Singing in the Cotton Mills or Mountain Music from the Sweat Factories

In these parts, Union, Towns, Fannin and surrounding counties in North Georgia and also in nearby Tennessee and North Carolina, we like what we call “country music.” During the Great Depression era and even prior to that economic downfall in America, many people had to leave their farms and seek employment elsewhere. Many went to towns where cotton mills operated, offering jobs for men, women and children at very low wages. But the employment provided enough to keep food on the table, if they could find food to buy, a shelter of sorts over their heads, and clothing on their backs. Out of this sad time came much “country music,” for those with the abilities to play guitar, banjo, fiddle, “French” harp and autoharp and sing their plaintive, sad folk songs, brought about what has been called “Singing in the Cotton Mills.”

Recently I came across and read a delightful book about how our mountain folk music was preserved by those with a will to be happy despite circumstances. Patrick Huber has written/compiled a book chronicling the history of country music. It tells of those who got their start as music artisans as they worked in cotton mills of the Piedmont South. The title is Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South.

Huber devotes a chapter to Fiddlin’ John Carson (1868-1949) who, some biographers say, was born in Fannin County, Georgia. Carson described himself on one of his OKeh recordings in 1929: “I’m the best fiddler that ever jerked the hairs of a horse’s tail across the belly of a cat.”

Life was not easy for cotton mill workers in the era covered by the “Linthead Stomp” book, 1923-1942. Many left farms that had been their way of life for a long time and sought work in the cotton mills. Many with musical inclinations took with them their ability to play the fiddle, a guitar or a banjo—and their plaintive voices that sang the ballad-type songs they had heard all their lives. Others, with a talent for writing rhyme, composed new ballads about the life they had left for hard work in the cotton mills. In John Carson’s case, he wrote a song about a newsworthy event, the murder of a young girl in Atlanta in April, 1913.

John Carson wrote “Little Mary Phagan” about the murder trial of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year old pencil factory worker who was murdered and her body buried in the basement of the factory. Leo Frank, manager and part-owner of the factory, was accused of the murder and a notorious trial ensued. While he was in prison serving a life sentence, a group calling themselves “Knights of Mary Phagan” stole Frank out of prison and hanged him.

Fiddlin’ John Carson wrote his song about Mary Phagan in 1915 and sang it from the steps of the Georgia State Capitol to a crowd gathered to hear. In 1925, his daughter, Rosa Lee Carson, who was his guitar player and did duets with her father, sang the Phagan song and it was recorded. Those interested may access U-Tube clips of many of the John Carson songs as well as this ballad sung by his daughter.

John Carson, and another musician, Ed Kincaid, another Fannin County native, who was a member of Carson’s Virginia Reelers Band, often did concerts together, and both appeared at the annual Georgia “Old Time Fiddler’s Convention” at which entrants were judged for their playing ability. In 1913, John Carson entered the competition for the first time and was named to fourth place that year. However, with more practice and much determination, Fiddlin’ John Carson was named first place winner seven times from the years 1914-1922. Both Carson and Kincaid worked at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta. Their work at the mills and association through their music and recordings gave them the distinction of being included in the Huber compilation, “Linthead Stomp.”

For the country music lover, especially of the more vintage (old-fashioned) type, Huber has included valuable information in appendices in his book. Appendix A is a directory of southern textile workers who made hillbilly recordings between 1923-1942. And Appendix B lists the discography of recordings of these artists during the same time period. Many of the old records have been re-recorded and are now available on disk. Johnny Carter of Rome, Georgia, who has Union County roots (his grandfather was Frank Dyer of Choestoe, who was a noted “shaped note” music teacher of the twentieth century, and inducted a few years ago into the Union County Gospel Music Hall of Fame) has the National Recording Studio in Rome. He is on a mission to re-record many of these old songs and save them for posterity. We commend John Carter for this mission. You can read about him and his recording studio by going online to National Recording Studio. He is not included in Linthead Stomp because he is after that era; but he is saving some of the recordings of the era Huber writes about.

