THE “TIMES" PRIZE-WINNING COLUMN
From
ALMAR FARM
In Transylvania
BY CAL CARPENTER
«*
In the southern part of Mitchell
County, not far from the bridge
over the North Toe River on N.C.
80, there’s a little community
called Rebel’s Creek. There’s a
Rebel’s Creek Baptist Church
and Rebel’s Creek Cemetery.
It is to the cemetery that my
wife, my mother-in-law, and I go
every fourth Sunday in July. We
go for Decoration Day—a
Decoration Day that is not
National, not Confederate, not
area-wide: simply a Sunday set
aside there many years ago when
the summer flowers were in
bloom in the farmyard and could
be cut and taken in remem
bers nee to the graves of loved
ones in the church cemetery.
I have gone to the Rebel’s
Creek Cemetery a number of
times; on Decoration Day,
Sunday visits, and other, less
happy occasions.
I have visited it in the spring,
when the virgin, new-green grass
among the headstones had not
had the first of its summer
trimmings.
I have visited it in the autumn,
when the great oak trees at the
gates were in full, golden leaf;
the hills, crowding the little knoll
on which it stands, in the fulfilled
promise of their fall beauty.
I have gone there in summer, to
admire the well kept grounds and
marvel at the beauty of the
verdant hills and the blue-black
ramparts of Mt. Mitchell and the
Black Brothers, looming in the
near distance.
I have gone there in winter,
when the nearby woods were
bare and cold, and blue
snowflakes .spat among the
gravestones before a better wind.
I have gone there in sorrow for
the stark, final reality of a
cemetery’s purpose. It’s a
purpose that is often carried out
at Rebel’s Creek with snow and
ice making the steep, graveled
road up to the knoll almost im
passable for the hearse; when the
mourners walk and the pall
bearers carry their burden a
long, last half-mile.
I have gone there in the
carefree happiness of a sunny
Sunday afternoon, just visiting
and enjoying the colorful plastic
flowers on the graves, so realistic
you can hardly tell the dif
ference; remembering the first
artificial flowers I knew—the
crepe paper roses of the 1930’s.
Rebel’s Creek Cemetery is my
wife’s family cemetery and my
family cemetery in-law. It is the
burial place of her father, her
grandmother and grandfather;
uncles and aunts; and great
grand relatives, most of whom
lived and died in this border area
between Yancy and Mitchell
t
counties.
Great Grandmother Banks is
there. Grandfather, country
doctor John Baron Ewing, and
Lydia Banks Ewing are there; as
is her father, Walter Edward
Boone. I was there for Grand
mother Ewing’s burial in
November, 1968, and Ed Boones’s
last rites just two weeks to the
day later.
1 was there for Uncle Billie
Ewing’s burial, but could not be
there for Uncle John Ewing’s nor
Aunt Kathleen Barclay's. Great
grandmother Banks and Or. John
Ewing were placed there before I
became an in-law member of the
family.
Because of my family at
tachment, I have asked around to
learn the history of the Rebel’s
Creek Cemetery and the Rebel’s
Creek Baptist Church. I mention
the two separately because,
although there are plots for
church-member families and
probably most of those burned
there were members of the
church, membership as such
does not seem to be a
requirement for burial space.
Country generosity prevails over
sectarianism.
Rebel’s Creek Cemetery was
begun on land donated by Mrs.
Murdock who, as I understand it,
was a member of the family of
“Rebel” John Willis, for whom
the community was named.
As best I can determine from a
cursory inquiry, the land was
donated around the turn of the
century. Older gravestones,
dated in the first decade of the
1900’s, confirm burials in that
period.
Rebel's Creek Church now
stands close beside State High
way 80, some 10 miles from
Burnsville and an equal distance
from Bakersville. This is the
road that also leads to the storied
post office of Bandana and passes
near the once-active but now
gone, railway settlement of
Booneford.
Years ago, I am told, church
services were first held in a
school house not far from the
present site. Later, a church was
built and it kept the name of a
community taken, we assume,
from a fiery Confederate of the
Civil War days, “Rebel” John
Willis.
