(Track 1)
First 3 minutes 45 seconds: Conversation with Arney Porter and Doris Tackett (children of Everett Porter, s/o Jasper, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) Also Viola Bego and her son Earsel Porter.
(timer 3:45)
JC: When was your dad born?
Viola: Now I don’t know that.
JC: Was it about 1870 or 1869?
Viola: I guess it was. The home Bible with all their names and ages got burned up. And I just know the year I was born, and that is about all.
JC: It burned up? At someone’s house?
Viola: Yes, at George
Porter’s house. Back
in
JC: This is your son Earsel? (There in the same room)
Viola: Ya, that’s my boy from before I was married. Ain’t no use lying about it.
Doris Tackett: Wasn’t there an Earsel Porter that died?
Viola: That was Uncle
Bob’s Earsel in
Viola: No, I had a brother Earl Porter who died here a while back. In December, and my daughter died a week later. I was up there taking care of her last summer when she got sick. I waited on her a year down here. She wanted me to go to the funeral. I didn’t want to go, but she said yes, you’ve got to go. Well I started, and I asked her if she wanted me to bring her back anything, and she said, “Yes, bring her back some cigarettes”. We got ready to come back, and we got the news that she was dead. She died while I was down there, so I just stayed down there and didn’t come back.
Viola: Cline. She married Ralph Cline.
Viola: Ya, she lived right up here on the corner in that brown house on the right as you go up there.
Viola: Ya, that was my daughter. My oldest daughter.
JC: I got a letter from your granddaughter Geraldine. That is his daughter. The same day I got your letter. I didn’t realize that you were her grandmother. She was trying to explain how it all tied together, and then she said Viola Bego, and I realized..
Viola: Ya. I can’t see to even print at all. It has to be real big.
(timer 6:02) JC: What can you tell me about your grandpa Levi?
Viola: Well, I don’t know of anything that you would be interested in.
JC: Well anything would be.
Viola: We used to go there a lot when I was little. It used to tickle us to death to get to go over there. He (Levi) was so nice and good turned, but my grandmother (Betty), she wouldn’t let us call her grandma. We had to call her Nanny. She wouldn’t let us call her grandma.
JC: Why is that?
Viola: She never cared anything about kids.
JC: She didn’t?
Viola: She wasn’t like grandpa. He was so good to us. When my sister died, I was taking care of her, and my grandma was bad off sick, and they wanted me to come over there. So finally, at the last, my daughter said, “Well you go over there and stay with them, and if I get worse, I send after you.” I said, “Alright.” I stayed there a long time.
JC: How long after your grandpa died, did your grandma die?
Viola: Oh I don’t know.
JC: Was it a couple
years?
Viola: Oh, I don’t think it was that
long. She stayed there with my
mother. My grandpa (Levi) did too. But I wasn’t in that country then. I was away from there. My mother took care of both of them.
JC: Ever hear anything about your grandma being married before she married your grandpa?
Viola: No.
JC: And you never
heard about your dad (Ed Porter) being born in
Viola: No, I never heard that. (laughing)
JC: I know I asked
Don Porter (son of Bob, son of Levi) I mentioned it in the letter that I
wrote to you. In the 1880 census, your
dad was 10 years old, and it said he was born in
Viola: Ya?
JC: Ya, but in the 1900 census, it
said that your dad was born in
Viola: He must not have known it. I’ve never heard about that.
JC: I had heard the
Porters may have been in
Viola: I had never heard anything about that until your letter.
JC: How many of your dad’s sister have you heard of?
Viola? He just had one?
JC: Just Lula?
Viola: Ya.
JC: You’ve never heard of Laura or Ruth?
Viola: No, never heard of them.
JC: No, her dad was the oldest. Well, I think there may have been two more born before your dad. They were married in 1863, and your dad wasn’t born until almost 1870. And your grandma, in the 1900 census said she was the mother of 11 children, but only 7 were living. And these two daughter Ruth and Laura must have already died.
Viola: I never know’d of none of them but Aunt Lula. The only one that they ever said anything to me about.
JC: Well I guess they didn’t have to be girls. They could have been baby boys.
JC: What have you heard about your grandpa’s dad (Andrew Porter)?
