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The Cherokee Scout
and Clay County Progress
Volume 80 ? Number 24 ? Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 ? Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Tuesday, December 30, 1969
"v,?
-X
10C
Per Copy
Full Canning House
. Mr. and Mrs. Rans Queen, who
celebrated their 67th wedding
anniversary on Christmas Eve, pose
against the bountiful harvest sealed in
their canning house. They live in the
Slow Creek section, between Marble
and Peachtree. (Staff Photo)
Slow Creek Couple Marks
67th Wedding Anniversary
By Wally Avett
Staff Writer
ty-WIF Christmas Eve, 1902, when Rans
QiKhVjude horseback through the Slow Creek
section of Cherokee County - "Boys, it was
muddy!" - to the home of Nora Huskin, where
they would marry.
He was 18, she was a year younger. His
friends and kin rode with him and he led a
horse for his bride. Uncle Billy Baker, "a
preacher and a kind of a doctor," was waiting
to perform the ceremony.
The 20th Century was just two years old on
their wedding day ? two bicycle mechanics in
Ohio were yet to make man's first powered
flight, Henry Ford was yet to put America on
wheels, world wars, Hitler, the Depression,
credit cards, color television and moon-walking
were all in the distant future.
The Queens celebrated their 67 th wedding
anniversary quietly on Christmas Eve last week.
Srio* and ice prevented their children and
grandchildren from coming in and on Christmas
Day there was just the two of them, married
longer than many lifetimes, 17 years past the
magic Golden Anniversary.
"The license cost three dollars," Mrs. Queen,
now 84 recalls, and they gave Uncle Billy Baker
$2 for performing the ceremony. After the
wedding, the whole party rode horseback back
through the mud the mile to the groom's house
for a big Christmas supper.
The next day they rode back to the Huskin
house and ate well again. But as they reared
seven children in the years to come, the fare for
the table didn't always come so easy. There
were several bank panics in those early years,
Work was hard to find and, of course, there was
the Depression of the early '30's.
"We got up agin it one time," Queen, now
85. remembers. "I was a-plowing and she come
10 me and said there's not a scrap of bread in
the house. I didn't have a cent.
"I unhitched the horse and said 'I'm going to
Marble to get it.' I meant to get a sack of flour
one way or another - if I had to, I was just
going to take it and if they had to shoot me,
they'd just have to shoot. I couldn't stand to
hear the young'uns crying for something to eat.
"On the way to Marble, I met my daddy on
a wagon. He had two sacks of flour. He saved us
that time - he gave us a sack of flour and
somehow we made it after that."
In 67 years of married life, rearing the
children was the biggest task, they say. "But we
got'era all raised and none of them can ever say
they went hungry. Hie Lord's been good to
us."
Perhaps as a result of the lean years, the
Queens have now stored up a great quantity of
food in their freezer and an outside canning
house. "I bet we've got enough food to last for
five years," Mrs. Queen says.
Both of them are still active, although they
admit to being a little slower due to age and
arthritis. Queen looks after 14 laying hens and
has a garden each year. "Land's already broken
up for next year," he says proudly.
There are 37 grandchildren, 47
great-grandchildren and five
great-great-grandchildren.
The oldest boy was killed in France during
World War II. The other son, Vemon Queen,
lives with his wife and children in Blue Ridge,
Ga.
Two of the girls are dead, the other three are
married and have children - Mrs. Annette
Barnette of Peachtree, Mrs. Lucy Rogers of
Marble and Mrs. Edith Lynch of Kings
Mountain.
High Speed Chase Ends Here
An auto being pursued by a
McCaysville, Ga., police car
entered Murphy at over 100
miles per hour Sunday night,
the two vehicles colliding in
front of the Post Office here.
- Murphy Police Chief Pete
Stalcup said his men arrested
Or four people in the Georgia
car after the accident and they
were tried in District Court
here Monday before Judge
Robert Leatherwood, III.
No one was hurt in the 11
p.m. accident and the Georgia
officers will press their own
charges.
Hie driver of the car,
Charles Taylor
To Speak Here
I- Representative Charles
Tay'or of Brevard, House
IQnofity Leader in the state
LagMtture, will speak in the
courtroom of the Cherokee
County Courthouse on Jan. 6.
file young Republican
who represents the
District in the state
, will speak at 7:80 p-m.
be addressing the
irganind Cherokee
Young Republican
i officials say the
...
