Whitehead, Tennis (1904-1991) & Whitehead, Severn (1905-1988) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
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Interviewee: |
Tennis Whitehead (1904-1991) & Severn Whitehead (1905-1988) |
| Interviewer: |
Dolores Merritt |
| Date of interview: |
1982 April |
| Length of interview: |
30 min |
| Transcribed by: |
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| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Domestic Life
School
Transportation
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women’s History
Location Terms:
Pocomoke City (Md.)
Rabbit Knaw (Md.)
Stockton (Md.)
Interview Begin
TENNIS: When I was a little girl, about 9 years old, I took a trip from Townsend, VA and came to Pocomoke and I crossed the bridge, had to go down the other side of the river, so we came, we came right down in the Front Street there someplace. And it looked like to me, I was a little girl, it was just made of wood, and I went across it in a horse cart, so that was around 1914. I remember that much. I remember a lot of you all probably do. I remember the Acme store was on Clarke Avenue. It was an American store then, and I remember that was there then. And the Duncans worked in there then. They were young men. Remember Linwood Duncan and all worked there, and they were young men then. Okay, that’s all I know. My folks, mother and father weren’t raised up here. I was raised down Towsend, VA so all I have up here is my children, 9 of them, that I raised from 1925 here.
INTERVIEWER: What were your parents’ names?
SEVERN: Maude Whitehead, she was a Richardson before she was married and my grandfather’s name was Severn Whitehead and my grandmother’s name Rose Whitehead, and my father’s name Walter Whitehead, and it was about 7 head of us in their family and they were all raised down North Hampton. So we moved up here in 1914 from VA. Up here and we moved over to a little place called Big Mill, Little Mills, near Rabbit Knaw, and that’s where I went to school. That little bit over there. Then I went to Remson school and from there Elizabeth Warren and Frand Warren was the teachers, at Remson school over there, and then my father, he left, went back and stayed down VA a few years and moved back up here and I’ve been up here ever since. And my married life was, got married in 1925, on the Clay Powell farm. Is on the other side of the river, where the John Deere place is now. And I remember the Fairground round here. Used to go there and have good times. There when I was real small and the last time they had a fair, let’s see, that was back, let’s see, I think the last time they had a fair here, used to go to Tasley, come here and then go to Salisbury. But they had a fight down VA, to Tasley and the, some man got in love with one of the showmen’s wives and the showman killed him and they were a week gettin’ up here, and they come up here, then went to Salisbury and that was the last time they had a fair here. And that was back in ‘bout, see I was working for Frank Hudson when they had the last fair, and that must have been about 27 or 28, about 29, when they had the last fair here. And they went to Salisbury and they never did have no more fair here. I remember when Pocomoke got burned down. I remember where it started at. It started in the old barn where the Armory is now, and it switched from there and it went through store. Davis store was on Willow Street and it swept through there and then crossed over and went crossed Market Street and back, otherwise swept right on through. Back where the undertaker parlor is now, swept all the right on down through. I remember some of the buildings used to be there and the wind, I think, if I can think of it right, it was blowin’ about 80 mile an hour. It would blow from one side of the street right straight cross and some of the buildings fell on the fire hose and they had a job to get more fire hose back out there, and it flew from there clear cross the river over there on, I can’t think of his name now, and flew from there clear cross the river over there on his barn and set his barn on fire. I do remember every now and then. I could go back a little further, and I remember in 1917, ‘18, winter. From Greenback, VA to Chincoteague, bay froze solid and they used to have ice boats to carry food and mail across to Chincoteague, and some fellow said he was going to drive his Model T across there, and he got out there and he struck an air pocket and the Model T sunk with him, and they had to go get him onto one of the ice boats. I remember when the fountain was there in the center of the street where people used to water their horses, and had hitching posts all up and down the street to hitch their horses to. And I remember when Jim Clogg, it’s been run by the Duncans the last few years, but I remember when that was built. And I think that was built, ‘bout long ‘bout 1917, ‘18, when the Model T started comin’ out.
