Frederick Coley interview recording, 1993 June 28
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Rhonda Mawhood | —Mr. Coley, where you grew up? | 0:01 |
Frederick Coley | In Nash County around—they call it the Swift Creek section. | 0:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | The which creek, I'm sorry? | 0:11 |
Frederick Coley | Swift Creek. Swift Creek. | 0:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Swift Creek. | 0:14 |
Frederick Coley | Because back in 1934, that's when I began to know the trend of how peoples lived. I began to plow with steer on land. My father had a little tract of land he rented and he had one mule and one steer and he had me to plow the steer behind the mule and we had success at it. So down through the trend of time, things began to get a little better so he moved and he got a larger farm and there was 12 of us there at home, 12 children. It was pretty rough but he made it, and from that on up until 1938, '42, I would just farm under my father and didn't have any public work but my working on the farm. | 0:15 |
Frederick Coley | So in '42, the 12th of November, I was called to the army and I served down to Fort Bragg 14 days, and on out to Camp John T. Knight, Oakland, California. I stayed out there in Oakland for about three years and a few months. Then I came back here. Went to Fort Bragg, was discharged and I came on out the service and went home. My wife and I, we married the 23rd of June, 1945. You wasn't here along then. | 1:28 |
Frederick Coley | So we'd been successful up until now and after my father—I worked with him and he saw a point that I could do for myself so he led me into a point of going from my family myself. So I started renting. That was in 1946. So I rented on up until 1956, and it was a picture shown to me through and by my father's supervisor with the [indistinct 00:03:09] from Nashville. And he saw it was a opening for some farm to be sold and that was [indistinct 00:03:17]. So he said, "Seem like Fred would be a good one to take one of those farms," so I came down here and looked at it and I threw my eyes on this one and I went back and they saw an opening that the Farm Home Administration would make a loan for me so I bought this 82 acres in 1956. | 2:19 |
Frederick Coley | I had to rent it the first year because I was already renting and now my year hadn't ran out so I had to hold to that farm and rent this one out. So I've been here ever since, I say, '56 and through that I have been success. The house set over here in front of me here, that was over there. They moved that one out and I built this one in '65. And other than that and built a couple of shelter up there, a tube shelter for the tractor, and I built another barn to take care of the crop that I was making back at that time. It was good, I enjoyed it up until now and then in 1967 I was farming here, hard too. | 3:46 |
Frederick Coley | I worked in that [indistinct 00:04:57], on through [indistinct 00:04:58]. I went to Enco, [indistinct 00:05:02] machinery. I worked there until they changed over to Enco and I made that up until 1984 from 1967. And I retired, came here and been here ever since, and I've been blessed doing by the carrying out my work and stuff and knowing how to farm and to take care of what I had. | 4:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Well, thank you. Mr. Coley, I'd like to go back and ask you some questions about what you said. Thank you. Now your father rented land. What kinds of things did he grow on the land? | 5:33 |
Frederick Coley | Tobacco, cotton, corn, soya bean, cane. We were making molasses along then, our own. Not like we can go to the—and wheat, we had our wheat to make your own flour. So we all most lived at home and he had all his meat wares such as the swine. He had plenty meat for his family. In fact, it was 14 us at home at one time until some of them got the notion say, "I want to get married," so they went out, started their life of their own. | 5:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And the cane that your family raised, was that just enough to make molasses for the family or did you sell some also? | 6:36 |
Frederick Coley | Well, it was for the family because just about everyone in that community up in that way then was doing the same thing. Oh, yeah, they had a small place set up. They called it a cane mill and we would go there, knock the fodder off and then cut it and bunch it like you see people doing that wheat and stuff on the TV. Load it on the wagon or truck or something. It wasn't automobile truck. Truck the mule pull to prime tobacco. And we would take it over to where the little mill was and then hook the mule to the grinder and he carried around and around, and mashed the juice out it. And from there run into barrel and then pour it into the vat and just start cooking it. Cooking it then use like you use grandma molasses now. Yeah, we made it so far. That's the way we did that part of farming so all that I named we was farming then. The corn, soya bean, wheat, tobacco, cotton, all of that was on there. | 6:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And who owned the cane mill? Do you know? | 8:04 |
Frederick Coley | Well, just someone in the community and they all kind of boxed up like and got together and that's the way it turned out. | 8:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So was it only Black people who used the mill at this time? | 8:22 |
Frederick Coley | Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah, because I guess the rest of them—I ain't going to say the rest of them. They was able to buy theirs but we had to—my father then was knowledge enough to try to be successful raising their own food and stuff like that, so that's the way it turned out. | 8:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your father rented this land. Did he pay cash rent or was it— | 8:48 |
Frederick Coley | Mm-hmm. Cash rent, but at the end of the year after your crop come off then he would go over to Red Oak which is Mr. Henry Jones. I'll never forget him. I used to slip in the car and ride behind the seat and he didn't know I was behind the seat until we got there. He wouldn't whoop me. He said, "But if you do it again, I am going to whoop you." He did say that. So I slipped around enough to watch him to be able to do something for myself up until right now. Yeah, I was noticing him. I took good notice. | 8:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And Henry Jones, the man your father rented from— | 9:35 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, back in that day the fellow Henry Jones and that was his [indistinct 00:09:44] the bones to make the living fertilizer. You know you had to buy your fertilizer then so he would furnish my dad, the fellow Henry Jones, and in the fall when you sell your product and stuff like that, then that's when he would pay off. | 9:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | In the fall, okay. Was Mr. Jones a White man or Black man? | 9:59 |
Frederick Coley | White man. | 10:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So do you think that Mr. Jones was fair with your father or not so fair? | 10:08 |
Frederick Coley | Well, yeah, I think he was pretty fair with him because my father knew all about what he was doing and [indistinct 00:10:16] how far he did go that he could see him if he had made an error towards the part, unless he was in fertilizer or something like that. Other than that he was pretty fair with him. I think he was a nice fellow to my father and a lot of people did like him, and there's always can be one pillar, a tree, that you likely cut worse than you do the other. | 10:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did anybody ever talk about people who weren't so good to rent from? | 10:45 |
Frederick Coley | Did they ever talk about it? | 10:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Mm-hmm. | 10:53 |
Frederick Coley | Well, I would say, if I get your point clearly, the point that my father always would base on is the personality of the person that somebody recommend, and he would go to them and talk with them, if I get your point clear. And he'd always been successful with the 14 children up until they got able to go out on their own. He fed us. We all didn't get hungry. I run play just hard as ever up until '38. | 10:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And on the farm, what kind of work did the boys do and did the girls do when you were coming up? | 11:34 |
Frederick Coley | Chopping with that long arm Lizzie. We called it a long arm Lizzie, but to the weeding hoe and we put at least five or six or eight in the field with hoes, and up until my father was able to buy a gang plow in '37—I believe it was '38. I began to plow two mules with a gang plow and the rest of the family would keep it chopped with the weeding hoe. | 11:40 |
Rhonda Mawhood | This is my first summer in the South, Mr Coley. I'm not sure what a gang plow is. Could you tell me? | 12:17 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, well real neat. It's a two-wheel system, then behind the two wheels is the shank and the plow's on the ground and you put your hoes on it to decide what is growing here. And you have the middle splitters on it which one man could take care of four men's work of the two mules. If every man was utilizing the equipment that he would need as one man, see that was you was splitting the middle, you're siding it and the one man is doing all the four men work here with just two [indistinct 00:13:16]. I could take that without a cotton plow, see they did have nothing but cotton plow. That's just one little plow. [indistinct 00:13:26] about wide as my hand stretched like that. You side down this side and come back up on the other side. Well, it'll take me all day to plow two acres where I could take the gang plow and plow 14 acres a day. | 12:22 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Wow. | 13:40 |
