Let me begin by thanking the congregation of Danube Presbyterian
Church and especially Reverend Fred Gilley for inviting Kenny and myself to
come to speak about our region’s history. Looking about this room, I think I
know almost everyone here from Ethel Cox and her three beautiful daughters, who
used to baby-sit me. Some baby uh Ethel? It is good to see Mildred and Charles
Hill, whose father we will talk about, and Verna Anderson, who I have shared
some fun historical things over the years. I see Diana Goad, who I use to work
with and young Wes Burkhart, just in from college, whose parent’s I went to
high school with.
Today as we
sit on the banks of one of
Patrick County’s great rivers, I will speak to you today
about the geography, specifically the route of the
Mount Airy
and Eastern Railway, “The Dinky” and some human interest stories about the
train. Kenney will speak about the chronological history of the railroad and
what it did in
Kibler
Valley.
We are into
biblical names for our rivers in
Patrick
County. The railroad
traveled the distance between the Dan named for a tribe of
Israel to the Ararat, where Noah’s
Ark landed on the
mountains of. The
Ararat River travels from
Bell
Spur Church
in
Patrick County
to
Siloam, North Carolina.
The
railroad began on
Riverside Drive
near present day Cross Creek Apparel. I use to work there in the dye house when
I got out of college on third shift. Like the railroad, the textile mills will
soon be gone as well. I have twelve web pages built about the railroad, and at
the beginning, I found out the local genealogists Esther Johnson grew up there
at the beginning of the railroad, and she wrote about it.
The
Mount Airy
and Eastern traversed 19.50 miles to
Kibler
Valley. The present day railroad
tracks used to go to the North Carolina Granite Corporation. The narrow gauge
Dinky pulled beside this railroad so that lumber and other material could be
transferred.
The
railroad followed the present day
Riverside
Drive,
North Carolina Highway 104, past Renfro
Corporation and along the
Ararat
River. The train followed
past Johnson’s Creek, where a water tower, one of over a dozen, supplied water
for the steam locomotives.
Next, the
train carried passengers often to the White Sulphur Springs on excursions. The
resort hotel is known for the foul smelling
Sulphur water that smelled of rotten eggs.
People had been coming to this place since the time Jeb Stuart’s mother lived
here in the 1850s.
The railway
passed near the Sparger House, which was once a tobacco farm and site of a
tobacco factory before the days of Reynolds Tobacco and multi-national
conglomerates. Near here, Totsey Hill and his large family lived on a farm I
use to romp on with the Guynn kids, Teddy and Ann, as their mother Bertie was
one of Totsey and
India’s
children.
One story
about Totsey involves his brother Rob, who is Charles Hill’s father. Once a hot
air balloon appeared over the Blue Ridge Mountains coming from
Maryland until Rob Hill
decided it must come down and with his trusty rifle he brought down. I have
this photo of many people “long necking” around the basket of a brought down by
Rob Hill.
The Dinky
Railroad continued on up crossing the
Ararat
River and heading towards the
Virginia/North Carolina border, where it changes from state to commonwealth in
Edith Brown’s pasture dissecting the line surveyed by Thomas Jefferson’s father
Peter, Joshua Fry and an entourage of
North Carolinians
and Virginias in 1749.
The rails
or working on the rails brought many people to our area. Among them was John
Edward Dellenback, who came to work on the railroad and then worked at Pedigo’s
Mill. John married Serelda Mary Wilson and was the father of Charlie, who is
the father of George, Walter, Eddie, and Mary.
The
railroad passed by Laurel Hill, the birthplace of James Ewell Brown “Jeb.” Just
across the road from
Patrick County’s most historic site is a washed out trestle
on the
land of Eric and Amy Brown Sawyers. The railroad
makes a curve and turns from the
Ararat
River to Clark’s Creek across the
land of Porter Bondurant.
I have
known Porter most of my life, but Kenney Kirkman and Desmond Kendrick did not.
So when Porter loaded us up on his John Deere Gator, I could see the fear in
the city slicker’s eyes to have a man alive during World War One who actually
rode the Dinky driving them around scared them to death. I also came to find
that they were truly from town when Porter offered them free watermelons from
his patch along
Clark’s Creek. Porter grew
watermelon on steroids, and I was left standing in the patch digging for the
biggest one I could find when my city friends declined Porter’s generous offer.
Gordon
Axelson, who is here today with his wife, my former high school science
teacher, who, by the way, does not look like she is old enough to have been my
science teacher, videoed Porter and his old sister Carrie Sue Bondurant Culler.
Both of them rode the railroad, and it was one of the most memorable scenes of
the research we did was to see a 92-year-old man being corrected by his older
sister about their lives as kids.
The
railroad continued along Clark’s Creek across the land of Dan Smith, Dwight
Jessup, and a large trestle crossed the creek as the railroad made its way to
the Holly Tree Road. The railroad continued up the creek across the bottomland
of Diane King and then Howard King to the
Homeplace Road. We were lucky to have
Nick Epperson, whose family built the house here in
Kibler Valley,
who, like many people, sat down and talked to us about what he knew relating to
the railroad and let us see his photos. In the 19 plus miles that Kenney and I
walked most of the path of the railway, we never once ran into a landowner who
was unfriendly or did allow us on their property. In fact, most we very
enthusiastic and shared what they knew about the train.
We never
encountered a mean dog. We met some very friendly dogs while walking the Isaac
property. There are places that the railroad is not noticeable as cleared
fields, and the flood control dam on
Clark’s
Creek erased traces of it.