In looking through Huber’s appendix on recording artists, not only did I read about John Carson and his daughter, Rosa Lee, nicknamed “Moonshine Kate,” and Ed Kincaid, all of whom were partners in recording on the OKeh records, with Carson’s first being made in 1923, but I also found the listing of Hazel Cole who was born in Fannin County. She left Fannin County to go to Rome, Georgia to work in a textile mill there. She met her future husband at the mill, Henry W. Grady Cole from LaFayette, Georgia. Since both liked to sing and play, they formed the “Grady and Hazel Cole Duo.” During 1939 and 1940, Hazel and Grady recorded twelve sides on RCA and Victor recording labels. Huber gives a total of twenty-five natives of areas of North Georgia who contributed significantly to this particular era of country music. I don’t know if any of these were natives of Union County, as he either did not know or did not give the origin of their birth other than Georgia. Noted among them were three with the last name Chumbler: George Elmo (1907-1956), Irene (1913-?) and William Archer (1902-1937) who often recorded as the Chumbler Family and also with “Jim King and His Brown Mules” as well as with “Hoke Rice and His Southern String Band.”

With the Great Depression and its financial woes a very real challenge to cotton mill workers (as well as everyone) during a major portion of the period covered by Huber’s history of country music in Linthead Stomp, there’s a heartening note to think that they might have been singing in the cotton mills as they operated the looms or made garments and worked hard to make their production quotas. The tone of much of the music they produced matched the depressed times, sad and plaintive, longing for better times, and remembering why they had to leave their farm homes in the first place. Carson’s “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” touched on that very nostalgic theme. But then, on their time off, the fiddlers could play at barn dances and community gatherings, providing music for weekend parties and get-togethers where they might share food they’d bring for the best meal their means could provide. They sang their blues away by singing sad songs and dancing. They were grateful for work, whatever it was, and singing in the cotton mills was better far than crying, even though their songs were often melancholy. Their music and their expressed pathos is part of the fabric of America and the hard times they lived through.

c February 16, 2012 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published online by permission of author at GaGenWebProject All rights reserved.

A Correction, A Thanksgiving Wish, and Another Brown Family

First, a correction from last week’s column. Thanks to Wanda Brown Gibson of Blairsville who knows much more about the many Brown family lines in Union and Towns Counties than I could ever hope to uncover, I have this glaring error to correct from last week’s column (November 19), last paragraph.

I wrote that Smith and Mary Brown’s eighth child, Henry Franklin Brown, became a Baptist minister. Actually, this Henry Brown, son of Smith and Mary, became a deacon at New Liberty Baptist Church—not a minister. The Rev. Henry Brown was a descendent of Ezekiel Brown through Walter Brown. Ezekiel Brown had large holdings along the Hiawassee River in Towns County and before the Emancipation Proclamation, owned a number of slaves. This line of Browns made bricks from clay and Ezekiel Brown built an imposing brick house for his family. Rev. Henry Jud Brown was born February 28, 1880 and died March 20, 1968 at age 88. At age 21, he was the first pastor of West Union Baptist Church in Towns County when it was organized in 1901. Other known pastorates were Mt. Pisgah in North Carolina, and in Georgia Old Brasstown, Old Union, Liberty, Zebulon, Harmony Grove, Ebenezer, Antioch, Blairsville and Choestoe. I’m sorry for any confusion my error caused researchers.

Now for a Thanksgiving wish. Our American holiday which we call Thanksgiving dates back to November 21, 1621 when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and their neighbors, the Wampanoag Indians with Chief Massasoit as their leader, gathered for a feast of Thanksgiving. The Mayflower Compact governed the Plymouth Colony in those early years. The friendly Indians lent help to the brave band of Pilgrims as they planted their first crops and survived the rigors of their first year in a strange land.

The stories of how they built their government, settled into village life, and made friends with the Indians has inspired generations since 1620. As we gather with families on this Thanksgiving, may we consider the principles upon which America was founded. The Pilgrims made a solemn covenant to treat one another with brotherly love, to seek to supply one another’s needs, to live together in peace and harmony, to share each other’s joys and sorrows, and to work for the greater good of their community. My wish for you is a solemn and grateful Thanksgiving and a return to principles that served our forebears well in the early years of this nation.

