November 2007 Interview with Mary Thompson Sterrett Lipscomb By Isabelle Chewning: [Items enclosed in brackets [ ] are editorial notes inserted for clarification] [Tape 3, Side A] Isabelle Chewning: My name is Isabelle Chewning. Today is November 29th and I’m back with Mary Lipscomb to finish our interview, or at least continue it. I don’t know if I’ll finish. Last time we left off, we’d been talking about the black community in general and some specific individuals that you remembered, and I wondered if you remembered much about the black school that was in Brownsburg. Mary Lipscomb: I remember that was sort of a long, low building. It was one story and I remember that Carrie Peters taught. She’s the only teacher that I remember. I guess there were others after sometime, I’m sure. But I’ve always understood that she was a very good teacher and that as far as the school went -- it only went to the seventh grade, I suppose -- the students were pretty well educated because she was a really fine person. She lived in house back of Brownsburg [1486 Dry Hollow Road]. Everybody walked. I’m sure she walked. I think I vaguely remember that she had a car but I don’t remember whether she – I doubt if she drove to school. She probably walked. And all the black children walked by our houses to school. I think we may have mentioned that before. But I don’t remember much about the school until about the time of the Second World War, it was made into a cannery. Is that right? Isabelle Chewning: I think they did close it and then everybody had to go over to Fairfield to school. Mary Lipscomb: Or Raphine? Did they go to Raphine? I don’t know. Isabelle Chewning: I think Fairfield is where they went. Mary Lipscomb: They went to Fairfield to school? I don’t know where the school was in Fairfield. Isabelle Chewning: Somewhere down along [Route 11] where the Moose Lodge is, I think [6363 North Lee Highway, near Jonestown Road]. Mary Lipscomb: I see. Along where those black churches are now. Isabelle Chewning: Right. Mary Lipscomb: In that neighborhood, the Jonestown neighborhood. Isabelle Chewning: Right. Mary Lipscomb: I see. Now that I don’t remember at all. But that was before they were bussed into Lexington. I guess that was before that because I was married when that started happening, I think. Maybe in the 50s. Isabelle Chewning: Well I think if they weren’t going to high school -- Well I don’t know that. I don’t know. Mary Lipscomb: Some of them did go to high school. They went to Lexington and lived with friends and family. I know Willie Howard’s [Pleasants] brother, Leo Pleasants, who was college educated. I’m sure he must have gone into Lexington, because Leo is as old as I am, or older. I can’t remember whether he was-- Anyway. I’m sure he went into Lexington. There must have been others who did go and live with their families. Isabelle Chewning: I see. So there was no transportation to get them to high schools? Mary Lipscomb: There was no transportation, no. I don’t know how they got to Fairfield. Isabelle Chewning: There was evidently a bus. Mary Lipscomb: Is that right? When they closed the school in Brownsburg -- that I don’t remember at all. I remember about it’s being turned into a cannery and we went in there and canned things in the summertime. That was probably during the war, during the time I was in college. People used the cannery. It was government supported, and you could can in tin cans. It was something that was difficult to do at home. It was sort of maybe part of the Victory Garden idea during the Second World War, and I think that was when it was promoted more. It may have begun before the war, but it seems to me that that was part of the war effort. Where we got the -- I guess they were aluminum cans? Tin cans, I suppose. We were, you know, so busy saving tin and all this sort of thing, where we got the tin at that point, to do this, I’m not really sure because we were collecting all kinds of metal for the war effort. But I’ve forgotten what we canned. I think maybe applesauce. We did our own canning of meat, I think, in the old kitchen [the 19th century kitchen at Mulberry Grove, 2249 Sterrett Road]. I don’t ever remember going in there [to the cannery] -- maybe it wasn’t even open in the wintertime. But you know, it must have been, because people evidently did can meats and things in there. But I remember being there with Daddy one day. I don’t know whether we were canning corn, maybe, or something that we’d taken. But we didn’t do that a lot. But we’d go sometimes and some people would -- people with larger families really used it a great deal. Isabelle Chewning: How did it work? Did you prepare all the vegetables and everything at home and then-- Mary Lipscomb: No, no. You prepared the vegetables there, I think. And maybe people did different things. I know they had the equipment and the water and the space for doing these things that you could -- Lots of people made soup, and I do vaguely remember that. They’d bring all their different vegetables and prepare them there. You did this maybe as a -- You didn’t go in there by yourself very often, it seems to me. It took you and your friends, or you and your neighbors, or you and your family members, more of that sort of thing. People with large families really used it a lot. But I do remember the putting together of corn and tomatoes and butter beans. Things of that sort. Why am I saying “tomatoes” [pronounced tuh-may’-toe] when I ordinarily say “tomato” [pronounced tuh-mah’-ta? [Laugh] Isabelle Chewning: Was there an employee there? A staff person, a government person? Mary Lipscomb: Yes. Yes, there was a staff person and I don’t know -- I can’t remember who -- they were men very often because you put these -- It seems to me you put things into big vats of water and put them in hot water and things of that sort, and there were men who lifted these large number of cans out of these vats of hot water. I don’t remember who any of those men were. And there may have been a woman. I just don’t remember at all. Isabelle Chewning: But that was mainly during the war you remember that? Mary Lipscomb: That is my [memory] of it. I’m just not really sure. Isabelle Chewning: Were the Victory Gardens a big thing? Mary Lipscomb: Well, in our area, which was very rural, it was mentioned, but it was no different from what we always had, really, I suppose. I think in more urban areas people had new gardens and they were conscious of growing their own food for the first time maybe, calling it a Victory Garden. Isabelle Chewning: I see. Mary Lipscomb: But we used the term a little bit, but everybody had big gardens. That was a part of life. So it wasn’t a new and different thing. Isabelle Chewning: Did you work in the garden a lot? Mary Lipscomb: Not a lot, but we had – Mc and I, I remember had to pick potato bugs when I was a child [laugh] and that was a most horrendous job! And you didn’t have the kinds of bug killers that you do today, and so you had to go through the potatoes and look for the bugs. I think we did the same thing on the beans, and I picked beans and things. But Daddy did the main part of the garden it seems to me, the planting and the weeding. He would take a horse, and they had a little plow, a one-digger plow, and I guess they made the rows wide enough so that a horse could walk through and plow the garden every now and then. Plow the weeds between the rows. But no, I didn’t work in the garden a lot, but I did some. It wasn’t a major part of my life. Daddy and the farm men did more, and Mother did the harvesting, I suppose. And I suppose I helped with that some, bean-picking and things like that, because I certainly knew how. I did more of it after we were married, after I was married. Isabelle Chewning: Let’s talk a little more about World War II since we were sort of there. Mary Lipscomb: All right. Isabelle Chewning: What are your recollections of that? Were you very conscious of it, what was going on? Mary Lipscomb: World War II encompassed my whole college career. It began in ’41 when I was a freshman at Longwood College – at Farmville State Teacher’s College, it was then. And it lasted until the year I graduated. And in the summer after ’45, when I graduated in ’45, it was over. But when I go back to class reunions, there’s only one other group who lived the same kind of life that I did, there being war during my whole college career, and that was a group from 1861 to 1865. And we talk about that, you know, in my class reunions, that this was an unusual experience that our whole college career was colored by the war. And we had – Longwood, Farmville State Teacher’s College at that time, is seven miles from Hampden-Sydney College. And during the winter of ’41 and the spring session of ’42, and even ’42 into ’43, the boys were pretty much the same, the students who had come. And they weren’t drafted and taken out of Hampden-Sydney maybe until the middle of ’43. We didn’t have any boys at Farmville State Teacher’s College, so mostly what we knew about men in the war had to do with these guys at Hampden-Sydney. But by ’43, there were hardly any civilians at Hampden-Sydney. The same thing was true at Washington and Lee and all other men’s colleges at that time. And I remember that -- I guess I must have been a sophomore. And for some reason… Tom Bosworth had a car. Tom Bosworth lived in Brownsburg and he went to Hampden- Sydney. And he was at home, or maybe he hadn’t gone [back] to college when I went to school the first day. And he went with us, I think, and he was very gracious about showing us where to go into the buildings. He was two years older than I, and had been at Hampden-Sydney and knew Farmville State Teacher’s College, had a girlfriend there. And he took us into the buildings and showed us how to get into the buildings, where we were supposed to go, and things of that sort. This was Mother and Daddy and I, and Tom showing us around. But I remember that for some reason I went, or he may have asked me if I wanted to go, and you didn’t go any place by ’43 -- I guess gasoline was being rationed. And he drove home to Brownsburg, and I went with him to visit my parents, and that was the day he was leaving Hampden-Sydney. It was in the middle of a school year. It wasn’t the end of a year at all. And he had joined the Navy, and he was going off to Naval School. And that’s about the time that most all the men from colleges left. They were drafted or they joined something. So many of the college students, though, applied for officer’s training and that’s what he was doing. He was going to be in an officer training school somewhere. But after that, Hampden-Sydney was used for a Naval – oh, I’ll think of the name of it in a minute. It was a Naval school. I can’t remember the name. It’s a common thing, lots of colleges were used for various things. And it wasn’t ROTC or officer’s