Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1928-02-02
WATAUGA'S FIRST
BRICK RESIDENCE
Built by Benjamin Council on Brushy
Fork Nearly Century Ago; Aunt
Polly Horton Recalls Days When
House Raising Was Social Event
(Ruper Gillett in Winston-Salem
Journal.)

Will pass at V has. SIX miles west OIL
Boone, an old mill with an overshot
water wheel which still grinds meal
for those who follow the ancient Gus
tom of having their meal ground
from their own corn, instead of buy
ing it from the store.
I Just when this old mill was built
by Benjamin Councill no one seems
to know, not even his daughter,
Mrs. Polly Horton, who lives near
Sherwood postoffice. 1t was built
before she was born, and she is now
eighty-two. 1t is safe to conjecture,
therefore, that the mill is in the
neighborhood of a hundred years
old, and the old overshot wheel still
turns as merrily as when the people
| of the nigehborhood relied entirely
on it for their corn meal. y
But, according to Mrs. Horton,
or Aunt Polly as she is affectionate-
| ly called by all who know her not all
of them depended on her fathers
mill, for some ground their corn
with rude mortars and pestles, just
as the Indians did, and as people in
many parts of Mexico still do.
Across the road from the mill is
a large brick house, the first house
made of that material in Watauga
county. This house, Mrs. Horton
says, was built by her father just be-
fore she was born, 82 years ago. 1t
was a mansion in its day, for to
bring brick over mountain roads
nearly century ago was more of a
| problem than people today can rea-
+; lize.
Mrs. Horton does not know where
her father got the bricks, but it is
probable that they came from John
son City, sixty miles away. At a
time when ten miles made a good
days journey, and when it was not
at all unusual for a wagon to be up
to its hubs in mud; Benjamin Coun-
Gill did not permit such obstacles
to stand in the way of his building
the finest house in Watauga county.
But house building in those days
was not such an unpleasant task as
these details might indicate. AS all
the mountain people faced the same
difficulties, all were willing to helr
neighbor when he wanted to build
a house, harvest a crop, or split
rails for fence. All man had to
do was to let his neighbors know that
he would have ''house raising" on
such and such date, and early that
morning the neighbors would begin
arriving to help with the work.
Mrs. Horton tells that the peo.
>ple made house raisngs their prin-
cibal social vents. Usually, they
were for constructing log houses
which were put together almost
without nails. The neighbors gath
cred early, Some began cutting the
logs and mortising the ends for the
walls. Others were set to irving
logs to make boards for the floors
and for the roofs. (The roofs were
covered with boards laid the same
way as shingles.)
When the materials wore cut, all
began helping to put them into
place. The logs of the walls were
: mortised at the corners, so that no
nails We're needed there. The sleep
ers of the floor and ceiling were
held in place by wooden pegs, as
were the rafters and cross pieces on
which the shingle boards were
placed. Thus, with all the neighbors
helping, a fine log house could be
almost erected in a day.
Lo hn
man worked on the house, the
woman prepared a fine meal of the
very best mountain delicacies that
could be procured. All the neighbors
who came to the house raising
/ brought some of the best products of
their beehives, smoke-houses, milk
houses and-sh! ssh! even their
stills. These were prepared and as
sembled on a long table improvised
under the trees, and all joined in
the feast
After the days work was done,
! the new house was dedicated with
dance, in which square dances
were interspersed among contests in
buck and wing and clog dancing. Far
into the night the fiddlers scraped
Turkey in the Straw" and "Sour-
wood Mountain" from their strings
to the accompaniment of the scrap
ing of heavy boots on the new floor
and the shouts of the caller, Ladies
! to the center, gents circle right"
"Swing your opposite; now your
own," and an occasional hilarious
"Yip! Zip" from an unusually ex-
berant dancer.
At length, when the splintered
boards of the new floor were worn
almost smooth, the dancers dis
persed to their homes and left their
host and hostess in possession Of a
new home of their own. No one
F., ever thought of being paid for his
| days labor; the fun of the gather
ing and the satisfaction that comes
Continued on Page Two)