For the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at the Yeatts family of Kettle Hollow in Mayberry, Patrick County, Virginia. First, we examined the life of Dr. Roy Oliver Yeatts, then last week, we learned more about his parents Charles Tobias “Tobe” Yeatts and Susan Stella Barnard and his grandparents, Henry Fielding Yeatts and Caron Aquilla Boswell and John Jehu Barnard and Nancy Adeline Wood.
This week, we will look at Tobe’s brother, John Henry Yeatts, his wife, Edna Roena Reynolds Yeatts, and their children. We are very fortunate to have a guest columnist this week to share first-hand knowledge of her grandparents, the Yeatts, so when she mentions Grandpa, Gerry is referring to John Henry Yeatts and Grandma is referencing Edna Roena Reynolds Yeatts.
The following are Gerry’s memories, “Here’s a little start on the Yeatts. We were taught the Yates and Yeatts were all kin. It was some of the sons of John Yeardley Yates that changed their last names…Examples –Henry Fielding went to Henry Fielding Yeatts, George Washington, Thomas Monroe went to Yeatts but then records went back and forth in spelling of their last names such as in the case of Richard Davis Yeatts. This is handled by listing the names Yeatts/Yates in the genealogy book A History of John Yeardley Yates of Pittsylvania and Patrick County by Robert S.R. Yates. Beverly Arnold went to Beverly Yeattes. What is solid is the Yates Coat -of -Arms which has a gate. Dad said it comes from gate keeper when last names were assigned long ago. Gate and Yates are similar in sound.”
“Grandpa was a wonderful historian. I first remember him sitting in his living room and giving the history of who in the Reynolds, Barnards, Yeatts fought in the Civil War. Who was killed, who was in prison, who broke out, how it was for his dad who became ill while serving in the Confederate Army. He told some about the hardship of his youth. So, we knew how hard he had worked to help his mom who was widowed so young and to get a start in making a living. I saw old correspondence or contracts between him and George on grain crops, such as rye that was raised and sold. I saw a letter where he was guarding a room full of American chestnuts that were to be sold.”
“Grandpa was an oral historian. People would come to the store and ask him questions-history, genealogy including a birthdate of such and such. He knew all the grandchildren’s birthdays. In the third grade, I was buying my books and used one of the silver dollars he gave me on my birthday as a $1 to buy a used book. The young people laughed because they knew, (but I didn’t) that the silver dollar was worth more than a dollar. He always gave me a silver dollar on my birthday starting when I was about 7 years old.”
“When Tobe moved West, Grandpa got the mail carrier job Tobe had. It was a 34-mile Mayberry route on a horse but became a horse and buggy route when the Sears and Roebuck catalogs came to most every household. Sometimes he was so sleepy in the saddle when he came home that someone would have to help him dismount. Once on his route, he saw a house burning and he rescued two little boys who were under a table. Another time on his route lightning had struck and killed two individuals hoeing in different cornfields. (This was James Eric West and Bill Boyd who were featured in an earlier Patrick Pioneers column). There was so much work with farming and carrying the mail that he employed two of Grandma’s half-brothers to help.”
“Grandpa Yeatts was the neighborhood dentist probably from late 1890s to near 1940…on the porch steps he pulled teeth. He said, “If it hurts you, do not pay. If it doesn’t, you pay.” It took help to neuter animals such as pigs and he often helped. People would ask him to help in removing a wart. I don’t know how he treated warts but maybe he understood they would go away.”
“I remember his bee hives, the apple tree he had grafted with five kinds of apples, an apple orchard, and the cow or two they kept. My dad at the age of 10 was with some men who fell a bee tree. My dad had an envelope and a safety pin. He brought home the queen which was of a different type from what Grandpa had. They wanted it to cross with their different type of honeybees.”
“About the time Grandpa retired from carrying the mail, he and his two sons bought the country store in Mayberry. (I realized my dad bought out Hassell’s share much later.) The Blue Ridge Parkway that runs behind the store was built in 1937. Two dams were built nearby–one in the Bent section and another at the Pinnacles. This construction under FDR brought lots of trade to the community. While big groceries stores were not around, vehicles not so plentiful, the families not yet moving to towns, the trade was good. (Later when the sewing and furniture factories went overseas, more had moved away for jobs– trade dropped.) Grandpa would walk to the store about every day until he was past 85. Dad operated the store until he retired at age 65. The store was in Grandpa’s family line for eighty-four years and now it is in the family line of his sister Henrietta. The Mayberry Trading Post store dates to 1892 and is so close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, many tourists stop there now.”
“In Grandma’s memories of long ago, she writes about all the children in order of their birth– recalled and described something particular about each one– personality, behavior, sickness in their earliest years. She did not write much about their accomplishments or who they married and their young families. She kept focused on their early years, family history, how life flowed, church…. none of their children were pulled out of school to help with farming because neither grandma nor grandpa got as much education as they wished. (My dad did drop out when he finished or nearly finished the eighth grade. He could make money working every day.” Dad (Coy Oliver Yeatts) had ten children that graduated from high school at the Meadows of Dan School. (That’s the record!)”
