.”
Screen doors could not keep out the pestiferous housefly, but there
were ways to fight it when it came inside. The fly-brush was always
handy at mealtime to be wielded by someone, and there was the
HoME AND Far 107
“Tanglefoot Sticky Fly Paper,” which could be spread out at all
times. ae came in double sheets stuck together, and when pulled apart
(an operation which children always liked to perform) two sheets
were ready to catch the flies. According to the promotional advertise-
ment, it was “really the only device known that will catch and hold
both the fly and the germ and coat them both over with a varnish
from which they never escape, preventing their reaching your person
or food.”
For the sick and ailing, there were many home remedies which
generally prevented the necessity of sending for the doctor. One
remedy which was always used successfully for the dangers of lock-
jaw from injuries by rusty nails was the application of turpentine
and smoking the wound with woolen rags. There was a physician
engaging in ” general practice living in the village or in its environs.
It was an unheard of thing to go to a hospital to see a doctor or
seldom to a doctor’s office. If a person went to a hospital (and none
was nearer than Statesville or Asheville for a long time), it was
because he needed surgery or had plenty of money. Those physicians
best remembered were Dr. R. L. Lattimore, who was in Connelly
Springs when Coulter arrived or soon thereafter and who later moved
to Greensboro; Dr. McG. Anders; and Dr. T. V. Goode. On call
these “country” doctors with their long-coupled black satchels filled
with little bottles of medicine, made visits to homes, summer and
winter, in fair weather or foul, day or night. Dr. R. D. Jennings
was the village dentist until 1899, when he moved to Banner Elk in
present Avery County. He was a tall, serious-looking man, with an
unlit cigar in his mouth when not at work. People generally visited
dentists’ offices for service; but Dr. J. J. Hicks of Mull Grove, who
in 1896 filled a tooth for Coulter for s0¢, would at intervals bring
his drilling machine to Coulter’s home in Connelly Springs and engage
in practice for a week or two.
Lucy Ann was a home-loving person, who never felt she could
Visit very far away from home or for more than a few days as long
as she had small children in the household—to her kindred in Cavawha
County or all within a day on a trip to Hickory for some special
trading. Only after her family grew up and moved away did she
make visits to points outside the state—to Texas, Florida, Washington,
D. C., and to visit a sister who lived in Waynesboro, Virginia.
Lucy Ann was always the first to grab the Newton Enterprise or
the Morganton News-Herald to read aloud the news of interest; and
she was the center of attention as she read to the family certain
syndicated articles which regularly appeared in the larger state
papers. Those which were special favorites were Frank G. Carpenter’s
108 Joun Extvis CouLTEer
accounts of his travels, and the trials and tribulations of the Bowsers
in which Mr. Bowser always came out second best to Mrs. Bowser.
In the evenings John Ellis was likely to do a good deal of his
sleeping sitting up in his chair, but never while Carpenter or the
Bowsers were “holding forth. The Bowser sketches appeared in book
form in 1902 under the title of The Life and Troubles of Mr. Bowser.
Lucy Ann was a firm believer in the adage: Spare the rod and
spoil the child. Very seldom did she ever use the “rod” (at most
a peachtree switch) for when she corrected a child or asked it to
do something or not to do something, that was sufficient. A favorite
expression of her’s for children was “chaps,” or “young ’uns.” Some
of the expressions which had come down to her, which she would
use were: “Come easy, go easy--got it by grubbing,” “Jump the
broom handle” (for marrying), “Dance at your wedding” (thanks
for having been done a favor). She remembered much lore, humorous
and otherwise, that had been in her family perhaps for generations,
as: A simpleton who was being tried for having killed a sheep,
not his own, testified that the brute had come at inn with its mouth
open, and that he would kill any man’s sheep before he would let
it bite him.
One of the jokes that long persisted in the Coulter family related
to Calvin Abee, who was the first neighbor up the road. Frequently
as he would walk down the road to town, he would stop to have
a little friendly chat. On one occasion he remarked, “You will not
see me walking up and down this road very often any more. I saw
in the papers where you could get a bicycle free, and I ordered me
one. I also ordered one for Fin [his son].” Calvin was probably
jokingly referring to the advertisements of something being free, untl
the small print indicated that the reader would have to do some
important things before the “free something” could be had.
A favorite story, which seems to have beer: true and often repeated
by John Ellis, related to an old gentleman who had two homely
daughters, somewhat up in years, vad a mischievous son. On one
evening two friends of the girls called to see them. The old gentleman
was so elated that he spread the news the next morning: “Two big
bucks at my house last night. Soon there will be no one here but I,
Rene (his wife) and Bunyan.” Bunyan liked to disturb his father
by plaving tricks. He w ould tie a sewing thread to a shoe at the foot
of the bed and conceal the thread so that when he pulled it the shoe
would move. The old gentleman would say, “See that shoe move,
Bunvan? That’s the works of the devil.”
With a restless energy and ideas and plans galore, Coulter began
developing the lands bev ond Lucy Ann’s domain. Cold Water Creek
Home anp FaRM 109
ran down through the middle of good bottom land, overflowing its
banks when big rains came. He decided to put a stop to this and
rescue the land for farming. He put Willis Ervin and other hands to
digging a channel around the south edge of these bottoms, over against
the hill, and turning the creek into this new channel. After blasting
away at one point, they opened up a mineral spring of excellent
water. Coulter developed this spring and made it a source of healing
waters for those who could endure its taste and were willing to walk
a quarter mile for a good drink—and perchance bring back a jug
full. To rescue some of this bottom land which was too swampy for
farming, Coulter set workmen to digging drainage ditches, some
to be lined with timbers resting on the bottom (known as blind
ditches) and others to be supplied with Pomona Terra-Cotta tilings.
Having played with the creek by transferring it to the hillside,
to keep it there in high water Coulter had a rock wall laid at weak
places. But he was not through with attending to the creek. About
1894 he built a dam across it and made a pond. The dam was made
by filling in dirt between two rock walls, set far enough apart to
allow the dam to serve as a roadway. Whether or not this pond
had been designed as a fish pond, Coulter soon stocked it with German
carp, which his father Philip Augustus gave him. The pond served
as a great attraction for the Coulter children and their neighbors,
engaging in boating, swimming, and feeding the fish with bread to
see them come up, breaking the surface of the water. Infrequently
the Baptists used the pond for baptising their converts.
Most of the land lying to the southward of his residence and across
the creek, Coulter enclosed in barbed-wire fences. This land was used
for a cow pasture, and was divided into two parts, the “big pasture”
lving on beyond the one nearest his home. Milch cows were not
allowed in the “big pasture,” because they were likely to stray too far
away to be found easily. Coulter bought most of his barbed wire
from the Cincinnati Barbed Wire Fence Company, also getting some
from the Pittsburgh Steel Company. In putting up such fences staple
pullers and wire splicers and stretchers were necessary tools. In
fencing woodlands, few posts were necessary, since there were
generally trees to which the wire could be nailed. For fields near
his home Coulter used almost exclusively picket fences, and here it
Was necessary to erect posts in holes made with a post-hole digger,
which could be had from the Eureka Fence Manufacturing Company
of Richmond. Some of the gates which he used for his barn lot and
fields were “Cant-Snag,” which he bought from Rowe Manufacturing
Company of Galesburg, Illinois. Coulter made very few plank fences.
Picket fences were made by weaving palings or pickets between
110 JouN Extis CouLter
two strands of smooth wire at the top and two at the bottom. A
shuttle twisted the wires for each picket, and a workman with a
wooden maul knocked the picket up to the preceding one, leaving
a space of about three inches between the pickets. This type of fence
did not seem to be very widely known, for Benjamin Pearson, Jr.
of the Byfield Snuff Company, Byfield, Massachusetts, who on a
visit to Connelly Springs had seen Coulter’s picket fences, upon
his return north wrote Coulter wanting to know how he made the
fence. He also thanked Coulter “for the good time you gave us while
in your country” and asked him to “kindly give my regards to all
the friends which I made in your pretty village, who were so kind
to us all.”
All of Coulter’s home-place lands were in forests when he bought
them, with the exception of the “Sook bottom,” which lay along the
“Sook branch” where it ran into Cold Water Creek, and a hillside
clearing, where a family of Negroes had once lived but were at this
time resting in a little graveyard, overgrown with cedar and aspen
trees. The name “Sook” came from Sook (or Sukey) Connelly, who
was the head of the family.
Coulter was soon clearing land as far as the creek, first with
choppers, grubbers, and burners of brush; but for the many stumps
which were left, he used a stump-puller, bought from the Union
Grubber Company of Sigourney, Iowa. Another one he bought from
Hercules Manufacturing Company of Centerville, Iowa. The necessary
wire cable he bought from these companies and also from John A.
Roebling’s Sons Company of Trenton, New Jersey. So successful was
Coulter in clearing his land, that he wrote an account of his stump
pulling for the Practical Farmer, published in Philadelphia. This article
aroused widespread interest throughout the country. Wanting further
information, people wrote to him from Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
West Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Alabama. Coulcer was the first and only one in the vicinity of Con-
nelly Springs to use this method of clearing land.
As if he was not already deep in the lumber and mercantile
businesses, Coulter was going about his farming with as much vision
and vigor as he displayed in “his other enterprises. Remembering what
was best from the past, he was learning from experiments and from
information he was getting in answer to inquiries addressed to the
North Carolina Department of Agriculture and to farm papers. What
crops might best follow what crops, the value of inoculating seeds,
how to keep smut out of wheat and oats, how to get rid of oyster-
shell scales on apple trees, how best to prepare land fot various crops,
what were the best soil builders, and sending samples of his soils to
HoMeE AND FARNAI Ill
‘see what would improve it—these and many other questions he raised
in his inquiries. He subscribed for various farm papers, the Practical
Farmer and the Progressive Farmer being his favorites. Also he re-
ceived many United States Department of Agriculture bulletins and
their annual reports back as far as 1886, sad yearbooks as these
reports were later called. A member of the North Carolina Depart-
ment of Agriculture wrote to him in 1905, “I am glad to know that
you are so “ame interested in improved agriculture.”
He soon developed a reputation for being ahead of all other farmers
in his vicinity along almost every line of agriculture; and people were
as assiduously plying him for information ae he ever was in obtaining
it for himself. A farmer in Four Oaks, North Carolina, wanted es
formation about velvet beans, “how they grow, how to plant them,
will they pay on poor sandy land.” Dr. W. M. McGalliard, a physician
of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, wanted information on the use of dyna-
mite in farming, breaking up land, making ditches, and so on. He said
he supposed that Coulter was using it, “that, as usual, you are ahead of
all farmers in finding out and getting the best results from your
land.” Southern Farming, which was published in Atlanta, wanted
Coulter to contribute articles describing his farming methods. Gover-
nor W. W. Kitchin of North Carolina appointed him annually in
succession from 1909 to 1912 to be a delegate to the Farmers’ National
Congress, meeting in various cities—in Columbus, Ohio, in 1911. There
is no record that he attended any of these congresses—too busy with
his many enterprises.
Methods of farming were, of course, tied in closely with farm
machinery. Coulter began early to use a sub-soil plow to bring up
deep-lving soil to mix with top-soil. This operation would improve
the land and give rain a chance to soak in deeper, and thus preserve
moisture and prevent top-soil from washing away. Also he began using
disc plows and especially the reversible type, which would allow hill-
side plowing without going up or down hill. Coulter used the
“Averv’s Reversible Dise Plow, ” manufactured by B. F. Avery &
Sons of Louisville, Kentucky. For breaking up clods he used “dirt
rollers, made of steel and sold by The Lehr Agricultural Company
of Fremont, Ohio, and also by A: Buch’s Sons of Elizabethton, Penn-
sylvania. For breaking up the soil still further, he used pulverizing
harrows, generally the “Acme,” made by Duane H. Nash, Millington,
New Jersey, and disc harrows, made by The Thomas Manufacturing
Company of Springfield, Ohio. For grain reapers and binders he dealt
with D. M. Osborne & Company of Philadelphia. He used the “Cole
Seed Planter and Fertilizer,” made by the Cole Manufacturing Com-
pany of Charlotte. For various kinds of farm machinery he dealt with
112 Joun Extis CouLTEer
the Chattanooga Plow Company; the International Harvester Com-
pany of Chicago; Rock Island Plow Company; J. I. Case of Racine,
Wisconsin; the Champion Drill Company of Avon, New York; and
the Ontario Drill Company of East Rochester, New York.
Coulter was the first to begin terracing his land with wide ridges,
which were cultivated just like the rest of his land. For long terraces
which might collect enough water to start overflowing, he built at
a low point in the terrace about half its length, an underground
outlet made by burying large Terra-Cotta tiling to run straight down
the hill.
For improving the fertility of his soil, he used commercial fertilizers
and stable manures. Also he applied ground lime rock to correct the
acidity in soil, for practically no crop thrived on an acid soil. There
were, of course, other ways he used in improving his soil. He sowed
clover and cow peas to be ‘plowed under, and he rotated crops. During
his last farming days he learned of a plant which was being raised
in Florida, called crotalaria, which was “the finest summer legume
ever discovered and the cheapest method of fertilizing and building
up soil.” But it came too late for his use, and by 1962 it was con-
sidered a noxious weed which should be exterminated, for its seeds
contaminated any grain with which it got mixed and might bring
about the death of animals which ate it.
For practically his whole farming life, Coulter depended on horses
and mules for power. Generally he kept about a half dozen and a
special riding horse for himself. He did a good deal of swapping,
buying, and selling; sometimes he dealt with Henkel-Craig Live Stock
Company of Hickory and Lenoir. For livestock remedies and for
other information, he frequently wrote to Tait Butler, the state
veterinarian, in the Department of Agriculture at Raleigh, but form-
erly a founder and editor of Southern ‘Farm Gazette, Seireville, Missis-
sippi, and a frequent contributor to the Progressive Farmer. As for
the best feed for horses and mules, in addiction to corm and roughness
(fodder), Coulter was informed that cotton seed meal was excellent
if stock could be taught to eat it, pea meal also was excellent, as
well as wheat bran and shorts. As a tonic Coulter included a good
deal of the patented International Stock Food Remedies. He bought
from Couch Brothers Manufacturing Company of Senoia, Georgia,
a dozen patent horse collars, which “did away with pads and éronld
“cure or prevent galls or sore shoulders.” For special equipment in
training horses “Prof, Jesse Beery” of Pleasant Hill, Ohio, bombarded
Coulter with. his leaflets advertising his items, such as special bits and
books. Most of his horses and mules were shod by Jack Deal, a black-
smith living a mile or two to the westward. Also George and Bill
Home anp FarM 113
Aiken, with a shop about the same distance to the eastward, did some
shoeing for Coulter.
In 1899 one of Coulter’s horses got so badly crippled that it had to
be shot. He buried it near an apple tree, thus, according to the
Morganton Herald, “utilizing him to the farthest extent.”
In 1920 he bought a farm tractor, being one of the first two
farmers in Burke County to do so; but the tractor was none too
satisfactory and he continued to do most of his farming with horses
and mules.
The main crops which Coulter planted were wheat and corn. No
stalk of cotton ever grew on his land, not because he had any
prejudice against this staple, but because Burke County was not
in the cotton belt. Other important crops were oats, rye, and pea hay.
He listed in 1915 in a report to the United States Department of Agri-
culture the following crops: corn, 25 acres; wheat, 30; oats, 40; rye,
25; Irish potatoes, %4 acre; sweet potatoes, 4; hay, 25; peanuts,
%; beans, %; all others, 5. As soon as his peas were harvested he
planted oats on the same land. This was generally in early September.
He was a great believer in cow peas; they loosened the soil and added
nitrogen 60 it; and they were good for hay and for seeds. Rve was
sown about the same time as oats. Around 1918 Coulter became great-
ly interested in a special variety of rye, called Abruzzi. People Fcc
Virginia to Texas wrote him inquiring about it. Coulter generally
cut “off his corn, shocked it, and then hauled it in to be shucked and
shredded by machinery. Occasionally he had fodder and the ears
pulled in the field. Threshers with their machine pulled by a wood-
burning traction engine came once a year to thresh his grain crops.
It was always necessary to know a few days ahead when thev were
coming and how many meals the hands accompanying the machine
would have at the Coulter residence. Those were busy times for
Lucy Ann and what help she could stir up. Any grapes or fruits
in vineyard or orchard were looked upon by the threshers as theirs—
and it was always a relief when these plunderers left.
There was a variety of crops which Coulter became interested in
and raised for a time, and some of these he was the first to introduce
into the neighborhood. Among the beans his favorite was the soy-bean,
also called soja and soya, there being at least four varieties: yellow,
green, brown, and black. They were described by a Richmond seed-
man as “the coming forage and self-improving crop” and “one of the
largest yielding crops grown.” Coulter also raised mung beans, velvet
beans, ‘and some Tokio beans. Referring to velvet beans, Fred
Peyronel of Valdese wrote, “I had a lot of them last year and I would
114 Joun Exxiis CouLTER
not like to be without for anything, as all the stock like it and grow
fat on it too.”
Coulter began raising hairy vetch for hay as early as 1901. The
variety known as purple vetch had been imported from Naples, Italy
in 1899; and as late as 1918, the United States Department of Agri-
culture was referring to it as “a new crop.” Millett was another crop
he planted for hay as early as 1899; but if allowed to grow to maturity
it became too large and tough for hay. Coulter was a great believer
in clover, all varieties he knew—white, red, crimson, and bush clover.
Bush clover, also known as Japan clover or lespedeza, was a good
soil-builder as well as a valuable forage and hay crop. He sowed
rape now and then, principally for his hogs. This was a plant akin
to the cabbage family, and it was a good cover crop for orchards.
Every year a watermelon patch was set out with some cantaloupes
and muskmelons. Sometimes an acre or more was planted in pump-
kins, which were good both for man and beast.
Of course Coulter began an orchard and vineyard almost as soon
as he began building his residence. In his orchard he had peaches,
apples, pears, plums, quinces, damsons, cherries, mulberries, Japanese
walnuts, and pecans. He planted some raspberries, but blackberries
and dewberries came up of their own accord in any field or fence-
row neglected for a few years. He bought most of his orchard plants
from the Startown Nursery and the Catawba County Nursery Com-
pany in Newton and Maiden. Pests (insect—and human if trees were
near a public roadway) were soon taking their tolls; and Coulter
now had to begin spraying the former, the latter were not too
devastating. He used Bordeaux mixture, Paris green, and arsenate
of lead. Spray pumps he bought from Sydnor Pump & Well Company
of Richmond, Virginia.
Thus, it is evident that life on the Coulter home place could never
have been monotonous. It was close enough to town for whatever
conveniences could be found there and far enough away to offer
the variety and flavor of life which only the country could give.
Pity the boy amidst the maddening cry of the city, who did not
know which end of a cow gave milk or what a hame-string was for.
CHAPTER [X
STOCKMAN
O intelligent person would attempt to run a farm without
having on it livestock in addition to his work animals. Coulter
had his horses and mules for plowing and wagoning; and his wife
Lucy Ann always had a cow or two and a pig. With all his land,
opportunities were at hand for breeding livestock in sufficient numbers
to make it a business in itself. Very early he began raising and
selling hogs, and as time went on he added sheep, goats, and cattle.
Poultry might well have been an interest of Lucy Ann’s, but she
was content with a small flock of chickens, some turkeys, and a few
guineas—the chickens for their eggs, and hens and pullets for the pot
and frying pan. Turkeys came “in handy around Thanksgiving and
Christrnas 1 times, and as has already been noted guineas were more for
adding variety and to be looked at when they were around—they were
bad to wander afar. But Coulter was not content with this smattering;
he added poultry to his list of livestock, and when Lucy Ann had
none to part with, he bought what was necessary to fill his orders.
By 1900 Coulter was becoming conscious of the possibilities of
adding an extensive livestock business to his enterprises. ‘Vo his letter-
head, which had previously carried his lumber and mercantile busi-
nesses he now added, “Breeder of Thoroughbred Short Nosed Essex
Hogs.” A year or two later a letterhead announced an increasing
interest in livestock, but still playing second fiddle to his lumber
business: “Breeder of Thoroughbred Essex and Berkshire Hogs, An-
gora Goats and Guernsey and Holestine Cattle.” By the year 1906
he was using a special letterhead emphasizing livestock, and relegating
his lumber business to “small print,” but it must not be assumed
that he was letting up on lumber. Never having given a name to his
estate, he now called the livestock part of it Cold Water Creek Stock
Farm, “Breeder and Shipper of Registered Short-Nosed Essex Swine,
[115 ]
116 Joun Extis CouLTEr
Registered Big Boned Yorkshire Swine, Registered Berkshire Swine,
Grade Pigs for Slaughter, a2 Cross Between Poland China and Berk-
shire. Etc. I also breed Angora and Common Goats, Sheep and
Cattle.” By 1910 he had made further progress in his livestock business.
He adopted a new name for his farm, now calling it Mountain Oak
Stock Farm, with this listing of his holdings, “Breeder and Shipper
of Registered Short Nosed Black Essex, also Poland-Chinas, Berk-
shires, Duroc Jerseys and grades. Have sows in farrow, service boars
and pigs of all kinds at all times. Purebred Angora Goats, Mammoth
Bronze Turkeys, White Plymouth Rock and White Wyandotte
Poultry.” He emphasized in red ink the following policy: “Important
Notice—All Stock Sold Subject to Approval. On receipt of same
at your station, if not satisfactory, uncrate (if necessary) feed and
water, wire, phone or write me. I will send shipping instructions,
pay return charges and return money.”
There were certain terms which were applied exclusively to swine.
“In farrow” meant that the sow was “with pigs,” that is that she
would “drop a litter of pigs.” A “shote (shoat)” was a young hog
without regard to sex; a “gilt” was a young sow; and a “barrow”
was a male hog castrated before it reached sexual maturity.
Coulter was a great believer in advertising his livestock, the products
of his mills, and anything else he had to sell. He lumped all together
but the emphasis now was on livestock. His favorite advertising
medium was the Progressive Farmer (both the Carolina and Virginia
editions). Also he advertised in the Practical Farmer, the American
Swineherd, the Southern Cultivator, the Southern Ruralist, the South-
ern Agriculturist, the Charlotte Observer, the Raleigh News and Ob-
server, the Farm Life Bulletin of Richmond, the Montgomery Daily
Times, and the Tampa Tribune. He did not neglect the small county
newspapers, the Morganton News-Herald being his favorite for Burke
County, and the Lenoir Topic for Caldwell County. It was the custom
for newspapers to clip an advertisement from some other newspaper
and send it to the person whose advertisement they had clipped and
quote their rates. Then, there were advertising agencies offering
to run advertisements in a group of papers. In 1916 such an agency
offered to run Coulter’s livestock advertisement of 25 words eight
times in ten South Carolina papers for $5.00. A free advertisement
medium was provided by the Southern Railway Company to increase
traffic along their lines. They issued at intervals the Southern Railway
System Development Service and their Livestock Bulletin, both being
pamphlets which listed the names and addresses of Jumbermen and
stockmen and noting what they had to sell.
These advertisements paid so well that Coulter was soon known
STOCKMAN 117
far and wide as a stockman. County agents and banks promoting
Pig Clubs frequently called on him for pigs; and the Progressive
Farmer in offering pigs as prizes in the promotion of its circulation
frequently bought them from Coulter. And, of course, people “from
the ends of the earth” began ordering livestock. He shipped pigs to
customers from Virginia to lowa and California, but his main trade
was with people living in North Carolina, though Virginia and South
Carolina were not far behind. He shipped pigs to a Mr. Von Eber-
stein of Chocowinty, North Carolina, and to other Tar Heel towns
with such unusual names as Bear Wallow, Roaring River, Hominy
Creek, Bat Cave, Horse Shoe, Banner Elk, Pine Lever, Pine Town,
Pink Hill, Rocky Point, Cash Corner, Gum Neck, Mount Holly,
Laurel Hill, Slick Rock, Pee Dee, Sunshine, Joy, and Worry. Of
course, he shipped much to towns with more conventional names.
Coulter got so many orders and inquiries that he was swamped—
and just like Lucy Ann, who would have no servants, so he would
think it preposterous to have a secretary. In this situation he resorted
to a form letter in which he listed the stock he had to sell with the
prices and further information which he thought might answer many
of his inquirers. He got out new ones as prices and holdings changed.
One of these early circular letters began, “In mailing you this
circular letter, I hope to answer your inquiry. I get so many inquiries
that I haven’t time to answer all by letter. If your inquiry calls for
something not answered in this you will find a P. S. at the bottom of
this letter or on the opposite side, SOQ LOOK FOR IT.” In one of
these letters he listed not only his various breeds of swine and their
prices, but also a Jersey bull, two mares, a variety of peas and beans,
sorghum seed, and various strains of poultry.
A Tar Heel farmer wrote Coulter informing him that he had re-
ceived the circular letter, “and believe me, dear sir, it was good
reading to me. It did me good to read about a farmer of N. C. having
that much livestock etc. for sale.” Prices varied from the old country
custom of a “pig for a dollar” to one for $5.00 by 1905. In 1915 he
was offering “Essex pigs, purebred and registered at $10.00 each,”
and later he was asking $15.00. At certain times he advertised Essex,
Hampshire, Poland-China, and Duroc Jersey pigs when two months
old at $12.50, or when four months old, $15.00. Second choice pigs
brought $8.00, he announced in 1915, and as for runts, “I sell the
runts, when I have any, for porkers to the neighbors who can see
them and pay what they think they are worth.” In 1918 he was
selling brood sows from $50.00 to $85.00. Boars sold for somewhat
less, generally from $50.00 to $60.00. All these prices were for stock
which could be registered. Porkers or grade hogs always sold for
118 Joun Exris CouLtEr
less, sometimes for 1o¢ a pound on foot. In describing a hog for
excellence, he used such expressions as this: “Weli marked, quite
gentle, and no bad traits.” Great store was put on the appearance
of a thoroughbred, the slightest markings from normal might prevent
a sale. In offering a gilt (young sow) Coulter explained: “She is
large for her age and a bargain; has one defect—a few white hair on
white [right?] foot, but is the lineal descendant of registered stock
as far back as I can trace her and the white hair on the foot is a sport
I can’t account for. There is not the slightest possibility that her pigs
would be so marked.”
Registering a hog meant giving its genealogical record back for
three generations, a description of the animal, and the names of the
previous owners. Many hog buyers put great emphasis on registration.
The price for registration was generally one dollar. Each hog when
registered received a name, chosen either by the buyer or by Coulter.
Such names as these were used, whimsical or otherwise: Nick Long-
worth, Alice Roosevelt, Togo, Tom Watson, Cleopatra, Jim Crow,
Betsy Crow, Rose of Lovelady, Suzy, Tar Heel King, Carolina Bess,
Conover Chief, Princess V, Della, Laura, Ringmaster, Julia, Black
Beauty, Ila Jones, Southern Belle, Harry, Martha, Fatty, Shannon,
Fanny, Jim Suttle, Mildred, Prime, Miss Lucy, Lucy Ann, Mysta, and
so on.
There were associations for the main breeds of hogs, which provided
registration, and published booklets and yearbooks. Coulter belonged
to all the associations registering breeds of hogs which he sold: the
American Duroc Jersey Swine Association of Chicago; the American
Hampshire Swine Record Association of Peoria, Illinois; the National
Poland-China Record Company of Winchester, Indiana; and the
American Essex Swine Association. F. M. Srout was the secretary
and treasurer of this last-named group. He moved around consider-
ably and as he was the principal officer, it may be said that the
association moved with him.
In 1906 Srout was living in McLean, Illinois, and he finally ended
up in New London, Iowa. Srout and Coulter became great friends
and in their business correspondence (mostly registering Essex hogs
for Coulter), they became quite chatty, though they never personally
met each other. When anyone should write Srout inquiring about
Essex hogs, he would refer them to Coulter. Srout was a farmer and
often he would write a description of his farming operations, how
many acres he had planted to various crops, how many bushels of
wheat he made, and so on. In 1915 he reported 5,300 bushels of wheat
and 6,000 bushels of oats. In 1916 he wrote Coulter, “I think Hughs
[sic] will be our next President yet I dont hear many complaints
STOCKMAN 119
against Wilson.” Later, when he moved to Iowa, in explaining his
new location, he wrote that he would send “a few lines to find out
how you are getting along and to find out how you are getting along
with the essex business and every thing else, and how you are pleased
with the war.” He now had an autotmobile, and he thought that he
and his wife might “come through the South Touring,” and he would
come by to see Coulter. He died in September, 1919.
Srout, like Coulter, had “too many irons in the fire.” Frequently
he would wait months before filling out registration blanks for swine
Coulter had sold to customers who were clamoring for their registra-
tion certificates. Other Essex dealers were having the same trouble.
Taking advantage of this discontent, Reuben F. Abernethy of Mount
Holly, decided to try to organize a rival association to be called the
Union Essex Swine Association. Coulter was to be vice president;
but he did not become interested, and all efforts to organize it failed.
Srout, was, of course, much opposed and “poo-pooed” the idea. Writ-
ing in 1911 he said that two years ago Abernethy did not know
anything about the registration business, that “he did not know B.
from Apple Butter about Registring Stock & I think he dont know
but very little about it yet.” Coulter ear-marked many of his hogs
with a button-like metal tag riveted into the hog’s ear.
Soon Coulter was bestirrng himself in assembling information on
raising and caring for swine. He subscribed for the American Savine-
herd, “Devoted to Swine Raising and Special Advocate of the Poland-
China Breed, Progressive, Aggressive.” Also he secured such booklets
as these: Pig Feeders Manual; Care of Hogs; Progressive Scientific
Feeding Formula for Fattening Hogs; and bulletins issued by the
United States Bureau of Animal Industry. His remedies came from
H. W. Kellogg Co. of St. Paul, also he used “Dr. Hess’ Stock Food”
and “Dr. Lion’s Stock Remedy,” and the remedies put out by the
International Stock Food Company of Minneapolis. He set up in his
hog lot a Wasson’s Patent Rubbing Post, “Kills Lice, Germs, Para-
sites,” made by the Wasson Manufacturing Company of Peoria,
Illinois. According to this company, “It is natural for a louse-infected
hog to rub the places which irritates him. It is nature’s own way of
affording the hog relief. Why not let the hog apply the remedy
by his own efforts and as he needs it?” This rubbing post was “a
hollow cast iron tube four inches in diameter and about three feet
high in which is placed a solid or heavy petroleum dip to be auto-
matically applied on hogs to rid them of lice, mange mites and all
other flesh-eating parasites.” This company asserted that this method
took the place of a dipping tank, but Coulter had also his dipping
tank in which he used “Zenoleum Dip,” made by the Zenner Disin-
120 Joun Exiis CouLTER
fectant Company of Detroit; and “Lion’s Imported Dip,” made in
England and imported by the Live Stock Remedy Company of
St. Louis.
