Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
Aquone
These photographs were taken by Edgar S. Purdom. Born in 1900, Purdom opened a custom furniture shop in Wayah Valley, near Franklin, NC, in 1946. He was a hobby photographer and made these photographs in Western North Carolina. There are 56 photographs in the series. Purdom retired in 1968 and passed away in Lake County, Florida in 1987.
Aquone is an unincorporated community in Macon County, North Carolina, United States. Aquone is located near the Nantahala River, 29 miles west of Franklin. Aquone had a post office until it closed on January 12, 1996. The community’s name is derived from the Cherokee word egwanul’ti, meaning “by the river”. (Wikipedia)
I love this wonderful photo from the Southern Appalachian Digital Collection. So many things catch my eye.
- You can’t miss the dirt road that curves in between the buildings. I wonder how many people traveled it on a given day and if it was traversed most by cars, wagons, sleds, or feet.
- I love the bucket the man is carrying and his walking stick.
- I wonder what the two people in front of him are doing and if they are children or grownups.
- The building just in front of the man walking looks like a barn, but there are several signs on the outside and that makes me wonder if it was a store.
- I like the house and especially the fence that looks as if it is protecting a garden with flowers in bloom.
- I see part of a fence or coral around the building on the right. Maybe that means it was used for animals. Maybe pigs or cows.
- The lay of the land makes me think the scene is in a holler or at least on the way down to a deep holler. Aquone is a very mountainous area so it might even be up near the ridge.
I’m sure I missed things in the photo. If you visit this page and click on the photo it will open up to a much larger size. Please leave a comment and share the things you noticed.
I’d like to thank everyone who purchased a cookbook yesterday and everyone who left a nice comment. I really appreciate your support!! If you emailed me about purchasing the book directly from me, I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.
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Hi Tipper,
I stumbled across you videos about a year ago on YouTube and we love watching them. I found your cookbook last weekend at Barnes & Nobles and my wife and I picked it up. Haven’t had a chance to cook anything yet but it will not be long. Your recipes and style of cooking reminds me of my aunt Evelyn, she was a down to earth country cook. She always told me she came up the hard way and had to make do with what she had. I think sometimes she could take an old dish rag and make it mouth watering. I have the cookbook that has the black and white photos. I think it adds nostalgia to the book. Please keep making videos. Thank you for investing time to share your recipes and life events with us.
Hi Tipper, I enjoyed the info about Aquone It brought back many memories of my years as a State Vocational Rehabilition Counselor in the 7 western counties. I had clients who lived in the Aquone area. I loved working in those counties because the hard working folks there were easy to rehabilitate because they wanted to get back to work. The side advantage was they would tell me where the best hunting & fishing spots were.I put a little over 700 great people back to work there and it was the best job I ever had. Thanks for all you do, I enjoy it every day. Regards, Steve Patton
What a neat old photograph! The 2 people walking ahead of the man look like little boys, both in overalls. I especially like the split rail fence on the right side, they remind me of my great grandpa who built them around his property with chestnut rails in Hiawassee, GA. We had a few left for years, but they’ve all disintegrated over time.
What a neat old photograph! The 2 people walking ahead of the man look like little boys, both in overalls. I especially like the split rail fence on the left side, they remind me of my great grandpa who built them around his property with chestnut rails in Hiawassee, GA. We had a few left for years, but they’ve all disintegrated over time.
Reminds me of The Waltons. Sometimes I wish I could have been born back in that time.
You know who would have been able to enlighten us immensely about this photo? Ken Roper!
My 1st cousin 3x removed John Reece Wikle had a store over in that section. He was also appointed postmaster for a time. The 1910, 1920 and 1930 census shows he was working as a merchant. In 1940 he is farming and his daughter Bonnie was running the store. John’s mother Jane Breedlove was my great-great grandfather’s youngest sister.
My 2nd cousin 1x removed Weaver Cochran also had a store in Flats in the 1940s and 50s.
A lot of the people who live in that area are my people. A lot more of them have died and been buried there.
Hello Ed: John Reice Wikle was my grandfather. His store was in Briartown, about one mile past the school. The photo looks like it could have been in what the “old” folks (now me) called Old Aquone, which is under water of Nantahala Lake. it is about 6 or 7 miles from Briartown. (you are my cousin by the kinship of my grandad).