school, it was -- what would you call the naval recruits, things of that sort. They weren’t preparing to be officers. V-12. That’s what it was called, the V-12 Program. For instance, Washington and Lee was taken over by something called the Special [Services] so the guys who came to Washington and Lee were trained to do -- not necessarily to fight, but to be special officers maybe, or not, in education maybe, or recreation, or some of those kinds of things. Entertainment. But that was Washington and Lee’s role. Hampden-Sydney’s role was with this group of V-12 Naval people, and they were everywhere. But they came and went. The town of Farmville, where Farmville State Teacher’s College was located, was the town for Hampden-Sydney. Hampden-Sydney’s just out in the country, and if they came to the movies, they had to come into Farmville to the movies. And I never dated any of the V-12 boys, but one of my suitemates married a V-12 boy, whom she met in the V-12 area. There were a few civilian students who probably were not subject to the draft, something of that sort. And so every now and then you’d see these civilians. But we would always -- the thing we did was go to the dances. We were not very far from Camp Pickett, which was an Army installation. They would bus us out there on a Saturday night for a dance, or something of that kind. And then there was a USO, what does the USO stand for? I can’t remember. It was the recreation place in Farmville that the Army, any service -- I guess it was the United Service Organization maybe. Any the service guys could come there to this building, and just talk to each other, sit and talk, or entertain a date. And I did date some of these boys. And mostly what you did when you were a student -- because you didn’t have a car -- you walked. We would walk out places, and hither and yon. There’d be dances, this was in Farmville, there was a big building in Farmville, and there’d be dances there at this USO building. But Farmville owned an estate about a mile out of town and on a Sunday afternoon, there was nobody in the home in the big house. It’s now the President’s home, but at that point it was not occupied, but the college used it for various things. And on Sunday afternoon, they’d serve sticky buns and tea or something of this sort. And we could walk out there with our dates and have sticky buns and whatever. [Laugh] But we knew, you know, that most everybody, most all of my contemporaries were off to the war. And I think about how little I knew though, about the horrors of war. You just -- we didn’t have the kind of communication that you have [today]. I think everybody knows that the first time we ever saw war was the Vietnam War, that we saw a lot on television. Civilians just didn’t have any conception of how awful it was. Isabelle Chewning: Were you afraid? Were people afraid? Mary Lipscomb: That we’d lose? No. Isabelle Chewning: Not that we’d lose, but that the war, the United States would become a front for war, that the European armies would drop bombs on the United States? Mary Lipscomb: I was never really afraid of that. We had blackouts. They were just one-time like fire drills, you know, that kind of thing. We’d have to cover the windows, and we’d put blankets over the windows, and turn the lights off. I never really was afraid, and I think part of that was plain stupidity, because you know, being here on the eastern shore, on the eastern coast of the United States, there were – now we’ve read a lot about submarines pretty close and they could have done real damage. But we didn’t know that then. These things we’ve learned later. And neither did we know how -- all the dealings between Roosevelt and Churchill, and what we were doing prior to the war. I don’t think we understood that either at all. The Lend Lease Program and all those things were -- I learned more about it after I began to teach. You teach American History, you get a nice little newspaper all the time. So you learn a lot about -- when you’re teaching, you have to learn about what’s gone on recently, and I learned more about what was going on after the fact, after the war. But the best thing I had in the way of teaching to help me understand the war was a course in geography that I took when I was a senior. Her name was Moran, Miss Moran, and she had fairly recently visited Russia. And she had a wall map of Europe, and we began to follow things. And this was the fall of ’44, you see and things were -- we were already in Europe, and we followed the Battle of the Bulge and those kinds of things. The parts that were happening at that time. But when I think back about how little I knew of the fall of France, and I was pretty shocked when I visited France six or seven years ago. And there were people who were my age who said, “Your country was so wonderful to liberate us, and how you came.” These people were, I don’t know, I don’t think the younger generations think about this, but the grandparents of one of the boys [exchange students] who came over, who lived here with Alec and Mary Lynn [Lipscomb, son and daughter-in-law of Mary Lipscomb] were especially thankful, and they went over and over this a lot in our visit. But they were my contemporaries and they may have been, I don’t know, in part of the French Resistance. I’m not too sure what, you know, what their part of it was. But anyway, we knew practically nothing about it when I was a 20-year-old and in college. But anyway, those are some of the things I think about. As far as Brownsburg is concerned, I would come home in the summertime. We hardly ever came home, because we had to travel by the most awful worn-out old buses because everything had gone to the war. And sometimes they’d break down and stop on the mountainside. [Laugh] Beginning in the fall of ’42, we didn’t have any Thanksgiving holiday, and we didn’t have any -- You didn’t go home between the time you went and Christmas at the height of the war, ’42 and ’43 and those times. Well, I guess in ’42 we were pretty scared still because things were not going well in the Pacific at all. So I stayed at school, you know, so I don’t know what went on in Brownsburg much during that time. But I was always there in the summertime and that’s when we would do the canning. Oh, yes, we did an airplane watch. I was a part of that. I think we went out to the [New Providence] manse maybe, and watched for airplanes. It was called a civilian -- it was some kind of a civilian watch program where people -- if you saw an airplane going over you called a number somewhere and reported this airplane. And so people were careful. I don’t know how long that went on. It seems to me things got a little more relaxed after the invasion of Europe in ’44, I guess it was. But of course there was gasoline rationing, and that meant you couldn’t go places and do things. Farmers had some kind of allotment. But I had a ration book, and it was for sugar, and shoes, and I don’t know what else. I’ve forgotten. But I remember I had to take my ration book and probably some other food stuff and hand it in at the college at the first of the year. And they kept them because of their food budgets. They had to use our ration books for their purchase of food items for us. I had a ration book, but I think I gave it to the Rockbridge Historical Society. I hope I did. I don’t know. I think it was mine, or maybe it was Mother’s or Daddy’s. There were books for gasoline, and I didn’t know much about that because I didn’t have a car. And there were, I remember shoes were rationed, and I don’t know what else. Isabelle Chewning: How much was your tuition? Mary Lipscomb: Oh, that was amazing. Daddy would give me a check for two hundred dollars -- we were on a quarter system -- each quarter, and I would take it to Longwood and put it in the bank. And that was supposed to take care of everything, and it did. It paid for my books, and it paid for the tuition, and so it was six hundred dollars a year for three quarters. Isn’t that amazing? [Laugh] Isabelle Chewning: It is amazing. Mary Lipscomb: But you know, that was good. Other girls would have to write home for money and all this kind of thing, and I had to live within that two hundred dollars, but I had it. You know, and I could do it. I thought that was very -- a very nice way to live, and I learned to live within it. Isabelle Chewning: Did you have any summer jobs or part time jobs? Mary Lipscomb: No, I didn’t at all. The only thing I did was, well I worked one summer teaching riding at a summer camp in North Carolina. That was after my sophomore year, my second year, so that would have been -- I took riding at Longwood, and the riding teacher -- this is horseback riding – had worked at this camp in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. And she wasn’t going to do it that year, so she recommended me. I went in the summer of, what would that have been, ’43? I suppose it was. And worked for the great sum of sixty dollars. That was hard work! On the way to Little Switzerland, I remember Margaret Wade was the Dean at Montreat College, and for some reason she was going back to that area in North Carolina, and I rode with her on the bus. I worked for maybe two weeks at Montreat in the dining room. Then I had to get up one morning early and catch a taxi and go to somewhere at the foot of the mountain, Marion, North Carolina I guess it was, at the foot of the mountain near Little Switzerland, and catch the mail truck to go up to Little Switzerland where the camp was located. This was all -- The director of the camp had written me all about how to do this. And that was an experience and a half. [Laugh] The mail truck had chickens on it and all kinds of things. But then again, this was during the war, and this is a pretty rugged mountain in the mountains of North Carolina. Not too far from Mount Mitchell. And this chugging chugging mail truck going up that mountain that day. And of course I had a trunk, a small trunk because I had all this riding gear, boots and all that stuff that I had to take. And I got there with all of that and the director of the camp met me and we drove. The camp was about maybe as much as two miles away from Little Switzerland, which is a resort, a little town. It’s bigger and much, much more changed now of course. But it just had some nice little houses and cabins around the very, very little village at that time. So I worked that summer. Isabelle Chewning: What was the name of the camp? Mary Lipscomb: It was called Camp As You Like It, at that point, and it’s been changed to something else. Isabelle Chewning: Oh, it’s still there? Mary Lipscomb: I’m not sure it is now. But it was changed to something else because I met a couple of people who’d been girl campers there once. I’ve forgotten what the name was, and I’ve forgotten who those people were who had been there. But that’s the only