Martins Creek Major League Baseball Team 1980 something. Photo taken at Bellview baseball field. Back row: Scott Cordell, Paul Wilson, Jerry Ledford, Pap Jerry Wilson, Bob Cordell, Donnie Hughes, Phillip Ledford. Front row: Jody Moss, Eric Walls, Lee Tanner, Brian Picon, Rondal Phillips
Our local paper, the Cherokee Scout, puts out a special magazine about once a year. The special publication usually shares history from Cherokee County. Since Granny takes the paper she always alerts me that the new issue has come out and tells me I had ought to read it since I like to talk about the old days.
The recent issue is Celebrating Our Communities of Cherokee County. When Granny told me about it I was excited because I love to read the history of why an area ends up being called by this or that.
As I was flipping through the magazine for the first time my eye noticed the entry for Bellview.
Bellview — A once-prosperous community, then known as Bell View, was the location of the Bell View Academy. The academy, which started in 1878, has a rich and well-documented history.
John Marshall Cobb, baseball player Ty Cobb’s grandfather, was a notable figure in the history of the school, which later became Bell-view Academy.
The private part of the school eventually came under the jurisdiction of the Baptist Church and in 1906 moved to Murphy, where it soon closed.
The public school element remained at Bellview. The structure remained a tangible representation of the beginning of public high schooling in this region until it was destroyed by fire.
Frederick Dalrymple (who passed away in 2015) said in a 2012 interview with the Cherokee Scout that the old school had two big school rooms, a classroom and a kitchen. Because the school was about one and half miles from the Georgia state line, it attracted students from North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Dalrymple lived to be 78 and spent most of his life in Bellview aside from some time he worked at an Atlanta rock quarry.
He said that an old gravel road once went through the community called Old Gold Branch Road. Cars were few and far between back then.
“If you went anywhere, you walked,” he said, and he added that kids were expected to be home by a certain time.
Dalrymple said that when he was younger, Bellview living unfolded at a slow pace, and a community store provided an environment for folks to catch up on the news.
“The public works people would stop at the community store and find out what was going on,” he said.
Farming, timber and pulp wood harvesting were the main economic drivers for the community.
“There weren’t many jobs. If you didn’t farm or cut timber, you had to leave to make a living,” Dalrymple said.
“Farming is an old trade, but it’s not the best money maker,” he said.
Dalrymple himself had a side business.
“We had a saw mill. We could saw for folks and get a little money,” he said.
—written by Sarah Foster Celebrating Our Communities of Cherokee County – Cherokee Scout
The piece on Bellview goes on to discuss the community today. But as Granny said I’m always more interested in the past.
I have many connections to the Bellveiw community. The children of that area are in the Martins Creek School district so I went to school with them and counted several as good friends. The article mentioned the close proximity of Bellview to the Georgia line. I remember at least one family who’s mailbox was in NC and their house at the end of a long driveway was in the state of Georgia.
I even have a connection to Fred. He was a wonderful community member, a friend of Pap’s, and has a sweet daughter who is my age.
Pap coached baseball as my brother Steve played little league and on through the major and the senior leagues. He did the same when it was time for Paul to play baseball. I spent many days at Bellview’s baseball field for my brothers’ practices and games.
The baseball field is just below the Bellview Community Center (if it’s still there). Over the years I was also at the community center for a variety of events—everything from baseball banquets to a family reunion.
In my earliest memories of hanging out at the Bellview ball field I remember the old community center was still standing. It was a wooden structure that looked like it came straight out of the early 1900s. I have no knowledge of how old it really was, I’m sure it was much newer than that.
As groups of kids left to their own devices will often do, one evening someone figured out how to get into the building. It was full of old papers and stuff. The little group of children, made up of baseball players’ siblings, I was part of barely had time to look around before a young adult boy and a woman that we had never seen before came in and scared us off. And I mean they scared us off! Both hollered and screamed and carried on like crazy people that we were trespassing, which of course we were.
We skedaddled as fast as we could and although I can’t speak for the rest of the kids who hung around the ball field I know I never ever went back inside the old building.
