Foxfire 9

by Foxfire Fund, Inc.

  PLATE 300 Then he sets the bolster in place with the pin to double-check his progress. Note that a metal plate corresponding to the plate on the sand board has been bolted to the bottom of the bolster, and mortises have been cut in the ends of the bolster for the stakes that will hold the wagon bed in place.

  PLATE 301 The mortises are cut in the top of the front axle for the hounds …

  PLATE 302 … and metal rods are cut and threaded …

  PLATE 303 … and bent into the shape of U bolts. These will be used in numerous locations to bolt the entire undercarriage together.

  PLATE 304 Here, a U bolt is bent around each of the thimbles on the front axle …

  PLATE 305 … to secure a metal brace for each thimble on the axle’s underside.

  PLATE 306 The plate through which the ends of each thimble U bolt pass is shaped into a hook in front to which the slay chains will be hooked when the wagon is in use. The threads for each thimble’s nut are made to keep the nut from unscrewing while the wheel is rotating.

  PLATE 307 Now U bolts are made (note that these are flattened in the curve) and holes drilled in the hounds to pin the hounds, sand board, and front axle together.

  PLATE 308 On the underside of the axle, using a U bolt puller, Jud adjusts the bolt and plate and …

  PLATE 309 … bolts it down.

  PLATE 310 That finished, the front end is ready for its bolster.

  PLATE 311 First Jud cuts out the stakes and mortises out channels for their hardware (made of mild steel, three sixteenths of an inch by three quarters) …

  PLATE 312 … and shapes the base of each into a tenon to fit the mortises in the bolster.

  PLATE 313 Then he checks to make sure each fits squarely on the bolster …

  PLATE 314 … drills a hole through each for a locking bolt, and bolts each into place.

  PLATE 315 He bolts one end of the metal strip that wraps the stake into the top of the bolster …

  PLATE 316 … saws any excess off the tenon …

  PLATE 317 … and bends the other end of the metal band that wraps the stake over …

  PLATE 318 … and bolts it into place with a lag bolt.

  PLATE 319 Then a protective wrapping is nailed to the top of the bolster. The wagon bed will sit on this surface.

  PLATE 320 With the addition of several more metal braces, the front assembly is finished. The curved braces keep the rocking bolster from hanging in the sand board.

  PLATE 321 The finished front assembly as seen from the rear.

  PLATE 322

  PLATE 323 Using basically the same processes, Jud now builds the rear assembly. Back axle and bolster (Fig. 180 PCB.)

  PLATE 324 He rounds the ends off, bands, mortises, and sets the stakes in the rear bolster …

  PLATE 325 … and cuts the mortises in its underside for the hounds and the coupling pole or “reach.” The reach will connect the front and rear assemblies, and holes will be drilled in it at intervals for a metal pin which, when pulled, will allow the front and rear axles to be either pushed farther apart or brought closer together as the wheelbase needs to be changed to accommodate the job at hand.

  PLATE 326 Again, U bolts are used to tie the bolster, hounds, and axle together.

  PLATE 327 The finished rear assembly.

  PLATE 328 The finished rear assembly as seen from behind the wagon.

  PLATE 329

  PLATE 330 Now the wheels are added, and the coupling pole, and the two halves pinned together.

  PLATE 331 The brake assembly. The lever used to pull the brake shoes against the rear wheels can be seen behind the spokes of the wheel in the foreground.

  PLATE 332 Dimensions of brake assembly.

  PLATE 333 A view of the brake assembly and the rear axle assembly from above. The hounds are attached to the coupling pole by two metal plates, one above and one below. The metal bolt in the center of the plate can be pulled and reset in any of several holes drilled through the coupling pole to change the length of the wagon.

  PLATE 334 The dimensions of the brake assembly and the rear axle assembly.

  PLATE 335 Last, Jud makes the bed and seat and then places it on the frame between the standards.

  PLATE 336 The finished wagon from the opposite side.

