THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
In these parts, Union, Towns, Fannin and
surrounding counties in North Georgia and also in nearby Tennessee and
North
Carolina, we like what we call “country music.”
During the Great Depression era and even prior to that economic
downfall
in America, many people had to leave their farms and seek employment
elsewhere. Many went to towns where
cotton mills operated, offering jobs for men, women and children at
very low
wages. The employment provided enough to
keep food on the table, if they could find food to buy, a shelter of
sorts over
their heads, and clothing on their backs.
Out of this sad time came much “country music,” for those with
the
abilities to play guitar, banjo, fiddle, “French” harp and autoharp and
sing
their plaintive, sad folk songs brought about what has been called
“Singing in
the Cotton Mills.”
Recently
I came across and read a delightful book about how our mountain folk
music was
preserved by those with a will to be happy despite circumstances. Patrick Huber has written/compiled a book
chronicling the history of country music.
It tells of those who got their start as music artisans as they
worked
in cotton mills of the Piedmont South.
The title is Linthead Stomp:
The Creation of Country Music in the South.
Huber
devotes a chapter to Fiddlin’ John Carson (1868-1949) who, some
biographers
say, was born in Fannin County, Georgia.
Carson described himself on one of his Okeh recordings in 1929: “I’m the best fiddler that ever jerked the
hairs of a horse’s tail across the belly of a cat.”
Life
was not easy for cotton mill workers in the era covered by the
“Linthead Stomp”
book, 1923-1942. Many left farms that
had been their way of life for a long time and sought work in the
cotton mills. Many with musical
inclinations took with them
their ability to play the fiddle, a guitar or a banjo, and their
plaintive
voices that sang the ballad-type songs they had heard all their lives.
Others, with a talent for writing rhyme, composed
new ballads about the life they had left for hard work in the cotton
mills. In John Carson’s case, he wrote a
song about a newsworthy event, the murder of a young girl in Atlanta in
April,
1913.
John
Carson wrote “Little Mary Phagan” about the murder trial of Mary
Phagan, a
thirteen-year old pencil factory worker who was murdered and her body
buried in
the basement of the factory. Leo Frank,
manager and part-owner of the factory, was accused of the murder and a
notorious trial ensued. While he was in
prison serving a life sentence, a group calling themselves “Knights of
Mary
Phagan” stole Frank out of prison and hanged him.
Fiddlin’
John Carson wrote his song about Mary Phagan in 1915 and sang it from
the steps
of the Georgia State Capitol to a crowd gathered to hear.
In 1925, his daughter, Rosa Lee Carson, who
was his guitar player and did duets with her father, sang the Phagan
song and
it was recorded. Those interested may
access U-Tube clips of many of the John Carson songs as well as this
ballad
sung by his daughter.
John
Carson and a fellow musician, Ed Kincaid, another Fannin County native,
who was
a member of Carson’s Virginia Reelers Band, often did concerts together. Both appeared at the annual Georgia “Old Time
Fiddler’s Convention” at which entrants were judged for their playing
ability. In 1913, John Carson entered the
competition
for the first time and was named to fourth place that year. However, with more practice and much
determination, Fiddlin’ John Carson was named first place winner seven
times
from the years 1914-1922. Both Carson
and Kincaid worked at the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta. Their work at the mills and association
through their music and recordings gave themthe distinction of being
included
in the Huber compilation, Linthead
Stomp.
For
the country music lover, especially of the more vintage (old-fashioned)
type,
Huber has included valuable information in appendices in his book. Appendix A is a directory of southern textile
workers who made hillbilly recordings between 1923-1942.
And Appendix B lists the discography of
recordings of these artists during the same time period.
Many
of the old records have been re-recorded and are now available on disk. Johnny Carter of Rome, Georgia, who has Union
County roots (his grandfather was Frank Dyer of Choestoe, who was a
noted
“shaped note” music teacher of the twentieth century, and inducted a
few years
ago into the Union County Gospel Music Hall of Fame) has the National
Recording
Studio in Rome. We commend Johnny Carter
for this mission. You can read about him
and his recording studio by going online to National Recording
Corporation
(NaReCo). He is not included in Linthead Stomp because he is
after that era; but he is saving some of the recordings of the era
Huber writes
about.
In
looking through Huber’s appendix on recording artists, not only did I
read
about John Carson and his daughter, Rosa Lee, nicknamed “Moonshine
Kate,” and
Ed Kincaid, all of whom were partners in recording on the Okeh records,
with
Carson’s first being made in 1923, but I also found the listing of
Hazel Cole
who was born in Fannin County. She left
Fannin County to go to Rome, Georgia to work in a textile mill there. She met her future husband at the mill, Henry
W. Grady Cole from LaFayette, Georgia.
Since both liked to sing and play, they formed the “Grady and
Hazel Cole
Duo.” During 1939 and 1940, Hazel and
Grady recorded twelve sides on RCA and Victor recording labels. Huber gives a total of twenty-five natives of
areas of North Georgia who contributed significantly to this particular
era of
country music. I don’t know if any he
lists were from Union County, as he did not know or did not give their
birth
counties, except for a few of them.
Noted in his listings are three with the last name of Chumbler
who have
North Georgia ties: George Elmo
(1907-1956), Irene (1913-?) and William Archer (1902-1937) who often
recorded
as the Chumbler Family and also with “Jim King and His Brown Mules” as
well as
with “Hoke Rice and His Southern String Band.”
With
the Great Depression and its financial woes, a very real challenge to
cotton
mill workers (as well as almost everyone) during a major portion of the
period
covered by Huber’s history of country music in Linthead
Stomp, there’s a heartening note to think that they
might have been singing in the cotton mills as they operated the looms
or made
garments and worked hard to make their production quotas.
The tone of much of the music they produced
matched the depressed times, sad and plaintive, longing for better
times, and
remembering why they had to leave their farm homes in the first place.
Carson’s
“The Little Old Log Cabin inthe Lane” touched on that very nostalgic
theme. But then, on their time off, the
fiddlers could play at barn dances and community gatherings, providing
music
for weekend parties and get-togethers where they might share food
they’d bring
for the best meal their means could provide.
They sang their blues away by singing sad songs and dancing. They were grateful for work, whatever it was,
and singing in the cotton mills was better far than crying, even though
their
songs were often melancholy. Their music
and their expressed pathos make up part of the fabric of America and
the hard
times they lived through.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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