Frederick Coley | We went into that. So the two horses that my father had, excellent, just like a man with a tractor today, I could plow and this and do the horses and that same way the tractors is doing now, not as much and not as fast, but it was much faster than out there was just one mule, one plow. That's all you could get. So I enjoy when the changes came up because I would break the land with one mule or two mules walking right in the little furrow about that wide, and go around and around all day breaking in one little piece of land where now the tractor I have up there now, I kept three [indistinct 00:14:29] bottom plows. I can break 21 acres a day now. That's the changes have been made. | 13:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Were you the oldest boy in the family? | 14:39 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, no. | 14:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | No? | 14:39 |
Frederick Coley | No. That's—my family sat right there. Wife, grandson, and my son and I. Now my sister, she was born away back there. She'd be about 83 years old now. 1911, somewhere back in there now. And the next sister and the next sister, three girls, then they start boy then. Then another girl, then three more boys after that as they drop down and I'm the seventh child of the 14. | 14:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | In the middle. | 15:22 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, I'm right dead in the middle. So she went through the procedure and process of all those children. Papa would take us and we were success to get up to what we might be today. Yeah, I haven't been hungry, not enough to say I wanted to cry. No, family been working real good with me. | 15:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you were working on the farm, were there jobs that the boys would do that the girls wouldn't do and also jobs that the girls would do that the boys wouldn't touch? Were there boys' work and girls' work on the farm? | 15:52 |
Frederick Coley | Well, I wouldn't be too specific about that of the different but one or two things, just as I said, with the plowing or going in the wood—along then we had to cut barn wood. We didn't have no burners in the barn and use oil, no looper and all that kind of stuff. Most of the ladies back along then would loop the tobacco but the boys in the field had to prime it, and we went along like that for a long time. | 16:07 |
Frederick Coley | And they wouldn't, I'd say, go out there and do the heavy work. Not the girls didn't along back in that day. Mostly the boys would do it and change around. The girl would sweep the yard. That's what we had branch broom along then, sweeping the yard, and I would get a whooping by the branch broom. Just a [indistinct 00:17:02] the thing you have in the house pushing the—what you call it, vacuum. | 16:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Vacuum. | 17:07 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, yeah, that branch broom, when I was little I would get it twice. Mama would put that on you quick if you mess with that branch broom, mess with that branch broom. So that was the girls' job. I didn't know of any boys sweeping yards and doing, but they would do the heavy thing that the mother didn't want the girls to do back in that day. But you know, you all have got to the place now you say, "I can do anything a man can do," so there you go. | 17:12 |
Frederick Coley | So we had [indistinct 00:17:39] on out there, until they find out they can't do it. I had one on my job down there at the end because she said, "Oh, I can do it." She put her helmet on. We doing construction work, building buildings and all like that. My ladder sitting here, her ladder was over there, and the beam on your shoulders, you go up to put that beam in. She tried to about three or four days. She couldn't make it. She had to come down. It's just knowing of a fact—well, I know ladies can do a lot of things and some of them can do more than a man can do but it's about knowing what you're doing. | 17:34 |
Frederick Coley | Because I was here myself. Now, my father didn't have but 45 acres. That was all, the woodland and everything, and we 10 children couldn't hardly keep it in good shape even though by being out there every day chopping or doing something every day, all except Saturday and—and sometimes Saturday until 12 o'clock, but now I did have a chance to use this 82 acres, which is 67 acres cleared. I kept that by myself and worked my job up until I retired, '84. So I'm thinking it's time for me to come in and kind of look the promised land over a little bit. | 18:24 |
Frederick Coley | I worked hard in my life, I mean hard, and my father had all his children then and we'd be on the farm that he was working half share work from about '35, I believe it was, until '37. And we would work out and go to other men farms which was—it was the White race and he would hire all Papa's children after he get through it our crop. We'd finish up maybe Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, then we'd be hired out. Different one would hire us. Got to be a lot for my father making a living for them 14 head of children. | 19:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So he cropped a while before renting. He farmed on half share before moving to cash renting? | 20:12 |
Frederick Coley | That's right, and then he was able to buy his 80-some acres back in '43, I believe, '42. Yeah, he was successful in renting up until he got a chance to buy this in '42. I was fixing to go in the service and it still stands up there now, the home site. Both parents are dead, and out of the 14, it's number 10 that's living now. So he made a tremendous move after coming up through the hard time. I mean hard, just like trying to climb this house with ice on the side of it. You can't get no hold. But he was successful. He came through the trend. | 20:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You say that times were hard and I'm sure they were. Were there some years which were worse than others or some years which were what you remember as being good years? | 21:17 |
Frederick Coley | Well, in the condition and what you could get for yourself, I would say in my way, it was hard. Well, I mean hard because if you didn't raise it, you didn't have the money to buy it so you just had to be without. But the people did learn the hard way and it was good with what it was because a lot of them now have—which I don't have anything to do with it, have a lot and don't know how to use it. So it still makes them in the hard time being suffered just like we were back then. Couldn't get it and now they can get it and go too extremely and then you still in the [indistinct 00:22:19] right on. That's the way I would say it in my way. | 21:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you were growing up, Mr. Coley, who made the decisions in your family? | 22:27 |
Frederick Coley | My father, and my second oldest sister, what he would outline to the family, what he wanted and how he wanted it. Then we would go from there and whatever the next oldest one would tell the younger one we going have to do because Papa had to be going, moving. He couldn't be around us not too much unless it was at night. He would place his orders and we'd go by them the next morning. He would tell us all what we had to do and what we was going to do and we did do it. Yeah, we did do that. | 22:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And your mother, Mr. Coley? | 23:16 |
Frederick Coley | Well, Mama was mostly [indistinct 00:23:25] and just the house mother of the 17 children. 14 lived to get grown but she did have 17 children all together and she was just as sweet as she could be, and she was when she died in '71. Yeah, she was sweet. I think about my father until today because he did. I didn't never go naked that I recall. I wasn't too hungry that I could sit down and cry about it. I always feel like I was able to get up and move, and he kept us in good shape. I'm going to say, too, with our obedience because if you didn't he sure would get hold of you, believe me. | 23:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What kinds of things would you be punished for, Mr. Coley? | 24:22 |
Frederick Coley | Quite a few. Well, if he assigned you to something and you act like you didn't hear it and you go the opposite way, he would call you back, tell you, "Didn't I tell you do so and so and so?" "I can't do that." He said, "Don't you never tell me you can't no more. If something you haven't carried out, if you haven't done or did such and such a thing, don't you tell me you can't do it because you can be trained to do it. Then don't say you can't." He'd whoop you if you say it one more time, if he heard you. | 24:28 |