summer work I ever did really. I didn’t go back the next summer. It was hard work. You had to manage about seven or eight horses. This lady was from Charleston, South Carolina and she had family in Wilmington, North Carolina and so they drew girls from both of those cities. And I always say this is something you do when you’re young and dumb. Because to manage -- I think there were seven horses, and all the girls wanted to ride all the time. You had to make all these schedules, of course, and the riding ring was on a little plateau. You had to go up the mountain on this trail to get to the riding ring. We would go in single file, and I used a lead rope when I had seven year olds. Can you imagine now, going through the mountains, and get up there and you’d have a thunderstorm. We didn’t have any accidents that I know of during the summer. But it was just a wonder that some horse didn’t bolt off through the mountains somewhere. [Laugh] But it was an experience. When I think back on it, it had the best food you’ve ever eaten in your life because they had a couple of cooks from – they were either from Charleston or Savannah, and you just couldn’t believe the good food we had. Of course we had rice every meal, or grits, or something of that kind with each meal. But such good food. And the swimming pool was ice cold because it was right off the mountain water, right out of the mountain water. But Alec and Mary Lynn and I went there, I think it was maybe the summer after [Mary Lipscomb’s husband] Alex died maybe, the summer of ’96 or ’97, somewhere in that neighborhood. We found several places that I could recognize, but one of the things that [coughs] -- Isabelle Chewning: You need to stop and have a drink of water? Mary Lipscomb: You want to stop and have a cup of tea? [Temporary break in audio] Isabelle Chewning: We took a water break. We’re back on the tape now. Mary Lipscomb: Oh, I was just going to say that I really, it was such an unusual experience, this camp. I remember this, and it really has little to do with the war except for the fact that there were girls who were glad to be away from the coastal cities because they were a little afraid in Charleston and Wilmington. Wilmington is some kind of a Naval base, isn’t it? It has a Naval base? I’m not sure. And their fathers were in the war, right many of them having those experiences. But these girls were just having fun. I remember that -- I guess it was the second day I was there, maybe it was even the first day that I arrived. The camp director, the owner of the camp was named Bunny, and I’ve forgotten what her last name was. She said, “We have to go down the mountain and get a horse.” We needed one more horse. So I got in the station wagon with her and we rode and rode and rode and rode down the mountain until we came to this little farm, and here was this huge horse. The man had saddled and bridled and was ready for us to -- She had already arranged to rent this horse. She had six others. And I got on, and I remember I was starting toward the gate. Well, the man nicely said, “I see she knows what she’s doing.” I was about to go out the gate with the horse and he said, “Sometimes he lies down with you.” I thought, “Oh my word, here I’m going to be on this [inaudible] road with this horse who might lie down any old minute.” And I had to ride this horse, three miles I know, or maybe four or five. It seemed like ages. Up the mountain on a paved road to get back to camp. And I kept looking at the bank beside me and I thought, “Now if he decides to lie down, I will just slide off over here on the bank.” But that horse never lay down all summer. But he was so large. The girls, none of the girls could ride him. So I rode him all the time. And he worked out very well. But I nearly always rode at the front of this group of seven girls, because when you went up this mountain trail to the plateau where the ring was, you went through the cobwebs and all that stuff early in the morning. You had to break the cobwebs and anything else that was in the path. And so I didn’t want them to go [in front], but I-- You pretty much had to trust the ones who were way back yonder somewhere, and hope that things went well. The girls enjoyed it and I enjoyed it, but it was hard work. From seven o’clock in the morning until six o’clock at night. Isabelle Chewning: You had a childhood experience with horses in the camps, right? When you rented your pony? Mary Lipscomb: Oh, Mc and I had this wonderful small horse, he was, or a large pony. I think he was in the pony family, but even my dad could ride him. I think Daddy’s legs almost touched the ground, but I remember seeing him riding him to get the cows and horses and things out of the field. But that was, yes, that was a really wonderful experience, but that wasn’t any how-to-ride kind of thing. Mc and I would both ride him bareback and all kinds of things. But we made our very first money taking him down to Camp Briar Hills, and renting him for the day. And we’d have to sit down there and wait all morning while, I guess -- I don’t know what time riding started. Sometimes we’d get there and they’d be having prayers still so we’d tie up the horse somewhere or give him to the person who managed the riding. I think actually we rented him to Fred Whipple, because Fred was in charge of the riding I believe. And so we’d go sit on the porch with the boys while they were having prayers, I suppose. And there were various girl McLaughlins around. But Camp Briar Hills was owned by Henry and Sam McLaughlin, I suppose, the very first ones. They were sons of Dr. McLaughlin and it was just half a mile down the road from us [2508 Sterrett Road]. And we would get there and we were always very pleased that we made our -- that was our first enterprise in this world -- and made some money. I don’t remember how many summers we did it, but we were not very old. I don’t know if we were as much as ten and twelve or less, I’m not too sure. But there’s a good picture of both of us on the horse and we could both ride him. But I’m sure we had to produce a saddle – which we didn’t always use – if they were going to ride him at Camp Briar Hills. But that may have gone on for several summers. I don’t remember how many summers we did that, but we were younger. And then we had a couple of riding horses. I remember one named Charlie, and Charlie wouldn’t cross bridges. [Laugh] You had to get off and lead him across. We had a minister named Curry, Mr. Curry, and he had a daughter about my age. Her name was Gay Curry, and she and I would ride together. I don’t know where she got her horse to ride, because I’m sure they didn’t have one. And we didn’t have two, but I remember she and I would ride together, just go out the roads and hither and yon. But I’d always have to get off and lead that horse across the bridges. He shied at a lot of things, and bridges he did not like at all. Isabelle Chewning: And he’s the one that kicked Daddy’s [Mc Sterrett’s] teeth out, right? Mary Lipscomb: Yes, right. He was tied in the barnyard one day and Mc had dropped a bucket near him and he reared. And we always think his front feet must have hit Mc on the way up or he would have damaged his face more than he did. Knocked his teeth out. And I remember one kind of a roan mare we had, but I think I was in college at that time. I don’t remember much about her. There was some discussion about my taking her to school to rent her to the school, but we didn’t do that. Because they always needed horses too. And then there could be some training but I think she needed a good deal of training it seems to me. But back to the thinking about the war, two of my classmates were killed in the war. One of them was Troy Hickman, and one was George Slusser. And I had dated George some. We’d go to high school dances and things of that sort together sometimes. I was getting ready to go to Little Switzerland, I guess. I was in McCrum’s getting ready to get on the bus. Maybe that’s not true. But anyway, for some reason I was at -- the bus station was always McCrum’s Drugstore in Lexington. And George came in, and he was all by himself, he was dressed in his uniform and he was getting ready to go to his camp wherever it was. I don’t know where it was. But I remember I walked with him down to the bus, which was down some steps and back out into what’s now McCrum’s parking lot in Lexington. The buses came up there. And he got on the bus and went off to wherever. And I suppose I was the last [local] person to see him because he was killed in the Battle of Italy. I think they both were killed in the Battle of Italy. I’m not really sure. I know Troy was killed as we moved up the Italian peninsula. The fighting was very fierce in lots of the mountainous areas. And I think that they both were killed in that same area. I don’t think they were in the same division. Troy had a sister who lived with us. She was considerably older. They lived in Pisgah, and he was much younger than she. Virginia Hickman lived with us, just to help I think. I don’t know whether it was even before I started to school maybe. This was not after Daddy went to the CCC camp. But there were a whole bunch of people, kids in this family, and Troy had come to live with Mrs. Dice, who was our next door neighbor [at 2081 Sterrett Road]. And he was a very good student, and I think he had one year maybe at Hampden-Sydney. He wasn’t there when I was there, I don’t think. Or maybe it was Washington and Lee. I think he’d had one year of college. He wanted to be a minister, and the church had encouraged him a lot, and I expect New Providence was helping him with the tuition, I imagine. He was probably a candidate from New Providence. But I’m sure he was drafted. Those were the two people that I knew best who were killed but then one guy who was older than I, George East. George had -- I don’t know whether he had graduated from college maybe before the war, and he was a Naval officer. I don’t know where he did his Naval officer training. But he went to Duke and graduated. He was killed. His ship was lost in the Pacific. I guess it was early on in that really bad part of the naval wars in the Pacific when the Japanese were sinking a lot of our ships. And those are the three people that I remember. At church we had a big flag. It was on the wall over the Amen Corner, in that section, and it had the stars of all the men who had gone to war. And for the ones who were killed, the star was removed and a gold star was put. There were lots of people who were in the war that I didn’t know from the church. I didn’t know the Gordon families very well, or the Smileys very well. They all came to church but they were different ages from me, and I didn’t know them in school very well. But I’m sure, you know, many, many of them were among those stars. And I just don’t remember. I guess the Tolley boys – there