Cole-Tate House courtesy of the Laurel Magazine
Cashiers Valley
Kidder Cole was the belle of the mountains. A boy in homespun wrote a song about her to soothe a burning heart. It became the most famous banjo ballad in all the land. He’s a retired superior court judge now and Kidder Cole is dead, but the ballad is still remembered and played at square dances when the old-timers gather with fiddle and banjo.
Oh, my sweet little Kidder girl!
You cause my head to spin and whirl,
I am yours, and you are mine
Long as the sun and stars shall shine.
A ballad like “Kidder Cole” never does grow old. Someday some tunester is going to rediscover it and it will become as popular as it was when Felix E. Alley wrote it sixty-five years ago. He now lives in Waynesville, basking at eighty-two (Judge Alley has died since this was written) in the memories of a brilliant career as a lawyer and judge. But now and then he returns to the valley where he loved and laughed and danced and played his banjo as a boy. And when he does, the words that chronicle a boyhood romance must run through his mind…
My name is Felix Eugene Alley
My best girl lives in Cashiers Valley;
She’s the joy of my soul
And her name is Kidder Cole.
He wrote the ballad about her because he let another mountain youth beat his time. And it took 15 stanzas to soothe his burning heart.
I don’t know—it must have been by chance,
‘Way last fall when I went to a dance.
I was to dance with Kidder the livelong night
But got my time beat by Charley Wright.
Felix Alley was only sixteen at the time. Kidder Cole was about the same age. They were neighbors. Her father was a merchant and later high sheriff of the county. It was only natural young Felix’s eyes walked after Kidder Cole. She was the beauty of the mountains, and her beauty followed her through the years.
An all-night dance at the home of an Englishman named Grimshaw inspired the ballad. . . Young Felix was late in arriving at the dance. And through the doorway he saw, to his bitter disappointment, that Kidder Cole had been claimed by his cousin, Charley Wright. Charley was bigger than Felix, and he let it be known right away that Kidder had promised him all the dances that night. “Before the night was over,” Judge Alley recalled, “I had commenced composing the ballad. While Charley danced away the night with Kidder I reeled off stanza after stanza of the ballad.”
If I ever have to have a fight
I hope it will be with Charley Wright;
For he was the ruin of my soul
When he beat my time with Kidder Cole.
When the dance was over I went away
To bide my time till another day,
When I could cause trouble and pain and blight
To sadden the soul of Charley Wright.
But she came back the following spring
And oh, how I made my banjo ring;
It helped me get my spirit right,
To beat the time of Charley Wright.
Kidder came home the first of June,
And I sang my song and played my tune;
I commenced trying with all my might
To put one over on Charley Wright.
When the speaking was over we had a dance
And then and there I found my chance
To make my peace with Kidder Cole
And beat Charley Wright; confound his soul.
Charley came in an hour or so,
But when he saw me with Kidder he turned to go
Back to his home with a saddened soul,
For I’d beat his time with Kidder Cole.
I’ve always heard the old folks say
That every dog will have his day;
And now all of Charley’s joy has passed,
For I’ve succeeded in beating him at last.
Oh, yes Kidder Cole is sweet;
And it won’t be long until we meet
At her home in Cashiers Valley
And she’ll change her name to Alley.
Now his ballad was sung, now his tune was ended. Did he win the belle of the mountains? “Why, no,” said Judge Alley. “Neither Charley Wright nor I won the heart and hand of Kidder Cole, although the ballad indicates I was the lucky one. Youth is quite sure of love.”
—John Parris – “The Ballad of Kidder Cole”
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What a great story! I can just see the two boys trying to be Kidder Cole’s beau.
Here’s a video of Bascom Lamar Lunsford singing the ballad, although I’m not sure his lyrics are the same ones quoted in Parris’s article.
I hope you enjoyed the story and the ballad!