Frederick Coley | And the girls, they would sometimes get loose off with the mother, which is Mama. "You let her do this today and then make me do that tomorrow." They'd fuss about that and one of them had to get whooped, so it turned out to be good because each one of them was firm with what they would tell you to do. If you didn't do it then [indistinct 00:25:39], somebody going to brush you. And most likely my father was waiting. If you did it this morning, he would whoop you this morning. He'll wait until you go to bed and in the morning, right bright and early come in and snatch the cover off. "I told you about such and such yesterday dinner. You failed to do it." He'd turn around and tear you up. You wouldn't forget it, I tell you that. No you wouldn't forget it. | 25:10 |
Frederick Coley | I haven't until right now. Last whooping, he whooped me up I was riding a steer, which now I was plowing the steer and I took the steer and went somewhere and he told me I wasn't supposed to do it and I, "But I just went like—" "You just come on in here." So that's when he got me. | 26:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How old were you, Mr. Coley? | 26:24 |
Frederick Coley | Well, that would have been '35. How old I'd have been back then. 14, about 14 years old, because I'm 17 now. Everybody laugh at me when I tell that, but I said, "Turn it around, just turn it around, vice versa, vice versa." 1922, February the 14th. I've been here ever since and I feel good about it. I didn't put in the application for the 71 more year and I always tell the people, "Anyone that don't have a future, life ain't too much time." Did you understand me? | 26:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | If they don't have a future—I don't know. | 27:16 |
Frederick Coley | Any person or human being don't have a future plan, it's not too much soon because he just as soon to walk along there and die when he step off the bottom doorstep. I don't care but I have a future. I want things better in life for me as the future come. If the Lord see fit me for to live 71 more years, I'm going to stay here, be happy. Try my best to. | 27:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What about school when you were growing up, Mr. Coley? | 27:47 |
Frederick Coley | Well, it was hard and only up until I almost finished elementary school. I was 7th grade. Started the beginning of 7th grade. Things got pretty tough with my father. He had ulcer in his stomach, he stayed pretty ill through the years from '38, '37. I could say '37, not '38. And it was pretty hard on him and that also carried him out in the length of years up until he died. | 27:55 |
Frederick Coley | But I could go to school when it rained, and I just saw the point and I loved the school. My principal was saying—H.Y. Cheeks, I loved him. He was a good principal, and I would go to school and he thought well of me. I just started driving along then. He would send me off along then. We had to get food at the school to help feed the children from up there in Nashville. I don't know what they call it. They helped setting up a food line, police up there. They bring it to the school and help feed the children back in that day. | 28:32 |
Frederick Coley | And I told Reverend Cheeks, I said, "Well, I want to finish grammar school," elementary school as [indistinct 00:29:29] and he said, "Well, come on, son. I'll let you take your lesson home." "I did but Papa ain't going to let me come to school if it no rain because there's no one there to help him now. All the rest of them is gone." So he was hard on me, so I put a few months in 7th grade, which I wanted to finish it. But then to go to school when it was rainy days or it looked like it was going to rain, I'm sitting in the back of the class, don't know what you all done being there regular. | 29:20 |
Frederick Coley | So I told my father it would be—"I think I could make it if I just cut it loose," so I did. I cut loose on my own. He didn't do it. I cut it loose, complete, and I think the Lord blessed me too with what I have gone through with Him to what I am today. I think He blessed me. I appreciate it. I [indistinct 00:30:29]. I believe I'm about done talked out. | 30:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm sorry? | 30:40 |
Frederick Coley | I believe I'm about talked all I know [indistinct 00:30:41]. | 30:40 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How many more questions? We'll see. Did you go to church when you were growing up? | 30:41 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, yeah, and still continue. Just came out of church about five hours, eight hours ago. | 30:46 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Which church did you go to? | 30:50 |
Frederick Coley | Swift Creek Baptist Church. | 30:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Swift Creek Baptist. | 30:56 |
Frederick Coley | I joined that church in 1934, around July the—I don't know what Saturday was on along then but July. Been ever since, and right now I'm fully with the choir. I am the president of my choir. And singing is just like eating a biscuit. If you can eat a biscuit, you can sing if you want to do it. My wife tell me she can't sing. I say, "Yes, you can. You can sing. All you have to do is put it." She can play the piano but she say, "I don't want to play because I haven't been trained the music, I haven't taken music." I said, "That don't have anything to do with if. God gave you a gift, you use it." So that's the way I see it. | 30:56 |
Frederick Coley | So you have church and all the activity of my life has been real good to me. I just hope I can continue. I don't have any seriously ailment. I'm feeling good now. I feel like I can get them and do my thing I've been doing. | 31:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Another 71 years. | 32:06 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, yeah. Right now, feels like I can go back and do a lot of thing I have. | 32:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Well, can you tell me about your baptism, Mr. Coley? You were talking about church. | 32:14 |
Frederick Coley | Well, how did— | 32:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How were you baptized? What was it like? | 32:23 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, yeah. Real sweet. I loved it. I played in the water anyway. A bunch of school and community children there, we played together every day when we could and especially on the weekend. We had a little ball club and stuff like that, and we'd go to different houses and play this week and that one next week, and go on like that. So when we joined the church there and they were telling us about you going to be baptized in the creek. Oh, we loved that. Oh, yeah, I wanted to go down there and be baptized right then. I wanted to play in the water there. | 32:25 |
Frederick Coley | So my pastor along there was Reverend Brooks and that was, as I said, that was back in '34. So we went down there and we all was lined up to go in the water. Some of them were pushing and, "You get back. I'm going in first." We enjoyed it. Yeah, we played around there until all of us was baptized and two or three of them said, "I don't care if I could go back in that water." Boy said, "If you didn't get rid of the devil the first time, you won't get rid of him next time." So we laughed that off and, sure enough it was fine and I loved it and I've been working diligently in the church ever since. I haven't been perfect. | 33:04 |
Frederick Coley | Thank you. I know exactly what that means. Thank you. I haven't been perfect but I haven't run into that barbed wire fence. I haven't run into that yet. Uh-huh, no, and don't intend to now because the things that I hadn't been perfect on, I know better now to even try it. So I detour and I think my life would be better than even thinking I could do it and would come out on the worst end because I'm not going to try it. | 33:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you were growing up, Mr. Coley, did you ever hear about anyone or know anyone who ended up in jail for some reason? | 34:32 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, well, quite [indistinct 00:34:44] but I didn't ever get to the fully point to find out back in that day. Up until right now there's a lot of things, just like you said, they won't open the gap to me so I can fully understand and see it. But I can hear about it, you know? Yeah, they be put in jail for a lot of things that they didn't even do but overruled, outruled, whichever way you want to call it. And, yeah, quite a few things which I can't even bring it directly out as I could if I'd have been definitely with it but I didn't know about it. Yeah, I had a friend. I don't know how he came out but he's out now, but he went in there. He stayed in there about 17 years, he said for something he didn't do, but he was about overruled so he was— | 34:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What was it that they said that he did that he didn't do? | 35:40 |
Frederick Coley | Some crime of a girl, but me just hearing them peoples rewashing, talking, I didn't get to fully understand now, but I knew he did go. He did do that but he said he didn't do it. He stayed away 17 year. | 35:59 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you were growing up, Mr. Coley, how did your parents teach you to act around White people? | 36:10 |
