with Everett Porter (son of Jasper, son of Alex, son of Andrew J. Porter)
Grace Porter (JC’s grandma): And he has one sister living.
Grace: I believe he is 85 or 86.
Jim: I know he is way up there. (Referring to Everett Porter (son of Alex, son of AJP)
JC: I’ll look him up.
Jim: I’m going on 80 you know. 79 Past.
Everett : I’ll soon be 75, in July.
Jim: Oh, I remember your Dad (Jasper) and all of them.
Everett : I remember you way back before you was married.
Jim: I think I used to see you around here working at the mines. I passed you a time or two on the road.
Everett : Ya, I passed here every day for years.
Jim: But I didn’t know you then.
Alice : We’ve been living here 58 years.
Grace: 58 years.
Alice : That’s a long time.
JC to Jim: Were you born in 1899?
Jim: Ya. Dec. 1899. You see, my age runs with the years. It’s 79 and I’m 79. In 1980, I’ll be 80.
Everett : That would be easy to count it. Now Swetnam Branch is right down there?
Jim: Ya, it comes right back up over in here. I worked over there. Did you work there?
Everett : Ya, I worked there. I drilled up here on Ditney? Ridge.
Alice to Grace: Was you a Manning?
Grace: No, I was an Erwin. Steve Erwin’s girl.
Jim: Steve Erwin. I’ve heard of Steve Erwin.
Grace: Ya, my father died in 1923.
Jim: Ya, I’ve heard of Steve Erwin. I worked with Walter Erwin. He lived down the creek here. You know Walter?
Grace: Oh ya. Ya he’s a cousin. His father was a cousin to my dad.
Everett : Let JC ask what he wants to find out.
JC: Let’s see. You had a sister named Lucy?
Jim: Ya, she was the oldest.
JC: And William?
Jim: Will, ya.
JC: And Rebecca?
Jim: Ya.
JC: And Mary?
Jim: There is one between there that is living. Florence .
JC: You are the only one in your family living aren’t you?
Jim: Me and Florence .
JC: Oh, you have a younger sister?
Jim: She is two years younger than I am. She lives over at Wheelersburg , Ohio .
Alice : Florence Williams, she is a widow.
Jim: We had a sister that died when she was 4 years old. I don’t remember her.
JC: Did you have any other brothers and sisters?
Jim: No, just me and Florence living.
JC: There wasn’t any others?
Jim: No, just six of us.
JC: You said your mom used to talk about her family?
Jim: Ya, the Catrons.
JC: Was she from the same place in Virginia that your dad was?
Jim: Well, I don’t know about that.
Alice : Your daddy wasn’t from Virginia .
Jim: Ya, I think he was.
JC: Ya, your dad was born in Virginia .
Alice : Oh, I didn’t know it.
Jim: As I said while ago, he never told us nothing.
JC: Oh he didn’t?
Jim: No. About his life much.
JC: He kept pretty good records didn’t he? Didn’t he keep all of his tax records and things like that?
Jim: Taxes yes, but he never did tell us, now my mother, she was born in Wythe county, Virginia, Catrons.
JC: What’d she say about them? When did they come here? Do you know?
Jim: I believe it was right after the civil war. They come through in a wagon. They was a week or two on the road you know. They come through some place down at Little Sandy or Big Sandy River . And out here at Stark (KY) was the Kegleys. See, my grandmother was a Kegley.
Everett : She was?
Jim: The Kegleys come through there.
JC: They came from Virginia also?
Jim: Ya. they come in together, the Catrons and the Kegleys. My grandmother is buried at Stark.
JC: Who was your mom’s father? What was his name?
Jim: Well he is buried over here at that cemetery by Johnny Catron’s. He lived 10 years longer than my grandmother did. She is buried at Stark. They lived at Stark at that time.
Alice : What was his name?
Jim: I don’t remember. I never seen him that I can remember. I guess he died before I was born.
Everett : (Mentioned something about Jim’s grandfather on his father’s side)
Jim: Ya, he was William Andrew wasn’t he. He is buried at Fairview .
JC: Ya, Andrew Porter.
Jim: Ya, they’re both buried at Fairview .
JC: Lucy Cornett was his wife. Andrew Porter and Lucy. Her maiden name was Cornett.
Jim: It was? See I didn’t know that.
JC: Have you ever heard anything about how it was in Virginia for them?
Jim: Well my mother used to talk about the civil war a whole lot.
JC: What’d she say about it?
Jim: All she know’d, she was born in 1860 you see. At the close of it, she was only 4 years old. All she got was from her mother. They lived there in the time of the civil war, and there was a lot of fighting going on there.
