Historic Webster Vol. 10 No. 4

http://dp.la/api/items/ff6c8fa1d007fa81c10b6ffd65eb8028

Historic Webster Vol. 10 No. 4

1984

Historic Webster is a newsletter of the Webster Historical Society, Inc., created at the Society’s founding in 1974. The publication helped to serve the Society's mission of collecting and preserving the history of Webster, North Carolina. Webster, established in 1851, was the original county seat for Jackson County.

~··•••••••••••••••-_:n~e:w:s:l:e:tt:e:r of the Webster Historical Society, Inc. VOLUME X, NUMBER 4 WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA WINTER, 1984 Webster's Lacy Thornburg wins By Todd Thornburg When Lacy Thornburg brought his family to Jackson county in 1954, the first place they visited was the home of David Hall in Webster. As the Hall-Thornburg law firm developed during the suc­ceeding years, the farm on the Tuckasegee became more and more a familiar spot to the Thornburgs, and when Sara Hall decided to move to Virginia in 1963, it was with a sense of coming home that Lacy and his family bought the farm and actually moved to Webster. It is not surprising tbat Lacy Thornburg felt at home in Webster. His early life in rural Mecklenburg county was not unlike what it would have been in rural Jackson county. Lacy was born in 1929 and grew up on the family farm on Eastfield Road near Huntersville. The farm pro­duced most of the food which the family needed. There were the standard outbuildings - the smokehouse where hams and shoulders hung, the can house where fruits, vegetables, and canned meats were stored, and the pump house where the old windlow pump stood. There was even a big black pot where clothes were washed. ' The family worked - all of the family! The youngest child, Jesse, seven years younger than Lacy, carried water to Lacy and older sister Bobbie as they picked cotton or hoed corn. (Jesse vows that the older two drank more water than they could possibly have wanted just to keep him busy!) Lacy particularly remembers many hot hours guiding a horse-drawn plow across a rocky field. He says it was following that plow that probably made him determin­ed to make a living some other way and started his thinking about going to college when he finished his local schooling. The schools in this area of north Mecklenburg were small and rural. The first four grades were at the village of Croft and were taught in a two- Lacy Thornburg of Webster has been elected by North Carolina as it's Attorney General. room school house. From there students went to Huntersville for grades 5-12, which were housed in a school much like the one at Webster. Lacy's high school graduating class of 1947 was the fin>t to complete twelve grades. School and church were the two institutions outside the home which claimed the Thornburgs' interest. Lacy's parents, Sara and Jesse Thornburg, worked with teachers and PTA groups to improve the schools and to en­courage their children. They were also "pillars" in the Asbury Methodist Church, a church which until recent years resembled Webster Methodist Church. The small wooden structure was a se-cond home to the Thornburg family. Jesse Thornburg led the opening exercises in the Sunday School as its Superintendent for thirty-five years, and Sara taught the young peoples' class. Lacy's mother says she always tried to dress him up for church but that he carried his overalls with him and changed clothes before he got home so he would be ready to play. Often after Church on Sun­days, the work horses were transformed for pleasure riding. Lacy and young Jesse had special horses which were sc tame that Lacy remembers mounting his horse, Silver, by means of a board propped from the ground to the horse's back. Sunday dinner was a special event! The table was laden with country ham, fried chicken, vegetables, biscuits, jellies and jams, pies and cakes. During the summer the meal always ended with homemade ice cream churned in the hand-cranked freezer and frozen with ice chipped from blocks kept in the large ice box. The family and guests often stayed around the table long after the meal was finish­ed, discussing current political and social issues. Lacy's father, a mail carrier as well as a farmer, always asked the questions which kept anyone from accepting easy answers to difficult problems. This man, Jesse Thornburg, had a powerful influence not only on his family and church but also on his community. He was a crusader who worked diligently to get the Eastfield road paved and to get electric power into the area. He understood tbe workings of government and taught his family lessons in social responsibility by his example. Lacy, when he entered the Army at age seventeen, had been nurtured in a setting of love, faith, hard work, and civic responsibility. After his tour of military duty was com­plete, he entered Mars Hill College where he fell in love with the mountains and his wife-to-be, went on to Univer­sity of North Carolina and University of North Carolina Law School, and came to Jackson county