Frederick Coley | To mind your business, do what he say and that's what you would have to do. Up in my day, I can speak certainly about my day. Well, you would have to honor them and do exactly as I said what he said doing, and we did have some, you know, they fell. They got spanking, which I don't know about it, but I hear that they got spanking by not obeying the landlord, whoever it might be, that will tell them what to do. I told him I never reached that stage. I always was behind my father. They come to him, tell him how many he want or where you were going to work today and we would do it. We would do as my father told us to do. We didn't have no problem, not no fighting like that, but it was rough enough. That's all I can tell anybody at that time. It was rough, but there's a lot of things you can avoid if you don't try to settle it yourself. You take that? | 36:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | As long as you don't try to settle it yourself. | 37:37 |
Frederick Coley | That's right. A lot of things you can avoid if you don't try to settle it yourself, you know? That word is settle, means don't bother with it. Leave it alone, just try and go another way. I call it detour. If you walk right on into it, "Yeah, I'm going to stop this. I'm going to do so and so," you might get in trouble, but if you detour you might have a chance to go around and come back again. | 37:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So you told me that in 1942 you went into the Army and you went to California? | 38:11 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, left Fort Bragg and went right straight to Camp John—no, Camp Stoneman, Pittsburg, California. That's where my training system was over there. Got all my fully training there then they transfer us over to Camp John T. Knight, Oakland, California, and from that they put us in the fully Quartermaster Battalion. That's mean work. Along back in that day we weren't crossed up there. We was primarily our race back in that day. They hadn't started yet putting everybody in the Army. | 38:18 |
Frederick Coley | So we went into working battalion down on the dock where you load all this cargo, equipment, food, everything shipped oversea. That's where I worked at to the almost time to come home. Winch operator, I was required on the ship. Loaded from the dock down in the ship. And mine turned out real neat now. I mean I didn't have no objection, anything concerned. I mean going on the four years that I was in there, everything worked real smooth. I did get a chance to make literate, read. By the time that happened, President Roosevelt, [indistinct 00:40:09] he was be able to look back and so he said, "It's all over." That's when we left to come home. | 39:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | You had White officers in the Army? | 40:13 |
Frederick Coley | Commander, the Post Commander, he was White. And the Colonel, he was White, but all the rest of them was my boys and my company, not with the White ND. What do they call that company now? A, B, C, D? I was in B, but no, we didn't have any White officer, no more than the Post, the Post Commander and then Lieutenant Colonel and all like that. Now they was White, but all our officers was Black race, yeah. | 40:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And the men in your company, were they from the South and from the North? | 41:17 |
Frederick Coley | They from the South and from the North because our First Sergeant was named Sergeant Boone. He was from Tampa, Florida, I believe it was, somewhere down in there. Good boy too. He's dead now, but he was a good man. And Sergeant Dronie, he was from Chicago down there. Yeah, Chicago. Well, I could name quite a few of them, and we was real good until President Roosevelt died and then that's when all the [indistinct 00:42:01] was over and I came home. | 41:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And then when you came home, you started renting your own land? | 42:06 |
Frederick Coley | Right. | 42:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | '46 you told me? | 42:10 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, mm-hmm. | 42:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And who did you rent from then, Mr. Coley? | 42:10 |
Frederick Coley | The small setup of what I was doing, this lady was named Ms. Melanie Kember and her brother was in charge, but I rented the little small one-horse or I called it one-mule little set up. It wasn't large, but what it was, it was farming. Then I left from there and I went to up in the part of Nashville in North Carolina, and I rented up there from Brisco Gasaway for two years up there, and I was living on that Red Road they called it. I was successful up there. | 42:19 |
Frederick Coley | So that's when the beginning of this rental farm, I told you a while ago, that Mr. Wellworth got in touch with my daddy. It was six farms to be sold and he was hoping that I would be interested in one of them, and that's when I came back and started to rent up in the Swift Creek section, along then everybody called it [indistinct 00:43:34] on up in there. And that was the old family of [indistinct 00:43:40] one farm. I rented that about five year. Then I saw sight on this. I came down here and looked at this farm. I said, "I believe it would be better for the future to try to get some of my own," so that's when I made the move here. | 43:04 |
Frederick Coley | So six of us men bought just about Brick's community out except where it sets on back that way to the creek. Bricks still own that but from going into the yard from here back this way, that been bought to and by Reverend Patway, myself. Across the highway would be the Nancett [indistinct 00:44:32], the [indistinct 00:44:32] and Alonzo [indistinct 00:44:36]. That'd be six, and R. E. Moore, Raymond Moore. So we bought the six farm and from that time up until now I've been successful. I feel good about it and I feel like my wife is satisfied at it. She haven't fussed and decided to get up and leave yet, so I just feel real thanksful for whatever happened in my life. It could've been worse, but I would go back over it again if I had to, but not by '37. I wouldn't want to go back any further, but from '37 up until now, '38, let me say '38, I wouldn't mind trying it again. | 44:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So you were saying that from '37 on things were— | 45:28 |
Frederick Coley | Real rough, real. | 45:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And before that your parents were sharecropping. | 45:38 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. | 45:40 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So that wasn't—okay. So they— | 45:41 |
Frederick Coley | Well, doing most anything somebody would let them do. They didn't have anything of a choice of their own. They had to do what somebody said do. | 45:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you bought your own land, you said you bought it through the FHA? | 45:58 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, that's right. | 46:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Can you tell me a little bit about how that worked? How you made payments and so forth? | 46:05 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, if you were set up being established before you go into it—usually you had to make a down payment if you wasn't worth it through and by your property or whatever you have. So I was able to bring all my setup along with me here, so I didn't have to fork up any money. All I would have to do was to come on here and go to work then my payments started during that fall. | 46:10 |
Frederick Coley | I didn't have to make a down payment, which maybe some other did have to do it because they weren't able to come in as I did. I had my equipment and everything was covered up enough to take care in case something should happen they could sell what I have and make the first payment down, if things hadn't have gone right or good, so everything worked good with me and— | 46:46 |
Frederick Coley | At the end of the 21 year of the fall, I just told him I would like to get [indistinct 00:00:11]. Donald Road, he was my probably my own supervisor along then. He said, "Fred, you don't have to do that." I said, "Yeah, but I want to see the—" So I just went on and paid it. And so far, I haven't been in the hitch or a hang up since I did that. It seemed they run along fine. | 0:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So do you feel like you got a pretty good deal from the FHA? | 0:34 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah. | 0:42 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Or it wasn't—? Just wondering what you think of your dealings with the FHA. | 0:42 |
Frederick Coley | I feel like I did. I guess I did, by knowing the past future up to the present. Excellent, excellent. | 0:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Compared to how it was when you were growing up? | 0:57 |
Frederick Coley | Oh yes. Oh, excellent. | 0:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you ever hear about anybody, or know anybody, who didn't feel like they got such a good deal from the FHA? | 1:08 |
