Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-08-26
Some Henderson County, and Other
Genesis.
(By Thos. ]. Rickman.)

giving the record OF a certain people,
in limited country, for definite
period of time, are denominated
Chronicles. Looking under and be-
yond, where shall we find the chron-
icle of Chronicles?
4 History, not only fails to give us
events fully aud truly, during the eras
it reaches over, but can give us no
knowledge back to a real beginning,
if there be such a thing That which
is behind history, is as strange and
mysterious to us. as that which is be-
hind the inscrutable face of nature.
About the period of 1845, we believe,
is given for the genesis of what we
happily know, as the Henderson Coun-
ty empire. CA small empire it is truce
but one well known and dear to us)
The natural order and taking place OF
things, in that Henderson County en-
p1re, we're in existence, and there, be-
fore that date, therefore, who shall go
under and beyond, and give US the gen
es1s of Henderson?
Legend is what may be called a fab
ulous story, especially of and concern
ing saints, or dead-and-gone-ones, and
some say it is truer than history; and
If that be correct, then we are brought
around and reminded of that political.
orator, in the heat of passion, becom-
ing tangled in his arguments, eXclaim-
ed. fellow citizens, what 1 want to
know is, where are we at, any way"
This too, reminds us it is time to get
back to some Henderson County leg
end, history, or genesis. under what
ever heading may best suit the taste
OF Democrat readers.
The knowledge of this writer ex-
tends from 1865, on up to nowhere
being a missing link of twenty years,
as you will see from the old county's
beginning in S45. Please set up and
take notice. that things were different
then. At meeting houses, were loca-
ted "upping-blocks," where ladies, after
old time devotions, donned their riding
skirts and lit into the side-saddle, OF
up behind the old man-divided skirts
and stride-riding, for girls, unheard Of
if you please. A door for men and one
for women, led into the church, while
men seated to the left and women to
the right, as you enter.-typical, we
! presume, of the goats and sheep. Girls
and boys must look askance, to see one
another,-no mixing up on seats. Such
would have bordered into scandal, and
eternally knocked out the sanity looks
OF any good mother, in that congrega :
ton. This writer put his foot into it,
| a few times and knows what he is
writing about. It took six months of
hard winning work, to ever gain the
proper respect and good will of that
mother, whose daughter you would
presume to sit by in church. 1t was
part of the genesis or legend of the
times in which you live and the de-
pertinent of then, was not the deport-
ment of now.
Automobile" was not in the die
! tionary or blue-back speller of that
era. neither was electric cars, for they
were all unknown and even railroads
and steam engines, were so far away
that they were regarded as existing
only in "fur-eign" countries Army
blankets and Confederate muskets.
with mimic balls were 96rite habf1i-
ments around some homes, but these
were not the line of goods desired by
/ al 1.-The families of Henderson County
Union muskets and MIME balls, for
some
Now in our next letter we expect to
speak of some of the Industrial enter
prises, literary and musical institu-
tions. that then made up part of the
county's history-we will refer to
BILL eye" and family as basket max
ers and their modus. to Jim Nam
NETT" "Gabe Niece and others as
family shoe-makers and their line of
goods, to Colonel Ripley as the seller
of shemlock sole-leather and BACKED
apper-leather, for Jim and Gabe's"
use: to Alec Mccall as the country
chimney builder There were three
Alec McCalls, Big Alec, Black Alec
and Laughing Alec-all were not
chimney builders. Ward, the hat
maker and the style of his goods, come
in Waters, -Rees and others writing
masters, and Morris, Gillespie Saun-
ders, Gibbs and even on down to Prof.
Wilkie. will come as singing teachers
Col. John Allen, the early constable
and Lawyer Pickens and his adviser
and keeper Of his alphabetical device
for carrying his papers, &c.,-an part
of Henderson's history and much more
that can not be here mentioned.