Today’s focus on another Brown family will be that of Martha Clementine Brown (05/02/1861-09/05/1933), the eleventh child of twelve born to Harmon and Sarah Brown. On February 12, 1878, Martha Clementine, called “Tina” and John Padgett Souther (09/12/1858 -3/04/1959) spoke their wedding vows. Tina’s husband was the fifth child of ten born to his parents, John Combs Hayes Souther (10/22/1827-01/04/1891) and Nancy Collins Souther (02/13/1829-07/22/1888). Recall, please, from last week’s article that Mary Elizabeth Souther (04/07/1853-01/11/1929), John Padgett’s Souther’s oldest sister, married the Rev. Smith Loransey Brown (01/20;1850-05/16/1932), the sixth child of Harmon and Sarah Brown. The children of these couples, being double-first cousins, would have much in common, living rather close together on farms in the Choestoe District. Rev. Smith Brown and Mary Elizabeth Brown had nine children (see last week’s article for that list). John Padgett Souther and Martha Clementine “Tina” Brown Souther had sixteen children:

1. Jasper Gilliam Souther (11/29/1878-07/24/1943) married first, Nancy Collins (1876-1907) and second, Estella Mae Cole (1888-1978). Gilliam was an ordained Baptist minister. He died in the pulpit while conducting revival meeting at New Liberty Baptist Church. He had expressed a desire to die while preaching, and his wish was fulfilled. He was buried in Clermont, Georgia.

2. Sarah J. Souther (10/18/1880-02/15/1881)
3. Homer H. Souther (12/24/1881-1946) married Lizzie Plott.
4. Oria C. Souther (12/23/1883-12/29/1965) married Edward Collins.
5. Infant (b/d 03/14/1884).
6. Nora E. Souther (10/12/1887-10/17/1919) married LaFayette Jackson.
7. Maria Souther (08/02/1886-05/30/1950).
8. William H. Souther (07/17/1889-?), married twice; spouses’ names unknown.
9. Joseph Thompson Souther (02/22/1893-05/14/1983) married Bertha Pruitt.
10. Martha D. Souther (02/11/1891-07/03/1893)
11. Grady G. Souther (01/05/1895-09/25/1970) married Mary Johnson
12. Mary Souther (08/02/1897-05/30/1950).
13. Lydia Souther (09/22/1899 - ?).
14. Emily Rose Souther (10/26/1901 - ?) married John Rice.
15. Johnnie P. Souther (01/15/1905-01/06/1929).
16. Cora Souther (07/27/1903-11/09/1903).

We can imagine the heartache Martha Clementine “Tina” Brown Souther endured with four of her sixteen children dying as infants and one young son, Johnnie, at age 24. Tina died ten years before her preacher son, Jasper Gilliam, died at New Liberty Church in 1943, but his father, John Padgett Souther, who lived to be 99, was still living when his son, Rev. Gilliam Souther, died at age sixty-seven.

c2009 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 26, 2009 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Davenport Mountain named for early settler, John B. Davenport

Travel on Georgia Highway 325 (Nottely Dam Road) until you are near the Mt. Zion Baptist Church. There you will find a Georgia historical marker. It reads:

Davenport Mountain in view to the east was named for John Davenport who came to this section in 1838. He built his 40 foot long log house 1.2 mi. to the east, over the peak of the mountain. It survived until removed in 1942 to make way for Nottely Lake.

William Poteet came to this section about the same time and settled near the junction of Camp Creek and Nottely River. William and Hosea Thomas took up homesteads at the west about 7 years later. George Loudermilk built his home on Camp Creek.

Thomas Lance, another pioneer, settled 4 mi. west at the foot of Lance Mountain.

The historical sign honors early settlers John Davenport, William and Hosea Thomas, George Loudermilk and Thomas Lance, families that played an important role in the early history of Union County. This article will focus on the John Davenport line.

The date on the sign, 1838, may be slightly in error. John B. Davenport, the first of the Davenport line in Union County, was not shown on this county's 1840 census. Neither was he listed in Davie County, North Carolina, from where he moved. But tax records show him still registered in Iredell County, NC in the years 1837, 1838 and 1839. It seems the census taker missed listing this Davenport family in 1840. They could have been in the process of moving to Union County, Georgia and no one went out to Davenport Mountain to find his 40-foot long new cabin. Family records, however, show that John B. and Annie Lewis Davenport moved to Union County, Georgia in 1844.

This couple had a large family of eleven children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. When John B. and Annie Lewis Davenport moved from North Carolina six of their eleven children had already been born. The dates and places of birth seem to lend credence to 1838 as the date the family moved to Georgia.