With all his gathering of information and his experience, Coulter
soon became a sort of information bureau himself. People frequently
wrote to him, wanting to know how and what to feed hogs, what
breed of hogs was best for a given region; which grew biggest; which
had the best meat; how to breed Essex hogs to get short noses; and
what were the best remedies for hog diseases? The Southern Agri-
culturalist wanted him to become a member of their Advisory Board
and to write occasionally about his farm and livestock. He was too
busy to make any such commitments. One of his “home-grown”
remedies which he often volunteered to customers when he sent
them stock was: salt, sulphur, lime, and charcoal mixed up and kept
where the hogs could reach it.
Most of Coulter’s hog customers were better farmers than gram-
marians. Many of them had great difficulty in spelling hog breeds:
“how minnie Pigs have that exic [Essex] Sow got”; “I want to no if
[you] have any good Esake pigs now for sail”; “I like the way you
talk so you will send me one pole and china pig [for] $10.” A
Florida customer wanted a boar pig “that is if his nose is not too
crooked”; another ordered “one Duroc sow pig first class in every
respect, wide between the ears long bodied. Well I would like for it
to look just like the photo on your envelope but I presume from his
form he is a berk Shire.” A prospective buyer wanted “to now if I
could get a Mail Pig Seven are eight weeks old,” and another empha-
sized, “I want a First Choice Pig I dont want no Runt Neither.”
A South Carolinian wrote in 1917, “I saw a Nice Little Black Pig
from you today going through by Express and this is how I gotten
your name. I would like to have Nice Little Black Pig to Eat the
Scraps and Slops around the House. Would prefer A Big Pig already
altered.” A Tar Heel farmer who had had bad luck with his hogs
wanted to start out again by buying some from Coulter. He wrote,
“The collery have killed every hog I have got But 5 and among the
lot was one fine registered Polinchiney Bore.”
There was hardly anyone who did not want to know “your lowest
price,” “your best price,” or “what is the least you will take.” Many
of his customers were as chatty in their letters as if they were his
next-door neighbors. A Negro preacher in Virginia always signed
himself, “Your Old Friend.”
Hog cholera was a devastating scourge, which never reached
Coulter’s herd. His hogs, however, were tested ever so often to comply
with state laws which required a health certificate for hogs shipped
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STOoCcKMAN 121
in. Before crating his pigs for shipment he would give them a bath
in Zenoleum water or some other disinfectant. Since some of his
customers lived in far-off states or deep in the country miles away
from a railway station, he was careful to notify them a few days
before shipment when to expect them. He would te onto the crate
going a long distance a little sack of feed with this request which
he hoped railway agents and other trainmen would heed: “Feed
and water me. Corn in the sack.” It took four days for a pig to
reach Guyton, Georgia. A customer in Mineral Wells, Texas, wrote
that he received the pig “all OK & think he is a dandy.”
Coulter took considerable care in building up his herd. His best
Essex stock he bought from Richard Peters’ Stock Farm of Calhoun,
Georgia, who was “one of the oldest Essex breeders.” Coulter bought
a Yorkshire sow from Bowmont Farms in Salem, Virginia, which
“was bred by Sanders Spencer of Holywell Manor, St. Ives, England,
and was imported when a pig by L. S. Cooper of Coopersburg, Pa.”
Also he bought another Yorkshire sow which came from England, pay-
ing $50.00 for it. Frequently Coulter had more orders than he could
fill; then he had to depend on suppliers whom he had located and
in whom he had confidence, for often he had pigs which he had never
seen, shipped direct from his suppliers to his customers. There was
danger in this practice, for unless the supplier was very circumspect
and thoroughly honest he might ship shabby stock, and cause Coul-
ter’s reputation as a stockman to fall. Some of his suppliers whom
he could depend on were: Robert L. Abernethy, “Open View Farms,”
Me. Island, North Carolina; T. L. Cook of Boone; P. H. Punch of
Newton, “Grower and Shipper of Choice Sweet Potatoes and Straw-
berries”; H. C. Hargrove of Canton; M. E. Aderholt of Henry River;
and Frederick W. (Fritz) Hossfeld of Morganton. In selling a sow in
farrow, Coulter frequently would ask to have a few of the pigs
reserved for himself. In one instance he made an agreement with
the Blue Ridge Association, which ran a hotel in Black Mountain,
whereby they would feed during the summer season thirty hogs and
when they should be returned he would pay 4%¢ a pound for all
weight taken on. ;
Coulter received many letters from enthusiastic customers thanking
him for the excellent stock he had sent them. A county agent wrote,
“I wish to say that I am well pleased with the pigs, and all who saw
them have said the sane.” From Morehead City came these expressions
by a pleased customer: “I think you wrote one of the kindest letters
I ever rec’d . . . a thousand thanks to you. J am sure vou are a
Gentleman in the highest degree & I hope you are a Christian. Every
bodie likes to deal with a man who will do just what he says. [The
122 Joun Ettis CouLTer
hog] is the best that I ever saw.” A purchaser in Leesburg, Georgia,
said the sow which he had received from Coulter was “as fine as I
have ever seen in any of the fairs of this state. [ have shown her to
several, and they think she is a beauty. I am very proud of her.” A
South Carolinian wrote that he had received the pig “all OK an i
am please wid him an all those seed him ses he is the Best the ]they[
ever Saw.” He wanted the pig named in the registration certificates
“the King of dorchester.” Another South Carolinian in bemoaning
the loss of two pigs Coulter had sold him said, “They were Little
Beauties. I have never lost any stock of any kind that hurt me as
bad.” A customer in Alabama wrote that the pigs had “arrived in
fine condition . . . not worried over the trip seemingly. They are
beauties so gentle & quiet.” Up in the mountainous Republican country
of North Carolina, a customer wrote that he liked the pig and facetious-
ly added, “I think he is a republican except his color.” Another
mountain customer wrote from Toe Cane that the pigs were “all right
and eat heartily and I think this mountain air will agree with them,
they: are purtty pigs Sure.” Another mountaineer up in Caldwell
County was well pleased: “Would be glad friend Coulter if you
could run over to see me sometimes. I know you are a busy man,
never-the-less tear loose the first opportunity and come. I am not
fixed to treat you royally, but will do the best I can.” From Alabama
came this: “I wish to thank you for selecting and sending me such
a nice one. Will be only too glad to recommend you and your hogs
to any one if an opportunity affords itself.”
The chorus of thanks continued: “as fine as split silk”; “Very much
pleased with my pig. Many thanks,” (a telegram); “beyond my ex-
pectations”; “he is a dandy”; “will Return my Thanks to you. I would
not take Double the amount for pig”; “[thank] you very much for the
nice pig you sent me & if I can do you any good I will be glad to do
so for I find you to be an honest man”; “She brought me 45 pigs
in two years”; “the finest Pigs I ever saw. Every body that have seen
>
the Pigs says they are the nicest pigs they ever saw”; “are as nice
as we could ask for”; “more than proud of him, he is a buty”; “as
fine as a picture”; “would not take any thing for him’; “would
not take twice what she cost me”; “more than pleased with King
George . . . When you get Reddy to Have Circulars Printed let
me no and I will give King George a big send off”; “the pig is going
to make friends for you in this country [Virginia]”; “is just a pet
and my children like her to a tea”; “like him fine, has good marks
and well built”; and so it went on and on.
It would not have been true to human nature if every pig customer
had been satisfied. A Floridian was pleased with his pigs but he was
STOCKMAN 123
a little disappointed because one did not “have a little white on the
end of her nose” and the other did not “curl his tail.” Another bought
a sow, which brought him “ro fine pigs” but “the mother is the biggest
chicken hog i ever saw.” A complaint came from Pamlico County,
on the coast: “I am sorrow to tell you the sow I bought of you is of
no good, her first pigs is about 8 [weeks?] old, i have had “them on
a chufa patch about 3 weeks and they wont faten, will dress about
40 lbs each, i thought i would get her to do better the next farrow
so 1 bred her to my mammoth black boar” but the pigs in this litter
were still “no count.” The complainant did not take advantage of
Coulter’s standing invitation to return stock when not found satis-
factory, and the next year he was buying another pig from Coulter.
On very rare occasions a pig would be returned.
A complaint came in from a customer who thought that Coulter
was slow in sending him registration papers for hogs he had bought
from him. It turned out that Coulter had bought vies hogs subject
to registration, but had not exercised the right immediately, and
when he tried to get the registration papers he was unable to locate
the person who had originally sold the stock. The complainant be-
came somewhat abusive and wrote to the Progressive Farmer in
which he had seen Coulter’s advertisement and wanted satisfaction.
The paper replied: “Mr. Coulter has been an advertiser in The Pro-
gressive Farmer for a number of years and has sold hundreds and
fuedreds of things to our readers “and this is the second complaint
we have ever had. So for this reason we know that he has been
delivering the goods, and has the reputation to maintain, which
amounts to more than the pigs which he has just sold to you.”
As has appeared, Coulter raised and sold several breeds of hogs;
but his favorite for the longest time was the Essex. He considered
the short-nosed black Essex “the all-round best small hog” and he
quoted Tait Butler, whom he held to be the ultimate authority on
matters relating to livestock: “In the South the Essex is undoubtedly
the most popular of the (medium) or small breeds of swine and in
size and habits seems especially well fitted for the existing conditions
under which he is usually kept. The breed is of English origin and
ranks about medium in size among the smaller breeds.” They varied
in weight from 300 to goo pounds and on rare occasions an Essex
would reach 700 pounds. They had smooth, compact square bodies,
were black and without any marks whatever, and “must have short
noses and small ears.” In 1911 Coulter wrote: “TI like the Essex better
than any of the breeds I have ever handled, and I have tried most
of the standard breeds. They are solid black in color, and don’t break
fences or kill chickens as some breeds do. They are quiet and civil,
124 Joun Exxiis CouLTer
and will keep on less feed and do well on less range than any hog
I have ever known.” He added, “Last and best of all they eat less than
those of other breeds, and will fatten at any age, hence the Essex is
called the poor man’s ideal hog, and what is best for the poor man
is surely best for the rich man.”
Coulter’s second choice of hog breeds was the Yorkshires. They
were fine bacon hogs, lots of lean—more than any other breed. They
were very prolific—sometimes as many as eighteen pigs in a litter.
He bought a Yorkshire sow for $67.00, and he sold her first litter for
$85.0o—thus standing him $18.00 less than nothing. Yorkshires were
first imported into the United States in 1892. They were “large,
strong, and vigorous, in fact the large Yorkshire is probably the
largest of the breeds grown in America today.” They were white in
color. Coulter handled also the Poland-China, Berkshires, Duroc
Jerseys, and the OIC’s (Ohio’s Improved Chester Whites).
In his livestock repertoire Coulter listed also sheep and goats. He
made no specialty of sheep, though he had a flock of thirty or forty
at times. There were hazards in raising sheep. In the early spring
they ate the mountain ivy or mountain laurel which abounded in his
mountain pastures. This shrub was poisonous to them, and unless
drenched with special remedies, they were likely to die. Also dogs
killed some of his sheep. In 1908 he received this inquiry: “i want
to no if you have any Sheep for Sail.” Now and then Coulter had
a few sheep killed for their mutton. The hides with the wool on he
had tanned and presented them to friends to be used as rugs. The
wool which he clipped he generally had made into blankets or twisted
into thread, though he sold some now and then. For processing his
wool into blankets and thread he sent it to the Chatham Manufactur-
ing Company of Elkin, the Catawba Woolen Mills of Plateau (form-
erly Keeversville), and the Southern Woolen Mills in Blackburn. In
1902 first grade wool was selling for 35¢ a pound, and the mill at
Plateau charged 10¢ a pound to spin wool into yarn. Lucy Ann
knitted many socks and gloves from this yarn, and sometimes a sweater
or two.
Coulter made more of a business out of goats than of sheep, both
the common goat and the Angora; but the latter was his specialty
in the goat line. He first began with the common goats, having a
small flock by 1902. He was soon selling a few. A Virginia customer
wrote him in 1905, “I like them very much, the kid is just as gentle
as he can bea, I cant walk for him.” A High Point customer had a
little different story to tell: “They are making themselves very much
at home. Can walk the fence like a cat. Look for them to be on top
of the barn next.” He did not say whether they had eaten all the old
STOCKMAN 125
shoes, rags, and other rubbish they could get their mouths on. In
1916 a Tennessee breeder who wanted to sell some of his goats to
Coulter remarked, “I have enough of the Goat business or at least
my neighbors has.” He offered to sell Coulter twenty-two does, ten
kids, and one buck for $90.00. When Coulter was originally getting
together his flock he wrote in 1896 to a resident of Joy (a Burke
County village not far from Worry) asking whether he knew where
goats could be had. The Joy man replied, “I have found out whear
thay is Som kids,” and gave him the proper information. When in
the same year, thinking of buying some sheep, Coulter wrote a resident
of Marion, he was informed that “goats and sheep do very well to-
gether—do not bother each other-—-the goats stay up on top of the
fence or on the other side.” This information did not deter Coulter
from going ahead with the sheep and goat business.
By 1906 Coulter was becoming interested in Angora goats; he was
particularly interested in the clippings of mohair to be got from them.
He bought a few this year and thereafter for some years he steadily
added to his flock. Ranchers in Texas were quoting him bucks from
$25.00 to $100. By 1908 he was offering for sale does and bucks
from $17.50 to $22.50. In the cost of their upkeep Angora fanciers
argued that Angoras were “far ahead of sheep,” that they would
eat anything a sheep would and much that a sheep would not touch.
They were great browsers and would clean up undergrowth—the
only thing better was grubbing. They required little grain in winter.
But they had to be fenced well, for they could get through “places
that are apparently proof against them.” Coulter added: “Dogs do not
kill them as they do sheep. Their mohair is in great demand and at
good prices. Their meat is better than sheep—more like venison. They
are good pets, being snow white and their mohair gives them a fine
appearance. They are hardy and fine to run with cattle and keep the
pastures in fine order.”
Angoras were not “milk goats.” Coulter did not handle this breed,
and was not able to help an old Tar Heel gentleman who wrote,
“Please give me the history of the milk goat, how much milk and
butter do they make and how long do they give milk before they
go dry?” He added that he was old “and I tought [thought] perhaps
a milk goat would suit me. I am 87 years old. Please excuse my bad
writing. I don’t write much.”
Others wanted to know what was best to feed Angora goats, how
much mohair was on one, how often they had kids, and so on. Coulter
joined the American Angora Goat Breeders’ Association of Kansas
City, Missouri, and he was listed in the 1910 Directory of Angora
126 Joun ELtis CouLTer
Goat Breeds of the United States, published by the National Mohair
Growers’ Association of Silver City, New Mexico.
Coulter sold Angora goats as far away as Puerto Rico, and received
such testimonials as this one: “I am delighted with them.” John P.
Sullivan of City Hall, Charleston, South Carolina, was anxious to buy
a few goats but being a very “particular man,” he warned Coulter
that the kind of goat he shipped would determine their future business
relations. Coulter shipped him a goat and this was Sullivan’s response:
“The goat arrived yesterday (1oth) in good shape and I must say
that she is a fine one and that I am more than pleased with her.” It
was a little shy, “but I suppose that is due to the change of scene etc.
as it is a far cry from the mountains to the seashore.” He wanted to
know what would be best to feed the goat and added, “The children
are in love with her, and I left them debating this morning as to what
would be the most appropriate name for her.” One of the names
Coulter used in registering Angoras was “Sultan of Burke.”
As in all his businesses, Coulter received more orders than he could
fill from his own holdings, so he began depending heavily on sup-
pliers. His chief supplier of Angoras was A. A. Woodruff of Cherry
Lane, “Dealer and Breeder of Shorthorn Cattle, Angora Goats, Shrop-
shire Sheep, Berkshire Hogs.” Coulter’s business letters were often
chatty as if the person he was writing to was an old friend. In 1912
the Allens having shot up a Virginia court was big news, and since
Woodruff lived near the Virginia line, Coulter could not refrain
from discussing this tragedy with him. Woodruff said, “As to the
Allens I never heard of them until the Hillsville tragedy. I live about
forty miles from them. They are said to be men of good property,
but of course they are bad men or they would not have committed
such a terrific crime. All the Allens have been captured but Sidna,
and there is one Edwards boy to be captured.”
Coulter did not kill Angora goats for mutton. They were sheared
in the spring, and Coulter sold the mohair. In 1908 it was bringing
from 27¢ to 29¢ a pound.
Coulter did not go into the cattle business extensively, though
he advertised Jersey cattle for sale. In 1915 he was offering a young
bull for $45.00, and he added, “I have other bull calves at different
prices. I have registered cows at from $60 to $125.” A Tar Heel
customer wrote that he was well pleased with a Jersey cow he had
bought from Coulter, “I think she is one of the finest I ever saw,”
and another who had bought a bull wrote, “The Bull arrived today
in fine shape not a scratch on him, he is a dandy. I am well pleased
with him.” A South Carolinian who bought a bull wrote that he was
well pleased with him but would be better satisfied if he “was
STOCKMAN 127
not such a fighter.” He had to dehorn him; “he would fight pate
thing that came in reach of him.” The railway conductor warned “
to have plenty of help at the depot to take him off ... he had ae
running in every direction . . . but he is pretty and I like him.” He
wanted the bull to be registered under the name of “Tiger.” In 1899
Coulter sold ten head of cattle to a purchaser in Ashe County, in the
midst of the mountains, the cattle to be driven there on foot.
With his extensive pastures Coulter allowed his neighbors to turn
in their cattle for a fee of s50¢ a month for each head. In 1902 the
cattle tick eradication movement was in full swing, and Coulter
was pushing it vigorously. Tait Butler helped organize Burke County
against this pest.
Coulter generally had a horse or two for sale. In 1915, according
to his advertisement: “I have a fine standard bred Kentucky saddle
horse, mahogany bay, 7 years old, going all gaits and singlefooting
very fast under saddle, broke to the wagon, bugs , plow and drill,
works single or double, not afraid of train, automobile, motor cycle
or anything of the kind, my wife and children drive her anywhere,
trots flat and never saddles in the buggy. She is a bargain at $265.”
The poultry business was not entirely neglected by Coulter. He
diated a little in it from about 1910 and taking over a small business
which his son William Bryan had developed before he entered the
First World War. Included in the business were turkeys, chickens,
and ducks. The turkeys were of the Mammoth Bronze variety; the
chickens were White Wyandottes and White Plymouth Rocks; the
ducks were the White Indian Runners. The Wyandottes were de-
scribed as “good layers of large brown eggs and mature rapidly,
making broilers and friers in from ten to twelve weeks. Their
blocky build, deep breast, neat rose comb, pure white plumage, rich
yellow legs and skin, fast maturing and egg producing qualities, all
unite to make them a fowl] that have no superiors for practical pur-
poses.” As for the Plymouth Rocks, “Their large size, fine flavored
flesh, deep, well meated brests and rich yellow legs, put them in a class
that is hard to beat as a table and market fowl.”
In 1915 a setting of 15 eggs of either breed was offered for $1.25;
Indian Runner Duck eggs were offered at $1.15 a dozen. In 1911
Coulter asked $11.00 for one cockerel and ten hens. In 1913 ducks
were $3.00 for a trio. He was offering guineas at $1.50 a pair, but he
was not developing the guinea business. In 1910 he was selling turkey
eggs for $3.00 a dozen. “The next year he was selling a trio (a tom
and two hens) for $11.00; but in 1925 it took $18.00 to buy a trio.
Also he sold turkeys for slaughter, by the pound—18¢ in 1913; 45¢
in 1924. His customers were generally pleased with what he sent
128 JoHN ELiis CouLTER
them; in 1909 one “received the chickens and was more than pleased
with them.” A Georgian who generally bought turkeys from Coulter
and who believed in diversification on a farm was always pleased.
Philosophizing he wrote, “There are several so called good people
in the South who yet believe their God and Money reside in a cotton
patch—run by a cheap ‘Nigger’ or a poor white. Hence the hog, cow,
Goat and Turkey have not a fair showing.”
Not being able to fill all his orders from his poultry pens, Coulter
bought from other raisers. One of his principal suppliers was J. M.
Ostwalt of Statesville; but Ostwalt finally gave up his duck raising
because he believed his ducks ate the fish in his pond—he would
rather have fish than ducks. Coulter was never interested enough in
the poultry business to join the Burke County Poultry Association,
which was organized in 1910 “to dissiminate practical poultry infor-
mation in every way possible to those interested in Poultry Culture.”
Every one of Coulter’s business enterprises had its hazards, espe-
cially from fires and dishonest or impecunious customers; but in his
livestock pursuits he suffered less than in any other and found as
much satisfaction. Never did he have a barn or shed to burn up, and
his livestock pens and small pasture lots were not subject to fires
(though his large cow pastures were sometimes burned over). And
livestock customers almost always enclosed payments with their
orders.
CHAPTER X
MIDDLEMAN AND AGENT
HEN Coulter gave up his merchandising business he had not
used up his zeal for trading. He had a natural bent for buying
and selling which lasted as long as he lived. As has already appeared,
he added much to what he produced and had for sale, by buying from
suppliers. So it was only a step for him to enter extensively into the
realm of the middleman and agent at the same time when he was
carrying on his other business enterprises. In fact many of these
activities put him in the class of a commission merchant. Truly almost
anything that anyone might want, Coulter had or could get; and it
became a habit with people who knew him to go to him for satis-
fying their needs. On much of his stationery he began “J. E. Coulter,
Agent”; for almost anything he needed in his own household or
business, he would secure the agency. He had a warehouse in which
he kept many things for which there was a constant demand; but
much else he ordered direct for the customer. Some items he ordered
by the carload and sold direct from the car.
For many years he sold cement and also dynamite with its acces-
sories, fuse and caps. In 1916 he was selling coal at $4.00 a ton and
“screened coal” at $1.10. When he bought a Standard Sewing Ma-
chine for his home (“it is the finest machine in the world”), the
Standard Sewing Machine Company offered him the agency, with a
commission of $2.00 on each machine sold. If anyone wanted a sewing
machine Coulter was ready to order a Standard. The International
Publishing Company of Philadelphia wanted him to act as their
“state agent” with a commission of 40%. He was too busy to “fool
with this sort of thing,” but much to his financial loss he sponsored
another person. He had some slight dealings as agent for the Iver
Johnson’s Arm & Cycle Works of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. An in-
surance company wanted him to act as their agent—“‘some nice clean
[ 2g]
130 Joun Ettis CouLTer
money, not a cent outlay and no trouble.” He could not be bothered
with this kind of business. The Roberts Marble Company of Ball
Ground, Georgia, wanted him to act as one of their agents for tomb-
stones, but without success—“In the ‘Silent Cities’ of your territory
many, today, are sleeping ‘neath the sod with not even a marker
to their graves.” When the First World War broke out in 1914,
a horse dealer of Warrenton, Virginia, acting for the Allies, hoped to
enlist Coulter in buying cavalry and artillery horses, from 5 to 9
years old, any color except white or grey. He had no time for this
activity, although he was fiercely in favor of the Allies. Attempts
were made to interest him actively in nursery agencies, but he steadily
resisted ordering anything beyond his own needs with this exception:
He had some dealings as an agent receiving a 5% commission, with
Stark Bro’s Nurseries & Orchard Co. of Louisiana, Missouri. Occasion-
ally he had black walnuts to sell at $1.25 a bushel, likely secured
from his old home place, in Catawba County.
As a middleman or commission merchant, Coulter centered his
main activities in heavy groceries; farm machinery; flour, meal, and
feedstuffs; grain and seeds; and fertilizers. Among the firms he dealt
with in heavy groceries were Frey & Son of Baltimore and A. Blanton
Grocery Company of Marion.
He dealt heavily in flour, meal, and feedstuffs, securing most of
his supplies from the Glen Alpine Milling Company; the Hickory
Milling Company; the Monitor Mills of Claremont; the Statesville
Flour Mills; the Asheville Milling Company; the Southern Milling
Company and the Liberty Mills, both of Nashville; the Eagle Flour-
ing Mill Company of Sweetwater, Tennessee; Stuart’s Draft Milling
Company of Virginia; the Crimora Roller Mills of Virginia; and the
Mayo Milling Company of Richmond. Oats and corn for feed he
bought constantly and in considerable quantities from the Tennessee
Grain Company of Nashville. He was buying corn in 1897 at 55¢ and
56¢ a bushel; in 1907, at 78¢ and 79¢. Oats in 1906 was 48¢ a bushel.
He bought much cottonseed meal and hulls from the Southern Cotton
Oil Company of Charlotte and the Newton Oil & Fertilizer Company.
The Edgar-Morgan Company of Memphis sold him a great deal of
sweetfeed, “Old Beck” being the trade name. It was a mixture of
various feedstuffs held together with blackstrap molasses, secured
from Cuba and Puerto Rico. He bought rock salt from N. R. Savage
& Son of Richmond. Noah Huitt of Claremont sold him a great deal
of hay—pea vines and crab grass mixed.
Grain and seed for planting which Coulter produced, bought, and
sold were largely the following: peas, rye, corn, wheat, oats, clover,
soy-beans, vetch, barley, rape, lespedeza, sorghum, Soudan grass,
MippDLEMAN AND AGENT 131
orchard grass, and Japanese buckwheat. Also he sold Irish potatoes
for planting. He bought these supplies for the most part from N. R.
Savage & Son and T. W. Wood & Sons, both of Richmond; Wm.
G. Scarlett & Co. of Baltimore; and H. G. Hastings Company of
Atlanta. Coulter was enthusiastic over Abruzzi rye and sold a great
deal of it. A law passed in 1937 required a seed dealer’s license,
costing $10.00.
During the 1930’s there was much interest in the inoculation of
seeds. It was recommended for all legume crops, such as beans, peas,
clover, vetch, alfalfa, peanuts, and so on. The Nitro-Germ Company
of Savannah, Georgia, made and marketed it and guaranteed a larger
yield. Coulter sold it and received a 4o% discount. There was doubt
among people as to its value. Back in 1911 W. F. Massey of the
Progressive Farmer wrote, “I have never seen any results from these
artificial cultures that amounted to anything. In fact there is a great
deal of humbuggery about all this matter of inoculation. Nearly all
the legumes will inoculate the land for themselves.”
Peas was Coulter’s specialty in the seed business and he was in it
for almost 50 years. The season for planting ended by the middle of
July, though early varieties could be sown as late as the first of
August. Following the pea season came the wheat and rye planting
time. If he was caught with a supply of peas after the planting season,
he could save them for the next year, by pouring them in barrels or
large bins covering them with sacks or other canvas, and placing
in open cans a vermifuge liquid whose fumes percolated downward
and destroyed weevils and any other pests.
There were more than 200 names under which peas were sold,
some being different names for the same variety. Planters often had
their favorites, which, however, might vary with the years. Peas
differed in color and shape both of the bodies and eyes, in maturity,
in hardiness to resist drought, in yield, in vigor to grow on poor
soil, in abundance of vine, and in other characteristics which were
considered worthwhile. They were all known as cow peas. The
Black Pea was large and entirely black except the eye, a standard
varietv of large growth and early maturity.
The Taylor Pea was perhaps “the largest of all cow peas,” a
“heavy yielder in vine and peas,” and speckled in color. Ram’s Horn
was an early white pea with a black eye, developed in California,
so early that if planted in April it would make two crops, the “best
Blackeve Pea known and for table use this Pea will prove of immense
value.” The Crowder Pea was large and cream colored, so-called be-
cause it was crowded into the hull with stumpy ends. The Red Ripper
was dark red, “late, excellent in corn, light seed yield, but heavily
132 Joun Exris CouLTer
in hay, sometimes called Wine Pea, being large and soft, it is used
for shelling green in the pod.”
The Wonderful or Unknown Pea made “an enormous and remark-
able growth of vine” and required a full growing season. It was also
known as Boss or Quadroon, being “a pale buff color, large with
peculiar hump.” The Whipporwill or Speckled or Shinney was
brown speckled, a “favorite early upright growing variety, more
largely used and sold than any other kind.” The Peerless or Running
Speckled was a long slim pea. The Iron or Flint was a “small, hard,
grayish-yellow, glassy or shiney Pea, known sometimes as Buckshot,”
largely weevil-proof, “and one of the most valuable peas in the
world.” The Brabham was a variety developed in South Carolina,
a hybrid between the Iron and the Whipporwill, a small speckled
pea about the size of the Iron pea, with the earliness of the Whippor-
will and the wilt-resistance of the Iron. The New Era was a small
bluish pea, early maturing. The Clay Pea was of the same color
as the Unknown, but smaller, flatter, and longer, and prolific in both
seed and vine. It was a favorite with many people. The Brown Eye
Pea was white with a brown eye, a “universal table Pea, good eater,
largely used in the South.” The Little Lady Peas had a “delicate vine,
very prolific bearer, the finest of all the white table Peas, very
sugary, the daintiest, smallest and most highly prized of all white
Peas for the table.” Such were the peas which Coulter had to sell,
and such were the descriptions he gave them.
It was difficult to keep peas from becoming slightly mixed with
other varieties, and on this point Coulter wrote that “if a man was
to offer me $10.00 a bu. for peas without a single other variety
of peas in them I would not ship them for I would know that it was
Next to impossible to get peas strictly of one variety.” Of course there
were “mixed peas” in which no one variety predominated, and such
peas always bore a lower price.
The prices of peas varied (but not much) with the variety, but
very greatly with the times. In 1899 peas were selling for 75¢ a bushel;
in 1900 they were $1.25; in 1907 they were $2.25; and about the same
in 1913 and 1914. With the First World War in progress, peas were
selling from $3.25 and even as high as $5.00. In 1918 Coulter quoted
peas at $5.25 a bushel and in 1920 he sold 110 bushels at that price,
and in another sale the same year he received $5.00 a bushel for 250
bushels. By the 1930’s the price of peas had fallen tremendously. In
1932 Coulter was being offered only 55¢ a bushel; and in 1935 the
price was $1.25 to $1.50.
