Tough Road to the Top

By Judge Pierce

From humble beginnings in western North Carolina during the Great Depression, through adventures out West in young adulthood, to the challenges and joys of family life in Reidsville, North Carolina, Judge Pierce's endearing stories chronicle a live well-lived against a backdrop of changing times in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judge Pierce
• Release date: Jan 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311472229

Book preview

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Judge Ander Pierce

Copyright 2014

Acknowledgements

Carolyn Moore - advisor and editor

Rosiland Jones - transcriber of original spoken recordings

Sandra M Belz (aka Sandra M Oliver) - cover artwork and maps of Ashe County

Tim Talley - family photography

Stan Kratzer - preliminary editing and encouragement

Pamela Trush - formatting

Introduction

I always enjoyed telling stories about my life to my children and grandchildren, who thought the stories were funny and interesting. They encouraged me to take the time to write about some of the stories I told. They were interested in my early life and how much the world had changed since I was a young child. I decided to write my stories for their benefit. I hope they will enjoy reading them.

As I undertook this project and talked with a few people about it, they encouraged me to put it in book form.  I have written these stories without the purpose of changing anything but focused on factual information as it originally happened. I hope my children, relatives and friends, all whom I love, will not be offended by these recollections. Everyone has second thoughts on how we should have done things in life. Accuracy is important when telling our stories.

Judge Pierce

February 2014

Hello, Friends

My name is Judge Ander Pierce, and this is my story.

It all started on December 2, 1936, when I was born in a log cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, in the Boggs community of Ashe County. I’ve been told that I was born early on a snowy morning. A midwife named Susie Roark assisted in my birth.

After I was born, my daddy saddled up a horse and rode about four miles to the town of West Jefferson to see Dr. Earl Ray. Upon hearing the news of my birth, Dr. Ray got on his horse and came back to our one-room house to examine me. After he said I would be healthy enough to live, he rode his horse back to town. I told this very story to my grandchildren years later. I asked them if they believed my story. Of course, they said they didn’t. Times have changed so much since I was a child that it’s hard for modern children to comprehend how we actually lived. That’s one reason I want to share my stories with them.

At the time I was born my momma and daddy already had three children. The oldest was daughter Ruth, next was daughter Una, and next was son John Henry. We all lived in a one-room, boarded-up home that had a stove in the middle that served as a cook stove and also to keep the house warm in the wintertime. That was the way we lived. The house must have been about 12 x 18 or 20 feet. It had no insulation at all. There was no electricity in the rural areas anywhere in America, so we were still kind of primitive by the standards that soon overtook the country. We had what is known as an outhouse, or outdoor johnny, where we went to use the bathroom in the yard near where we lived.

Most everything that we used was produced on the small, sixty-acre farm we owned. A typical breakfast consisted of biscuits and gravy. Lunch and dinners had a little more variety, consisting of maybe pinto beans, potatoes, green beans or other vegetables grown on the farm. Once in a while we would kill a hog or have some other type of meat. The farm was what you now call hills -– up and down with several springs and branches running through it. It joined the New River. It was a very good place to live. We had good neighbors, most of which were first or second cousins.

Eventually my parents would have eight more children who lived. They also had three children who died.

Verna Ruth born in 1932

Una Elzora born in 1933

John Henry IV born in 1935

Me (Judge Ander) born in 1936

Vel Horris born in 1937

Archie Lincoln born in 1938

Vada Berniece born in 1940

William Howard born in 1942

Avis Clyde born in 1943

Ernest Zane born in 1945

Hoke Allen born in 1948

James Larry born in 1950

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Front row from left to right: Zane, Avis, Howard, Vada, ArchieBack row: Dad, Vel, Judge, Henry, Una, Ruth, Hoke, Momma

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From left to right: Larry, Hoke, Zane, Avis, Howard, Vada, Archie, Ruth, Vel, Henry, Una, Judge, Momma (Myrtle C. Pierce), Dad (John H. Pierce)

Both my momma and daddy originally came from Wilkes County. My mother’s maiden name was Miller. Her family had lived in western Wilkes County and Ashe County for about three generations. When my mother and daddy met, both of their families lived in Wilkes County. My daddy’s folks lived in a community called Millers Creek, which I believe was named after some of my mother’s relatives. Daddy had also lived in that area all of his life. His Granddaddy Pierce was a Methodist minister and founded a church called Arbor Grove Methodist Church in the western part of Wilkes County, which was rebuilt on the same location as many as three times. His family had settled in that area for at least three generations and most of them never moved away.