Frederick Coley | I have been hearing them talk by being in the present of a lot of people because I used to go to all the meetings. But see, I couldn't rablish it out for me to be able to discuss it because I wouldn't know exactly what I'd be talking about. So that's the way I feel about that. Oh yeah, it's a lot of them have got some ups and downs. But then you have to think again, it's according to how you utilize your own mind and to be successful with. You can't lean too far one way. You can't get back. That's spending too much of your money now. Or if you get your money, you put it somewhere you shouldn't be putting it. You done made another mistake. So I can't challenge my on it because I don't know what they did do. They didn't tell me the whole history. But some of them have had a hard time in buying home through Farm Home Administration. But everything with me was smooth, just smooth, all light. No headache at all. | 1:17 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And you were telling me that you got married in 1945. | 2:23 |
Frederick Coley | June 23rd. Just the other day. So you can give me a gift when you get ready to leave. | 2:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Oh, that's right. Happy anniversary. | 2:37 |
Frederick Coley | 23rd of June 1945. | 2:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And may I ask you where you met? | 2:37 |
Frederick Coley | Where we met? | 2:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Where you met? | 2:37 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, just up there in this quick section, which I was telling you about, where she and I both were living, but not too far apart. Maybe something like 3, 4, 5 miles apart. She was going to one school, Rockland. I was going to Silk Creek. And in that, met. And I said a pretty good word, and she accepted. And I left then, and after I called, dating her up for about two years, I left and went in the service and came back. And I told [indistinct 00:03:42] do what I need to do. Where is that? 23rd of June. So we got married. | 2:54 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And you have children? | 3:54 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah. That one on the right behind me, that's my son. And that's my grandson behind grandmother. | 3:56 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So is this your only child or you had others? | 4:06 |
Frederick Coley | Well, we lost one. The girl. She was little older than my son. | 4:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So when your son was growing up, did he work on the farm with you? | 4:17 |
Frederick Coley | No. No. He couldn't. He couldn't do any of that work. I kept him, in fact, my wife—I kept him out of the fear of my knowing. Because the same thing I was telling you while ago, concerning one man could do four men's work. That had turned into that at the time he was coming on. So it wasn't like when I was with my father. See, he would've had to been here if I was in the same predicament that my father was in. Yeah, I would've had to use him. I would've had to. | 4:21 |
Frederick Coley | So I planned things, fixed things so I could do it by myself. So my wife kept him in school. So I don't know if I'm right or not, but now he's in good shape. There in Richmond, about the top kicker of the post office there in Richmond, one of them, supervisor. She was telling us something. | 4:59 |
Frederick Coley | I enjoy him, and I hope he'll continue. He never gave me no trouble, and I hope he'll continue to do it. He's 44. Shirley would be 45. And I'm 17. | 5:27 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Then I'm much older than you are. | 5:52 |
Frederick Coley | Huh? | 5:55 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Then I'm much older than you are. | 5:55 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, he is a little bit younger than I am. I'm a vice versa. Little bit younger. | 5:59 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So would you say that you, except for the farming, which your son didn't have to do because you had the machinery, would you say that you brought up your son in a similar way to how you were brought up? Or was it different? | 6:12 |
Frederick Coley | No, it was different. Way beyond different. And I saw the point that I could do the things that I had to do for my father, or he had to do to hold me down, that that's the main difference I wanted to bring out clearly. See, what Papa had to do. It was brought into future, of my knowledge, to change things that I could do it myself. Then he could do that way that he did do. And she looked after him, and he stayed in it. Milwaukee, St. Augusta, and something up there in Raleigh NC State or something. He been to all of them, and he's qualified. I didn't cut any of his privilege off. So it makes him a little more today, and I hope he'll just stay with it. He's supposed to come in here one day next week, I reckon there. Might come this week. He get home sick, wants to see his mama. He'll come on home. | 6:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So you bought this land right close to the Bricks School. I guess the school itself was closed by that time. But did you have dealings, have contact, with the people over at the Bricks Center? | 7:54 |
Frederick Coley | Yes. I used to bring children right through here to go down there to finish their course and stuff like that. From up my school where I was going. When it was just a little something they didn't quite complete. Then during the summer, they could come down here and do it, complete it. Yeah, that was back in my day, too. And I began to learn a lot of peoples here before I moved here, the older people. But the younger ones, and the one that moved in here from different places, Pine Top and [indistinct 00:08:56]. Well, I didn't know them, but they moved here. Then I become to know them. | 8:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How do you think the people who went to the Brick School got along with other people in the community? | 9:05 |
Frederick Coley | Real good. Yes, Lord. This hadn't been [indistinct 00:09:19] people a long time ago. Yeah, we had our post office up until a few years ago down there. My wife, she was Assistant Postmaster down there, and everything ran real good. | 9:14 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So while you were farming, you said that you worked at Phillips Ivy and Enco? | 9:40 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, Phillips Ivy and Nelson Mink, the machinery, which that is the same one as I'm thinking you said, Enco. It was just the Nelson moved out and turned the name into Enco, of the land park that have it now. It worked good. Everything worked fine. I worked there about 16 years. | 9:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And farmed along at the same time. | 10:12 |
Frederick Coley | Carried it right on myself up until—I just remember now that the main year, a certain year I started renting it. But it's been about 13, 14 years. | 10:13 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That you started renting out your land? | 10:24 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, this whole set of 67 acres. | 10:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Who did you rent it to when you rented? | 10:30 |
Frederick Coley | The same fella I have now, which is Mr.—I'm trying to recall his name. You know I know his name. William Dickens. That's Richard Dickens. I'm trying to call two names in into one. But it's Mr. Richard Dickens. Yeah. He stayed down in [indistinct 00:10:53] side down around the little old place down there below World Store, in a way. Yeah, he tend all the land around up here, across through where you turning here. He tend that on left side the highway too. He rents all of there and some more. | 10:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And so you were working there at Enco and Phillips Ivy and renting for a while. And Mrs. Coley was Assistant Postmaster. | 11:15 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah. And then left the Postmaster Assistant down here, after that Blanc didn't have enough register. You accept there, and they have the boxes and mail coming in to obtain a post office. So they went to Whitaker. So then she left then and went to Parkview Hospital. I don't guess you know about that. You hearing about it, though. But they had discontinued Parkview Hospital now. She was there two years. Then she been there with Nash General ever since. Nash General. | 11:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'd like to ask you a few questions about changes that you've seen. We've talked about changes about your family, changes in farming, and changes in how you held your land and so forth. But what about electricity? When did you first get electricity where you lived, in your house? | 12:13 |
Frederick Coley | I was trying to think real fast and quick. 65. | 12:37 |
Mrs. Coley | '64? Oh, it was before. | 12:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So this is just Mrs. Coley thinks that, remembers, electricity being in the house and '49 or '50, probably 1950. So Mrs. Coley was talking about electricity, having electricity around 1950 or so. | 13:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I asked you about dealings with White people, but I'd like to ask you about segregation itself. How would you say that the segregation was set up where you lived? How the boundaries were set up? | 13:25 |
Frederick Coley | Well, according to what I heard you all saying there, right there, a few minutes ago, that's about the history of my knowing about it. Because it wasn't anything I could find out because I couldn't go there. And all I could do, before I left out here, is what they said do. And haven't been too many years ago. If you didn't do it, you were being punished, beat to death or something. That would happen. | 13:52 |