  PLATE 337 Dimensions of the wagon bed.

  PLATE 338 Side elevation. (From PCB).

  PLATE 339 Jud also makes the chains and hooks he needs, forge-welding the ends of the links together…

  PLATE 340 … for stay chains and tongue chains.

  PLATE 341 He also forges out and forge-welds the singletree irons and attaches them to the singletrees.

  PLATE 342

  PLATE 343

  PLATE 344 When Jud finished the wagon, he mounted a brass nameplate on the end of the bed.

  PLATE 345

  PLATE 346

  * Vols. I and II, compiled by M.T. Richardson. New York: M.T. Richardson, Publishers, 1892. Reprinted by The Early American Industries Association (c/o John S. Kebabian, 2 Winding Lane, Scarsdale, N.Y. 10583, 1981).

  TWO MEN OF GOD

  Foxfire 7 was completely devoted to the subject of religion in the mountains. Since the publication of that volume, however, two remarkable stories have been uncovered that would have been part of the seventh book had we but known about them at the time.

  The first was initiated by Curtis Weaver who, as a student in one of the Foxfire classes, found out from his family that his grandfather was a preacher who had used a boulder in the woods behind his home as his personal altar and confessional. The boulder was not only still in place, but so were the pebbles on its flat top that he had used to keep track of the religious status of the members of his congregation. Though his grandfather had been dead for seven years, members of Curtis’s family were able to help us piece together the story.

  The second came to our attention through Bill Henry, a wood-carver of considerable talent who lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and is one of our oldest friends. Through Bill, we met Henry Harrison Mayes, a religious folk artist whose single-minded obsession is to spread the message of salvation through the universe by way of highway signs, messages in bottles, and cement crosses—highly visible reminders of our mortality.

  Together, these two stories add two more pieces to the religious mosaic we have been assembling.

  THE PRAYING ROCK

  In the spring of 1983, a Foxfire student, Curtis Weaver, came into the Foxfire classroom and checked out a camera for the weekend. He made some photos of a certain rock located less than a half mile into the woods above his home. The reason he wanted the pictures was that the new owners of this property were planning to clear off and bulldoze the land on which this rock sat. The rock had suddenly become quite special to him, for he had recently found out from his parents that his grandfather, Mr. Charlie Bry Phillips, had called it the “praying rock.” Mr. Phillips was a preacher, and the praying rock marked the location of the spot where Mr. Phillips went to pray when he was deeply troubled. Curtis also discovered that the small pebbles on the rock had been placed there by his grandfather and represented people for whom he prayed. They were separated into piles to distinguish those who had been saved from those who had not, and they had not been touched since his grandfather’s death in 1975.

  Curtis showed the photos to Wig, whose interest was thus sparked, for he had never heard of this custom. He and Curtis interviewed Curtis’s parents, Joe and Catherine Weaver, and made additional photos resulting in this article.

  Curtis remembers his grandfather quite well, even though he died when Curtis was only eight years of age. Before Curtis knew of the significance of the rock, he had passed by it many times but never truly noticed it.

  Now that the rock and the area surrounding it are more widely known as a holy place, there is a possibility it will not be destroyed after all. As one of our friends said, “I wouldn’t want to be the bulldozer operator who is stupid enough to take his machine onto that piece of ground.”

 
ALLISON ADAMS

  Interview and photographs by Curtis Weaver. Edited by Allison Adams and Aimee Graves.

  CATHERINE WEAVER: [My father] was Charlie Bry Phillips and he was a Missionary Baptist preacher. He was born in Rabun County and grew up over on [Highway] 76 West in a big two-story gray house sitting back in the edge of the woods. That was my grandpa’s old house. Then later he lived down on Warwoman Road, and then over on Chechero. [When I was a child] we lived up on what they called Needy Creek.

  He ran that Mountain Rug Company for years when we lived up there on North Valley Street. And then he worked down there at Blue Ridge Lumber Company. He was night watchman down there.

