By Catherine Gauldin as retold to Beverly Belcher Woody
Through my continued ancestry research, I recently connected with Catherine Gauldin, a descendant of the Atkins family line. Catherine graciously agreed to share her memories and family history of her great-grandparents, William Green “W.G.” Atkins and Kizziah “Kizzie” Maud Akers of Woolwine, Virginia. The following story is told through Catherine’s recollections and the genealogical documentation preserved by her family.
My great-grandfather, William Green “W.G.” Atkins, was born on 21 July 1874 in Buffalo Ridge, Patrick County, Virginia, and he died on 19 December 1947 in Stuart, Patrick County, Virginia. He is buried at Sycamore Baptist Church in Buffalo Ridge. W.G. Atkins had a farm, ran a store, and owned an orchard of apple trees. I am familiar with some of the details of his life only through the stories my Aunt Margaret told me over the years. She was married to Ed Gauldin, the son of Nancy “Nannie” Bet Atkins, one of the daughters of William Green Atkins and Kizziah “Kizzie” Maud Akers. The resemblance between my grandmother, Nannie Atkins Gauldin, and the Atkins family was uncanny, but I have very few memories of my grandmother, who died of cancer when I was only six years old. My aunt must have gotten much of the family history she shared from her mother-in-law Nannie, because W.G. died only two years after my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Ed were married.
W.G. Atkins first appears in census records in 1880. At that time, William and his brothers David and Samuel were living with their grandmother, Mary Bolling Atkins, who died two years later in 1882. William’s grandfather, Brice Atkins, lived only 56 years and by 1880 had already been dead for 30 years. William’s mother, Judith Serena Rorrer, died on 16 August 1877 and his father, Booker Murray Atkins, died on 17 January 1878, so William likely grew up with little recollection of either of them. He was only three when his mother died. It is no wonder that he wanted a large family of his own, and when he married Kizziah Maud Akers, the daughter of Isaac Nathaniel Akers (1840–1917) and Nancy Vincie Conner (1843–1905) on 14 April 1895 in Patrick County, over the following seventeen years they had a total of nine children, six boys and three girls, including my grandmother.
Their children were:
Maye Lillian Atkins (1896–1966) – Maye married Eugene Blaine Pedigo (1895–1984) and they had four children: Earl, Robert, William, and Jean. Maye died when I was very young, but I remember going to her house before she passed away. Long after both she and Eugene were gone, I made the acquaintance of Earl, Robert, and Jean, who told me much about the Atkins family as they knew it.
Booker Isaac “B.I.” Atkins (1898–1996) – I knew Uncle B.I. well, but I knew his second wife, Marie Shumate, extremely well and visited her often before she died in 2006. Aunt Marie and B.I. lived in Martinsville. B.I. lived to age 98, and Marie never really got over his death.
Charles Wesley Atkins (1899–1955) – married Annie May Merriman.
Robert “Bob” Green Atkins (1901–1998) – I met Bob Atkins once through Marie Shumate Atkins. He married three times: Nettie Letha Noel, Ruth Lily Wilson, and Erie Eplin Coleman.
Nancy “Nannie” Bet Atkins (1903–1964) – My grandmother. I called her Grannie, but everyone else called her Mother Nancy. In about 1924 she married my grandfather, Lester Posey Gauldin (1897–1959) and they had three children: Edwin Oliver Gauldin (1925–1987), my father James Whiting Gauldin (1930–1998), and Catherine Anne Gauldin (1933–1998). There was also a stillborn son born about 1932. My grandmother died of cancer, and both she and Lester are buried in Evergreen Cemetery near the farm in Charlotte Court House where they lived.
Murray Samuel Atkins (1905–1990) – married Ruth Ellen Dillon and their daughter was Mary Alice Atkins. (Woody- Here are a few additional facts here that will be of interest to Patrick County readers. Ruth Dillon was the daughter of James Henry “Squire” Dillon, Sr. and Carrie Ardella DeHart of Rock Castle. Murray and Ruth also had another daughter, Lou Ellen, who was a passenger when she was killed in an auto accident at the age of 18 in 1961).