23-year-old Gene David Hall,
was sentenced to six months
for driving drunk and six
months for speeding. He
appealed to Superior Court.
His companion, Carl
Trammel I, was sentenced to 10
days for public drunkenness.
He also appealed.
Their wives were charged
with interfering with the
Murphy officers who made the
arrests and Judge Leatherwood
gave each of them 90 days,
suspended if they paid costs of
court Monday and were out of
North Carolina by 2 p.m.
The Georgia officers said
they began to chase Hall's
1966 Ford in McCaysville,
followed him at high speeds
through a corner of Tennessee
and then into North Carolina,
headed toward Murphy. They
estimated his speed as be
approached the town at 105
m.p.h.
The speed of the two cars
was decreased aa they entered
Murphy and a witness said Hall
cut across the path of the
police car in front of the
Murphy Post Office. The
resulted In $500
to Han's car and
$200 fe estimated
to the McCaysville
County Welfore Recipients
In Clay And And Cherokee
Will Have Checks Sloshed
Financial assistance checks
for families on welfare in
Cherokee and Clay counties
will be cut back beginning in
January, as they will
throughout the state.
According to V. O. Ayers,
head of the Cherokee County
Social Services (formerly
Welfare) Department, and
Alvin Penland, director in Clay
County, the cut will hit hardest
the families with dependent
children.
The cut in checks for the
elderly will only be about $2
or $3 a month, the officials
say, but for some families with
dependent children the cut
may be as much as $20 a
month.
The cut, Ayers explains, is
due to the fact that the last
Legislature did not allocate
enough funds and the number
of families with dependent
children has greatly increased.
Rather than continue to pay
the full amount to those
families eligible as long as they
could and then have no money
at all to pay out in the last two
months of the fiscal year,
Ayers said state welfare
officials decided to cut back to
paying 80 percent of the
normal check.
This way, he said, families
on welfare will continue to get
a check, admittedly smaller,
but there will be no month in
wMrh they would have to get
by without a check. The
situation can't be remedied, he
added, until the state finds
some more money for Social
Services.
Actually welfare checks
were supposed to increase Jan.
1, Ayers said. Federal
amendments to the basic Social
Security Act were approved in
1967, requiring all states to
raise the budget tables on
which they determine how
much a recipient will receive.
TTiese tables have not been
adjusted to reflect
cost-of-living rises, he said,
since 1952.
The N. C. Legislature, Ayers
said, approved in principle the
updating of the budget table
but failed to appropriate the
money for it. Without the
money, the checks cannot be
increased.
"It's a paradox," he said.
"The Legislature did approve
implementation of the
amendments but voted no
funds for it. Hie county is
forced to pay its share - there
must be some way in which the
state can be made to come up
with the necessary funds."
There are 535 families on
welfare in Cherokee and 310 in
Clay.
State officials say the
increase in families with
dependent children seeking aid
has been drastic. When ihe
state budget was approved
early this year, there were
106,000 families in the state
receiving assistance checks for
dependent children.
The number has reached a
high in 1963 but since then
had been going down. State
Social Services officials figured
that enough money for a
possible 107,000 would be
sufficient, put it in their
budget and it was approved by
the legislators.
Ayers says several
movements, including civil
rights drives, have in other
parts of the state succeeded in
obtaining welfare help for
families which have lived in the
state all along but had not
signed up for aid.
The increase has brought
the number of families with
dependent children to 124,000
im November - with money
enough for only 107,000
through the fiscal year ending
June 30,1971.
Woman Charged
With Murder
Two women once described
as "the best of friends" tangled
the day before Christmas in a
PleaAnt Valley trailer park -
one was buried last Saturday,
the other faces a murder
charge.
Mrs. Fannie Ramsey is
charged with murder in the
shooting death last Wednesday
of her neighbor, Mrs. Pauline
Roberts. Mrs. Ramsey is free
on $10,000 bond for a
preliminary hearing in District
Court here on Jan. 12.
The shooting happened
inside Mrs. Ramsey's trailer,
according to Cherokee County
Chief Deputy Glenn Holioway,
who investigated the slaying
along with Cherokee Sheriff
Claude Anderson and State
Bureau of Investigation agent
James Maxey of Bryson City.