JC: They were probably confederates in the civil war?
Jim: Now there was a bunch come in. Along at the last, she could remember. There was a bunch of them come in, riding old horses that they had rode to death. They turned em loose and caught every horse they had but one. They just took them and went off.
JC: They stole the family’s horses?
Jim: She could remember seeing her horses go off she said. Good horses you know. They left the old plugs there.
JC: Is that right?
Jim: Ya.
Everett : That’s pretty bad ain’t it.
Jim: They didn’t ask him. He was afraid to say anything, and she did tell us, my great grandpa I guess, he was kind of like I am now, I can’t hear too good either. He couldn’t either. So he gets on his old horse. He thinks he’ll ride out to see what the war is going on, the fighting. They hollered for him to halt, but he didn’t hear them. He just went on. They didn’t know he was deaf. So they just shot his horse out from under him.
Everett : Oh they did?
Jim: Ya, that’s what she told us.
JC: That was your mom’s grandpa?
Jim: Ya, that would have been my mother’s grandpa. That’s what her mother told her. Now my dad wouldn’t talk much.
JC: He didn’t say anything that you can remember?
Jim: He didn’t tell us much.
Everett : He may not have known much about that.
Jim: He (John C.) was the youngest of the family.
JC: He had a younger sister, Emma, she married a Hanners. She was a few years younger than him. She was born here in Elliott county. (We have since learned that is incorrect, that she did not marry a Hanners, and she was not born in Elliott county. She was actually born in 1864 Grayson co VA.)
Jim: She was?
JC: Ya, after they came here.
Jim: After they came to Stark?
JC: Ya, but your dad was born in Virginia .
Jim: He was? Well I thought he was the baby of the family.
JC: He was born in Grayson, but they were from Wythe County also. They are right there next to each other.
Jim: Uncle Levi, he was in the civil war.
JC: What do you know about that?
Jim: His father (Andrew Porter) was kind of sickly, and they could come to get you. He got on the south side you see. Which ever side came to get you, you went. They didn’t ask you to go. They’d say come on and go, you’ve got to go. That’s all there was to it.
JC: Did he replace his dad in the war”
Jim: Ya, his dad (Andrew Porter) was sick. He (Levi) was just 18. They wouldn’t take you if you was too young. He told them, I’ll go in dad’s place. If you’ll take me that way, and they did. That’s how come him to be in it.
JC: Did you ever hear about him being captured?
Jim: No, he was never captured that I know of.
JC: He was captured, he was a prisoner for about 6 months.
Jim: Was he?
JC: Ya.
Jim: Well my dad never told nothing about that. In fact, he didn’t tell us hardly anything.
JC: Levi’s wife was from Virginia also. They were married before they ever came to Kentucky .
Jim: I guess they was.
JC: What do you know about her? She was a Lundy.
Jim: I never seen her in my life.
Everett : I stayed all night with her.
Jim: I never was out there at his place. Uncle Levi used to come to our place.
JC: What do you know about the Bumgardners? Steve Porter’s wife was a Bumgardner.
Jim: Granville Bumgardner, I remember him. He come to our place. Oh, he was old.
JC: Ya, that was Steve’s father in law.
Jim: Ya, he is buried at Fairview .
JC: He is? Granville Bumgardner is?
Jim: Ya, Granville Bumgardner. He had a brother named Stewart. Ofcourse I didn’t know him. Stewart Bumgardner come here in this Rowan county war. Somebody laywayed him right down here by the creek. Shot him off his horse.
JC: Rowan county war? What was that?
Jim: Tolliver-Martin War.
Everett : They had a feud here.
Jim: That happened in about 1885. I got that from my wife’s uncle. He just died about a year ago.
Alice : Two years ago.
Jim: He was 101 years old. He showed me the picture of Norman Wells. He showed me the picture of soldiers come in there kept ________ trouble. The Tollivers, the Martins and the Days was into it too. I know’d a lot of old civil war veterans. Mace Day was into it.
Everett : I’ve heard of him, but I didn’t know him.
Jim: You’ve heard of Mace Day haven’t you?
Everett : I think I’ve heard of him, but I didn’t know him.
Jim: He used to be around Hoggtown. Great feller to pick at you. I think he was into that Rowan county war a little bit.
JC: Was that Granville Bumgardner from Virginia ? Same place in Virginia ?