Coulter sold thousands of bushels of peas year by year for many
years. The busy season was from January to late July. He sold to
MippLEMAN AND AGENT 133
customers both large and small. The large seed companies and the
seed brokers generally asked for samples before they ordered. The
large companies who became old customers were L. R. Stricker
(later Stricker Seed Company) of Asheville, N. R. Savage & Son of
Richmond, T. W. Wood & Sons of Richmond, Roney & Company of
Memphis, and the N. L. Willet Seed Company of Augusta. Others
were Hattaway & Company of Spartanburg, the Hickory Seed Com-
pany, and J. C. Troy of Durham (whose name Coulter almost in-
variably spelled Tory without Troy making any complaints or correc-
tion). The Willet Company tried to induce Coulter to raise 800
bushels or more on contract at a stated price, but without avail.
Coulter’s big customers were seed brokers, who had their own
customers, and some of them did not bother to have Coulter ship
orders of peas to themselves, but direct to their customers. This
practice opened the way to Coulter to learn the names of these
customers from whom he might solicit orders direct and thereby gain
their business. He was above taking this unethical procedure, and
did not disclose his name in making these shipments and thus pre-
vented those customers from taking the initiative and ordering direct
from Coulter. In explaining his practice to one of his own broker
customers Coulter advised him to notify the person that the shipment
was going forward “as I am not writing them. They are your cus-
tomers and I will not disclose my identity to them, as I feel it would
not be right. I am selling you, and you to them, and I have no right
under strict business rules to try to take or in any way win your
trade.”
Many small farmers from Virginia to South Carolina, and elsewhere,
wrote Coulter for peas and pea prices. A Virginian whom he did not
know personally overdid a bit the amenities in writing him for prices
and descriptions of varieties of peas. He ended his letter: “Thanking
you in advance for a prompt reply to this letter and with kind assur-
ances of my highest personal regards, I have the honor, Mr. Coulter,
to subscribe myself with sincere respect and esteem Your most
grateful and obedient servant.” As in all his business correspondence
Coulee received highly illiterate letters, such as this one: “Mr colter
sur 1wode be glad if vo wod owrite the pris one [on] the Sead obly
S. L. Deel to “les [Ellis] colter.” Coulter’s pea customers were gen-
erally well satisfied, as this one: The peas “arrived in due time,
and will say I never saw better looking peas in mv life.” Complaints
generally related to shortages by sacks being torn in rough handlin
bi the railw avs. Such shortages were generally made good by the
railway company involved. Nearly all peas went forward in new
sacks—sometimes repaired sacks were used. Coulter bought most of
134 Joun Exiis Coulter
his sacks from the Memphis Bag Company and Mente & Company
of New Orleans. The price per sack was 744¢ to 15¢.
Sometimes there were complaints regarding the quality of the peas,
that they were trashy or weevil-eaten or from the crop of a previous
year. Sometimes these complaints were true, for Coulter ran the
hazard of getting inferior peas when he bought them and had them
shipped from the place of origin, without seeing them. It should be
quite evident that with his large pea trade he could raise on his own
land only a small part of what he sold; but in most instances he
bought the peas from farmers in the vicinity, who brought them in
where Coulter recleaned them and sacked them. In 1920 the pea trade
was probably at its height, and scarcely a day passed during the
season without wagons from the country bringing in peas. Also
country merchants collected quantities which they sold him, the
principal ones being B. B. DePriest of Lattimore and W. W. Aiken
of Icard.
Farm machinery and appurtenances came well within Coulter’s
trading sphere. In this realm he manufactured nothing but sold as an
agent the products of a great many companies. Among the first, if
not the first, agency he accepted was one for wagons. Since every
countryman of any standing needed a wagon, Coulter saw a lucrative
business opportunity here. Long before he came to Connelly Springs
he was selling wagons made by the Piedmont Wagon Co. of Hickory,
“Manufacturers of Farm and Road Wagons and other Vehicles.”
About the same time he began the agency for Geo. E. Nissen & Co.,
“Wagon Manufacturers” of Salem, who had been in business since
1834. Coulter swapped lumber, shingles, and Jaths for Nissen wagons.
In 1896 he secured seven wagons in four months by this method of
doing business.
Another wagon-maker of Salem whose agency Coulter long held
was J. C. Spach & Bro. “(Cheap John), Manufacturers of the Cele-
brated W. E. Spach Hand-Made Wagon.” According to their an-
nouncement the founder had “been in the business for over forty
years, and being a master mechanic, better understands the charac-
teristics of a good wagon than any man living. We use the best of
material, and all work is finished at the bench, by hand, by the best
mechanics.” As with the Nissen company, Coulter did most of his
business with Spach by swapping lumber and shingles (mostly shingles)
for wagons. The Spach brothers, who did not need the shingles for
their own use, sold them or swapped them to whomever would take
them. J. C. (’Cheap John”) Spach, who could make a much better
wagon than he could an English sentence, wrote Coulter in 1893, “i
have not the cind of Wagon on hand you Want Butt ame to starte
MIDDLEMAN AND AGENT 135
up the 8 & then i cand make it & have it done By the 20 if that
Will do drop me a Postal] at once i am oute of the shingell Bissness
& cant use aney i am sorey i could not Butt times ar too tite to do
mutch Bissness i arm a demacrat Butt dont think mutch of their
times.” With the Panic of 1893 running headlong into every kind
of business, Spach was reducing the price of his wagons. The “2~Horse
Wagon with Crooked Bed” was reduced from $62.00 to $60.00 and
“Wagons with Straight Plank Beds” were now selling from $48.00
to $58.00, which formerly sold from $50.00 to $65.00. Coulter re-
ceived a 5% commission on all wagons he sold. The next year Spach
wrote that he would “Bea glad to Hear from you if you cand sell some
more Wagons for cash i will pay you a doubell comishen from now
on till fall.” A little later he wanted to swap wagons for a car load
of shingles: “Want them as goodas Wea got Before Wea Pay cash
for Balanc dew you on them as sone as Wea Can count them & Will
count them When Wea un Lode them.” The Spach, Nissen, and Pied-
mont wagons had a high reputation in the Coulter community. Coulter
dabbled slightly with other makes of wagons: the products of the
Champion Wagon Company of Oswego, New York; the White
Hickory Wagon Manufacturing Company of Atlanta and East Point,
Georgia; and of the Harrison Wagon Company of Cary.
Every farmer needed a grain drill, unless he tended little land
and broadcast his grain by hand. Coulter had contracts for many
years with two companies which made drills: the Champion Drill
Company of Avon, New York, and the Ontario Drill Company of
East Rochester, New York (with a branch office in Baltimore).
With the former company Coulter’s profits were whatever he sold
a drill for above the price quoted to him. If he paid cash he received
a 2¥%% deduction. Most farmers gave notes, many of which Coulter
had great difficulty in collecting—and some not at all. The Ontario
Drill Company gave more liberal terms, from 20% to 38% with a
5% reduction for cash. These terms varied with the years. This
company for a time allowed Coulter to accept notes representing
debts which the company stood to collect. Bur notes were to be
accepted only from “parties of responsibility worth at least $600.00
over and above all their debts and legal exemptions, as well as of good
reputation for the payment of their debts.”
By 1920 farm tractors were making their appearance, and Coulter
soon had the agency for the products of the Hart-Parr Company of
Charles City, Iowa, “Founders of the Traction Industry.” Contracts
varied with the years. At first Coulter received a commission of 15%
on one tractor and up to 25% on the sale of 29 or more, with an
additional 10% on those sold in certain specified months. These
136 Joun Extis CouLTEr
tractors did not give complete satisfaction, and Coulter had some
little trouble in getting adjustments from the company. In 1922 he
wrote, “I have had some good prospects, but if I have to stand
individually these losses, or “try to beat customers out of what they
are in justice entitled to, then I am done with the business once and
for all.”
Many farmers needed a little “new ground” now and then, first
for a turnip patch and then to be added to their main farming opera-
tions. To plow new ground full of stumps and roots was in common
parlance “enough to make a preacher cuss.” So those who could
afford a stump ‘puller or grubbing machine bought one. Coulter held
the agency for the products ae the Union Guibber Company of
Sigourney, Iowa. The price of their stump pullers was $85.00, with
a commission of $25.00 to Coulter for every machine which he sold.
The company wanted him to take the agency for all of southeastern
United States, south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi;
but he was content with only Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba counties.
He had no time from his other enterprises to do more than accept
orders from anyone who wanted to buy one. He had already sold
himself one, and in 1900 the company wrote him that they were
glad to know that his machine was giving satisfaction: ““We were
almost afraid to hear from your place, it had been so long since we
had heard any thing from you. We feared your sickness had proved
to be more serious then it seemed at the time you last wrote us. We
are very glad indeed to know that you are right side up and that you
are having a good lumber trade, for we ine that a good lumber
trade at present prices means that you are making money. And we
certainly can not blame you for allowing the grubber ‘business to
rest, although we should ‘be very glad if you gave it a little time
occasionally, at least.”
For general farm machinery such as plows, mowers, rakes, and
reapers, ” Coulter held the agency from the D. M. Osborne Company
of Philadelphia. Also he held the agency for various farm implements
made by B. F. Avery & Sons of Louisville, Kentucky, “Manufacturers
of Plows & Cultivating Implements”; the Rock Island Plow Company
of Rock Island, Illinois, “Manufacturers of Agricultural Implements”;
and the Chattanooga Plow Company, “Manufacturers of Chilled
Plows, Plow Repairs, Cane Mills, Evaporators, and Furnaces.” The
Cole Manufacturing Company of Charlotte specialized in corn
planters. Coulter probably made little out of his agency for pumps
made by the Challenge Pump Works of Corona, New York, “Manu-
facturers of Challenge Pumps and Water Purifiers for Wells and
Cisterns.” For a long tine he held the agency and bought for his own
MmpL—EMAN AND AGENT 137
use the products of the Pomona Terra-Cotta Company of Ponoma,
“Manufacturers of Vitrified Salt Glazed Shale Sewer Pipe, Vitrified
Wall Coping, R. R. Culvert Pipe, Terra-Cotta Well Tubing, Flue
Linings, Drain Tiles, Etc.” He received a 5% commission.
Machinery for threshing grain was in the same class with a grist
mill—it was too expensive for any one farmer to own, and like a grist
mill, toll was taken in payment for service rendered. Coulter held
two agencies for such machinery: the J. I]. Case Threshing Machine
Company and the Geiser Manufacturing Company of Waynesboro,
Pennsylvania. From the former company Coulter received a 10%
commission on threshing machines and engines and 25% on repairs;
with the latter the commission was 25% id 9054, depending on the
items sold. Coulter probably sold few of such large pieces of ma-
chinery, but apparently he sold himself and a partner an outfit for
threshing grain. This partner was a man with whom he had long
been having dealings in timber, wagoning, and sales of various items.
John Zimmerman was his name, and swith Zimmerman he formed a
partnership sometime in the 1930's. Later Marler R. Wilson was
added and the firm name became Coulter, Zimmerman & Wilson
Threshing Company, with Coulter as secretary and treasurer. For
a few seasons they threshed about 10,000 bushels each; but they soon
accumulated more troubles than money, including paving Oscar Abee
$19.00 in settlement for a mashed finger to prevent extended trouble
under the Liability and Compensation law. After various troubles
in settling up w ith Wilson, Coulter tried to come to some terms
with Firmmnerwati, offering to buy him out or sell out to him. Finally
in 1941, when Coulter was 80 years old he was able to come to a
settlement with Zimmerman.
Coulter’s first business love, longest continued, and last to be given
up was selling fertilizer. For at least a half century he had the aroma
of fertilizer in his nostrils—it was like printer’s ink in the nostrils and
on the hands of the printer. It wouldn’t leave—like the blood on Lady
Macbeth’s hands. The busiest fertilizer seasons were from January to
June and from September to December. He bought it by the carload
and generally sold it direct from the car door, but, of course, some
farmers would arrive too late to get their fertilizer and it became
desirable for Coulter to unload a few cars into a warehouse so as to
supply customers at any time. At first he tried to get one of the
big fertilizer companies “with whom he had large dealings to finance
fe]
such a building, but it replied that such an arrangement was against
its policy. Later Coulter rented a warehouse. When fertilizer rémained
verv long in its sacks the chemicals rotted the sack and made it
difficult to handle. One company insisted that it had obviated this
138 Joun Evtis CouLTER
difficulty by using as a filler, ground tobacco stems which absorbed
the chemical moisture, which rotted the sack.
When Coulter first began selling fertilizer it was necessary to
haul it by wagons ten miles from the railroad to his place of business
in the “Nation.” Some few years before he quit selling fertilizer,
much of it was being hauled again, but not by means of “old dobbins”
pulling a wagon. Now it came by motor truck, and a warehouse in
which to store it became a necessity. What changes Coulter had seen
in his 86 years not only in the fertilizer business but in all other
kinds of businesses!
There were many companies, large and small, which manufactured
and sold fertilizers; and as a result there was keen competition among
them. Of course, all argued for the use of commercial fertilizers and
discouraged farmers from building up fertility in other ways. One
of the companies started the slogan, “There are no Plows in the
pawn shop,” adding that the farmer was now (this was in 1913)
“the man that will hold the pucker string to the American pocket
book.” All of them tried to keep on good terms with their agents.
One of them wrote Coulter in 1908, “We are very grateful indeed
to you for the nice tonnage you gave us, and we hope another season
you will remember us.” This same company allowed Coulter to
reduce his prices as much as $2.00 and $3.00 a ton to meet local
competition from agents representing other companies. Another com-
pany gave Coulter a birthday dinner and a John B. Stetson hat when
he was 66 years old.
The favorite fertilizers were 16% Acid Phosphate, Bone & Potash,
Fish Guano, 8-3-3 and 8-2-2. Of course there were dozens of mixtures
and a little of all might be sold now and then. During the First World
War the potash supply from Germany was cut off, and now Nitrate
of Soda was advocated as a substitute which would bring out the
inherent potash in the soil. As was stated, “Practically all soils suit-
able for the growth of crops contain Potash in both available and
unavailable forms.” Soon a great demand for Nitrate of Soda arose
and continued on into making it a favorite fertilizer. Many farmers
held that Acid Phosphate was best for wheat. A dealer thought that
Coulter’s customers would be well pleased with it, adding “There
is nothing better for wheat. Nearly everybody is quitting guano
for wheat and are using Acid Phos.”
Fertilizer prices varied with the times and among the companies
making it, though in the latter case there could be no great differ-
ence. Cash prices were, of course, cheaper than time prices, both
from the company to the agent and from the agent to the farmer.
Coulter tried to take advantage of cash prices and advised his cus-
MipDLEMAN AND AGENT 139
tomers to do the same. In 1924 in advocating cash prices to a customer
he said, “This is the only way that a farmer can afford to buy it as
they [the companies] charge too much difference for time. A farmer
can borrow his money, pay interest, and have a good margin to his
credit over paying time prices.” In 1917 these were some cash prices
per ton quoted to Coulter on fertilizers delivered at his place: 16%
Acid Phosphate, $19.00 ($21.00 time); Bone & Potash, $38.95 and
343-05; 8-3-3 Guano, $49.40 and $54.60. In 1924 Nitrate of Soda was
offered f.o.b. (freight on board cars) Wilmington at $52.00 a ton.
Coulter bought most of his Nitrate of Soda from W. R. Grace &
Company of New York, who imported it from Chile and landed
much of it at Charleston and Wilmington. In 1930 cash prices of
some fertilizers delivered per ton in carload lots were: 8-2-2 Guano,
$21.39; 8-3-3 Guano, $24.24; Bone & Potash, $20.06; Muriate of
Potash, $45.95; Sulphate of Ammonia, $49.22; and Nitrate of Soda,
$51.01. Carload lots were always cheaper than broken shipments.
Some soils needed lime, and Coulter was prepared to supply it.
The American Limestone Company of Knoxville gave seventeen rea-
sons why farmers should add lime to their soil. This lime was ground
rock lime (not builder’s lime, which cost twice as much). In 1914
Coulter was paying $3.30 a ton delivered at his place; but there were
various prices depending on the times and whether the lime came in
bulk in cars or was sacked. In 1916 the Blue Ridge Lime Company
of Asheville (with works at Fletcher) offered lime f.o.b. Fletcher
at $1.50 a ton in bulk or $2.50 in bags. At the same time the Clinch-
field Lime Company of Asheville (with works at Linville Falls) at
$1.15 a ton in bulk f.o.b., Linville Falls. In 1920 Coulter bought 33
tons in Knoxville for $90.75 and the freight on it was $44.94. In 1931
he bought lime in sacks delivered in Connelly Springs for $5.13 a ton.
He received a commission of $1.00 a ton and a discount of 15¢ a
ton for cash. His commissions went down as low as 10¢ a ton at certain
times with certain companies. In addition to the companies already
mentioned, he dealt with the Limestone Springs Lime Works of
Gaffney, South Carolina (in barrels), the Campbell Limestone Com-
pany of the same place, the G. C. Buquo Lime Company of Columbia,
and the B. & C. Lime & Stone Company of Asheville.
Throughout his half century of fertilizer business Coulter dealt
with dozens of companies, some large, some small, and often he would
be dealing with three or four companies at the same time—there were
no exclusive contracts. When Coulter was a boy working on his
father’s farm he became acquainted with the products of Baugh &
Sons of Norfolk and Baltimore. It was logical that he should begin
his first fertilizer dealings with this company, selling such brands
140 JouHN ELiis CouLTer
as these: Baugh’s Raw Bone Super-Phosphate of Lime, Baugh’s Double
Eagle Phosphate, and Baugh’s Wheat Fertilizer. Very soon he was
adding to his list the Old Dominion Guano Company of Norfolk and
dealing very heavily in the late 1890’s with the Durham Fertilizer
Company, which was a branch of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical
Company. This company became one of the biggest, annexing the
Imperial Fertilizer Company of Charleston, with whom Coulter
had been dealing extensively. In fact, during Coulter's last business
days he was dealing most heavily with the Virginia-Carolina Chemical
Company—The “VC, More than 35 Million Tons of Experience Back
of Every Bag.”
Before the turn of the century he was dealing also with the Navassa
Guano Company of Wilmington and with a local company at Hick-
ory, Royster and Whitener. In this same period he was buying much
Acidulated Bone from the Etiwan Phosphate Works of Charleston.
Being opposed to big fertilizer combinations, he made special inquiry
of the Etiwan company whether they had been taken over by the
Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. Other companies whose prod-
ucts he handled were: the Union Guano Company of Winston-Salem,
the Caraleigh Phosphate and Fertilizer Works of Raleigh, Swift Fer-
tilizer Works of Atlanta; the Catawba Fertilizer Company of Lan-
caster, South Carolina; the International Agricultural Corporation of
New York, with branch offices in Charlotte and Atlanta; the Sea-
coast Fertilizer Company (a branch of the International); the Bryant
Fertilizer Company of Alexandria, Virginia; the Kershaw Oil Mill
of Kershaw, South Carolina; the F. S. Royster Guano Company of
Norfolk; the McCabe Fertilizer Company of Charlotte; the Read
Phosphate Company of Charleston; Tennessee Chemical Company of
Greensboro (a branch of Armour); the Wulbern Fertilizer Corpora-
tion of Charleston; the East Coast Fertilizer Company of Wilmington,
the Planters Fertilizer and Phosphate Company of Charleston, the
Smith-Douglass Company of Norfolk; the American Agricultural
Chemical Company of Greensboro, and the Merchants Fertilizer
& Phosphate Company (reorganized in 1931 as the Merchants Fer-
tulizer Company).
Some of these companies sent their representatives around to see
their big customers, but the smaller companies depended entirely
on solicitation through the mails. The Merchants Company for many
years had a very successful depresentative in the person of T. R.
Wickliffe of Bowman, Georgia. He became a personal friend of
Coulter, who gave him a great part of his business from 1926 on
down until almost the end. In 1934 when Coulter was having a small
MIpDLEMAN AND AGENT 141
tea in a Statesville hospital, Wickliffe made a special trip to see
im.
These checks in payment of business which Coulter did during the
spring season of 1930 give an indication of the amount done with
this one company: $517, $538, $488, $591, $561, $465, $562, $570,
$414, $723, $550, $673, $516, $348, $444, $494, $631, $851, $402,
$67.00, $31.00, $413, $99.00, $203, $99.00, $561, $309, $227, and $90.00.
Coulter’s sales were always brisk but in some years when he pushed
sales, he sold from $5,000 to $10,000 a year. His commissions ranged
from 5% to 10% on a fixed price which the company set for his
customers to pay; but in some cases he was given his private price
and allowed to sell for whatever he could get above that price, the
difference constituting his profit. The companies charged either
cash or time prices, and sometimes when Coulter got behind on his
payments he borrowed from his bank or gave mortgages on his
property. In 1908 to secure a debt of $2,246.26 to the Union Guano
Company he gave a mortgage on five acres in Rutherford College,
a storehouse and lot in Connelly Springs, 300,000 laths, and 640,000
shingles. Sometimes he would send a draft on a debtor who owed
him for lumber, which sometimes the fertilizer company would accept
and sometimes not.
Coulter sold most of his fertilizer on time, taking notes, crop
liens, and chattel mortgages. Always hating to turn away a farmer who
wanted fertilizer he accumulated a great mass of notes, many of
which were never paid. In 1897 he held 106 notes for fertilizer got
from the Etiwan Company, ranging from $1.50 to $54.07. In 1924
he held fertilizer notes for at least $10,000. Forms for fertilizer notes
were provided by the big companies. When signed Coulter would
send them to the companies for recording, but the companies would
not accept them as collateral for debts Coulter owed them. They
expected him to collect them. The Union Guano Company warned
him to be careful in giving credit and to secure the debt by a mort-
gage: “In our opinion if credit is to be given at all it should onlv be
extended to such parties as you know are absolutely good and from
whom there is no doubt of your getting your money; even in such
cases it is well that the sales should be secured by a mortgage. If a
man is good and fully intends to pay his debts he should have no
objections whatever to giving a mortgage.”
Crop liens were made in pursuance of a North Carolina law of
March 1, 1867, “to secure advances for Agricultural purposes,” and
they became a lien “on all the Crop of Corn, Cotton, Tobacco, Oats,
Wheat, Fodder, and all other products to be raised and made” on
certain specified lands described in the lien. The Virginia-Carolina
142 Joun Exxis CouLTER
Chemical Company had a form which waived “homestead and all
other exemptions” and made no guarantee on its fertilizers “as to the
result from its use.” Sometimes these liens were extended to any
Possession, personal or otherwise, which the customer had. In 1896
Coulter had a lien not only on the crop of a customer, but also on
a cow named “Cherry” with white stripes across her back and a
brindle mulley milch cow with a white face and named “Guinny”—
all to guarantee payment of $6.60 for four sacks of fertilizer. Also
he had a lien on a watch and a half interest in a camera “and other
outfit for picture making.” These crop liens were in vogue in the
1890's. After 1900 Coulter sold much fertilizer on credit, depending
entirely on faith and on the honesty of the purchaser.
In 1899 he sent a form letter to customers who had signed notes
for fertilizer which he had bought from the Durham Fertilizer Com-
pany. After reminding the debtor that his note had matured and had
not been paid, he said: “We would like very much to give you further
indulgence, but cannot do so, and unless you come forward and pay
- promptly we will enforce collection by law. This will entail a cost
of from $5 to $10 on you, besides the worry and vexation. You will
dislike to have your property conveyed in the mortgage sold at a
sacrifice at public auction, and I therefore sincerely hope this will
not be necessary, and I do trust you will get up the money by [blank
to be filled in] and unless you do or give a satisfactory reason you
may expect the sheriff to be after the property mortgaged any day
after [blank to be filled in]. To assist you I will take corn, wheat,
oats, peas, or other staple produce at the highest market price for
cash in payment of your indebtedness, as I assure you I dislike very
much to give you any trouble, but as I am personally liable for this
debt and unless I collect it will have to pay it myself and as I also
have a kind feeling for myself and family, you must not be surprised
or feel sore toward me if I force collection. Besides as you got the
benefit of the goods you and not I should pay for them. I hope to
see you in a few days. Your friend, J. E. Coulter, Agt.”
Later with notes out-of-date or never required in the first instance,
Coulter depended largely on persuasion, sentiment or the conscience
of the debtor to come in and pay without being reminded of the debt.
This is a letter he wrote in 1932 reminding a customer of a long-
standing small fertilizer debt: “On September ist I sent you a state-
ment of the Acct. but you neglected to pay me or say when you
would pay. Dont you feel like I have waited long enough? Would
you want me to wait longer were I oweing you? Wont you please
pay this small ballance that you have owed a long time, and that I
need so badly? I am thanking you in advance for your prompt at-
MipDLEMAN AND AGENT 143
tention to this little matter. Please do let me have it. With best
wishes to you and yours. ...” Another debtor responded to a request
for payment: “God knows when I will be able to send you balance?
everybody says that taxes take all what they can make.”
In addition to all his other agencies Coulter dealt slightly in certain
forest products other than lumber, laths, and shingles. In clearing
woods for agricultural fields and in his mountain lands, he had a vast
supply of wood, which could be cut and sold by the cord. The
standard cord was wood cut four feet long and stacked in piles
four feet high and eight feet long; it must amount to 128 cubic feet
in whatever lengths desired. He sold much of his own production and
what he bought for sale, to mills and institutions in Morganton.
In 1898 he sold 100 cords of oak wood to the North Carolina School
for the Deaf and Dumb at $1.50 a cord; pine was priced at $1.40.
Also he sold wood to the Morganton Electric Light & Power Company
and to the Alpine Cotton Mills. In 1920 he was receiving $1.50 a cord
for old field pine and $1.75 for oak and forest pine.
An activity that was to come, flourish and go—and God speed to
its going—was the cutting down and skinning oak and chestnut trees
for tan bark. In 1891 the Burke Tanning Company was started in
Morganton, which planned to tan 1,000 hides a day if tan bark could
be secured. Soon the majestic chestnuts and mountain oaks were falling
before the woodsman’s axe, for the bark to be stripped off, leaving
the rest to bleach in the sun and rot. The Burke Tanning Company
bought during the spring season of 1895 (when the sap was up and
the bark could be stripped) 5,000 tons of bark at $4.00 a ton. It was
estimated that during the preceding years the company had spent
$100,000 for bark in Burke alone. Coulter bought much tan bark
and shipped most of it to Morganton, though a littie to Hickory.
In 1909 the bark was selling for $9.00 a ton and in 1920 it was bringing
$20.00, as the tan bark trees were being cut out. Soon the remaining
forests of these trees were left undisturbed by tan bark cutters, be-
cause a tannic acid had been chemically developed which was cheaper
than that secured from tan bark.
The chemists had at last come to the aid of those lovers of trees
who wanted to save them from wasteful slaughter. As early as 1901
voices were being raised against destroying the “noble forests for a
lictle tan bark.” A western North Carolina newspaper observed, “On
the mountain sides and in the coves one sees hundreds of peeled trees
left to ruin and rot, just for the sake of a little bark.” But looking
at the other side of the coin, there were many mountaineers hard put
to make a living from scratching a steep, rocky, begrudging soil with
a bull tongue plow. It was either peeling tan bark or engaging in
144 Joun Exris Courter
distilling illegally “mountain dew.” Alex Hilderbrand, who lived in
the midst of the South Mountains often passed by the Coulter resi-
dence on his way to town with a squeaky wagon loaded with tan
bark.
But this slaughter was not entirely wasteful. Some trees cut for
their bark were slim and trim enough to serve as telephone and tele-
graph poles. There was a market for poles and Coulter handled some.
They must be chestnut and six inches in diameter at the top. Poles
from 25 to 45 feet in length sold from go¢ to $1.40 each. Much of this
timber which could not serve for poles could readily be cut into
railroad cross-ties. The Southern Railway was always in the market
for them. The hardwoods were more desirable, but for a time the
railroad company would buy softwoods of long-leaf yellow pines
or black or red cypress—but such timber did not grow in Burke
County. The hardwoods that were desired were white oak, post oak,
chestnut (mountain) oak, walnut, and locust. They must be cut from
live timber between August isth and February 15th, and be 8% feet
long. In 1903 Coulter sold the Southern Railway s00 hardwood ties
at 30¢ for first class and 15¢ for seconds. He generally made s5¢ on
each tie he bought and sold. In 1908 he sold to the Valley Tie and
Lumber Company of Johnson City, Tennessee, 2,764 ties at go¢ each
for first grade oak and 25¢ for seconds.
For a short time during the last years of the 1890’s there were
two businesses of short duration but exciting as long as they lasted—
both called forth by the electrical industry. They were the production
of monazite and mica. Monazite was a blackish substance found in
the creek sands only in the Carolinas and Brazil. For a time the sands
of Cold Water Creek and others around about were being vigorously
worked for this black gold; but the market soon played out. There
were some mica mines in the hills and a few on Coulter’s mountain
lands. In 1897 the Morganton newspaper reported much excitement
around Connelly Springs and much digging for these opaque sheets,
often called isinglass. Coulter dabbled slightly in these “gold rushes.”
CuHaPprer XI
THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS
URING Coulter’s lifetime Connelly Springs grew, developed
ambitions to become a little city, and declined into nothing
more than a small residential community. During his 55-year residence
there the cycle had been run.
From the beginning it enjoyed certain advantages that gave it more
importance than many other villages along the railway ie It had
a water tank which made it necessary for "alnege every train to stop
to take on water. This was an especial convenience for boarding
passenger trains, some of which did not stop at other small railroad
stations. Also local freight trains broke their run here to spend the
might, which meant that the railway crews might build homes in
Connelly Springs for their families. To add to fie railway importance
of the ‘village, arrangements were made through what was called
a °Y" ter ieconteriees to be turned around. And it should not be
fscamrten that from the very beginning Connelly Springs had been
designated as a stopping point for the mid- day meal for passenger
trains passing about time for that repast. In the heyday of railway
passenger traffic there were seven passenger trains passing through,
and all of them stopping—if not by schedule at least for water. Hic
bers 15, 21, 11, and 35 were westbound; the eastbound trains were
numbers 22, 12, 16, and 36. And during this flourishing period, in
addition to being a water station, Connelly Springs became a coaling
station with a coal chute emploving a half dozen workmen or fiore
and also a storage vard for coal.
At the depot there was a freight agent, express agent, ticket agent,
and telegraph agent, generally all in one person, bus as the telegraph
office was kept open all night an additional person or two were needed.
