Jake Welch, Rowan Branch, Hazel Creek, Swain County, North Carolina
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Jake Welch, 70 years old when recorded in 1939, was from Hazel Creek, in Swain County, North Carolina. He had no formal schooling and could recognize words but not write. He worked as a farmer and part-time logger.
[transcripption copyrigh Michael Montgomery and Paul Reed, 2017]
[W = Jake Welch; I = Interviewer Joseph Hall]
I: We might tell who you are at first and everything and then give your name and where you live.
W: Yeah, and I, I can tell you about me, me and George Wilson a-catching that, that r- right on the mountains there.
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W: We went over there a- a-chestnut hunting and took our women with us, he was married one, one fall and, and, and me, Will, he, I was married one fall and him the next, and we went over there and that old dog treed, [I: Uh-huh] and, and we started back home, the women says “hain’t you going to that old dog?” and, and we told them that he had a groundhog treed and had the ax with us and, and went on down there and, and hit uh and, and had a cu-, a cub bear treed, and he wanted me to come back home and get my gun and kill it, and I wouldn’t do it, I told him, I says “George, just cut it down and catch it,” “why,” he says “he’ll eat you up, fool,” I says “no, it won’t, no, it won’t,” we cut that tree down, down, it was up a big chestnut oak, and when the tree fell, hit broke and run right back, r- right uh back, back to me, and I run it a little piece and catched it, I want you to know when he got there it, hit uh hit had all my clothes scratched off of me, then I w-, he was a-fighting I said and me ahold of it, yep, we had one more time with that devilish infernal thing, and I pulled my shoestrings out and tied it, and so we, we brought it home and kept it till hit was, it got to about two year old, it got so mean we had to sell it, took ten dollars for it right up there.
I: Now tell us one about when you ...
W: Well, if I had uh knowed you fellows would have been a-coming till I could have s- been a-studying about it, why one, one thing or another hit would have been another thing, but then I, I ain’t for-, I ain’t forgot, you know uh, that I, I told you fellows, but then me and, me and Al Walker went to the head of, of Hazel Creek one time just by ourselves, I ain't uh, I ain’t forgot that never, and the dogs treed two ones in the ground, and we just didn’t have nothing but some old hog rifles, I killed one of them as hit come out, and he, he was afraid, he was afraid of shooting, and that old she sh- come out and I want you to know, mister, man, we’s, uh we left there, I struck out of my gun but missed it, but now we killed some deer and turkey and coons and everything else, me and old Al Walker did, that was up here on the head of Hazel Creek.
I: What about a hunt uh with uh Little John Casey or John Jones, did you ever go out with them?
W: Yes, lots and lots of times.
I: Can you tell us about a hunt you took with them?
W: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and we went right up here on, on, on Walkers Creek at one time, me and Little John and Doc, Cray's Forks, we drove the, the Walker Creek laurel, sent them on above, we turned the dogs loose then, me and Little John did, we both come back and went on to the mouth we did, before we got to them we heared them shooting, went on up there, Little John was pretty bad to curse, he says “by God,” he says “we've got him,” I says “have you, John?” he says “yeah,” he says “by god,” he says “we’ve got him,” we, we went on up there to him, he was a big'un and, and, and, and hit fat, and me and John and Dan kept k-, I, I got the best tickled I ever was in my life, we all went back up there, and the dogs run off and went to the back of the Smoky Mountain, so next day we come in, me and Dan and a whole crowd of us wanted to come in, and Little John, he wouldn’t come, him and Doc cou- uh uh wouldn’t, wouldn’t and, and L- when Little John spoke, say “I’m a-going to stretch me a bear hide,” he says, “before I, before I go home,” that was Dan, who was his brother, he says, “John, that there whiskey,” said “it’ll make you want to go home,” xx God, we had one more time with this fool bear, him a-driving and everything.
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W: Well uh w-, well when we was a-deer, a-deer driving now, ever once in a while we’d find where a, a panther would wo- would kill a deer and, and cover it up, just every once in a whiles we would, and some of them was plumb, we found one or two was, was warm out, out here w- uh one winter, now he’ll kill deer, now they ain’t no devilishness about that, and a wolf will f- will, it'll uh will follow your dogs right into the camp and the, the, the and if you got ary slip i-, in, in the, in the, in, in gang, a wolf a- will a-, w- will, will follow right into the camp and how-, uh and howl all around your camp, now they’ll do that, yes they will, and we’d watch, we’d kill them devils in front of painters, and every one we know where, where our dogs would run them, but th- uh now they hain’t one dog in a, in a hundred that would run a panther, I can tell you that right now, but the- uh they won’t, but they’ll pretty near any of them run a, run a wolf, though.
I: You say that Tom xx killed a panther about fifteen years ago until a, could you tell us a little bit how Tom xx killed a panther?
W: No, I don’t.
I: What did you, what did you hear about that?
W: No, I don’t remember, if it has I, I’ve forgot it, I forgot half I ever heared and half, half I know, half I ever knewed, but now if I’d a knowed you fellows been a-coming and had studied up, why I could have give you fellows a whole lot of news, but then I, I wasn’t looking, I wasn’t thinking about it, don’t you see?
I: Uh-huh, what do you think of the national park, Mister Welch?
W: Why, hit’s uh, hit’s all right, yeah uh, hit, hit’s all, all, all right, course it's pretty hard on the boys and ever been hard on, on me and, and, and my boys, we don’t bother nothing, we own a whole lot of lan- the land around here and want kill us a mess of squirrels, why we get out and kill them here on our own land, and the park business is, is all right.
I: Say anything you want.
W: Yeah.
I: We’re just wondering how the national park affected people around here you know, the hunters can’t do as much hunting as they did one time.
W: No, no, no, no, no, of course they’s a lot of hunting done in this country now, but then, as far as that concerned, but we don’t, they keep a, they would, they w- got some warders here, I want you to know, when they catch a fellow a-, a-hunting, they uh they take him to Bryson.
I: Because they're ...
W: Yes they do, I’ll bet you they do, catch him a-coon-hunting xx a-fishing, hunting or anything, why it don’t cost you much, about twelve dollars and a half or a twenty months, and he just comes right back and goes to hunting again, yeah.
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W: Why uh there in the uh, the uh, the uh park uh, uh of the the-, they a-, there's two fellows who come right here now and surveyed the uh, this uh branch out from the mouth to Deep Gap right next to, up, up yonder, and I, the- and the-, uh they, uh they had it wrong, and on the-, on, on their map, they's surveying it out, and they asked me, well uh they, they say “now uh hain’t this the, the uh, the, the, the, the, the Long Hollow?” I says “no, no,” he says, “what, what uh, what they call,” he says “this, this?” I says “It’s been called the Rowan Branch ever since I was a, a young'un,” he says, “where’s Pine Mountain at?” I says “right back there,” I did, that’s the Pine Mountain, well he says uh, he says “uh I, well, well we’ll just change it then,” he says, “you ought to know,” he asked me how long I’d lived here and I told him the rise of fifty year, I says “it’s been called the Rowan Branch ever since I can remember, I’ve lived here,” I says that, he, "well,” he says “I’ll just change it then,” yeah, yeah.
I: Uh how much land uh do you have up here?
W: Hundred and fifty acr- ...
I: A hundred a fifty.
W: Yes.
I: How much of that is wilderness?
W: I, I don’t know what it is, it is, uh we own this patch of, of land at, at, at the back of tha- that uh, that ridge right there, and it runs back and takes in that cove and back in there towards Tipton Settlement, they’s a hundred acre on this side.
I: Do they make different crops here?
W: Yeah, yes, it, it’s good stuff, make plenty to do us here.