On July 14, 1984, Melinda Spears interviewed Elizabeth Spears at Wilkinson in Logan County, West Virginia. What follows is a transcription of Part 2 of the interview:
Who were you closest to in the family of your brother and sisters?
Well, I was really separated from them at such an early age. Once my brother came back to see about me. Of course my foster parents were afraid he was going to come back and try to take me, but I guess he found out that I was faring better than either of them were. Then my sister came to visit me and we did correspond not too frequently, but we did communicate by letters. Then as I said before, we didn’t see each other until I was married and had my first child. My husband and I went to visit them in Moundsville, my sister at that time and her husband. Getting back to my education. I attended the first grade in a one room and then went to the school at Ethel. Which is across the creek when you’re going to Blair Mountain, and there’s a big stone church there.
Do you remember the name of the school you went to?
It was just called Ethel Grade School. Clara Hyer at that time was principal.
My brother, when our folks still lived at this stone church near the school, he watched the stone mason build that church, which was the beginning of his career in brick laying. He now owns his own home, which he constructed from the foundation up. He built it himself.
Where did you say this was, Nini?
Bridgeport, Ohio, and I might mention this home that he built is on top of a mountain. His wife was ill and needed to be away from skyscrapers and smokestacks. This home was built to help her with her breathing problem.
My religious teachings were kind of mixed at this time. I was baptized as a Catholic. We attended church in Logan. At that time it was on top of City Hill.
What was it called?
The Catholic Church on City Hill. We attended mass at 7:30 in the morning. I got home so that I went to Sunday School with the Protestant kids. So I became almost as much a Protestant as I was a Catholic, because well there was nothing else to do or nowhere else to go. You went to church. That was good, as far as I was concerned. Later, about 1925 or 1930 we moved from Ethel to Sarah Ann.
Was this you and your foster parents?
My foster parents.
What was their names?
Elizabeth and John Vizzi. He worked at Sarah Ann and I attended school at Omar. In the 7th grade Mr. Seagrave was principal at Omar. However, we didn’t live there long, a year I think. We moved to Monaville in 1951. There I attended the 8th grade at Monaville. Some of the teachers I had there are still living: Ruth Bailey, Ruth Hinman. However, Ance Browning was principal at that time. He died several years after that while I was at Berea. I really was moved by his death, because I was very fond of him when he was my principal. Later I went to High school. I rode the school bus to Logan. Elmer Browning was principal at Logan High School during the years the time that I was there. I graduated in 1935 during the midst of the depression. I’ve told you several times about the orange and brown dress that I had.
Oh, yes.
Today I don’t like orange and brown because it was one of the two dresses that I had while going to high school. However, my foster father was a firm believer in education and was determined that I was going to college.
Did he help you go to college?
Well one of the biggest blows that occurred just before I went to school was the crisis of the bank during the depression. I can recall yet when my foster father came home with the news that the banks had gone bankrupt. Everybody’s money was lost. However, he was still able to secure for me a scholarship through an insurance company that he worked with, which really began as a lodge. He became very much involved with this particular work. I did receive a scholarship. I made application with Berea College, which was the only place I could go. I wasn’t accepted the first year.
How long after that were you accepted?
I was accepted the following year. This might sound very strange to students going to college now, but the reason I got to go to college was, because, the girl whose place I was going to take was sent home because of smoking.
Gosh, that’s a change.
However, the policy of the school was, if you smoked you didn’t go to Berea. You went to some other school because if you could afford to smoke you could afford to pay higher tuition and higher expenses at some other school.
So she was expelled?
She was expelled and I was accepted in her place.
Can you remember what year this was?
Oh yes, 1936-37.
How long did you go to Berea?
I went two years and two summers. I might add, too, that during that time we girls weren’t allowed to wear silk stockings.
What did you wear?
We wore anklets until our legs felt like saw dust because they would be so chapped in the winter, but we just didn’t like to wear cotton hose. The cotton cost more than the silk. We were always reprimanded for wearing the silk. The philosophy of the school was that everyone works to help earn their way. I worked in the library during the time I attended Berea. Of course I had a boyfriend.
What was his name?
