72 25 35717 https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/255f2b6baf3fffd9d927cda65a9b80ba.jpg d8b6e40a801ae2039628de15c9b3305c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 4-H Is Playing Our Song Subject The topic of the resource 4-H clubs Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of a photograph showing a 4-H display at the 1990 Shenandoah County Fair. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1990 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by the Guy Wetzel Family. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4-H Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/80c95c47c19683d3793f7bb41ae506f5.pdf 36c8c538b274ae2d95c0c37b51cf480a PDF Text Text David Cline Bird Haven Transcription Interviewer- Anthony Green (AG) Narrator- David Cline (DC) David Cline Jr. (DCJ) Alex Whitehurst (AW) AG: We are here today on this 23rd day of March 2017. I’m conducting this interview with Mr. David Cline, about Bird Haven, Virginia and his experience there. Thank you for taking your time to do this interview with us. DC: You’re more than welcome. I forgot more than I probably remember, but I’m getting old and had cancer and all that stuff so. Alright go ahead. AG: What is your tie to Bird Haven? DC: Well my grandfather worked in the blacksmith shop. My mother worked in the finish department, and I would go down with my grandfather to turn the blower to keep the fire going. They had a post office there and the mail carrier would come from Mathias, West Virginia over there. Come across the old dirt road and then he would come to the Bird Have post office and then he would go to the Basye post office. Well I’ve lived here on this property; I was born here. My address changed three times and I never moved. It was Alum Spring, Shenandoah Alum Springs. They had a big hotel there, a three-story hotel. When that burned then they moved the post office to Bird Haven. Well then, I think, in 1952 or 53 they closed the Bird Haven post office and moved it to Basye. So, my address changed three times and I didn’t move. I was part owner of Bird Haven from 2000 to 2010. About twelve years probably. And we were going to �develop it and then the economy got so bad that we couldn’t sell lots and stuff so we had to sell it. I never worked there. I know a lot of people that did, but most of the people that worked there have passed away. AG: You said your grandfather worked in the blacksmithing shop, a lot of the stuff was made out of wood, so what all would his job have been there? DC: Well he worked for other people. If they wanted some nails made, back then they had cut nails. He also made ax handles, hatchet handles, he made hammers, he made hatchets, just anything. A lot of things in the shops down there was metal and if something would break then he would have to make a new piece. He did stuff like that. If someone wanted to come in and wanted some [pieces] sharpened or made, he would do that. AG: And you said your mom worked in the toy shop? DC: She worked in the finishing department, but I cannot tell you much about it. AG: Do you have any memory of being where the work was happening, and seeing what they were doing? Or did you ever enter the shops? DC: Oh yeah, I used to enter the shops when I’d go down there. We’d walked straight through the woods here, it’s only about half a mile. We walked straight through the woods to get to where they worked. AG: When that was occurring did you guys watch any of the work being done? Or did you guys just hang out? DC: Oh yeah, there was one little building there that two people worked in, two men worked in, that was real interesting. They always had a big pile of shavings between them. But they cut out �the bowls, but they wouldn’t do any finish work in that building they just cut the rough bowls, and spoons and, stuff like that. And then it would go to another division where they finished them. AG: When you were a kid did you play with any of the toys that were made there? DC: Oh yeah, Oh yeah. I don’t have them; I wish I did. Yeah, I wish did. AG: What toys did you play with that were made there? DC: I don’t know. Birds, bird houses, and stuff like that. It’s been so long that I can’t remember. AG: You have a lot of the pieces made at Bird Haven. Is there one that is your favorite? DC: It’s my wife’s favorite, all of them. She likes them all, yeah she likes them all. I wish I could have of gotten more. There was a lot more there that was carried off. But the Carr’s bought it when it went up (for sale). What year did they buy it David? Do you remember? DCJ: 2014… 13. DC: 13, they have had it more than four years. DCJ: I don’t believe. DC: Yeah they have too. But anyhow, they bought it. Tore the house down, the