Tipper
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Judge Alley was my 1st cousin 4x removed. His grandparents Barak & Mary Norton are my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents. Judge Alley’s mother, Sarah Whiteside Norton Alley was the first white child born in Whiteside Cove(hence her name Sarah “Whiteside” Norton(she was named for Whiteside Mountain) Judge Alley’s writings have helped much with learning the history of my family in Whiteside Cove and Norton NC. Judge Alley’s grandson, Howard Eugene Alley wrote a fascinating look at life in Whiteside Cove during the 1800s. It’s a riveting narrative of historical fiction, partly true and partly made up but fascinating none the less. Check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Presumed-Dead-Civil-War-Mystery/dp/0914875361 The book centers on the mystery that was the death of Cornelia Norton(1st cousin to Judge Alley) and the daughter of My Great -Great Grandparents Rodric and Druscilla Norton. Cornelia was the sister of my Great-Great Grandmother Octavia Norton. Judge Alley’s book, “Random Thoughts and Musings of a Mountaineer is quite awesome as well. A link to it here: https://archive.org/stream/randomthoughtsmu00alle/randomthoughtsmu00alle_djvu.txt For more on this fascinating family see also the bio of life in this time by my 2nd cousin 3x removed, Thomas Picklesimer. Thomas was a nephew of Judge Alley and a 1st cousin to Howard Eugene Alley. Link here: http://www.myfamilynames.com/documents/notesLetters/THE%20LIFE%20AND%20TIMES%20OF%20BARAK%20NORTON.pdf Dallas Reese Daytona Beach FL 336-509-8009 email: dallasreese@zoho.com
Tune or no tune….I believe that most of us young’n’s still recall our own “Kidder Cole” from back in the day… Again, thank you for another trip down memory lane!
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
My grandfathers sister was Aunt Doc Waldroop.. she was a mountain herbalist, midwife, killed bears for winter meat and shared with me her pone of Irish bread when I was about five years old.. I can still remember it’s taste.
Has anyone mentioned that Felix Alley was one of the lawyers who defended Babe Burnett at his trial for the shooting of Hol Rose? Judge Alley was something of a renaissance man who probably could have become a national figure yet stayed and served his friends, neighbors and relatives here in Western North Carolina.
Tipper,
When I was in about the 9th or 10th grade in school, I discovered ‘the Seekers’. They’re not an English group of three boys and a girl, they’re Australian. The girl had the voice like none-other. She had been singing songs like “go Tell it on the Mountain”. Her name is Judith Durham. Guy (the leader or manager) knew he had hit the Jackpot, so he signed her up.
In a few weeks, they went on a Cattle Boat to England. It was there where they “knocked off the Beetles and The Rollin’ Stones for the Top Spot on the Charts.”
They are still alive today and Keith Pucker sings a song that makes your skin crawl – I Am Australian. When they started, they were all real young, but they had their Silver Anniversary a few months ago. …Ken
Never heard that song but so well-written. It probably could have been written by any of us at sometime in our young life.
Tipper–Felix Alley was a fascinating character, and anyone truly interested in him should read his memoir, “Random Thoughts and Musings of a Mountaineer.” It includes a scathing, and telling, critique of Horace Kephart’s “Our Southern Highlanders” and Margaret Morley’s “The Carolina Mountains.” He roundly condemns both authors for their misleading depictions of his beloved fellow mountaineers.
There’s also some decidedly different speculation on Abraham Lincoln’s parentage, quite a bit of religious discourse, and more.
Jim Casada
That song reminds me of “There Is A Time” that the girls sing because they each can fit young love. It keeps a bittersweet power of its own down through the years. Maybe that is why “Kidder Cole” lives on. I think if I were to sing it I would want at least one more verse about how it turned out though that just might ruin its charm. Perhaps it is best not to know that neither of the rivals got the girl.
Great story! I love the background of the old songs – makes them more personable!
Great ballad!! If you ain’t lived it, you can’t write it……
What a story and a lovely song! The story is somehow familiar to me. I must have heard it somewhere along the way.