Jim: Well, I don’t know. I just can remember him being at our place one time. Some of them got us a little box of peanuts, and there was a toy in it. And how I can remember him, it had a little glass on top of it about that big around. It had a little thing like a pot? egg in there, and there was a hole in the bottom of it and you could look through that glass, and you would see if you could put that egg in that hole, and he wanted to try. He was as old as I am, and he was shaking, and he couldn’t do that. He got tickled and laughed all over himself. I can remember him over here in this old log house. That’s all I can remember about him. I don’t believe he’s even got a tombstone up there at Fairview to show where he is buried. But he’s buried there.
JC: Did the Porters come on a wagon train also from Virginia ?
Jim: Well, I don’t know about that, my dad never did tell us.
JC: He didn’t say anything?
Jim: No sir, he didn’t.
JC: I wonder why?
Jim: Well sir, I don’t know why.
Everett : Well dad (Jasper Porter) never did talk about it. I think he said they come through in wagons, but I’m not sure. Fact of the matter, I didn’t even know where they come from.
Jim: Well I thought that dad and all of them come from old Virginia , but I don’t know what county or nothing. Cause he never did tell.
Everett : You went there to the courthouse and got the records didn’t you?
JC: Ya. Me and my cousin Scott went. We might go back down there Monday. Back to Virginia where they came from.
Jim: Do you know what county it is?
JC: Ya. Grayson county.
Jim: Grayson county?
JC: It is right there on the North Carolina border.
Jim: It is right there south of Wythe county. I believe I’ve seen it.
JC: Ya, Wythe county is here, and Grayson county is here. They are side by side.
Jim: I’ve looked it up on the map.
JC: Wythe is spelled WYTHE. Let’s see, do you know all of Levi’s children? There was an Edward, Laura, Calhoun, James, Ruth, Lula, Arthur. Do those sound familiar?
Jim: Ya, I know’d of Arthur and Byrd.
JC: Bert?
Jim: They called him Bird is all I know.
JC: How do you spell that?
Jim: BIRD I reckon.
Everett : Bird is what they always called him.
Jim: Bob is buried out here on the ridge by the old house. He come out there and buried his wife out there from the house. They buried him there too. Right out here on the ridge.
JC: Was Levi’s boy Jim the one that was the lawyer in Olive Hill?
Jim: Ya, we called him Crippled Jim, because he got crippled in his legs. He kind of hopped. I had an uncle named Jim you know. So we called him Crippled Jim.
JC: He was your cousin then?
Jim: Ya.
JC: How did he get to be a lawyer? Did he go to college? Or did they just go in there and say, “I want to be a lawyer.”
Jim: I believe he just took it up.
Everett : Back then they didn’t have to go through a lot of stuff like they do now.
Jim: Kind of like a lot of doctors. You just took it up and said. “I’m a doctor.” We had a bunch of them around here that way. We had two doctor Porters around here. I think that is the way they started.
Everett : They’ve got one down there at Morehead now, ain’t they?
Jim: Ya, Nels? boy.
Everett : Who?
Jim: Nels? Porter’s boy. He lived right here in Elliott.
Everett : I didn’t know if he was any relation to us or not. He said he didn’t know.
Jim: No, not that I know of. I used to hear my mother talk about Nel’s mother. Said she called her Sally Porter. She know’d her from Stark. No relation that I know of. Old Doc Sam (Porter?) told me that his people come from old Virginia . ( 17:00) He said we could be ________.
JC: Doc who?
Jim: He was old.
Everett : Maybe some of them went different ways, and then didn’t know they were related.
JC: You say he’s a Porter, Doc Sam is?
Jim: Doctor Sam and Doc _________. Both of them was brothers.
JC: And they’re Porters?
Jim: They’re Porters. (Other conversation, hard to understand.)
JC: Do you know your Uncle Jim’s kids? I’ve got Lucy, Andrew, Edward, Katie, Bessie, Floyd, Ellet, Willey. Do you know of any others?
Everett : You know’d Ellet didn’t you?
Jim: We called him Bill, younger, and Charlie.
Everett : Ellet was the one that had such long legs, and he would ride them there horses. He could ride a mule or anything.
Jim: I just kind of remember my uncle Jim.
Everett : Andy, wasn’t he a brother to Andy? Andy and Ellet. They was Uncle Jim’s boys.
Jim: I believe Lucy, she married a Middleton, and they went to Idaho . I believe it was Idaho wasn’t it?
Everett : I don’t know.
Jim: She married Joe Middleton’s boy. And they went to Idaho .
JC: How was that, that Jim porter got killed?
Jim: Him and, oh what’s his name, Kegley. What was that Kegley’s name?
Everett : I’ve heard dad tell about it.
