Keith Turner recently discovered a relic from the past in the form of a jar filled with a mysterious root. “This jar was from my great grandmother, Sarah Lawson Turner, who lived in the New Hope Road area of Patrick County,” said Turner. A scrap of paper inside the jar reads, “Yellow root for anyone who has yellow jaundice.” Turner said his great grandmother took the ‘yellow root’ to the hospital to visit her brother in hopes of potentially remedying his aliments. Pictured is the jar containing ‘yellow root’ and the note Sarah Lawson Turner wrote nearly 80 years ago (Circa the 1940s).Hilda Jones dug-up an old photo of her ancestors and an old running family joke along with it. Posed in the photo is Samuel (Sam) Williams, his oldest son Robert (Bob) Williams, and Bob’s wife, Maggie Cruise Williams. Jones said that Sam is her great grandfather, and Maggie and Bob are her grandparents. According to Jones, Sam lived in Woolwine and was first married to Bettie Ratliff Williams, after she passed away, he married a woman by the same first name, Bettie Pilson. “My mother always said Grandpa Sam was a character. He once said the reason he married another woman named Bettie is that if he called her name out during the night, he wouldn’t call the wrong name,” said Jones. (Date unknown.)Beverly Belcher Woody uncovered a forgotten photo of her Uncle Rucker Harris and two of his beloved mules. Harris loved to trade his mules and also used them to help around the farm. The Rucker-Harris homestead is still standing today and is used as a grounding landmark for locals in the Mountain View Community, an outlying area of Meadows of Dan, Woody said. “No matter how many times that beautiful house changes hands, it’ll always be Uncle Rucker’s.” (Circa the 1950s)
Do you have an old photograph or a tall tale to share? Email us at reporter@theenterprise.net. All photos are contributed by ‘Mountain Top Familes’ Facebook page.
