Memories ofSummer Fun!
Connie Cales and me (Ben) catchin' crawdads! Yep, we both had our chaw in!
Thanks to Cousin Sam for these beautiful pictures of downtown Hinton on Sunday,
December 20,2009!You can just about see horses and buggies making their way along!
Here's Mom's ( Arbanna's) hand written recipe for applebutter. Fall and apple butter time were always special at Stump Lick Hollow!
Julian and Mae made some of the very best applebutter around. Mae, Arbanna and Charlotte continued the tradition.
Those wonderful mothers of our family are gone now, but the memories of this time of year will live as long as any of us can continue to live and recall the smell of apples cooking down in the big copper kettle!
News! History Changes Before our Very eyes!
SLH NEWS- A 'sign of the times' you might say, Someone in Summers County Government has decided to install a sign at the foot of Mill House Hill designating 'something' as "Brier Ridge Road"! The sign is surely misplaced as I don't know anyone named 'Brier' living in the area. ('Briar could have been a better choice-but there's no 'Briar Ridge', either!) Stump Lick Hollow Road extends from Route 20 through Stump Lick Branch and around the mountain to meet up with Chestnut Mountain road.
"School House Ridge" is at the top of Mill House Hill - it has been "School House Ridge " for over 100 years, named for the school built on Phillip Cales' property. The school was approximately in front of the present day Wheeler home, just North of the Cales Family Cemetery.
"Mill House Hill" was a 'dog-leg' road that connected the North end of "Brooks Mountain Road" to the newly built Route 20 around 1931.
"The Stairs at Home"
The Cales School - on School House Ridge approximate site of Julian Cales Cemetery
Family of Phillip and Mary Susan (Ward)Cales
Mary Susan (Ward)Cales
Phillip Marion Cales
Christmas Time
at
The Scarbro's
Sandstone, WVa - From the Richmond Cemetery
The Ben
SHN - The John Bragg Place in serious decline. Home of Uncle John and Aunt Arminta (Cales) Bragg. (John's dad was GG Grandpa Sylvester Bragg, Arminta's dad was GG Uncle Ballard Cales.) The wonderful orchards and garden are overgrown and hard to determine.
Even in decay there is an elegance!The old house sits in the woods, cherishing its own memories within its walls and the land remembering the laughter of children and the joy of the family who lived from its beautiful bounty.
This was one of the most beautiful farms in the mountains. In my childhood (early 1960's) it had already started to decline. We would climb the mountain to check on cattle there and pick apples and 1 inch round rasberrys.As a child it was my plan that when I died and went to Heaven I would be able to live at The John Bragg Place!
"The Doors at Home"
. James Everette Cales
James Everette Cales, 87, of Sandstone, WV, passed away Saturday, November 3
at Hinton,WV. Born March 24, 1925, Everette was the fourth of
twelve children born to Julian S. and Delphia
M (Bragg) Cales. He served in the US Army
in Europe during WWII. He worked in
Charleston and Hinton as a TV repairman
and was a familiar face to many who knew
they could call on him at any time to repair
most any kind of household appliance. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Irma
(Foster-Ward), two brothers, and six sisters.
He is survived by a sister, Martha S (Cales)
Ewing of Atlanta, and two brothers, Charles H Cales of Sandstone, and Otis L (Kathy) Cales of Smoot. He is also survived by Danny (Bunnie)
Cales of New Smyrna Beach, FL who is his nephew and was Everette's 'ward' after his father Tom's death in 1961. Everette is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews. Every Wednesday and Sunday Everette journeyed from Sandstone to Hilldale to visit at the nursing home. No services are planned as he had wished for many years to donate his remains to medical science.
Above is the 'shingle' dipper that was used at The Elbert and Julian Cales grist mill to dip cornmeal into sacks.
The crooked nail is the nail that held the 'button' lock on the outside of the outhouse door.
Map of Virginia - North Carolina (Before the Civil War)
Silas and Axie Cales
Luther Cales
.Zeb Cales
Howard Cales
Alice Cales-Bragg
.Julian Cales
Luther Cales and Milous Cales
Stump Lick Hollow
News
Chris' dog, "LUCKY" - He loved Mom and always rah to greet us when we got home from Florida! We really miss him!
E-Mail Me : wkctheben@aol.com
A fireplace is the heart of a country home.
A central place of gathering the family to share the happenings of the day, to enjoy the peaceful crackling flame, to simply relax and feel the joy of family and home!
These pictures are of the fireplace in the livingroom of the John and Arminta Bragg home, Chestnut Mountain.
I can remember playing in the beautiful old house as a child...when the floors were safe, the windows were intact as well as the roof.
Papa and Uncle Elbert (my grandfather and his brother) would sit on the edge of the porch and eat apples and talk about various 'old folk'.
Uncle Elbert kept cattle on the old place and for a long time the place was clean and very 'liveable'.
I like to make at least one climb up the mountain each year - now it has been 4 1/2 years since I made the climb.
Perhaps I will make one more climb before my heart is still...and my memories are no more!
*The Stairs at the John Bragg Place*
Standing at the back is Monroe, Silas, Howard, Alice, Zebual and Luther.
Boy at left with short pants is Julian ... man seated is Phillip and he is holding Monroe's son Virgil (born 1905) ... Mary Susan is seated and standing at front between her and Philip is Anna Leona. The occasion was the marriage of Alice and Lon Sept. 14 1908 and this is as ID'd by Alice Cales Bragg. This description is from Alice's g-granddaughter, Pamela Thomas GIbson.
(The boy in shorts at right would be Elbert. Howard would have been 16 at the time, and he is said to have left home at age 14, I am thinking Uncle Charlie is in the picture rather than Howard.)
NOTE: Lelia 'PEARL' Bragg was a very well known aviatrix.