2
Ben Abernethy was the agent of longest tenure. This railroad when
first built was known as the Western North Carolina Rail Road and
[145 ]
146 Joun ELtis CouLTER
it was owned almost completely by the State of North Carolina. In
1871 the state leased it to the Richmond and Danville Railroad. This
railroad was later reorganized as the Southern Railway, which in
1895 leased the road for 99 years. The road through the “Connelly
Gap,” to the eastward, was so steep that now and then long freight
trains would stall and be forced to back up through the village to
“get a running start” to make the grade. Infrequently a train would
break apart with half the train going each way, but this was before
air brakes had been installed and when the link and pin couplings
were in use. In 1902 (a few years after the Southern had leased the
road) this company employed the construction company of J. W.
Oliver to cut down this grade and build up some of the low fills.
Their dinkey engines and cars loaded with dirt made an unusual sight
as they wobbled through the town to deposit their loads on the fill
to the westward.
The village was not large enough to afford much excitement, but no
place could be so small as not to be the scene of something unusual
happening. Occasionally the villagers might hear a hom blowing
far off and they had come to know that that meant the approach
of the Italian with his bear. In the center of town he would stop and
put his bear to doing tricks, standing on his hind-legs, turning somer-
saults, and if enough small coins were thrown into the ring the Italian
would wrestle with the bear. The Italian and the bear would then
trudge on down the railroad track (or maybe the “big road”), and if
it were near nightfall he and his bear might spend the night in an
old borrow-pit (often called “barn-pit”), where the original railroad
construction gangs had borrowed dirt to make fills. Seldom if ever
did an Italian with his monkey and organ grinder come.
On December 25, 1890 (or probably a day or two before) about
midnight a noise was heard in the village much louder than an Italian
blowing his horn. A crime was being committed characteristic of the
biggest cities—robbers were blowing open with dynamite two safes
in J. M. Sides’ store (one belonging to him and the other to H. W.
Connelly), from which they took between $500 and $600. The depot
agent heard the noise, but he thought someone somewhere was merely
celebrating Christmas. Twenty-four years later W. J. Alexander
saw a light in his store long after closing-time. He went to investigate.
He ran into the robber and was wounded but not badly.
Somewhat in keeping with this crime was an affray which might
have developed into a race riot between whites and Negroes had there
been enough people of both races around to make one. As it was,
only three of each race were involved, and the time was in September
of 1905. It all began when Linn Misher (Michaux) and Sam Jenkins,
Tue Rise AND DECLINE oF CoNNELLY SPRINGS 147
two “gentlemen of color” from the little Negro settlement a mile
or more north of town, “all tanked up on mean likker,” made their
appearance determined to paint the town red (or perhaps make it
black). When W. P. Haliburton sought to quiet them down, Linn
whipped out that favorite weapon of the colored fraternity, more used
for social purposes than for shaving—a razor—and badly cut Halibur-
ton. Horace Goode, who was afraid of neither God, man, nor the
devil, came to the rescue and was greeted by a pistol ball glazing his
coat. At this juncture Bob Twitty, a Hotel Negro helper, ran to
get his pistol, saying that he was going to shoot a white man. At
this moment Weber Glass, Goode’s brother-in-law, seeing that the
Negroes were armed with deadly weapons and the whites unarmed,
hurried away for a shotgun and returning shot Sam in the legs.
Sam also received a pistol ball in one of his legs, shot by one of his
allies in the thick of the melee. The Negroes now sensing defeat
quickly retreated in three different directions. Sheriff Manley Mc-
Dowell arrested and jailed Twitty; Linn ran so far away that he was
never seen or heard of again; and Sam was so badly wounded that
he could not be moved for a time. Otherwise Connelly Springs was
a fairly peaceable town.
But it was not healthful for a village to be so peaceful as not to be
punctuated now and then by some sort of excitement or entertain-
ment. Occasionally about “huckleberry and blackberry picking time,”
to scare away poachers (especially Negroes) from private preserves,
rumors would be started of fearsome varmints on the loose, a wild
man, a dog eater, maybe a panther (commonly called by the illiterate
“painter”). In 1898 a rumor of sufficient strength to obtain lodgment
in the county newspaper was going the rounds that a varmint of
some sort had killed and eaten half of a dog and that another dog
after a fierce fight had made its escape by crawling far up under
a house. Also a child had been missing for a few days, and it was
feared that it had been carried off.
More in the line of entertainment than excitement was a North
Pole exhibit which was going the rounds about the time (1909),
Robert E. Peary (or Frederick A. Cook?) discovered the top of the
earth. W. H. Davis of Advance, North Carolina, was the proprietor
of this exhibit which was “A Wonderful Panoramic Entertainment
consisting of over fifty Startling Panoramic Stereoptican Views, each
enlarged to cover over 100 square feet of canvas,” showing mountains
of ice, Esquimau villages, and “many other cold Arctic scenes.” Davis
offered to the village 209% of the proceeds, but there is no record
as to whether or not he appeared.
The fact that a railroad came through the village greatly relieved
148 Joun Extis CouLTer
the monotony, for there was scarcely an hour during which a train
(freight or passenger) did not come to a stop with its squeaking brakes
scattering sparks. If ir was a passenger train almost the whole town
was out to see if any acquaintances were passing through. The late
afternoon passenger trains attracted the “small fry,” who would
appear at the station for a little social fraternization, in the guise of
coming to town to get the mail.
Now and then persons of high standing came through on the
train—even presidents of the United States—and then, indeed, there
was excitement! In i897 President William McKinley passed on his
way to Washington from Tennessee, and in 1908 President-elect
William Howard Taft was on an early morning train, but he failed
to appear to greet a large crowd that had collected~-maybe the votes
he lost here caused his defeat in 1912! For downright excitement,
nothing could equal a “soldier train.” In 1898, the year of the Spanish-
American War, several such trains passed along. The soldiers in their
uniforms were a sight for everybody to see as they piled off the
train the moment it stopped. They fanned out all over town bargaining
with merchants until the train was ready to start, and then they
rushed out with their “purchases,” without taking time to pay for
them. The “small fry” with their baskets of peaches and other fruits
soon learned never to bring anything to sell to a soldier train. Another
excitement of a different sort was the wreck of No. 11 (a passenger
train) in May, 1912. The mail car “split the switch” and piled the
train up against a freight train on the side track, killing the engineer
on the freight train and a Negro girl on the passenger train.
There were no churches in the village until 1887, when a Methodist
church congregation was organized and a building erected. Previously
the Methodists had attended Jones Grove Church, situated in the
village of Rutherford College, a mile and a half to the northward.
The year before, a Sunday School had been organized in an aband-
oned store building, attended by all the religious denominations in
town. The Connelly Springs Methodist congregation was organized
and the building erected principally through the efforts of H. W.
and W. W. Connelly, J. M. Sides, D. P. Goode, and Hugh Souther-
land, Sr. Sylvanus Deal, although a Baptist, gave $10.00 to the
building fund. The church structure was built on land donated by
Mrs. Emma Connelly Perry (wife of Alex Perry, sister of H. W. and
W. W. Connelly, and sister-in-law of J. M. Sides). Mrs. Hugh
Southerland was the first organist and her husband was for many
years the Superintendent of the Sunday School. The parsonage was
not built until 1895, and as might well be inferred Coulter provided
the lumber. The Baptists built their first church in 1901, with Coulter
Tue Risz AND DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS 149
affording the lumber. In 1go2 Mrs. L. M. Hull, the wife of a merchant
recently moved to town, collected money to erect a Presbyterian
church, but being unable to raise a sufficient amount she distributed
it among worthy causes thereabouts. Coulter was a Lutheran, but
as Shere” were few of that faith around, there was no chance of
organizing a congregation or erecting a church building. He attended
the Methodist and Baptist churches occasionally when not going to
some Lutheran church farther away.
The schoolhouse in the public school district which included Con-
nelly Springs was some distance from the village; but now and then
a private “subscription” school would be organized in town. Not until
1909 was a schoolhouse erected in Connelly Springs, when a special
local-tax district was set up. In 1922 this district was consolidated
with the Rutherford College district and a new building erected
in the outskirts of the latter village. Coulter, who was now on the
Burke Countv Board of Education, though opposing this move, was
unjustly criticized for allowing it to happen.
The legislature in 1901 provided a fund to be used in setting up
“Rural District Libraries,” to be supplemented by the local district,
Coulter led the subscription list for additional support, which was
circulated among the townsmen. T. F. Toon, the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, in Raleigh, sent out a “List of Books Recommended
for Rural Libraries,” consisting of about go titles, which could be had
for $29.97. He also included a supplementary list of about 50 titles.
These books varied in prices from 12¢ for Songs and Stories to $1.10
for W. J. Peele’s Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians and $1.20
for Thompson’s Wild Animals I Have Known. The last two books
were the onlv ones costing as much as $1.00. Most of them were less
than s5o¢. The selections were made and a bookplate was pasted
in every volume containing the following: “Rules—A book may be
kept out for two weeks with the privilege of one renewal. A penalty
of one cent a day shall be charged for each book kept out longer than
the prescribed time and privilege of the Library shall be withdrawn
by the Librarian from any person who refuses or neglects to pay
arreages, or who abuses or “suffers a book to be abused.”
A bookcase was made for them and one family and then another
agreed to keep the books to be loaned as people came to borrow.
The Coulter children were anxious to have the books kept in their
home, but their mother felt that there would be a constant wor
in managing these books—in addition to managing eight children. But
finally she relented, and the books found their final resting place
with the Coulters. One of the children read almost all of them.
Favorite books were Guerber’s Story of the Romans, Abbott’s Alfred
150 Joun Exxis CouLTer
the Great, Williamson’s Life of Jackson [Stonewall], Enoch Arden,
Hiawatha, Stories of Old Greece, Swiss Family Robinson, Henty’s
With Lee in Virginia, Young Marooners, and especially the Story of
Ulysses and Two Little Confederates.
Connelly Springs never could boast of a newspaper, but for a short
time Coulter squeezed out enough time from his many business ac-
tivities to write an occasional news report to the Morganton Herald
(later the News-Herald). For a short time Bergen Bollinger, a free-
lancer somewhat on the order of R. Don Law and his Yellow Jacket
of Moravian Falls, got out a few issues of a sheet which he called
the Truth Teller, which in reality was not a newspaper.
The quickest communications Connelly Springs had with the outside
world besides the telegraph was by the “fast vestibule” mail trains
until 1901, when J. A. Martin of Hickory put up a telepehone line
from Hickory to Morganton by way of Connelly Springs, Rutherford
College, and Valdese. A direct line to Lenoir, in Caldwell County,
was not erected until 1915. In the early 1920’s the Connelly Springs
Telephone Company was set up, which soon gave way to the Tn-
County Telephone Company, which in turn was succeeded by the
Blue Ridge Telephone Company, and in 1931 the Hickory Telephone
Company took over.
Electric lights began to shine in the village in 1921, when the
Connelly Springs Light & Power Company (W. J. Davis, President;
D. W. Alexander, Treasurer) began distributing electricity. And now
Coulter had his residence wired and abandoned his various types of
lighting with kerosene and other inventions, saving a few lamps for
emergencies. Radios were beginning to make their appearance by
1924, but Coulter noted on February 13 that he had not yet heard
one.
The highway from Hickory to Morganton and on to Asheville
passed down the main business street of Connelly Springs until April,
1919, when a new highway left the village about a quarter of a mile to
the southward. This change was the result of a campaign to build
a highway from the coast to the Tennessee line (or in the common
oratorical flourishes, “From Murphy to Manteo” or “From Cherokee
to Currituck”). Deprived of its importance of being on the main line,
Connelly Springs was some years later (in 1937) given the consola-
tion of having its main street paved with tar and gravel.
From his earliest days in the “Nation” Coulter was interested in
good roads. In 1884 he was road overseer in Bandys Township of
Catawba County on the Hickory-Shelby road from the Burke County
line to Jacobs Fork River. When he moved to Connelly Springs he
became road overseer in Lovelady Township for many years. The
Tue Rise anD DECLINE oF CoNNELLY SPRINGS 151
duty of the overseer was to require all males from 18 to 45 years
of age to work the road on which they lived 6 days of 9 hours every
year or to be excused by paying $4.00 if they owned no livestock or
vehicles, or otherwise to pay $5.00. The law was slightly changed
in 1915, and abandoned when automobiles came.
By 1911 the “good roads movement” had hit North Carolina, and
there was organized the North Carolina Good Roads Association
with Joseph Hyde Pratt, the secretary, having his headquarters in
Chapel Hill. Coulter was president of the local branch in Connelly
Springs. The first big aim of the state association was the promotion
of a central highway the whole length of the state. There was strong
agitation for a bond issue. Not until the 1920’s did the state get its
good roads program under way. But Lovelady Township could not
wait so long. It began grading new roads and topping them with
sand clay, with Ed Abernethy and his scoops and road plows doing
much of the work. In 1915 Coulter had wooden sign pointers nailed
with ten-penny spikes on posts erected at the intersection of all
important roads.
Another long-sought road improvement was a bridge across the
Catawba River beyond Rutherford College near the John Cassels
residence. After some years of agitation and a final agreement with
the Caldwell County authorities, the bridge was begun in 1906 and
completed the next year. It was built by the Roanoke Bridge Company
of Virginia. A new bridge was built in 1962.
Connelly Springs was a trading center for a hinterland for some
miles in all directions and many of the people living in this region
came to the village for their mail occasionally. Why should they not
be given the advantages of the Rural Free Delivery Service? That
was what they wanted to know especially after W. P. Haliburton
had been studying the regions to the southward and had worked
up a route for delivering the mail. So on May 1, 1905 R.F.D. No. 1
was authorized by the United States postal authorities, and Haliburton
became the first carrier. In his little buggy (later a small box-like one)
he made the distance of about 20 miles, rain or shine. On February 1,
1906 R.F.D. No. 2 was authorized, and George A. Hauss became the
carrier. R.F.D. No. 3 came June 1, 1907, with James R. Huffman
the carrier; and No. 4, April 1, 1912, with Cleveland R. Perkins.
In 1912 Coulter’s brother Frank had worked up this fourth route,
hoping that he would secure the appointment as carrier. Frank had
been associated in business almost all of his life with his brother John
Ellis, working either for or with him. He had sawed shingles, had done
carpentry work, clerked in stores, run the farm of “Coulter & Coulter”
for a year, run a store of his own and was a partner in a store with
152 Joun Extis CouLTer
John Ellis for a year or two. In 1893 he joined the Westward Move-
ment and took a fling at Texas, going to Bowie where he worked
on a farm for a time and then clerked in the store of Jule Sigmon &
A. P. Seitz, North Carolina acquaintances who had preceded him.
But he soon concluded that Texas was a strange place; some things
he liked fine and some things he could not stand. He wrote that
“the wind blows awful here,” so hard that a person could not see a
foot ahead—and it had not rained for four months. The coldest
weather he ever felt was there but it lasted only two or three days.
The day might start out warm enough “to work with your coat off
& in less than an hour it will be so cold that one can’t stand it.” He
was back in North Carolina early the next year.
In 1895 he moved out to Rutherford College to enter school in
the college there; but after he had met Della Parker, school meant
nothing to him. He quit and on August 21, 1895 he married her and
wrote his parents, “Of course, I think I have the best woman in the
world.” Four children carne to this union: Robert, Ruth, Margaret,
and Frances.
Having no occupation so fixed that he could not leave it, he worked
up the R.F.D. route and stood the examination. Various citizens wrote
strong letters of recommendation, including D. P. Goode who said
that the people along the route would be disappointed if Frank
Coulter did not get it, and added: He “is one of our best citizens,
capable, & courteous & has the fell confidence of all the people on
the route. He is scrupulously sober, abstaining from all drinks of alco-
holic taints.” His brother John Ellis pulled all the political strings
he could find, but brother Frank did not receive the appointment.
It seems that his civil service examination did not prove satisfactory.
Two years later Coulter, himself, was more lucky in pursuit of an
idea he had that he would like to be the village postmaster. Congress-
man E. Yates Webb, a great friend of Coulter's, suggested that he
stand the civil service examination and Webb promised “to see that
you get a square deal.” Horace Goode and the other Democratic
political powers lined up behind Coulter, and he decided to stand the
examination; but there was a woman who wanted the position, Miss
Sally Abernethy, a sister of Ben, and Coulter not wanting to stand
in her way told Webb that if she passed the examination, he would
not be an applicant for the position. But Coulter went ahead and
stood the examination for there was a prominent Republican who also
was standing the examination, and if he passed and Miss Abernethy
did not, and assuming that Coulter would pass, then he would take
the place to prevent the Republican from getting it. Coulter passed
with the highest mark, but as Miss Abernethy passed and was one
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Tue Rise aNpD DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS 153
of the highest three, Coulter withdrew and Miss Abernethy received
the appointment. Webb had promised that he would go “down the
line for her if she Passed, and remarked, “You are a generous and
magnanimous man.” This was the nearest Coulter ever came to hold-
ing a government office, political, or otherwise, unless being mayor
af Connelly Springs was such an office.
For at least twenty years after Coulter moved to Connelly Springs,
its only industrial activity was his sawmill and grist mill and a
blacksmith shop which he rented to Joe Aiken for $1.00 a month.
In 1903 there were nibbling inquiries about the possibilities of establish-
ing a cotton mill in the village. The Alpine Cotton Mills in Morganton
(W. A. Erwin, President; B. N. Duke, Vice-President), inquired
privately of Coulter w hecher the hill on the south side of the railroad
where a Baptist church had recently been built could be bought,
and also whether the big hotel building i in town might be leased for
three years to house he. hands while residences for tem were being
built. The wood and water supply available was one of the strong
inducements in setting up a mill there. They promised not to come
into competition w ith the town merchants by setting up a company
store. Nothing came of this chance for the village e take on some
growth.
Ten years later it appeared that the village was on its way. The
Connel ly Springs Knitting Mill Company was incorporated With a
capital of $100,000, with all the stock sold immediately. It manufac-
tured hosiery. It appears that Coulter bought no “stock but he
furnished it with steam—electricity had not yet come to Connelly
Springs. For a year or more during 1916-1917 Coulter’s son Alvin
Augustus ran a canvas glove mill.
Connelly Springs was now on a boom. In 1919 the Blue Ridge
Cotton Mill began operations. Coulter furnished it lumber, power,
and bought stock i in it. In 1927 the building burned and the company
became defunct. The next year Coulter and B. L. Ledwell bid in
the ruins and the lot for the taxes and the lawyer, sheriff, and
advertisement fees, for a total of $1,232.55. This misfortune marked
the end of Connelly Spring’s industrial boom.
‘The most famous institution in the village for many years was the
Connelly Springs Hotel. News of the discovery of the mineral spring
there soon spread far and wide. The Meroney brothers, Thomas J.
and Philip J., of Salisbury were the first to act. Sensing the possibilities
of developing a great tourist summer resort here, near the foothills
of the mountains, attracting people from the lowlands and elsewhere
by the equitable climate and healing waters, the Meroneys bought
the spring and the lands surrounding it. In 1884 they secured from
154 JouHN Eis CouLtTEeR
D. P. Goode and Emma Connelly, sister of his wife, 5/8 of an acre
for $350. At the same time they bought from W. W. Connelly for
$1,300 a tract of 334 acres containing the spring, “reserving to the
said Wm. W. Conley and his family the right and privilege to pass
over said lands and to use for the benefit of said William Connelly
and his family the water of the mineral spring situated thereon as
well as the use of the free stone spring of water situated thereon.”
Connelly lived on the hill just west of the spring on the north side
of the railway and needed these water rights. The Meroney brothers
immediately began the construction of a large hotel, two stories, with
wide commodious porches extending the whole length of the building
and across the front end, upstairs and down, all set off with dormer
windows and a high three-story tower near the middle. They also
built a row of cottages on the walkway leading down to the spring.
An attractive spring house with lattice work enclosed the spring
which was walled-in with concrete approaches. Soon a two-story
ball-room was built where dances were frequently held on the second
floor. The ground floor accommodated a bowling alley. During the
season a string band made music for the dances and during meals.
The Hotel music was a familiar sound throughout most of the village.
The Hotel building was completed in 1886 and in July of this year
the Meroneys bought from D. P. Goode a strip of land for $400 on
the east side of the Hotel property, extending “to a stone a short
distance from D. P. Goode’s large gate that you passed through
going from his house to the hotel.” The next year the attractive
name of Happy Home for the village was given up for the name
Connelly Springs, but the reason is evident—the latter name was in
itself an advertisement for the Hotel. In 1890 the Meroneys sold
to W. C. Coughenour of Salisbury for $6,000 a half interest in their
enterprise “known as Connellys, . . . situate on the Western North
Carolina Road near Icard station (now Connellys Station).”
Thomas J. Meroney, a bachelor, died in Morganton in January, 1891.
His death led to a reorganization of the enterprise, resulting in
setting up the same month the Connelly Springs Company. This
company extended its land holdings by buying two or more small
tracts that year, from W. W. Connelly and D. P. Goode.
With the Asheville-Hendersonville “Land of the Sky” region not
yet sufficiently developed and advertised as a summer resort Utopia,
the Connelly Springs Hotel thrived mightily. The Morganton Herald
reported in 1890 that the Hotel for “several years [had] enjoyed a
great and growing reputation as a summer resort.” Capitalists had
erected “a handsome hotel,” and its “waters have been found of highly
curative influence in all kidney and bladder troubles, besides possessing
Tue Rise AND DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS 155
rare tonic virtues.” Robert L. Abernethy, the president of Rutherford
College, in advertising the healthful situation of his school, a mile
and a half away, said that the hotel was “thronged the year round
by invalids” and that its waters were shipped even to Europe. Truly
had Abernethy spoken, for in February, 1891 ten cases of this water
were sent to a gentleman in London, England, who had been a guest
at the hotel and had drunk its waters.
In fact shipping this mineral water became a fairly lucrative business
in itself. A half dozen years later, either this same gentleman or others
in London, equally pleased with the water, were buying it, for the
manager in 1897 sent to London eight cases “of the famous medicinal
and health-giving Connelly mineral water, the fame of which has
crossed the deep.” This water was well advertised within the United
States and for years scarcely a passenger train came through the
village without a few demijohns of this water being loaded in the
express car. Since it was not entirely satisfactory for well guests
to be surrounded by invalids, the Hotel began to leave off the invita-
tion for the sick to come and be healed—and in its latter days it an-
nounced, “No Consumptives Taken.”
All through the 1890’s the Hotel flourished uncommonly. During
one week in July, 1891 the following guests arrived: 77 from North
Carolina; 5 from Florida; 4 from South Carolina; 2 from Maryland;
and one each from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. The
guests included governors of the state and other high officials, as well
as persons celebrated in other professions. The Reverend J. W.
Weston spent some time there and left much improved in his health.
He became well known for his book in which he sought to prove that
Napoleon’s famous Marshal Ney had not been executed bur had es-
caped to America and taught for many years in North Carolina and
was actually the Peter Stuart Ney who was buried in the Third Creek
Presbyterian Churchyard, near Statesville.
Beginning in the early 1890's it became a yearly custom for a large
group of Bostonians to spend much of the winter at the Hotel, coming
principally for quail-shooting and for the leisure found in a small
village. Certain of the villagers with horses and buggies and knowing
where plenty of quail could be found did a profitable business taking
these men out into the country. Their comings and goings were worth
a news item in the Morganton newspaper. In February, 1899 it was
reported: “All the Massachusetts hunters have gone home.” There
were also other Yankee “bird-shooters” who regularly came to Con-
nelly Springs.
Most of the building operations at the Hotel had taken place before
Coulter moved to Connelly Springs, but he supplied lumber and other
156 JouHN Exxtis Coulter
building materials for the ball-room, for some of the cottages, and
for an addition to the Hotel of twenty rooms made in 1911. Also while
he was in the mencantile business he helped to supply the Hotel
table. Evidence on the pages of store ledger books indicate that,
whatever else went on the tables, there was a sufficiency of higher:
and eggs. In August of 1891 (before Coulter had come to Connelly
Springs) the firm of Connelly & Sides sold to the Hotel almost
400 chickens and nearly 100 dozen eggs. During the previous month,
while the watermelon season was on, “the guests “consumed 229 Wwater-
melons bought from Connelly & Sides, and probably others bought
from countrymen who brought them to town in their wagons. Crests
often took strolls up “Huckleberry Street” and seeing Coulter’s peach-
trees loaded with luscious fruit, they would prevail on Lucy Ann
to sell them a few dozen.
In 1900 the Hotel was put up for sale and in the course of time
there was organized the Connelly Springs Mineral Springs Hotel
Company, which was a going concer in 1903. It came into being
through the sale to it of the Hotel property by Horace W. Connelly
who had bought it at a foreclosure sale held on May 19, 1902. Dr.
W. M. McGalliard of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, was the chief stock-
holder in the new company. Coulter seems to have been interested
in it financially in a minor way. In 1904 Horace W. Connelly again
bought it, but since he died in June of the next year, the ownership
of the property was soon up for change again. Henry Vanstory now
came into possession of it either as owner or both owner and
prietor, for he was running it for some years until William Jeff Davis
bought and ran it until it closed, eking out an existence chiefly as
the residence of the Davis family until the time of the Second World
War, when it was sold to certain Winston-Salem interests, who
demolished it for the excellent lumber with which it had been built.
In the face of competition from “The Land of the Sky” Davis had
sought to make a go of it by advertising it with many catchy phrases
and rates: “Right on Main Line of Southern Railway, midway be-
tween Salisbury and Asheville—In the Foothills of the Blue Ridge
Mountains—Is 1200 Feet above Sea Level. Said to be Healthiest Coun-
try in the State—Splendid Mineral Water for Indigestion, Nervous-
ness, Rheumatism and all Blood Diseases—Dancing and other Amuse-
ments. An Ideal Place to spend your Varatian—Na Consumptives
Taken—Rates: May, June, September, October, $6 to $8 Per Week.
$18 to $30 Per Month. July, August, $7 to $10 Per Week. $22. to $36.
Per Month.” Even such rates could not save the Hotel.
During its history of a half century the Hotel had a series of
managers or “Proprietors,” and among the early managers and the
Tue Ris— AND DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS 157
best known was Ben Abernethy, who dabbled in almost every kind
of activity that the village afforded (but longest as railway agent).
In 1897 he had succeeded Henry Williams, who returned to Salisbury,
and he continued until October, 1905. Ben always remained a bachelor,
and while running the Hotel his sister Lillie lived there until her
marriage to a Mr. Gaul of Maiden in March, 1899.
W. P. Haliburton, an experienced hotel man, who had run a hotel
at Piedmont Springs, near Walnut Grove, in Stokes County, and
who had in one way or another been associated with Connelly
Springs for a long time, decided in 1902 to erect a small hotel up
“Huckleberry Street,” a half mile beyond the Coulter residence.
Coulter furnished the lumber and other “building material. Haliburton
was fairly successful in this venture. The building stood until 1960,
when unoccupied for several years, it was purposely fired and partly
burned down to afford practice in fire-fighting for the Connelly
Springs-Rutherford College Fire Department.
For those transients and residents who did not care for the style
of a hotel, Miss Myra Lail (June 8, 1844-February 23, 1926) ran a
boarding house under the name of the “Connelly Springs Inn.” She was
in this business before the turn of the twentieth century and continued
for a dozen or more years thereafter. She bought many small items
from Coulter: a goose for 50¢, a turkey for 70¢, and such other articles
as goat mutton and stove wood.
In 1912, about the ume Connelly Springs began to take on new
industrial growth, suggestions were being made that the village needed
a bank; but nothing was done until 1919, when the Peoples Bank was
chartered and opened in October, with W. T. McGalliard, President;
D. W. Alexander, Vice President; and J. G. Aiken, Cashier. It started
out small and never grew to be very large: in December following its
opening, resources were $26,143.94 and paid in capital, $5,900. By
1920 Coulter had bought 5 shares and he later bought 16 more. In
1926 the bank failed and Coulter lost his $2,100 investment in stocks
and also an assessment of an equal amount and whatever deposits he
had in the bank at the time.
The years of buoyancy and expectation of great things to come
were from 1913 to 1926. This was the period of new mills, a bank—
and the incorporation of the village with all the tinsels, tassels, and
frills of a city; but most of it was on paper or in the minds of the
hopefuls. The village was incorporagted in 1920 and began operating
as the “Town of Connelly Springs.” Elections for mavor ‘and aldermen
were held on May 4, which resulted in the choice of Coulter by a
unanimous vote of 54; and in the voting for five aldermen, the follow-
ing were elected: R. D. Coulter (Ray, son of J. E.), 44; R. R. (Bob)
158 JoHN Exiis CouLTER
Ennis, 37; W. T. (Theo) McGalliard, 37; D. P. (Pink) Hudson,
35; and R. E. Loven, 33. J. G. Aiken was appointed Secretary-Treasu-
rer. Coulter took the oath of office as mayor on the 13th, and the
town was now ready for business. One of the immediate concerns
of the Mayor and Aldermen was the appointment of a policeman
to have the additional powers of a deputy sheriff. The Aldermen ex-
plained the need “because of intolerable conditions existing in and
around Connelly Springs, N. C. to wit: manufacturing and selling
spirituous liquors, carrying concealed weapons, gambling, speeding,
and including almost the whole category of crimes”—an indictment
sufficient to put the town in the class with the biggest cities. Philmore
Deal now became the “visible law” in Connelly Springs as he proudly
displayed a shiny silver police bade costing $2.50. Philmore received
$3.00 a day for preserving order.
With law enforcement now in full swing, Mayor Coulter found
grist for his court, which he held when needed. Culprits came before
him for selling whiskey, getting drunk, profane swearing, resisting
arrest, swinging trains, letting bulldogs run loose unmuzzled, skipping
board bills, and so on—all of which received their appropriate fines
ranging from $2.00 to $10.00.
The town did not depend entirely on the punishment of common
law and statutory crimes for maintaining its peace and security. Its
dignity had to be guaranteed in an elaborate set of “Laws and Ordi-
nances,” which were enacted and published in a 22-page booklet soon
after the town was set going. There were nine chapters as follows:
“Amusements—Exhibitions, Shows, Etc.,” “Animals—Live Stock, Dogs,
etc.,” “Fire Precautions,” “Good Order, Etc.,” “Streets, Sidewalks,
Etc.,” “Railroad Companies,” “Licenses, Fees, Permits, Taxes,” “Traf-
fic and Vehicles,” and “Health . . . Meat, and Other Foods.” In-
cluded was an ordinance to raise revenues by setting forth tax rates
and license fees.