INTERVIEWER: Did a lot of people have Model T’s?
SEVERN: Yeah, and one, one bunch went there and bought 12 at one time. But you never could go there *unintelligible conversation* Model T Edsel til the first of the year. You couldn’t buy a car in them days til the first of the year. And the old Model T’s would come in there and you had to crank them, and they’d rope them off so you couldn’t get up close to them. And the old fountain set there where people used to water their horses, and birds used to go there and try to drink their water. And I remember the old ferry come in. I thought of his name til now, and I can’t think of the old fellow’s name. He was the first one to walk off the gangplank. The captain of the ship was the first man walk off the ship. I was a youngster, I used to go down there and watch him. And I don’t know what year that was. Now when they built the last schooner here, they built the last schooner, right there by Adkins Mill yard. That was a full-masted schooner. When she went off the runway, she went cross, went all the way cross and got stuck up on the mud on the other side. They had to have someone come in here and pull her off. I think she made, she went out and was makin’ one trip and she got broke in half out there in the ocean somewhere. And the boat was coal, but I forget now what year that was, but it was back in the teens. But that’s about all I can remember right now, so…
INTERVIEWER: Did they used to bring everybody across the river when the train stopped?
SEVERN: The train used to come down far as the river bridge and that was as far as it come and then it went back. Used to come down right where the old wooden bridge used to be. Used to come down where the old wooden bridge used to be and that was as far as it come until later years. And then when they put the new railroad through here, that went on. I remember when part of that was running down through VA. The new railroad that they got now. And see now, where I can go now. That’s about all I can remember on my mind right now. When I was a youngster, we used to raft timber up and down the Pocomoke River. There used to be a basket factory here. I forget their names. And we’d raft, and raft timber from way down the mouth of the river, way up the river. Down here to Pocomoke. And get gum to make baskets out of, pea baskets and all other kinds baskets, and I even forgot what year that was now. Sometime, one time we got ice bound, up river. We couldn’t get back with our raft of timber, so we had to go up there. Big raft together and had a gasoline boat and we pulled him down and we had to stay in the boat there for about a night and a day, before the ice would let us down through here. But they were good old days.
INTERVIEWER: Is that what your dad did for a living?
SEVERN: My father, he was a waterman, and his, my grandfather before him was a waterman, had a big sailboat, and they used to go all up and down the coast with this big sailboat, and my grandfather died when my father was 15, and he took the sailboat over and he sailed from then til 1914. That’s when he come up here and start farming.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of stuff did he farm?
SEVERN: Growed spinach, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, such stuff as that.
INTERVIEWER: Was it just for you or did you sell it?
SEVERN: Well for sale. Yeah for the market. Sold it for the market, and….
INTERVIEWER: Where did you keep your food at? Where did you keep your food cold?
SEVERN: We used to, if it was milk and stuff, we put it in a big bucket and put it down the well. Put down the well with a cord and then we wanted a drink of milk we’d have to go pull that out of the well, and have a nice cold drink of milk, and then in the fall, in the fall we’d kill a bunch of hogs and then, round the dead winter time, you’d put it in the smoke house and salt it down, smoke it, and then we had meat all summer. That’s the way we kept meat in the summertime, was smoke it. Take myrtle and ashes and and wood and kept a low fire in the smokehouse and that was filled with smoke and that was the best meat we ever had. Fill up with *unintelligible conversation* and sausages, full of good flavor in that meat and we had meat all the summer. So I guess that is near about all my day is now.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have, were your bathrooms outside?
SEVERN: Outside, yeah outside. Go out in the cold, outside.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you say you went to school at?
SEVERN: Place called Rabbit Knaw.
INTERVIEWER: Rabbit Knaw?
SEVERN: Uh huh....
INTERVIEWER: How far was that from where you lived?
SEVERN: Where I lived? About 4 miles.
INTERVIEWER: You had to walk?
SEVERN: Yeah, you’re dag gone right. Get out there some days and have to walk back in the snow and freezin’ and sleetin’ and stuff. Just about 4 miles we walked to school.
