Transcript from Appalachian English website.
[W = Mary Wiggins; FW = Fate Wiggins; i = Interviewer Joseph Hall]
[The other speaker (FW) who participates briefly in this conversation is apparently Fate Wiggins, Mary Wiggins’ husband]
W: Just keep going the road in place of going home, I went just on up to the top of the mountain till I seed the dark was on me, and then I set down and stayed there all night, next morning I got up and started back down the road, next morning I could find the trail very easy, I come back down and turned off home.
—–
W: Not loud enough?
—–
W: Doesn’t matter to hold that?
—–
W: And when I got to home why, Page was starting to hunt for me on the road, and so I as- got in all right next morning, wasn’t any trouble.
—–
I: Well do you have anything more that you want to tell?
W: Why, I don’t know as if I do.
I: Well, let’s try it out.
—–
[RECORDING HAS BRIEF INTRUSION OF ANOTHER SPEAKER HERE]
W: Then I’ll just go on with the same story?
I: Yes.
W: Well, I guess [I] better commence back again, huh? well, I was borned in Jackson County and then moved to Swain County when I was five years old, and we went to, all the schooling we got at them days was in, in a little old log cabin with a split-log bench, just a tree split open and the legs bored in it and a fireplace, and we had just enough of us to go around three benches in the schoolhouse, and we’d sit across the bench, one down the side and one in the front, we just had the old blue-back speller was all the study we had, just study, but we learnt to spell pretty well, but that’s all we knowed was just spelling, and finally we learnt to read and write.
I: xx
W: Well, they was just set around the fireplace, down to each side and across the middle, and they was just enough of us to fill them three benches, and we just had one teacher and well and the school just lasted from two to three months was all the school we had.
I: xx animals there in the park?
W: Well, they was plenty of bear and deer and oh oh coon and all kinds of game when we first moved there then, wasn’t any troubles to get game then.
I: … you eaten any bear meat?
W: Many a time, law yes, I’ve seed a many a bear and eat the meat of them, coon too.
I: How many bear … ?
W: Well, I don’t know, can you tell, Fate? I can’t tell that, it was many, too many of them.
I hope you enjoyed the interview. You can hear the recording by visiting this page and scrolling to the bottom.
You can also click on the words throughout the transcript that are in color and view the related entries from the dictionary.
Last night’s video: 9 Brides & Granny Hite 11.
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I loved that so much. That’s the way my folks talked and my grammaw and granddaddy. I can remember it. I went back in memory lane Tipper. Wow!!!!!
I tried to reply to Pawpaw’s comment, but had a great deal of problem verifying I was human. I may repeat the same thing in this post in case it did not post. I love the very pure speech of this lady, and have heard some in the long ago past speak similarly. In reply to comment from PawPaw, the county lines moving in genealogy is a big problem when we study it. It is even worse in West Virginia genealogy, because both state and county lines went through a drastic change after the Civil War. History is my love, and to be able to see and hear the speech of our people back in the day is so very interesting..
What a treat! Thank you, Tipper, for the invitation to listen to Mr. and Mrs. Wiggins. It was eavesdropping at its finest. Great treasure can be found in the interviews recorded and transcribed on the Appalachian English Website. Thank you.
One day I hope to a purchase a copy of the Dictionary of American Regional English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_American_Regional_English#:~:text=The%20Dictionary%20of%20American%20Regional,language%20used%20throughout%20the%20country). But words on a page cannot convey the richness, the cadence, and the wild ride of regional and folk speech that is preserved in recordings and that lives today in the hearts and minds of so many.
P.S. I am sorry that Granny was feeling puny yesterday. May God comfort and strengthen her.
I enjoyed the interview and loved the language. Thank you for sharing it.
Last night’s reading had me laughing. I just love that book. From the names of the folks to the wonderful words used. I think the Doc. had more on him than he could handle. I do hate to see this one end.
Tell Katie and Corie, the hymn they played and sang was absolutely beautiful. It was so touching that I cried. It was so good to get to see them perform again.
Praying this week’s treatments went well and Granny and all of you can get some much needed rest this weekend. Prayers to all of you.
I loved reading this because even though I live in the northern regions (northern Michigan), the language is familiar as many Irish, Finnish, Poles, and Italians settled here for copper mining and lumbering, making the language rich with history, What is wonderful is that much of what I see and hear on your website and in the newsletter is familiar here as well. Many thanks, and love and prayers to Granny and all the Pressleys.
