March 20, 2011 Coats
Museum News
Last week I promised to share with you how the Coats community responded to a death in the early 1900’s. Almost every family in the rural area had a bell in the yard, lovingly referred to many as the family bell. Bells were really the wireless phone and 911 of that day. Bells were rung at the school s and churches and on the farm to summon in the folks working in the fields that it was mealtime. The bell was used to tell of distress such as a fire or sickness. The bell was tolled to announce a death in a household. Those within the range understood each.
When the death toll was heard, neighbors knew exactly what was expected of them. The women were to head out to the house and make sure it was in good condition for visitors to come into on the day of the funeral which was most often the next day. Yes, early on, most funerals were conducted right in the home or yard of the deceased and the burial was in the family cemetery nearby. If that was not the case, one might have been buried in the church cemetery where likely they owned family plots. The females knew that they were to make sure that the floors were swept and mopped. The bedrooms straightened, and any other tasks that made the house respectable for a funeral.
Another task that had to be decided was “Who is going to sit up all night with the deceased?”Many times young people volunteered for the job. Dan Stewart shared in his book, “Thank You Lord for a Good Life”, about an experienced that he had while sitting up with a corpse. This is how Stewart remembered that time.
“I remember an incident in connection with Pearl Parrish. She and her family lived on the outskirts of the town of Coats in a nice little country home with fifteen or twenty gardenia bushes in the front yard. It was customary then when one died, the body would be laid out in the home and a number of friends would go in and sit up with the corpse all night before the funeral. This house had a front porch running all the way across the front with swings hanging from the porch ceiling just outside the window where the corpse was lying inside. There were four or five couples or young people who had made themselves available to sit up with this corpse on this beautiful July night. There was a trellis that supported a green vine running all the way across the porch. While we were on the porch at about eleven o’clock that night, someone looked up and saw a green snake about to drop down into the collar of Leon Fuquay’s shirt. (Did they have electric lights then?) Well, someone screamed and everyone got excited and screamed also. (Apparently the incident had no lasting effect on Leon because he went on to graduate from UNC Chapel Hill and then to Washington, D.C. where he later became Secretary of the Federal Power Commission, a pretty impression job for a young man from the small town of Coats.
“Watermelons were ripe in the field and, not having anything else to do, we decided we would steal some. We drew straws to see who stayed with the corpse. My date, Josephine Link, and I had to stay on the porch. We were sitting on the swing in the quiet of the night when suddenly we heard a terrible scream from inside where the body was. Josephine fainted but, somehow, I made myself go into the room. There was an old tomcat pawing at the netting over the face to keep the flies off the corpse. Whether it is true or not, I have heard that a cat would gnaw the nose off a corpse. The others returned with the stolen watermelons and we had nice time until morning” (Stewart -24-25).
Have you heard the expressions, “graveyard shift” and “saved by the bell”? Glenda Flowers McLeod and Lynda Daniel Butler shared the following with me in relevance to corpses really being corpses. They shared that a string was tied to the wrist or hand of the corpse and when the body was buried, the end of the string above ground had a bell attached and would ring if the person beneath the ground moved the arm. The person watching the grave had the “graveyard shift” and the person who was buried alive would be “saved by the bell”. What do you think?
A world war was also going on during this era, so next week you will read the story from Walt Sorrell, WWI veteran, who shared memories with his grandchild. A special thanks to Anna Daniel who gave the museum a moonshiner’s half gallon jar. Is a half gallon jar not always half gallon? Obviously it is not if it belongs to a moonshiner. Also another big thank you goes to Hilda Pope and Lynda and Robie Butler for their donations to the Coats Museum Building Fund in memory of Blake Gregory.
Please be mindful that this article was written in March of 2011 for the Daily Record-Coats Museum News
Last week I promised to share with you how the Coats community responded to a death in the early 1900’s. Almost every family in the rural area had a bell in the yard, lovingly referred to many as the family bell. Bells were really the wireless phone and 911 of that day. Bells were rung at the school s and churches and on the farm to summon in the folks working in the fields that it was mealtime. The bell was used to tell of distress such as a fire or sickness. The bell was tolled to announce a death in a household. Those within the range understood each.
When the death toll was heard, neighbors knew exactly what was expected of them. The women were to head out to the house and make sure it was in good condition for visitors to come into on the day of the funeral which was most often the next day. Yes, early on, most funerals were conducted right in the home or yard of the deceased and the burial was in the family cemetery nearby. If that was not the case, one might have been buried in the church cemetery where likely they owned family plots. The females knew that they were to make sure that the floors were swept and mopped. The bedrooms straightened, and any other tasks that made the house respectable for a funeral.
Another task that had to be decided was “Who is going to sit up all night with the deceased?”Many times young people volunteered for the job. Dan Stewart shared in his book, “Thank You Lord for a Good Life”, about an experienced that he had while sitting up with a corpse. This is how Stewart remembered that time.
“I remember an incident in connection with Pearl Parrish. She and her family lived on the outskirts of the town of Coats in a nice little country home with fifteen or twenty gardenia bushes in the front yard. It was customary then when one died, the body would be laid out in the home and a number of friends would go in and sit up with the corpse all night before the funeral. This house had a front porch running all the way across the front with swings hanging from the porch ceiling just outside the window where the corpse was lying inside. There were four or five couples or young people who had made themselves available to sit up with this corpse on this beautiful July night. There was a trellis that supported a green vine running all the way across the porch. While we were on the porch at about eleven o’clock that night, someone looked up and saw a green snake about to drop down into the collar of Leon Fuquay’s shirt. (Did they have electric lights then?) Well, someone screamed and everyone got excited and screamed also. (Apparently the incident had no lasting effect on Leon because he went on to graduate from UNC Chapel Hill and then to Washington, D.C. where he later became Secretary of the Federal Power Commission, a pretty impression job for a young man from the small town of Coats.
“Watermelons were ripe in the field and, not having anything else to do, we decided we would steal some. We drew straws to see who stayed with the corpse. My date, Josephine Link, and I had to stay on the porch. We were sitting on the swing in the quiet of the night when suddenly we heard a terrible scream from inside where the body was. Josephine fainted but, somehow, I made myself go into the room. There was an old tomcat pawing at the netting over the face to keep the flies off the corpse. Whether it is true or not, I have heard that a cat would gnaw the nose off a corpse. The others returned with the stolen watermelons and we had nice time until morning” (Stewart -24-25).
Have you heard the expressions, “graveyard shift” and “saved by the bell”? Glenda Flowers McLeod and Lynda Daniel Butler shared the following with me in relevance to corpses really being corpses. They shared that a string was tied to the wrist or hand of the corpse and when the body was buried, the end of the string above ground had a bell attached and would ring if the person beneath the ground moved the arm. The person watching the grave had the “graveyard shift” and the person who was buried alive would be “saved by the bell”. What do you think?
A world war was also going on during this era, so next week you will read the story from Walt Sorrell, WWI veteran, who shared memories with his grandchild. A special thanks to Anna Daniel who gave the museum a moonshiner’s half gallon jar. Is a half gallon jar not always half gallon? Obviously it is not if it belongs to a moonshiner. Also another big thank you goes to Hilda Pope and Lynda and Robie Butler for their donations to the Coats Museum Building Fund in memory of Blake Gregory.
Please be mindful that this article was written in March of 2011 for the Daily Record-Coats Museum News