The John Burrison Georgia Folklore Archive recordings contains unedited versions of all interviews. Some material may contain descriptions of violence, offensive language, or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. There are instances of racist language and description, particularly in regards to African Americans. These items are presented as part of the historical record. This project is a repository for the stories, accounts, and memories of those who chose to share their experiences for educational purposes. The viewpoints expressed in this project do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the Atlanta History Center or any of its officers, agents, employees, or volunteers. The Atlanta History Center makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the interviews and expressly disclaims any liability therefore. If you believe you are the copyright holder of any of the content published in this collection and do not want it publicly available, please contact the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4040 or reference@atlantahistorycenter.com.
This is the fifth parth in a five part interview; it begins with Paul B. Black discussing folk songs he plays, including Billy in the Low Ground, Leather Britches, Ol Joe Clark, Nigger in the Wood Pile, Crumblin Gap, and Cindy. Black says he has been a musician since he was 15. He then plays Whistlin Rufus and Leather Britches on the violin, sings an unnamed folk song, and describes the different keys he can play in. 7:06: Next, Black reminisces about Mack D. Weems, a teacher with whom he performed music. He then plays Cluck Ol Hen, Cluck Ol Rooster. Black says he was a dancer when he was younger. He concludes by playing Cindy and Crumblin Gap on the violin.
Mrs. Stamey (approximately 1915-?) was born in Gordon County, Georgia. She had one daughter, Linda Tatum (approximately 1935- ), from her first marriage. Eddie Mae Chastain Lang (1894-1984) was born in Gordon County to George Lane Chastain (1859-1931) and Mattie L. Kiker Chastain (1858-1902). She married Thomas Hiram Lang (1892-1967) and had two children: Edward Lang (1917-1991) and Richard L. Lang (1920-1995). She worked as an elementary teacher for over 30 years, both for the Calhoun City School System and as a visiting teacher during World War II. In addition, Lang was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Calhoun. Mrs. Smith (approximately 1892-?) was born in New York City and lived in Washington D.C. She had a daughter, Katherine (1914-1994), who married John Kirby Adams (1910-1989) in 1935. They had one daughter, also named Katherine. John Kirby Adams was born in Bonne Terre, Missouri, and grew up in Tennessee and Kentucky. He joined the United States Army and earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Robert Gordon (approximately 1898-?) was born in Gordon County and served as a captain in the United States Navy. Paul B. Black (1890-1972) was born to Moses Black (1839-1923) and Caroline Black (1850-1934) in Gordon County. He married Leola Holbert (1900-1977), had a son, Paul B. Black (1925-1984), and worked as a farmer and a musician, playing the violin and the banjo.
Gordon County Gordon County was created by Act of the General Assembly approved February 13, 1850. The territory was taken from Floyd and Cass (now Bartow) in 1850, and from Floyd and Murray in 1852. Gordon County is situated in the northwestern part of Georgia lying in the famous blue lime region formerly occupied by the Cherokee Nation and reputed the richest and best part of the lands relinquished by the Indian aborigines at the time of their removal to the West. It covers an area of 375 square miles. Gordon County has three distinct topographic divisions: a narrow, mountainous part along the western boundary containing Horn and John Mountains; a mountainous area in the east, a portion of the Appalachian system; and, between these two divisions, a valley aproximately twenty miles wide; however, this valley is made up of hills and dales, some of the former reaching considerable elevation. Between John and Horn mountains is a valley known as The Pocket containing much fertile land, most of which is under cultivation. The county lies within the drainage of the Oostanaula (U-stana-le, denoting a barrier of rocks) river and its principal tributaries, Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers. Agriculture is the chief occupation of the people. Lumbering, poultry, and cattle raising and dairying are profitable employments. In 1880, James M. Rogers,is said to have operated successfully the first brick and tile machine in the South. Many