were two Tolley boys in my high school class, and I suppose they were both in the war. I just don’t remember. I distinctly remember these two who were killed who were in my class. What else can we talk about? Any other specific questions? Isabelle Chewning: Was there ever any talk of Daddy [Mc Sterrett] going to college? Was he just not interested? Mary Lipscomb: He was not interested, I don’t think. Isabelle Chewning: He just wanted to farm? Mary Lipscomb: He wanted to farm, yeah, that was it. I’m pretty sure. We had a minister named Walthal just before the war, and he went into the chaplaincy. But I remember I was riding with him somewhere once when, I don’t know whether I was in college at that time, or whether Mc was about to graduate. He said, “I certainly do hope he goes to college. He’s such good college material.” But I think he wanted to farm. He wasn’t much interested. He didn’t like to -- I don’t think at that point he didn’t like to read, I don’t think. He reads a lot now, doesn’t he?? It seems to me that there was some sort of concern that he didn’t like to read or whatever. Isabelle Chewning: Was there a lot of paperwork to get him a deferment, a farming deferment or was it easy? Mary Lipscomb: Well I think it was a physical deferment because of that eye problem he has. No, it was a physical deferment. Isabelle Chewning: Oh, I didn’t know that. So he’s always had those migraines? Mary Lipscomb: Yeah. Gosh he was really -- He’d have really bad spells when he was a child. He’d be sick and couldn’t do anything. I think that was -- I think farming went out as a deferment. Nobody was deferred much. I don’t know. I’m not too sure about whether that’s true or not. But no I think that eye thing – that pain thing was what deferred him. You know, I’m not absolutely sure about that. Isabelle Chewning: We’re backing up a little bit, I think. How about when electricity came through. When was that? Mary Lipscomb: Oh, that was, well, how can I remember so well? It was 1939. I guess it was a “Red Letter Year”, sure enough! It was really exciting to have the house wired for electricity. Isabelle Chewning: What was the first appliance that you got? Mary Lipscomb: I guess the refrigerator was. The refrigerator was always in that room that I used, and you use for an office. And I’m sure you remember that your grandmother used it for a pantry. The refrigerator was in there. We never, never had a washing machine. I remember they gave me a washing machine as a present when I was first married, but the stipulation was that I was to help with the laundry some. [Laugh] I had to do some laundry. But didn’t we talk about this on the tape? Isabelle Chewning: No. Mary Lipscomb: Mother sent the laundry out or had somebody come in. Della Smiley – Della lived in the house where Patsy and Harold Thorne live now [2113 Sterrett Road]. Della and Tuck Smiley lived there, and he farmed for Mrs. Dice, I think. Although he walked over the hill to the Rees’s. I believe he worked for the Rees’s more. Isabelle Chewning: Mr. Walter Rees? Mary Lipscomb: Mr. Walter Rees. And then later they moved over to the Rees’s farm. They built a little house over there for them. But anyway, Della would come on some day, maybe Tuesday or maybe it was Monday, and she’d do the washing on a washboard by hand, hang it on the line, and then in the afternoon she’d iron. And I guess she just stayed all day. Did the washing and the ironing. And then later I think Daddy bought Maggie Haliburton a washing machine, and she did the washing and ironing. Things came back all ironed and nice. And there wasn’t any such a thing as no-iron clothes; iron-free clothes. So you washed and ironed blouses and shirts and everything. Work clothes, all those kinds of things pretty much had to be ironed and not wash-and-wear type things that we know today almost entirely. So we didn’t have -- Somewhere along the line, I remember we got an iron, and then we had a waffle iron. All these things were very exciting. But the refrigerator was the greatest thing of all, and we all learned to make ice cream in the refrigerator. We used to make ice cream down under the back porch with an ice cream freezer. Daddy would do that sometimes on Sunday morning in the summertime. Get up and have all this ice and make a beautiful freezer of ice cream. We’d come home from church and have fried chicken and homemade ice cream, things like that. But it was fun to be able to do it in the refrigerator, or in the freezer of the refrigerator. And I remember one time, Mother must have gone somewhere, and Frances Wade was visiting me for the weekend or something. Frances lived at the mill [55 Kennedy-Wades Mill Loop] and she was a couple of years older than I am -- one year older, I believe. But we must have gotten out some kind of recipe, and made this coffee ice cream. It must have been all cream or something. But it was the richest, best stuff in the whole world! [Laugh] It was so good! That was a real -- and of course to have things really cold. We had bought -- in the old kitchen, we had an ice chest. It was an upright, it looked like a refrigerator almost, but it was wooden, and it was an ice chest. What do you call them? Isabelle Chewning: Icebox. Mary Lipscomb: Icebox, yes. And it was large, and the iceman came by from Fairfield. The Engelmans I think in Fairfield ran an ice truck. I guess they’d come once a week and deliver a hundred pounds of ice, and it had a big top portion where the ice went. And then things were pretty cool in there. That was much better than nothing at all. And we didn’t have a spring house or anything of that sort. We had to keep things in the basement to be the least bit cold in the summertime. Isabelle Chewning: But that icebox was insulated enough that it would last a week? Mary Lipscomb: Keep a week? I think so. I don’t know what happened. I think she gave that icebox to somebody. It would be a real treasure, if we had that icebox now, because it was one of the large ones. I’ve seen other people’s that were, you know, fairly small. And I expect it would last most of the week. Maybe it didn’t last the whole time, but it was well-insulated. Isabelle Chewning: I’m going to turn the tape over. [End of Tape 3, Side A] Isabelle Chewning: So the icebox was well-insulated. Mary Lipscomb: Yeah, it must have been quite well-insulated to keep the ice that long. Isabelle Chewning: Did you get plumbing in the house at the same time that you got electricity? Mary Lipscomb: No! We didn’t have water in the house until… Oh my, I was well in college. I don’t know if it was after the war maybe, ’45, ’46, along in there. For a long time we didn’t have water in the house. I think maybe I was teaching when we got water in the house. Isabelle Chewning: So you didn’t have a bathroom upstairs in the house until you got out of college? Mary Lipscomb: Got out of college. And I don’t know how unusual that was for people -- I guess it was not terribly unusual. Isabelle Chewning: Because I guess you needed an electric pump. Mary Lipscomb: To pump the water, right. I guess that was one of the reasons. Well, we couldn’t have had it before ’39, but we could have had it, you know, shortly after that I suppose if anybody thought we needed it or wanted it or whatever. So I assume it was -- when did we… we remodeled the house in -- I must have been maybe a freshman in high school. And in that house there was over the living room and what you use for the library -- and what Mother and Daddy used for their bedroom -- was one big room. In about – oh, it must have been ’35, ’36 after Daddy had been working for the CCC camp long enough that I guess they collected some money, Mr. Jim Withrow, who was Mr. Earl Withrow’s father, did some remodeling of Mulberry Grove. And they took that big room upstairs and made two small – they cut dormer windows. Two dormer windows in the front, and two in the back. They roughed-in the bathroom and made two bedrooms: one bedroom for Mc, and one for me. Isabelle Chewning: So they were planning ahead for a bathroom? Mary Lipscomb: They were planning ahead for a bathroom, but you know, at the time they did that there was no bathroom. There was no water. And that was even before -- that must have been before electricity, because I would have been maybe a junior or so in high school when electricity came. I think I was younger than that when they did the new rooms. I had a stove in there, a little stove in my bedroom. Daddy would come up there and fix a fire in the morning sometimes. But electricity really changed farming entirely. And that was, you know, if we hadn’t had electricity there couldn’t have been the diary farm and those kinds of things at all. And I guess -- But the dairy farming didn’t happen until ’47, ’48. No. They put the barn in the summer of ’46, I guess. I think it was the first year after I had been teaching. Yeah, it was the summer of ’46. But at that point, we’d had electricity for eight years, of course by then. But nobody did anything much during the war. You didn’t make any changes. There wasn’t enough. You couldn’t find, or you couldn’t purchase building materials or any metal materials. All these things went either for ship building, airplane building, and the country was, what we would say right now, at a standstill really for automobile making. All these plants had been made into airplane-making and ship building and so forth and so forth. They built a lot of houses though, early on in the war in the Newport News, Norfolk, Hampton area for people who were moving down to that area to build ships. And that was of course part of the whole war effort. But it’s hard to believe how involved the whole country was, and how uninvolved we were in college. I think about that so much. Aside from the fact that we couldn’t do a lot of things, I suppose, in college. I just really didn’t know the difference. But you know, outside of college, you knew it all the time. One thing I was going to say about college and the war. I can’t remember what it was. Anyway. The electricity business, that’s what we were going… Isabelle Chewning: Did somebody come around and wire the house? Mary Lipscomb: Yes. There was a man named Arehart I think. He was Johnny Arehart’s father, I judge. Johnny your age. He was the electrician. Isabelle Chewning: From Fairfield? Mary Lipscomb: There was a man named Clemmer. I don’t remember Clemmers ever being there but… that’s the one that’s Alex’s aunts used all the time. I don’t believe that’s his name. Anyway I remember this Arehart man being there. There was one named Ted Arehart and I guess they were brothers. And then there was this other one who was Johnny’s father. I can’t remember his first name. He died fairly young. But those two guys and some helper came and wired the house. And you know so much of the inside walls are brick, and so between the hall and the living room