old house. Which was in good condition. But it wasn’t good enough for them. So, they tore that down and had a million-dollar house built. And they tore the old post office down, and put it back like it was. And they fixed up all the buildings just about. They haven’t done anything to the blacksmith shop yet. But it’s still there. No, they tore one building down. That’s all they tore down. The rest of the buildings are still there. And they say they are going to remodel all the old homesteads there too. When it was just Bird Haven, it was three other pieces of property there that didn’t �belong to Bird Haven. But people lived there. The old houses are still there the barn is still there. My uncle bought what was called the Lloyd Barb place. Him and his son bought that and they raised cattle. I used to milk cows in the barn there. And then after Mr. and Mrs. Clark sold it Colonel Hamm. Let me think about this. I have to think about this. Well anyhow my uncle bought the Lloyd Barb place in which his son lived there. And then after Colonel Hamm bought Bird Haven off of the Clarks, my uncle sold the Lloyd and Barb place to Colonel Hamm. Then there was another place on down through the woods from there that Theodore Barb lived. And he sold his to Colonel Hamm. That’s the way it got so much land to Bird Haven. Bird Haven wasn’t that big when it was running. After they bought all these other three properties that’s what made the seven hundred some acres. AG: You talked about how you purchased Bird Haven, or purchased stock in Bird Haven. Did you do that because of your tie to the area? DC: I did it because my wife couldn’t talk me out of it? She was really against it. She told me I was going to lose you know. But the company that she was working for was the one that owned it. Which owned Chalet High timeshare. It’s the same man that owned the Mimslyn inn in Luray, but he lost that too. I just thought it was a way to make some money. I mean if everything would have worked like we had planned out. Each one of us would have gotten our money back four or five times, but it wasn’t handled right and they wasted the money. Everyone lost but them. Because we sold sixteen lots there and eight lots across from the airport. We sold 47 acres across the road for $300,000. We lost; it all went some place but we never could figure it out. I think they had two or three sets of books. AG: Do you remember hold you were when Bird Haven closed? �DC: I was born in 42 and I think it closed about 55 or 56. I was about… It was mighty close a little before then. I think the post office moved in 52. The reason they had the post office there they shipped a lot of packages from there. AG: Do you remember what it was like? The atmosphere was and what the mood was when it closed? Of all the workers that were there? DC: When they closed there wasn’t but a few people there. I would say it wasn’t over probably a dozen people when it closed. I mean the business just went off and people wasn’t buying wooden stuff then. They was buying metal stuff. That’s one reason they went out of business, no one to buy it. AG: And the Shenandoah worker’s community seemed like it would have been a tight knit community, especially in such a small area. Was that true? DC: Now what was the question? AG: So, the area is such a small area. The Shenandoah worker’s community seemed like it would have been a lot of people close together. Is that how it was? DC: It just sound, well you read that and you can really…it tells you a lot in there how it was formed. It’s been so long I don’t remember all of it. AG: So, you spent your whole life in this area? DC: Lived on this property all my life, except I was in the service for years. When I first got married we lived away from here about three years. Other than that, I’ve been living right here. AG: In the service where were you stationed? �DC: I was stationed, well I took my basic at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and then I went to Fort Carson, Colorado. And then I went from there to Germany for two years. I was in missiles. The Redstone missile, the missile that put the first man on the moon. They flew us from Frankfurt, Germany to White Sands, New Mexico to part, we were down there six weeks. We went back to Germany. They deactivated the Redstone brought it back to the states. Put it in mothballs and sent it to Persia over there. I helped fire it the last time it was fired, the Redstone missile. Quite the scene. AG: Once you were done with your military service, was there anything that brought you back to this area? DC: I was just from here. I never. I came back and worked at a poultry plant from awhile. Worked over at FMC in Front Royal for about two years. Then I went to