Chief Deputy Holioway
quoted Mis. Ramsey as saying
the other woman came to her
trailer, accused her of stealing a
watch and demanded it be
returned. Mis. Ramsey said she
knew nothing of the watch,
according to the officers, and
she said then the other woman
assaulted her, breaking her
glasses, her lower teeth and
bloodying her nose.
Mis. Ramsey told the
officers that Mrs. Roberts, 57,
left the Ramsey trailer only to
return a short while later and
renew the assault. Mrs. Ramsey
told the officers she then went
to her bedroom, picked up the
.38-caliber pistol from a
nightstand, returned and shot
her assailant through the neck.
There were no witnesses.
"They had been the best of
friends," Chief Deputy
Holioway said. "They had gone
to church together and
shopping together. Mis.
Ramsey called the Sheriffs
office and said she was afraid
she had killed her."
He added that a watch Mrs.
Ramsey had in her pocketbook
Road Toll
May Be 25
In leaving the "Soaring
Sixties" for what the traffic
safety experts hope will be the
"Senrible Seventies," the N.C.
State Motor Club urges
motorists to start the New
Year off right by steering away
from the 900 accidents that
might bring death to up to 25
persons and injuries to 500
others on North Carolina's
streets and highways during the
long holiday weekend.
The state's holiday highway
toll will be counted from 6
p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 31,
through midnight Sunday, Jan.
4, a period of 102 bouts. In a
30-hour period a year ago,
when the holiday fell in the
middle of the week, the count
showed four killed and 196
iiqured In 350 accidents.
Leading driver violations
causing the accidents were:
speeding, 116; failed to yield
right of way, 68; drove left of
center, 67; failed to see if
movement safe, 50; and under
the influence of alcohol, 31.
"North Carolina started
putting the brakes on its traffic
toll this year," said Thomas B.
Wat kins, motor dub president.
"Lett really decelerate the
Mis, injuries "J accidents
on our highways during 1970.
We can do K If each of us
makes and keeps a New Year's
resolution to drive
when she was arrested was not
the watch sought by the dead
woman.
Services for Mrs. Roberts
were held Saturday at 10 a.m.
in the chapel of Townson
Funeral Home here.
The Rev. Woodrow Flynn
officiated and burial was in
Sunset Cemetery. Nephews
were pallbearers.
Surviving are the husband,
Cecil Roberts; two daughters,
Mrs. Jerry Lee Barrett of
Rockville, Md., and Mrs.
Caroline Erma Logie of New
Mexico, a brother, Tom Taylor
of Murphy; and two
grandchildren.
Burglar
Gets Rifles
Two high-powered rifles
were stolen sometime over the
weekend in a break-in at the
Dickey Oil Company office.
Murphy Police Chief Pete
Stalcup said entrance was
gained to the office by
breaking out a window and the
thief took a .35 Remington
lever-action rifle and a .30-30
Winchester. Both rifles were
nearly new, he added, and were
in cases.
The company safe was
untouched, the officer said,
and even desk drawers had not
been disturbed.
Allen Faces
Charges
Cherokee County deputies
and a federal officer raided i
still in the Violet section oi
Saturday, making moonshim
charges against Wilfred Allen
Allen, about 50 years old, L
scheduled for a hearing it
federal court in Bryson City or
Jan. 13.
Officers who made thi
arrest were Cherokee Chie
Deputy Glenn Holloway
Deputy Lesard Radford anc
federal Alcohol and Tobaccc
Tax Division agent Dor
Plemmons of Bryson City.
Hie officers seized the
60-gallon still and a smal
amount of illegal liquor at th<
still site, which they said wai
near Allen's home.
Wins Television Set SS&
Miss Janice English, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Everett English, was the
happy winner last week of the
television set given away by the
Business and Professional Women's
Club. Money raised by the project goes
for two $400 college scholarships given
by the club each year to two qualified
girls graduating from Cherokee County
schools. (Staff Photo)
Power Firm Chief Dies
John M. Archer, Jr., 60,
president of Nantahala Power
and Light Company, died
unexpectedly at his home in
Franklin Sunday of an
apparent heart attack.
Archer joined Aluminum
Company of America in 1926
on the Santeetlah hydroelectric
construction project and when
Nantahala Power and Light
Company was formed in 1929
he became the local agent of
the Andrews office.
He moved to Franklin as
manager of the retail
department in 1936 and in
1947 was made a vice president
and director of Nantahala.
Archer was made president
of Nantahala in 1950.