years ago tanyards flood.shed here, notably at Fairmount and in the neighborhood of Sugar Valley. The Western and Atlantic railroad, completed in 1846, gives continuous railroad passage from the northern states to Florida. As early as 1830, eight years before the departure of the Cherokee Indians, the region now known as Gordon County was being settle by white people who were almost entirely of Anglo-Saxon lineage, coming mostly from South Carolina, Tennessee, and middle Georgia. The present inhabitants are descendants of these early settlers or emigrants from other states, there being no foreign residents and only a small negro Element. William Washington Gordon, for whom Gordon County was named, was born in Richmond County, Georgia, in 1796. In the early days, the old Tennessee road, extending through the eastern part of what is now called Gordon County, and used as a trail by the Indians long before their removal to the West, was, by far the best and most frequently traveled highway of this section. Along this road planters made periodical trips carrying the produce of their fields to Augusta, Georgia, the general trading post, and bringing back sugar, coffee, pins, needles, and other necessities. Feeding stations were established on the route for the accommodation of the thousands of horses, mules, cattle, and hogs brought by drovers from Tennessee to southern markets by way of this road. These stations, at which the abundant feedstuffs of the adjoining farms could be exchanged for money without the owners having to make toilsome, overland journeys in order to secure buyers, were of great commercial value. In the 1870's and 1880's, steamboats plied the Oostanaula and Coosawattee rivers, making weekly trips from Rome to Carter's Quarter laden with guano, cotton, cotton seed, poultry, eggs, and various other kinds of produce with occasional passengers. Fifty years ago sick persons were treated at their homes and the neighbors came in voluntarily and did the nursing. They also made the coffins, dug the graves, and attended to all other necessary funeral arrangements without cost. The country was well supplied with cancer doctors, horse and cow doctors, and a number of professional tooth-pullers made a good living by going over the county extracting teeth without pain. Many people left Gordon County every fall to locate in Texas. Some went by train and others drove through in covered wagons. In the early settlements of this territory, mills were built wherever suitable water could be obtained. All of the section from Blackwood Springs to Sonoraville was in woods except a few small cleared spots surrounding the few houres then standing. Wolves were numerous. No cotton was grown, but large crops of wheat and corn were produced. Calhoun was once a popular wheat market, many bushels having been shipped from there every year. The early settlers sought to make an abundant living rather than to accumulate money. Plenty of fruit, log cribs bulging with corn, fat hogs, and sleek cattle were on every hand. Considerable attention was given to the breeding and training of horses which pulled the plowshares and furnished the principal means of transportation. Every one rode horseback. Life, necessarily, was more or less crude, roads were poor, schools, for the most part, were inferior, and social intercourse restrained, but the conditions of those days had in them the foundation of a great future which is beginning to be realized. From letter by James A. Hall, in The Calhoun Times. The county seat of Calhoun was created a corporate town by Act of the General Assembly approved January 12, 1852. All of the above material was abstracted ver batim from the official History of Gordon County Georgia by Lulie Pitts. Calhoun: Press of The Calhoun Times, 1933. The material was cited in order from pages 74-82, 122-124, and 312. Biographical Backgrounds Mr. Paul B. Black, 77 years old, has lived all his life in Gordon County; in fact, it is doubted that he has ever been any farther from it than Atlanta, if that far. Mr. Black suffers from rheumatism, arthritis, and muscular dystrophy, all of which hampers his playing ability. At the present time he lives in what can best be described as a dog trot cabin with a TV antenna standing above the tin roof. In the course of the conversation Mr. Black stated repeatedly that he had often been thrown dollar bills for playing and singing at gatherings, probably dances. Although he also farmed, it is quite likely that especially during the depression years his performing ability was an important source of income. His father also played the violin, but with three