Frederick Coley | So in my category, I was just a mindful person. Whatever one they was in charge of me, I just go and do it. And it made a success for me. I didn't never get no trouble. Nobody never abuse me and abuse me up. So it's one thing I could say, but I never been through it myself. But I've known it to happen. So I don't know. I can leave that part off because I can't prove it. And they said if you don't know a thing, you shouldn't bother with it. Or if you don't know where you going, you don't stop or you going to get lost. So a lot of things I do know, and would be helpful to, maybe, someone to know it. But I just feel like if I don't know the beginning of it, I can't end it. Definitely not part of that. | 14:27 |
Frederick Coley | But I have been successful, and all my family. And a lot of things we have wanted and needed, we knew we couldn't get it. That we'll never have it. So I can handle it. But still, I couldn't get it because wouldn't have it. | 15:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What do you think is the cause of your success? | 15:48 |
Frederick Coley | What Mama say about that? That being courtesy, honoring. Because a lot of them, if you didn't honor them, didn't pay you no attention. If you asked for a bill of food, wouldn't give it to you. So I would be in success, and obeying just like I did my father. Because see, I worked on a lot of Whites that, actually, if I had a veered, either this way or that way, I'd been out of the picture. | 15:55 |
Frederick Coley | But I didn't kiss and hug. But I obeyed what he said, and then I laid mine on the table. If he accept it, then I kept going. Now I worked at Enco. I was just successful at Enco as any man that ever been in the White House. I don't care who it is. It was a future to me, and I came out good with it. So that's me. I said I enjoyed it, and was successful for me. I learned a lot of things. I went to travel, and I just learned things. And it showed me how to get in this track to continue success or to move over to keep from being humble, or I couldn't get to the point of view of my life I would like to be. | 16:28 |
Frederick Coley | So that's the way I vetoed a lot of things to keep on being involved. Because I couldn't have been to where I am today, maybe, if I'd have stuck my mouth in. I believe you get my point. | 17:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes, sir. | 17:32 |
Frederick Coley | And it's a lot of things that I do know. They don't need to say anything about it because I can't help. I can't do nothing by it or anything. So just being on the leaning side, as my mother used to sing the song, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. That's what I'm doing. And I've been through a lot of whacks, but she was sleep. But I was laying there counting the little slats across in the—bawling, wondering what I was going to do to tomorrow. | 17:33 |
Frederick Coley | And then the song still sticks. Precious Lord, take my hand. And I leaned on that, and I've been success. I feel good. They didn't come in and tell me this morning, "You better get out of that bed. Don't you fire." If I see you move, sit, say the thing again. Nobody tells you. No one have told you, you fired. I can't let you have this—my license. I can't let you have no money until the first of the month. That have been in a lot of White with us. Because they was getting a monthly salary to live by. But it just like I said once before in this same setup, I said, now you can have something and don't know how to utilize it. You might run short, and then you go back. You can't get it over again. You can't eat the cake and have it too. That's the way I see it. | 18:08 |
Frederick Coley | So I tried to use all my loads that I came up with and through to look to a future where I wanted to go. And I made it. It was a little bit. I could put that in the palm of my hand, but I used it. I didn't just throw it everywhere. I used it, and they came out on top just like it's today. | 19:22 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Who did you look up to when you were growing up, Mr. Coley? | 19:48 |
Frederick Coley | Who did I look up to? | 19:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Mm-hmm. | 19:56 |
Frederick Coley | Well, my father. He led me straight as I live off the same different training and the things he taught me off to a future. Even sitting down that tree. The wind blew it down the other day, and he sat there and told me what I could do. That's when I was leaving from up there and moving here. He said, "If you go there and tend to your business, work, keep things moving, stir it and turn, you have just a good farm as you see in North Carolina." | 19:57 |
Frederick Coley | And he didn't tell me, say—well, I went on by his raising of me to train from where I was working under him on his. And it was success. I even cared on his farm and mine since I've been here. And yeah, he was sick. Just like I say, he had hustle, and he carried him out. And he died. | 20:38 |
Frederick Coley | So I just appreciate today of what the Lord showed him to build in me. And then I can see it up today. And living from it, too, and successful, doing fine. | 21:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did your brothers and sisters all stay farming? | 21:19 |
Frederick Coley | No, they started leaving in '37. Well, my oldest sister left in '29. She's the one that was about 1911. She would be around 80 something now. And on down the line, they kept stepping out, maybe one or two at a time. Because for a long time, it was everybody at home except two. There was 12, plus Mom and Papa still made 14. And we made it, and then another one stepped out, then another one on down the line till they got down to 1938 and got down to me. I was the only boy that was capable of doing in the work. The rest of them was so much younger than me, they wasn't, to do in the work. So that's the way we made it. | 21:24 |
Frederick Coley | That's one reason I had to be, just like I said, drop my own self out of school. Because I could go when it was raining, when it's cloudy or wet and I couldn't plow. "You go to school today, boy." Kept that up until I go. Then I'd sit in the back of the class. I said it over again. I didn't know whether the children was, and I didn't know how to catch up with them. I didn't know whether it was holding what subject we had and all like that. | 22:16 |
Frederick Coley | So I told my dad, I said, "I'm going to quit." He said, "You going to quit?" I said, "Yes, sir." I said, "I don't know where I am when I go back there." I said, "I missed so many days." He said, "Well, that's the way you feel about it. I'll do what I can to help you and take care of you." I got on with it, and I've been successful at every move I made. I've been successful at. He told me that. And he did help me too. He didn't have to furnish anything, but he just gave me advice, what to do and how to do. And I took it in, put in my little book. When I want to remember, I just look somewhere. It just pop right in my face, and I could see it, just plain as that alarm there. And I've been successful with it. | 22:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Well, I'd like to ask about something else. Earlier I was asking you about church, and I never asked you about holidays. | 23:52 |
Frederick Coley | Holidays? | 24:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What holidays did your family celebrate, Mr. Coley? | 24:04 |
Frederick Coley | Fourth of July. We have family reunion in July, and we have family— | 24:09 |
Frederick Coley | Well, let me see. Father's Day, which was the last Sunday the 20th. Not yesterday. Sunday back. We celebrate Father's Day and all like that. And different ones just have a talk. And different, I can't hardly call the name of all the things that I know, but anyhow, they set up a little program. And each one have a part in and just celebrate Father's Day. And I'm going to have to get my wife now because I don't know if she gave me a Father's Day gift or not. If she did, I'm going to forgive her for what I'm saying. | 24:21 |
Frederick Coley | But anyway, coming down to Thanksgiving. Oh, they have a time on Thanksgiving. Celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, 25th day of December. We have a nice time. | 25:05 |
Frederick Coley | And what was the others that you asked me? | 25:26 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Well, I was just asking about holidays. I was wondering how your family celebrated Christmas when you were growing up? | 25:30 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, put out out all the little boxes and make us go to bed, and said Santa Claus going to come down that chimney. Oh my God. We'd almost had a fit then. Because we didn't want him to come. And probably had fire in the fireplace too. Didn't have no heat along there. I said no. We didn't have understanding to know it wasn't true. And that was good too. Because playing was better in that way of Christmas back then than it might be now. Because children so grown now they say, "There's no Santa Claus." It might knock you out you come up there and talking about Santa Claus. | 25:37 |
Frederick Coley | But we was actually nervous when Christmas Eve came out. We would go to bed, wrap up our head, cover up our head. But they would tell us to pull our box out before we go to bed so Santa Claus would put stuff in there, your gifts. And now we would do it, and talking about balling out the bed the next morning, run into there to see what you had and all like that. And it was real good. I enjoyed it. And sure then. | 26:17 |