Alice : I know he is a Kegley, and that’s all.
Everett : It was over a school election or something wasn’t it.
Jim: Well I guess it was. It was at Sandy Hook . Kegley, I know his name if I could think of it. I don’t know him though, never seen him. They got into it in an office at Sandy Hook someway. Uncle Jim was pretty high tempered.
JC: He was.
Everett : He drank right smart.
Jim: He drank some, ya. He might have been drinking. It was 1907 you know. No, it was 1906. Then Ed was killed in 1907.
JC: Who is Ed? His son Ed?
Jim: Ya, that’s his boy.
JC: How was he killed.
Jim: At Stark. I was out there not long ago in the old building he got killed in. Me and my oldest boy was there. And I told him, Glennis, right there is where Ed Porter got killed. That old building is setting there yet.
Everett : Is it?
JC: How did he get killed? Did something fall on him?
Jim: No. Him and Andy both, truth about it, I guess was mean. He was only 18. He had been blowing his mote? (20:22) off about some of the Skeens and Holbrooks running a little store there. They got him in the store, so they said, Ed Cox was there. Ed told me this. They got him in the store, and then gave him a good whopping, and it didn’t work out so good, he was about to whoop both of them. One of them cut a throat with a knife, and the other they said went behind the counter and got a pistol and shot him. He lived several days.
Everett : Is this the Ed Cox that used to live down here?
Jim: Ya.
Everett : I know’d him and worked with him.
Jim: That’s the one. He said he was right there.
Alice : Mrs. Cox is still a livin.
Grace: That was his mother was it?
Alice : His wife.
Jim: Ed Porter you see, they carried him home and he lived several days. Skeens and Holbrooks.
Henry Kegley, that’s the man that killed Uncle Jim. They got into it. Drew Evan’s wife down there. She was a Thompson. She is the only one that seen it. She was a clerk in the office, or something.
Everett : Eye witness?
Jim: She was an eyewitness to it.
JC: Did they put the guy in jail?
Jim: No he left and they never did catch him. Ya, Henry Kegley.
Everett : He left out of here huh?
Jim: He left.
JC: Do you remember your aunt Jane?
Jim: Aunt Jane?
JC: Ya, she would be about two years younger than your uncle Levi.
Jim: No.
JC: You don’t remember her?
Jim: I remember talking about one Martha Day. But I don’t know anything about her. And then my aunt Mary Dwelly. They lived in Robertson county. Near Mt. Olivet.
JC: You know you dad and his family lived in Robertson county for a while.
Jim: Ya, I think they lived there 4 years.
JC: Do you know why they lived there?
Jim: No. I don’t know how come em to leave and come here. They lived there before they come here the way I understood it.
JC: Ya, they did. But they bought land here (in Carter county) kind of as they were passing through. They bought 150 acres in Carter county when they came from Virginia , then went on out to Robertson county, then they came back. He (Andrew Porter) bought it in 1867, then sold it in 1873 while he was living in Robertson county.
Jim: There is some of them that told me that my grandfather (Andrew Porter) taught school a little, and built chimneys.
JC: Your grandfather did?
Jim: Ya, Porter.
JC: He built chimneys?
Jim: Ya.
JC: For houses?
Jim: Ya. He was good hand at it, building fireplaces and chimneys.
Everett : I’ve heard dad (Jasper Porter) talk about that.
Jim: Right there below Harlan’s (son of Alex, son of Andrew Porter) some of them called it the Big Springs, I remember a little old log building. He taught school there they told me.
JC: Your grandpa did?
Jim: Ya, grandpa Porter. Had a dirt floor. Just a log building and a fireplace. That’s all there was to it. He taught a little school there. I remember the old log building. It stood there when I was a boy.
JC: Did he (Andrew Porter) preach any?
Jim: I don’t think so. No, not that I know of. Yet he was the one that started that Fairview church. You remember that little one that was there?
Everett : Ya.
Grace: Where the cemetery is. The old frame of the house is still there.
Everett : It sat around the other way. And this other one sat this a way.
Grace: The last time they had Everett ’s dad’s funeral there, I think was the last time. That was in 44.
Jim: You notice that walnut tree that sets there? Big Oak right in front, but the walnut is over here at the side.
Everett : I don’t know if it is still there or not. Ya, I believe it is.
Jim: My mother set it out there.
Everett : I’ve been there to church, when that other one sat there.
Jim: Uncle Steve Porter, he would get up there, and he could jump up this high, when he got to preaching.
JC: He would jump up and down when he preached?
Jim: Ya, he could jump up high I guess.