and various places lots of things had pull cords, because you couldn’t wire certain things. I’ve forgotten how much we tore up the plaster and things of that sort. I just don’t remember, it must have been something. But when Alex and I moved there we did a lot of -- We took off the plaster in the living room and what you and I used for the library. So we could put the wires in better at that point. The walls of the living room are brick, all sides of that thing. And so it was kind of hard to do all that. But until we took off all that plaster and got things inside more. But the house still wasn’t heated all over with the furnace. We still had stoves in 1950 when I was married. And they didn’t have a furnace until maybe ’54, ’52, somewhere along in there. I think it was shortly after I was married that they installed the furnace. But back to the business about the war, even in the summer of 1946, when Daddy built the dairy barn, the big dairy barn and decided to go into the dairy business, I remember his saying that he had promised to sell his milk to Augusta Dairy in Staunton and they helped him a lot with being able to buy equipment and things that were still very hard to get in ’46. And I guess that went on until ’47. I don’t know whether they started milking in the fall of ’46. They started in some fall. It was not the summertime, I don’t think. Or maybe it was the summertime. I don’t know, I’ve forgotten whether it was the fall of ’46 or the spring of ’47. Isabelle Chewning: And they had electric milkers then, right? Mary Lipscomb: Yeah, if you’re going to milk forty cows you need electric milkers pretty much at that point. But you know, everybody around us had had electricity long before we did. Electricity came to those three houses where the Billings live, is that their name? Those three houses out of Brownsburg, all the way there [2597, 2613 and 2623 Sterrett Road]. And see, that was less than a mile from us, but that’s where Virginia Power decided to stop. And until rural electrification came, we had no reason to have electricity. The private companies were not interested in rural electrification. My dad’s first cousin, John D. Sterrett, lived outside of Lexington and they had electricity. They milked cows long before we did. In fact they were out of the business by the time my dad went into the business and he bought some cows from them, I think. They could cool their milk and things of that sort, which after we got electricity in the house, and I don’t guess we had it in the barns at all. We would have cans of milk in the backyard. Somebody had built a tub, a wooden tub, and we would put two ten gallon cans I guess in that, and they certainly couldn’t have been sweet milk. It wouldn’t have stayed sweet, but we kept it -- we put cold water in it. And where we got that water I don’t know. Out of the cistern, I suppose. And then Mother made some ice cubes and we put that in. And I don’t know how long -- We talked about McCrum’s picking cream a long time ago back earlier, but I don’t know who picked this up. Maybe Augusta Dairy did, and used that for -- it was whole milk by this time. Not cream. That’s when I helped to milk, in the afternoon, that’s where we would put the milk, in that tub thing to cool. It would be somewhat cool anyway. It wouldn’t be cool like it would in a refrigerator. Isabelle Chewning: What all did you use that cistern water for? Mary Lipscomb: Everything. If it didn’t rain, it was too bad. And I don’t know what we did in those years of drought. ’32 and-- Isabelle Chewning: So you’d boil it to drink? Mary Lipscomb: No, we did not. We drank it right out of the-- Isabelle Chewning: Oh you did? You probably just drank milk all the time and didn’t drink water. Mary Lipscomb: Well that’s pretty much true. We drank milk like water for every meal. We always had a pitcher of milk, and of course milk wouldn’t last very long, so it was milk that you had to use. We got it somewhat cool by putting it in the basement, I guess, or somewhere like that. But we always drank milk and I guess we just didn’t know the difference with really good, cold milk and half warm milk, which I suppose it was. Isabelle Chewning: But you used that cistern water for everything? Mary Lipscomb: Uh-huh. I don’t remember -- there’s a spring below Mulberry Grove. Between the property -- In my childhood, there was the family Dunaway who owned the house that my dad bought [2297 Sterrett Road] and some land around it, and that spring was right on their property line. I think it was ours, on our side, but Mrs. Dunaway used it for cooling. It was much closer to her house than it was to ours, and she would put her butter and milk and stuff like that in that spring. But it was too far for us to use for anything much at all. I don’t ever remember using it. And then there was a spring up the creek. And the people who lived in the house named Buchanan where Bruce [Thorne] and his mother live now [2166 Sterrett Road], would walk across that field to the spring. There was a pretty good -- They must have used that water and they carried it from that spring I suppose. And that was a long way. People really carried water a long way. But she would go over there to the spring I think and do the laundry some. Probably in cold water. She had a lot of children. I don’t know how people lived. I really was too young to think about all the difficulties that there were of doing laundry and things like that. I guess, well -- we would have to heat water out of this cistern to do the laundry. Isabelle Chewning: Or to take a bath? Mary Lipscomb: Or to take a bath, yeah, you did. You had to heat water for that. I think we took birdbaths more all the time, things of that kind. But electricity made a lot of difference in rural areas. That was the comment of the… things got very different for farmers, and we could go into different types of farming, specialized farming, things like that. When you could pump water, that just made all the difference. And then my dad drilled a well near the new dairy barn, and we had -- but he didn’t have that well when we first had water in the house. We used that spring – the one I was talking about down below the house, and pumped that up and that was sometimes satisfactory and sometimes not. I do remember something -- we had a party for -- I guess it was the same year I was married. A party for maybe Cornelia Davidson [Kraft]. My first cousin was married the same year I was, and we had a whole lot of people for lunch. And I remember if too many people flushed the johnnie at once there was no water. [Laugh] It didn’t pump the water up there fast enough. I think I remember something about -- her husband was a New Yorker, and some of his family was there for this. It was a very elegant lunch. We had tables in the living room, tables in the dining room and all kinds of good stuff. And I remember asking these city ladies about do they know anything about rural bathrooms, and having to wait between flushings and so forth. But anyway, they liked different things. What else? Isabelle Chewning: How about your wedding? What year were you married? Mary Lipscomb: I married in 1950 and in that same year, I think everyone else I knew was married. [Laugh] My first cousin, Cornelia Davidson, was married. She was married in the early summer in the Lexington Presbyterian Church, and I was in her wedding. Isabelle Chewning: What was the date of your wedding? Mary Lipscomb: August the 26th in 1950. I was trying to think who else -- maybe my college roommate was married that same year, I believe, in Richmond. Margaret Bear. And somebody else. Somebody else in our family was married. [Another first cousin] Annie Laurie [Anderson Vanstone] was married in England somewhere in that same time, but not that year. But anyway, yeah, I was married -- Alex and I were married and we had… Isabelle Chewning: At New Providence? Mary Lipscomb: We were married in New Providence, and we had a wonderful summer of parties, it seemed to me, all summer, showers and great fun. I had taught three years in Front Royal [Virginia] and two years in Staunton and I met Alex through Jim Alexander and Sarah Jeffries [Alexander] who were later married, when I was teaching in Staunton. And we dated for a year and a half, something like that. I met him in the fall of ’47. No, the fall of ’48 was my first year in Staunton, and I met him that fall. I think we went to the Tech football game, I guess. No, he came to Stuanton to a dance when I first met him and then we went to the Tech football game in Roanoke, and then I dated him that winter, fall of ’48 and ’49 and then the summer of ’49 and the fall. We were married in the summer of ’50. Isabelle Chewning: Was it a big wedding? Mary Lipscomb: It was a big wedding. We had, yeah, I had seven -- six or seven bridesmaids and Anna [Sterrett], your mother was matron of honor, and Sarah Jeffries [Alexander] was maid of honor and I had… Cornelia Davidson couldn’t come and somebody -- Alex’s cousin Pat Alexander took her place. And my roommate, college roommate couldn’t come either, but I knew she couldn’t come, I had forgotten. I had two friends I taught with in Staunton, Anna Shepherd and Brookie Benton, and Isabel [Anderson] McSwain and her husband. Isabel was my first cousin, and [she and] her husband Mac were both in the wedding. And Alex had -- Jim Alexander was his best man, and his cousins Tate Alexander and Jack Alexander and Tork MacCorkle and your dad, Mc [Sterrett]. And a guy, a friend of Alex’s named Scott Barnett, that was about all . Isabelle Chewning: Was it a nice day? Mary Lipscomb: Was it what? Isabelle Chewning: Was it a nice day? Mary Lipscomb: Yeah, it was a really nice day. It was a nice August day. It wasn’t really hot. And we had rehearsed. Well, all that week there had been parties. I had a really good friend, and she’s living, she’s ninety-some years old, named Frances Woltz whom I taught with in Front Royal. She came early in the week and stayed with us. Your mom and dad [Mc and Anna Sterrett] were living at Mulberry Grove in the house then. So they were there, and Isabel McSwain had a beautiful breakfast in Staunton. I go by that house when we go on [Route] 11. There was a home that served meals, and there was this lovely breakfast one day that week. The bridesmaids all came, I think, and were around anyway, and could go to the parties. The Heffelfingers, Bill and Jen Heffelfinger had a big, beautiful party one night. And we had parties all week, I think, and then there had been showers. Alex’s family in -- Well I should mention the fact that when we became engaged, the people he took me around to meet were -- his father had worked for the Low Moor Iron Company and it was a company. His father was the Secretary-Treasurer of it. But it was a family-type company and everybody lived in Low Moor, and they all lived around and knew