Charles Lee Dalton
From:
North Carolina
By Miss Nancy Woodburn Watkins [320227]
Rockingham County
Madison, North Carolina
[TR: No. Words: 1,165]
Ex-Slave Biography--Charles Lee Dalton, 93.
In July, 1934, the census taker went to the home of Unka Challilee
Dalton and found that soft talking old darky on the porch of his several
roomed house, a few hundred feet south of the dirt road locally called
the Ayersville road because it branches from the hard surfaced highway
to Mayodan at Anderson Scales' store, a short distance from Unka
Challilie's. Black got its meaning from his face, even his lips were
black, but his hair was whitening. His lean body was reclining while
the white cased pillows of his night bed sunned on a chair. His
granddaughter kept house for him the census taker learned. Unka
Challilie said: "I'se got so I ain't no count fuh nuthin. I wuz uh
takin' me a nap uh sleepin' (' AM). Dem merry-go-wheels keep up sich a
racket all nite, sech a racket all nite, ah cyan't sleep." This
disturbance was "The Red Wolfe Medicine Troop of Players and Wheels"
near Anderson Scales' store in the forks of the Mayodan and the
Ayresville roads.
In 1937 in the home of his son, Unka Challilie ninety-three, told the
cause of his no "countness." "I wuz clean-up man in de mill in Mayodan
ontill three years ago, I got too trimbly to git amongst de machinery.
Daze frade I'd fall and git cut."
I cum tuh Madison forty-five yeah ago, and I bought one acre, and built
me a house on it, an' razed my leben chillun dyah. My wife was Ellen
Irving of Reidsville. We had a cow, pigs, chickens, and gyardum of
vegetables to hope out what I got paid at de mill.
Nome I nevah learned to read an write. Ounct I thought mebbe I'd git
sum lunnin but aftah I got married, I didn't think I would.
My old Marse wuz Marse Lee Dalton and I stayed on his plantation till
forty-five years ago when I cum tuh Madison. His place wuz back up dyah
close tuh. Mt. Herman Church. Nome we slaves ain't learn no letters, but
sumtimes young mistis' 'd read de Bible tuh us. Day wuz pretty good tuh
us, but sumtimes I'd ketch uh whippin'. I wuz a hoe boy and plow man. My
mothers' name wuz Silvia Dalton and my daddy's name wuz Peter Dalton.
Day belonged to Marse Lee and his wife wuz Miss Matilda Steeples
(Staples). Marse Lee lived on Beaver Island Creek at the John Hampton
Price place. Mr. Price bought it. He married Miss Mollie Dalton, Marse
Lee's daughter. Dyah's uh ole graveyard dyah whah lots uh Daltons is
buried but no culled fokes. Day is buried to the side uh Stoneville
wiff no white fokes a-tall berried dyah. De ole Daltons wuz berried on
de Ole Jimmy Scales plantation. Day bought hit, an little John Price
what runs uh tuhbaccah warehouse in Madison owns hit now. (1937) His
tenant is Marse Walt Hill, an hits five miles frum Madison. I knose whah
de old Deatherage graveyard is, too, up close to Stoneville whah sum
Daltons is berried. Ole Marse Lee's mother was a Deatherage.
Ole Marse was kind to us, an' I stayed on his plantation an' farmed
till I kum to Madison. Dee Yankees, day didn't giv us nuthin so we had
kinduh to live off'n old Marse.
Fuh ayteen yuz I kin member ah de Mefodis Church byah in Madison. I
wuzn't converted unduh de Holiness preachment uh James Foust but duh de
revival of Reverend William Scales. William didn't bare much lunnin. His
wife wuz Mittie Scales an huh mother wuz Chlocy Scales, sister to Tommie
Scales, de shoemaker, what died lase summuh (July, 1936). William jes
wanted so much tuh preach, and Mittie hoped him. I'se been uh class
leader, an uh stewart, an uh trustee in de church. It's St. Stephen's
and de new brick church was built in 1925, an Mistuh John Wilson's son
wrote uh peace uh bout hit in de papuh. De fuss chuch wuz down dyah
cross de street fum Jim Foust's "tabernacle." But de fuss cullud chuch
in Madison wuz a Union chuch over dyah by de Presbyterian graveyard whah
now is de Gyartuh factry. An' Jane Richardson wuz de leader.
Yess'm I got so no count, I had to cum live with mah son, Frank Dalton.
Frank married Mattie Cardwell. You remembuh Mary Mann? She married
Anderson Cardwell. Day's bofe dade long time. Days berried jess up hyuh
at Mayodan whah Mr. Bollin's house is on and dem new bungyloes is on top
um, too. Uh whole lots uh cullud people berried in dah with de slaves of
Ole Miss Nancy (Watkins) Webster on till de Mayo Mills got started and
day built Mayhodan at de Mayo Falls. An' dat's whah my daughter-in-law's
folks is berried.
My leben chillun--Frank, one died in West Virginia; Cora married Henry
Cardwell; Hattie married Roy Current and bafe ob dem in Winston; Della
married Arthur Adkins, an' Joe, an' George an' Perry an' Nathaniel
Dalton, an'.
Yes'm mah daughter-in-law has de writings about de brick chuch, dem
whut started hit, an' she'll put it out whah she can git hit fuh you
easy, when you coun back fuh hit.
Nome, up at Marse Lee Dalton's fob de s'renduh us slaves didn't nevuh
go tuh chuch. But young Miss'ud read de Bible to us sometimes.
Here in the five room, white painted cottage of his son, Frank, Unka
Challilie is kindly cared for by his daughter-in-law, Mattie. A front
porch faces the Mayodan hard road a few doors from the "coppubration
line." A well made arch accents the entrance to the front walk. A
climbing rose flourishes on the arch. Well kept grass with flowers on
the edges show Mattie's love. At the right side is the vegetable garden,
invaded by several big domineckuh chickens. A kudzu vine keeps out the
hot west sun. Unka Challilie sits on the front porch and nods to his
friends [HW: , or] else back in the kitchen, he sits and watches Mattie
iron after he has eaten his breakfast. Several hens come on the back
porch and lay in boxes there. One is "uh settin" fuh fried chicken
later! A walnut tree, "uh white wawnut", waves its long dangly green
blooms as the leaves are half grown in the early May. Well dressed,
clean, polite, comforted with his religion, but very "trimbly" even on
his stout walking stick, Unka Challilie often dozes away his "no
countness" with "uh napuh sleepin" while the mad rush of traffic and
tourist wheels stir the rose climbing over the entrance arch. An
ex-slave who started wiff nuffin de Yankees gave him, who lived on his
old Marse's place ontil he wuz forty-eight, who cleaned the Mayo Mills
ontill he wuz too trimbly to get amongst de machinery, who raised eleven
children on an acre of red Rockingham county hillside, faces the next
move with plenty to eat, wear, plenty time to take a nap uh sleepin.
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John Daniels
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Mattie Curtis
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