JC: He preached up at Fairview a lot?
Jim: He would scare me to death. I remember hunkering up behind my mother when he got to preaching and clapping his hands together you know. I’d hide behind my mother’s back .
Everett : Your dad preached too.
Jim: Ya, my dad preached a while.
Everett : I heard him preach.
Jim: He made a bad mistake Everett , my dad did.
JC: What mistake did he make?
Jim: After my mother died, he just went off. He lost his good sense. He just didn’t have no reason. Even Uncle Alick (Alex Porter, son of AJP) came to talk to him, and he couldn’t do anything with him.
Jim: Yes he did.
Jim: It was awful, a fellow that could preach like he could talk. He was good.
Jim: Ya he was good at it. He went all over the country preaching and talking.
Jim: Ya, Uncle Steve. But he just got out and got in worse all the time. He even got to drinking.
Jim: Ya he did. It’s
the truth I reckon. I won’t lie about
it. He used to talk against
whiskey. Ya, he got to drinking. I tried to get him away from
JC: Did your dad ever get straightened out before he died?
Jim: Well he quit drinking. I know that. He quit that. I was over there a time or two to see him. He lived with that old woman. He know’d she wasn’t no account. He know’d her like a book. That a man would let somebody pull them in that way. It’s a mystery.
It’s a mystery. We couldn’t do nothin with him. You may have just as well talked to a mule.
Jim: (Laughs.)
Jim: My Dad had the pistol?
I told Dad (Jasper) “Don’t you ever get me in a scrape like that any more, I didn’t know nothing about that. We could have every one got killed there.”
Jim: You know my Dad
thought that people ought to hold up for him, and they didn’t do it. You know they wouldn’t. He was thought well of by people around
Jim: When my mother died, he just went plum off. My mother was an awfully good woman. She was the only girl in the family, the Catrons.
(timer 32:14)
Jim: and her
brothers, Uncle Bill, Uncle Joe and Uncle George. They was __________?
Always pickin at her you know.
Everett : This Uncle
George, now he’s your uncle ain’t he?
George Catron.
Jim: Ya, he was
always drinking. He was peaceable, and
you couldn’t keep from laughing. He was
good to us.
Everett : He’s a
livin yet ain’t he?
Jim: Ain’t none of
them a livin.
Everett : Maybe I’m a
thinking about the wrong feller.
Jim: You see, a mule
was sold to Uncle George, he was riding an old mule out there close to home,
right there where you turn into Johnny’s going down to the cemetery. And this old mule, he was by himself, he was
drinking. I guess drunk, or half. and this mule throwed him against the tree
and bucked his brains out.
Everett : Now wait a
minute. This ain’t Uncle George that
lives down here this side of Fairview , is it, that sold cattle?
Jim: That’s Little
George, Uncle Joe’s boy.
Everett : Oh, that’s
another George?
Jim: Ya, Little
George we called him. Cause we had two
George’s that away you know. He was
uncle Joe’s boy. He’s 80 some. Blind, he can’t see a lick. I seen him not too long ago.
Everett : I think a
lot of him.
Jim: Yes, he’s
good. He’s a good old man. He’s honest.
The other one lived out toward, you know where Johnny lived? Johnny Kegley. that’s where Uncle George, that’s his home.
Alice : Arville lives
there now. Arvile Catron lives there by
himself now.
Jim: Ya, Arville. Arville Catron.
Alice : Johnny’s boy.
JC: This Little
George is your cousin?
Jim: Ya, he is my 1st
cousin.
JC: Where’s he live
at?
Jim: he lives over
here, let’s see…
Alice : This side of
the church house, down the hill.
Jim: Right down this
side of the Fairview church house. You
know where Dayton (Porter, s/o Will, s/o John C., s/o AJP) lives?
Grace: Ya.
Jim: You know where
he lives. Near Dayton in a little house.
Grace: That’s Clayton
Bond’s father in law isn’t it. His
daughter married Clayton Bond. Lives on
Garvin Ridge.
Jim: He’s been blind for a long time.
(timer 35:00)
JC: What did your Dad finally die from?
Jim: I think it was Bright’s Disease, and Uncle Alick died right after that, Harlan (son of Alex, s/o AJP) told me. I had forgot about that.
Jim: Same thing. They
both went to
JC: What did your uncle Steve die from?
Jim: He went to
JC: He moved up there by himself?
Jim: Well he married another woman, Uncle Steve did.
JC: Oh he did?
Jim: Ya
JC: Who was she?
Jim: I believe she was an Evans. She was married to Drew Evans.