each other. And he took me to meet a number of these people. They were kind of his family. Although the iron company had gone out of business in the early 20s and they had moved from Low Moor to Covington where he went to high school, but he was in the sixth grade or so when they moved to Covington. But these people -- one of them was a banker in Staunton. And his uncle and aunt lived in Richmond; they’d all been a part of this company. And so it was, you know, an unusual kind of family that I met during our engagement time. The President of the company lived in Covington. He and Alex’s father had gone into a retail coal business together when this iron company went out of business. And that lady had a shower in Covington, a beautiful shower. So anyway, all those people came to the wedding, and you know, the church was full for the wedding itself. Isabelle Chewning: Was everybody invited to the reception? Mary Lipscomb: No. No. The reception was at Mulberry Grove, and I guess most of the out of town people were invited to the reception. But no. Everybody was not invited to the reception. That always bothered me some. [Laugh] It didn’t bother Mother. Mother would say, “I don’t want all those people” and so forth. So we had the reception at Mulberry Grove and we stood in the receiving line in the dining room and then people came in from the front porch. I have wonderful pictures that Brainard McClung took. He was a cousin of ours, and his family was all there, and all the pictures have his family in them pretty much. Mary Frances, his wife and Sonora McClung, Andrew McClung’s wife. I suppose Andrew was still living -- Brainard took the pictures. But anyway, a lot of wonderful pictures of people in the receiving line. You know, you could see all these cousins and uncles, great-uncles. Biggie [Edna] and Uncle Edwin Thompson are in the receiving line, and things like that. Then they went on down to the living room where they had cake and we cut the cake before. Everybody had to stand around out in the yard, I suppose, while we took pictures and cut the cake in the living room first. And then we had the receiving line and everybody went down to the living room where they had long tables of not much food. But some food, I guess there were ham biscuits, and la-de-dah, and punch, and the cake. Then they could go through Mother’s and Daddy’s bedroom, and to this day, I don’t know where Mother and Daddy slept during that time, because they took all the bedrooom furniture out of that room and had long tables with all the wedding presents on them in that room lining all the walls. And I don’t have the foggiest notion of where they slept because your mom and dad were in the room that you’re in now, your bedroom. And Mc and I were in our two rooms, and I don’t know where they were. Anyway, the wedding presents were there, and there were lots of them! And Alex’s aunt and uncle from Richmond stood in the reception line. His [Alex’s] parents were not living, and then he lived with two aunts who were not able to stand in the receiving line, but they were both there. They sat somewhere in the living room, I think, is where people could speak to them. And he had uncles and aunts, an uncle who came from Covington and lots of friends and people that -- not my side of the family all the time. There were the Alexanders and the Alexanders from orchard, all of his, you know, those of his family. But it was a big occasion. I remember this Frances Woltz and I – I remember why it was such a pretty day, we went out to the manse for some reason. I had to go sign something for the minister, or ask the minister something. Dr. Locke White was the minister. And it was a beautiful day. Frances and I drove out there for some reason, and then I think all my friends, your mom and your Aunt Ag [Patterson], and Ellen Patterson, and I don’t know who else decorated the church. They took white sheets, I guess it was, and put them around the choir loft and put ivy all over it. I think there were two stands with white flowers, but Alex’s aunt raised lots and lots of gladiola, Aunt Midge. She was the gardener person, and he cut those and we took them to the florist and she made bouquets for the bridesmaids of those and she called them-- they looked more like camellias after she put the gladiola blossoms together. But they were sort of in a fan shape, the bouquets that the bridesmaids carried, of those gladiola. And I was to have carried calla lilies. And about a week, maybe, before the wedding, the florist called me and she said she could not find any calla lilies anywhere. Anywhere. And so I carried Easter lilies which weren’t the greatest. I was really disappointed about the whole thing, but they were lilies. I think you know, looking back on it, I would have carried something else. But that’s water under the bridge now. But we went to Gatlinburg [Tennessee] on our honeymoon, down in that area. And drove all the way down the [Blue Ridge] Parkway. I think the Parkway was fairly new. When I was working at the summer camp in ’43, they were building the Parkway because it was not too far from there. You didn’t see, but you heard this machinery somewhere over the hills in the mountains of North Carolina. We didn’t go, you know, very far on our honeymoon, on our trip. And we came back through western Virginia, Tazewell, and all that section. We stopped at Jack Alexander’s in Roanoke, I think, on the way back and spent the night with them. They had all been to the wedding and so forth. But we stopped in Blacksburg, I remember, and saw Frances and Bill Sterrett. This was Frances Wade that I mentioned earlier, married Bill Sterrett. He was Building and Grounds, he was head of Buildings and Grounds at Blacksburg, at Virginia Tech. And we had a little visit with them, maybe lunch or something I think. I don’t remember much. I think we just stopped. But wandering around seeing people and so forth. And then we came back to live at what we called the green house now, the Gibson house at Timber Ridge [3775 N. Lee Highway]. But not any of this has anything to do with Brownsburg at this point! Isabelle Chewning: Well, you’re a Brownsburg native. Mary Lipscomb: Do we continue on with the rest of my life? Isabelle Chewning: I wanted to ask you about some of the furniture pieces in the house. I know before, you said when you all moved into Mulberry Grove that there was very little furniture, and I wondered if you remember where some of the pieces came from, like the desk that Barry’s using now for his desk and Grandmother’s corner cupboard. Mary Lipscomb: I know those pieces both may have come from -- There was a man in Staunton named Mish who had an antique shop. And I know the corner cupboard came from there. With my first teaching money I bought this little chest of drawers [indicates chest in her apartment]. Isabelle Chewning: From Mr. Mish? Mary Lipscomb: From Mr. Mish, yeah. Well I didn’t have it in -- I may have had it -- I never had it where I was teaching of course, but I had it at Mulberry Grove. Also, we bought a rope bed that [Mary Lipscomb’s granddaughter] Elizabeth [Lipscomb] slept in for a while, and I had in my -- I bought that. It was in my bedroom at Mulberry Grove, and it was never comfortable, and neither was it for Elizabeth when I gave it to her before I moved here, because I don’t think I was using it then. I must have given it to her when we moved to Brownsburg [from Timber Ridge]. It may have been still at Mulberry Grove. I believe it was. It was still there when we moved to Brownsburg. I bought that bed and this [chest of drawers]. But the dining room table belonged to Uncle Stuart [Thompson] and he owed Mother some money for something that she had bought or something. Anyway, he gave her the dining room table in lieu of the money had owed her. So it may have been a Thompson piece, not mother’s Thompson kin people, but the Stuart Thompson that they lived with. I know that the corner cupboard that [Mary Lipscomb’s daughter-in-law] Julie [Lipscomb] had came from -- I think they bought from the Mishes, and I’m just not really sure but I’m pretty the desk came from there. Isabelle Chewning: I think it came from an antique store. There’s a piece of paper in it. One of the beds I use in our guest room that was Dad’s bed I think maybe came from an auction. Mary Lipscomb: I don’t know but that bed was always in -- in all of my memory, that bed was part of it, so they acquired that pretty early in their married life somewhere, but I don’t know whether it came from an auction or not. I remember going to an auction at, I think there is a family named Snider who lived there. You know, during the Depression, a lot of people had to sell their farms, and a lot of people had nice old antique, nice old walnut furniture. Or maybe they weren’t selling the farm, maybe they were just selling furniture or something. Nobody was really so excited about this furniture except that it would be valuable someday. This is where Alex’s aunt bought a lot of things, because she was a nurse and she nursed in Norfolk, and she had some money. And when these family places were sold, she would buy nice antiques. And I don’t think I have anything here that was hers that she bought like that. Most of these things belonged to Alex’s mother. But I know that we went to this sale of this family named Snider. Who is that guy who is one of the deputy sheriffs who lives up the road from you? Isabelle Chewning: Chris Blalock? Mary Lipscomb: It was at that house [1445 Sterrett Road]. It was a family named -- and I was so little. I remember I was about to get lost or something from my parents or some kind of trauma and they may have bought that bed there. But that Mrs. Berry that we talked about earlier. Isabelle Chewning: The cupboard came-- Mary Lipscomb: The cupboard came from there, and that bed may have come from there. But that’s a nice bed. And then [Mary Lipscomb’s niece] Aggie [Sterrett] has a bed that was always there in the old kitchen, stored there in my lifetime that really was a nice -- that was some of my dad’s family’s bed, wasn’t it? Isabelle Chewning: I don’t know. Mary Lipscomb: Well I know it came with him, I think. It could have been something that -- I always kind of thought it was something that came from the Sterrett family, maybe his mother and father. One of the things that I keep wondering if it could be very, very valuable. In fact, somebody looked at it once and said the thought it was, that little Mission couch that’s in Julie’s -- in the front hallway. Grant Griswold looked at that. I had it on the front porch when we moved to Mulberry Grove, and he said, “This is a museum piece. This is a Stickley.” And so you know, Stickley was from New Jersey and made – was the inventor of that Mission furniture. And I got it because it was -- I remember when we were dividing things, Mc said to me, “You have