The production of any farce or play, tricks, juggling acts, slight
of hand, or the show of animals or menageries “or any curiosity of
nature or art,” without first getting a permit was punishable by a fine
of $50.00. No animal was allowed to run loose, and horses and mules
must be secured to hitching posts back of the stores. Dogs must not
run loose without a tag, and it was a $10.00 fine to let an unmuzzled
bulldog “or other vicious or dangerous dog” be loose on the
streets. The sale of fireworks was forbidden, and no one was allowed
to pop firecrackers or to shoot cannon crackers or Roman candles.
To set a trash fire within ten feet of a fence or building was forbidden
on peril of a fine of as much as $50.00.
In preserving “Good Order” none of the following was allowed:
Tue RisE AND DECLINE OF CONNELLY SPRINGS 159
profanity or indecent language; “indecent or lewd dress” or singing
“sacreligious, indecent, vulgar, or lewd song or words”; drunks; no-
torious characters or prostitutes to walk or ride the streets between
7 p.m. and 4 a.m.; loafing around the depot, hotel or public places;
playing ball, shouting, shooting guns or bow and arrows or any
“missiles of any description from slings, spring guns or instruments
of any kind”; making loud noise “with any whistle, gong, horn, bell
or other things” except when necessary by automobiles and trains;
spitting or throwing trash on the sidewalks; begging, any public dis-
turbance by word or act or concert or play; gambling; and slot ma-
chines and punch boards. Most of these crimes were subject to a
$50.00 fine.
The mayor was instructed to keep the streets clean and unob-
structed. Trains must not run through town at more than 15 miles an
hour and must ring their bells; and crossings must not be blocked
more than 5 minutes. No one except trainmen was allowed “to swing”
a train in motion, and there must be no loitering in the waiting rooms
at the depot.
No business might be transacted without a license, including all
vehicles for hire. Automobiles must use mufflers, and speed not more
than 9 miles an hour in the business district, and 14 miles an hour in
residential sections.
In the interest of health, all food for sale must be sanitary; no
decayed matter to be thrown on a Jot; and no cow, horse or mule
stable to be nearer than 50 feet from a residence.
The ordinance to raise revenues provided a poll tax of $1.00; real
and personal property to be taxed 25¢ on the $100; males between
21 and 45 years of age to do street work 6 days a year or pay a street
tax of $3.00. License fees ranged from $1.00 for a barber shop with
one chair (so¢ for each additional chair) to $25.00 for automobile
agents, fortune tellers, and hypnotists. Male dogs were taxed $1.00,
bitches, $2.00.
All of these laws and regulations were “a big bill of fare” suddenly
to set before a people who had lived a leisurely life in a respectable
little village; but they represented the conscience of this moment
of exhiliration, and in fact most of these regulations had been instinc-
tively part of the people’s customs. They were a warning to criminally
inclined people and to outsiders. Of course all these fees and taxes
were something new, and would ultimately bring about the demise
of the town government.
Apart from Policeman Philmore Deal’s control of the lawless, Mayor
Coulter was the chief authority of government in the town. It was
he who had to see that the wheels of government turned round, that
160 JoHN ELtis CouLTER
fees and taxes were assessed and collected, that the streets were kept
in order, and that the guilty were punished.
As it took “money to make the mare go,” also it took money to
make the government go; and so, assessing property and levying taxes
was Mayor Coulter’s first and most continuous job. The rate on
personal and real property was soon reduced to 12¢ on the $100.
The number of polls and dogs varied with the years, and each bore
a fixed rate, but neither produced much revenue. In 1923 there were
96 polls and 21 dogs. Personal and real property assessments (including
local corporations) ran from $104,263 for the Blue Ridge Cotton Mill
(later reduced to $50,760) down through W. J. Davis with his Hotel
for $27,838, through Mayor Coulter with his various enterprises for
$24,100, and on down to almost nothing. The taxes collected in
1921 were $124.50 from the Blue Ridge Cotton Mill; $33.41 from
Davis; $33.92 from Coulter (for some unknown reason more than
Davis whose property was assessed higher); and on down to 1o¢.
If the town had been forced to depend on these local taxes, it
probably never would have been incorporated. There was a “foreign”
corporation which the “city fathers” had their eyes on, the Southern
Railway. There were two others which would not be nearly so
lucrative in taxes, the Western Unon Telegraph Company and the
Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company. The assessments
of the value of the properties of these corporations was set by the
state, with which the local authorities would have to be content.
The Railway had 1.83 miles within the corporate limits of the town,
whose value the state fixed at $93,288.27 per mile (apparently in-
cluding all the Railway’s property inside the town limits). As a result
the Southern Railway became the biggest taxpayer, paying $204.86
at one time and $254.20 in 1924, being almost half of all taxes collected
during some years.
The taxes paid by the telegraph and telephone companies were
negligible. They were assessed according to wire mileage, not by the
length of the pole line. The Western Union had 9.15 miles of wire
inside the town limits, which was assessed at $664 and the value of the
telephone company’s property was fixed at $823. The taxes of neither
company was as much as $1.00 a year.
The total property inside the town limits was generally assessed
at a little more than $400,000. Added to the taxes on this property
were the license fees. The total revenues amounted to a little more
than $500 annually, varying some with the years. In 1925 there was
collected $578.68 and expended $501.17. At one time the town found
it necessary to borrow $200 from Mayor Coulter, who was not paid
back until 1928. In the latter days of the town’s existence as a corpora-
Tue Rise AND DECLINE oF CONNELLY SPRINGS 161
tion it appeared that there might be another source of revenue, when
in 1928 a company was given the franchise to manufacture gas for
light, power, and fuel and to lay gas mains; but nothing came of it.
The expenses of the town government were not great. Neither
the mayor nor the aldermen received salaries, nor anyone else except
Policeman Philmore Deal. It cost in the beginning $7.00 to lay off
the town limits; and after street lights had been provided the cost
of electricity was from $5.00 to $6.00 a month, paid first to the
Connelly Springs Light and Power Company and after 1925 to its
successor the Southern Power Company.
As time went on it began to appear to many citizens that this town
government was an unnecessary imposition on the people and their
freedom to carry on their business without troublesome license fees.
The government was not serving any real need—there were no more
crimes committed here than in any other little community and some
citizens felt that Connelly Springs was freer from petty crimes than
most places its size. And there were never any major crimes.
The prohibition against selling and popping firecrackers greatly
displeased the “small fry,” and some of the “oldsters.” About the time
of the firecracker season one year, a petition to the mayor and alder-
men was circulated and signed by many of the citizens praying that
they allow firecrackers to be sold and popped, and it was promised
by the seller that he would not handle “any firecrackers of the large
and dangerous variety” and it was argued that “it has been the tradition
that all children and open-minded citizens demand fire works for the
proper celebration of Christmas.”
In an attempt to allay discontent, the town government revised
the laws and ordinances and left out many of the provisions of the
1920 edition, reducing the booklet to 13 pages. Elections for town
officers could be held every two years but not oftener. Mayor Coulter
served until 1924, but refused to stand in the election that year.
W. J. Alexander was elected mayor, but resigned four days later.
There was now a succession of mayors elected by the aldermen, none
of whom served long and some not even accepting election. Included
in those elected were B. L. Ledwell, E. A. Dean, W. W. Berry, W. A.
Haliburton, and R. L. Pyart.
If “the old man of the sea” could not be shaken off the people’s
neck by officials resigning or refusing to serve, there appeared to be
another remedy—ask the legislature to pass a law allowing the people
to vote on repealing the town charter. Such a law was passed in
1925 providing for the election to be held on May sth. The election
took place and resulted in defeating the charter repeal. In 1929 another
election was held in which the repeal was defeated by only two votes.
162 Joun Exiis CouLTER
On April 7, 1930 at the last meeting of the aldermen to be recorded
in the minutes book a motion was carried “to take steps to have the
charter of the Town of Connelly Springs repealed.” The town gov-
ernment would now die of neglect if not voted out of existence, and
the village be allowed to return to the pristine happiness of a state of
nature except as limited by the interference of North Carolina and the
United States.
CHAPTER XII
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MORGANTON .
mile and a half northwest of Connelly Springs, a village which
came to be called Rutherford College grew up around a log |
schoolhouse. On a slightly different spot this log schoolhouse grew
into a college. And here came the realization of the dream and
ambition of Robert Laban Abernethy.
Abernethy was a native of Lincoln County, born April 23, 1822. .
He became a Methodist preacher in 1846 and began wandering around
saving souls, as far away as Burke and Caldwell counties. During -
slack preaching times he taught schools wherever he could organize
them, and in a school he was teaching in Caldwell County, one of his
pupils, Mary Anne Hayes, greatly attracted him. On February 11,
1847 he married her. He soon moved across the Catawba River and
in 1853 set up his log schoolhouse on the future location of the village
of Rutherford College. During the Civil War he was postmaster
at Happy Home—though according to tradition he did some preaching
and teaching in the mountainous upper end of Burke and did a little
tax collecting for the Confederate Government. If tradition be
correct, he must have employed an assistant to see after the post
office while he was away; or very probably the post office was
closed during most of the war years, for the Confederacy discontinued
many of the post offices it inherited.
With the war over, Abernethy began again his teaching in the -
little settlement, first called Excelsior, which had begun to grow
up around his schoolhouse. His fame as a teacher spread and a goodly
number of Confederate veterans began to appear as his pupils. An old
acquaintance, John Rutherford, who it seems had helped the school
at an earlier time, now about 1871 offered Abernethy 200 acres of ©
land if he would make the school into an academy. And so it became
[ 163 ]
164 Joun Exris CouLTEeR
Rutherford Academy. With further aid offered if the academy
should be elevated into a college, Abernethy got the necessary per-
mission from the legislature, and in 1873 it became Rutherford College.
Apparently the village about this time became known as Rutherford
College, but not until January 11, 1881 was a post office established
there. The first postmaster was Zebedee F. Rush, a Methodist preacher.
Previously the Rutherford College people had got their mail at the
Happy Home (Connelly Springs) post office.
The college now entered upon a remarkable period of usefulness;
students came from far and near and were inspired into lives of great
usefulness, always remembering this school, which had given them
their start. In 1879 a large new building was constructed, containing
an excellent chemical laboratory and a library of about 10,000 books,
all valued at not less than $25,000. Also there were two literary
societies, the Newtonians and the Platonics, which were looked upon
by their members as being of equal importance with the college
instruction itself, as they gave themselves excellent training in debat-
ing, declaiming, and orating. There was hot rivalry between the
societies, which sometimes broke out in open warfare with the threat
of the use of deadly weapons. President Abernethy estimated in 1890
that at least 8,000 students had been instructed there since the begin-
ning in 1853. Year after year the commencement exercises were out-
standing, fit for governors of the state to attend, and on an occasion
or two actually attended by a governor and always by the countryside
for many miles around. People looked forward from one year to the
next to going to the Rutherford College Commencement. In 1890
a special reunion-of-old-students commencement was held, lasting
three days, attended by about 2,000 people. Many degrees, A.B. and
B.S., were awarded, and to President Abernethy’s 18-year-old son
Arthur Talmadge Abernethy, already a prodigy, went the degree of
Master of Arts.
Besides the commencements there were other occasions, both literary
and social, which drew the townsmen, as well as the citizens from the
nearby towns and villages and from the surrounding country. The
county newspaper, the Morganton Herald, describing a Valentine and
musical party given by the college, noted that the “citizens, ladies
and bird-hunters of Connelly Springs were present, and enjoyed the
occasion.”
The year 1890 was also a year of tragedy. On August 9, about
1 o'clock a.m., to the horror of everybody the building was discovered
in flames. Nothing could be done to save anvthing, as the whole
population of the village stood by helpless. Unbowed by this mis-
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON 165
fortune, Abernethy took to the road to raise money for rebuilding
his college. With many small gifts, a magnificent contribution of
$1,100 by Benjamin N. “Duke of tobacco fame, and a loan of $2,000
by George A. Gray of Gastonia (guaranteed by a mortgage on the
new building), Abernethy was able to complete the new college
structure by hes summer of the following year.
The institution now rose from its ashes with its old-time vigor.
In 1893 there were 173 students in attendance. But there was more
tragedy in store for the college. The next year while riding horseback
Dr Abernethy (he held the Doctor of Divinity degree) was thrown
and hurt internally. He kept going until suddenly on November 27
he died. For the building to tees burned was bad enough, but for
the man who had geet the institution to die was much worse. He
had made the college, he had run the college, the college was his—
there was no bond of trustees—but it was not his to make a profit.
Many of his students who came without purse, he assisted through
college. And his students, old and new, venerated him. On his
seventieth birthday, in 1892, they gave him a clerical suit of clothes;
but this was nothing new—it was an old custom, which had already
resulted in giving him about fifteen suits. Some years later a modest
monument was eeened to his memory, from funds contributed by
old students. The Press and Carolinian, a Hickory newspaper, said at
the time of his death: “There are scores of men and women whom
he has educated in all that they know. . . . The beneficiaries of his
charities today live in one-half of the States of the Union.”
His death meant the death of the Abernethy era of Rutherford
College. His son Will became president and the college struggled
along under the load of the $2,000 mortgage until 1897, when its
doors were closed. In 1900 the Western North Carolina Conference
of the Methodist Church paid off the mortgage and took over the
college. They reduced it now to a first-class preparatory school, with
a faculty of unusual excellence. Dr. Charles C. Weaver (Ph.D. from
the Johns Hopkins University) was made principal with A. C. Rey-
nolds, a natural-born teacher, as co-principal. Dr. Henry McG.
Wagstaff (another Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins) and others made
up the faculty. The college now entered upon a new lease of life and
of great usefulness.
The village of Rutherford College would never have grown up
without the college; the college and the village were almost one and
the same. It was “severely a religious community, Methodist but not
puritanical. During the 1880's religion was here being broadcast almost
as widely, and on certain occasions with vastly more force, than was
- 166 JoHN Exiis CouLTER
education. For some years during this decade, a great religious festival
was held in the late summer, centering in a great tabernacle structure
open to the breezes except for a roof, seating at least 8,000 people.
Generally the festival lasted from a week to ten days, and as many
as forty sermons would be preached.
Of course there was the village Methodist Church and the nearby
cemetery. This cemetery began with its first grave in 1855, being
that of William L. Connelly, who was killed by a stroke of lightning.
The tradition has long continued, apparently based on truth, that
the second grave accommodated an unfortunate citizen who was
killed by the kick of a mule.
The village was not incorporated until the twentieth century, but
no local government was necessary to keep high the conscience of the
community. Crime and lewdness were not tolerated. In the early
1890’s there was a tendency for certain people of low morality to
pass through Rutherford College on their way from Caldwell County
where they had been able to find whiskey, and being unable to resist
a dram from their jugs they came through slightly uneven on their
legs. On an occasion one such wayfarer lost his little handbag and
jug in the village, ‘and some good boys finding them, smashed the
jug against a tree. The poor fellow returning in search of his lost god
and finding it demolished, cried and snuffled like a baby, and being
informed who had broken his jug, spent a few moments in volleys
- of oaths, and then ran like a wild turkey, as well he might.”
In attracting respectable families to settle in the village and espe-
cially to bring in new students, President Abernethy emphasized the
healthfulness of the region (mentioning sometimes the famous waters
of Connelly Springs). He declared that Rutherford College had “be-
come proverbial as a health resort as well as for its educational
facilities.”
Many excellent families came in during the Abernethy era, either
to educate their children or to settle in a cultured community. There
were the Greenwades, the Gunters, the Crisps, the Frank Coulters,
the Wilsons, the Cherrys, the Estes, the Parkers, the Goodes, the
Lefevers, the Johnsons, the Hills, the Peelers, the Lucks, the Morrises,
and others, some of whom had been long there; and there were many
who would come in the twentieth century. A. L. (Gus) Lefevers,
L. L. (Lank) Estes, and Joe Wilson were well-known merchants.
Apart from old Dr. Abernethy, probably no one was more beloved
than W. C. (“Uncle Billy”) Hill, who “was loved by all who ever
attended school there and respected by the entire community.” He
~ was a bachelor, a son of a Baptist preacher of Stokes County, and a
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON 167
Confederate veteran. Uncle Billy with his blue eyes, ruddy com-
plection, and a snow-white Santa-Claus beard, was best known in two
capacities: as mail carrier from Rutherford College to Connelly Springs
and as a fiddler who could have brought tears to the eyes of Bob
Taylor—and probably did.
He began carrying the mail about 1890, in a locked sack thrown
across his shoulders as he walked the mile and a half, but sometimes
riding; and probably seldom if ever did he receive a raise in the
pittance pay he received. Coulter in 1913 took it upon himself to try
to get an increase by writing to Senator Simmons in Washington.
Uncle Billy was a favorite with the children in both villages, always
having a little joke to tell or to quote some Latin expression—most
likely from Julius Caesar.
Often called the “fiddler from the mountains,” he was ranked in
1899 by the Burke County News (another county paper later to be
merged with the Herald) as “among the best violinists of the country.”
On certain occasions he played with the stringed band at the Connelly
Springs Hotel, and many times he played at college gatherings. In
i915 with his violin he was the leader of a 5-piece orchestra which
made music at the Newtonian Annual Debate. The other members
were Mrs. W. M. Mann (Lucile Goode) at the piano, L. E. Webb
with his banjo, Theo Griffin with his guitar, and Joe Griffin as second
violinist. Uncle Billy’s favorite solo was “The Downfall of Paris,”
and those who heard him could almost believe it was falling down.
Living by himself during his last few years in the old Hill home,
where formerly his brother and family had kept house, he gave up
all activities and was unable to putter around far. But he never wanted
for company and attention; he was constantly visited by the students
and his niece gave him complete care. He died at the age of 74 in 1917.
The Morganton News-Herald commented: “Many hearts will be
filled with sorrow at the news that the fiddler of the mountains is no
more. He has entertained thousands all over the state with his violin.”
Down to the turn of the twentieth century, the most important
family in Rutherford College was the Abemethys. Robert Laban
Abernethy and his wife had fourteen children—eleven of whom
reached maturity and some distinction. Most of the men became
prominent in the Methodist ministry and the women married well.
A daughter, Mrs. Paris M. Rutherford, who was historically minded,
wrote and preserved accounts of the old institution and passed the
zeal on down to her children. Roberta, “one of the fairest young
ladies of the place,” was married in 1890 to Professor M. Boekbinder,
“an accomplished Englishman” and a graduate of “the most thorough
168 JoHN Exxis Coulter
musical institution in Europe.” He was at the time on the faculty
of the college and the head of “the best musical department in the
State.” This marriage did not last and later Roberta became the wife
of Harley Goode. Another daughter, Mrs. Emma Moore was for many
years the village postmistress. “Granny” Abernethy continued to live
for years after her husband had died, on down into the twentieth
century, in the old home with the apple orchard, which she did not
object to students raiding now and then.
John Abernethy, a Methodist preacher, said to have been the first
graduate of his father’s college, died in 1899. Will E., as has been
noted, followed his father as president of the college; L. Burge was
one of the professors for a time, as was Arthur Talmage.
No Abernethy, indeed no citizen of Burke County from the creation
of the county on down, was ever to attain the versatility, the brilliancy,
the eccentricity, and the ubiquity of Arthur Talmage Abernethy.
It seems that he started out on the road to fame by becoming when
he was only 14, “a professor” in his father’s college (according to
his memory—all the college records were burned in the fire of 1890).
As has already appeared he was awarded a Master of Arts degree at
the famous commencement in 1890. Immediately thereafter he hied
himself away to Baltimore to enter the Johns Hopkins University,
where he was a student during the year 1890-1891, studying Greek
and Latin under the famous Basil L. Gildersleeve and other savants.
In a whimsical bit of autobiography which he called “my home-
made Who’s Zoo,” he said he received an “honorary Master of Arts
from Trinity (now Duke University) which they seem to have re-
gretted conferring”; but the Duke keeper of the records wrote in
answer to an inquiry: “I do not find a record for Arthur Talmage
Abernethy.” Had they in their “regrets” destroyed it?
With a mind bubbling over with everything to do and no time
to do half of what bubbled up, it was evident that Arthur Talmage
was not going to settle down and become a teacher. As he wrote in
his ““Who’s Zoo,” his father “prophesied that I would become President
of the United States,” but he shocked his parents “by becoming a
telegraph operator, being for several years fastest Morse sender in the
world.” He was long in giving up his interest in telegraphy. He
began as telegrapher in Burlington in 1891; in 1893 he accepted “an
office in telegraphy in Atlanta, Ga.”; beginning in 1895 and con-
tinuing for a year or more he was publishing in Rutherford College
a monthly journal which he called The Telegrapher, which he largely
filled up with fictional writing; for a short time in 1907 he was
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Top: RUTHERFORD COLLEGE. Bottol: WALDENSIAN CHURCH.
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON 169
telegrapher at Connelly Springs under the new block system recently
set up by the railway.
During the middle 1890's between telegrapher jobs Arthur Talmage,
to quote from his ‘““Who’s Zoo” again, “traveled United States, Canada,
Mexico, Cuba, and other heathen countries advertising patent medi-
cine.” One of the remedies he was advertising was “Wamer’s Safe
Cure” and others were Dr. Harter’s “The Only True Iron Tonic” and
“Harter’s Iron Bitters.” But the Harter people were advertising Arthur
Talmage as much as their remedies, for they issued a placard of about
5 by 7 inches with one side filled up almost entirely by a striking
picture of young Abernethy, bearing this inscription: “Arthur T.
Abernethy, “The Young Man Eloquent’ and Youngest Professor in
America, Born October 10, 1872 in Rutherford College North Caro-
lina, “The Calhoun of the 19th Century.’”
It was about this time (to be exact, in November, 1895) that the
pugnacity of Arthur Talmage and his two brothers, Will and Burge,
asserted itself in a way that must have been a regret in later life;
but all three thought that they had a cause that had to be pursued
by methods other than those prescribed by law. It all had to do
with the A. C. Gunter family who had moved from Connelly Springs
to Rutherford College about 1892 and had become close friends
of the Abernethys. Some chance remark by Gunter which rumor
carried to the Abernethys as an attack on the morality of some of
the women of the village, sparked Arthur, Burge, and Will into
action. They stormed the residence with rocks and pistol shots and
greatly frightened Gunter’s daughter Viola (Mrs. Gunter had died
in 1893); but Gunter had made his escape and had walked all the
way to Morganton that night to seek protection from the sheriff
and to swear out warrants for the arrest of the Abernethy brothers.
Thev were arrested by Alex Perry, tried, and placed each under
$1,000 peace bond to await trial at the next term of Superior Court.
Gunter said, “Whoever accuses me of slandering innocent women
is an unmitigated liar.” Included in the conspiracy was A. L. Lefevers,
who was put under a $200 peace bond. Most of the town seemed
to have been up in arms against Gunter. A meeting of many of the
townsmen took place in the Platonic Literary Society Hall in support
of the Abernethys. They plead guilty at the term of Superior Court
the next vear and were assessed the costs, amounting to more than
$400, and were continued under a peace bond.
But this little episode had been no lesson to Arthur Talmage. The
peace bond covered only Gunter and not the Goodes, with whom
Arthur Talmage harbored some grudges. In 1897 the sheriff of Lincoln
170 Joun Extis CouLTER
County came to Rutherford College to arrest Mot DeLane, who
happened to be a friend of Arthur Talmage’s. The sheriff not knowing
DeLane, as he passed through Connelly Spring, asked Horace (H. a |
Goode to go along to point out DeLane. Arthur Talmage followed
Goode back to Connelly Springs and snapped his pistol several times
in Goode’s face; and when Horace went into his father’s store to
get a pistol, Abernethy departed. Goode had Abernethy arrested and
in the trial the best S. J. Ervin, Sr., Abernethy’s lawyer, could do
for his client was to get him placed under a $700 peace bond. These
were unfortunate lapses in the high standards of the Abernethy
family and were never to be repeated.
As might well be expected Arthur Talmage made no mention
of these affairs in his “Who’s Zoo”; but in his humorous recounting
of his life he continued, “Worked on editorial staff of Pittsburg [sic]
Post, Philadelphia Record, New York Press and Milwaukee Sentinel,
where I helped make Milwaukee famous.” Between newspaper assign-
ments, he took time off to get into a little tussle of words with T. G.
Cobb, editor and owner of the Morganton Herald. In 1896 Arthur
Talmage sent out a form letter to most of the advertisers in the Herald,
informing them that their advertisements were in no attractive form
and might well bring no results, and that if each would send him
25¢ he would liven up their advertisements. He added that he did
the bulk of such work in North Carolina and had managed the adver-
tising business of Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia as well as for Dr.
Harter’s Medicine Company and two other medicine companies.
Cobb was not at all pleased with this interference with the way he
was setting up his newspaper copy, and armed with letters from John
Wanamaker and two medicine companies in reply to Cobb’s inquiries,
stating that they had never heard of Arthur Talmage, he bounced
Abernethy with this information. Arthur Talmage answered Cobb
by saying that he had not worked for John Wanamaker (and had
never said so); it was for William H. Wanamaker, and as for the
medicine companies, they had changed presidents since he had worked
for them. His stationery at this time bore this heading: “Advertise-
ment Writer, Editor of the “Telegraph, “The Pulpit’s Power,’ Author
of ‘The Hell You Say’ and ‘In a Devil of a Fix,’ Professor of Greek
and Latin in Rutherford College, etc, etc, etc.”
Arthur Talmage had a yen for his pen and took great satisfaction
in using it. By 1926 he was printing on his letterhead “(Author of
41 Books),” a little later it was “(Author of 46 Books),” and by
1937 it was “(Author of 53 Books).” At this time he said that he had
no list of them and that “in fact I have spent most of my time trying
RUTHERFORD CoLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MORGANTON 171
to forget some of them.” His first book, which was probably only
a small pamphlet, was The Mechanics and Practices of the Electric
Telegraph, but the work that got him most fame for the time was
a piece of fiction which he called The Hell You Say. This unusual
ttle, according to tradition, came about in this way: Arthur Talmage
promised himself that when he should have finished the work he would
name it the first expression he heard when he went out on the streets
of Rutherford College. Meeting Lank Estes, he remarked, “Well,
Lank, I have finished my book.” Lank replied, “The Hell You Say.”
Abernethy years later remembered that the Atlanta Constitution
had said of the book, “A North Carolina man has sworm his way
into fame,” and that the preachers had jumped on him so roughly
that “I actually burned up the final edition of 1,500 copies rather
than be lambasted so.” But in 1912 the Hickory Democrat, which had
printed the work in 1894 at a loss, was still advertising them for 5o0¢
each. Abernethy’s title for some years after the book had appeared
was “Hell You Say,” and an acquaintance in 1897 remarked, “I hear
that the ‘Hell You Say’ is iz a hell of a fix.” Abernethy had said that
he guessed he would have to write a book and call it “In a Devil
of a Fix,” but it seems he never did. But soon after his “Hell You
Say” book appeared he did write to a number of governors of states
asking their opinions of the book. When he asked Governor William
J. Stone of Missouri if he would read and criticise the book, the
Governor replied, “Damfino; will if I can.”
Another book which Arthur Talmage wrote, which was long
remembered, was entitled Did Washington Aspire to be King? Among
those whose opinion of the book he wanted was that of Coulter’s,
also offering him a copy for $1.00. Abernethy said that he con-
sidered “the book (which is the result of seven years study on this
subject) as my life-work contribution to the archives of American
history.” In looking for a publisher Abernethy showed his manuscript
to Arthur Brisbane “and asked him to induce Hearst to publish it for
me. Brisbane, without reading it, said that Hearst would buy the
manuscript IF 1 WOULD PERMIT HIM TO DESTROY IT. His
idea was that a criticism of Washington (which the book was not)
was an attack on patriotism.” It was brought out by Neale Publishing
Company in 1906. Among his other “53 Books,” some of them pamph-
lets, were The Jew a Negro, Crazy Americans, and A Royal Southern
Fanaly.
Passing from such literary dilettantism, Abernethy entered the re-
ligious field. He wrote Center-Shots at Sin (294 pages, 1918), Twenty-
Five Best Sermons (367 pages, 1920), The Apostles Creed (104 pages,
172 Joun Eris CouLter
1925), and Christian’s Treasure Island (173 pages, 1927). These books
were brought about by his change in occupation as well as his abandon-
ment of the Methodist Church. Resorting again to his “Who’s Zoo,”
“preached four years in New York when I became skeptical of
Yankees having a soul and accepted pastorate of most historic church
in Cincinnati, where I wrote the Senior Quarterly and Senior Class
Magazine Sunday School lessons for Standard Series, and published
a number of books, some so-so and others even less so.” For a time
he was pastor of the Christian Church in Asheville—“Am an honorary
Elder for Life in the Disciples of Christ Church, and hope to go to
heaven, but am in no rush to go.” His sermons and religious books
were acclaimed far and wide by newspapers and prominent leaders
in church and politics. William Jennings Bryan said that Abernethy
was “a man of power as well as of faith” and that his sermons were
“well worth hearing.”
Arthur Talmage’s pen never ran out of ink. Apart from his books
and pamphlets, he wrote for the local newspapers, for Collier's Weekly,
and for a time he became associated with R. Don Law’s unique paper
called the Yellow Jacket, at Moravian Falls. He reveled in extrava-
ganza, writing in a style which knew no bounds in words or ex-
pressions. He made up such words and expressions as “gabbyjack,”
“fuzzvwumps,” and “Jeremiah Saddlebags.” In 1910 when Halley’s
Comet was uppermost in people’s consciences and in the sky, he wrote
an extravaganza for the Hickory Times-Mercury, in which he pre-
dicted that the tail of the comet would swish against the earth,
dropping 17,000 “guyacotuses” and 1,000,000 “whangdoodles.” These
were terrible monsters which gulped down whole families.
In his unpredictable career, he associated with the high and the low.
He traveled round the world; was dined by King Leopold II of
Belgium who gave him citations for having upheld the King in his
African Congo troubles; associated with Teddy Roosevelt and other
presidents of the United States; and ate meals with the Mikado of
Japan and with President Porfiro Diaz of Mexico. In 1899, writing
from Philadelphia, where he spent much time, he sought to enlist in
the hills of Western North Carolina 1,000 volunteers to be known as
“Abernethy’s Immortals.” These he intended to lead to the Philippines,
capture Aguinaldo, and put an immediate stop to the war going on
there. He began a marital career in 1896 which resulted over the vears
in the collection of an unknown number of wives—hostile rumors
insisting that at one stage he had more than one at the same time.