INTERVIEWER: Was it one teacher that taught everything?
SEVERN: One teacher taught. And I think there at one time she had right close to 50 head in there. Yes, that one room would be all in the school. It had an old wood stove in there, and that one teacher done it all. That one teacher done it all.
INTERVIEWER: What did she do for discipline? Like if somebody did something that they weren’t supposed to do? Like for punishment?
SEVERN: They had to stay in for 2 or 3 well sometimes, she’d keep them in for a week. Every recess, every dinnertime, they’d have to stay in. And then the father he’d take over, and he’d punish them, when he got home. The father would punish him, in those days, they don’t do it no more. You let some child do something in the school and he find it out and he’d punish him. Sometime put a little spankin’ on him or somethin’ like that. Wouldn’t let him go no place for a right small while. And I’ll never forget one of the teacher’s name was, one of the teacher name Cleo Wilgus, and her boyfriend used to come see her there sometime. And it was snowing and raining out there, so while she was out on the outside talking to him, some of them got out and locked her out, and like never got it open while she was standing in the rain. Let’s see, that’s about all the good news I know. In them days, they didn’t have no dancin’ and get togethers and all that kind of stuff. They went to school and they studied. When you went to school 9 o’clock of a mornin’ you stayed there til recess, one little recess mornings had for dinner, and then you went, I think on about 15 minutes for that and then you come, went back to school and stayed til ‘bout 3 something and then you’d have another 15 minutes until 4 o’clock. But no dancin’, they used to all sing and say their prayers and stuff in there of a mornings, but now then they have everything else, but that. There out, it seems like out on the fround more than they are there. You didn’t get a chance to get out. That one teacher had that many children, you know, she had to be right there all the time to them, and they used to have a field day, used, they’d all hook wagons and horses and go from Rabbit Knaw to Stockton. When they all met there and then maybe next year, I think one year they drove from a place called Rabbit Knaw, just below Stockton, they all went in horse and buggy. Up the field, up to Snow Hill for what they call Field Day. Everybody get together and go up there. We used to have them sticks, that run and jump, who would jump the highest, who could run and jump the furthest, stuff like that. But when it come to dances, such stuff as that, there wasn’t nothing like them in them days. Maybe they were too busy teaching. Didn’t get but very little time to play, just maybe 15 minutes, that would be all they’d have for their recess, but when they got in there at 9 o’clock, wasn’t nothing else til dinnertime, eat their lunch and then right back teaching again. And about 3, somewhere in around there, two-thirty, 3 o’clock we gave another little recess, they’d run out and stretch their legs and go back and stay in school til 4. Lot of times we’d stay in school til 4:30, quarter til 5, before she ever got through her work. You know, teaching them all.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of stuff did she teach you?
SEVERN: Well from first grade on up to about 8 or 9 grades, I think it was, she had to teach. I think first grade, I think maybe. I know they went to about 8, or rather 7, I mean 9th grade I think in them little schools. That give one teacher all she could tend to.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of music did you listen to?
SEVERN: None.
INTERVIEWER: None?
SEVERN: No music, no music. Didn’t have no music in to ‘em. All them give you to sing, but there wouldn’t be any music into it.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go to listen to a band or anything?
SEVERN: No.
INTERVIEWER: Army band or anything?
SEVERN: No, no Army band, went nowhere. Schools had nothing like that in them days, no bands. They’d all get together and most of the singing in school in them days was hymns. Most them days would be hymns, would be no cut up stuff in the schools. You’d all sing pretty hymns and all that kind of stuff. There wasn’t no bands or horns or nothing like that in them days. Where I went of. It was mostly good times, the teachers was strict, you had to do what they said to do, didn’t you’d have to stay in, for dinner and sometimes they were real mean. Then they’d go home and then the parents, they’d punish them. Kinda put a little switch around the legs and then, back then, standing on the corner home there, I stood on the corner lot of times, yeah, stood on the corner a lot of times.