” """ 1 ’"" " 1 f
ESTABLISHED JULY, 1936
TRENA P. POX. EDITOR ft PUBLISHER
MISS. ZOE YOUNG. ASSOCIATE EDITOR
THURMAN L. BROWN. SHOP MANAGER
ARCHIE H. BALLEW, PHOTOGRAPHER k PERSSMAN
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
YANCEY PUBLISHING COMPANY
SECOND CLASS POSTAGE PAH) AT BURNSVILLE. N. CL
THURSDAY, AUGUST *4, 1987 NUMBER FIFTY-ONE
SUBSCRIPTION RATES $3.00 PER YEAR
OUT OF COUNTY $4.00 PER YEAR
L
Scene From Top O’ The Hill
By: Jack Kelly
At Ray Brothers Store, while I
was visiting down home, I got an
Indian Head Nickel in change.
I hadn't seen one for seme. time,
so, I did a bit of checking on
them. It appears that these nick
els were first minted in 1913 and
the Government put them . u i . r
a quarter of a Century. During
that 25 years, they minted al
most a billion and a quarter of
them. The Indian you see on the
face cf that coin is a composite,
because the sculptor, John Fraz
er, did not use just one Indian,
he used three of them for his
model: Iron Trail, Two Moons,
and Big Tree. The first two pass
ed to the Happy Hunting Grounds
several years ago, but old Big
Tret- held off. He died about a
month ago. Brother Big Tree
claimed to be 102 but the re
cc rus only allowed him 92. Eith
er way, he made the nickel go a
long distance. Seems like Wash
ington hasn't changed much
since 1913, Then, as now, they
didn’t use one when they could
use three.
For the benefit of my friends
who liked my "Raccoon” arti
cle, l have the pleasure to in
i' rm them that the Government
recently brought _ 'e -:.oo new
’coons into our County. Now, if
our old County dogs will leave
them alone, and if our human
natives will just lay off collect
ing souvenirs from these new
’coons, the poor creatures might
find time to breed with our own
and Yancey will have a fine har
vest for future generations.
In talking wih one of our elder
citizens about long-lasting mar
riages. she commented "Choose
a bride and piece-goods in the
daytime " 1 like that one but she
said I couldn’t use her name.
When I was in Boston, not too
long ago, one of the Harvard
scholars put out a statement
that his research had determin
ed that 43 words accounted for
half of all American speech. He
claimed that the articles "a”
and "the" and the pronouns "I”
"that" "you” "it" along with the
pr< pcsitit ns “on” ::to” and
the verb "is" were the nine
most often used words of the 43.
-Si mchow or other.. I was a lit
tle disappointed that his words
didn’t include "milk and hon
ey" and "sour grapes” because
these phrases sort of cover all
of our expectations and our
reality.
Burnsville, this year, has pro
ven an old English proverb to
be correct "If the first of July
be rainy weather. It will rain,
more or less, for four weeks to
gether." I sure hope those four
weeks mentioned are over. It
would be nice to get a little dry
spell
Watching the building activity
made me wonder if all of the
land was getting used up. A bit
of a check showed me that the
l S. Government afene owns
770 million acres of land that is
valued at 94 Billion dollars.
Wonder why it doesn’t sell off
a few parcels and cut taxes in
stead of raising them?
While checking into the land
situation, I ran across some
ether National figures that you
might as well know. For exam
ple, our Country accounts for
half of the mail in the entire
world—72 billion pieces a year.
Also, the average tombstone
costs $500.00. A porcupine has
18,100 quills. (If you don’t be
lieve me, count them.) The av
erage American housewife wash
es over 300 tons of dishes in
her lifetime. American ladies
use half a billion hairpins every
year. There are 3 times as many
tropical fish as people here.
That’s enough of facts and fig
ures. The whole trouble with
checking anything out is the fact
that you get involved with so
many other facts that it is hard
to step. So I will just stop and
save them for another time be
cause I have to tell about my
Bennett Gate. When we got the
house on the Hill I was worr $ d
because I didn’t have any con
nection between it and Burns
•ville.. It hadn’t been built by
Burnsville folks or anything like
that, and it worried me. How
ever, when the arrival here this
summer, a golden opportunity
presented itself. My upper gates
had rotted away a bit. Now there
may be a more awkward man
with a hammer and saw than I
am but I doubt it. Any way, I
decided to build me a couple of
gates. Then, Providence must
have stepped into the situation
because my friend Gordon Ben
nett, when he got over laughing
at the thought of my attempting
such a feat, volunteered to build
my gates for me. So now, I
not only have the only gates in
Yancey County, and probably in
the entire State, designed and
built by a terrific stage set- de
signer, I also accumulated me a
good name to go with them.
That’s why people will now en
ter our home through the "Ben
nett Gates.”
1 .guess the name "Benne’t"
will give me a tie to Burnsville
that the original builder never
thought about. Os course, I’ll
have to he’p Gordon out when
he pets around to doing some
construction cn his place up
here. I have promised to come
down or up cr over to wherever
he builds, and I’ll sit and talk to
him while he constructs. Gor
don would never trust me with
a tool.
"There’s no book so bad
that something good may not
bo found in it.” - Cervantes.
“Don Quixote.”
| j ' | p | _
% L- 1 mad JEI mm
Members of the Clearmont Read
start Program
Members of the Bald Creek
Headstart Program.