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This post from Bellview reminded me of where I grew up-Rhodo-located between Andrews and Topton. There was a bording house at the railroad tracks owned by a Ma West. She made breakfast for the train workers and due to the heat of the wood burning stove and the time limit of the workers, her biscuits were raw in the center, thus the name of the location became “Raw Dough” turning into Rhodo eventually!
I love that your Daddy is in his work clothes for the day and probably added on the practice or game to his work day. Your recollections about the place and times you participated are adding on to the writings of Mr. Dalrymple. Just as Chitter and Chatter and their boys will add to your storytelling about Appalacia.
The blog was so interesting today. Loved the picture with Pap and Paul in it. I imagine that’s a good memory for Paul. I have said this before but I also enjoy everyone’s comments. It feels like I know the regulars a little.
Tipper, your story about trespassing and getting chased out of the old building triggered three memorable events in my life. The first was the day in 6th grade in Walhalla, SC, when three of us boys skipped school. We were poor planners. It was cold, so we went into an old shed behind Janyes’s Store to get in out of the cold and to see what we might find in there. We had been spotted. One of the boys saw a man coming our way. Two boys ran, but I was trapped inside. I spotted some boards across the rafters and was able to climb up and lie flat like a squirrel, hoping I wouldn’t be seen. It worked. The man came in and looked all around but never looked up. I was soon reunited with the other truants. That was the only time I ever skipped school.
I have always been attracted to abandoned shacks and barns, great places to hunt treasures. Once when hunting with my father-in-law, we went into an old delapidated farm house. There was an attic entry. While my father-in-law steadied a three-legged table I climbed up, lifted the covering, and had a look inside. There I found a rat-chewed paper bag containing two 9 mm pistols, one a German P-38. I had the serial numbers checked by the authorities. Both pistols were “clean.” That was our lucky day. Of course I have checked every woods shack I’ve come across since then!
More recently I found a $5 bill and parts of a small liquor still in a falling-down tenant shack I had ducked into during a rain shower while turkey hunting. I walked away from that one pretty quickly, but I kept the fiver.
We don’t straddle the state lines anywhere but where my mama and daddy live in Bethel they had the option of choosing a Waynesville or a Canton address. They live where Lake Logan and Edward’s Cove meet. The Lake Logan side is Canton Addresses and the Edwards Cove side is Waynesville addresses. When they still had a landline they had a Canton phone number but a Waynesville address.
So if they need to change their address all they have to do is pull up the mailbox and carry it across the road? How does that work out if they need to call 911? Or the pizza delivery guy?
Once again it proves that Sports help shape lives and character in young people and Bless the parents and coaches
you give of themselves to make it happen and how they affect generations to come.
I’m amazed to learn about how communities got their names. Some make sense being named after a person there or something related to the area but others no sense at all. Same things with roads. I wonder why a school closed in those very early days but do remember smaller schools in my county closing, some becoming community centers when the students went to a new and larger building with others in the county. I expect it was due to more modern transportation, better roads, etc. Time certainly changes things.
Jackie, my maternal grandmother (1880-1983) always referred to her underwear as step-ins and I don’t know that I’ve ever heard them called that by anyone else until today. But it makes sense. That reminds me (we can go down rabbit holes here, can’t we) I’ve heard that someone who thinks they are “better than” someone else puts their pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else. Many things can be called by different names depending on where you live. My Australian grandsons wear nappies, their Tn dad wore diapers. I guess Tipper, Matt and the girls will change their share of them soon and think of other names for them too.
Sallie,
My late husband when joking call underwear “step-ins”.
He was the only person I heard call them that until you. lol
Have a Blessed day
I’m always interested in reading posts about local community centers, little league baseball, basketball and mentors that invested their time in little league sports. I’ve been spent many years at the baseball field, sitting on bleachers in gymnasiums and yelling (sometimes) at umpires and referees! Loved every minute of it.
Also I find it amazing that Ty Cobb’s grandfather was part of Bellview school history.
Community leaders like paps friend Fred and community centers are so important for young people, especially in today’s world! I’m so glad we still have them here in Anderson County!
Everyone get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather! Blessings to all.
Oh my goodness, when the picture popped up of the baseball team, at first glance I thought it looked exactly like my sons’ little league pictures with my husband standing in the back as head coach. He loved coaching the boys all through their growing up years. In fact, the color and style of the uniforms are the same except that red color would have had Ashcombe’s Dairy across the front or some other local business sponsoring the team.
