HENDERSON FAMILY
My paternal Grandmother Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese is the origin of my Henderson Line for me. I never gleaned as much info from her as I did from my Great-Aunt Alma Henderson Keener. But some of that could be because I was so young and never thought to question her much about our family history until it was too late and she was gone. My grandmother was a voracious reader and was a genius when it came to gardening and growing flowers, vegetables and more. Her root cellar was like a grocery store. She and Alma shared that passion for cooking, growing and canning. Unfortunately she died before I could learn more from her.
My grandmother Myrtle died when I was only 14 years old in December 1978. The week of the funeral I stayed with Aunt Alma. Boy could she cook. I ate better that week than I did at home in a month. But in retrospect my mother worked outside the home and barely had time to cook because of her work responsibilities. But for my Great-Aunt Alma cooking was a way of life. And I loved that about her. She took great pride in the simple things that many of us take for granted.
But after that week passed I charged ahead into the high speed pace of high school and college and didn't see Alma for another decade and several years.
After college I started making my way back to Highlands periodically and then after 1990 I picked up the amount of trips I made there every year. I often went with my dad. About 1992 or so when I visited Alma again for the first time in a decade and a half she reminded me that age 14 I was wearing headphones all the time and never talked to her much. Alma's memory was really keen. I told her I pretty much lived, breathed and slept music during that period of my life. But as I grew older I broadened my palate and developed a thirst for learning about history and our family and wanted her to talk to me about it.
When I first visited Alma again after college I remember thinking how much Alma & my Grandmother Myrtle sounded so much like each other. Alma's vocal tone, inflections and timbre were almost identical to my Grandmothers. I guess I notice those things more because I have worked in radio for multiple decades and talked to thousands of people on the phone and when I meet them in person I'm able to tell who they are because of their vocal tone and inflections. Every since I started working in the broadcast industry I have always been acutely aware of voices and their idiosyncrasies and tones and inflections.
More to the point, my Great Aunt Alma has been a huge help in collecting info on our Henderson, Moss & Stewart families. And she gained a bit of fame in her own right in her homeland in the North Carolina mountains. Asheville-Citizen Times columnist John Parris, who for years chronicled the lives and stories of the people and places of the Western North Carolina mountains wrote about Alma in June 1981--the article is below.
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Reese & Keener Families-
circa 1940 -Left to right, Claude Keener, Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese holding Lucy Reese, Alma Henderson Keener--front row-Bernice Keener Talley, Alice Faye Reese Sewell, Ben Keener, Furman Reese, Dallas Ray Reese Sr.
Alma died in 2001, and I was so sad when I could not attend the funeral. My dad, ever close to her, officiated the rites and for that I am grateful. He loved her so much.
HENDERSON KIDS- CIRCA 1922
Pine Creek, Jackson County North Carolina left to right-back row-Florence, Myrtle, front row-Alma and Bill(William Conrad) Henderson
Back in the early 1990s when my dad and I started doing family research we decided to visit as many relatives as we could to try and glean additional information on our family's history. And my dad's first thought was , 'let's go see Aunt Alma".
Alma had always been close to my dad, and during visits to Alma's house on the hill on Hicks road in Highlands North Carolina, I realized how much she and my dad both cared about the history of our families.
Alma however, would never consent to allowing me to video any of our interviews. So I did what any good reporter would do, I snuck a recorder into my pocket to record some of our family history talks. I valued the information and knowledge Alma had, even though she was a bit reticent to be recorded. She had a wealth of knowledge and even in advanced age she could remember with crystal clear vision things that had happened 75 years earlier. I marveled at her quick wit, common sense, and wisdom about life and her time growing up in the mountains. She was resourceful, smart, thrifty and very astute in observing the psychological ways of others. And she also was careful. Every time we talked she would warn me, "Dallas there are things you might not want to hear. We have skeletons in our closet and sometimes they are best left there" Well that intrigued me more than anything in the world. Who doesn't love drama? Especially when it's your own family. Listening back to some of these interviews, I realize now that Alma laid all the history out bare. She told me the good, the bad , the pretty and the ugly. The happy stories, the sad stories, the tales of drink and debauchery, the tales of mountain feuds and murders among family members, the love, the caring, the neighbor helping neighbor, the fight against the weather, the terrain and the joys and perils of survival. Alma did not hold back or pull any punches. And I appreciate that she shared our shared history honestly and with candor. I've always been the same way. Tell the truth, be candid with people and realize sometimes honesty will be painful but always realize the truth is the truth and that's what should be shared and that's the way it is.