  He started preaching after he got married. He was “called” to preach, August 1956. Fact of the business, whenever he got married, he couldn’t even read. Mama taught him how to read out of The Saturday Evening Post, newspapers, and the Bible. He had no training, no education. He was just called by God.

  See, [a person] gets saved. And then they feel the calling of God. He’s called them to preach. Okay, that person can preach in various churches, but he cannot pastor a church. [For that, he] has to be licensed and ordained. Say he belongs to Black Rock Baptist Church, and Taylor’s Chapel wants to call him [to be their pastor], they have to contact his church where he’s a member and ask them to have an ordination service to ordain him as a preacher before he can pastor a church. Daddy was licensed to preach February 1957, and ordained April 1958.

  PLATE 347 The front of the Phillips home. The praying rock is several hundred yards into the woods behind the home.

  PLATE 348 Behind the home, several outbuildings still stand.

  He pastored several churches in Rabun County at different times. He organized, or founded, People’s Baptist. He started that church, and he wasn’t a preacher then. He felt God wanted him to raise a church, and he did. We started out in a little tent on a piece of ground given by Uncle Tom Mitchell. The wind tore the tent up several times and then we started building a church. That church is still going.

  [He was using the praying rock when he was pastoring] Black Rock Baptist Church. He got the [idea for the rock] straight from God. [He chose that certain rock, because] the Bible says, “Go out in the woods and pray,” and that’s what he did. He went out and found that rock. The way we understood it, he just felt led to go out that way. He went out to the garden and he was seeking a quiet place away from the noise and everybody. When he got to the rock, God said, “That’s it.” He just knelt down there and he went back to that place from then on. It’s just like God led him to that place.

  If Daddy couldn’t sleep, he’d get up praying. He’d sit with his Bible, and you could see the light on at two or three in the morning. Dad’d be reading the Bible. He’d say, “I’m awake for some reason. Maybe somebody that I don’t even know about needs prayer.”

  Maybe three or four days later, somebody would say, “Brother Charlie, I know that somebody was praying for me the other morning at three o’clock. I was so sick I thought I was gonna die.”

  He said, “That’s my answer.”

  People called him all times of the day and night, and said, “So and so’s sick. I want you to pray for them;” or, “My husband’s run away with another woman. I want you to pray that God’ll bring him back.” He’d go out there [to the praying rock] and he’d put his little rocks up and he’d pray about it. He’d stay until he got an answer. If some man was lost, someone might ask him, “Look, this man’s lost and I want you to pray for him.” He’d put the rock [for the lost man] in the lost pile and if the man got saved, he’d put his rock over there in the saved pile. If he backslid, he drawed him out of the saved pile. He was out of the will of the Lord. He wasn’t lost again, because if you’re once saved, you can’t be lost. Jesus would have to go back to the cross. So he took him out of the saved pile and put him down here out of the will of the Lord in neither pile. He wasn’t living right, but when prayers were answered, he’d put it back into the saved pile.

  He didn’t have a rock for everybody in the congregation, just special ones. Just the ones that had problems and asked for help. He chose the rocks by just reaching down on the ground to pick one up, but he knew which rock was which—who it was. He could say, “This is so-and-so, and this is so-and-so.” He could tell you what pile they were in and why they were there. He could name every one of those rocks for you. I’m sure he had a rock up there for himself, but I don’t know which one it was. That’s probably something nobody will ever know.

  Preachers from Habersham [County] would come up here and go out to the praying rock with Daddy. They would bring prayer requests of their own, and go out there and pray about it. They wouldn’t come back until they got an answer. It didn’t matter if it was all night.

  A drunk man come to this preacher down there in Habersham, and he said, “I need to talk to a preacher. I need to get saved. I need somebody to pray with me.” And [that preacher] said, “Well, we’ll pray, but I think we ought to go to Rabun County.”