fingers only since one had been shot off during the Civil War. M. Black learned to play the violin (Never once did he refer to it as a fiddle!) from a trained musician in the area. Later, he taught himself to play the banjo, which he plays with two fingers only. If comments are permitted, it is readily admitted that there are loop-holes in the material collected from Mr. Black, but owing to Mr. Black's physical health and mental coherence, it was deemed best not to interrupt him with questions which could only have succeeded in side-tracking him. The "audience" referred to in the transcripts is composed of the interviewer, her mother, Mrs. Adams, her Grandmother, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Gordon, and Mr. Gordon, whose efforts in locating Mr. Black have made this portion of the project possible. Capt. Robert Gordon (USN ret.), 69, spent approximately the first twenty years of his life in Gordon County. When Capt. Gordon was a boy, Calhoun was still using kerosene lamps to light the streets. He recalls that most of his elders still remembered Shermans infamous march through the area. Capt. Gordon has seen Gordon County change .from a place where, They were still swapping coonhide for a plug o' tobacco an getting two speckled woodpeckers for change, to a modern industrial area. Upon his retirement from the Navy, Capt. Gordon gravitated back to Gordon County where his family roots are so deep, and he now owns a farm in the eastern portion of the county. Lt. Col. John K. Adams (U.S. Army ret.), 5'7 years old, was born in Bonne Terre, Mo. From the age of three days to three years he lived in Nashville, Tenn., and he spent the rest of his formative years in Willmore, Kent. Col. Adams, the father of the collector, remembers quite vividly his childhood and was able to augment some of Capt, Gordon's material with his own recollections, Mrs. B. M. Lang, 73 years old, was born and raised in Gordon County, and returned there to do her teaching in several of the elementary schools in the area. As a Methodist minister, her father, whom she says was "an old-fashioned, down the country, 'fore the war started sort of Democrat, influenced Mrs. Lang considerably, and she has a strong religious orientation. Mrs. Lang taught up until the past eight years or so and consequently remembers very well the games of this generation as well as her own. Concerning the superstitions collected from Mrs. Lang, she professes not to believe any of them to any degree whatever, but it is just as likely that she has a few doubts about some of them. Be it noted that few gestures have been indicated in the transcript of Mrs. Lang's material since she punctuates every accented syllable with a lift of the eyebrows. Mrs. Stamey, 32, has never lived outside of Gordon County, but she has traveled some through Georgia and the South. Mrs. Stamey's family has deep roots in the Georgia hills, and some of the family anecdotes and stories go back quite far. However, Mrs. Stamey does not remember many details although she does remember that the children in the family were told stories and the like. Her daughter by her first marriage, Linda Tatum, remembers a few of the things her grandmother told her, but the only one of which she could recall the details when last contacted is included in the transcript. Linda by the way is 16 years old and has lived in north Georgia since she was born. The Mrs. Smith, 75 years plus, of frequent reference throughout the transcripts, is the grandmother of the collector. She was born in New York City and has lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Her maiden name was Lonergan, from which it might be guessed that her lineage is thoroughly Irish. The Mrs. Adams occasionally mentioned is the mother of the collector. Tape I Mrs. Stanley: My grandmother, she always said that papa would come through the cemetery down at Wesleys Chapel, and he would come, you know, to see her? Hed be comin through there on the horse, and regardless of what time or when, that there was always this object would be out there. It would never say anything or never do anything it was just there. Hed always see it. He didnt know what it was. Of course, they never did find out either. Mrs. Adams: Now tell her the one about the cow on the road. [Laughter.) Mrs. Stamey: Well, up at Erwin Hill Church, up above where we lived, uh, my grannies, and all o the children, and the nieces and nephews would always have to walk to and from church. They lived over there at what we called the clubhouse. You had to go through a holler with lots of trees and it was real dark through there. And, uh, they were