Interesting interview. My Dad would sometimes speak like this, “I knowed it” and other similar, not often, every now and again. My mother would as well but less than Dad. They grew up together and attended school in the same small schoolhouse way out in the country. Dad finished college after a short time in the army, 1953-1955. They married in ‘53 before he left to go overseas. Mama helped him with his college English/papers : ) he needed it. As a child, I remember being embarrassed if he ever spoke like that in front of other people because no one else I knew in the town where we lived spoke like that. Extended family would speak like this some, not using correct grammar and all, but that was ok because it was just us together way out in the country. Honestly, every now & again, I will sound very country or use bad grammar. It just sneaks out sometimes when I don’t expect it, LOL. When I do, my hubs & children don’t miss a chance to call me out on it. But it always reminds me of being “at home” with “my people”, those I grew up hearing but really don’t get to hear much anymore these days. Hearing things like this interview makes me lonesome for those days gone by and my loved ones who have passed on.
If my ducks are properly aligned Fate was James Lafayette “Fate” Wiggins and Mary was Mary Modena Beard. Fate, in my experience, was most often a nickname for Lafayette.
Also, my ducks have a problem with Fate’s being born in Jackson County and moving to Swain. If he was born in Jackson County in 1860, as my research indicates, he couldn’t have moved to Swain County at five years old. Swain County was not formed until 1871. Deep Creek was part of Jackson County when he was born but became a part of Swain County when it was formed. So there is a strong possibility that it was only the county lines that moved, not the people of Deep Creek.
I reckon my ducks were askew! It was Mary Wiggins who was supposedly born in Jackson County so if she was born in 1866, as all evidence indicates, then she could very well have moved to Swain County at five. I’m not convinced of that yet though!
What an amazing interview. Id like to read a book about Mary Wiggins’ life. I thought about Dorie when reading the interview.
It’s a beautiful morning in the Tennessee valley so enjoy your day where you are!
Prayers for your mother, Israel and our country.
That’s the kind of language I understand. The story would have been the same if Mom had been interviewed. She would have commenced telling about everything the same way Mary did except the bear meat. Praying that Granny gets a weekend break from treatments. God bless her and help her heal.
This was Mary Beard Wiggins. She was the daughter of Jim Beard and Elizabeth Jane Parris, early settlers on Indian Creek, which is a feeder stream of Deep Creek. Tipper, you obviously didn’t realize it, but you’ve been to the Beard place, where Mary was reared up. You may remember some big boxwoods; they’re on the left side of the road going up Indian Creek. I probably called it the Baxter and Docia Laney place when we went by there. Baxter Laney and his wife, Docia Parris (a first cousin of Mary Beard Wiggins) were living there when the land was taken for the Park. You’ve also been inside the home where Baxter and Docia lived afterwards – namely the home on Licklog Branch of Shooting Creek which was built by my great-grandparents, Will and Sarah Ball Casada.
Jim Beard served in the Civil War and moved to Indian Creek afterwards; his brother-in-law, Alfred Washington Parris, served in the same company (B, 25th NC Regiment) during the war, and also moved to Indian Creek at about the same time. Both men were enlisted in Company B by T.D. Bryson, namesake of Bryson City.
Mary’s husband, Fate (Lafayette) was raised next to the mouth of Juney Whank Branch, in the home of Billy Morris, the second husband of his mother, Sarah Louisa Shuler. Fate’s father was Moses Loftin Wiggins, who apparently either died or left Sarah and the family during the Civil War.
That was an interesting read. Thank you for sharing Mary’s interview.
I’m behind again on your readings of “9 Brides and Granny Hite”, but will catch up again this coming week.
I love these glimpses of the past….
My grandpa was called Fate, short for Lafayette, God bless you friends, God bless Fate Chester family, Dahlonega and Dawsonville Georgia, it’s gold rush festival today in Dahlonega
Great reading!! And Deep Creek is on of my favorite places..I spend quite a bit of time there.
I enjoyed reading the interview of Mary and Fate. Good morning and God Bless All 🙂 Let’s pray that peace comes soon
It took me a bit, but after a few sentences, I got right into it and began to understand where it wasa goin’. I do say, I have to smile at the description of the happenins’. Some sound uneducated and the lack of grammar was apparent. I did grow up in the deep south, mid Florida, and of a different surroundings but I caught on to the lingo quickly. 9 Brides brings smiles to my Hubby and I as you read the names of the different people in that book. You can, as you read it, almost picture the people, which I am sure is your intention. I have to admit, this fiction is very appealing to both of us which in his case, is not the same. Have a Bless weekend and give Granny my hugs.