JC: Where is Steve’s first wife buried at?
Jim: She was buried
in
JC: Oh he moved out
to
Jim: He didn’t take
her (2nd wife) back. Some way
or another, she got sick and went back to her people, and Steve went back to
JC: Did any of his
kids move out to
Jim: Uncle Steve had children there… Charlie Porter.
JC: In
Jim: Ya. Charlie, course he is dead. Charlie was here once, back __________.
JC: I wonder where they lived in
Jim: I think it was
close to Antigo. Bryant or Antigo,
one. You’ve heard of that,
Jim: That’s all I know. Bob Porter (s/o Levi, s/o AJP) went up there.
Jim: He stayed there a long time.
JC: Who’s Bob?
Jim: He is Levi’s
boy. He is buried out here on Brown Ridge,
out here just from
JC: Is that where Levi is buried too?
Jim: No. Uncle Levi is buried over there by his home someplace.
Jim: Harold and Uncle Levi took care of Arthur when he died. He was young, but I don’t know how young. Uncle Levi took Harold, and just kept him, and he brought him to stay all night several times at out place.
Everett: Dad stayed with him, (Arthur) till he died.
Jim: Harold did too didn’t he?
Jim: No. But I’ve heard tell of him. He was a rough one wasn’t he?
JC: What did Levi die from?
Jim: Well he died over there at home, I reckon.
JC: From old age?
Jim: I think he died
with old age. See, he didn’t get no
pension, because he was on the side that got whooped. Till Woodrow
Jim: Ya, he passed a law, and Levi started getting his pension.
JC: You say they crossed the Little Sandy River when they came to KY?
Jim: Ya, I think they
crossed the Little Sandy River, that’s what caused them to get to Stark. They lived there I don’t know how many
years. That’s when my grandmother died
and they buried her up on the hill. We
went there once to the cemetery. We went
down to Uncle Jim Porter’s place. Me and
Ellet, Bill (sons of Jim, s/o AJP) and my sister
JC: You never heard
them say why they came here? (from
Jim: I guess so. You know that war was bad in old
JC: Were the Catrons
pretty well to do in
Jim: Well I don’t
know how well to do they was. The best I
could find out, they just made a living.
I guess it was tough cause that war went on for four year, you
know. I’ve read a lot about the Civil
War. These old War veterans like Mace
Day, we had a bunch of them here at
John French and Flem Ross.
Jim: Ya, they are all dead. Mace Day used to be bad to pick at a feller. Well he know’d Uncle Levi. They was big friends. They would meet up here at Hogtown. He was always pulling off some kind of a joke or stunt on somebody.
JC: What kind of a man was your dad?
Jim: Well my dad wasn’t much for joking after ________________?
JC: He wasn’t?
Jim: No. He wasn’t.
JC: He was pretty
serious?
Jim: Ya.
And Uncle Levi didn’t seem to be much for joking either.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2, 1979 Jim
Porter (son of John C. Porter, s/o Andrew J. Porter)
Everett Porter (s/o Jasper Porter, s/o Alex Porter, s/o Andrew J.
Porter)
Track 2 (1st 14 of 34
minutes)
Alice: Are you out of
High School?
JC: Ya, I’ve been out
a year now. Working full time for a
year.
JC: You say Alick
(Alex Porter, s/o AJP) didn’t joke around either?
Jim: No.
JC to Everett: I
wonder where your dad (Jasper Porter, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) got all of his joking
around then?
Everett: He was
bad.
Jim: He liked to joke
around.
Grace to Alice:
(About JC) He’ll be 20 in
December.
Alice: He’s your
daughter’s son.
Grace: No, he’s our
son’s son.
Jim: My mother was
over at Uncle Alick’s. Coming back
across the hill, there was a big apple tree there. Back then, there was apples just laying,
going to waste. Anybody could pick them
up, whoever wanted them. Your dad (Jasper)
and some of them pulled a joke on my mother.
He (Jasper) stuck a note on the tree, that said something like, “Thou
Shall not steal.”
Everett: Boy he was
just all the time, just anything to have a big laugh.
Jim: He caught my dad
and mother out at Fairview church one Sunday, and he (Jasper) said, “There
comes Adam and Eve.” He said, “Eve got
the forbidden fruit, and Adam helped eat it too.” He had a big lot of fun out of it. Nobody cared about that. We’d go up there, and those apples would be
just laying there going to waste.
Jim: Now we can’t
raise apples. We can’t raise them
here.
Everett: They get
killed every year.