to begin his own process of nurturing a family in the spirit, if not the exact manner, of his own up­bringing. Webster, indeed, became his home! Todd Thornburg, son of Lacy Thornburg, is a member of the English faculty at Sylva­Webster High School. Thornburg's life is politics By Paul Holt A life in politics. It has really always been the life for Judge Lacy Thornburg of Webster, recently elected at­torney general for North Carolina. Coming to Jackson County in 1954 as a rising lawyer and a strong supporter of the Young Democrats, he has moved this month into the third highest office in the state. Thornburg had been a member of David Hall's law firm on four years when Hall was nominated by the district com­mittee of the party to replace congressional nominee John Surford as the House candidate. With Hall's election in 1958 and his move to Washington Thornburg assumed senior partner status in the firm and became the county attorney, the attorney for the towns of Webster and Dillsboro, and the attorney for the county board of education. Thornburg's Sylva office virtually became Hall's district office and Thornburg his local representative. The untimely death of David Hall in January, 1960, ended a growing na tiona! political career. Thornburg con­tinued as the new congressmen, Roy Taylor's local representative and took over the Hall practice. As the political season of 1960 opened, Lacy Thornburg challenged the incumbent state representative for the nomination; defeated him in the primary; and in November, 1960, won the Jackson County seat. He kept this position through two more elections, but in 1966 Republican Charles Taylor took over in Thornburg's only political defeat. Continued on page 3 Page 2, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter, 1984 Riverview, the Thornburg home is ''the By Alan Thornburg On the Tuckasegee River in Webster there remains a large white house, dignified in its age, with land about it which holds as many memories as the great house itself. I was raised in this house from the time I was born, and I have many fond thoughts of it. I, however, am not the first to treasure my hours on these grounds. Grace Hall Brown, Aunt Gracey, was born, rais­ed, and married in the house and on its surroundings. She is a member of the family which has occupied the place for most of its existence, the Hall family. I live in the original house, but on only twenty-five acres of the original estate which held hundreds. Aunt Gracey has written and spoken of the old Hall place and she has aided me in a bet­ter understanding of it in these ways. Before the Civil War, Major Higdon, sheriff of Macon coun­ty at the time, owned the farm, but he was forced to sell the place at public auction because he was in debt. The farm was sold to Dr. John Woodfin, and it was then sold to the first Hall, David Fonsey Hall. The payment was made by Mr. Hall in the form of two Negro slaves ; Icem, a boy, and Sid, a girl. Alan Thornburg The Halls sold most of their slaves even before the end of the Civil War, but Aunt Gracey can remember one Negro woman named Edie, or Gran­ny Ede, who stayed on the farm and aided and comforted the family even after her freedom was granted. Granny Ede graciously served four generations in her humble life, as she was near one hundred years old when she died on January 17, 1917. The old Negro was full of clever stories, many recalled even ID­day. Granny Ede, in all of her generous contributions, always loved the farm where she spent her life, and many believe that she has never left that place. Some people believe that Granny's spirit still rests in the Hall house, and I have never doubted this. I have, on more than one occa­sion, seen what I believed to be the image of an old black Riverview, the former home of the Hall family, is now the Thornburg's Webster home. mammy swaying quietly in a large rocker. She always seems to be knitting, but her countenance glows with kind­ness, and this does not frighten me in any way. Sometimes she seems a bit mischievous, however, and hides or moves objects. Usually she replaces them after we have searched for an appropriate period of time! (If we have a ghost in our house, I believe we should count ourselves among the very fortunate.) When Granny Ede was liv­ing in the house as a slave, she, as well as all other Negroes, was given quarters in a cer­tain portion of the building. The area in which the slaves were given rooms to sleep was then separated from the main structure and the kitchen; these are all joined today. My bedroom is located in what was once part of the slave quarters. The room is very small, with an extremely low ceiling. In its original state, the room was surrounded on three sides by windows, and on the other by a fireplace. I often lie in bed and imagine all the slaves crowded together in the small space after a hard laborious day in the fields, all talking at once and not one distinctly audible. The stairs which lead to the rooms of .the "quarters" were once not enclosed. They were