Melodrama One Os Season’s
Biggest Hits
"PURE AS THE DRIVEN
SNOW”, a very “mellar dra
mer”, was thoroughly enj yed
by those attending the latest
performance at Parkway Play
house. Speaking from the view
point of an “old timer", how
anyone could have failed to en
joy this is our under
standing. If anyone did not enjoy
it perhaps it was because this
particular form of theater was
entirely new to him, and s:me
may even have thought it was
to be taken seriously. To get the
most out of a play of this kind
there must be audience partici
pation hosses to the villian
and applause to the hero and
the villian and hero were worthy
of hisses and applause, bur
Leaders Tell Os Many
Activities Os Scoots
“A fun-filled lesson in inter
national understanding” is the
description cf the XII World
Jamboree given by 7 Sc~uts of
the Daniel Boone Council, Boy
Scouts of America, upon their
arrival heme on Saturday, Aug
ust 12th.
Volunteer leaders of the local
contingent, Carmer D. Bean, of
Asheville, and John Loren Brown
cf Hendersonville, told of the
many activities that the Scouts
had to get better acquainted
with ether Scouts from 100 coun
tries. Exchange meals, evening
campfires, a Wide Game, and
earning of the Adventure Award
provided many opportunities f r
Scouts to practice brotherhood
and friendship
Those earning the coveted Ad
surely a better performance
could not have been turned In.
This goes for all in the cast.
Added attractions were the be
tween the acts skits put on by a
group of crmic dancers, singers
and entertainers. We were par
ticularly impressed by the per
formance of the “Card Girl”.
jit is hard to conceive of the
hours of labor that must go into
a production of this kind; not
cnly by the directors, actors,
but alsoi those who provide the
costumes, and particularly the
authentic sets.
We hope Burnsville and Yan
cey County appreciate the pri
vilege they have of being able
to attend entertainment of such
high caliber.
venture Award, which included
requirements related to bring
ing Scouts together from differ
ent countries are: Richard S.
Daniels, Brevard; John F. Dan
iel, Sylva; John W. Claris and
William R. Okie, Hendersonville;
Glenn Russell, Asheville; Rich
ard F Strieker, Brevard; and
Gene P. Wagstaff, Fletcher.
This World Jamboree was the
first to be hosted by the Boy
Scouts of America and brought
together 13,C00 Scouts. It was
held at Farragut State Park,
Idaho, frem August 1 to 9.
Scouts from Asheville who at
tended the World Jamboree,
C.aytoip Doty, Scout Executive
said, are available to tell (( f
thrir experience before any
Ci mmtinity er< up Requests may
W.A. Hensley
Dies In Texas
The following obituary was
sent to THE RECORD by R. p.
(Dick) Dayton of Fort Worth,
Texas, a native cf the Green
Mountain section of Yancey
County, and married to the for
mer Miss Grace Hyatt of Bur
nsville.
(Copy death of W. A. Hensley
of Gainesville, Tex. who died
8-6-6 s)
A prominent Gainesville busi
nessman and civic leader, W. A.
Hensley, 95, died at 4:20 p. m.
Sunday in Golden Acres Nursing
Heme. He had been in declining
health for several years.
He was born Oct. 23, 1871 in
Harrison, Ark., and moved to
Gainesville in 1894. On Aug. 17,
1893, he was married to Miss
Delly LeMaa, who died Nov 24
1958.
Hensley was engaged in the
transfer and automobile business
with his late brother, E. B. Hen
sley, during the early i9oo’s. In
later yetrs, he was in the real
estate and oil business until his
retirement several years ago.
Hensley had been a member
of the Christian Church in
Gainesville since early man
hood. He was a charter member
of the Gainesville Kiwanis Club
and former member of the
Gainesvlle City Council. He was
active in many civic affairs of
the city.
Funeral services were con
ducted at 4 p. m. Tuesday at the
First Christian Church with the
Rev. Herbert Sprowlc, paster, of
ficiating. Interment was in Fair
view Cemetery directed by Geo.
I J. Carroll & Son Funeral Home.
Hensley is survived by two
daughters, Mrs. Joe Coursey -f
Gainesville and Mrs. C. *l.
Caughey cf Aurora, III.; two
sisters, Mrs. W. A. Brishin of
Richmond, Calif., and Mrs. D S.
Austin of Altus, Okla.; three
brothers, J. P„ J. R. an d E. L.
Hensley, all of Altus, Okla.; six
grandchildren; 13 great-grand
children and three great-great
grandchildren.
Mr. Dayton added a few in
teresting sidelights on Mr. Hen
sley, as follows:
“Mr. Hensley’s father and
mother, Mask and Mary Byrd
Hensley, left N. C. in a com- ed
wagon, with a milk cow tied to
the rear of the wagon, about
1868. His sister, Mrs. D. S.
(Mary) Austin was one of two
children in the entourage. She
n°w lives, as indicated in news
feature, at Altus, Okla., and
will be 100 years old in Febru
ary, 1968. His mother was the
daughter of Charlie Byrd of
the Jacks Creek section cf Yan
cey County, and had many Lr>
thers and sisters, and is now,
I am sure, survived by many
relatives in that area.
“Mr. Hensley visited Yancey
County a few years back, and
was the guest of Dr. and Mrs.
Will Bennett. Mrs. Bennett was
re'ated to Mr. Hensley on his
father’s side.
“I thought this news might be
of interest to many of your read
ers who are kin to the Byrd
and Hensley families."
be made by calling the Daniel
Bcone C uncil. 254 6189. or writ
ing to Brx 812>, Asheville, N. C.
As a pafrt of the 16 day trip,
the Scouts also visited Ye’low
stene National Park, Old Faith
ful and Chicago, Illinois.
The leaders of . the group
from Daniel Be ne tell us that
th:s trip was hrth educational
and informative and an adven
. tun experience they will not
soc r< f rget