Does anyone have the records of Dr. Eric Wolf(e) Coeburn, VA area? He delivered some of my Mom's babies, late 1920's- early 1930's. The first 4 babies died at birth or soon after. Would like to know more, if girls or boys, dates of birth, anything. Thanks Helen Lawson Quillen

If I read anymore about apple pies, I'm going to have to go to the kitchen and make a few. My mom was probably one of the best cooks you'd ever want to meet. Her dad refused to give her permission to marry, partly because she had been the cook of the family (13 kids) since she was 12. (She eloped) She fried many apple pies for our family, 9 of 13 kids. (13 seemed to be the lucky number in her family.) Col. Sanders never knew what really delicious fried chicken was, because he never ate my mother's. (We lived in the same town!) She had a special iron skillet for her chicken and one for her cornbread. I watched her clean and cut up chickens with her big handmade butcherknife many many times. She could cut a chicken into more pieces than you thought a chicken had. When her knifeblade came down on the joint of two pieces, it was like Robin Hood splitting an arrow with an arrow. She never missed. Mention was made of heating bricks for the bed, corn in the bags, and dried apples covered with cheesecloth. You might appreciate this: When my mother was small, on cold winter nights they would gather eggs from the hens' nest that had frozen and were slightly cracked. These eggs couldn't be sold at the general store. Before bedtime, chestnuts were put in a brown paper bag, the frozen eggs wrapped in cheesecloth, and they were placed in the coals of the fireplace. Sometimes the eggs would slip out of the cheesecloth, explode, and cause a train of confusion and laughter among the kids. They couldn't eat too many chestnuts because they caused bloating. Her mother made what they called maple syrup sugar cakes. That's what she took to school in her lunch bucket. The buckets were all put in the creek until time to eat. (Creek flowed down from a mtn spring) Remember, they didn't get to go to school in the dead of winter. It was much too cold, and too far for the children to walk. She used to laugh and say the boys looked like a bunch of little frogs squatting on big rocks while they ate their lunches. When my older siblings were small, cars didn't have heaters. My dad went downtown to look at cars and came home driving a new 1923 Chevrolet. He'd never driven a car. The car had button flaps over the windows to keep out wind and dust. In winter, Mama heated bricks and concrete blocks, wrapped them with old quilts or blankets, put them in the car and everyone put their feet on them to keep warm until journey's end. There's something about those old-time stories!!!! Pat O'Neal -----Original Message----- From: Robert Crabtree <crabtree@speedlink.com> To: SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com <SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, February 19, 1999 7:52 PM Subject: RE: Dried Apples >Thirteen Steps and Fried Apple Pies > >I had a problem getting to school on time. Regardless of what I did, >I was fifteen minutes late each morning. I had to walk about a mile >or so down the road, across the short cut by the Webbs and through the >woods to Rowling's Holler. I usually ate breakfast on the way. >Mom made the best fried apple pies. I guess they are called apple >tarts or something like that now. But anyway, This morning was no >different than all the others, I was running late again. Sure I was >embarrassed by it. Staying after school and writing on the blackboard >had no effect. Mom would say her part and add, "go ahead and screw up >and let old Maude kick you". In other words, "screw up and pay the >price, usually where it hurts." And on this morning, those words took >on a new meaning. >I hadn't noticed that we had one of those freezing rains over night. >Those thirteen steps going down to the road were covered with this >near invisible clear ice. I went running down the walk with a fried >apple pie in each hand. When I hit that top step, my feet went >straight out and my rear bounced down each of those steps one by one. >I held on to those pies with arms flapping straight out from my body >and I probably looked like a little mallard learning to fly. In any >case, the pies survived except for being squeezed a bit. I was a >little later than usual that morning, with a sore rear but with a full >tummy. I was just glad no one had seen me. > > >==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== >#5 It is YOUR responsibility to know how to SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE. It is done >by computer. Put the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message with nothing >else. The address is sw_va-l-request@rootsweb.com . or -d- for DIGEST mode. >All this is in the Welcome statement I ask you to save. -sysop > >

I'll bet that the reason you're having trouble getting New River Notes (a marvelous resource) is that you're reading the lower case "l" (as in lines <g>) as a capital "I". It is ls.net, not Is.net. Been there, done that. Sue McN.