exposed to all weather. They twist around somewhat, but they are without landings to make the turns easily maneuverable and so one must use caution in climbing them. This problem was probably a most trivial complication to a working Negro. There are other interesting facts about the Hall Farm. As it sits on the Tuckasegee River, one of the original farm buildings was a tannery that received power from a water­wheel. This business was pro­fitable for many years. Hides, some local and some shipped in, were tanned to perfection by hand. They were first run through a lime solution to remove the hair from the skins, then wheelbarrowed over to a wheel at which they were washed and made ready for immersion. The skins were immersed in vats which con­tained homemade tanoozee (a liquid made from ground chestnut oak bark). Aunt Gracey remembers well the expert tanner who ran the tan­nery. He was James Manahale from Indiana, a man whom Gracey saw as a hero and a se­cond father until his death on the farm on October 5, 1908. The tannery continued without Manahale until new methods of tanning took hold and the business was no longer profitable. The tannery was located on the edge of the river just below a rock wall in front of my home. A steel stake re­mained to mark the spot of the business until a couple of years ago when the stake was removed so as not to hinder a tractor's plow. The farm has harbored many tales, most of which are gloomy but fascinating. One such story concerns a family which supposedly lived in the house many years ago. This family induced passersby to stop and spend a night with them in order to rob the unex­pecting travelers. Those who spent these nights with the mysterious family were never heard of again. This same family was said, in a story, to have cut off the head of a black I Y"tl- · Gracie Hall and David Brown were married on June 12, 1912. man just inside the entr gate to the place. This st< known as that of "Rawh or "Bloody Bones." Recounting these intri! stories was a favorite pa! on dark nights when Gracey was growing up she also remembers cour active recreation acti1 which occupied her glo days on the estate. I too spent many days on the 1 which I recall fondly. Ba the early years of Gra• life, she enjoyed the sum; by fishing on a pond and i river, swinging on grape~ sliding down pine st covered hills and boa tin! picnicking along Tuckasegee. In the children gathered, along walnuts, chestnuts to 1 over the winter-fire. Pol corn was also an act which was pleasing to all winter meant skating ove frozen river as well as coa down the snow-covered Spring was a time for pi< with the farm animals an joying the sights and sme that time of year. Alth many circumstances changed since these days past, I have enjoyed the in ways, hunting in the fi fishing in the river, expl< the fascinating forest an periencing many of my most treasured momen this setting. I apprecia more each year! Times of leisure were m only activities on the far1 any means, nor are the day. Wheat was grown i1 fields and it requ threshing. Cane was g; and it was made molasses. From the plm in the spring to the harve: in the fall , work continu• keep the farm running. T a large plot of bottom Ian• in corn every year ; a s field of hay and a mode! chard still require wor prove productive. The 1 remains active with the h of the farmer even now. The children and gr children (in Aunt Grac case) grew up and left place with few changes t made to the farm unti119' that year the flood came. river rose and washed < the barn, the tool shed, and the tennant house. this great devastation, the family was forced to sel estate. The place was bo by Mr. Earl Stillwell ar• 1940, then by Mr. Coates, then by Mr. Dillard. Soo1 part of the farm on whicl house stands and the prE acreage of the farm re-ent the Hall family through i~ to Mr. David McKee Hal The house, in its prE form, was built by the Ha 1891-1892, when the new I ceilinged front portion old homestead'' a nee 1ryis ead" :uing :time Aunt , but ttless •ities rious have >lace ck in :ey's mers nthe ines, raw­' and ' the fa ll , with :oast 1ping ivity .The ·rthe sting hills. tying den­lis of ough !lave have farm elds, lring d ex­life's ts in te it 1tthe nby y to- 1 the ired :own into 1ting ;ting Jd to oday llies mall :tor­k to 1lace ands and­! ey's . the >eing 10. In The tway crib, With Hall I the ught Jund and 1 the 1 the tsent ered sale I. sent lis in 1igh­was Sarah France Thornburg with Gracie Hall Brown on Sarah's wedding day, June 12, 1972. added to a small low-ceilinged house which dated back to the 1840's. The completed home became one of the finest homes in the county. Some of the first bathroom and toilet facilities were installed there as well as a dairy with fresh running water, a wash house with stationary tubs, and a fur­nace with built-in wash pots. In 1950, the- house was bought by David McKee Hall, Jr. and restored and upgrad­ed. David McKee Hall, Jr. was my father 's law partner in Sylva some years back and the two families developed a