This 1928 sketch of a wash woman by Beulah Stevenson depicts what Clara White, Pineville’s wash woman, may have looked like.
Editor’s Note: At the request of his readers and in memory of Warner M. Montgomery, Ph.D, we will continue to publish his Adventure Travel stories for the time being.
In his Memoirs, Uncle Jay (J.K. Gourdin IV), wrote about many of the “colored” people in Pineville, some of whom were blood kin because of illicit trysts by his elders. This fact was known by all but spoken by none.
Buster Hamilton, who went fishing with Uncle Jay and Uncle Clarence in last week’s story, appeared in many events in the Memoirs. He was one of Uncle Jay’s closest childhood pals. He lived on Lazy Lane, one of the “colored” communities.
Man Cooper, a prominent member of the Pineville black community, was another of Uncle Jay’s buddies. His specialty was hunting partridges with bird dogs, but he was also known as the best fish fryer in the village.
The wash woman for both Gourdin families was Clara White, also a resident of Lazy Lane. She washed the clothes outside by hand using a ribbed washboard in a washtub. After the clothes were scrubbed clean, they were boiled in a cast iron pot over an open fire.
Clara heated the flatirons in front of the fireplace in a tenant house then rubbed them off on pinestraw. The heated irons were used to press the clothes on a long table in the little house. She delivered the fresh, clean clothes each and every day to both homes.
Each of the white families had a yard boy who was responsible for milking the cows, cutting firewood, shelling corn, and later, serving the automobiles. They were always on call for any other duties. Uncle Jay remembered Jacob Benekin and Elijah Gaillard as his favorite yard boys. They were taught to read by his mother. Elijah was also taught to drive.
On a trip to Charleston to pick up Uncle Jay’s older sister, Eljule (named for her two grandmothers, Ella and Julia), Elijah drove the 1932 Chevrolet while Jay and his father sat beside him on the front seat. At the YMCA, Elijah tied Eljule’s luggage to the front bumper, and she got in the back seat.
As the sun went down, Elijah began running off the side of the road. After several near crashes near Bonneau, Jay’s father chastised Elijah and took over the wheel. The elder relief driver floorboarded the Chevy and was soon weaving erratically from ditch to ditch shouting, “I can’t see! I can’t see!”
Fearing for his life, Elijah reached over and switched off the ignition, bringing the car to a sudden stop on the side of the road. An oncoming logging truck slammed on its brakes and jackknifed right in front of the deer-eyed threesome who had discovered the luggage had been strapped in front of the headlights.
Elijah was also credited with saving the Big House from a serious fire. He had been in the yard working when he saw smoke. Immediately, the clever yard boy summoned all the farm hands from the nearby fields. They cut a hole in the roof and poured water on the fire that had started between the chimney and the wall.
Elijah had a fancy bicycle mail-ordered from the Mead Cycle Company. It had balloon tires, a headlight, a horn, speedometer, and spring suspension. He and Uncle Jay rode their bikes all over the village and even out on the highway, which had not yet been paved. When word got out the boys had ridden as far as the Swamp Fox Inn on Highway 52, Uncle Jay’s mother reprimanded Elijah for endangering Jay’s life. From then on, Elijah was very protective of his friend saying, “If a car comes, it must hit me before it hits you.”
William Gant, the strongest man in Pineville, was able to lift a 200-pound bag of fertilizer in his teeth. He was also a jokester. His favorite line was, “Do you know why a cow chews his cud?” When there was no response, he would say, “Cause he can’t spit,” and bend over laughing. He got furious whenever his victim reminded him that “Cows ain’t ‘he,’ stupid.”
Gant’s anger also cost Uncle Jay his best friend. One Sunday when Elijah was taking up collection in his church, Gant shot him dead through the church window. He told the sheriff Elijah had been fooling around with his wife. Gant got out of jail the day after Elijah was buried.
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