Frederick Coley | And on Valentine's Day, then, they celebrate that pretty much here. And I tried to eat all I can and not be hungry and just rest. Tell her, she said, "You eat too much anyway. Every time I see you in that kitchen." I said, "Well, I enjoyed the 14th day of February." | 26:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's your birthday, isn't it, Mr. Coley? | 27:09 |
Frederick Coley | Yes. Yes, it is. | 27:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | When you were kids growing up, did you celebrate your birthdays? | 27:13 |
Frederick Coley | Well yeah. They would cook a cake for, and then called in little community children. And all us get there in the yard, and they enjoyed themselves. That hadn't been too long stopped carrying on. In certain community. Little children have a little quick get together. I don't know. Some of them is doing that now there in Rocky Mountain. They get together. If you can hold them together, but most of them now have got so grown and hardheaded until they just, you can't hardly get handhold to them. But they going, [indistinct 00:27:56] they would stay back so you could. And hear here and hear me. But they hardheaded. They won't do that. "But I want to do it. Whether it's right or wrong, I want to do it." | 27:17 |
Rhonda Mawhood | If it's all right with you Mr. Coley, I have some biographical information and family information that I'd like to ask you. We ask everyone who we interview, just things like your date of birth, which you already told me. But your parents names and so forth. Would that be all right? Anything that you don't want to tell me or don't remember, just let me know, and we'll just move on. Would that be okay? | 28:14 |
Frederick Coley | As far as I can say, my understanding about it, yeah. It'd be okay. | 28:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 28:42 |
Frederick Coley | You can't put them in jail anyway. | 28:46 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Nope. | 28:47 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, they should. There at Swift Creek, I was standing looking at the grave yesterday. | 28:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Where are your parents buried, Mr. Coley? | 28:48 |
Frederick Coley | Right there at Swift Creek. | 28:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Swift Creek. | 28:49 |
Frederick Coley | You don't know by anything around here, do you? | 28:50 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I've been over Swift Creek. I've seen the bridge and been over there. I'm not sure I know where the church is. | 28:50 |
Frederick Coley | Oh yeah. If you've been over that Swift Creek Bridge, they got have the name on that, Swift Creek. It's a stone bridge, steel bridge. Okay. You're back right back towards you and I now, and the first crossroad there that's leaving— | 29:09 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I know where that is. Okay. Okay. I would go by it every day. | 29:29 |
Frederick Coley | All right. | 29:30 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I've been there. | 29:31 |
Frederick Coley | Then if you make a right there now, if you go through Hickory by, what the name of that place, babe, where you buy logging stuff down there. I can't recall the name of the place to plant. But you go through Hickory, keep straight on. You going Swift Creek. It was a school then. That's part of the extension. | 29:31 |
Frederick Coley | You go in Whitaker, make a right, or if you go right out there and make a right. And you won't have to turn until you get to Swift Creek Church. You come to stop sign and all like that. But you won't have to go right out there where you turn to come in this dirt drive here, make a right, you can go just to straight to Swift Creek as I would get up and go in the bedroom. | 29:53 |
Frederick Coley | I have so many ways I can go, I can lose you, but that is real straight. And then to go, as I said, then, if you go out to the Swift Creek, I mean to the highway out there, and keep straight, when you get up to the crossroad you were talking about, when you make a left you right at that bridge. That steel bridge. That's what they called the Swift Creek Bridge. | 30:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. So your last name is spelled C-O-L-E-Y, is that correct? | 30:54 |
Frederick Coley | You exactly right. If you ever been in California, you'd have called me Coola. That's what they called me out there Coola. | 31:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Hmm, interesting. Do you have a middle name Mr. Coley? | 31:10 |
Frederick Coley | No, I don't have. | 31:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And I don't know your first name, sir. What's your first name? | 31:16 |
Frederick Coley | Frederick Coley. | 31:20 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Frederick. | 31:21 |
Frederick Coley | F-R-E-D-E-R-I-C-K. | 31:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Your address is RFD1. Which is that? | 31:31 |
Frederick Coley | Well, they use that at the bottom. But it's Post Office Box 594. | 31:35 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 31:40 |
Frederick Coley | What it is. | 31:42 |
Frederick Coley | I'm reminding you again on what I said, since we lost our post office down there, then they bring the mail now from the post office. I just rent my box for mine at the post office. Nobody pick mines up, and we won't get it. And it'd be displaced and all like that. By me, I'd go way out there to where the mail, come into the dormitory out there. So I just rent me a box. | 31:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And when I write your name on the tape, Mr. Coley, how would you like it to be? Frederick Coley? Just like that? Or do you usually go by Fred? How would you like you to write your name? | 32:20 |
Frederick Coley | Frederick. Frederick Coley. | 32:31 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Frederick Coley? | 32:32 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah. A lot of people don't know me then. | 32:34 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 32:38 |
Frederick Coley | You get my point. | 32:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | They won't know you as Frederick? | 32:40 |
Frederick Coley | Oh, I forgot I'm telling it. Yeah. Because they know me by just call me Fred. | 32:45 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. We'll put you as Frederick. | 32:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And, let's see, you were born in February 14th, 1922. | 32:47 |
Frederick Coley | Right. Close there. | 33:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What? | 33:04 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, that's right. | 33:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's right? Okay. | 33:06 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, you was right close on there. | 33:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And where were you born, Mr. Coley, exactly? | 33:10 |
Frederick Coley | Swift Creek Community. Nash County. | 33:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Nash County. | 33:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And I have some information I need to tell about Mrs. Coley, if I could. Your name? Mrs. Coley's name? You can since you can—can you give me Mrs. Coley's name please? | 33:12 |
Frederick Coley | Yes I can. Lillie. | 33:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How do you spell Lillie? | 33:41 |
Frederick Coley | L-I-L-L-I-E. Lillie B. Coley. | 33:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | B. Okay. | 33:41 |
Frederick Coley | Lillie B. But her name is Beatrice, but I call her Lillie B. | 33:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And Mrs. Coley's date of birth, if you don't mind? | 33:41 |
Frederick Coley | July the 7th, 1927. | 33:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Thank you. And her place of birth? | 33:41 |
Frederick Coley | Nash County. | 33:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Nash County. And for Mrs. Coley's occupation, should I put Postmaster? Assistant Postmaster? | 34:25 |
Frederick Coley | No. | 34:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And could you tell me your mother's name please, Mr. Coley? | 34:36 |
Frederick Coley | Mrs. Annie Mary Coley. We call her Annie M. Coley. | 34:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And her maiden name? | 34:46 |
Frederick Coley | Abent. | 34:51 |
Rhonda Mawhood | How? A-B-A-N-T? | 34:57 |
Frederick Coley | A-B-E-N-T. | 34:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. E-N-T. Okay. | 34:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And when was she born, Mr. Coley? | 34:57 |
Frederick Coley | Ooh. She was 14 years old. 15, 14 or 15 years, older than the oldest child. That was 1911. So we better give you an idea about when she was born. | 35:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So about 1897 or so? '96. | 35:28 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, somewhere around in there. | 35:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And you told me she died in 1971? | 35:38 |
Frederick Coley | Three. | 35:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | 1973. | 35:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And where was your mother born, Mr. Coley? | 35:47 |