Viola: Well, I never did hear anything about them hardly. After I got big enough to remember anything, they never did talk to me anything about it.
JC: Did you ever see a picture of your great grandpa Porter?
Viola: No.
JC: Do you know where the Porter’s came from?
Viola: My grandpa, he
came from
JC: How did they get
to
Viola: I don’t know. He was in the old Civil War. What they told me when he come to this country (Kentucky), he picked out a place right below where he built his house at when he got married, when he got out of the army.
I had his picture.
(timer 10:28) JC: He was in uniform in the picture?
Viola: Ya, he had his uniform on, and he had a fiddle.
JC: He did?
Viola: Ya. When we come up
here to
JC: He has? Do you think he would loan me that picture so I could make a copy?
Viola: My Lord have
mercy, you could have it. He took a
whole suitcase full of pictures. I had
JC: You did? With your grandpa in it?
Viola: No, with my daddy and mother and all my sisters and brothers. I was the baby.
And Will, my brother. I had just a whole lot of pictures of kin
folks. And he took them all, and I never
did get none of them.
He lives in
JC: What is his name?
Viola:
JC: He does?
Viola: Ya. In
Viola: No, that’s my
brother. He lived down here at
JC: And he spells him name VAGO?
Viola: Ya, VAGO.
JC: Why does he do that?
Viola: I don’t know. His daddy said when he was born, then he had to go to the army. That is the way it came back, so he just left it that way. One of his other boys spells his name that way.
JC: You were saying something about your grandpa came and found land?
Viola: Ya, said he picked it out. Said there was a bear down there below where he had his barn built. Said there was a bear. Everett Vago was telling me about that several years ago, when we lived over there. He told my husband about it. Said he (Levi) killed a bear there, and he was setting there on a stump, and he said when he got out of the army, he was going to build his home there. And sure enough, he did. Sure enough if he didn’t build his home there.
JC: So was he
fighting over in
Viola? Ya, he was through
there then. Now he’s still got his beard
in the picture on a card about this big.
There is somebody from Morehead wanted that picture one time, and I wouldn’t
let him have it.
JC: He (Levi) would have been just a young man then.
Viola: Ya, he would.
JC: In his early 20’s?
Viola: I don’t know how old he would have been. He had a fiddle. I didn’t know him to ever play a fiddle. Never know’d that. But he had one. He had it in his hand in the picture.
JC: Why did he grow that beard?
Viola: I don’t know. As quick as I seen that picture, I know’d him.
JC: You saw that picture didn’t you? (showing her the 1901 - 5 Porter brothers picture)
Viola: Uh Huh. I saw him, but I don’t remember the rest of them. I thought one of them was Uncle John.
JC: Ya, this one right here is John.
Viola: I know a long time before he died, before we came up here, him and his wife came to my house and ate dinner. And this is Uncle Jim Porter right here, aint it?
JC: No, this is Jim. And that is Steve right there.
Viola: Oh, Ya, ya.
JC: And that is Alick. You ever hear of those two sisters?
Viola: No, I never heard of them.
JC: Martha Day and Mary Dwelly, your grandpa’s sisters?
Viola: No, I never know’d them, but I see the picture and the name on the back.
Viola: And grandma was a school teacher wasn’t she?
JC: Was she?
(Timer
Viola Bego (daughter of Ed Porter, son of Levi, son of Andrew J. Porter)
JC: They were school teachers?
Viola: That’s what they told me. She showed me her dress that she had made you know. It was awful pretty, and I tried one on. Me and Bertha Porter, my cousin. After I got it, it had hooks and eyes on it, I got it so tight, I thought I would smother to death before I could get it off.
JC: She was a skinny woman wasn’t she?
Viola: Ya, poor old thing.
JC: She never did like kids?
Viola: No, she never did like kids, nobody’s kids.
JC: I wonder how she got to be a school teacher if she didn’t like kids?
Viola: I don’t know. That’s what they told me. They said they was school teachers.
JC: What is this about your grandpa (Levi). He made tables walk?
Viola: Ya.
JC: What do you know about that?
Viola: I don’t know if I care to think about that. (laughing)
JC: How did he get involved in that?
Viola: I don’t know, there was Rupe Tipton?, and Mac Olfield?, Whit May?, and somebody else was with him. They would go around places you know and raise the knocking spirits they called it, and make the table walk.