Nothing is more enticing than an old building for children explorers:) Like you I love the history behind the names.
I see that hay rolled up and can almost see the heat rising from that field in summer.
Sweet memories for you, your family and all the families of the ball team and county.
Different subject but old as well. I recently bought a new pair of shoes. The top/back of the heel is sloped back so I don’t need a shoe horn. When I saw “slip-ins” on the box I had a sudden memory of my sister graduating from diapers to panties. Mom called them “step-ins”. Have you or maybe some of your older readers heard this term? This would have been some 75 plus years ago. Maybe women’s underwear went on some other way prior to the invention of modern day garments.
Jackie,
My late husband did.
I was picturing Waltons Mountain TV series as you described Bellview. I would have gone into the building too, old empty buildings are fascinating. Enjoyed the article.
I have often wondered about Bellview as I pass it on the way to Blairsville. Thanks for the insight.
Bellview may have been named for it’s “view” of Bell Mountain, which is not far away but, I believe on the Georgia side of the state line, near Hiawasee, Ga.
My, how much Paul today looks like this photo of his dad! He’s truly followed in Pap’s footsteps as a musician and a servant of the people in his community!
I get a charge out of you living so close to GA and still in NC. I live 3 miles from the VA line and the high school there is our biggest rival every year. It’s called the “battle of the Bluefields” although I’d call it silliness. You actually reside in one of the most beautiful places in the country and you’re fortunate in that and many respects, dear grandma Tipper! (I’m trying grandma on you today seeing if it thrills you.) I am hoping all of you here have a beautiful day. I will be scraping wallpaper off the wall on day 2 of this crappy job! No easy painting here. I’m so sore my shoulder blades are aching something fierce, but I gotta get going. Gods blessings to you, Tipper, granny, the little mamas to be and Big Daddy O (deer Hunter who’s a real card himself!) You’re just lovely folks here!
I try to proof read my comments before posting them, but I look back later and see I have either left out words or doubled up words and made other mistakes. I am sorry for doing this.
I get my mail at the post office in Connelly Springs but I don’t live there. When I asked about putting up a mailbox here I was told it would have to go on a road other than the one I live on. I had one up for a while but things seemed to disappear regularly so I changed all my important stuff back to Connelly Springs. Strangely enough the post office delivers Amazon stuff to my door but still won’t bring my US mail.
Frederick Dalyrmple seems familiar to me. I’ll have to look into him!
The history and how the small country communities got there names has always interested me. Some communities in my area are named after early families that lived there or the early one or two schools in the community often named after someone that helped to get these schools started. I live in an area called Flatrock, close by is the Lebanon community, both in southern Greenville County, SC. Two area communities not really close to me are named Dosheno and Blue Heaven, I would like how they got those names. Not a community, but my church is named Columbia Baptist Church. It was started in 1815, all of the early records were destroyed in a fire. I don’t know of anyone knowing why it was named Columbia since the city of Columbia is about 100 miles away. I always loved playing baseball, but never got to play on any little league, youth teams or school baseball teams. The nearest town to me that would have had these teams was 15 miles away and my high school was the same distance and I had no way to get to the town or get home from school after practice. During my childhood years families were lucky to have one car and often it would be used during the day our Daddy’s to get to their work. Car pooling was very common among the ones that worked at the same company. I still live 15 miles away from the nearest town.
I love learning about history, and the history you taught us today about Bellview didn’t disappoint. I love the photo of the baseball team with Paul and Pap. It brings back treasured memories—baseball was a huge part of our life for so many years. Our son played baseball every summer starting with T-ball at age 5, and continuing to college. After one year in college, he decided to concentrate on his education. Our daughter played little league too and also one year of softball. Our high school started their first girls softball team when she was a senior, so we only had one year, but it was so much fun. Honestly, I felt like I didn’t know what to do with myself for a while when it was all over. I am hoping one of our grandchildren will take up baseball one day. We now get to go to soccer games and lacrosse and it is just a blast—but I still miss baseball!
I enjoyed the blog this morning.
Beautiful read, thanks for sharing Tipper. Prayers for Granny and God Bless you guys.