Daniel “Dan” Eldridge Atkins (1908–1995) – married Anne W. DeHart, daughter of William Woolwine DeHart and Eliza Annie Boothe. Anne died in childbirth on 2 August 1932 in Floyd, Virginia. (Woody-Anne was preceded in death a few hours by an infant daughter, from Aug 12, 1932, obituary in Martinsville Bulletin). He later married Hazel Lyon.
Joseph “Joe” Allen Atkins (1910–1994) – Joe married Annie Weaver, and they had two children who both died in a car crash in 1957. I met Annie once. Their children were Nancy Carol Atkins and William Gorden “Billy” Atkins. (From Woody- Annie Weaver Atkins taught school in Patrick County for many years. Nancy Carol was 17 and Billy was 13 when they were killed in the auto accident in 1957).
Fannie Ella Atkins (1913–2007) – Ella was the youngest child of W.G. and Maud. In her later years, she wrote a memoir outlining her memories growing up in the Atkins household. She married twice—first to Olaf Emory Galloway, with whom she had children, and later to Donald Austin Smith.
My mother, Elizabeth Wilson Gauldin, often told me that when my grandmother Nannie was very sick near the end of her life, all of her brothers traveled to Richmond, Virginia, to gather around her bed and say their final goodbyes. My father James Gauldin so strongly resembled his Atkins uncles that it was difficult to tell them apart. This would have been in 1964.
The Atkins children grew up in a large, rambling house, and according to Ella Atkins’ memoirs, every child had a long list of daily chores. It was a busy household, and W.G. Atkins was a very busy man because he not only maintained his farm and orchard, he also ran a mercantile store called W.G. Atkins and Sons. Some of the boys helped there when they were older. My Aunt Margaret once gave me some “scrip” from that store. Instead of cash, the store would extend credit through small metal coins with the business name embossed on them.
She also told me about how W.G. Atkins was not particular about who he sold sugar to during the Depression years. Patrick County was a place where a lot of moonshine was made in those days, and although W.G. never made illegal liquor himself, he was not opposed to selling the ingredients to those who did. One day, someone noticed a large purchase of sacks of sugar and questioned Mr. Atkins. He simply replied:
“People around here do a lot of canning.”
My Aunt Margaret had a round wooden barrel she always kept in her kitchen that came from W.G. Atkins’ store. At one time, it was filled with flour, and customers would come in and buy as much as they needed from that barrel. Sitting on the wooden top was uncomfortable, but convenient. Aunt Margaret said Mother Nancy would say, “If you’ve been sitting so long on that old barrel that you are uncomfortable, then you have been sitting too long.” Margaret’s daughter Nancy inherited the wooden barrel, and it remains in the family today.
One story that always stayed with me was how the mischievous little Atkins boys urinated in sacks of dried apples, and how W.G. punished them. After the excitement of being silly boys wore off, they waited in dread for the punishment they knew would come. That evening passed quietly and nothing was said. However, when they woke the next morning, they found their clothes had been removed and replaced with the girls’ clothing—and they were expected to wear them to school. They undoubtedly learned a lesson they never forgot.
I visited Woolwine only once, on a trip to see Marie Shumate Atkins, and we visited the cemetery where many Atkins family members are buried. The old house was once a place full of activity and family life, but all who lived there are now gone. They left descendants behind who cherish their memory still. -Catherine Gauldin
Stories like this remind us that the families who shaped Patrick County were ordinary people who worked hard, sacrificed much, and left legacies far larger than they ever knew. When we preserve these memories, we honor not only the individuals, but an entire way of life in the Blue Ridge that might otherwise fade quietly into the past. Next week, Woody will continue with more details about W. G. Atkins and Sons’ family business. For questions, comments, or ideas for stories, please contact Woody at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