all walkin home from church one night when they saw this white object comin too-ward em. And they though that they would just catch-hands [form a line across the road and hold hands], and so the object couldnt get by, theyd really find out what this was. So they did. And it came closer and closer to em, and finally when it got to em, it was their milk cow was out. [ Laughter.] [Break in the recording.] Interviewer: Just tell me about your grandmother. Linda Tatum: Well, uh, mama told me that used to . . . that used to a long time ago that they were sittin, sit way back in the kit- chen maybe, where the kitchen was way back in the far end of the house? Theyd sit back in the area where they used to cook. And theyd sit back in there, and theyd all line up in lines and have a bucket maybe sittin out on the front porch. And they would sit back there and see who could spit the farthest and who could hit the bucket. Thats all there was to it! (Laughter.] [Break in the recording.] Mrs. Lang: Uh, my father was a physician, graduated at, uh, the old Atlanta Medical School, which is now, uh, Emory . . . University. And, uh, he was a practicing physician for fourteen years in, uh, Gordon County; he lived in Calhoun. And, uh, he, uh, was called to the ministry, the Methodist ministry. And he entered the ministry from the, from the Calhoun church. And his first appointment was at Springplace, Georgia, which is, uh, two miles from Chatsworth. And right at the foot of where the old Vann House is standing, uh, the parsonage was there; thats where I was born. And that the night I was born, on the twenti-, on the nineteenth of March, eighteen and ninety-four, the, uh, Ku Klux Klan made a last raid. And, uh, this Ku Klux Klan was the very last of the original Ku Klux Klan that was prevalent during the Civil War. Well, then that night they took a man by the name of Mr. Barker out and gave him a beating 'cause he had been mistreating his wife. And they left, him, thinkin that he was dead, and put him in a old well that didn't have any water in it-- it was not very deep. They put him there. And he finally revived and called for help, and someone rescued him. And, uh, later, the men who did the . . . who did the crime were convicted and served sentences. However, one o' them had a short sentence . . And he went to my fathers church, and was converted, and joined the church, and made a very fine member - the rest of the time my father was there. Well, I. think I remember it, I've heard it told so much, that the night that they made the raid, the snow was on the ground, and the Ku Klux Klan passed by the house. And they were on their big horses with their white, uh, robes on. And my father pulled the curtains back so that my mother could see the Ku Klux passing by. And, of course, that . . . I've heard it told so much, that I remember it very distinctly myself. Now, you want to stop there? Interviewer: WeIl, o.k. [Break in the recording.] Mrs. Lang: Well, some of the superstitions that Ill tell you about are Negro folklore, but, uh, people, uh, alot o' people believe it and do, do believe it now. Uh, for instance, if you . . . if a person . . . take a person who has intense pain, you put an ax under the bed and that's supposed to cut the pain in two. And if you hear an owl, in a tree, screeching, it's a sign that someone's gonna daah [die]. And, uh, it won't . . . if a black cat runs across the road, why, you'd better turn around and go back and go another way 'cause that's bad luck. And another, if you go out o' the house and forget something, and you have to come back, you make a cross-mark and spit in it, and, uh, you won 't have bad luck. Interviewer: I haven't heard that one. Mrs. Lang: And, uh, what was the other one? Interviewer: You said something about a poker in the fire. Mrs. Lang: Oh, yes, if , uh...if an owl is a screeching outside, and you're worried about it, you just get a poker, uh . . . a rod, I mean a . . . umm . . . metal poker that you stir the fire with, and stick it in the ashes; and the, and the, uh, owl will, will stop screeching. And you wont have bad luck. Interviewer: You said something about sweeping under the bed. Mrs. Lang: Oh, yes, if you sweep under a person's bed, a sick person's bed, why, they'll daah. It wont do to do that! So, one time, i had a colored woman workin' for me when one of my babies was little. And, uh, I said, I want you to sweep under the bed. She said, "Oh, no, said, Miz Lang, you, you, if I do that now you and the baby both'll daah." I said, "If I daah, I don't want people kneeling by my bed and seeing the dirt under the bed. So she promptly did, but she