  And the [drunk man] said, “Whatever you think.” So they come up here and went with Daddy out to the praying rock. Daddy asked Joe to go with him. They stayed out all night. It rained all night and it didn’t slack. They would pray and rejoice and cry, but they really prayed there until that man made it right with God. That drunk man put his head on that rock and didn’t come up till next morning—daylight. When he came up, he came up a saved man.

  Now a lot of the neighbors around here heard somebody out in the woods and questioned the noise that they heard. They thought somebody was out there hurt or something, but it would be my daddy out there praying.

  There was a little broken blue bottle top left at Daddy’s death. The man had been a preacher who had backslid. He was drinking, and as far as I know, still is. His little blue bottle neck cap thing is still between the piles down there. He went back to drinking. Went plumb back. [He had] pastored a church and all that. Sometimes Joe’s heard him out in the woods at night with it just pouring rain over on Flat Creek. He’s come through there and stopped. Heard somebody a-praying just as loud! That preacher was out in the woods by himself praying. We could hear him. I guess you would say that we’re all human. We’re all created equal, but a preacher is supposed to be a leader, a shepherd to the flock. He is special to God because he has been chosen to carry God’s word. And [that preacher] backed up on Him—kind of like Jonah, you know, when he was supposed to go to Ninevah. As far as I know, [that preacher] is still drinking. He’s never started back preaching. That’s one that is still out of the will of the Lord now. He’s still not back where he should be.

  PLATE 349 The praying rock from the front. Preacher Phillips would kneel before it, sometimes resting his head against it as he prayed.

  PLATE 350 Several piles of small rocks sit undisturbed since the preacher’s death.

  PLATE 351 Curtis’s thumb and forefinger rest around the bottle cap that represented the preacher who backslid. The stones to the left of his hand represent the unsaved, those in the middle stand for the people who have backslid, and those on the right are for those who have been saved.

  There’s this young man right up here that got out of the will of the Lord and quit going to church. Daddy pulled his rock out of the pile and went to talk to him. He said, “You’re out of the will of God. Your rock is in the wrong pile. You better get back where you’re supposed to be.” He and Daddy went out to the praying rock and that man got right again. Daddy put him right back where he was supposed to be. Now that man’s walking the chalk line. He’s pastoring a church.

  Since Daddy died in 1975, everything’s been left just the way it was. All the rocks are there. I can go out there and sit down and I can just feel him. I can feel the Lord, like it was whenever I was out there with Daddy. I can just get chill bumps all over me. I can just feel that there’s someone there with me.

  Daddy was a Baptist, but he did not knock other denominations. He got up and preached the Bible, and he
just did not believe in compromising with the devil. If you’re going to stand for God, you’ve got to stand for God all the way. If you don’t, then He don’t do nothing for you. It can’t be half and half. [My dad’s] life was lived for God—every day, every hour, every minute. The way he said it, “Put everything you’ve got on the altar and crawl on with it. Go whole totally out for the Lord. You’ve got to live it, you’ve got to dress it, you’ve got to preach it, and you’ve got to act it day by day. Because,” he said, “somewhere there’s somebody a-watching you. And if they’re looking for mistakes in me, they’re gonna find some, of course. You’ve got to do your best for the Lord. You cannot get up and use your mouth to preach the word of God and then turn around and curse somebody. You cannot do it. It’s not right.”

  WATCHMAN ON THE WALL

  Henry Harrison Mayes, a retired coal miner and devout believer in spreading the word of God to all people all over the earth and even to other planets when transportation becomes available, lives in Middlesboro, Kentucky.

  Bill Henry, a friend of ours from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the man who introduced us to Alex Stewart [Foxfire 3, pages 369-97], told us about Mr. Mayes. He wrote: “This old gent is someone you must meet soon. He’s eighty-five and has had several heart attacks. What a story he has to tell! I love him. He’s a lot like Alex. Hope the enclosed material will pique your interest.”