JC: You mean people would pay to see that?
Viola: No, they just
went to see it for the fun of it, I reckon.
The last account I heard of him, that was after
I was married of course. There was the
Pentecost church going on at
JC: He hypnotized the preacher?
Viola: That’s what they
said. Some said, “Well the Devil’s in
the house.” (laughing) Oh Lord, Uncle Bird, he come back just
killing himself laughing. Will my brother, he wouldn’t go. He said, Nah, he wasn’t aimed to go. It was at
He seemed to be awful good. He was bad to drink. He used to drink a lot, but he always treated us good. And everybody else I ever heard talk about him, he always treated them good. That’s about all I know about him. They did raise knocking spirits there. I know when I stayed with my grandma there, I was scared to death. Harold Porter, he stayed there.
JC: Who is Harold Porter?
Viola: Uncle Arthur’s boy. The oldest one. They raised him. He stayed there part of the time. Grandma wanted something to eat, I believe it was, of the night. Me and him was sitting up there. Went in there to get it, and that kitchen door flew open. I was scared plum to death. We didn’t take her nothing to eat. (laughing)
JC: Don Porter (son
of Bob, son of Levi) said something about that.
He said every night at
Viola: They used to put those big logs that they had in the fire place. They would put that against the door and have the door buttoned and locked and all, and it would come open anytime. They slept upstairs. That door’d come right open every night. I was scared to death the whole time I was there.
JC: Did your grandpa talk about his old Civil War days?
Viola: Na, I never heard him talk about it. I just had his picture, and he said he was in the war, he talked about people going to people’s houses, and taking what they had to eat, you know, bread. Said there was one man that killed another man over a loaf of bread.
JC: One of their friends?
Viola: One of the buddies that was with them there. Said they went in and was about to starve. A woman had a pan of bread baked, and he killed a man over that bread. That man did, his buddy with him. They had terrible times there.
JC: Did you ever hear about him being Prisoner of War?
Viola: No
JC: I guess he was captured.
Viola: Might have been, I don’t know. I never heard anything about that. I never visited over there at Uncle Alick Porter’s. I didn’t really know them.
JC: Did you ever hear
why they came to
Viola; No.
JC: You said they came to where your grandpa (Levi) said he would live.
Viola: And he built him a house there. He had him a nice house built there.
JC: I heard your grandpa built chimneys.
Viola: He did, he made brick too.
JC: He made brick?
Viola: Ya, he made brick. My dad had a chimney built out of brick that he made. Red brick strapped with white. Grandpa had him a chimney, and a big nice milk house built out of bricks. It was pretty.
JC: Did your grandpa have a Ginseng garden also?
Viola: Ya, he had a big garden. Ginseng, and yellow root? too. He had a nice place when he was able to work. When I was growing up, he had a pretty place.
JC: Is his house still standing?
Viola: No, after he died, Ed Osborn got the place. Uncle Arthur’s widow. He tore the house down. He said it was haunted awful bad. He didn’t like to live there. Ed Osborn tore it down. (laughing)
JC: Talking about it being haunted, someone told me they heard about a fireball rolling off the front porch.
Viola: I never heard nothing like that. (laughing)
JC: You don’t know how he got started into that hypnotism?
Viola: No I don’t, He went with, Wint Porter (son of Alex, son of AJP) was with him a while. Whitt May? Mac Alfield? and Root Kidley? There was 4 or 5 of them. They would go places like that.
JC: Who were these guys? Were they his buddies?
Viola: Ya, they lived down there by him, and they were his buddies.
JC: How much land did your grandpa own down there?
Viola: Oh, he owned a great big, a whole lot of land. He sold Uncle Arthur a whole lot of it. He had a big lot of land. He had a coal mine on it too.
JC: A coal mine?
Viola: Uh huh. He burnt coal all the time.
JC: Was it just for his own use?
Viola: Ya, it was just for his own use..
JC: He never sold it to anybody?
Viola: He never sold it to nobody. He just used it himself.
JC: Do you remember any stories about the guys in the picture, your great uncles?
Viola: No. I never heard nothing
about em. Now
Uncle Steve, I’ve seen him a few times.
He lived in
JC: Ya.