was worried to death because she knew Id,that I never would get well. But I did!! Interviewer: Then you said something about getting up on the right side of the bed. Mrs. Lang: Oh, yes, uh, if you, uh, if you get up on the, if you get up on the, uh . . . a lot o people think that, uh, if you get up on the, the left side of the bed, it's the wrong side, and you'll have bad luck all day. So you be sure and get up on the right side of the bed. Interviewer: Maybe thats whats wrong with me: I keep getting up on the left-hand side, instead of the right. [Laughter.] Mrs. Lang: Oh, that's, uh . . . but that . . . a lot o' people believe those superstitions. And if your, if your right hand itches, if the palm o' your hand, your right hand, itches, you're goin' to shake hands with a stranger. And, uh, if your left hand itches, you're gonna get some money. Interviewer: Well, good. Mrs. Lang: If you, uh . . . if you, uh . . . if your right eye itches, uh, you're gonna get a letter. And if your left, left eye itches, uh, the postman's not gonna stop. Side 2 [Edited: A repetition of the last few "hand" superstitions on side one.] Mrs. Smith: And if your nose i tcl1es you're gonna have a fight. Mrs. Lang: If you, uh . . . Mrs. Smith: And never put new shoes on a table. Interviewer: Very bad luck? Mrs. Smith: Uh, very bad lucIc, double hard. Mrs. Lang: If ya drop a knife a mans comin and if ya drop a fork, a womans comin. If you drop a dishrag, somebodys gonna come eat dinner with you. When I was, uh, teaching, uh, about nineteen and twenty-eight or1930, uh, I was, I taught the children never to put anything on the Bible. An we always had a Bible on our desk. And Id have them lay their papers beside the Bible, but never put anything on top o the Bible because that book was sacred. And recently, one o the, uh, children I had, now grown and had gro-, uh, I mean, has grown children. And he had told me not long ago that he would never forget the fact that, that, uh, I had taught them that the Bible was sacred, that he, uh, would go, had been in many peoples homes and hed just, when hed see a, somethin s-, uh, another book on top o the Bible, he just intuitively move that book, that he felt like it was a sacrilege to put anything on top o the Bible. And, um, said that, that t had meant a lot to him to taught that, uh, the sacredness of our Bible. [Edited: Irrelevant remarks by the interviewer and comments.] Interviewer: Would you tell me about the apothecary? Mrs. Lang: Uh, my father was a, a doctor back in the eighteen and eighties and nineties. And a doctor, they had no drug stores then, the doctors mixed their own medicines. And the, there, what is today a drug store, was called an apothecary shop, and. uh, he had this, uh, shop. And when his younger brother got grown, he came and lived with my father and mother and studied, uh, medicine with my father, that is, studied the, uh, to be a, uh . . . Interviewer: Pharmacist? Mrs. Lang: Pharmacist. Interviewer: Yeah, thats what . . . Mrs. Lang: And he became a very, a fine, uh, pharmacist, and owned his own drug store, and became a man of, of means because of this. But my father gave his life to the ministry, and the, uh, the, uh, heritage I have is not money. [Break in tile recording.] Mrs. Lang: I was thinkin' about a game today we used to play when I was a little girl; uh, I don't see that game now, but we called it "Stealin' Sticks. We'd break up about fifteen or twenty sticks, and choose sides. And each, um, each side would try to go over the line, and steal one stick at a time, and take it back to his o her pile. And if you got caught, you had to take the stick back. But , uh, the side that, that had the most sticks at the end, that got all the sticks at the end 0' the game, of course, was, uh, won the game. It's, it's quite an exciting game. And, uh, we u-, um, . . . I tell ya my favorite when I was a child. I loved dolls, but I loved paper dolls. Interviewer: Oh. Mrs. Lang: I had paper dolls and, uh, I had, uh, doll, and I'd have other dolls with different dresses, and that would he the mother with all her different dresses, and all o' the children with all their different dresses. And if we ever got hold of a, of a colored one, that was worth about one hundred paper dolls if you could, you could swap it with somebody for one paper doll because the, the magazines didn't have colored sheets, you know. And The Pictorial Revue was the first book that I knew of, fashion book, thad colored illustrations. Interviewer: Yes. Mrs. Lang: But they were just, uh, they were valuable to us because as children . . . . And weld have se-, several hundred