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Community-wide heritage celebration
Public invited to Transylvania County's biggest ever public celebration of our mountain heritage and history: "Pathways and Folkways of the Mountain People"
Allison-Deaver House on highway 280, outside Brevard at Pisgah Forest, just north of the intersection of highways 276, 64, and 280.
Take a walk back in time to autumn of yesterday. Come sit a spell with us on the front porch for mountain picking and fiddling, story-telling, mountain clogging, and
eecollecting the old ways and the old ones.
The public is invited to a community-wide celebration of mountain history and heritage, "Pathways and Folkways of the Mountain People", on Sunday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m.
The event is presented by the Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association and pioneer family historian Michael Allison.
The Transylvania County Historical Society will host the colorful event, most appropriately at the historic Allison-Deaver House, the oldest documented surviving frame structure in the western mountain counties of the state.
Also participating in the program and co-sponsoring the event are TransylvanCoGenList Transylvania County Genealogy Group and the National Allison (Allanson) Family Association which is also presenting the huge National Allison Family Reunion that same weekend.
The program will present the story of the three distinctly different cultural and racial groups that formed the mountain people - Cherokee Indians, white European settlers, and African slaves, as told on a very personal level by individuals from each of the three cultures who were raised close to their roots in the old traditions of their people.
Live down-home mountain music will be performed from the front porch of the house by the Bradley Brothers Band. Clogger Elizabeth Rahn will provide a taste of the dance of the mountain people to the lively fiddle-driven tunes.
The program will be presented by an impressive line-up of storytellers, cultural and historical experts, and living history demonstrators.
Representing the Cherokee will be recognized cultural expert Myrtle Driver who was raised in the Birdtown section of the Cherokee Indian Reservation where the traditional ways of her people were practiced and preserved in everyday life. Driver will share with the audience the personal experiences of her childhood, growing up with the elders who insured that she would carry on with the folkways of her people.
Representing the African slave culture will be well known Transylvanian Selena Hall Robinson - actually a member of all three cultures through a slave grandmother who was half Cherokee, and a white great-grandmother from the Allison family that built the original portion of the Allison-Deaver House. Selena will share the poignant story of growing up black among the mountain people with her former slave grandmother who lived to be 104 who taught her so many of the old ways. Plans are for Selena to demonstrate lye soap-making on an open fire, as she was taught as a girl in the early 1900's.
Selena is a well known speaker on local history and folkculture. She was featured in the documentary film
"Women of These Hills, Stories of Growing Up in Appalachia", produced by the Cradle of Forestry in America
Interpretive Association.
Widely known 94 year-old folk preservationist and mountain humorist Vera Jones Stinson of Cedar Mountain will share a very personal, no holds barred glimpse into her most traditional upbringing in a white mountain pioneer
family. Vera is a popular speaker for groups all around the south, including numerous colleges and universities. She was also featured in the documentary film "Women of These Hills, Stories of Growing Up in Appalachia".
Mountain storyteller Becky Howell who was raised on the dark side of mile high Fie Top Mountain overlooking Maggie Valley will share tales of conjuring and other "things dark" in the folk culture of the mountains.
Dennis Glazener, a published expert on the legendary Gillespie rifle produced by members of the local Gillespie family at East Fork and at Mills River, will display several rifles and do a demonstration loading and firing
of these magnificent local made pioneer era long rifles. Copies of his recently published book on the rifle-making family will be available.
Colorful mountaineer "Popcorn" Sutton, a reformed moonshiner, will travel from Maggie Valley in his Model A Ford pick-up with his once working moonshine 'still bolted to the bed of the antique truck. The white bearded gentleman will demonstrate the art of whiskey making and will share an intimate glimpse into his former lifestyle as a moonshiner. Copies of the documentary film "My Last Run" detailing his last batch of illicit whiskey will be available.
A magnificent quilt in very traditional "rolling stone" pattern donated by the Allison family will be raffled at the event to benefit the care and maintenance of the historic Allison-Deaver House. Drawing for the quilt will
be held at the end of the program. You must be present to win.
The Cradle of Forestry in America Interpretive Association's beautiful new 2005 photographic calendar, entitled "Special Places in Western North Carolina", will be available for purchase at the event. The calendar
features exceptionally beautiful photographs of sites in and around Transylvania County.
Also available for purchase will be the Cradle of Forestry in America's two beautifully produced documentary films chronicling the lives of individual members of the mountain people, including two participants in the program,
Vera Stinson and Selena Robinson. Copies of "Women of These Hills, Stories of Growing Up in Appalachia" and "Three Cultures of Appalachia; Women of These Hills II" will be offered at the Interpretive Association booth at the
event.
There is no charge to attend the program. Tours of the interior of the Allison-Deaver House, conducted by knowledgeable docents in period dress, will be provided by donation to the historical society. Tours of the beautifully restored home will be available before and after the program, beginning at 12 noon. Those wanting to tour the home should make plans to arrive early before the program, or allow time for the tour after the event.
The Allison-Deaver House gift shop will be open during the event.
Parking for the program will be provided at the rear of the Allison-Deaver House property at the outer edges of the Forest Gate parking lot. A pathway leads from the parking lot to the house and is marked by a large sign at the
edge of the parking lot. Limited handicapped parking will be available on the grounds of the house via the driveway on Highway 280.
Please bring a lightweight folding chair for your seating on the lawn of the house. No other seating will be provided.
For additional information, please contact event chairman Michael Allison, dma12@bellsouth.net
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