close, lasting relationship. After David Hall's death in 1960, the house and roughly twenty-five acres of beautiful land were sold to my father. As well as growing up in the old house, Aunt Gracey was married in it, and so was my sister. Aunt Gracey's foot­prints were molded into one of the hearths when she was small, and these indentations remain visible now. These footprints have often been a conversation starter, but never so much as at my sister Sarah Frances' wedding. The wedding was beautiful and the setting was one of happiness and hope. My family learned that the date of my sister's wedding was the exact date of Aunt Gracey's wedding which also had taken place in the house. The dates of the two weddings were the same to the very day, only sixty years apart. At my sister's wedding, thoughts drifted into the past and to Aunt Gracey as we noticed the imprint of her tiny feet in the hearth and as she relived for us her own special day. The only two women ever married in this house had a picture made together on that day of the summer solstice, June 21, 1972. Gracey's mar­riage was a long and happy one, and my sister's seems to be heading in that direction. From the original farm prior to the Civil War, which held men in servitude, to the house and acreage of today, the homestead has changed in many ways ; yet it continues to exist with its original lure and unmoving firmness . Many generations have received life on the place and many have died on it. All have taken with them part of the old homestead, but it has plenty more to give. Facts have been recorded and stories have been told about the old homestead, but many facts are yet to be put down and many stories will one day be told. Alan Thornburg, the young­est son of Lacy and Dottie Thornburg, is a senior at Sylva-Webster High School. This composition won him a first place in a regional writing contest. Winter, 1984, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Page 3 Thornburg's political life has been Jackson County Lacy Thornburg became a candidate for North Carolina's attorney general. He won that election in November, 1984. Continued from page 1 Dan Moore a former Webster resident, uncle of David Hall, and no~ North Carolina governor, appointed Thorn­burg in 1967 to a post as special Superior Court judge for a four year term. In 1971 Thad Bryson of Bryson City resigned as resident Superior Court judge. Thornburg was endorsed for this job, received the position, filled Bryson's term, ran in the primary, and was elected in 1971 as the judge of ~e thirtieth judicial district (the seven western North Carolina counties). He continued in the job, running again in 1982 and being elected for another eight year term with no opposition. Judge Thornburg resigned from the court in 1983 to .c?n­sider the Democratic race for governor. Before the f1lmg deadlline he announced for attorney general instead and received the nomination unopposed. In November he took the election, defeating C. Allen Foster of Greensboro. According to common consent, Lacy Thornburg was con­sidered by North Carolina lawyers as one of the top three Superior Court judges in the state. They consider him a working judge, one who does not often adjourn court on Wednesday noon, but one who will keep the jury on th~ case on a Saturday, and he has even been known to contmue a case on a Sunday afternoon. Lacy Thornburg is known as an even-tempered lawyer and judge, one with a long fuse. The judicia~ had such a high opinion of Thornburg that when an especially compe­tent judge was needed to hear a controversial or com­plicated case, Lacy Thornburg was sent to hear the case even if it meant moving him out of his district. Those who know Lacy Thornburg personally or profes­sionally, know that he takes with him to his. new position in­telligence, insight, and ability. North Carolina can expect a good job from its new attorney general. Paul Holt is a former law partner of Lacy Thornburg and is the senior partner in the Sylva law firm of Holt, Haire & Bridgers, P. A. Page 4, HISTORIC WEBSTER, Winter, 1984 Thornburg's Scrapbook In 1950 Mars Hill student Thornburg got his first car. Born on a Hunterville farm, Lacy always had animals. Mrs. Sarah Ziegler Thornburg and her son Lacy, age 5, in 1934. In 1967 Margaret Henson swore in Lacy Thornburg as special Superior Court Judge. Lacy and his brothers on their father's tractors in 1939. Lacy Thornburg and Lou, his great dane, at Riverview. Governor Dan Moore, a former Webster resident, talk­ed with Mrs. Dorothy Thornburg as her husband announc­ed for office. The Thornburg family: Todd, Alan, Mrs. Dottie Thornburg, Eugene, Lacy Thornburg, Sarah France Thornburg Even, and Mark Evans.

1980s

Webster (N.C.) -- History -- Periodicals

Jackson County (N.C.) -- History -- Periodicals

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

English

text

http://wcudigitalcollection.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16232coll15/id/706

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center