From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 4

by Glenn N. Holliman


Continuing our tour of Shirley Sorrell's Family Album....

Our continued thanks to cousin Shirley Sorrell for sharing this magnificent collection of Wilson family photographs of the descendants of Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911).  These families lived along the North Fork of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina surrounded by mountains and lush forests.


"The earliest settlers to Ashe County cleared small patches of upland soil and cultivated it by scratching the surface with crude home-made implements.  When the cleared patches decreased in productiveness they were said to be 'worn out' and then new land was cleared and brought under cultivation.  Within one or two seasons the abandoned land became covered with grass, mainly clover and blue grass.  

This development tended to increase stock raising but, as a matter of fact, there was not great demand for livestock for many years.  Apparently each settler was interested in just enough work stock for his individual use, and cattle, sheep, and hogs were raised to supply the home demand for beef, milk, butter, mutton, and bacon." - p. 208, Ashe County, a History by Arthur Lloyd Fletcher, McFarland Publishers, Jefferson County, North Carolina, 1963 (reprinted 2006).


While limited agricultural land meant that some children of prolific parents such as Wilson descendants had to move west, others remained to engage in age-old subsistence farming.  These turn of the 20th Century photographs capture the last generation of an agricultural era now gone. By World War II, most of these farms were uneconomical.  Seasonal homes, gated communities, Christmas Tree farms, tourism and work in service industries have replaced the family farm.

Edgar Osborne and Conley Wilson, ca 1910. Edgar, born 1893, the son of Walter Raleigh and Effie Lewis Osborne, was one of the many who migrated to Oregon. Conley, a son of John and Rebecca Wilson Wilson, elected to stay in North Carolina and farmed until his death in 1957.

"Prior to 1872, all plows hoes, shovels and other implements used in Ashe County were homemade from iron ore taken from the mines of Ashe and forged in Ashe County forges." - p. 208, Fletcher.

 

Above, 1907 ca Sutherland, North Carolina Callie, Minnie, John, Don, Preston and Ruth Wilson.  John Wilson (1855-1928) and his wife, Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862-1954), were the parents of ten children who grew to maturity.
 

"The cutting and shocking of corn was first practiced in 1882...Commercial fertilizer was not used prior to 1891.  There were no facilities for soil testing in those days, and Ashe county farmers saw no need for it." -  Fletcher, p. 208

Above and below, herding sheep, Bob (1860-1949) and Ellen Wilson's (1866-1952) farm in Sutherland, North Carolina. Help in identifying these persons most welcome.

"In 1925, it took 10 to 15 acres of corn to feed a team of horse.  By 1963 in Ashe County, less than one acre of corn will feed a team of horse for a year." - Fletcher, p. 213

As the 20th Century moved on and mechanism increased "One man, plus the proper machines, could do the work formerly done by ten men or more.  There was no farm work waiting for the boys finishing high school...." - Fletcher, p. 216

"The exodus from American farms marked the end of self-sufficiency and an uprooting of families from their heritage. In 1900 40% of  the U.S. work force was in agriculture. Today the number is about 2%" - Atlantic Monthly, June 2013

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