In his latter years he settled in Rutherford College, where he had
begun this amazing career, respected and honored by his election
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGaNnToNn 173
as mayor of the village, and given the accolade by the Charlotte
Observer, “Sage of Rutherford College.” As a stunt he one time ran
for Congress. He died on May 15, 1956, nearly 84 years old.
From the time Coulter moved to Connelly Springs he knew Arthur
Talmage Abernethy and had pleasant dealings and associations with
him. Likewise he had business dealings with other members of the
Abernethy family; and his association with the college itself began
when he attended commencement exercises while he was still living
in the “Nation,” and probably before. When the college under its
new regime began to prosper in the early 1go0’s, at least six of
Coulter’s eight children attended this school, which was now only
a preparatory school, though it was still officially called Rutherford
College. A little later it was elevated into a junior college. President
Weaver was succeeded in 1903 by A. C. Reynolds (the head was
soon given the title of President instead of Principal). Outstanding
teachers during the time the Coulter children attended were A. C.
Reynolds, Irving B. McKay, and W. W. Peele. In 1908 Peele was
also President. Later he joined the Methodist ministry and ultimately
became a Bishop in the Church.
During the first decade and a half of the twentieth century the
school and the town grew rapidly. With the influx of girls under the
new regime, in 1901 a literary society was organized for them, called
the Victorian. In 1908 there was dedicated a library building, given
by Andrew Carnegie. It was Arthur Talmage Abernethy who pre-
vailed on the canny old Scotchman to donate this building. Federal
Judge Jeter C. Pritchard delivered the dedicatory address. Within
a few years thirty-two new families had moved into town, and seven-
teen new residences had been constructed. Even industrialism slipped
into this educational community in 1906, when the Belwood Shoe
Company set up a factory, which turned out from twenty-five to
thirty pairs of shoes a day.
Coulter’s interest in Rutherford College did not end with the
last of his children’s education there. It was always an occasion
to attend the commencement exercises, and frequently he served as
one of the judges in the debates of the literary societies—especially
of the Newtonian Society, which all of his boys had joined.
The college campus soon had become so cramped by residences
edging closer that it was decided to move the location to a spot about
half way between the village and Connelly Springs where the institu-
tion could expand. In the furtherance of this movement, in 1912
Coulter gave the Trustees of Rutherford College “in consideration
of the love we have for the cause of Christian education and a desire
174 Joun Exris CouLter
to promote the same” 22% acres of Jand, “To have and to hold the
said lands and premises to them, [the] parties of the second part, their
successors in office, to their only use and behoof, but upon the express
condition that the said premises shall be used exclusively for college
purposes and not to be sold or conveyed except [to] some Orthodox
Protestant Denomination.” To this gift an addition was made by Dr.
T. V. Goode, and there was built a new college edifice and a dormi-
tory for boys. Coulter was elected a Trustee and later he was given
a certificate adding him to the “Friends of Rutherford College.”
The school paper noted, “There is no one in this section of the state
with greater interest in the progress and growth of Rutherford College
than Mr. J. E. Coulter, veteran member of the Burke County Board
of Education,” adding, “His chief interest outside his family is the
schools of Burke County.”
Time passed on, and in its course the Methodist Church decided
that it was trying to support too many junior colleges, and so it was
decided in 1933 to combine Rutherford College with Brevard Institute
and Weaver College. After two years of futile efforts of Burke County
to operate the school the doors of Rutherford College were now closed
forever and the land which Coulter had given to the Trustees of
Rutherford College to “be used exclusively for college purposes,” was
transferred to a hospital. There is no record that Coulter objected
to this violation of his deed of gift.
West of Connelly Springs about three miles on the railway was
Valdese. This settlement grew up the year after Coulter moved to
Connelly Springs. Its origin goes back to Italy, to the high valleys
of the Cottian Alps, southwest of Turin, in the Province of Piede-
monte, near the French border. In this region, about 22 miles long
and 16 wide, cut across by the headwaters of the Po River, lived
about 22,000 Waldenses or Waldensians as they were to be generally
called in America. They were the descendants of the followers of
Peter Waldo of the twelfth century. Some of these valleys came to
such a sharp point as to provide little land for cultivation--hardly a
sixth of all this region could be cultivated. Racked with poverty,
some of these people had been migrating to other parts of the world
by the 1850’s, considerable numbers going to South America. By the
early 1890’s some had moved to Utah, Missouri, and to Texas; but
the most important Waldensian colony in the United States came to
Burke County, North Carolina and founded and developed the town
of Valdese.
In March, 1893 two emissaries from “Des Vallees Des Alpes
Cottiennes” arrived in the United States and were met by Marvin
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON 175
F. Scaife, a capitalist of Pittsburgh and of Morganton, who on a tri
to Italy had become interested in the Waldensians and who had
developed the Morganton Land and Improvement Company, the
owner of much land in Burke and thereabouts. After being shown
various locations they chose the Valdese region and bargained for
10,000 acres, at the price of $25,000. Seventeen families, numbering
29 souls (mostly from the high valley of Prali), boarded the Holland-
American Zaandam in May, 1893, crowded with 1,200 steerage pas-
sengers and landed in New York on the 26th. They were greeted by
Scaife, who arranged for their transportation to their “land of prom-
ise.”
The Old Dominion Steamship Company gave them reduced fare
to West Point, Virginia, and there they boarded the cars of the Rich-
mond and Danville Railroad Company, which gave them passage free
of charge. They arrived in Valdese on May 2zgth. These were the
first of several groups and individual families from Italy and other
places who came to make the town of Valdese. The largest group
to come arrived in November of 1893, consisting of 178.
These people were Protestants, belonging to the Waldensian
Church, but soon after reaching Valdese they became a part of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States. Their pastor, who came
with the first group, was the Reverend C. A. Tron. He was especially
valuable to the group, for he spoke English fairly well, whereas none
of the others spoke English at all. Their language was French with
important Italian influences—a sort of mixture of both languages.
Their family names gave some indication of their linguistic back-
ground: Guigou, Giraud, Pons, Refour, Tron, Martinat, Grill, Griset
(Grisette), Jacumin, Léger, Meytre, Micol, Pascal, Peyronel, Ribet,
Salvageot, Vinay, Bounous, Clot, Garrou, Ghigo, Perrou, Rostan,
Salvaggio, Soulier, Verreaut, and so on.
Their lot was hard for the first few years. Their land was not very
fertile—in fact it was charged that they had been set down “on the
bleak scrub pine hills of nowhere.” It was rumored that the whole
group was about to leave. They had at first organized themselves under
the name of the Valdese Corporation, a sort of communal arrange-
ment, whose duty it was to provide for the economic development
of the community. When they soon found that they were unable to
pay the $25,000 for the 10,000 acres of land, the land company allowed
them to reduce their holdings to 5,000. The people of Morganton and
elsewhere were very helpful and considerate in every way possible,
and people generally tried to make these “strange people in a strange
land” feel at home. An old retired ship captain, Murdoch W. Wiley,
176 Joun Exxis CouLTer
who was spending the winter and spring of 1893-1894 at the Connelly
Springs Hotel, for exercise and curiosity used to walk up the railway
track frequently to see the Waldensians.
Coulter soon had dealings with them, selling them lumber for their
houses, fertilizers for their crops, and much merchandise from his
store, which the Waldensians used as a sort of wholesale supply house
for their company store in Valdese. This store for a time was run
by Hippolyte Salvageot, who bought from Coulter sacks of coffee,
barrels of sugar, and much salt, smoking tobacco (most of the
Waldensians were great pipe smokers), meat, rice, peas, kerosene oil,
and much else to supply the needs and wants of his customers.
Salvageot later became postmaster and depot agent at Valdese and
remained a fast friend and customer of Coulter’s as long as he lived.
Salvageot was the first Waldensian to become a United States citizen.
He spoke excellent English, having learned the language, it was said,
from an English general who had made Salvageot his aide. He had
lived in England and France from 1861 to 1877. He came to Valdese
in November, 1893 and died there in 1926.
John Meier was a Swiss, born in the mountains across from Italy,
who was superintendent of a hosiery mill in Charlotte when the
Waldensians settled in Valdese. Dr. Matteo Prochet, important in the
Waldensian Church in Italy and twice knighted by King Humbert,
was on a visit to Valdese in 1894 and sensing the need of some industry
for these people, induced Meier to come to Valdese and set up a
hosiery mill. Meier was given the use of an old barn to house his
machinery and at the end of five years the building and lot were to be
deeded to him. He was to pay good wages and hire only Waldensians.
Meier came, set up the mill, and was given a prominent place in the
affairs of the community, succeeding Salvageot as manager of the
company store. The Valdese Hosiery Mill now advertised itself as
“Manufacturers of Misses’ Rib Cut Hose and Gents’ Half Hose.” He
immediately began buying from Coulter lumber and merchandise,
running up a large debt. Soon he was prospering neither with his mill
nor with the Waldensians. He was accused of bringing in old second-
hand machinery and of paying low wages. At first threatening to
transfer his mill to Hickory, he soon moved it to Newton, and not
long thereafter he was in South Carolina trying to make a go of the
hosiery business, and promising to pay Coulter what he owed him.
In 1897 he was running a mill in Manning, and in acknowledging a
polite reminder of this debt, Meier noted, “Trusting you wont claim
the earth and leaving a few inches for me and the Democratic party
to stand on... .” In 1899, from Blackville, he wrote Coulter that he
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON ia
would like to be back in Valdese, and added “There is money in the
hosiery business but it takes money to get started.” Meier and the
Coulter debt finally disappeared in the broad reaches of Texas.
Though Meier could be written off by Coulter as a liability he was
not so with the Waldensians, for however much they might have
disliked him, he had planted an important idea in the minds of
Waldensian leaders- especially the Garrou brothers, who had learned
the hosiery business under Meier. The Garrous began anew the manu-
facture of hosiery in Valdese, which added to by others, brought
growth, wealth, and fame to the village.
Coulter had business dealings with many of the Waldensians and
made slight investments in some of their enterprises. He sold much
building material to the Reverend Barth. Soulier, pastor of the
Waldensian congregation from 1894 to 1900, who was supervising
the building of their church structure. Peter Tron (April 21, 1854-
June 19, 1925), the Garrous, Francis Ghigo, and the Refours (John,
Sr., John, Jr., and Frank) were good friends of Coulter’s. With these
and others he had pleasant Business relations including (to mention
a few): Peter E. Micol (August 11, 1853-January 24, "1946)s Jaubert
Micol, Fred Meytre, John Henry Pascal (June 14, 1861-June 23, 1954),
Julius Pascal (1881-1944), Philip Pascal (April 7, 1861-November 5,
1932), Albert Pons (November 10, 1857-April 7, 1940), John H. Pons
(1863-1940), John Jacumin, Felix Bounous, Fred Peyronel, and Henry
Vinay.
The Waldensians were superb rock masons. With their trowels and
rock hammers they could make a beautiful smooth wall, using the
roughest unhewn rocks—an excellent example of their work being
the Waldensian church structure. Coulter used them dauasionally
in building walls on his farms. A fame more widely spread came from
the excellent wine they made. This skill they brought from “the old
country”; and the rocky hills around Valdese offered no problem in
setting out their vineyards, in comparison with what they had con-
quered on the steep slopes of the vailevs of the Alps. Some of the
prohibitionists frowned on these Waldensian winemakers and their
wines. To curry favor with the Rutherford College authorities, who
strictly forbade their students to drink Valdese wine (so easily ob-
tained), the Waldensians agreed to refuse all sales to the students.
Students tried to disguise themselves, arguing that thev had come
“from across the mountains”; but as they had often hired Lank Estes’
mule to ride, the Waldensians had become familiar with the animal,
and their answer became celebrated: “No wine, no wine—Estes’ mule.”
Westward up the railway about seven miles beyond Valdese lay
178 JouN Exits CouLTER
Morganton, the county seat of law and government. As already
mentioned, Morganton had got started about Revolutionary War times
and was incorporated the year the Treaty of Independence was
signed with the British—-1783. Naturally Coulter became much more
closely identified with Morganton than with Hickory and Newton,
towns in Catawba County, where practically all of his and his wife’s
kindred lived. Deeds and mortgages must be recorded in the court-
house in Morganton and actions in court had to be brought there;
and politics was made up there, too. So Coulter made frequent trips
to Morganton, especially so after he became a member of the County
Board of Education; and he came to know most all the people of
much importance in the town. The county newspaper was published
there—sometimes more than one. On November 29, 1901 the Burke
County News and the Morganton Herald consolidated into The
News-Herald. A few years later the Morganton Messenger began
publication, but did not last very long. T. G. Cobb became editor
and owner of the News-Herald, and after his death, his daughter
Beatrice Cobb, ran the paper until her death in 1959. Both were long-
time friends of Coulter.
A Morganton “celebrity” whom Coulter never knew but about
whom he heard much was Sally Michael and her smoking pipes. She
did not live “exactly” in Morganton but she visited the town constantly
until her death in 1870, peddling her pipes, at 25¢ a dozen. Her home
was far in the recesses of the South Mountains, in Kaylor’s Gap, be-
tween Kaylor’s Knob and Burkmont. She made her pipes of gritless
clay which she got from the banks of Silver Creek. They absorbed
nicotine, could be burned out, were hard to break, and would last a
lifetime and more. A person in Morganton in 1892 had one which he
had been smoking for 28 years. The Sally Michael pipe was said to be
“the finest clay pipe made in America” and it seems that these pipes be-
came a favorite of Confederate soldiers. After Sally’s death a daughter
made the pipes until her death; and in 1947 the pipes were still being
made, now by a grandson of Sally’s.
In the little tobacco kingdom of Morganton and regions beyond,
the name Sally Michael stood at the top. So why should there not be
“Sally Michael” tobacco to be smoked in Sally Michael pipes or in
any other pipes? Indeed, in 1891 (or possibly before) there was
organized the Sally Michael Tobacco Company, which began turning
out “‘a fine brand of smoking tobacco,” destined to be one of the most
popular brands in the state—so the company predicted. Before the end
of the year, J. C. and Manly McDowell (famed as a Burke County
sheriff) bought the company and planned to put new machinery in
RUTHERFORD CoLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MorGANTON 179
the factory and to engage on an extensive advertising campaign:
“The packages will be adorned with handsome lithographed labels
representing the original Sally Michael, smoking one of her famous
Pipes filled with Burke County golden leaf.” Within a year or two
the tobacco was being heralded as a favorite of a “German count,”
who was importing it into the Kaiser’s empire for enjoying it in his
own pipe and presenting it to some of his friends. When last heard of,
the company was being run by Ralph and Fred Laxton.
Probably the most beloved man of his day and generation was
Charles Finley McKesson (“Charlie”), who always referred to Coulter
as “My good friend,” with whom Coulter had business dealings to
the extent at least of having bought a calf from him. Charlie was born
in the famous Quaker Meadows community above Morganton, on
March 14, 1849. In 1865 he entered the University of North Carolina
and remained three years. The next year he transferred to the Univer-
sity of Virginia, where he received the Bachelor of Arts degree in
1869. He was a journalist, a lecturer, a United States Commissioner,
a clerk in governmental service in Washington, and an orator par
excellence. He could display his emotions and capture the emotions
of his hearers in whatever cause he was advocating—and sometimes
in the prohibition campaign of 1908 to free North Carolina from
“King Alcohol,” he could cry like a baby in depicting his reform
from his “wild days.” He had been rescued by Evangelist W. P. Fife
in 1891 and for a time he became a sort of evangelist himself. One of
his lectures was “The Poets and Poetry of the Bible,” but his most
famous was “Paul at Athens.” There were few schools, churches,
colleges, and clubs in Western North Carolina which did not invite
him to give this famous lecture. Charlie drifted off into the Fusionist-
Republican camps in 1898, which brought him Republican plums,
but when he died in 1918, if he had not returned to the Democracy,
he was loved as much as if he had.
Another person who probably did not consider himself a Morgan-
tonian, but who was well known there and was a friend of Coulter’s,
was Colonel Marcellus E. Thornton. He was born in Georgia but
became a sort of cosmopolite within bounds, a speculator in lands,
and a dreamer of great things to be done. He seems first to have
become associated with the Morganton communitv by developing
a place a few miles above the town which was called Bridgewater,
in the midst of a great tract of his land. Soon he became interested
in coal mining in southeastern Kentucky near a small village called
Kensee, where he became postmaster. In 1892 he sold a half interest
in his $500,000 coal mine there, but continued in the presidency of
180 Joun Exris CouLTer
a $2,000,000 coal company nearby at Jellico Creek. At this time he
was preparing to return to start “building up Bridgewater.” He later
became editor of the Press and Carolinian, a Hickory newspaper, and
developed business interests there.
For more than a quarter century Tom Loudermilk was Morganton’s
weather prophet, whose predictions were regularly published in the
county newspaper and eagerly read by the Coulter family (with some
reservations as to their reliability) and by almost everybody else.
These weather predictions were religiously relied upon by some
people. In 1891 the editor of the Herald humorously charged that
Loudermilk had been responsible for the siege of bad weather that had
been going on. Loudermilk denied the charges, but the editor insisted
that Tom was “generally supposed to approve of it” and that it was
“very certain that we had no such weather before he went into the
prophesying business.” A 1o-inch snow fell in Burke in March of
1894. When Loudermilk sent in his predictions, the editor could not
make out whether Tom had predicted eight or nine snows for the rest
of the year. The editor inferred that Tom “and the groundhog are
still in the ring and that it is their joint opinion that we will have
eight or nine more snows.”
Another “character” of the Morganton vicinity, who lived out
four miles to the northwest was Uncle Jimmy Winters, 79 years old
in 1910, who had been walking to town for the past 50 years, selling
his baskets, made of whiteoak splits. It would be a safe guess that
Coulter bought a few of them.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, there were few
people in Burke County who had not seen or heard of J. Arthur
Wainwright, a tall, ruddy-faced Yankee, with a sandy beard and head
of hair, together with a few eccentricities. He had come to the
mountain region south of Morganton in search of gold, but instead
had found a mountain maid whom he liked better than the shining
metal. Captivated by the maid and by the mountains, too, he decided
to stay. At one time he had practiced law in Northampton, Massa-
chusetts, and had become a friend of Calvin Coolidge. Also he had
acquaintances among several other prominent men of the North. He
made a large collection of postage stamps and autographs. When the
Farmers’ Union developed in North Carolina, Wainwright became
important in that movement, and it was in that connection that
Coulter became associated with J. Arthur Wainwright.
Coulter himself never caught the gold fever in any form, but in
some of his Morganton dealings, he did come into possession of one
of the famous “Bechtler dollars,” made of gold. Christopher Bechtler
RUTHERFORD COLLEGE, VALDESE, AND MORGANTON i181
was a German assayer, who set up a mint in Rutherfordton, about
30 miles south of Morganton, and began coining in 1834 gold dollars.
He coined also $2.50 and $5.00 gold pieces. They later came to be
prized possessions, and Coulter prized his coin highly. But carelessly
one time letting it get mixed with his pocket coins, he gave it away
in change as a one-cent piece. He was never able to recover the coin
or to find out to whom he had given it; but many times thereafter
he regretted losing it.
CHaptrer XIII
POLITICS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
OULTER became interested in politics when as a lad he heard
his father and neighbors talk about Radical rascalities during the
Reconstruction period; and finally when President Rutherford B.
Hayes withdrew Federal occupying troops from the South in 1877,
Coulter was old enough to be keeping up with the times, for he was
then 16 years old. As has already appeared he became active in
politics when he moved to the “Nation.”
His moving to Connelly Springs from Catawba County, the “Banner
Democratic County of the State,” was a welcome addition to the
Burke Democracy and was regretted by the Catawba Democracy.
Burke needed support for her Democracy, for there was a strong
Republican element in the county. Republicans soon learned that
politically he neither slept nor slumbered. A squib in the Morganton
News-Herald in 1903 said that when John Ellis Coulter and John
Houk came to town, “They sit together on the street, one scribbling,
the other watching in silent approval, eyed with an intense interest
by the Republican lights, for these two ‘unterrified’ have been a
source of uneasiness to the enemy so long they are not sure what’s
going to happen, even in an off year, when Ellis and John are seen
together.”
Politics began at the door-step, or at the grass roots, as the idea
was later expressed. So it was, then, Coulter’s interest and activities
began with the precinct, and extended on up through the township,
the county, the Congressional district, the state, and to the nation.
In 1898 he was chairman of the Lovelady Township Democratic Con-
vention, which met at Valdese. He was elected a2 member of the
Executive Committee and sent as one of four delegates to the County
Convention in Morganton. There he played a prominent part, being
[ 182 ]
Pouitics AND Law ENFoRCEMENT 183
elected to various committees, including the County Executive Com-
muttee. Also he was sent as a delegate to the State Democratic Con-
vention in Raleigh. On his return he gave “quite a graphic account”
of the activities of that convention. For years he was a member of the
Lovelady Township Executive Committee, and frequently chairman,
Generally he was on important county committees and often a delegate
to various conventions. In 1916 he was chairman of the Lovelady com-
mittee with these members on the committee: J. D. Cassels, A. L.
Lefevers, and B. L. Lunsford from Rutherford College; Francis Garrou
and J. M. Brinkley from Valdese; and J. C. McGalliard and H. C.
Goode from Connelly Springs. In 1900 he was elected permanent
chairman of the County Convention, meeting in Morganton. Since
the Negro had cast his shadow over politics in the Fusion times
of the late 1890's, this convention determined to form “White Su-
premacy” clubs; but a little later it was decided to broaden the name
and activities of such clubs and in the light of the national campaign
to rename them “Bryan and Stephenson” clubs—William J. Bryan and
Adlai E. Stephenson (1835-1914) being the Democratic nominees for
president and vice president, respectively, This year Coulter was on
the County Board of Elections and was made secretary. Among the
duties of this Board were the appointment of registrars and judges
of elections in the various precincts and fixing the size and color of
the ballots.
Now and then he served as Tax Assessor of Lovelady Township
and in 1912 he was being prominently mentioned as the Democratic
candidate for the state legislature; but he had no ambition for public
office and in this instance as in others he refused to let his name
come up for nomination.
Coulter’s political activities were equally evident in state nomina-
tions and elections; and often his support was solicited. In 1924
Robert R. Reynolds of Asheville in his campaign for nomination
to the lieutenant governorship hoped that Coulter would help swing
Burke County his way. In 1908 Coulter attended the Democratic
State Convention in Charlotte and voted to nominate William W.
Kitchin for governor. T. W. Bickett was Coulter’s choice for governor
in 1916, and when Bickett spoke in Morganton, Coulter introduced
him. Bickett wrote him, “You did nobly and I shall not forget it.
Your introduction of me was an inspiration all through the cam-
paign.” In 1920 Coulter was a Cameron Morrison supporter. Morrison
wrote him thanking him for “all the splendid work you did for me
in the recent fight. I am very proud of my vote in your section, and
I hope you will thank as many of my friends for me as you can.”
184 Joun Evtis CouLTEeR
Coulter used all legitimate ways to bring in the votes, whether it
was transporting good Democrats to the polls in his car—as in 1928
when he “Brought in last two votes”—or using arguments on Republi-
cans and lukewarm Democrats. One of his former workmen asked him
for help to get a job with a Mr. Mull, stating that he would have
written directly to Mull but “dident now his nitchels [initials].” He
added that if Coulter would help him get the job, “I will pay you for
your truble and might vote in the next Election what you call right.”
In the national picture, as often as William Jennings Bryan ran for
the presidency Coulter supported him, naming one of his children
Bryan, just before the election in 1896. During this campaign Bryan
spoke in Hickory. Coulter was on a special committee for Lovelady
Township to see that the news was spread—“See that it is known
on every hearthstone.” Coulter, no less than Bryan, was a great be-
liever in the free coinage of silver as the remedy for most of the
country’s ills. One of his business correspondents banteringly wrote
him, “How is your free silver—the Populists etc.P” A Hickory friend
sent him “a button marked 16 to 1 with candidates of which I trust
you approve, and will wear during the coming campaign.” Coulter
was an enthusiastic Woodrow Wilson supporter in 1912, coming out
early for his nomination. He was in charge of the “Lovelady-for-
Wilson” activities in his township. In 1928 he was one of the un-
terrified Democrats who voted for Alfred E. Smith, and he used his
car all day to bring in the voters; but Burke as well as the whole
state went Republican.
Coulter was a long-time supporter of the two North Carolina
Senators, F. M. Simmons and Lee S. Overman. He wrote them fre-
quently commending them for their positions on national issues—
seldom disagreeing. In 1914 he wrote to Senator Overman his strong
approval of a bill the Senator had introduced “providing for the
collection and distribution among Confederate soldiers of the $65,-
000,000 of tax money illegally collected from the people of the
South.” In asking for his continued support Overman wrote Coulter
in 1907, “I write to you as one of the foremost Democrats of Burke,
one who has shown unselfish interest in the welfare of the party, to
enlist your support and influence in behalf of my endorsement and
re-election, provided you think I have been true to the trust imposed
upon me by the party of the State.”
Coulter supported Simmons against Julian S. Carr in 1900; and in
1912 he preferred Simmons to Walter Clark and W. W. Kitchin, who
were seeking the nomination. And although Coulter had been much
closer personally to Simmons than to Overman, he finally fell out
Poiitics AND Law ENFORCEMENT 185
with Simmons over the tariff and other issues, and in 1928 he called
Simmons the “Arch Traitor to his State.”
Among the issues which were of both state and national im-
portance, toward which Coulter took a prominent public attitude
were woman suffrage and prohibition. He was in favor of both, but
almost emotionally so on prohibition. The prohibition issue was
uppermost in North Carolina politics in 1908. Coulter circulated
a prohibition petition around Connelly Springs and got 61 signatures,
his name heading the list. The Anti-Saloon League, a which he was
a member, held a mass meeting in Morganton, at which he was called
to the chair. Charlie \{cKesson made an impassioned speech in which
he told how liquor had got him down in one stage of his life, and how
he had reformed. ‘The meeting organized every township in the
county by appointing for each a vice president and two committee-
men. Coulter was the vice president for Lovelady; J. D. Cassels and
A. L. Lefevers were the two committeemen.
In this campaign Coulter did more than buttonhole individuals. For
a year or two previously he had been attending prohibition meetings
and writing for newspapers arguments against * liquor. Ella Wheelor
Wilcox’s poem against strong drial was coming into play. The poem
began:
There sat two glasses, filled to the brim,
On a rich man’s table, rim to rim,
One was ruddy and red as blood
And one was clear as the crystal flood.
Though Coulter was no orator and never attempted oratorical
Fourishes he stuck to facts and made convincing speeches. One of his
frequent quotations was “Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging.”
He would say “Whiskey wont let you alone even if you do gy it
alone.” It increased crimes and taxes and broke up homes. “Nobody
wants a drunkard’s service—not even the saloon man.” “I don’t drink,
yet it has mocked me & burdened me with tax.” Some people say you
“Cant legislate sobriety & Christianity by law; neither can you legis-
late honesty, etc.” He made a speech i in Startown, the old community
of Catawba County where he was born and grew up, addressing his
audience “Ladies and Gentlemen, Sons and Daughters of Catawba
County, my old Schoolmates, my Neighbors, and my Kinsmen.” So
effective was that speech that one of his hearers in complimenting
him, said that he knew one man, a drunkard, who was converted by
it. More than a half century afterwards a man who as a boy had heard
the speech, remembered this passage in it: “I finally could not resist
186 JoHNn ELiis CouLTER
the desire to come & am here—a Crank so called but a Crank js not
the worst thing, as Cranks turn things. ...”
The election was held in May and North Carolina voted dry, the
first Southern state to adopt prohibition by a popular vote. The
majority in Burke was 693. Also Lovelady Township voted dry, the
tally being: 53 wet, 162 dry. Eternal vigilance being the price of
victory, the Anti-Saloon League continued as an active organization.
In 1922 Coulter subscribed aid for it to the amount of $6.00 a year
for five years. The need for continuing the campaign for prohibition
was suggested in a letter from Professor Zeb Vance Babbit,
“Phrenologist, Palmist, and Mind Reader,” ordering a pig from
Coulter: “I am a sort of jack leg lawyer, and I am very busy getting
people out of trouble who have broke the Democratic prohibition
law.”
Coulter was not entirely unknown to the whiskey distillers and
wholesale liquor dealers in various parts of the nation, since he had for
some years past been buying their empty barrels in which to store
his grain--especially peas. Also he had bought com from R. H. Dorn,
“Dealer in Hops and Malt and Distillers Agent.” One businessman
from whom Coulter bought empty barrels advertised himself as
“Distiller, Wholesale Liquor Dealer and Rectifier. I only deal in
PURE NORTH CAROLINA WHISKIES and BRANDY, made by
open furnace heat, being the best process known for Purity and Flavor.
I manufacture the celebrated ‘LAUREL VALLEY OLD CORN’ and
RYE WHISKIES.” Other famous brands of whiskey made in North
Carolina before prohibition were: “Old Watauga,’ “Mountain
Queen,” “Roaring River,” “Turkey Mountain,” and “Pride of North
Carolina.”
Before prohibition (“B. P.” facetiously abbreviated) a Virginia
distiller had offered Coulter whiskey at $1.25 a gallon; and during
the hot campaign of 1908 a Louisville, Kentucky distiller had Coulter
on its list to receive “advertising literature,” informing all that
whiskey, especially “Four Roses” “means peace, happiness and length
of days for you.” It quoted William E. Gladstone as having said on
the receipt of a consignment of this brand: “The best men in the
world and the worst drink whiskey,” and the Louisville distiller said
Gladstone might well have added “that the best men drink the best
whiskey and the worst men the worst.”
All of this whiskey literature Coulter might have considered in-
sulting, but probably he paid no attention to it. But in 1909, when
North Carolina was dry, attention was called to a new problem
when such whiskey advertisements as the following were being sent
Poxitics anD Law ENFoRcEMENT 187
out by an Ohio liquor company to North Carolinians: Four quarts of
“Private Stock” for $3.00 express paid or eight full quarts of “Old
Rock and Rye” for only $5.00. E. Yates Webb, Coulter’s Congressman
and a close friend, probably needed no prodding to get a law passed
which would put a stop to this inter-state shipment of liquor into a
dry state. At least in 1913 the Webb-Kenyon law was passed which
forbade this flourishing business.