Charon Denson. You do know Chauncey Browning who was our candidate for governor here in the Logan primary election: his niece Nola Mae Browning and I were roommates. She dated a fellow from Red Jacket, W. Va.
What was his name?
I can’t remember his name now. My boyfriend was from Logan, Alabama. When we came home for the summer we would make bets as to which one of us would get a visit from our boyfriends. I was happy to say that mine came from Logan, Alabama to visit me first. However, he went on to be a Protestant minister. After two years and two summers I came back to Logan and had to attend one summer session at Marshall to meet West Virginia requirements for teacher certification before I could teach. This was another waiting period for me. I might say however, when I graduated from high school I was 16 in December and graduated the following June. I already told you I had to wait a year before I was accepted at Berea. Well, once I got my teacher’s certificate, I was not hired my first year because I was not old enough to vote, I guess. So, I did work as most girls do anywhere that one can get a job. So I worked at G. C. Murphy’s. I was glad I didn’t have to work there long.
How long did you work there?
One winter until I got my first teaching job.
Where did you get placed?
I was living at Monaville and a board member George Vincent knew my father real well so he spoke on my behalf and I was placed at Lorado. The distance at that time was almost like going from here to Huntington.
That is pretty far.
So, I had to find a place to board.
Where did you board?
At the home of my future husband. His parents ran a boarding house and later a club house.
What were their names?
Freeman and Ethel Spears.
How long did you live there?
Until our marriage, which was a year later.
What was the date of this marriage? Do you remember?
Oh yes, March 16, 1940.
Do you remember how you met?
Well, when I went there to teach and to stay at Lorado, I went back to Monaville on weekends, and of course I had to ride a bus. I had a boyfriend in Logan who was interested in me; but I wasn’t really crazy about him. My husband-to-be was rather shy in asking me to go out with him. Incidentally there was a theatre with movies changing at least twice every week.
That’s quite often.
Yes, it was. I would be sitting up grading papers and he would be coming from the movies, so one night he came in and I was grading papers, I made some comment about having to stay and grade papers. So he offered to help me. “Then if I help you perhaps Wednesday night we can go to the movies together.”
Did you go to the movies?
Yes, We lived in a two story house and he said that he knew I remembered because I was dressed to go out when I came down to dinner. He said to me, “The movie begins at 7:30.” We met as I said in September and were married on the 16th day of March that following spring. In December of the same year, I might comfortably say, 9 months and ten days later my first child was born. We named him John. At this time we were living in two rooms of a four room house, eventually we furnished the rest of the house.
Where was this house?
At Lorado. We had open fireplaces and coal stoves and only cold running water. Our first was born on Christmas Eve. The community of Lorado was a very lively community; seldom does one find a shoe shop, a drug store, a theatre, a dry cleaning shop, a pool room, a dance hall, and a barber shop located in a coal camp.
This was all located at Lorado?
That was all at Lorado along with bus service everyday as well as train service.
A passenger train?
Yes, a passenger train.
How far did this train take you?
It came from Logan and returned to Logan from Lorado.
How often?
As well as I remember twice a day.
What can you tell me about your father-in-law?
He was tipple-foreman at the coal mines. He really helped us a lot our first years of marriage. We had it tough.
Financially?
Yes. There was a long coal strike which must have been in 1942 or ’43. That was a long stretch, but since my mother-in-law ran the club house we ate most of our meals down there. I recall when the strike was settled we had one dollar to our name.
How did you make it during that time?
When you lived in a coal company house, if you didn’t work, they could not withhold your rent money. In the summertime you didn’t need coal. Your living was very poor but, my in-laws helped us greatly. When we first married we didn’t have a car.
How long did this last?
A year. By the way, at that time a mother with a young child was not permitted to teach until the child was nine months old. I did apply for substitute work at Lundale and Lorado, after which I went to full time teaching. In November 1943 Joe was born, then the war broke out and I went to teaching again. It was a time of anxiety each time I went to the post office because all young men were receiving their calls to duty. My husband was exempted because he was a miner.
From Southern’s Appalachian Oral History Collection, Logan Campus, Logan, WV. Submitted by student Melinda Spears. Transcribed for this blog by Rebecca Bryant.
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