If you can't get that address to work, don't get mad at me! It won't work for me either! I have it bookmarked and it works, and the address I gave is correct, unless I am a blind leader......glh

The page where the excerpts from the book, Resources of Southwest Virginia, by C.E. Boyd, E.M. can be found is: http://www.Is.net/~newriver/nrv.htm G. Lee Hearl

Thanks for asking. I also did not realize it was a typo. -----Original Message----- From: Edgar A. Howard <ehoward@conknet.com> To: SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com <SW_VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, February 19, 1999 9:14 PM Subject: Re: Civil War - Lead mines <<I don't understand your Question" when the lines were closed?" please explain for my benefit, please.>>>>> My goodness!! Think a little. "When the (m)lines [mines] were closed?" It was a typo. -eddie G. Lee Hearl ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== #5 It is YOUR responsibility to know how to SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE. It is done by computer. Put the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message with nothing else. The address is sw_va-l-request@rootsweb.com . or -d- for DIGEST mode. All this is in the Welcome statement I ask you to save. -sysop ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== #8 Anyone interested and researching SW VA and Appalachian history might be interested in the Fincastle History Forum list. Contact Edgar at ehoward@conknet.com or swvaroot@swva.net for a copy of the rules.

Eddie, I am not a "lind" reader!! By the way, do you have the book about the resources of southwest Va. referred to on the New River valley page? I'd like to get a copy through the ILL.It was written sometime before 1900 and appears to have a lot of info about mining in that area. The name author and several pages are on that site.. G. L. H.

<<I don't understand your Question" when the lines were closed?" please explain for my benefit, please.>>>>> My goodness!! Think a little. "When the (m)lines [mines] were closed?" It was a typo. -eddie G. Lee Hearl ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== #5 It is YOUR responsibility to know how to SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE. It is done by computer. Put the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message with nothing else. The address is sw_va-l-request@rootsweb.com . or -d- for DIGEST mode. All this is in the Welcome statement I ask you to save. -sysop

That might be where an old mountain song originated! "Hot corn, cold corn, better git yer britches on. Hot corn, cold corn, better git yer britches on!" G.L.H.

Ed, I don't understand your Question" when the lines were closed?" please explain for my benefit, please. G. Lee Hearl

Thirteen Steps and Fried Apple Pies I had a problem getting to school on time. Regardless of what I did, I was fifteen minutes late each morning. I had to walk about a mile or so down the road, across the short cut by the Webbs and through the woods to Rowling's Holler. I usually ate breakfast on the way. Mom made the best fried apple pies. I guess they are called apple tarts or something like that now. But anyway, This morning was no different than all the others, I was running late again. Sure I was embarrassed by it. Staying after school and writing on the blackboard had no effect. Mom would say her part and add, "go ahead and screw up and let old Maude kick you". In other words, "screw up and pay the price, usually where it hurts." And on this morning, those words took on a new meaning. I hadn't noticed that we had one of those freezing rains over night. Those thirteen steps going down to the road were covered with this near invisible clear ice. I went running down the walk with a fried apple pie in each hand. When I hit that top step, my feet went straight out and my rear bounced down each of those steps one by one. I held on to those pies with arms flapping straight out from my body and I probably looked like a little mallard learning to fly. In any case, the pies survived except for being squeezed a bit. I was a little later than usual that morning, with a sore rear but with a full tummy. I was just glad no one had seen me.

Please, can someone tell me if there is an every name index to the two volume set "Early Settlers of Lee County, Virginia and Adjacent Counties" by Bales and Laningham? Thank you! Sharron Ashton

< I don't know about Russell County, but I have been doing research on the lead mines near Austinville and read that the Yankees burned a lot of public buildings in Wytheville if they were used to store ammunition and supplies.>>>>>>>> Do you know when the lines were closed?? They were the first court of the new Fincastle Co. in 1772 so they were around then. I have been in the tower. Where were the other lead mines in the Confederacy? -eddie

I, too, am enjoying these stories of our pioneers' resourceful ways. May I add my two cent's worth? My grandmother put dried corn in a shallow pan and kept it on the floor under her wood-burning stove. She had drawstring bags made of blue and grey striped ticking. At bedtime she filled the bags with the hot corn. In the morning the corn went back in the pan. We still use corn bags, but now I sew the ticking closed and make a flannel case for them. Heated in the microwave for a few minutes they will hold their heat for at least a half hour. Wonderful for rheumatic knees and shoulders. Her method of drying apples was a little different. She put the slices between cheesecloth and spread them on a window screen. Then she climbed out a 2nd story bedroom window onto the tin porch roof. She brought them in before dew got to them. Fortunately they dried in a few days. I loved her dried apples rolled in biscuit dough and fried in lard. But I loved the poem too. Sue McN.