Next, we
walked across the property of Anthony Terry and James Clement. Later, Anthony
discovered more than ¼ mile of the track while clearing a fence line for James
and Charles Clement across the spot we had walked. We assume that the railroad
was taken up and sold for scrap metal or, as Porter told us, “We sold it to the
Japanese, and they shot back at us during World War Two.”
The
railroad followed up the headwaters of
Clark’s
Creek just across from
Church and
towards the “Crossroads” the intersection of Squirrel Spur’s
Road/Unity Church Road with the
Ararat Highway.
There was a siding in this area, and there are several stories about it.
One story
about the railroad involved several of the Clement boys, who discovered several
cars on the siding loaded with lumber. The boys investigated the cars one and
discovered how to release the brake, and down the tracks, towards
Mount Airy
they went with their load of lumber until they realized that starting a
railroad car was much easier than stopping one. The Clement boys abandoned train
while the cars continued on derailing somewhere around Anthony Terry’s place,
leaving lumber spread out across the bottom.
The train
made its way up to the crossroads, where Bob Childress once worked in a
blacksmith shop in sight of the Clark’s
Creek Progressive
Primitive Baptist
Church. One famous story
about “The Man Who Moved A Mountain” was that he brought the youth choir from
this African-American church to his rock churches in a time of segregation. I
often wonder if Childress heard those young Black voices before he found a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ and began to spread the word about
Christianity and made the courageous move of inviting them. When the railroad
came by the church, there was a school for the African-American children that is
today falling down behind the modern brick church. There are some things that
show that we have made progress in this country, and the railroad witnessed it.
Another man
of African descent, John P. Hairston, was a saw miller that heard that “Old Man
Carter” was looking for experienced lumbermen. He came on the Dinky to make a
living near the
Dan River.
The
railroad’s path continued across the land or Romey and Barbara Bowman Clement.
Bobby, who is here today, shared her photos and knowledge of the railroad and
our local history. She is what everyone involved in history should be a sharer,
not a hoarder of it. She is a treasure for the people of
Patrick County.
The
railroad made its way parallel down the hill towards Fall Creek, making a wide
turn before crossing the
Ararat
Highway below Greg Radford’s house. The largest
washed out trestle we found is on Darryl and Sandra Clement’s property.
Down Fall
Creek, the railroad went in a roadbed still visible in the winter past a
sawmill once operated by Andy Griffith’s grandfather Nunn. Near Jerry Love’s
cabin, the railroad turned away from the creek just above the flood plain. The
railroad crossed the
Dan River in this area
into what we call Meadowfield.
The Love
brothers, Jim and Jerry grew up in the white house at the foot of what we call
Bateman’s straight on the
Ararat
Highway. They shared their stories and access to
their property about the railroad. We came to believe there was a Wye (Y)
shaped rail system at Meadowfield. One spur went up the Dan River to Kibler
Valley, and another followed the path of the present day road to the point that
it cut behind Jerry Love’s house and across the Kibler Valley Road and into
what is today the Primland property.
William
Leftridge Bateman, the son of William and Sally Bateman, came to work in the
general store at Meadowfield, owned by Thomas Lee Clark. He married Judy Ann
Joyce in 1906. Bateman purchased the Meadowfield store, and by 1910 there was a
grist mill, fertilizer house, lumber yard, post office, water tank, and the
boarding house, of which the latter is the only thing left standing. In 1916, a
flood caused by a tropical storm destroyed the railroad and other structures at
Meadowfield ending Bateman’s dream of an industrial. One of the Bateman’s
daughters, Lena Mae, married James Beasley, and they ran the store at the
“crossroads.” She spoke of her father’s store at Meadowfield selling overalls,
shirts, shoes, turkeys, chicken, and even crossties and tanbark.
The Dinky
railroad followed the eastern bank of the Dan River past the
Zeb Stuart Scales Bridge
and towards the
Sawmill Road.
This part of the railroad bed is still in pristine condition and easy to walk
in the winter. The path followed by Anthony Terry’s boyhood home and probably
in the roadbed of the present
Sawmill
Road and back across the Primland property.
Kenney
walked across the property of Leroy Pack into
Kibler
Valley, still following the
Dan River. The
railroad made its way past Danube Presbyterian Church. When you think of Danube
Vienna, the Sound of Music and
Austria
might come to mind and not narrow gauge railroads and Presbyterians, but the
railroad has come from a river named for a mountain Noah’s
Ark
landed on to a river with the same name as a great river of Europe or a tribe
of
Israel.
One of those
who came to this valley was John Bishop Wilson, who was educated by Dr. Floyd
Pedigo, who grew up near Stuart’s Birthplace.
Wilson married Mahala Pack and went to work
for the Epperson’s here in the valley. When the railroad stopped,
Wilson bought some property,
ran a one room store, built a house, worked on clocks, watches, and guns. He
became the Superintendent of Sunday School at the Danube Presbyterian Church.
Kenney will
talk about the chronological history of the railroad and about
Kibler Valley,
but I have tried to tell you about the path the train took getting her to the
valley. I followed him around through nearly twenty miles of woods and fields
with a clipboard and marking on a map. We ran into no hostility or even a mean
dog, but we did meet and talk to a lot of great people like the congregation of
Danube.
Reverend
Gilley, you may not realize that it is hard to find verses about railroads in
the Bible, but I had one recommended to me. Matthew Chapter 7 Verses 13-14 goes
like this: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is
the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the
age and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Maybe to
paraphrase would be narrow is the gauge that led this church to life.
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