Viola: Me and Andy Ann? and one of my cousins went down to Uncle Jim’s (son of Levi) when he lived at Olive Hill.
JC: Do you mean Uncle Jim who lived at Stark?
Viola: No, he lived in Olive Hill when we went and stayed all night with him.
JC: Is he the one they killed in 1906 over school elections?
Viola: I never heard about that. Uncle Jim was a cripple man. He was a school teacher.
JC: Oh, I guess I was talking about your great uncle Jim Porter.
Viola: No, I don’t know him. That picture is just exactly like the one I’ve got. He’s got that beard, only he is younger. I’ve seen Uncle Steve several times, and uncle John.
JC: Did you ever hear Steve or John preach?
Viola: No, I never heard either one.
JC: And you don’t remember anything about your great uncle Alick?
Viola: No. I don’t know nothing about him. Never did visit none hardly.
JC: Did you ever hear
any stories about where your grandpa (Levi) lived in
Viola: No. All I know’d was he
said he was from
JC: She wasn’t from the same place that he was?
Viola: No. She wasn’t from the same place.
JC: She was from a different county?
Viola: Ya. I don’t know, I forgot where he said. I can’t hardly remember nothing at all. It’s been so long since I’ve seen any of them.
JC: You never heard anything about your grandma being married before him.
Viola: No, if she was I never heard it. Never did heard nobody say.
JC: They came from Grayson county, Virginia. Have you heard of that?
Viola: Ya, I’ve heard of that place.
JC: And Wythe county, have your heard of Wythe county?
Viola: No.
JC: So where did your dad (Ed Porter) live?
Viola: He got his place off of grandpa too.
JC: Oh he did? And he lived down there all of his life.
Viola: Ya, all of his life, He raised all of his kids there.
JC: Your Uncle Bob, he moved to
Viola: Uh Huh.
JC: Who all went to
Viola: Well just him I reckon. Aunt Lula was already out there.
JC: Oh she went before him?
Viola: She was
married, and she went before him. He
used to have a store over there by _______ Porter’s. He sold out and went to
JC: What about your
Viola: He had several kids before he ever went there.
JC: Oh he was married before he left?
Viola: Ya, he was married.
JC: And he took his whole family with him?
Viola: Ya.
JC: What was your dad’s middle name?
Viola: Just Ed, I reckon.
JC: You don’t know his middle name?
Viola: No.
JC: I’ll ask you some questions about all of your dad’s kids. Clyda, your sister, did she die as a baby?
Viola: No, she had three children when she died.
JC: You didn’t have a
brother named
Viola: No. Clyda was not the oldest girl. Albert was the oldest, then Charlie, and Martha, then Clydie, after Martha.
JC: Was Will before Clyda?
Viola: No. He is after her. Clyda is older than Will.
JC: And who is after Will?
Viola: Me, then
Grace, then Margaret. She is dead. Then Earl. Then George. Then
JC: Who is after
Viola: Ya. Betty and George
JC: You said George
was before
Viola: Ya, George is older than
JC: Then Betty is next?
Viola: Ya then Minnie, then Noyce. Minnie is the baby girl, and Noyce is the baby boy.
JC: You referred me to James Basker?
Viola: Ya, that is Betty’s husband.
JC: Is Betty still living?
Viola: Yes, she is living.
JC: And Lester Porter
is George’s boy?
Viola: Ya
JC: And where does George live?
Viola: He lives in
Doris Tackett: I know where he lives. He is a neighbor. We went over there one time. We were talking about Aunt Arabelle Walker. She is one I remember the most.
JC: (To Viola) Do you remember her?
Viola: Ya, I remember her. It has been a long time ago.
Viola: Ya, I seen her the first time before I was ever
married. I used to go to
JC: Is Grace still living?
Viola: Ya, She lives in
JC: What is her married name?
Viola: Barker
JC: Earl, he is your brother who just died.
Viola: Ya.
JC: Is
Viola: Ya, he lives in Soldier. (KY)
JC: What about Noyce?
Viola: He lives in
JC: I’d like to get a list of your kids and grandkids if that’s OK.
Viola: That’s OK.
JC: Who was your first husband?
Viola: George Epperhart.
JC: And your 2nd husband?
Viola: Nelson Bego. (Timer 18:31)