Jim: Back in the
20’s, I had several big apple trees right down there. They were just full. but then in the 30’s, 9 times out of 10, the
freeze would get them. Just once in a
while,
Everett: You don’t
have very many apples this time do you?
Jim: No. I couldn’t set out no fruit trees on that
account. It would freeze.
Everett: The last few
years, if you set out a little tree, it would kill em.
JC: What do you know
about Levi (Porter, son of Andrew J. Porter) and his hypnotism? Did you ever see any of that?
Jim: He said he could
do it.
JC: Did you ever see
him do it?
Jim: No.
Alice: Who was that
Jim that you said he could do it?
Jim: Uncle Levi. He had a book that he read up on, and he quit
it because he said you could harm some people with it.
Everett: It’s evil
spirits is what it is.
Jim: It ain’t a
thing, but the Devil. I could tell you,
we had a little homemade stand table, I guess I better change that. You know, just four legs, homemade. My brother (Will Porter?) and Wint (s/o Alex,
s/o AJP), I believe it was there at our place, and they had that table, I can
remember well, if I would get up on this side of it, you know and set there, it
would raise up and stand on the other two legs back here, and it did. I can remember, I got on it and it just
raised me up, and it stood right there on two legs and nobody touching it. Me a sitt’in on it, I was just a boy.
JC: So you were on
there. They did it for you huh?
Jim: They asked it to
knock a lick, and it would raise right up and knock a lick. They would ask it with this boy on it.
JC: What were some of
the questions they would ask it?
Jim: It was all sorts
of foolish questions. If you started
anything about the Bible, it wouldn’t work.
It would quit.
JC: It would go away
then huh?
Jim: It’d go away.
Jim: Now my brother,
he didn’t like Elijah Purnell. You’ve
heard of Elijah Purnell?
Everett: Ya, I’ve
heard of him.
Jim: My brother
didn’t like him.
JC: Who’s that?
Jim: Elijah
Purnell. My oldest brother, Will, didn’t
like Elijah Purnell. My brother said to
it (the table), or Wint, I forget just which one, “Is Elijah Purnell a thief?”
Or something like that. “Knock a lick if
he is.” Well it knocked a lick.
Everett: It did? (laughing)
Jim: Ya. And then they said, “Would he (Elisha) steal
sheep?” It knocked a lick. (laughing)
And they said, “How many sheep did he ever steal?” That thing just went to pecking up and down,
and up and down, and up and down as fast as it could go.
JC: The table knocked
up and down?
Everett: Ain’t Elisha Purnell the feller that went way off
some where and had a big…
Jim: He went to New
Castle, Indiana.
Everett: Well didn’t
he have some kind of church or something that had a big following of some
kind? They called him Father
Purnell.
Jim: He was a
preacher of some kind.
Everett: The people
just run in there and thought he was a God.
Jim: Chalmer tells me
that he went plum off. Went wild before
he died.
Everett: Now was
Leslie Purnell his boy? I know’d Leslie.
Jim: That’s his
boy. He’s got grandchildren over here
now.
JC: You could see
that table jumping up and down.
Jim: It would raise
right up and just peck the floor.
Everett: I’ve heard
Dad, Dad told us, he was staying with Wint.
Wint was married.
Jim: I think Wint was
into that too. He was there that night,
I’m pretty sure.
Everett: Dad was the
one doing most of it. He was just
boarding with Wint. Wint lived down
there on Clark Hill. Dad was boarding
there with him. He wasn’t married, Dad
wasn’t.
Jim: That hypnotism
can be worked.
Everett: Evil
spriits.
Jim: Uncle Levi, they
said there was some feller aimed to preach over there, and he didn’t like this
preacher.
Everett: Jess
Collins, I’ve heard.
Jim: Was it, I forget
the name. He said I just took a notion
to go down there and keep him from preaching tonight.
JC: So what did he
do?
Jim: He won, he said. The old man got up and started to preach, and
finally he just…
Everett: He said,
“The Devil’s in the house.”
Jim: The preacher
said he can’t preach tonight, and he sat down and quit.
Everett: The next
night they said he came out and said, “Is that old man Porter here?”
JC: They said the old
man with the beard, wasn’t it? Did Levi
have a long beard?
Jim: Ya, he had some
beard. He used to come to our house, and
he would set up there and talk all night.
Everett: They said
Uncle Steve (s/o Andrew J. Porter) was preaching somewhere, and Levi got up
there and tried to charm him you know.
