Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-10-07
fBx Thomas ]. Rickman.l

Pioneer masonry was not altogeth-
er the masonry OF today, neither was
the material used, not the manson
himself, the same. we now have. Uncle
Alex Mccall, the chimney builder,
heretofore referred to, was one OF q
large and influential family and gem
Grafton of McCalls in both Henderson
and Transylvania counties" spendid
people. Alex was what was then cali
ed a "rock-chimney builder and it
was pretty well understood, that ne
did not have very great respect for
brick chimneys built to any house.
The time of year for him to UNDER
take a chimney job, was after crops
were laid by, in August and during
the autumn, and for five days in.the
week, Alex was a faithful hammerer
on rocks, that went into his chimney,
but he never worked on Saturdays.
He had on his , list, at least four
churches that he attended on the
monthly Saturday meetings, all Of
which had different meeting-days.
While Alex was not himself a preach
er, he was what was known as ali
"exhorter' and he allowed no service
to go by, without exercising his gifts,
when he was present.
AS Brother A. 1. Justice has told
you, no one but regular preachers
went into the boxed-up pulpit, but,
down in front OF the same, on tho
floor, was a small table, behind which
exhorters might stand, (under the
droppings Of the sanctuary, as it
were) at the close of the preaching
and admonish backsliders to draw
~frA 81 ook ~frhf Tk 6iH not 40 .n1
to have been the business Of the ex-
horter to spend his time on out-a2d-
out sinners, but on the hayward and
backslidden, and to this duty, Alex,
was an exhorter in good and regular
standing and no Saturday meeting
passed hat his voice was not heard,
afar on.
Should a protracted meeting have
broken out, anywhere within ten
miles Of where Alex was building
chimneys, then, you weren't talking TO
him about breaking rocks, til that
meeting closed. Winter could come
on, If it would, ant you with no ire
place, but Alex was going t. exhort
in that meeting, till IT closed, The
kind Of material used by h;m. WAS
common hard surface rocks aud Boil
ston lime from the Turner Williams
kiln, mixed with creek sand. It was
q SIGHT to see Alex hammer rock.
He did not seem to care so much what
SHAPE he got it into, as to see If he
could beat it to pieces, and If he
could, then 1t was rejected by the
builder.
The pile of debric, on the finishing
ofi m OF his chimneys would have
the natives. 1t took ALI
he leisure days of a year following. to ]
haul 1t all away, into the gulltes and
Tashouts. The class of rocks that
the test of his hammer were
probably those of the Devonian age,
or shales, and those Of the sandstone
age, would fly away like dust under
mis- mighty strokes. F4ints, Of the
J~rustcean period, would have done,
had they not crashed like glass under
mis- hammer. i - 4g
Scientists now would say, that the
rocks accepted by Alex In his chimr
leys, were formed millions Of years
but he would never have accept
I'd or used one of them, had be not
BELIEVED IL was made in one OF the
six days of Creation, as recorded 1 n
he Scriptures; nor would be have
had any respect for what Is called Gre
ative days Of forty-nine thousand
years each, for he believed in the
"a hour day then, Just as we
rave them now. Alex believed MOTH
ING, unless it was found in the Scrip
ture.
This writer is glad he did not have
10 look on one of the II or IA inch
now put to- chimneys; for hej
not only would have been mortified
he would have been disguested. Alexis
chimneys had 1replaces to them,
carrying a backlog seven feet long, a
fore-stick eight feet long, and the
averaging eve and q
half feet. Grove Park Inn, with its
saw-logs lying around, would
have been no surprise to him, for his
was for every day log-burning, rather !
than samples about in the reception
His prices for building a CHM
ney were from ten dollars up to
according to whether, for a
one-story or a two story house.
This world was left all the better
for any one of the McCalls having
lived in it.; they were pioneer heroes
of noble stock.
The Family ShOemakers. Il
J Family shoe-makers were at one
time highly priced and James Ham
NETT, Gabriel Niece and Bail Laughter
have each left behind them the re-
in the minds of those, for
whom they wrought, of services faith
performed. Stylish store shoes,
in those days, before, during and af-
ter the civil war, were not available
to the rank and file of Henderson
county good people, as they are now. !
Tan troughs for tanning natives hides
into leather, were common at almost
every household. The shoes made by
the gentlemen above named, and many
others, were not sewed ca1f-skins, but
were put together by wooden pegs, the
vamps being sewed with buck-skin
strings. These wooden pegs were
made by the shoemaker himself, usu-