1 1 VI/HOV T" Kl/3 CI 1V1 THE BRUNSWICICftfEACON Ifj
UI luo LI lc oLlf 1 ?? D
INSIDE THIS SECTION:
Wfiports, Pages 8-11
MBusiness news, 12
ASH NATIVE BORN IN 1898
Josie Coleman's Called Brunswick County Home For 95 Years
BY DOUG RUTTER Josie has early memories of her mother scrubbing the
To say that Josie Coleman has lived a hard life is wooden floor wilh white sand and a brush made of corn
like saying New York is a good-sized city. It's a husks. "I bet I toted 500 pounds of sand across that
major understatement. But through her struggles, swamp to scrub that floor with," she said.
the 95-year-old Ash native has maintained a sense of 'Times was so hard 'til nobody didn't have anything
happiness that bubbles from within her like a natural much, just a place to live," Josie added. "It was kind of
spring. hard. There was a few people who had nice houses, but
"I don't have much, but the Lord teils me to be con- it was very few."
tent and that's what I am," Josie said in a recent inter- The Canady family's one-room house had a fireplace,
view. "I feel like the Lord's help and hard work is the with a chimney made of sticks and plugged with clay,
reason I'm here. I'm blessed. It's been hard, but still I'm One time, Josie's mother was cooking backbone and
blessed." rice in the fireplace and a
Bom Jan. 15, 1898, Josie ?? , , , , , . piece of hardened clay fell
was the second youngest of 1 ClOKl t rlClVC Ullt tflC down the chimncy and into
md Lord tells me to be content and '^?sK'jE"spooned ,i 0u
S that's what I am. I feel like the ?
here all my life," the petite j nrr\\ lipln n?rJ hnr/i wnrk f'c wasn l rcal,y ^ ^ausc
woman says proudly. L^UIU Z neiy uriu riuru WUIK ^ clay ^ hard as a
"The old house standing *11P rpnenn I'm liprt? I'm brick. I've seen it good and
just across the branch over 'CUtun 1 III TIZIZ.. 1 fll 1>vc sccn j( hard ^ my
there is where i was bom.- bieSsed. It's been hard, but still Un?;" ...
Josie adds, pointing west ' Those hard times mclud
through a brown corn field. V rn hlPWPfl " ed the Great Depression in
"It's still standing." the 1930s. "We didn't eo
Josie, a sharp-minded
widow who lives alone and still cares for herself, has
quite a story to tell about the small, faded green house
she's called home since 1944.
Around the time of her husband's death, she pur
chased the one-story home and six acres of property
from a brother-in-law. After some haggling, they settled
on a price of $800.
"It wasn't anything but a rough, lumbcrcd-in house
when 1 bought it," Josie recalls. "I added on the back
room and the front porch later."
To pay for the house and farmland, Josie labored in
nearby tobacco fields and grew and cured her own to
bacco?all this at age 46. "I've had it pretty tough, but
the Lord has been good to me."
Her cozy home sits off N.C. 130, just down the road
from Zion Missionary Baptist Church where Josie has
been a member most of her life. Outside the home are
vegetable and flower gardens, which Josie still tends to
herself.
The weeding and garden work isn't loo much for this
95-year-old. "I've been healthy all my life," she says.
"I've had some sick spells, but I've worked hard and
tried to live a decent life."
For her age, Josie has a very good memory. She can't
recall exactly how much formal schooling she had, but it
wasn't much. She first attended school in an old house
next to Zion Church and then went on to Waccamaw
School.
"There weren't but six months of schooling in my
growing up, and they didn't have grades then," she said.
'The few of us there was, met in one little room."
completely hungry, but I've
known my mother to get some collards and that be all
we had to eat."
World War II was another difficult time for Josie,
who had two sons, Clayton and Dayton, serving their
country. "It was hard is all I can say. It was heartbreak
ing too."
Dayton worked in a kitchen as a cook, while Clayton
was fighting on the front lines. "He would write me and
he would say the mud made him a good bed to lay in,"
she remembered, fighting back tears.
Josie and her husband, Bero Coleman, raised three
girls and three boys on their farm. Two of her sons arc
still living, and two grandchildren live in houses nearby.
When asked about changes she's seen in Brunswick
County, Josie responded: "Lord have mercy. I don't
think I can even answer that. There have been so many
changes."
Josie remembers when Shallotte was "just a building
or two" and there was no such thing as electricity. "We
used a kerosene lamp. We had no refrigerators, no freez
ers, nothing like that." She also remembers the first au
tomobile she ever saw?a Ford. It belonged to a country
doctor from Whiteville, who came to Ash one day to
treat one of Josie's sisters.
"He had the first car that ever come out I believe," she
said, straining to jog her memory. "It looked like a bug
gy coming down the road without a horse pulling it"
Despite the many changes she's seen in Brunswick
County, Josie says the Ash community isn't much dif
ferent that it was when she was a young girl. "It was
thick settled just as bad then as it is now."
_?> 3Sr i
STAFF PHOTO BY OOUC RUTTER
JOSIE COIJZMAN stands outside the home she purchased for $800 in 1944. She worked in tobacco
fields to pay for the house and six acres of farmland.
"My Unci*
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Agriculture Lime $1.49 50 lb bag
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