Here are their children's names, dates of birth and whom they married. The first six were born in North Carolina: (1) Debbie, born about 1826, married John Bryan in 1846 in Union County; (2) Lively Elizabeth, born about 1832, married John Loudermilk in Union County; (3) Louisa, born about 1832, (were she and Lively twins?), married Riley Burton Hunter in Union County; (4) John Evrem was born November 30, 1833, married Lively N. Thomas in Union County; (5) Anne was born about 1835 and married Jess Cole in Union County; (6) Mary, called "Polly," was born May 19, 1938, never married; (7) David E. was born April 27, 1836 (?) in Georgia and married Adeline C. Thomas in Union County in 1870; (8) Susie was born March 30, 1839 in Georgia, and never married; (9) Daniel, twin brother to Susie, married Lucinda Hix; (10) Lois Adeline, born November 3, 1842 in Georgia, married A. Judson Wallace in Union County; (11) Washington died young. We do not know his birth date or death date, since this information is no longer on the field stone that marks his grave in the Bethlehem Church Cemetery.

John B. Davenport had three sons, John, David and Daniel, who joined the Confederate Army on July 3, 1862. They enlisted at Fort Nelson near Morganton, Georgia in Fannin County and were placed in Company B of Fain's Regiment, Georgia Infantry.

Guy Davenport, a descendant, who has collected and written much information on the Davenport family line, says the three brothers "did not volunteer, but were heavily recruited." John, the oldest of the three brothers, was already married, having married Lively N. Thomas in 1857. He was recruited July 3, 1862, just six days prior to his daughter, Martha Alice's birth, on July 9. Already John and Lively had John William (1858), Amanda (1860); then Martha (1862). John and Lively had a large family of thirteen, with eleven growing to adulthood. Their other children were Lois Aleatha (1864), Rhoda (called "Radie", 1866), Alcie L. (1868), James David (1870), Dillard Hosea (1872), Minda (1875), Elisha Lonzo (1878), Nora (1882), and sons Tiny (1874) who died as a baby and another son (unnamed) who died at birth.

With political persuasions differing from the Confederate side, John Davenport deserted and went home to Union County in 1863. It is said that when he worked his fields, he wore a bonnet and a dress to keep his identity secret from the conscriptors who tried to hunt down and force deserters to go back into service. However, the secret of his being home could not be kept, and one day two Confederate armed men on horseback captured him near his home. One of his captors rode before him and one after. John was forced to walk in the middle, his hands bound. At an opportune time, John escaped, running through a thicket and evading his captors. A friendly neighbor untied John's hands and got John a gun from home. After this fiasco, John had to hide out in the mountains, and slip into his barn at night to get the food Lively left there for him. That was a long, hard, fearful winter before the war ended in 1865.

John's brothers, David and Daniel, single at the time of their enlistment in the Confederacy, deserted and went to Tennessee where they surrendered to Union forces in August of 1863. They spent time in a prisoner-of-war camp, but enlisted in the Union Army, Company C, 5th Regiment, Tennessee Mounted Infantry on September 12, 1864 at Cleveland, Tennessee. Their main work was in guarding the railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta and keeping the tracks in shape for traffic. To have spent time in both Confederate and Union armies was not that unusual during the Civil War, especially for independent, Union-sympathizing mountain people.

Many people still residing in Union County trace their ancestry back to John B. and Annie Lewis Davenport, and the other settlers whose names are listed on the historical roadside marker near Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Nottley Dam Road. John B. (Aug. 10, 1795-Sept. 8, 1886) and Annie Lewis Davenport (May 2, 1801-Sept. 5, 1893) were buried at Bethlehem Cemetery. John Evrem (Nov. 30, 1833 - May 16, 1894) and Lively Thomas Davenport (June 11, 1837 - Nov. 13, 1932) were buried at the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Lively lived to the ripe age of 95. Her obituary told of her good deeds and of her expertise as an herbalist and caregiver for the sick and needy.

(For this article, I am grateful to "Guy Davenport's Notes" online, and for the excellent family articles submitted to "The Heritage of Union County" book by Major Leon Davenport and other descendants of John B. and John E. Davenport.)

c 2008 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Apr. 17, 2008 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.