dolls, uh, paper dolls. But they would represent families, and I always had sixteen children in my family. [Laughter] Mrs. Lang: And I wanted girls, I jus' wanted lot o' girls and boys, you know. But a man, uh, the picture of a man, was just, uh, oh, it was just, uh, more valuable than anything because you hardly ever saw, uh, a mans style in a book. Interviewer: Yeah. Mrs. Lang: And, uh, if we could get hold of a father, we'd just have one father for the whole generation because we couldn't, the fathers and the boys. Mrs. Smith: For all the families, he was a Morman, huh? .Mrs. Lang: But that was our, that was my favorite. We'd have p-, paper dolls fer, oh, all day, and I'd just hate to see night come because we . . . . And another thing, when I was a little girl, I loved marbles, great big marbles. [indicates with thumb and forefinger the aproximate size], and my father was, had a very, he was very strict about Sundays. And on Saturday night at nine o'clock we went to be, on, and, uh, on Saturday night. And, that, those marbles had to go in a bag, and they hung under the mantle piece. And I hated Sunday with a passion because I couldn't touch those marbles. Interview: How big would you say they were? Mrs. Lang: How big was I? Interviewer: No, the marbles. Mrs. Lang: They were about like this [again indicating the size with her fingers] , and they had red and blue circles that, around them, big, oh, great big marbles. Interviewer: Uh huh, were they glass or stone or what? Mrs. Lang: No, they were made of, uh, I suppose . . . Interviewer: Wood? Mrs. Lang: No, they were, uh, plaster Paris [sic], I suppose . . . Interviewer: Uh huh. Mrs. Land: . . . with somethin like ceramics, you know. Interviewer: Oh, Mrs. Lang: They were, they were not, uh, not, uh, glass; they were hard. We didnt have those glass marbles. Interviewer: About an inch an' a half maybe? Mrs. Lang: I'd say, yeah, they were about the size of golf balls. Interviewer: Uh huh. Mrs. Lang: That size. And, uh, you'd have thirteen, I think, in, in a set. And, oh, they were, I thought they were the purtiest things a-goin'. Interviewer: There wasnt somethin unlucky abou having thirteen? Mrs. Lang: No, no, it was, no, I don', I don't, not, not to us, not to me. I, I never have been superstitious about anything anyway. But, uh, those marbles, I'll never forget that little bag. I thought that, oh, I just would pray for Monday to come so I could take those out, but Papa thought it was wrong to play games on Sunday. [Edited: A discussion between Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Lang on Sundays from which Mrs. Lang's remarks are as follows.] An everybody was quiet. We never talked real loud, uh, uh. Now, Papa was, uh, he never scolded us; he was real gentle about everything, but, "I'd rather you wouldn't do that. Well, you wouldn't; if you did it, youd feel like a heel anyway. [Laughter. Edited: Mrs. Lang says she used to so want to dance as a child. Dancing, of course, was not permitted. She talks about the rhythm band she formed as a teacher.] Comments: Apparently, Mrs. Lang picked up these superstitions from Negroes and personal contact: all of them seem to have come from people she knew in Gordon County.
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Professor John Burrison founded the Atlanta Folklore Archive Project in 1967 at Georgia State University. He trained undergraduates and graduate students enrolled in his folklore curriculum to conduct oral history interviews. Students interviewed men, women, and children of various demographics in Georgia and across the southeast on crafts, storytelling, music, religion, rural life, and traditions.
As archivists, we acknowledge our role as stewards of information, which places us inaposition to choose how individuals and organizations are represented and described in our archives. We are not neutral, andbias isreflected in our descriptions, whichmay not convey the racist or offensive aspects of collection materialsaccurately.Archivists make mistakes and might use poor judgment.We often re-use language used by the former owners and creators, which provides context but also includes bias and prejudices of the time it was created.Additionally,our work to use reparative languagewhereLibrary of Congress subject termsareinaccurate and obsolete isongoing. Kenan Research Center welcomes feedback and questions regarding our archival descriptions. If you encounter harmful, offensive, or insensitive terminology or description please let us know by emailingreference@atlantahistorycenter.com. Your comments are essential to our work to create inclusive and thoughtful description.