Memories Of Granite Falls, My Hometown

GRANITE FALLS, NC (October 16, 2017)…We are very blessed and honored to have the opportunity to share this wonderful story with you that was written by Vera Richards.  Vera passed away on November 2, 2015.  Vera was a beautiful lady that was loved by many and she was a fantastic story teller as you will see when you read her story below…

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My story began in the summer of 1891, when my great-grandparents, George and Rinda Elmore and their children journeyed over precarious road conditions and settled in Granite Falls, North Carolina.  The family, which included my grandmother Julia Elmore Richards, traveled by covered wagons drawn by oxen for three days and two nights.  Needless to say, they were all exhausted when they finally arrived at their destination.  They had a true pioneer spirit and perseverance to leave behind their homestead in the mountains of Wilkes County to seek a more suitable way to make a better livelihood.  George soon obtained a job at a gristmill grinding grain.  He was grateful to have plenty of corn meal for his large family.

My grandfather, John Richards was born in Granite Falls.  A cousin, Brice Richards, in the campground area, reared him.  Each weekday, he walked the railroad tracks from Granite Falls to his job at Piedmont Wagon Company in Hickory, North Carolina, then trudged back to his home very late in the afternoon.  Years later he worked in the mill for a while then farmed later on in life.  My grandparents, John and Julia Elmore Richards were married on July 30, 1892.

My father, Clarence Richards, was the eldest son of John and Julia.  He went to work in a cotton mill when he was only eleven years old.  I often think how much he would have enjoyed working on the railroad.  I can almost see the wistful, faraway look in his eyes whenever a fast moving train came around the bend with the black smoke puffing out everywhere.  Despite the danger,  he and his buddies couldn’t resist jumping on a slow moving train and hiding in a boxcar.  Oh, I just cannot imagine the fun and enjoyment they must have had riding the rails and seeing the beautiful countryside.  Dad had twelve brothers and sisters.  They were – Cora, Ocie, Lucy, Gathias, Henry, Bill, Sanford, Jim, Carrie, Theophilus, Dave and Hattie.  Ocie and Theophilus died in infancy, all of the others lived in Granite Falls and worked in the mills.  One brother, Jim Richards, was also a Baptist minister and eventually moved to Kingsport, Tennessee with his family where he served as pastor of several churches.

My mother, Beulah Myers Richards was the daughter of Larkin and Victoria Myers of Wilkes County.  Mother admired her Grandmother Welborn so much as she was the only nurse and midwife in her mountainous community.  There was no doctor nearby so her grandmother was the only medical provider in her area.  Her Grandmother Welborn traveled by mule over the rough paths and roads.  She filled her saddlebags with herbs and medical supplies and placed the saddlebags over the mule’s back and then went wherever she was needed.  In the years ahead, mother was somewhat like her grandmother because she too enjoyed helping others and being a caregiver.

Mother’s brothers – Floyd, Crawford, and Blain – hewed crossties from timber from Wallace Mountain and hauled them by horse and wagon to the nearest railroad.  The railroad company laid these crossties crosswise under the railroad tracks to help support the tracks.  There were many times when mother’s brothers had to work making bootleg whiskey at liquor stills owned by Glen Johnson, father of racecar driver, Junior Johnson.  My uncles were not always successful in safely getting away before the revenuers destroyed and raided the stills and then poured the liquor down the mountainside.

Sometime later Blain came to Granite Falls to work in a cotton mill.  A few years later, mother left behind the beautiful hills of Wilkes County and journeyed by horse and buggy to Granite Falls to be with her brother and his family.  My mother and father were married on August 19, 1917.  Eventually Crawford and Floyd and their families also moved to Granite Falls to seek better job opportunities.  Many descendants of the Richard and Myers families still live in Granite Falls today.

From out of the distant past, old memories often stir to remind me of gentler times.  I often think back to my early childhood days growing up in a small mill village, near an old millpond in Granite Falls, nestled in the foothills of North Carolina.

I remember with nostalgia the busy, bustling town of Granite Falls as it was in its heyday.  On Saturday afternoon, the farmers and other folks in the outlying area would come into town.  This event was always the highlight of the week for them.  They enjoyed mingling and talking with the town people.  The stores and sidewalks would be overflowing with people, and they would inevitably stop and chat with friends they met.

The streets were a busy thoroughfare.  The people came early to be assured of a parking space in downtown.  They enjoyed sitting in their cars and watching the people stroll by.  They would occasionally engage in lively conversation with the passerby.  Young people would stroll along the sidewalk eating ice cream cones and drinking root beer and coke from the soda fountain at the local drug store.

I remember vividly the feeling of apprehensiveness I encountered whenever I walked near the old calaboose building in Granite Falls.  The building was set back a short distance from the storefronts in downtown.  On more than one occasion, I heard yells and screams coming from a prisoner locked behind the barred window of the calaboose.

The quiet, unhurried town of Granite Falls that one loves today is vastly different from the thriving metropolis it appeared to me in those by-gone days of yesteryear.

By Vera Richards
Prepared for and read during “Oak Grove’s Share Your Gift Night” October 22, 2006