some sentimental value in this, don’t you?” And I said, “Yes, I do.” We took a wagon and went to Fairfield and got it off the train. Grandmother had bought it in Richmond, this was when Grandmother was -- my Grandmother -- was working at Seminary, living at Seminary. And she had bought it for us, and it came on the train to Fairfield, and I sat up on it coming home from the train station to Mulberry Grove. And I forgot where it lived in Mulberry Grove when I was a child. But after Grant Griswold looked at it at that time, and said that about it, I brought it in off the front porch [laugh] and I kept it in the little office. It sat under the window to the kitchen in the little office. And when our house was open for Garden Week, we said it was a Stickley bench. I’ve looked under it, and it’s not marked in any way. But a family came through who were from this area of New Jersey, and they were very thrilled [laugh]. And so I don’t know whether it’s a Stickley bench or not, but I keep hoping it is. When we divided Mother’s and Daddy’s things, we were still living in the house that Joe and Julie [Lipscomb] live in now at Timber Ridge [3808 North Lee Highway]. I had it on the back porch there, and it has a little tear in it because when Joe and Julie were married, they had a big old dog named Norma Jean. And she came rushing over and came in on the porch one time, and tore it a little bit with her toenail. But it has its original upholstery, and that’s one thing that would make it extremely valuable, if it is valuable at all. Anyway, we call it the Stickely bench. And that furniture is quite valuable and Grant called it, as I said, a museum piece. I don’t know if he knows, but anyway, we have a new respect for that piece of furniture, in addition to the sentimental value of my riding up on the wagon on it. But when we first made the new rooms upstairs for Mc and me, we had some furniture that belonged to Aunt Isabel [Sterrett Anderson] that she needed to put somewhere. And I had a dresser with a big mirror, and a marble top. You’ve seen a lot of these. And a bed, and I can’t remember what that bed was like. But Annie Laurie [Anderson Vanstone] took those things when she moved [from England] to this country. I think that’s because -- because they belonged to her. And that must have been when I bought that horribly uncomfortable bed. And it always made the worst noise. It was a rope bed and we never got the angle irons down in it right. I have a rope bed that [Mary Lipscomb’s grandson] Will [Lipscomb] sleeps in now that had angle irons so the mattresses could to go down and fit like they’re supposed to. But the mattress sat on top, the springs sat on top of the rope knobs and it never was right. But it’s not a full bed. It must be three-quarter, and of course it’s always expensive to get those things [custom-made mattresses]. But I think it must -- I don’t know that Joe and Julie had -- they must have had angle irons put in it because it’s a little more comfortable than when Elizabeth had it, but I think it’s in their attic now. Isabelle Chewning: When did you get a piano? Were you still living there when Grandmother got the piano? Mary Lipscomb: I’ve forgotten when that was. That was… Isabelle Chewning: And who did you take piano lessons from? Mary Lipscomb: Oh, when I was -- I guess when I was in elementary school, or maybe I was in high school. I don’t remember whether I was in high school or not. But Mother had this friend who came every summer to Rockbridge Baths from Fredericksburg. And Mother had grown up with her. They were great, wonderful friends in Fredericksburg. I don’t think they were any kin to the Howisons in Fredericksburg. But her name was Mary Powell Scott, and her husband was on a ship in the First World War where people were -- I kind of think he was a doctor. He may have been. I believe he was a doctor. And sailors were dying – many, just so many all of a sudden from the flu, the first of the flu. And he had horrible depression. And he did some strange things, I think, in Fredericksburg sometimes, but I never saw -- They came to Rockbridge Baths every summer and rented a cottage from Mrs. Blair. It’s back of the spring house, where the bath house is, you know [4720 Maury River Road]. It was back in there, and it was called The Icehouse. And Mary Powell was a beautiful pianist, and she offered to give me piano lessons in the summertime and didn’t charge us anything. And we would drive up there, I guess once a week, and I’d have piano lessons. We didn’t have a piano. So I’d walk up to Mrs. Dice’s [2081 Sterrett Road], who was our next door neighbor, and she had a piano and I would practice. She had, I think I talked about this earlier, Mrs. Dice had a summer boarder. Isabelle Chewning: Right. Mary Lipscomb: And she had to listen to me practice. [Laugh] She was very lovely about the whole thing though. Isabelle Chewning: How was it that Mrs. Dice had all those boys who lived there? I know she had Don Firebaugh for a while. Mary Lipscomb: That’s right. Isabelle Chewning: And you mentioned she had Troy Hickman. Were they just farm help? Mary Lipscomb: Well they helped her. She didn’t farm. She had a farmer, always but they would help her around the house, and the yard, and the garden, and things of that sort, I guess. And they probably needed somewhere to be. You know, the family needed-- Isabelle Chewning: Because their family couldn’t afford to feed them? And she needed some help?. Mary Lipscomb: That’s right, yeah. Some of that. Right, some of that. You know, the – Pauline Patteson’s family. What is it, Cox? So many of those Coxes lived with D. W. Whipple [at 1790 Sterrett Road] and Harvey [Cox] is over here in The Glens, one of them. He lived with D.W., and I don’t know whether Eugene [Cox] did. Eugene lives near Lexington. But they would help with the horses, and go to school, and things of that sort. But that was a big family, the Coxes. And it was a help to them and certainly a help to D.W. And Miss Faye [Thompson] was living then and everybody loved to come because Miss Faye was a terribly marvelous cook. Miss Faye Thompson, who is D.W. Whipple’s first cousin. And that’s how people came to live with -- those boys came to live with Mrs. Dice. She had some welfare boys later from social services. That was after my day, and I don’t remember much about that. I think Mc [Sterrett] would remember because… Isabelle Chewning: I think we’re getting through my list. Mary Lipscomb: Good. Isabelle Chewning: Any particular people from Brownsburg who stand out in your memory? Mary Lipscomb: Well, we all mention Miss Osie Trimmer, who was the principal of the high school, who was very, very strict and a really good teacher. That was an unusual high school. Did I talk about this earlier? Have I talked about the high school at all? Isabelle Chewning: Well I don’t think we did but -- Mary Lipscomb: The McCorkles [David and Anne] did, I expect. Isabelle Chewning: They mentioned that it was an accredited school, and there just weren’t that many rural accredited high schools. Mary Lipscomb: That’s exactly right. We had very few offerings but we had four years of math – really what amounted to almost five -- four years of English, of course; four years of history; biology; chemistry; and we didn’t have physics. We had agriculture after awhile. We didn’t have agriculture all of my career. And Home Economics. And… Isabelle Chewning: Latin. Mary Lipscomb: Latin, oh, yes. Uh-huh. We didn’t have but two years of Latin. We didn’t have – my Aunt Mary Graham Howison taught Latin at John Marshall in Richmond, she taught four years of it. But we didn’t have that kind of thing. But we had really good teachers. Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. John Patterson who was a contemporary of my parents and friends of my parents. I think I mentioned those people, I called her “Miss Rosenell.” I called her Mrs. Patterson when she was teaching, I suppose. But as friends of my parents, I called them “Mr. John” and “Miss Rosenell.” And she taught all the math, four years of the math. And so the continuity of these teachers made so much difference. You know, when I taught English, you never quite knew what they knew about grammar from the last -- when you were teaching. I taught eleventh grade and then tenth grade English. You didn’t know -- you couldn’t build on one year from the next. But in that kind of school, Miss Trimmer taught all four years of English, and the two years of Latin. Maybe she didn’t teach all four years of English. I don’t believe she did. But it seems to me she did. I don’t know how she taught six classes, but maybe it was easy. Classes weren’t very big. Then we had really good history teachers, a Miss Montgomery from -- I think she taught both biology and history, I’m not sure. And then we had people who came and went. I don’t remember many of the other high school teachers. I’ve forgotten who taught chemistry -- I think Miss Montgomery taught chemistry too. But you were well-educated for college. I had trouble with Spanish in college. I had taken so many classes the first year it really ran me distracted. But I didn’t have any trouble with the math at all, nor the English, you know, things of that kind at college at all. But Miss Trimmer ran a tight ship and made people behave, and spanked people when they were in little grades. And she coached the basketball, and the baseball, and everything else I think. I guess those were like the only things that they had. Isabelle Chewning: And there were a lot of plays. Mary Lipscomb: Oh, mercy, yes. Oh, yes. She did all the-- Isabelle Chewning: Were you in any of those? Mary Lipscomb: Oh, yes. Oh, goodness yes, always. They were… She did an operetta every now and then and Mollie Sue Whipple talks about, I don’t know, it was something about Robin Hood. And this was back when, I must have been in elementary school when this was. Not high school. We had no gymnasium. They had an outside basketball court. There was a square, brick building beside the current stucco building that’s still there that was the early academy. The Brownsburg Academy. That was a boys school for boys who came and boarded in the community and went to the academy for lots of times. It never should have been torn down, it was an historical wonder. But anyway, it had an upstairs auditorium and classrooms downstairs and you entered the building and faced the steps that went upstairs to the auditorium. It had a stage and I think it had a little room off to the side, which was the library, which couldn’t have been much of a library. But it had a fire escape down on the outside of the building, and I remember this operetta thing. They put the -- Miss Trimmer had some of the big high school boys carry the piano out the window to the fire escape where Mollie Sue played the piano out there for this operetta which was down on