Alma Henderson Keener and Dallas Reese in the mid 1990s Highlands, NC
The accomplished artist Hubert Shuptrine focused some of his work about the south on my Aunt Alma. He painted a picture called "Alma's Apples" Alma once told me how she bleached apples and said she had learned the technique from her Grandmother Octavia Norton Henderson. Hubert recorded her method in his description of his painting.
An excerpt below:
Highland’s own famous cook Alma Keener had invited Phyllis and me to her cellar to watch her bleach apples, a preserving method that was a carry-over from pioneer days. Firm apples were peeled, thickly sliced and put in a basket. Then Alma placed a pan of live coals in the bottom of an old-fashioned barrel and sprinkled a couple of spoonfuls of sulfur on the coals. Next, the basket was suspended over the acrid fumes. A quilt was draped over the barrel, intensifying the smoke. We breathed through wet bandannas.
Alma explained that a thorough smoking with sulfur kills germs that might otherwise cause the sliced apples to spoil. And she said that at the same time, the sulfur bleaches the slices so that they remain white for months.
Hours later, after the sulfuring, Alma put up the apple slices in jars or pottery crocks with white cloths loosely tied over the tops, then set the containers away for winter.
ALMA'S APPLES
The picture below is my Grandmother's family---taken circa early 1960s in Jackson County, North Carolina
Alma, Bill, Myrtle(my grandmother) and down front their parents(and my Great Grandparents) Deck and Dessie Moss Henderson.
I would be remiss if I also did not give a huge thanks to a cousin, Carl Stewart, who lives in the Pine Creek Community in Jackson County North Carolina. Carl has lived his life among the intertwined families of Henderson, Stewart, Moss, Hooper, Evit and others who populated the small communities of Erastus, Pine Creek, Yellow Mountain, Glenville and those enclaves so separated from the rest of the world in Jackson County North Carolina. Such was the isolation growing up in this area that these families were very tightly knitted together. And sometimes they fought as much as they loved. This is evidenced by the stories passed down to my Great Aunt Alma and my cousin Carl Stewart.
I visited Carl in late August in the summer of 2014 and we wiled away the day talking about our family. He took me out to the Stewart cemetery on his property, which has been in the family hundreds of years, and it's where our mutual ancestors are buried. We talked about each person there.
At the time in 2014 Carl was battling cancer and I'm happy to report that in 2020 he beat the cancer and is still working away diligently on recording and sharing our family history. He's a treasure and I so much appreciate and love him even though we haven't spent much time together because my life has been lived in so many distant corners of the country pursuing a music and radio career. Suffice to say he is in my heart because the same blood lines run through us both.
Carl also gave me many pictures that I highly value because they are of direct line ancestors that I had never seen before. Carl also had a copy of the original picture of the William Henderson(my Great-Great Grandfather) family taken in 1913 on Pine Creek. In that picture below are my Aunt Alma, my Grandmother Myrtle Cora Henderson Reese, My Great-Grandparents, Deck and Dessie Moss Henderson and my Great-Great Grandparents William and Octavia Norton Henderson. And there are friends of the family in the picture as well. (to be continued)
Dallas Reese & Carl Stewart, Yellow Mountain, Jackson County NC August 2014
WILLIAM AND OCTAVIA NORTON HENDERSON FAMILY
Pine Creek, Jackson County, North Carolina 1913
Left to right back row: Dessie Moss Henderson, Burnie Henderson, Deck Henderson, Mandi Stewart Evit holding Bertha Evit, Garfield Evit, Tish Watson, Eugene Henderson, Julius Moss, Ruthie Jane Stewart Moss,
(2nd row left to right) Myrtle Henderson, Florence Henderson, William Conrad Henderson(seated), Alma Henderson, Shirley Moss, William Henderson, Octavia Norton Henderson and boys seated in front, Lawton Evitt and Fred Evitt!