Throughout his lifetime Coulter subscribed for more than two
dozen newspapers—political, religious, agricultural, literary—and some
simply for the news and others for light entertainment. In the 1890's
he subscribed for the New York World for its pure Democracy and he
induced many of his friends to take this paper; and for the same
reason he took the National Watchman published in Washington and
the Silver Knight-Watchman, published in the same place; but for
downright loyalty to Bryan and what he stood for, Coulter for
years took The Commoner. For politics and county news he subscribed
for the News-Herald from the time the paper was so called and before
that time he took the two which made it up; and for some years he
had the paper sent to all his children, scattered from Washington,
D. C. to Texas and Peru. He cut his teeth on the Newton Enterprise
and for the news from his old home Catawba County he took this
paper and the Catawba County News (a rival paper in Newton) and
when they combined into the Catawba News-Enterprise, he continued
to take this paper into his old age. Finally when he was in his middle
seventies he paid for only three months more, intimating that he
would then let it stop, “as I am getting more papers and magazines
than I can read.” He added, “As I have taken the papers so long
I do hate to give it up, and I will especially miss your editorials, but
I am not far from the time that I will cancel all earthly ties.” (This
was a familiar chord Coulter had been striking on occasion since he
was forty. He was yet to live ten years). This so touched the editor’s
heart that he sent his compliments and made Coulter a present of a
year’s subscription. Also Coulter took the Hickory Democrat for a
time, but it did not become a favorite like the Newton papers.
For general state news he early began taking the Raleigh News and
Observer, Josephus Daniels’ paper, and in 1895 he named a son
Daniels. He especially wanted this paper during the sittings of the
legislature. Also he took the North Carolinian, another Daniels paper,
and the Raleigh Farmer and Mechanic. He switched around some in
taking papers for state news—the Charlotte Observer, the Asheville
Citizen, the Greensboro Daily News, the Winston-Salem Journal,
and for news of Tennessee, the Knoxville Sentinel. For some years he
188 JoHNn ELtis CouLTER
took the Atlanta Constitution for a little broader news coverage. Our
Church Paper, a Lutheran paper, was long a visitor in his home as
well as the Lutheran Witness and the Catawba Lutheran. To serve
his agricultural interests he subscribed for the Practical Farmer
(Philadelphia), the Progressive Farmer, and the Southern Ruralist
(Atlanta). For sensationalism nothing equalled W. D. Boyce’s Chicago
Ledger and Saturday Blade. During the last decade or two of his
life he took the Pathfinder and the Hickory Daily Record for steady
and consistent reading.
The Grit (Williamsport, Pa.) was a paper that appealed to many
people around Connelly Springs, some of them probably reading no
other paper. Coulter for years acted as a sort of agent for this paper,
receiving it in bundles which he dispensed from his office. Finally
in 1938 he gave up this little visitor which had been bringing many
other visitors to his office. The Grit publishers expressed their sorrow
in his quitting: “You have been with us for a long time and it cer-
tainly has been splendid the way you have conducted the work.”
‘They made him a present of a free copy for the next six months.
As an officer of the law, Coulter served in two capacities: Notary
Public and Justice of the Peace. To the position of Notary Public
he was appointed by the governor for terms of two years. He held
this commission for most of his adult life. The duties of a Notary
Public were to certify powers of attorney, mortages, deeds, and
other instruments of writing, to take depositions and affidavits, and
to administer oaths.
The duties of a Justice of the Peace were much more onerous and
engaging. Coulter first became a Justice of the Peace in 1896 and his
last election was for a six-year term in 1941, and although he lived
out this term he was inactive. This last election (it was done by the
legislature) was more of an honor than a call to active service, for
Coulter had ceased to perform the duties of the position by 1938.
In preparing for the duties of this office Coulter secured two books
on the subject: North Carolina Hand Book: A Guide for Justices
of the Peace, Clerks, Sheriffs, Registers, Coroners, Constables, and
other County Officers, Including the Laws, Forms and Precedents.
This book was written “By a Member of the Raleigh Bar” and was
published in 1878. The other book was written by Robert W. Win-
ston and was entitled Talks about Law wherein such Legal Principles
are Treated in a Manner within the Reach of the Average Mind.
Coulter wrote in his copy that he had bought the book on September
30, 1897. Often he sought information on certain points that came up
in his Justice of the Peace work, from lawyers: Gus Self of Hickory,
Poritics AND Law ENFORCEMENT 189
and John M. Mull, P. W. Patton, A. C. Avery, Sr., J. F. Spainhour,
and S. J. Ervin, Sr., of Morganton.
The jurisdiction af a Justice of the Peace extended to both civil
and criminal cases. In civil cases he could not try a suit involving
the title to real estate; nor suits where the sum demanded was more
than $200. In criminal cases he could not levy a fine of more than
$50.00 nor more than 30 days in jail—and he could not use both
punishments in the same case. His jurisdiction extended to all assault
and battery cases where no deadly weapons were used and no serious
damage done. Also a Justice of the Peace might perform marriages,
issue summonses and warrants for arrest, and engage in other small
services, such as deputizing any citizen to serve warrants. Now and
then cases which might begin in a Justice of the Peace Court would
bring out facts making it necessary to send them up to the Superior
Court for trial. All Fraps were sent to the Clerk of the Superior
Court who turned them over to the Board of Education. If any person
had good reason to believe that he could not get a fair trial under a
certain Justice of the Peace he could have the case removed to another
Justice. But when an attempt was made to have a case removed from
Coulter’s court when he was acting in the capacity of Mayor of
Connelly Springs, it was shown that such removal was not permissible.
If in some important or complicated case a Justice of the Peace should
like aid, he could call in another Justice to sit with him; but the de-
cision must be entirely in the hands of the original Justice. The
multiplicity of legal blanks and forms necessary or all contingencies
sometimes left a Justice of the Peace unsupplied; and in such an in-
stance, he would borrow from another Justice. Coulter kept large
packs of all these forms; he had Harrell’s Printing House cf Weldon
to print them for him.
Coulter never attempted to develop the marrying business; but he
was always ready to perform the ceremony, which sometimes took
place in the parlor of his home. He never made a charge, but, of
course, would accept a fee if offered. In one instance He was given
a “free will offering” of 5¢, which was seriously made and which he
seriously accepted.
Civil cases which Coulter tried generally related to the collection
of board bills, physicians’ bills, store accounts, and payment for goods
sent on consignment.
Most of the cases which came before Coulter were crimimal. There
was a seduction case; abandonment (bound over to Superior Court
under $200 bond); wife beating ($250 peace bond for 3 years),
adultery (bound over to Superior Court); bastardy cases ($200 to the
190 Joun Exttis CouLtER
woman and $10.00 to the state; $40.00 to the woman and $1.00 to the
state; $50.00 to the woman; and so on, varying with the circum-
stances).
For disturbing public worship at Shady Grove Church, Coulter
placed the disturber under a $100 bond and bound him over to the
Superior Court. In another case he fined two disturbers of public
worship a total of $20.00. Two people broke into Friendship Metho-
dist Church; Coulter fined one $5.0o—the other fled the state. Coulter
fined two people $10.00 each for breaking into a schoolhouse, making
obscene drawings on the blackboard, and hiding the school bell. Three
boys decided to annoy guests at the Connelly Springs Hotel by
“loud cursing, swearing, shooting & hollowing.” He fined each $5.00.
A person who disturbed a Baptist baptising was bound over to the
Superior Court.
Now and then liquor cases came before Coulter. A bootlegger was
bound over to the Superior Court after the confiscation of eight
gallons of “white lighting” and a horse and buggy. Another was
bound over under a $200 bond. For a drunken disturbance Coulter
fined a person $3.00 and costs. For making liquor another was bound
over under a $400 bond.
Those who were cruel to animals got short shrift in Coulter’s
court. A person who ran “his mules, cursed & swore & by his
boisterous & unbecoming conduct became a nuisance” was fined $5.00
and costs, and on his refusal to pay, was sent to jail where he re-
mained ten days until he decided to change his mind. For shooting
and killing a hound dog another person was fined $2.00 and costs of
$5.20. A person who did not know about the Audubon Law, shot
and killed a brown thrasher. Coulter gave him the minimum fine
of $1.00.
The railroad passing through Connelly Springs was not above
the even justice of the law. Nat Reid in charge of a train that blocked
the road crossing for 20 minutes was fined 1¢ and costs of $2.10.
Coulter here tempered justice with mercy, for a drawhead had
broken on one of the cars and while it was being fixed the train
could not move. Another trainman was fined $5.00 and costs of $1.25
for blocking a crossing; Coulter gave him a larger fine because of his
insulting language to George A. Hauss. Even-handed justice was also
a protector of the railroad. A person who broke into a railroad box-
car and stole “several cans of salmonds” was, in the absence of making
bond, sent to jail to await trial in the Superior Court. “Swinging
trains” was strictly against the peace and dignity of Connelly Springs,
and to prove it Coulter fined two boys $1.00 each and costs.
Poxitics anD Law ENFORCEMENT 191
More fighting cases than any other variety came before Coulter's
court. Two friends slightly inebriated got into a litle scuffle. They
were brought before Coulter's court, and as they were now arm-in-
arm friends better than ever before, Coulter fined them a total of
1¢ and costs, and he dutifully sent the 1¢ fine on to the Clerk of the
Superior Court. “Friendly fights” got to be quite common and in every
such instance Coulter fined the participants a total of 1¢ and costs.
Two brothers got into a fight which did not appear to be friendly.
The brother who started the fight was fined $5.00 and costs. This
same brother appeared before Coulter’s court in two other cases of
light assault and in each instance drew a fine of $1.00 and costs. For
hitting a Negro over the head with his fist and kicking him twice, a
person was fined 1¢ and costs. In another instance with less provoca-
tion a person was fined so¢ for kicking another person twice. Coulter
bound over to the Superior Court under a $300 bond a person for
shooting into an automobile parked on the streets of Connelly
Springs. A person who was carrying a pistol wrapped up in a silk
handkerchief, was bound over to the Superior Court under a $100
bond. Two persons broke into a third person’s house and stole a suit
of clothes and a pair of shoes, which they tried to sell, but being
unsuccessful they took the stolen property back and laid it down
in a road near the house. Unable to provide a $200 bond they were
sent to jail to await trial in Superior Court. An unusual case as well
as an unusual fine related to a person who attempted to prevent
another person from passing along a public highway. Coulter fined
the culprit $50.00 and costs, but the fine was to be withheld on condi-
tion that he “attend Sunday School, preaching, prayer meeting League
or B.Y.P.U. every Sunday for 12 months.”
In communities where Negroes made up a considerable part of the
population, they made up even a bigger part of court cases. No
Negroes lived within the limits of Connelly Springs, but to the north-
ward in their little settlement they made judicial grist for Coulter’s
judicial mill. In 1910 Salina Johnson swore out a warrant against
her husband Ed, saying that he beat and abused in an inhuman manner
herself and her little daughter Anne, beating Anne with a dogwood
stick and using a strap on Salina. No record of the trial was found,
if, indeed, one was ever held—no doubt being dismissed as just a
little family quarrel, so common among the colored folk.
But the next time Ed Johnson got into trouble it was more than a
little family quarrel. It all had to do with a cup of coffee. The
dramatis personae were the following: Ed Johnson, the head of the
household and principal actor; Salina, his wife; Lou, his mother;
192 Joun Exxis CouLtrer
Charlie, his brother; and Ada, his sister. Scene I, Ed’s house and
yard; Scene IJ, Justice Coulter’s court room. Scene I, Act I begins
peaceably enough: Salina asks Ed whether he wants a cup of coffee
or a cup of tea. Ed paying no attention to her question makes no
answer, whereupon Salina makes him a cup of tea. But it turned out
that it was a cup of coffee that Ed wanted. Scene I, Act II begins
with Ed going into action. He gives Salina five or six good licks
and knocks her across the bed with the fire shovel. Next he begins
on his dear old mother Lou; he knocks her down and kicks her out
into the yard and hurts her back. Apparently Charlie closed his eyes
to some of this high drama and discreetly stayed on the sidelines; but
he saw enough to testify in Coulter’s court. Scene I, Act I begins in
Coulter's courtroom. After hearing all the evidence, Justice Coulter
declares Ed guilty of levying unprovoked warfare against his family
and kindred, and fines him $10.00 and costs amounting to $7.50. Scene
II, Act II begins with the warring tribe in the face of the law,
coalescing according to their ancient African heritage. Ed has no
money, so he can make no contribution to keeping himself out of jail.
Salina is able to raise 95¢; Charlie locates 55¢ in his pocket; Lou having
nothing is able to raise a loan of $1.95 from the audience and to
mortgage her organ for the rest. Exeunt omnia and Ed goes free.
In another case, Willis Ervin, Coulter’s favorite Negro workman,
was charged by his wife Martha with beating her. The evidence was
sufficient with the testimony of Martha and her three daughters,
Harriet, Lizzie, and Dora, for Justice Coulter to fine Willis $3.00
and costs, “it being a free for all fight . . . in which all willingly en-
gaged but in which no deadly weapon was used or serious damage
done but that the father was arbitrary & while it was a frivolous case,”
judgment must be rendered.
An attempted rape by one Negro upon another led Coulter to
bind over to the Superior Court the would-be raptist and place him
under a $500 bond. Unable to make bond the Negro was placed in
jail to await trial. In 1904 Bill Quickle greatly disturbed public wor-
ship at Israel’s Chapel, a Negro Methodist church, by “cursing, swear-
ing, firing his pistol a number of times” and by other loud noises.
Justice Coulter fined him $20.00 and costs. Being unable to raise the
money, Bill was sent to jail. The witnesses in this case were all
Negroes, as was the culprit. They were Sam Jenkins, Linn Misher,
George Johnson, Willis Ervin, Mon Reese, and I. M. Dooley. In 1899
Joe Connelly and Dood Jenkins attacked John Ervin, Willis’s old
father. Coulter fined Joe $1.00 and costs. Dood did not appear and
seemed to have fled the state.
Potitics anpD Law ENFoRCEMENT 193
These were the principal cases that came before Coulter both as to
their kind and some of their personnel. They were characteristic of
the times and did not indicate that Connelly Springs and its environs
were a more lawless region than other parts of the state.
CuaptTer XIV
EDUCATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
INCE Coulter never got beyond the old field schoolhouse in his
formal education, he early came to the determination that his
children and the other children of Burke County should not want
for educational opportunities. He often said that he would rather
leave a good education to his children than wealth, for education
was something which could neither be lost nor stolen. He acted on
this principle throughout his life.
In 1897, only a few years after coming to Connelly Springs, he
was appointed by the Burke County Board of Education to be one
of the school committeemen for Lovelady Township, Number 2.
He was made secretary of the committee. At this time Robert L.
Patton, Sr. was chairman of the Burke Board of Education and was
to continue for some years. He was the outstanding educator of Burke
County and through his success as a teacher and school administrator
he had won the love and respect of everyone who knew him or had
heard of him. An account of his life read like a sketch from a story
book. According to legend when in 1866 his father sent him out for
a load of wood, he never returned for ten years. He walked all
the way to Illinois where he started to school at Hillsboro Academy.
From there he went to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire
and on to Amherst College for four years. It was evident that educa-
tion was his passion.
But Patton had grown old in the service and the vigor of youth
had been used up, so much so that by the early 1900's he appeared
to be neglecting the rural schools. In 1907, Coulter was elected a
member of the Burke County Board of Education as a recognition
of his interest in the Burke schools. His first move was an attempt
to supplant Patton with a certain young man, also a person who had
[ 194 ]
EpucationaL, RELIcious, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 195
struggled up from the bottom—Thomas L. Sigmon. A concerted effort
had been made at this time to elect Sigmon, who lived at Rutherford
College and was mayor of the village. A petition signed with 50
names had been sent up to the Board asking for the election of Sigmon,
“a most worthy Christian Gentleman, a deacon in Connelly Springs
Baptist Church, an ardent advocate of education.” Urged on by this
petition Coulter had voted for Sigmon. The term of “office for the
superintendent was two years, and in the next election Coulter voted
for Patton, Sigmon having failed of election.
But in the meantime Cover was not neglecting the promotion of
Sigmon nor was Sigmon, himself. The two were to have a longtime
friendship—a sort of Damon and Pythias combinaiton. It seems that
the two first came to know each other and became somewhat as-~
sociated together in 1901, when Sigmon was elected to the Connelly
Springs Debating Society, which was one of Coulter’s special interests.
After Sigmon’s ‘defeat for the superintendency of the Burke schools,
Coulter began to advocate his election to the legislature. In 1908 he
wrote for the Morganton paper a long article of fulsome praise of
Tom Sigmon, ‘“‘a man who has been his own architect, who has risen
from the humblest walks of life, surmounted every obstacle and forged
his way to the front, and today stands an equal to any educator or
instructor of our boys and girls in this or any other county in the
Old North State.” In the Denrwararte convention in Morganton, held
in September, Coulter nominated Sigmon for representative in the
legislature, and although there was some effort to nominate Coulter,
he succeeded in putting Sigmon across. In the election Sigmon won.
In the meantime the movement against Superintendent Patton con-
tinued to mount. A lady from Worry had, indeed, become worried
about Patton and she wrote Coulter, now on the Board, to tell him
so. She praised Patton for the work he had done, but the Burke
schools now needed a new leader. She had for Patton a “high esteem,”
“but his days of usefulness are over, and our public sclniols are in a
deplorable condition.” At this time the Board was composed of only
three members, the other two being J. H. (“Hamp”) Giles and J. T.
McGimsey. The Coulter-Giles dinsleation of friendship was even
closer than the Coulter-Sigmon. In 1911, when Patton’s term ran
out Coulter nominated Sigmon and with Giles’s support elected him,
McGimsey voting for Patton. The Board now established the policy
that the superintendent must visit every school in the county at least
once a vear. Now for the next thirteen years Sigmon was ‘the head
of the Burke County schools and carried on his work faithfully.
‘There were people in Morganton who believed that the Board
196 Joun Exzis CouLTer
had mistreated Patton, and for this reason if no other, they opposed
Sigmon and laid their plans to get rid of him. To freeze him out
financially they got a law through the legislature, special for Burke
only, forbidding the Board of Education to pay the superintendent
more than $600 a year unless he devoted his full time to the position,
and in that case he should not receive more than $1,000. When
Coulter heard of this law he wrote to J. Y. Joyner, State Superin-
tendent of Education, complaining about such treatment of the Burke
schools. Joyner replied, July 23, 1913, explaining that this was the
first that he had heard of the law, that it had been slipped through
the legislature without coming before the Committee on Education.
He was indignant and promised to use his best efforts in getting
the law repealed—and he succeeded. Joyner pointed out that a mere
copyist in the county courthouse, “collector of taxes, and an arrester
of criminals,” received more than the law allowed the superintendent
of education. Further he said, “The shaper of the civilization of present
and future generations ought it seems to me be worth at least as
much as the keeper of dead records and the guardian of criminals.”
Failing in this effort “to get” Sigmon, his enemies secured the passage
of a law to increase the Board of Education from three to five mem-
bers; but even this move did not unseat Sigmon.
Finally in 1924 Sigmon made a mis-step, which he undoubtedly
regretted for the rest of his life, and which led him to resign. He died
in September, 1935. With Sigmon’s resignation, the Board now elected
Patton’s son, Robert L. Patton, Jr., who continued to hold the
position throughout the rest of Coulter’s tenure and years beyond.
Coulter was probably the most active member of the Board. He
constantly advocated more and better schools, increases in the salaries
of the teachers, longer school terms, and the setting up of local tax
districts. He visited many of the schools and was called upon fre-
quently to attend the school commencement exercises, to “cry sales”
at school box suppers, and to settle disputes that arose.
Over the years there were changes now and then in the personnel
of the Board. In 1915 Coulter’s good friend J. H. Giles resigned and
was succeeded by A. N. (“Ab”) Dale. In 1921 Coulter was elected
chairman of the Board. Under his chairmanship the board consisted
of A. N. Dale, J. P. Bumgarner, W. S. Butler (succeeded by Frank
Brinkley), and W. E. McConnaughey. The regular meetings of the
Board were once a month, but Coulter frequently called special
meetings. Finally in 1927 he came to the conclusion that someone
living in Morganton should be chairman and at that time he resigned
the chairmanship; but he continued on the Board as a member.
EpucationaL, RELIGIous, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 197
Coulter was not left unaware of the high esteem in which he was
held by those interested in the educational advancement of Burke
County. Maud Anthony, Rural Supervisor, wrote him in 1922, “I
wonder sometimes if there is any man in Burke County who has the
interest of education so at heart as you have, Mr. Coulter. Some day
when you are gone, everybody will see and appreciate what you have
done when it’s too late to tell you.” In 1927 Superintendent Patton
in sending out his customary Christmas greetings to the members
of the Board and thanking them for their interest in education, added
to the greetings which he sent to Coulter, “I find this especially true
in your case this year since you have given so much of your time
and energy to the little rural folks of this county and have had a
vision big enough to see the fine things to be done and have always
been considerate, even tempered and interested. You have alread
rendered a service greater than you value it to Burke County schools
in the most trying year we have had.”
In 1941 at the annual banquet of the Board, Superintendent Patton
paid tribute to Coulter and presented him with a Bible with the
following inscription:
Presented to
Mr. J. E. Coulter
by
R. L. Patton
on
the forty-fifth Anniversary
of
his service to the
boys and girls of
Burke County
as a
Member of
The Burke County Board of
Education
October 21, 1941
During the latter part of 1942 and on down into 1943 Coulter was
absent from all meetings of the Board. The minutes for March 1,
1943 noted “all members present except Mr. Coulter who has been
critically ill for some time.” And at the same meeting the following
resolution was adopted: “By unanimous consent, upon a motion by
Mr. Whisnant seconded by Mr. Carpenter, it was ordered that a
sincere vote of thanks be extended to Mr. J. E. Coulter who has
198 JouNn Exiis CouLtrer
served on this Board for a period of nearly forty years, and to Mr,
L. F. Brinkley who has served for twenty years; for their faithful
and efficient service to the children of this county. At all times and
under most trying circumstances both gentlemen have placed the
welfare of the boys and girls of this county foremost in considering
all questions relative to the development of the schools. As they retire
from the Board we wish to express our regrets upon losing them as
members, and to extend a vote of appreciation for the unselfish service
they have rendered.” To be exact, Coulter had served for 37 years.
Debating was an educational and intellectual activity in which
Coulter was greatly interested. In 1898 he was the moving spirit in
organizing the Connelly Springs Debating Society. The first meeting
of citizens interested in the movement took place on January 28th,
and on February iith the society was organized with a constitution
and by-laws: ‘““We the undersigned do declare ourselves an association
for mutual improvement in elocution and Debate, and for enlarging
our fund of general intelligence, in the pursuit of which we desire
to exhibit a due consideration for the opinions and feelings of others,
to maintain a perfect command of temper in all our intercourse, to
seek after the truth in all our exercises... .” At first the meetings
were to be every week, and this schedule was long adhered to, with
a few periods of discontinuances and reorganizations. It was still going
for at least eleven years. The officers were elected monthly, and
Coulter, who started out as Secretary-Treasurer, was generally con-
tinued in that office. Subjects for debate were suggested by any
member and then voted on by the full meeting; and besides the debate
at each meeting there were an orator and a reader, who chose their
own subjects. At least once the meeting was enlivened by the Griffin
String Band of five pieces. The president appointed two captains,
who chose their debaters—generally three on a side. There grew up
a tendency for about eight or ten men always to be chosen, meeting
after meeting, and any others who were chosen generally declined
and preferred to listen to the debates. The two captains had to agree
on which side they would debate—if no agreement could be reached
they probably tossed up a coin, or whoever had the first choice of
debater left the other captain to chose which side he would debate.
The president appointed three judges who should decide who won.
A quorum was six members.
The initiation fee was 1o¢ (later increased to 25¢) and the monthly
dues were 5¢. To come in late drew a fine of 1¢. In the winter time,
when fires were necessary, the firemaker received q¢ for each night,
and Coulter furnished the wood free.
EpucaTioNaL, RELIGIOUS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 199
Probably the most constant debater of all was Coulter, but not
far behind were George Hauss, Frank Coulter, Theo McGalliard,
Dave Lowman, and Horace Goode. For the first year A. L. Starr and
Ort Rockett were frequently in the debates. Very infrequently Ben
Abernethy and Pink Hudson participated, and occasionally Lum
Martin, Lee Hubbard, Joe and Bill Griffin, Jeff Robinson, Bob
Ennis, and Arthur Parker. The older men ran the Society and did
most of the debating, but after a year or two some of the youngsters
joined the Society and now and then got in on the debating. Alvin
Augustus Coulter (son of J. E.) was the most frequent debater of
the younger members, but also in this membership were Grover
(“Toot”) Hill, Walter Lefevers, Farrior (“Ned”) Southerland, Will
Hauss (January 14, 1890-September 15, 1928), and Marvin Hauss
(March 26, 1888-July 18, 1915).
Coulter soon became well known over the county and regions be-
yond as a person who would go almost any distance to engage in a
debate. There were debating clubs scattered widely over the country,
meeting in rural churches and schoolhouses and in convenient places
in the villages. Coulter went frequently to Big Hill and to Valdese
to engage in debates, to the Salem Methodist Church near Morganton,
and as far away as the Ebenezer Schoolhouse out from Henry in
Lincoln County. The subject he liked to debate above all others was
“Resolved that the heathen will be lost without the Gospel according
to the Scriptures.” He wore out a Bible searching for arguments prov-
ing that the heathen would be lost without the Gospel. One of his
favorite quotations was from the Psalms, 9:17, “The wicked shall be
turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” He argued that
all the nations of the earth had been preached to on the day of Pente-
cost, and that the heathen had forsaken God. Coulter had wanted to
debate this subject at the Ebenezer Schoolhouse, but the people
getting up the debate, objected and said that “it was not an approp-
riate [subject] for sinners (which most of them confessed to be) to
discuss,” and they chose the subject, “Resolved that war has been
more destructive than intemperance.” Knowing Coulter’s position on
the liquor question, they put him on the negative, feeling no doubt
that he would refuse to debate on the other side. Another person
would not debate the heathen question because he was a Missionary
Baptist, assuming that, of course, the heathen would be lost without
the Gospel—if not, why send out missionaries?
The number and variety of queries debated were great, showing
what the serious-minded people of the day thought about moral,
intellectual, national, and international subjects, which were uppermost
200 JoHN Exviis CouLTer
around the twentieth century. The first subject which the Connell
Springs Debating Society discussed was that old-time favorite, “Re-
solved that the pen is mightier than the sword.”
Testing their ability to think deep on moral and esthetic problems,
they discussed: Is nature more beautiful than art? Is anticipation
more pleasant than realization? Is the hope of reward a greater incen-
tive to human action than the fear of punishment? Should capital
punishment be abolished? Is self interest the underlying principle of
every human action? Are people the architects of their own fortunes?
Is love a stronger passion than anger? Is there more satisfaction in
hope than in memory? Is city life preferable to country life? Is instru-
mental music in churches right and proper? Does the Bible give
greater proof of a Supreme Being than nature?
Then coming down to more practical values: Is fire more destruc-
tive than water? Is gold more useful than iron? Is the horse more
valuable than the cow? Are coal mines more beneficial than gold
mines? Has the introduction of machinery been beneficial to man-
kind? Is the cotton mill more important than the sawmill?
Of course no debating society could get along without discussing
women: Is the love of women greater than the love of money? Should
women have equal rights with men? Are women more influential over
men than money? Should women be allowed to vote? Should a man
be forced to prove that he can take care of a family before he is
allowed to marry? Is married life preferable to single?
No intelligent debating society could neglect the subject of edu-
cation: Is there more power in education than in wealth? Does travel
educate more than reading? Should co-education be discontinued in
high schools and colleges? Does literary education tend toward Chris-
tianity? Is education a greater influence in forming human character
than nature and observation? Should education be compulsory?
King Alcohol and that lesser evil tobacco came in for discussion:
Should the manufacture and sale of whiskey be prohibited in the
United States? Is intemperance a greater curse than war? Is intem-
perance a greater curse to mankind than all other evils combined?
Should a farmer have the right to sell the products of his farm to a
distiller? All the Coulters in the Society (John Ellis, his son Alvin
Augustus, and his brother Frank) debated the negative side of this
question and lost. Tobacco came in for this query: Should the sale
and manufacture of tobacco be prohibited? If Frank Coulter had
debated this subject he would have, no doubt, chosen the negative
side, in the light of the fact that he got such pleasure out of “chewing
the weed.”
EpucaTIoNaL, RELIGIOUS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 201
Lo! the poor Indian: Does the Indian have a better right to the
United States than the white man? Should the Indian be made a citizen?
Was the Negro more cruelly treated than the Indian?
Historical teasers came up now and then: Does Washington deserve
more honor for defending America than Columbus for discovering
it? In time of war, have greater deeds of heroism been on land or on
sea? Does present military gemius surpass that of ancient times? Was
Washington a greater general than Lee? (The judges declared the
debate on this subject to be a tie).
Local, state, national, and world problems were threshed out:
Should the public roads be maintained by taxation and not by indi-
vidual labor? Should the right to vote be based on the ability to read
and write? Should there be free and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of 16 to 1? Should the Negro be colonized? Is it right and proper
for the United States to dig the Panama Canal? Should the United
States annex Cuba? Should the United States help Cuba in its struggle
for independence? Should the United States withdraw its soldiers from
foreign lands? Is the present war with Spain justified? Is the world
growing morally worse? Does China have the right to expell all
foreigners? Do the signs of the times indicate the downfall of the
United States? Has the United States reached the zenith of her glory?
Is the United States growing morally worse? Was the discovery of
America beneficial to the world? Is the destiny of the United States
in the hands of the millionaires? The Society facetiously accepted the
query, “Resolved that the earth is round,” and then voted it down
and substituted the query, “Resolved that immigration should be
abolished.”
For debating some of these queries all that was necessary was a
facile tongues; but some of them required considerable study and
reading. Coulter kept a tablet in which he put down many of his
arguments and made debating a serious exercise. In most of the de-
cisions recorded, his side won.
Many organizations were tinged with an educational program, but
some were more for business than for education. There were Fairs,
Farmers Institutes, Agricultural Exhibit Cars, the Farmers Alliance,
and the Farmers Educational & Co-Operative Union of America. The
farmer and his problems, like the poor, were always with us. Coulter
plaved his part in all these organizations.