The cemetery is some two or
three hundred feet high on a
rounded promintory, perhaps a
mile up-creek from the church. It
looks down the narrow valley
with the mighty bulks of the Blue
Ridges seemingly close in the
southwest and lower, but still
formidable foothills, close on all
sides. It is, perhaps, three
thousand feet itself; yet seems to
be sheltered by the much loftier
NOTICE
North Carolina
Transylvania County
Under and by virtue of the
power of sale contained in a
certain deed of trust executed by
Walter A. Fordyce and wife,
Margaret S. Fordyce, to Jerry H.
Jerome, Trustee, dated the 22
day of September, 1973, and
recorded in Book 95, page 673, in
the office of the Register of Deeds
of Transylvania County; and
under and by virtue of the
authority vested in the un
dersigned as substituted trustee
by an instrument of writing dated
the 25 day of July, 1974, and
recorded in Bock 206, page 328, in
' the office of the Register of Deeds
of Transylvania County, default
having been made in the payment
of the indebtedness thereby
secured and the said deed of trust
being by the terms thereof
subject to foreclosure, and the
holder of the indebtedness
thereby secured having
demanded a foreclosure thereof
for th* purpose of satisfying said
indebtedness, the undersigned
substituted trustee will offer for
sale at public auction to the
highest bidder for cash at the
courthouse door in Brevard,
North Carolina, at twelve o’clock,
noon, on the 26 day of August,
1974, the land conveyed in said
deed of trust, the same lying and
being in Dunn’s Rock Township,
Transylvania County, North
Carolina, and more particularly
described as follows:
Being all of Lot No. of Unit 1 of
Connestee Falls Development as
shown by plat thereof recorded in
Plat Book 4, pages 44-44N,
Records of Plats for Tran
sylvania County, North Carolina.
This 26 day of July, 1974.
Ceca J. Hill
Substituted Trustee
8-l-4tc
NOTICE
Walter A. Fordyce and wife,
Margaret S. Fordyce have sold
the above described property to
Shaw E. Pender and wife, who
assumed payment of the note
secured by the above deed of
trust. Walter A. Fordyce and
wife have no interest in this
foreclosure.' 8-l-4tc
s
■UUUIIM1U3 ou uuse aruunu k.
It is a place of peace, of quiet,
of beauty—even with the leaden
clouds and bitter wind and blue
snow as I have seen it. It is a
place of rest in any season, any
weather. It makes me think of
Ingersoil’s famous words so
appropriate to those hurried
there:
“They sleep beneath the
shadows of the clouds, heedless
alike of sunshine or storm.”
Rebel’s Creek Cemetery
doesn’t have a Latin prayer
above the gate as some
cemeteries do, but it might very
well have.
"Requiescat in pace,” would
have a real meaning there.
TRY THE TIMES
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Daycare Swim Meet To Be Held At Franklin Park
August 16th marks the con
clusion of the School Age
Daycare Program which has
been operated jointly this
summer by Transylvania 4-C and
Western Carolina Community
Action in cooperation with the
County Department of
Recreation and Social Services.
On August 14th there will be a
swim meet at the city pool in
Franklin Park at 12:30 with the
r
following events:
Level One - Comic Book Race,
Pick Up Race, Backward Egg
and Spoon Race. Life Jacket
Race.
Level Two - Back Float Comic
Book Race, Underwater Pick-up,
Burlap Bag Hop, Full Dress
Swim.
Level Three - Free Style,
Breast Stroke, Back Stroke,
Underwater Swim.
For nine weeks the children in
our school age daycare program
have been receiving swimming
instructions from qualified in
structors, three days a week.
Parents of the children are
especially invited to attend and
watch their youngsters
demonstrate their skills in the
water.
If it rains on the 14th at mM
day, the swim meet will he
postponed to the 15th at the same
time. _
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A recent survey of 2,600
homemakers showed that the
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were white potatoes and corn.
Tomatoes, lettuce and green
beans followed next.
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