<..in the winter we took a heated brick to bed with us for warmth.>> We would put hot water in a large canning jar. But I don't have a poem about it. <g> -eddie

Bonnie, It is a good peom, but what I would not give to call back a few (several) years and have one of my grandma CANTRELL's dried apple pies. Looking for CANTRELL'S of Wise Co., Va. and Pike Co., Ky. Jonah May At 01:49 PM 02/19/1999 -0500, Bonnie J. Everhart.. wrote: >I am thoroughly enjoying the discussion of >homes and activities in the early days! I >remember sleeping on a mattress stuffed >with cornshucks...in the winter we took a >heated brick to bed with us for warmth. >I just had to share this poem: > > > DRIED APPLE PIE > (author unknown) > >I loathe, abhor, detest, despise, >Abominate Dried Apple Pies. >I like good bread, I like good meat, >Or anything thats fit to eat; >But of all poor grub beneat the skies, >the poorest is Dried Apple Pies. >Give me the toothache, or sore eyes, >But don't give me Dried Apple Pies! >The farmer takes his gnarlist fruit, >Tis wormy, bitter, and hard to boot; >He leaves the hulls to make us cough, >And don't take half the peeling off. >Then on a dirty cord 'tis strung >And in a great window hung, >And there it serves as roost for flies, >Until it's made up into pies. >Tread on my corns, or tell me lies, >But don't pass me Dried Apple Pies! > >Enjoy the memories it recalls! >Bonnie in NC > > >==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== >#6 HELP is available from the sysop/owner anytime at: > ehoward@conknet.com or swvaroot@swva.net >

I believe that the County courthouse was burned. I don't know of wide private or civil destrruction. Great question. -eddie Does anyone know if there was destruction in Russell County, VA during the Civil War? I am specifically interested in destruction in the Castlewood area. ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== #6 HELP is available from the sysop/owner anytime at: ehoward@conknet.com or swvaroot@swva.net

In a message dated 99-02-19 17:30:19 EST, you write: <..in the winter we took a heated brick to bed with us for warmth.>> We would put hot water in a large canning jar. But I don't have a poem about it. <g> -eddie >> Was this the start of hot water bottles like I remember??????

I am thoroughly enjoying the discussion of homes and activities in the early days! I remember sleeping on a mattress stuffed with cornshucks...in the winter we took a heated brick to bed with us for warmth. I just had to share this poem: DRIED APPLE PIE (author unknown) I loathe, abhor, detest, despise, Abominate Dried Apple Pies. I like good bread, I like good meat, Or anything thats fit to eat; But of all poor grub beneat the skies, the poorest is Dried Apple Pies. Give me the toothache, or sore eyes, But don't give me Dried Apple Pies! The farmer takes his gnarlist fruit, Tis wormy, bitter, and hard to boot; He leaves the hulls to make us cough, And don't take half the peeling off. Then on a dirty cord 'tis strung And in a great window hung, And there it serves as roost for flies, Until it's made up into pies. Tread on my corns, or tell me lies, But don't pass me Dried Apple Pies! Enjoy the memories it recalls! Bonnie in NC

In a message dated 2/19/99 8:05:20 PM !!!First Boot!!!, ehoward@conknet.com writes: << I believe that the County courthouse was burned. I don't know of wide private or civil destrruction. Great question. -eddie Does anyone know if there was destruction in Russell County, VA during the Civil War? I am specifically interested in destruction in the Castlewood area. I don't know about Russell County, but I have been doing research on the lead mines near Austinville and read that the Yankees burned a lot of public buildings in Wytheville if they were used to store ammunition and supplies. For general information, these lead mines produced 1/3 of the lead used by the Confederate Army during the war. They also produced a large amount of lead for the Revolutionary War too. Wytheville was a prime target for the Yankees because of the lead mines, the salt works and the railroad hub in the area.