God bless you Tipper, really enjoyed this ,thank you much
Looking at old photos helps
me remember the simpler times and gives my mind a rest from the caotic world we live in today. Again, I remember God is still control!
good morning Tipper, God bless Tipper and her family in Jesus name with love care and protection with healing and health when needed, how wonderful today is , to know that we see Jesus someday, I have created a link to this post on my home screen so I can come back later when my pain and anxiety is not bothering me , I rebuke you Satan by the blood Jesus shed on the cross for me, get behind me devil ,I love this post , I’m sitting here crying, God bless you friends of Appalachia in Jesus name
I love the picture. The main building does look like a store with some sort of signs, maybe advertisements? If it’s a store those steps look mighty steep to me with no handrail. Maybe the man was heading off to work and the boys were walking to school. I always enjoy looking at old pictures. Thanks for sharing!!
That scene reminds me of the old holler where I had cousins living; it may even be the same one as they did live near Aquone. I visited Aquone a couple of years ago and the old houses I knew are gone.
Hi, I recently found your site, and this comment is a little late. I think the man is carrying a pail, not a bucket. My imagination says it is a pail of sorghum that he is taking to sell at the store. I believe they are 2 little boys that came with him to the store. I am also from the coal hills of Morgantown, Ky. Love all your recipes. I am going to order your book from Amazon, as I am not a member of Itsy. (Not sure of the spelling) Please keep up this wonderful site. I am sure it is a lot of work, and you do a wonderful job, we who enjoy the fruits of your work, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
I love old pictures too! I noticed the pail in his left hand right away but did not see all the other objects mentioned until I enlarged the picture. I have a picture of my daddy training his bird dogs in the field down south and it was taken in the early 1940’s. He was wearing a fedora type hat and the man in your picture walking looks like he is wearing that type of hat too. That does look like an old store with the ad-signs on it and its patched roof. I did notice the tire tracks on the old dirt road and what looks like an electric line running from the house to the store. I thought there was just a big tree to the right of the man walking but when I enlarged the picture it looked more like maybe a barn structure. I’m going to go back and look at it again in case my eyes were playing tricks on me.
Please excuse my tech-weenie brain. My observations are just opinions. Using a little geometry, a straight line from the front stair steps of the middle building, tells me that the boy on the left is approximately 42 inches tall. He walks with both arms out and the boy to the right is walking with both hands in his pockets. The boys are walking down the hill, because you can see the cross straps of their “Bib” over-alls. The man has a “miners dinner bucket,” which was very popular among all working class people. There is an electric wire from the Home to the middle building. The building in the middle has “Roll” roofing laid vertical, but the attached shed has it laid horizontally. There are no animal tracks in the road so no wagons or sleds at the time of this photo. Also there are tire tracks in the road. There is much more suggestive info in the photo, but I will stop here. God bless.
I love love love that photo. The lunch pail is typical of those carried by coal miners, but my dad had a lunch bucket that was wide with handle on top. Typical of those of that era, he continued to use that dinner bucket running errands, and he kept bills to be paid, his pills, coffee to drink, and anything random he may need when out for the day. They are called hoarders nowadays but did not discard useful items. I love the way you study a photo and see so much the normal eye may not see. Reminds me of studying a portrait of my great grandfather and grandmother dressed in their best. further inspection showed his shoes to be worn from probably very hard work. I remember when shoes were resoled and handed down. Good memories. I do believe I may be correct to cut out the middleman on your cookbook, so that the bulk of the purchase price goes to Jim and Tipper.
After enlrgement, I see chinking in the log house (over the man’s right shoulder) and I do believe there are rubber tire tracks in the road…at least, that’s a possibility. The linear marks could have been made by wagon or ox cart wheels. I am intrigued by the geometrical play of light and shadows on the roof. Looks a lot like a puzzle. Love old photos!
Thanks for sharing the picture that brought back so many memories. When I see an old picture of a person carrying a bucket I think they must have been berry picking. My cousin’s 84-year-old wife said she has boxes and drawers full of old pictures she wants me to come look through. She knows how much I love looking at old pictures and I know how much she loves having company. I’m betting she will have a visitor for several days.
I noticed the 2 young children (boys I think) in front of the store. I have head my parents and others of their generation talk about carrying their lunch to either school or their places of work in buckets like the man was carrying. I think they may have once been a lard bucket or even a coffee can. I don’t understand lard buckets though because country folks killed their own hogs and cooked out their own lard and stored it in 5 gal cans bought from a country store and wouldn’t have been buying their lard. I clinked on the page for the larger picture and my eyes and fancy immediately went to the bottom of that page and the pictures of the tricycle Farmall tractors pulling the haybalers.. I still own and have used the same model of these tractors, a Super H and a Super M. Both models are almost identical, the M being the more powerful of the two. I think these pictures were from the 1940’s because the haybalers had their own Farmall engine powering the haybaler, later on the haybalers would have been powered by a pto shaft from the tractor. I don’t know what is going to happen when I click on post, some of of the words I used have red lines under them. I guess it shows, I love the old time tractors, nothing sweeter than listening to a M Farmall or a model A John Deere, pulling a load, each had a sound of their own.