The Catawba Fair Association held its fair in Hickory annually for
many years, which exhibited among its attractions livestock and farm
and home products. In 1910 Coulter was one of the Directors and
was the head of the Sheep and Swine Department. In 1914 he was a
202 Joun ELiis CouLTEer
District Vice President; and in 1916 he was one of the marshals,
mounted with badge and rosette.
Much more educational than fairs but much less spectacular were
the Farmers Institutes. Under the direction of Tait Butler they were
going full swing during the first decade of the twentieth century and
slightly longer. Butler was followed by T. B. Parker. These institutes
were held from June to September and at times during this period
when convenient to the local population. Many practical subjects of
interest to farmers were discussed such as forage crops, deep plow-
ing, crop rotation, livestock—in fact whatever interested farmers.
Local farmers as well as state experts spoke at these institutes. For
most of the time when institutes were in style Coulter headed the
Burke County Committee. It was his duty to set the time, place, and
subject to be discussed, after getting the opinions of the leaders in the
community.
Closely associated with the Farmers Institutes were the Agricultural
Exhibit Cars. These were railroad cars specially adapted to the display
_ of farm machinery and the products of fields and orchards. Accord-
ing to the announcement of the arrival of the car (sometimes more
than one car): “The Exhibit is instructive, educational, and interest-
ing, and something worth coming to see.” Many farmers were less
interested in hearing talks at institutes than in seeing the sights in the
Exhibit Car. Coulter arranged for the placing of these cars, in
Hildebran, Connelly Springs, Valdese, Drexel, and Morganton.
Less for education and more for business, there developed during
the 1880's the Farmers Alliance, and by 1890 it was operating in
Burke County, with its Farmers State Alliance Business Agency Fund.
Shares in the Fund were for sale, and co-operative stores were set up.
Coulter bought a share or two in the Connelly Springs Alliance, No.
1492. His chief interest was in the sale of Alliance fertilizers,
which were supplied at special prices by the Durham Fertilizer Com-
pany. The Carolina Warehouse Company, which seems to have had
some connection with the Alliance, sought to promote “Home Mixed
Fertilizers” by supplying the ingredients and information on how to
mix them--and thus get around “buying a pig in a poke” which the big
fertilizer companies were selling in the form of the ready-mixed
fertilizers. It supplied nitrate of soda, muriate of potash, sulphate of
potash, acid phosphate, kainit, cottonseed meal, ground animal bone,
and fish scrap.
The Alliance got into politics and it played out on that key as a
farmers’ organization. In 1902 another farmers’ organization arose,
in Texas, where most of such movements started, which came to be
EpucationaL, RELIGIous, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 203
known as the Farmers Educational & Co-Operative Union—or in
short, the Farmers Union. It reached North Carolina in 1908. It was
primarily interested in warehousing and marketing cotton, and in 1914
it was promoting a bill in Congress to make a loan of $500,000,000 to
farmers on warehouse receipts at 3%. By 1911, it owned throughout
the country 1,628 warehouses, mainly for storing cotton; 245 packing
houses; and a great variety of other bustisstes, newspapers, coal
mines, banks, flour mills, creameries, stores, phosphate plants, produce
exchanges, fertilizer factories, life and fire insurance companies, and
other businesses, By 1909 it had a membership of 3,000,000. H. Q.
Alexander was the head of the North Carolina Division.
The Farmers Union first appeared in Burke County in 1909 when
Coulter was being urged to organize a local. By 1912 twenty locals had
been set going with a membership of about 4oo. The Farmers Union
Warehouse Company was set up in Morganton with Samuel M.
Asbury as manager and Coulter one of the Directors. Since Burke
County grew no cotton the warehouse became in reality a supply
house for “Feed stuffs, heavy groceries, Fertilizers and Implements.”
The Connelly Springs region combined with Rutherford College
and organized the Rutherkord College Local Union, F. E. & C. U. of
Bis No. 792. The seal contained the “device of a plow with a hoe and
rake crossed leaning over the plow stock. Meetings were held monthly
and were secret. There was a certain amount of hocus-pocus, signs
and pass words. The meetings opened and closed with singing an
ode; there was also a prayer. Dues were $1.00 a year. For a time
meetings were tried twice a month. A picnic with lemonade was
tried now and then. Secrecy seems to have been the use of the old
custom of organizations to create an interest and secure members.
Certainly the Farmers Union meetings engaged in nothing more
exciting or conspiratorial than short rallies on the best methods of
rasing corn and feeding chickens, how stump-pulling was carried
on, arid other farm problems.
Being instrumental in organizing the local, Coulter naturally took
a prominent part in it. Some of the time he was vice president and
at other times the secretary-treasurer. He was generally the delegate
to state meetings. His brother Frank was president most of the time.
The greatest number of members was 43 in 1915, when women
were admitted; but there is no evidence that many, if any, attended.
The newness of the organization soon wore off with many members,
and having learned all the secrets and how unexciting ‘they were,
members began to drop out. From August, 1916 to March, 1917 the
organization was dormant, and when revived its membership num-
204 Joun Exriis CouLTer
bered 24. Soon the meetings dwindled down to six or seven, and on
September 22, 1917, with seven members present it finally “gave up
the ghost,” though it had adjourned to meet in October. With the
Rutherford College local dead, Coulter joined the Valdese Local,
No. 867, but within two years it “went the way of all the earth.”
In fact the whole Farmers Union organization, at least in North
Carolina, was fading out by 1919. This farmers’ movement collapsed
because too much of the local funds had to go to the state and
national organization without any visible returns; and because it got
into politics. “To a large extent the Farmers Union has repeated
identically the same fatal mistakes that were made by its prede-
cessors, the Farmers Alliance,” said J. Z. Green, a state leader, who
wanted the locals to be practically independent and enter into a loose
organization which he would call the “Farmers Business Union.”
Yet the Rutherford College local had done something more than
hold senselessly secret meetings in which people were told no more
exciting things than how to feed chickens. It had organized a ware-
house and erected a building in Connelly Springs and had chosen
Coulter to be its manager. Coulter laid in a supply of sugar, flour,
feedstuffs and grain, fertilizer, nitrate of soda, nails, plow points,
terra cotta, rice, lard, and other heavy groceries—the staple needs of
farmers. The attempt was made to keep from coming too closely
into competition with regular merchants, by allowing only members
to purchase from the warehouse. Prices at the warehouse were, of
course, cheaper than at the merchant stores, for by buying in large
quantities the Farmers Union got lower prices; and the mere size
of the organization was not without its effect in securing reductions.
Coulter got a commission on what he sold.
One of his biggest sales was of fertilizers, which were bought from
the large manufacturers, who saw the wisdom of selling at a lower
price to the Farmers Union warehouses. As this organization began
to decline, the fertilizer companies began increasing their prices and
refused to give the locals any special discounts. In 1917 the fertilizer
committee for the state found only one firm handling fertilizer which
agreed on a discount, the Co-Operative Warehouse Company of
Salisbury, and it sent out this advice: “Now since they are the only
one that has come to us, we have decided and determined to give
them our entire business and support this fall. And we call upon every
Union Man to stand by us and show the fertilizer people that our
organization can stand together as well as they can against us.”
The plea also went out for the farmers to mix their own fertilizer
and save at least $15.00 a ton. The Union fertilizer committee
EpucaTIONAL, RELIGIOUS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 205
stated that mixing cottonseed meal with ground rock phosphate was
equally as good as the 8-2-2 which was so generally used by farmers
and for which the fertilizer companies would charge at least $15.00
more than what these ingredients would cost.
Coulter was equally as active along religious and eleemosynary
as educational lines. In 1896 Tulah Cates of Burlington wrote him,
“We have been building to our church here and I thought perhaps
you would give five dollars toward it as Father buys a great deal of
lumber from you.” He sent her a contribution for which she thanked
him. He gave larger amounts to various schools, colleges, and other
organizations. In addition to giving land for the new Rutherford
College campus, years before when the Methodist Church took over
the school and finished the interior of the building, he made a con-
tribution “for purchase and finishing Rutherford College,” as seemed
becoming since he had provided some of the lumber. And years later
by making another gift he became a member of “The Friends of
Rutherford College Club.” He made a contribution to the Collegiate
Institute at Mount Pleasant and for some years he made an annual
contribution to Lenoir College at Hickory. He made gifts to the
North Carolina Sunday School Association; to the Lutheran Orphan-
age Home in Salem, Virginia; to the Oxford Orphan Asylum; to the
Good Shepherd Home; to the North Carolina Tuberculosis Associa~
tion; to the Anti-Saloon League; and to various other organizations
of a like nature. Of course he contributed to the American Red Cross,
and during the First World War years he was in charge of collections
for the Connelly Springs region. He worked largely through the
churches, and in 1918 the collections ameunted to $137.14. He was
generally on the county committee for the Red Cross Christmas Seals
Drive. He was not neglected by those in hard luck or had “hard luck
stories.” One such wrote him, “I am in affel bad condision My wife
is in the hospitile an I cant leave, the little girl is sick an if you please
send me five dollars so I can get her some medison an I will pay you
just as soon as I can get out and get it.” Such loans were in reality
gifts and were considered so at the time.
Singing gave great satisfaction to Coulter, not the concert type,
of course, but simply good country singing out of a book with
shaped notes. He would sit for an hour at a time in his home singing
by himself from one of his many song books, beating time with his
hand. Like debates, song fests would be got up occasionally, where the
whole neighborhood interested in singing, would attend. In 1915 he
suggested to his mother that he would visit her on a given date and
206 JoHN Evtis CouLTER
bring with him one of his singing partners George A. Hauss and sing
some of the old songs for her.
At no time in his life did he ever think of taking individual singing
lessons; but there was an institution in vogue during the first decade
of the twentieth century known as the Singing School. If there was
one in reach he would attend it, and if none came near enough he
would pass around a list for subscribers to put down whatever amount
they pleased to be used in hiring a singing master to conduct such
a school. One of his favorite singing masters was N. M. Cordell of
Lincolnton.
It needed not be near Christmas times for Coulter to start “Joy
to the world, the Lord is come,” nor did any special occasion suggest
the song with these lines:
He’s the Lilly of the Valley,
The bright and morning star.
He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.
“Listen to the Mocking Bird” was always a favorite with him.
H. R. Christie’s Favorite Songs, published in 1879, must have been
Coulter’s first songbook, for on January 11, 1880 he signed his name
in the book; but it is possible that he could before that time have
had another songbook in his library of such books, one published
in 1867: William Walker's The Christian Harmony: Containing a
Choice Collection of Hymns and Psalm Tunes, Odes and Anthems,
Selected from the Best Authors in Europe and America. . . . Probably
his favorite songbook—he nearly wore it out singing from it—
was Best of All. A Superior and Varied Collection of Gospel Songs
and Hymns for Sunday Schools, Church Services, Prayer Meetings,
Revival Meetings, Young People’s Societies and all Kinds of Religious
Work, by Samuel W. Beazley and James H. Ruebush, published by
the Ruebush-Kieffer Company of Dayton, Virginia, in 1907. Also
Coulter bought songbooks from A. J. Showalter of Dalton, Georgia
and the North Georgia Music Company of Marietta, Georgia.
In religion Coulter was a Lutheran. Like most people he inherited
his religion no less than his name. He was not a narrow emotional
religionist, but more of the ordinary good-citizen type. There was
a law that freight trains should not run on Sundays unless carrying
livestock. He thought this law a good one and that the railroads ought
to obey it. During the first decade of the twentieth century “he
kept tab as well as he could on the trains running through Connelly
Springs, and if he found a violation of the law he reported it to the
EpucaTIonaL, RELIGIOUS, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 207
county authorities and offered himself as a witness. The story grew
up that the Southern Railway had a few old white mules which they
loaded in cattle cars of trains running on Sundays, and thus escaped
the penalty of the law; for it was legal for trains to run on Sundays
when carrying 3
Coulter rend his Bible frequently, not only for debate arguments
but also for the consolation he got. One Bible at least he wore into a
frazzle. In 1927 he noted that he had read the Old Testament three
times and the New Testament, six times. This habit of keeping tah
on the number of times he had read through the Bible, he got from
his mother, who read through it at least a dozen times.
Whenever it was not convenient to attend a Lutheran Church he
would enter the doors of any other church at hand. Summing up the
list of churches he had attended in 1923, he noted the following:
the Methodist Church at Rutherford College, Camp Free Methodist
Church near Connelly Springs, Trinity Lutheran Church in Caldwell
County, St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Hickory, St. Pauls Lutheran
Church in Startown, Sardis Lutheran Church in Catawba County,
Mount Hebron Church in Hildebran, the Connelly Springs Methodist
Church, and the Connelly Springs Baptist Church.
The Methodist minister at the Connelly Springs church, the Rev.
E. J. Poe, wrote Coulter in 1925, “I could always preach a little
better when I had you before me, there at Connelly Springs.” In
1928 Coulter attended services in the Roman Catholic Church in
Asheville, and noted, “my first time in life to worship with them.”
When he lived in the “Nation,” he and his family attended the
Sardis Lutheran Church. When he moved to Connelly Springs he
found no church of his faith, but soon he began attending the Trinity
Lutheran Church in Caldwell County. The trip was dati five miles
and the Catawba River had to be crossed on a ferry. A surry and
a buggy would generally accommodate him and his family, but it
took a long time “for the children to get accustomed to crossing the
river on a ferry.
The Rev. David A. Goodman was the pastor of this church. Good-
man had been ordained to the ministry in 1882 and soon thereafter
he began preaching at the Trinity Church and building up a con-
gregation. In 1889 only eight members subscribed to his salarv—
a pitiful $27.75 for the ‘year! Of course, the congregation was some-
what larger. By 1902 he had built up the membership to 54 com-
municants and a Sunday School of 59. The church property was
valued at $400. By this time his salary had been considerably increased.
Coulter generally paid from $6.00 to $10.00 a year, always coming
208 Joun Exiis CouLTEer
second on the list, giving first place to A. A. Lutz or some other one
of the Lutz family, who were the foremost of the Caldwell Lutherans
in Goodman’s congregation. About this time Coulter increased Good-
man’s income by purchasing from him lath timber—Goodman living
on the Burke County side of the Catawba River and owning some
timber lands there. On one occasion Coulter bought from him 96
cords of lath timber for $57.60.
The Lutheran Church was a sort of loose federation (if even a
federation) of a multiplicity of Synods, based on natural origins,
some variations in creeds, and the accidents of organization. The
Tennessee Synod, to which Coulter belonged, had been organized
in 1820, being the fourth in the United States. A movement to com-
bine some of the Synods had been going on for a long time and had
resulted in the “United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in the South,” which in 1902 had a total membership of 37,900, and
later called the “United Lutheran Church in America.”
When the Tennessee Synod joined this United Synod, Pastor
Goodman was greatly displeased and made plans to enter the Missouri
Synod. Coulter was upset by this move by Goodman. In 1907 he
wrote to the Rev. Geo. A. Roemoser of Concordia College in Conover
asking him to visit the Goodman congregation and explain the doc-
trines of the Missouri Synod. Goodman himself had told his con-
gregation that the Tennessee Synod by joining the United Synod
had Jost its identity and had deserted its disciplines and doctrines, that
he was not deserting the Tennessee Synod but that it was the deserter.
Coulter wrote the Rev. R. A. Yoder, who a quarter century pre-
viously had performed Coulter’s wedding ceremonies, asking him for
advice. Yoder wrote that he saw no good reason for joining the
Missouri Synod: “We are the purest American people. Mo. is a
bad mixture of foreign elements. We are Southern people, they
are Northern & Western, with different ideas of things. And as I
think more about it, there is mo reason under the sun why you should
leave the Tenn. synod, in which you & your pastor were all reared,
and your fathers. It was good enough for them, and it ought to be
for you.”
Pastor Goodman quit preaching at Trinity and joined the Missouri
Synod, taking with him Coulter and some others of his congregation.
Now, here was a pastor and his flock with nowhere to preach to them.
He held services once or twice in the Harmony Methodist Church
near Icard, but before the end of the year 1907 he had begun to
preach in the Drowning Creek Schoolhouse, generally twice a month.
At the business meeting following preaching on January 22, 1908,
EpucaTIonaL, RELiGgiIous, AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 209
Coulter made a motion that a church building be erected in the
vicinity and that it be called Luthers Chapel. Coulter was elected
Secretary-Treasurer and a committee was appointed to get an option
on a site for the new church building. Waitsell Starns offered a site
free. The congregation tried hard to develop strength. They invited
occasionally some member of the Concordia College faculty to come
up and preach—Professor C. A. Weiss and Professor George Luecke.
At one of the services Coulter read a paper on the Reformation. The
membership failed to grow—hardly ever being more than 20 at any
service. The church building was forgotten and the congregation
ceased to function after 1911. Six years later Pastor Goodman died
and was buried at St. Johns Lutheran Church near Conover.
With the demise of the Goodman congregation, Coulter joined
the Mount Hebron Lutheran Church in Hildebran, which belonged
to the United Synod. During the First World War (as, indeed, during
the Second), Coulter was intensely anti-German both before the
United States entered it, and, of course, afterwards. Coulter now began
to think of going back to the Trinity Lutheran Church in Caldwell
as a refuge from so many pro-German Lutheran pastors who could
not keep their position on the war, out of their sermons and church
papers.
In 1918 he wrote to the Rev. W. J. Roof, the pastor at Trinity,
asking him whether his sentiments favored the Germans, and asking
that if they were, “I would not care to co-operate or remove my
church connections to Trinity . . . it seems that there are more
Lutheran ministers Pro-German than any other church.” Pastor Roof
answered that he was no pro- -German: “I think that Germany has
disgraced her name forever in the atrocious warfare she has been
carrying on.” The war was soon over, and Coulter continued his
membership in the Mount Hebron Church.
In 1932 Coulter noted that he had been teaching Sunday School
for the past 31 years and that he was now quitting as his sight and
hearing were none too good. He began teaching Sunday School at
Trinity Church, continuing it at the Drowning Creek Schoolhouse,
and ending it at Mount Hebron. He took great pride in this work
and developed a reputation as a good eacher—sumetimes when visit-
ing churches of other denominations he would be asked to teach a
class, He took great pains to prepare for each Sunday’s lesson, typing
out on sheets of paper various quotations, questions, and answers.
He left an impressive pack of these papers. His quotations were not
only from the Bible but also from some apt poem to strike home a
point. As a note on selfishness he used this quotation:
210 Joun Exxis CouLTEr
I had a little tea party,
This afternoon at three.
"Twas very small—
Three guests in all—
Just I, myself, and me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches,
While I drank up the tea.
"Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to me.
Besides the Bible he used as aids a little booklet published annually
called The Gist of the Lesson and the Augsburg Senior Lesson Book,
published by the United Lutheran Publication House of Philadelphia.
Superintendent Patton of the Burke County Board of Education pre-
sented him now and then the annual publication, Points for Emphasis.
A Vest Pocket Commentary on the International Sunday School
Lessons, and for years Miss Beatrice Cobb of the Morganton News-
Herald made him a Christmas present of F. N. Peloubet’s Selected
Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons.
CHAPTER XV
CHILDREN
T HERE were eight children in the Coulter family, six boys and
two girls. The first born was Alvin Augustus (September 2,
1883-October 8, 1959), the second of his given names being for his
paternal grandfather. Being the oldest of the children he became their
hero, but another reason was his generosity, ever mindful of not only
his brothers and sisters but of his parents also. When he had gone
out into the world to make his living he never let a Christmas go by
before he had sent a generous check home to be divided among the
rest of the family. With careful hoarding, the younger children made
this fund last a long time as they levied on it for candy and trinkets.
At other tires when he felt that a little check on some special
occasion might come in handy he was quick to send one. And he made
very substantial gifts to his father when business exigencies made
them desirable.
He was of a restless nature; his wanderlust hardly knew bounds,
not simply for going from one place to another, but more particularly
for searching for better jobs. In his middle ’teens he bought a bicycle
and began peddling in the vicinity (and especially selling to Coulter’s
workmen) patent medicines, cheap jewelry, and trinkets: Japanese
oils, pills, pain cures, corn cures, worm candy, rings, watches, stick
pins. He fired the dry kiln off and on for a year or two. And one
day he fell in with that custom prevalent among the smart, adventure-
some, and bold boys “to run away from home,” for no reason at all
except for the thrill of knowing that their parents did not know where
they were. But a few davs were sufficient for Alvin Augustus, and
he was back home again; probably he had got as far away as Asheville.
It was about this time when he wanted to join the United States
Navy, and his father consented by writing to the USS Franklin at
[211 ]
212 Joun Eris CouLTEeR
the Norfolk Navy Yard, “I have a son 17 years old, well grown, very
apt, good mathematician, excellent in Geography & History, some-
what deficient in Grammar. He desires to enter the Navy; he will meet
your requirements as to height & weight, is of a very determined
disposition; would stick to his post under all circumstances. . . .
Kindly let me hear from you with such information as is necessary.”
He was informed that no one could enlist on board the ship except
by order of the Navy Department; and here the navy career of Alvin
Augustus ended.
In an effort to hold his son to a career at home his father established
a firm, at least on paper, known as “J. E. Coulter & Son,” but nothing
came of this. Alvin Augustus had a mechanical tum which would
have sent him far up the ladder of success if he had submitted it to
college training, but as he never extended his formal education beyond
the “old field school,” this talent remained somewhat in the rough.
His interests were strongly along engineering lines, that is the practical
side of machinery, and the railway seemed the easiest entry. His first
position was with the W. J. Oliver Construction Company when they
were levelling down some of the high grades on the Southern Railway
near Connelly Springs. This work was of short duration, and soon
Alvin Augustus was on his way out into the wide world. He turned
up at Georgetown, Louisiana, working at a sawmill; but when the
harvest season set in he was off for the wheat fields of Kansas. With
the harvest over, he began working on the Missouri Pacific Railroad
out of Osawatomie, Kansas. The time was 1905; but this same year
he moved westward to Arizona where he worked with the Sante Fe
Railroad for a few years. Then he went to Peru to work with the
Cerro de Pasco Copper Company in 1908 for two years; and when
the United States began digging the Panama Canel he began work
there for four years, but in the meantime returning to Peru for a year.
He was soon talking of engaging in the cattle business somewhere
in South America, but with the United States beginning to build the
Alaskan Railway, he unsuccessfully sought a position there. He thought
of doing something in South Africa but did not pursue that idea far.
In 1915 he ran a sawmill for a short time at Whitmire, South Caro-
lina, and then worked for a construction company building a great
dam at Great Falls, South Carolina. In 1916 he came back to Connelly
Springs and decided to start the manufacture of canvas gloves. He set
up a factory and continued in this business until the next year, when
he was off again—this time to Camaguey, Cuba where he worked with
a railway for two years, before going back to Peru. After a visit or
two home he was still in Peru in 1924. But finally his wanderings were
CHILDREN 213
over when he became a locomotive engineer on the Seaboard Railway
out of Tampa, Florida where he lived until his retirement, and his
death in 1959.
The next child in the Coulter family was Beulah Belle (September
28, 1885-). She became Mrs. L. V. Goodman on November 25, 1908
and lived in Asheville.
The third child was named Clyde David Franklin (October 17,
1887-). The David Franklin part of his name was for his maternal
grandfather; but since he disliked having three given names he
dropped the Franklin. Like his brother Alvin Augustus, he became
interested in railroading. Beginning on the Southern Railway out of
Asheville, he drifted westward to Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; but
he soon got the “Florida fever,” long before the big land booms
started in that state, and went to “The Land of Flowers,” where he
remained with the Seaboard Railway until his retirement, working
principally out of Cedar Keys and Jacksonville. On his retirement he
moved back to the old home in Connelly Springs.
The fourth child was named Ellis Merton (July 20, 1890-), the Ellis
being part of his father’s name. The railroads having no attraction
for him, he became a history teacher.
The fifth child was a girl and was named Laura Elvira (March 28,
1893-), the second of her given names was to honor her Grandmother
Coulter. When she was less than a year old, her father wrote her
Grandmother Coulter, “We had Elvira’s [written over Laura, which
was the name always used] photograph taken & will bring it down
to vou.” He added, “Alvin and Bula are going to free school.” She
married Carl Blalock on April 25, 1915, and after his death she married
Jesse M. Teas on December 29, 1951. She lived in Texas.
The sixth child was named Ray Daniels (March 11, 1895-), the
Daniels to honor Josephus Daniels, whom Coulter greatly admired.
He served in the First World War. His parents had hoped that at
least one of the children might be anchored in Connelly Springs and
they set their hearts on Ray Daniels; but after a try at the farming
business he, too, caught the “Florida fever” and settled in Ojus where
he entered the automobile business.
The next child was a boy and was named William Bryan (October
22, 1896-), and, of course, the name was to honor the great “Com-
moner,” whom Coulter voted for as often as he ran for the presidency.
When William Bryan was 7 months and 26 days old it was re-
ported, “baby can stand (a little) alone.” After serving in the First
World War, he settled in Washington, D. C., as an accountant.
The eighth and the last of the Coulter children was Herbert Lee
214 Joun Extis CouLTER
(October 11, 1899-), the Lee undoubtedly for the great Confederate
General. After a turn at railroading in North Carolina and then in
Florida, he moved back to Connelly Springs and engaged in the
hosiery mill business in Valdese.
The Coulter children made up a merry family, and it is rather
remarkable that the last child was born before the older children
began to disperse to the “four corners of the earth”; but the younger
ones remembered the older ones best when they came back on visits,
which were never more than a year apart unless in the case of Alvin
Augustus when he was in Peru.
School, school, school! All, of course, went to school, and all walked,
whether it was a mile or two miles, rain or shine or snow. There was
no schoolhouse in Connelly Springs until 1909. As a consequence most
of the Coulter children had to walk a greater distance than merely
“down town.” The first schoolhouse, so designated, was one up the
railroad about a half mile, and was known as the Huffman School-
house, since it was on the edge of the old Huffman Graveyard. Another
schoolhouse was about a mile and a half down the railroad and was
located near Drowning Creek, which name it bore. It was in this
house where the Goodman Lutheran congregation met after seceding
from the Tennessee Synod. It was built with lumber furnished by
Coulter, with Poley Townsend doing most of the carpentry work. It
cost $624. Only two of the Coulter children attended school here
and only for a session or two. Another schoolhouse on the Coulter
children’s list was one built about halfway between Connelly Springs
and Rutherford College. Some years later it burned and its site was
included in the new Rutherford College campus, which Coulter gave
to the College trustees.
The first teacher in Connelly Springs whom any of the Coulter
children had, was Margaret Winifred Haliburton (“Miss Minnie”)
(1855-1928), whose brother was the hotel man and later rural mail
carrier. Miss Haliburton taught a school in some improvised build-
ing in 1894. She became a well-known educator, teaching for many
years in the State Teachers College in Farmville, Virginia, and writing
several textbooks. The next teachers, well-known and liked, were
Forrest Rockett and his brother Ott Rockett, and A. L. Starr. All
of these teachers used some building in the village and taught before
1900. One of the teachers at the Huffman Schoolhouse was George
A. Hauss. Other teachers well remembered by the Coulter children
were T. L. Sigmon, Ora Reep, and Katie L. Provence. Beginning in
1903 and continuing on until 1920, all of the Coulter children except
CHILDREN 215
the oldest two, attended Rutherford College, which was mostly a
high school.
Sometimes there was some whimpering about having to go to school,
but going to school came to be liked both for fun and for education.
Baseball was the main sport, played at the morning and afternoon
recesses, as well as at the longer time given for lunch—but generally
called dinner. A certain amount of trading went on. The Hilderbrand
children from across the South Mountains generally had pockets full
of limbertwig apples, which they hid in the leaves out in the woods,
and produced at recesses for trading purposes. “Throwing knives”
was another game, somewhat after the order of horse-trading, but
differing in that only the end of the knives where the blades were
fastened were shown. The hazard was that a knife might have a shiny
end but no blades or broken ones. As a guarantee against this kind of
trickery, the expression grew up, “Iwo whole blades or no trade.”
Another expression was, “Buckhorn handles, barlow blade, the best old
knife ever made.” At Christmas time the students insisted on the teach-
er treating them, and unless they got the promise, they might shut out
the teacher. Some of the bolder boys might be heard chanting, “Treat,
trade, travel—or duck.” Whippings were regular procedure for mis-
behavior; but a compromise might be worked out in letting the culprit
off by having him dig a stump.
Friday afternoons were always set apart for speeches, declamations,
and sometimes short debates. Every student was required to participate
in some form, which generally resulted in what was called a speech,
samples of which were:
Buzz, buzz, buzz, I am a bee,
Buzz, buzz, buzz, here I come,
Buzz, buzz, buzz, look out for me.
or
Here I stand, all ragged and dirty;
If you don’t come and kiss me, I'll run like a turkey.
or
I know something I aint going to tell,
Two little niggers in a coconut shell (or big hotel).
or
It took a bold student to say this one:
Mulberry leaves, calico sleeves,
All schoolteachers are hard to please.
216 Joun Exiis Coulter
The parents of the Coulter children did not allow them to say such
silly couplets. They had to struggle over memorizing long poems and
declamations. “Curfew Shall not Ring Tonight’ was recited by one
of the girls. “Flag the Train” was a tearful poem of five stanzas in
which the death of the engineer was depicted:
Go, flag the train, boys, flag the train!
Nor waste the time on me;
But leave me by my shattered cab;
*Tis better thus to be!
It was an awful leap, boys,
But the worst of it is o’er;
I hear the Great Conductor’s call
Sound from the farther shore.
“Going on an Errand” was a humorous poem of nine stanzas, in which
the errand boy gets terribly mixed up, the first stanza being,
A pound of tea at one-and-three,
And a pot or raspberry jam,
Two new-laid eggs, a dozen pegs,
And a pound of rashers of ham.
After getting every possible combination in his mix-up he ends,
A pound of three at one and tea,
A dozen of raspberry ham,
A pot of eggs, with a dozen pegs,
And a rasher of new-laid jam.
Another pathetic poem was “Little Jack,” consisting of five stanzas,
the first being,
He wore a pair of tattered pants,
A ragged roundabout,
And through the torn crown of his hat
A lock of hair stuck out;
He had no shoes upon his feet,
No shirt upon his back;
His home was on the friendless street,
His name was “Little Jack.”
But in saving the “toddling baby-boy” from being run over by the
on-rushing train “Little Jack” loses his life.
A great favorite was “John Maynard,” which tells of the steamboat
Top: COULTER AND WIFE, OFF FOR A SUNDAY VISIT. Bottom: COULTER’S
OFFICE.