Frederick Coley | I would still say in Nash County. I know she'd never been out of Nash County. | 35:49 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And for your mother's occupation, what should I write, sir? | 35:57 |
Frederick Coley | Sweet wife, home lady. | 36:01 |
Rhonda Mawhood | I'm going to write it just like you said. | 36:07 |
Frederick Coley | Then put Mother on the end. | 36:08 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 36:23 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And okay. And your father's name, Mr. Coley? | 36:23 |
Frederick Coley | Mick Coley. | 36:28 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And do you know about when your father was born, Mr. Coley? | 36:29 |
Frederick Coley | About two years before my mother. I'm going to say it in that way. Or three. | 36:37 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 36:43 |
Frederick Coley | Yeah, he was older than she. Not too much. | 36:43 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And when has he die, Mr. Coley? | 36:44 |
Frederick Coley | '62. '62. | 36:44 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And was he also born in Nash County? | 36:57 |
Frederick Coley | Uh-huh. That's all I hearing, Nash County. I can remember when he died because he died the same year I bought that tractor down in the shed. 1962. | 36:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Did you ever know your grandparents, Mr. Coley? | 37:09 |
Frederick Coley | A little bit. | 37:09 |
Rhonda Mawhood | A little bit? | 37:09 |
Frederick Coley | My mother, but I didn't know my father. His name was Ben Abent. And my mother's mother was named Monet Abent. | 37:17 |
Rhonda Mawhood | What do you remember about them? | 37:38 |
Frederick Coley | Just stayed out the way so they wouldn't whoop me. They running from Long Bed. We got cake and ice cream and popcorn and stuff like that. If you ever saw him all them, it was just like Christmas with—so I enjoyed them. I enjoyed my grandparents. Bobby Abent. She was the step-grandmother after Mama's mother died. Grandma Bobby Abent. She was real sweet. | 37:40 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And were your father's occupation, I'll write farmer. | 38:19 |
Frederick Coley | Farmer and good provider. That's all I can say. He was a farmer and a good provider. Nobody else may not give it to him, but I'm going to give it to him. | 38:31 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And I know you had a lot of brothers and sisters. Can you give me some of their names or all their names or all of their names? | 38:34 |
Frederick Coley | All of them, but I don't know when they were born. Nothing like that. | 38:46 |
Rhonda Mawhood | That's fine. | 38:48 |
Frederick Coley | That would be Learo Coley. | 38:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Could you—? How was the— | 38:48 |
Frederick Coley | Learo. | 38:48 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Learo? | 38:48 |
Frederick Coley | L-E-A-R-O. | 39:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 39:06 |
Frederick Coley | Beatrice. Erma Beatrice Coley. | 39:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Erma Beatrice. Okay. | 39:06 |
Frederick Coley | Ethel Coley. | 39:06 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Esther? | 39:06 |
Frederick Coley | Ethel. E-T-H-E-L. | 39:22 |
Frederick Coley | John Henry Coley. Priscilla Coley. Thomas James Coley. Thomas J. be all right. Howard Coley. Frederick Coley. | 39:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | There you are. | 39:56 |
Frederick Coley | And Edna Mae Coley. | 40:03 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Mae with an E at the end? | 40:04 |
Frederick Coley | Edna. | 40:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Edna Mae and Mae is M-A-E? | 40:10 |
Frederick Coley | We just put M. | 40:12 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 40:13 |
Frederick Coley | Edna Mae. | 40:18 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 40:18 |
Frederick Coley | And Nathaniel Coley. Miss Dorothy. No, Dorothy Coley. Thurmond E. Coley. Weber. Did I call it Dorothy? | 40:19 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes sir. | 40:49 |
Frederick Coley | Weber Coley. And Doretha Coley. | 40:57 |
Rhonda Mawhood | D-O-R-E— | 41:07 |
Frederick Coley | T-H-A. | 41:10 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And what's your son's name, Mr. Coley? | 41:10 |
Frederick Coley | Eddie L. Coley. Eddie Lee or Eddie L. | 41:29 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And when was he born? | 41:36 |
Frederick Coley | Nash County. | 41:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And when was that? | 41:40 |
Frederick Coley | '48. | 41:47 |
Frederick Coley | Nope. | 41:53 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And how many grandchildren do you have? | 41:56 |
Frederick Coley | Just the one mean one. | 41:58 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 41:58 |
Frederick Coley | He's sweet, though. But he's still mean. | 42:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. Now, when you were growing up, you were growing up in Nash County. | 42:12 |
Frederick Coley | Uh-huh. | 42:16 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 42:18 |
Frederick Coley | That's it. | 42:18 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And then, when you started renting your own land, where was that, sir? Was that also in Nash County? | 42:25 |
Frederick Coley | Oh yeah, Nash County. | 42:33 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And this isn't still Nash County, is it? | 42:33 |
Frederick Coley | No, this is Edgecombe. | 42:39 |
Rhonda Mawhood | This is Edgecombe. | 42:39 |
Frederick Coley | On this side of the railroad track is Edgecombe. | 42:41 |
Rhonda Mawhood | So that's from 1956 until now. Okay. | 42:52 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And then during the war, you were in California? Fort Bragg and California. | 42:56 |
Frederick Coley | That's right. | 43:05 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Just to list the places where you've lived. | 43:09 |
Frederick Coley | Where? In California? | 43:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. Okay. And you went to Swift Creek School? | 43:15 |
Frederick Coley | Mm-hmm. Swift Creek Elementary School. | 43:21 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. I'm supposed to list your most important jobs. So of course, that's what you think is important. So I'll put farming. I'll put farming. And so your work at Phillips Ivy? | 43:42 |
Frederick Coley | That's right. | 44:00 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. When was it that you started working at Phillips Ivy, sir? | 44:03 |
Frederick Coley | With Enco? | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Enco. | 44:04 |
Frederick Coley | I mean Phillips Ivy? | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Yes sir. | 44:04 |
Frederick Coley | That was in '67. | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | '67, thank you. And then Enco? | 44:04 |
Frederick Coley | From '67 on out. | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 44:04 |
Frederick Coley | Up until '84. | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 44:04 |
Frederick Coley | Of course, it had a little different name, which was Nelson Mink, but still the same company. Just changed the name out. | 44:04 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And it's machine maintenance that you were—? | 44:33 |
Frederick Coley | Mm-hmm. | 44:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. | 45:07 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And have you ever held any offices, Mr. Coley? In your church or something like that? | 45:07 |
Frederick Coley | Just president of my choir. | 45:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | President of the choir. | 45:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And you're a Baptist, Mr. Coley? | 45:15 |
Frederick Coley | Baptist. | 45:15 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And is it Swift Creek Church? | 45:33 |
Frederick Coley | Yes. Swift Creek Church. | 45:35 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And you've been a member there all your life? | 45:45 |
Frederick Coley | Ever since 1934. | 45:47 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. And do you belong to any organizations? | 45:48 |
Frederick Coley | American Legion. | 46:02 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Okay. Were you ever a member of the NAACP, Mr. Cole, by any chance? | 46:03 |
Frederick Coley | No. | 46:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And are there any hobbies that you'd like me to list? Any activities that you enjoy that you want us to know about? Hunting and fishing? | 46:25 |
Frederick Coley | Hunting and fishing. Ready to go right now. | 46:36 |
Rhonda Mawhood | All right. | 46:38 |
Rhonda Mawhood | And is there a saying that you like a lot, that you use a lot, that you would associate with yourself? Or a favorite hymn or bible verse that you'd like me to put down for people to know you by? Or some comment you'd like to make to represent yourself? | 46:43 |
Frederick Coley | [indistinct 00:47:12]. | 47:11 |
Rhonda Mawhood | Singing. | 47:12 |
There is no transcript available for this part.
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