The interactive photo page is really neat. I love old black and white photos – seems you see more. The name is also unusual and descriptive – really like it.
I notice this is a small clearing carved out of the woods. The buildings are ‘shoehorned’ tightly in between the road and the woods. And the trees are far taller than the buildings. They are not saplings. Assuming the building with the signs is a store, it may also be the post office. Its presence implies a larger community up and down that road and into the side hollers.
I also note the man’s hat and it makes me wonder once again how is that what my Dad called “ball caps” swept the fedora style away sometime after WWII? I recall as a boy that some older men still wore fedoras for ‘dress up’ on Sunday and other special occasions. I know nothing about hats but I suspect a real status symbol would have been a dress Stetson. Now even cowboys commonly wear ball caps.
I wore a fedora in the late ’50s and early to mid ’60s but only in Winter. I worked outside in a coat and tie in those days. If I wore an overcoat, I wore the fedora to keep my head warm.
My Pa also wore fedoras and even had a Stetson, IIRC.
What I read, about the photographer was what my eyes saw first thing this morning…jumped out at me…cause I live in central FL in Lake County. In 1987, my first grandchild turned two. I had returned to school and the space shuttle came apart. Never knew of this man, but wish I had. I was studying photography.
As I went thru the photo, it left me wanting to see more of his work. I do love this scene from the tracks of tires and perhaps, wagon wheels in the dirt, the man with the Irish style walking stick to the patch work repairs on the roof. Just feel drawn into wanting to follow him and those boys around the bend.
The thing that strikes me most is the man walking with his bucket and stick. He looks like he’s been working (hard and dirty) and I’d say plowing or building something. He sure is skinny as were most people back in the day. I wonder why – maybe the food was healthier, maybe you worked so hard no grass could grow under the feet and there was always work to be done. Thanks for the way to make the picture larger. I sure did enjoy looking at it. I think those were little boys walking in from of that man. I just think it would be dandy to go back there and talk to those people. I’d ask and watch and probably get tired doing that. Somehow we are all a part of the past. Oh my goodness- how about the new Appalachian cookbook coming soon from our dear Tipper and Jim Casada. I’m actually very excited about it for and with you!!!! What a wonderful accomplishment that can really help people!!! Thank you so much!!!!
First I thought the man was carrying a fishing pole and tackle box. After reading your comments I think it’s a lunch pail. I love all the pictures. A time gone by.
The way my mind works: when I see such a photo, my mind, almost instantaneously, concocts a story around it. The first thing I thought of was, a man, walking home from work (from some sort of mill?), possibly planning to stop at the store on the way home; the house, just beyond the store, belongs to the owner(s) of the store. It makes me think of the Olsen’s store on Little House on the Prairie. And, the kids: maybe they ran and met their father, after he got off work, to walk home with him…and they might have given him a shopping list from their mom.
It’s fun to just lose myself, for a few minutes, in the story. 🙂
One thing I noticed is all the patching that was done to the roof of the store. Kind of looks like duct tape….I know it’s not…wonder what sort of material they used.
Thanks for sharing that, Tipper! 🙂
The material used to roof the building in the foreground is probably what we called “tar paper” or “rolled roofing”. Some of it was paper impregnated with tar and the better option was similar to todays asphalt shingles. Both came in rolls and were nailed in place with “tar paper tacks”.
The house in the background appears to be covered in wooden shingles. The walls appear to be covered in the same material.
I love old photographs like this one. They preserve a moment in time that has vanished, never to be repeated.
Thank you, Ed. I had forgotten about the use of tar paper. 🙂
What is the pronunciation of that town name? I noticed the man’s bucket and thought it looks like a lunch pail. Maybe he is coming home from a long hard day of work – the back of that light colored shirt he’s wearing appears maybe he has been working. I did not even see the other two, maybe children, until you pointed it out.
We’ll be so excited to receive your cookbook next week! We ordered it from Amazon before realizing we could have purchased it directly from you, Tipper. I know we’ll enjoy it so very much. This is very exciting. Congratulations !
Carolyn
Long A-quan rhymes with swan.
I so much enjoy photos of older times in the Appalachian Mountains. Brings back a lot of memories of my people who lived there from pioneer times. Thank you, Tipper, and Mr. Purdom.
You are very observant Tipper and you pay close attention to details. Old photos fascinate me too. If only they could talk we could hear the full story, but through your writings we learn more about their story. Thank you for sharing!
I’m always fascinated by how people choose their building locations in the mountains. Finding level spots were likely not the easiest to find; so often you see large and high foundations and stairs in order to build level floors and walls. You can see this plainly in the store of this photo. Beautiful spot by the way. Many thanks.