Why Ashe County?

Momma and Daddy were married about the beginning of The Great Depression, which was probably the worst thing that ever happened to America during a time of peace. The Depression covered America. People living on farms were probably better off than unemployed people in urban areas. Whatever their status, many people looked elsewhere for a better situation, my parents among them.

Daddy had an uncle that had gone to the eastern shore of Maryland several years earlier and become established in Maryland. The uncle and his family had a large farm and grew several farm commodities including livestock, grain, and vegetables. Daddy decided to go to Maryland and work for his uncle for several months, then bring his family to Maryland.

Daddy was a good employee for his uncle. So his uncle told Daddy to go back to North Carolina and bring his family to Maryland.

When Daddy left for Maryland, he left Momma with baby girl Ruth, and she was also several months pregnant. When Daddy arrived home Momma had a three-month-old daughter, Una, who he had not seen before.

Daddy and Momma spent some time getting ready to move. Meanwhile, Grandpaw Miller asked Daddy about his uncle’s farming and what crops were the most profitable. Daddy said they grew several crops, then he added they made most of their money selling homemade liquor. That turned out to be the wrong answer.

Just before they were getting ready to leave for Maryland, Daddy received a letter from his uncle. Grandpaw had written a letter to Daddy’s uncle saying he should help Daddy but should not let him sell liquor. Daddy could end up in jail. Daddy’s uncle had enclosed Grandpaw’s letter in the letter he sent to Daddy and his uncle suggested the move be cancelled. Daddy’s uncle also wrote in his letter that he was disappointed in Daddy for telling folks back home the story. The trip to Maryland was cancelled.

Grandpaw Miller owned several parcels of land in Ashe and Wilkes County. He gave each of his children a farm when they got married. He gave Momma and Daddy the farm in Ashe County. They moved to Ashe County.

When I was a teenager and Una and Ruth were employed at Glen L. Martin Aircraft Company in Baltimore, Daddy took the family to Baltimore for a short visit. He drove around the main residential neighborhoods in the city. He would point to a home and say, The family that lives there is rich, and name who they were. I figured out that they had been a client or customer of his uncle when Daddy hauled liquor.

Childhood Memories

As Daddy and Momma started having children, my Grandpaw Miller gave them a farm in the Boggs community, which at the time was considered an important gift. But Dad told Grandpaw when he gave it to him that he’d give it back. He just didn’t think he could make a living on that land. This was during the early stages of the famous Great Depression. Somehow Dad did make a living, mostly producing what we had to consume on the farm, with very few purchased goods from other places. Among the things we had were a milk cow and a few extra head of cattle. We also had a horse that was used for plowing and some tools for clearing land. There was some cleared land, but quite a bit of land still needed clearing.

We had a garden and a few small, open fields where crops were grown. One of the main crops grown was corn, which was used both for livestock and for grinding and making meal for the family. The area was also really good for producing what is known as cool season vegetables, or in the summertime, short-season vegetables, such as cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, beans (green beans especially), and other vegetable crops.

When the cow was milked, it was milked by hand and into a pail or bucket. The milk was strained through a white cloth into jars and then sealed up and set into a spring in the bank. The water coming out of the bank was cold. This served as the refrigeration source to keep the milk and butter cold. Anything else that needed to be kept cold was placed in a container and placed in the spring, usually encased in some kind of wooden box with the water running through it. This was a dependable source of cooling for whatever needed to be cooled.

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My grandfather, Judge Braxton Miller, who I was named after, circa 1945.

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The Pierce Home in Boggs, constructed around 1940 from timber cut on the farm or from nearby areas. Most of the supports under the home were wood. Notice the upstairs dormers were boarded up because the family didn’t have enough money to buy windows at that time.

The first thing I can remember is when we moved from the house we originally lived into a larger one in the Boggs community. I was about three years old. The new house had four rooms in it. It had an A-frame roof, including a room or two rooms upstairs. Today it would not be anything special, but back then it was a really big deal to move into a house of that size in a rural area.

The main thing I remember about moving