the basketball court. [Laugh] It was the outside basketball court. And Mollie Sue declares that Mc [Sterrett] was Robin Hood I think and-- Isabelle Chewning: Little John. Mary Lipscomb: Huh? Isabelle Chewning: Little John. Mary Lipscomb: Oh, Little John? Oh, I see. And she talks about Bud Martin was something or other. But I don’t remember what -- I guess I was in it, I guess maybe just in the Glee Club or singing or something. I don’t remember anything much about it except the wonderful sound that this piano made outdoors. It always just fascinated me so how the piano sounded so different outside from inside. [Laugh] But I don’t know how often Miss Trimmer did these operettas, maybe once a year. I know she did a Steven Foster one year. I was in high school then, I guess. And we had these fantastic Christmas things. But we had, every -- I don’t know if every class would have a play, but she always directed them all I think. I know the seniors always had a play, but it seems to me I was in a play every year. I had to memorize all this stuff. Isabelle Chewning: It’s good for your memory. Mary Lipscomb: Maybe. Isabelle Chewning: Look how good your memory is now! Mary Lipscomb: Nearly 84 and I can remember all this stuff. [laugh] Anyway, yes. She really worked hard. There were no two ways about it. [End of Tape 3, Side B] Mary Thompson Sterrett Lipscomb Index A Adams Family · 12 Adams, Elizabeth "Aunt Lizzie" Wilson · 12 Adams, Hugh · 12 Alexander, Bobby Tate · 57 Alexander, Jack · 78 Alexander, James "Jim" · 26, 77, 78 Alexander, Libby · 104 Alexander, Pat · 78 Alexander, Sarah · 77 Alexander, Tate · 78, 104 Americana Villa · 10 Anderson, Alden · 4 Anderson, Annie Laurie · 77 Arehart, Johnny · 74 Arehart, Ted · 74 Associate Presbyterian Church · 12 Automobile Hupmobile · 26 Model A · 8 Model T · 8, 41 B Bailey, Dr. · 52 Barnett, Scott · 78 Beard, Porter Threshing Machine · 18 Beard, Richard · 39 Benton, Brookie · 78 Biggs, Tom New Providence Minister · 100 Black school Rockbridge Baths · 59 Blackwell, Rebecca · 48 Blackwell, Virginia · 48 Bosworth, Fannie · 91 Bosworth, Tom · 51, 63, 91 Braehead · 10, 12, 13 Brown, Ethel · 34, 58 Brown, Ida Third Grade Teacher · 29 Brown, Jim · 34 Brown, John · 29 Brown, Lucille · 34 Brown, Lum · 34 Brown, Margaret · 29 Brownsburg Barbershop · 43 Black School · 60 Cannery · 60, 61 Doctors · 52 Huffman's Store · 94 Move to, in 1927 · 2 Paved roads · 42 Whipple's Store · 24, 42 Brownsburg School · 84 Academy Building · 28, 85 Basketball · 40 Bus · 27 National Youth Association · 88 New Building · 87 Buchanan Family · 27 Buchanan, Anne · See McCorkle, Anne Buchanan Buchanan, Eugenia · 94 Buchanan, Fanny · 32 Buchanan, Gene · 35, 55, 94 Buchanan, Marjorie · 35 Buchanan, William "Bill" · 32, 55 Byrd, Harry · 56 C Camp As You Like It · 67 Camp Briar Hills · 69 Cannery · 61 Chittum, Marjorie Ann Whitesell · 39 Christmas · 8, 52, 101 Cistern · 75 Civil War · 10 Battle of Fredericksburg · 12 General Crook · 17 Hunter's Raid · 16 Civilian Conservation Corps · 4, 43 Vesuvius Camp · 44 Cox, Eugene · 84 Cox, Harvey · 84 Curry, Gay · 69 D Davidge, Mrs. · 32 Davidson, Cornelia · 54, 77 Davidson, Frank · 54 Davidson, Jack · 54 Davidson, John · 4 Davis, John Pastor at Timber Ridge · 9 Davis, Suzanne Morton · 9 Democrats · 35, 54 Byrd Democrats · 56 Young Democrats Group · 55 Depression · 4, 25, 26 National Youth Association · 88 Dice, Charlie · 35 Dice, Margaret · See Updike, Margaret Dice Dice, Mrs. · 31 Dice, Robert · 35 Dice, Walter · 35 Diseases · 51 Dousing · 57 E East, George · 70 Electricity · 71 Ervine, Adelaide · 31 Ervine, Bill · 31 Ervine, Ellen · 29, 31 Ervine, Hope · 29, 31 Ervine, Mr. · 31 F Farming August slow-down · 38 Butchering · 23 Canning · 23 Dairy · 74, 104 Hay Making · 18 Horses · 15 Lambs · 21 Mulberry Grove Barns · 14 Separating cream · 50 Sharecropping · 18 Threshing wheat · 18 Fauber, Benny · 29 Fauber, Ralph · 29 Federal Land Bank · 4 Firebaugh, Don · 83 Fisher, Mariah · 32 Flick, Dr. W&L Professor · 87 Fox, Dr. Kurt · 104 Fox, Trudy · 104 Franklin, Dan · 58 Franklin, John · 93 Franklin, Virginia Bell · 48, 58 Franklin, Zack · 58 Fultz, Ida Willson · 15, 17, 99 G Gaines, Dr. W&L President · 87 Gallier, Mr. CCC Superintendent · 44 Gibson, John · 12 Gibson, Mary Adams · 12 Gilliam, Mary Stuart · 106 Godwin, Mills Governor of Virginia · 56 Goodman, Mildred · See Thompson, Mildred Goodman Green Hills Garden Club · 100 Green, Dr. · 52 Grimm, Hugh · 32 H Haliburton, Maggie · 19, 72 Haliburton, William "Dude" · 17, 44, 58 Hall, Lucy · 10 Hanna, Betty · 38 Hanna, Charles · 38 Hanna, Margaret · 38 Hanna, Rev. C. Morton New Providence Minister · 37 Heffelfinger, Bill · 36, 90 Heffelfinger, Grace · 90 Heffelfinger, Jen · 36, 78, 90, 94 Heffelfinger, Pudge · 91 Heffelfinger, Steve · 90, 92 Hickman, Troy · 69, 83 Hickman, Virginia · 70 Howison, Helen · 11 Howison, John · 12 Howison, Mary "Mamie" · 11 Howison, Mary Graham · 11, 25, 84 Howison, Nannie · See Stephens, Nannie Howison Howison, Nannie Morton · 10 Howison, Robert · 12 Howison, Samuel Graham · 10 Huffman, Elmer · 94 Huffman, Isabel Leech · 29 First Grade Teacher · 28 Huffman’s Store · 94 Hunt, Willie · 2 I Integration · 57 L Lanford, Sarah · 101 Lawhorn, Mr. CCC · 46 Leech, Thelma · 30, 40 Level Loop · 36 Lipscomb, Alex · 68, 77, 100, 104, 105 Low Moor · 78 Lipscomb, Bruce Alexander III · 11, 102 Lipscomb, Elizabeth · 104 Lipscomb, Mary Thompson Sterrett Birth · 7 Gatlinburg honeymoon · 80 High School Valedictorian · 87 Longwood College · 50, 58, 63 Marriage · 77 Move back to Brownsburg in 1984 · 100 Move to Brownsburg in 1927 · 13 Piano Lessons · 83 Riding teacher in North Carolina · 66 School · 28 Second Grade · 27 Tonsilectomy · 54 Lipscomb, Robert · 102 Lipscomb, Will · 104 Lotts, Jess New Providence Sexton · 39 Lotts, Mary Stuart · 40 Low Moor Iron Company · 78 Lucas, Austin · 94 Lucas, Carrie · 38, 95 M MacCorkle, Tork · 78 Mackey, Jane · 104 Mackey, Jeannette · 105 Martin, Frances Bell · 38 Martin, Sidney · 38 Martin, W.L. "Bud" · 58, 86 Mason, Mary Moore · 33 Massanetta · 31 McClung, Andrew · 79 McClung, Brainard · 79 McClung, Dr. Hunter · 7, 105 McClung, Mary Frances · 79 McClung, Morton · 36, 90 McClung, Sally Reid · 36, 90 McClung, Sonora · 79 McCorkle, Anne Buchanan · 28, 39, 55, 87 McCorkle, David · 39 McCutchen, Bud · 94 McLaughlin, Dr. Henry · 88 McLaughlin, Henry · 69 McLaughlin, Sam · 69 McNutt, Hugh School Bus Driver · 29 McSwain, Isabel · 78 McSwain, Mac · 78 Milk separator · 50 Mish Antique Shop · 80 Mitchell, Dr. · 54 Montgomery, Ann Thompson · 8 Montgomery, Miss Biology and History Teacher · 85 Moore, Ellabell Gibbs · 4 Moore, John · 4 Morton, Charles Read · 9 Burial in Brazil · 11 Marriage · 10 Missionary · 10 Morton, Mary Thompson · 9 Death at Braehead · 10 Morton, Suzanne · See Davis, Suzanne Morton Movies · 41 Mulberry Grove · 2 Barns · 13 Christmas Tour · 101 Dairy · 16 Dormer windows · 49 Furniture · 80 Garden · 63 Garden Week · 101 Icehouse · 22 Indoor Plumbing · 73 National Register Nomination · 100 Office · 15 Orchard · 22 Purchase by Madison McClung Sterrett, Sr. · 4 Renovation in 1983 · 98 Slave Quarters · 100 Smokehouse · 15 N National Youth Association · 88 New Providence Presbyterian Church Bible School · 37 Choir · 92 Christmas Pagents · 40, 95 Chrysanthemum Show · 96 Junior Choir · 95 McNutt Chapel · 37 Pioneer Group · 38 Pioneer Society · 31 Pisgah Chapel Sunday School · 37 Pump Organ · 93 Weddings · 94 P Patterson, Ag · 79 Patterson, Ellen · 79 Patterson, John · 35, 55 Patterson, Rosenell · 35, 85 Patterson, Rufus · 35 Patteson, Pauline · 84 Penick, Mary Monroe · 93 Peters, Carrie Teacher at Black School · 60 Pleasants, Clarence · 58 Pleasants, Edna Haliburton · 19, 59 Pleasants, Leo · 61 Pleasants, Willie Howard · 58 Polio scares · 52 Powell, Mr. Professor at Smith College · 32 R Rees, Walter · 72 Robertson, Willis · 44 Rockbridge Alum Springs · 26 Rockbridge Baths Black School · 59 S Scott, Mary Powell · 83 Shepherd, Anna · 78 Shoultz, Bill · 34 Shoultz, Bob · 34 Shoultz, Frank · 34 Simpson, Adelaide · 106 Skeen, Joseph · 5 Skyline Drive · 27 Slusser, George · 39, 69, 94 Smiley, Della · 72 Smiley, Tuck · 72 Smith, Margaret Howison · 11, 25, 54 Snider, Stella · 92 Stephens, Bruce · 25 Stephens, Graham · 25 Stephens, Nannie Howison · 10, 25 Dunsmore Business School · 27 Fredericksburg Clerk of Court's Office · 27 Stephens, Wallace "Steve" · 25 Chief Park Ranger Skyline Drive · 27 Park Service · 27 Sterrett, Aggie · 81 Sterrett, Anna · 78 Sterrett, Anna Laura Smith · 3 Matron at Union Seminary · 3 Sterrett, Bill · 80 Sterrett, Edna Watkins Morton · 3 Birth in Brazil · 10 Fredericksburg Normal School · 12 Marriage · 9, 13 Teacher at Rockbridge Baths · 3 Teacher in King George, VA · 12 Typhoid Fever · 12 Sterrett, John D. · 75 Sterrett, Madison McClung · 2 Sterrett, Madison McClung, Jr. · 2, 70, 78, 85 Birth · 7 Teeth · 69 Sterrett, Madison McClung, Sr. · 2 Civilian Conservation Corps · 43 Construction work in Newport News · 50 John Marshall High School · 3 Marriage · 8, 13 School Board · 56 Sterrett, Tate House of Delegates · 55 Strickler, John · 18 Strickler, Ollie · 18 Supinger's Store · 43 Swisher, Bessie · 92 Swisher, Buford · 92 Swisher, Hen Sheep Shearing · 21 T Telephone service · 6 Thompson, Ann · See Montgomery, Ann Thompson Thompson, Charles Edwin · 8 Thompson, Davenport · 8 Thompson, Edna · 7, 9, 79 Thompson, Edwin · 7, 79 Thompson, Faye · 48, 84 Thompson, Horatio · 7 Thompson, Isabel Sterrett · 2, 3 Thompson, Lewis · 9 Thompson, Mary · See Morton, Mary Thompson Thompson, Mildred Goodman · 8, 105 Thompson, Samuel Givens · 9 Thompson, Stuart · 1, 2, 80 Death · 14 Thompson, William · 9 Timber Ridge Dairy · 25 Trimmer, Osie · 84 School Principal · 30 U Updike, Margaret Dice · 29, 31 Nurse at UVA · 31 W Wade Jen · See Heffelfinger, Jen Wade, Bud · 43, 89 Wade, Eleanor · 48, 90 Wade, Elsie · 38, 93, 95 Wade, Frances · 38, 72, 80 Wade, Hamilton · 89, 94 Wade, Harold · 89 Wade, Hugh · 35, 48 Banker · 88 Wade, Jim · 38, 94 Wade, John · 90 Wade, Kate · 48, 90 Wade, Kite · 89 Wade, Margaret · 48, 67, 90 Wade, Mary · 48, 90 Wade, Walter · 89 Wade, Winston · 38 Walker, Maggie · 33 Walker, Tom · 33 Whipple, D.W. · 48, 84 Whipple, David · 43 Whipple, Fred · 56, 69, 100, 104 Whipple, Mollie Sue · 30, 56, 85, 93 Whipple’s Store · 24, 42 Whipples Republicans · 35 White, Dr. Locke New Providence Minister · 79 Whitesell, John Layton · 39 Whitesell, John Miley · 57 Whitesell, Marjorie Ann · See Chittum, Marjorie Ann Whitesell Whiteside, Josephine · 47 Willson, Robert Tate · 15 Willson, Sallie · 4, 15, 99 Willson, Samuel · 4, 16, 99 Wilson Springs · 26 Wilson, Ellen · 95 Wilson, Goodrich · 95 Withrow, Earl · 73 Withrow, Jim · 73 Woltz, Frances · 78 World War I · 63 World War II · 61 Blackouts · 65 Casualties · 69 Civilian watch program · 66 Rationing · 66 Special Services · 64 USO · 64 V-12 Program · 64 Victory Gardens · 62