His career with Alcoa and
Nantahala spanned a period of
43 years.
An outstanding civic and
business leader. Archer was a
trustee and director of several
organizations including the
Cherokee Historical
Association, C. J. Harris
Community Hospital in Sylva,
North Carolina Citizens'
Association, Southeastern
Electric Exchange and
Wachovia Bank and Trust
Company.
Archer was a native of
Knoxville, Tenn., and attended
the University of Tennessee.
He was a member of the
Franklin Presbyterian Church
and the Biltmore Forest
Country Club in Asheville.
Long a supporter of
athletics and youth activities,
he had been very active in Boy
Scouting and other young
people's organizations. He had
served as president and a
director of the Franklin Rotary
Club and was active in all
phases of community and civic
life.
Archer is survived by his
wife, Mrs. Beatrice Payne
Archer, and two children, Dr.
John M. Archer III of
Charlotte and Mis. Charles T.
McLaughlin of Severna Park,
Md., a sister Mrs. R. H.
McKeehan of Knoxville, and
six grandchildren.
Civic and business leaders
throughout Western North
Carolina expressed sorrow
upon Archer's death and
Franklin Mayor Sam K.
Greenwood said, "The town
and I have lost a good friend
and a public spirited citizen.
Hie town could always count
on Mr. Archer supporting any
project for the betterment of
the town and the Weetera
North Carolina area. The board
of aldermen and I know that
we have lost one of the town's
best friends and we offer Mrs.
Archer and the children our
deepest condolences."
Funeral services will ill held
Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the
Franklin Presbyterian Cnich
with the Rev. Wyatt Aiken,
pastor, officiating. BuiM will
follow in Woodlawn Cemetery
with Junaluskee Lodge No.
145 in charge of gravoside
services.
Active pallbearers wBl be
Bill Walker, Hunter Calloway,
Mac Whitaker, Winton Berry,
B. L. McGlamery, BUI Sloan,
Claude Bolton, all of Fnllklin
and John Spicer of Adwville.
All employes of Nantahala
Power and Light Company will
serve as honorary
The family will
friends at Bryant
Home Tuesday evening from ?
to 9 p.m.
Lewis Green's AND SCATTER THE PROUD
wis Green's AND 5CAMCK
Reporter Writes 'Masterful First Novel
A Review
AND SCATTER THE
PROUD, a novel by Lewis W.
Green. Published Nov. 29 by
John F. Blair of
Winston-Salem, 447 pages.
$6.95.
Lewis Green, a good old
Haywood County boy turned
Big City newspaper reporter,
has done himself proud with a
masterful first novel set in his
beloved mountains.
Like the patterns used by
Appalachian weavers, Green's
story is cleverly told and the
whole is not revealed until the
last. There is a murky hint here
and a shadowy due there, the
suspense prows but not until
the end do ail the lines tail into
The action centers on Big
Lonesome, a towering peak
along the Blue Ridge Parkway
within driving distance of
Asheville. The mountain is the
warp, the base on which Green
weaves his story. Its beginnings
are lost in smoky Creation; it
has a life and presence and
power of its own; its end is
beyond sight and time in the
far reaches of Eternity.
The characters are
brightty-coloted pieces of
string and yarn, their lives
woven in with each other and
the mountain forever on that
one fateful night when all the
Unas in the pattern come
together.
One of the players is
particularly well-formed, the
alcoholic insurance salesman
Houston Conard, formerly a
country youth, now an
Asheville resident. The author
himself came to Asheville after
service in the Korean War and
worked at a variety of jobs
before landing on the staff of
the Aaheville Citizen in
1961?his account of Houston
Conard's transition is as sharp
and clean lined as the Zeb
Vance shaft on Pack Square.
".. .customers were largely
country men, and Houston
knew their very souls. Hk
ambition charged forward at
full speed, unbridled In
inhibition .. .Houston had
their number?knew that they
needed some flashy Mt of
showmanship with their
purchases . . .some
down-to-earth talk in their
slow, lingering idiom about
weather, crops and the crooked
conniving courthouse ring that
was taking them all down the
road to the poothouse."
The lengthy last part of the
book is a story complete In
itself and its relationship to the
other parts is not revealed until
the final pages. It la a colorful,
authentic, haunting portrait of
a way of life now rfmost pant
in the Western North Carolina
mountains.
lis final task on the
s the lockknot which
lie story and at the i
lolds it together.