He was preaching, and Uncle Steve, he could feel it you know. He was preaching and Uncle Levi was sitting
there looking right at him, trying to charm him. He said, “Levi, if you don’t quit fooling
with that Devil spirit, the Devil’s gonna get you.” Boy, they said he just poured it on him. (laughing)
Levi said, “Now, it won’t work on Steve.” They said his charm wouldn’t work on
Steve.
Jim: It was kind of
on people that was easily pulled over.
JC: Wonder how he got
started into that?
Everett: Books I
guess.
Jim: Well sir, I
don’t know. Ofcourse he went through
that civil war. He got mean, that’s all
there was to it.
Everett: The Devil’s
in him.
Jim: He didn’t care
much what he done. I know he come back
from the civil war they said. He hadn’t
been back long. Some of the neighbor’s
hogs had been getting out, his father (Andrew J. Porter) told him. They were getting out in his corn field. So he (Levi) didn’t know his father’s hogs
from anyone else’s hogs. He goes out and
shoots three of his father’s hogs first thing.
He thought he had killed his neighbor’s hogs. Just killed three of em. (laughing)
JC: What did his
father do?
Jim: Well, he just
put up with it. He (Levi) had went to
the war, and saved him (Andrew) a goin you know. He didn’t mean to kill his father’s
hogs. But he just thought it was his
neighbor’s hogs, you see.
JC: Have you ever
heard anything about when they came across the river, that Levi swam across to
get the ferry to bring it back so they could get across on it, when they were
coming from Virginia?
Jim: No, No I never
heard of that.
JC: Somebody told me
that.
Jim: They was
supposed to have come through the Cumberland Gap across those mountains where
there ain’t no river.
JC: They came through
the Cumberland Gap?
Jim: That was my
understanding. All of them you see. That was the road through there.
Everett: Wouldn’t
have been no river to cross.
Jim: Wouldn’t have
been no river to cross. And they come
down Little Sandy, wasn’t much of a river in that country.
JC: You mean they
came on a boat down the Little Sandy?
Jim: No, they come in
wagons.
JC: they came along
the river then?
Jim: My mother’s
people did, the Catrons. The Catrons and
the Kegleys. They come in wagons.
Alice: Who was it
that Mae Porter said was trying to get something on that? She said someone was over at her house.
Grace: Maybe it was
JC?
Alice: Ya, it might
have been the boy.
JC: About a year ago?
Alice: Ya.
Jim: It was you I
guess. They said, some of Jas’s
(Jasper’s) people.
Everett: That was
him. You were down here about a year ago
weren’t you?
JC: Ya, about this
time last year.
Everett: Him and Ed’s
boy with plum up to Grayson county, Old Virginia.
Jim: That’s a poor
county in there, that Old Virginia.
JC: Oh, it’s
beautiful. It’s real nice farm
land. Just rolling hills at a high
altitude.
Jim: I thought they
said it was kindly high.
JC: That county
(Grayson county) has the highest place in Virginia.
Jim: Is it?
Everett: They said
they (Scott and JC) couldn’t see what made them leave a place like that and
come down here. Looks like they would
have stayed up there. Prettiest county
up there.
Jim: I guess it was
awful bad at the time of that civil war.
Everett: I guess it
was. It’s improved a lot since
then.
Jim: People you know
was going hungry. I know my mother said,
my grandmother said that lots of soldiers come in starving to death and they
eat so much after they come home that it killed em. They were just starving. She said that.
Everett: Pitiful
wasn’t it.
JC: Your mom’s
grandmother said that?
Jim: Uh huh. After they got out that away, that was the
trouble with Uncle Levi, he laid out that away and got so he didn’t care for
nothing much. He was a great fella over
there, he raised fruit and everything.
Everett: He had a big
seng (ginseng) garden over there.
Jim: Grapes and fruit
of all kinds. Apples, pears, he had it.
JC: Where did he have
that at?
Jim: There at home,
over there where he lived.
JC: Over here?
Jim: Ya, over here.
Everett: Ya he had
all kinds of trees, big orchards back then.
I don’t guess there is a tree in that country anymore.
Jim: I don’t imagine.
Everett: I ain’t been
back in that country for years.
Jim: Well I never
was.
Everett: I used to go
there and stay all night with them.
Different times. He had a big
seng garden, I know that. He sold
seng. He would dig it up and sell the
roots.
JC: You don’t have a
picture of your dad do you?
Jim: I think I do
have upstairs.
JC: Would it be hard
to find?
Jim: It is in that
old trunk ain’t it?
Alice: Uh huh.
Jim: I suppose I have
a picture of him when he was a little boy.
JC: Is that right?
Alice: I’ll go get
it. (14:02)