“John Henry Yeatts and Edna Roena Reynolds Yeatts children were as follows
Coy Oliver Yeatts, born in 1899 and passed away in 1985, was a farmer and merchant. In early years cut timber and sawed into rough lumber. Built his own house, barns, and granaries. May have helped a few others build their homes. About the time Grandpa retired as a mail carrier, he and Coy bought the store in Mayberry. Coy married Miss Nancy Mary Lee Agee and they had ten children, including the author of this story, Gerry Yeatts Scardo; Flora Della, born in 1900 and passed away in 1977, married James Byron Archer in 1928 in Pueblo, Colorado, remained in Colorado her entire life. Grandma relied on her to sew dresses for the girls; Clarice Aquilla b. 1902 and passed away in 1907, possibly from membranous croup; Lora Ruth, born in 1904 and passed away in 2001, married Marlin O. King, and lived in Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin; Vera Liberty born in 1906 and passed away in 2000, married Cornelius Columbus Stanley of Laurel Fork, they lived in Indiana, where Vera taught school and missionaries honored her with words at her funeral; Edna Eunice, born in 1909 and passed away in 1990, married Elkanah Addison McAlexander of Patrick County, Eunice taught many years at Meadows of Dan School, great quilter, singer of ballads, played the piano for many years at the Missionary Baptist Church, and was known in the community for her beautiful oil paintings; Essie May born in 1912 and passed away in 1995, married Aaron DeHart Hopkins, Sr in 1939, taught at Mayberry School, Hardin Reynolds, and Stuart; John Hassell, born in 1916 and passed away in 2000, married Virginia Christian of Oklahoma, he earned a degree in journalism from William & Mary, early work was construction and engineer on hydroelectric plant in Danville, then in Oklahoma; worked with National Foundation of March of Dimes, was the first to introduce the Salk vaccine to a large population, then recruited to work American Cancer Society, was the state director of Mental Health Association in South Carolina before working in a key position in Alabama’s Mental Health Dept., his book Tracks Across the Blue Ridge won first place in the national award for short story collection in 1992; and Virginia Eileen Yeatts, born in 1916 and passed away 2002, married Henry Nelson Horton, Eileen taught school many years in several places.”
Gerry recounted memories of her grandmother, “Grandma got the first TV I ever saw. We could get all the laundry done Saturday morning and then walk to her house. Oh, what a joy to watch Mr. Wizard. She claimed she never learned fractions, so we needed to bake the cake. In the good old summertime, me and one of my sisters could stay all night on some Saturdays. We took turns as to who could stay over. We loved to be there. I have a CD that has recordings from various collections 1932-1985 of Aunt Eunice singing folk songs and ballads, many of them centuries old. On the back of the CD, it notes both her parents were singers. I didn’t know that, but did know that both could play an instrument of two. I think Grandpa played the fiddle and the banjo. For recreation there would be some music and dancing at the house when they and their children were still young. Years before much radio, record players and certainly TV…. Uncle Hassell sounded like Gene Autry when he sang, only better.”
Gerry recalled, “I was thinking today that Grandpa and other people on the mountain with livestock hardly knew the word “vacation”. (I don’t think I would hear the word until there were TV programs from California or Florida.) Sundays, the store was closed to observe the Sabbath. There were practically no days off from certain farm chores, unless you had red measles or pneumonia. When Grandpa retired from carrying the mail, they traveled out West in his Dodge car with younger children to visit kin in Pueblo. I know Grandma’s half-sister Bertie and family lived in Pueblo. Grandma and Grandpa took the trip in 1935 to Colorado and Hassell, Eileen, and Essie went with them… Visited her sister Bertie and half-sister Flora. They visited Della, Jay, and their daughter Phyllis. They also visited Lora and Marlin and the two little ones in Iowa.”
“Lora and Della (both lived out West) and their children would travel on trains and spend a couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa. That was their vacation. When more people had cars and traveling that way was easier, then Lora’s and Della’s whole family would be in. We loved visiting with them and the cousins. (Telephone calls would break the bank back then but Grandma and her children all communicated with letters.) Highlights of the summers so long ago. Kept the family close together. People now just go to a beach or Dollywood.”
“Speaking of letters…well, here is one. Grandpa when he was four years old met the postman. There were letters (apparently). Grandpa said, ” I don’t want no wetter (“wetter “rather than proper pronunciation of the word “letter”). I want the Constitution (name of the newspaper). From that indication, one would gather that some of it was being read to him and/or he knew how very important it was. I know that several men who would come and sit a few hours at the store and discussed what was in the papers before so much TV. Lots of monopoly and checkers games were played too. Grandma always had magazines we could read, Life, Look, National Geographic, and Readers Digest…that helped us understand the world.”
Thank you so much to Gerry Yeatts Scardo for sharing all these wonderful memories of her hard-working, caring grandparents, father, aunts, and uncles. Next week, we will take a more detailed look at Gerry’s grandmother, Edna Roena Reynolds Yeatts, childhood. Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