Blue Ridge Truss which is closed now. Out here at Basye, between Basye and Orkney. Worked there for 40 years. That’s the reason I’m in this area. I was the production manager there for 32 years at Blue Ridge. AG: What was the experience like working there? DC: We built roof trusses, floor trusses, wall panels. Built houses, we built 50 couple houses on Bryce mountain when it first opened. My son worked for him for 17 years? DCJ: 18 DC: 18. Had a lot of people. I remember one time when it was as many as 200 people working there. Now it’s closed. The gentleman that owned it…started it. He was retired for the government. He was a federal marshal. After he passed away his wife…well I won’t go any further. �AG: Does it give you a sense of pride knowing that you helped build a lot of things around here? DC: I helped. About all the houses around here, we furnished the roof trusses. I built this house myself. I built it in 76. I moved in in 76. But then I built those two rooms. I forgot… probably 15 years later. Maybe a little longer. I done most of it myself. AG: Do you know how many houses in this area you helped build? DC: I don’t know. I know for probably between 15 and 20 years before Mr. Fansler passed away, we was shipping over a million and a half dollars a month in product. So, just about every house around here. He started the business in 60… I think the same year that Bryce Mountain started, 65 or 66. AG: Teddy told us a story about how some of the boys would go to where they stored toys in a building when they hadn’t sold them. Do you remember those buildings being on the property? DC: Yep, they’re not there anymore. If they make more than they would sell. One great big building, a three-story building. That has been remodeled and everything. You ought to ride down on your way. I don’t know, the gate probably be closed. I think they leave about four. If you do go down, when you get to where the house and things is, you can see house over to the left. You go on around to the right and the office is a two-story building on the right. What’s his name? Chris. Chris is his first name. He is the manager. You see they use my property. I’ve got a road that runs all the way down through here. It’s on me they use that. And back when Colonel Hamm bought the Lloyd Barb place, he bought a right away between me and this other subdivision. Bird Haven has got a right away up through there. But I told him instead of cutting them trees and stuff just use my road. Because there is enough dust down one dirt road, instead of having two dirt roads right there. I got to wipe my eyes. Since I took those treatments, my �eyes water all the time. The treatment done something to my heart, I don’t know what yet. I reckon they fix one thing and mess something else up. AG: On the property, I know there was a lot of woodworking. Do you remember anything else about the property? What the surroundings were like? Since it was a bird sanctuary. DC: No, Teddy’s daddy used to tap the sugar trees. Some of them on the property. Back years ago. And cook it down and make maple syrup. My uncle farmed what was known as the Lloyd Barb place when he owned. In a matter of fact, his grandson was disking the field down there with the tractor one time and he made a turn and the tractor come on back on top of the disk. But he didn’t get hurt at all. The disk kept him from getting hurt. The front end of the tractor come back and hit the disk. It was one of those pickup disks. And he didn’t get hurt at all. Yeah, I use to milk cows down there in that barn. That has before it was Bird Haven. AG: You milked cows. Were there any other animals on the farm? DC: They raised cattle. Now the Carrs raised a lot of hogs when they first bought it. Hogs, chickens, ducks, and sheep. But they don’t have anything now. AG: Did you work with any other animals other than the cows? DC: Chickens. Teddy’s daddy was a chicken farmer, he pulled a lot of people that owned the hotel at Orkney. Built nine chicken houses. Teddy’s daddy was the overseer. I reckon he told you that didn’t he? No. Yeah, he was the overseer. I was living in that old house. Me and Teddy would ride with him up there every morning. In the winter time there would be frost on the windshield. He would take his hand and put it on the windshield and get one spot that he could see through, and that’s what it would look like when he picked me up out here. Never would clean the frost off of it. He would just take his and one spot on the windshield he could see �through. Run out of gas one time. He said “I can’t be out of gas, I just put a gallon in here three days ago.” Well, back then a gallon in gas in them old vehicles went a long ways. His daddy was something. He had his hip replaced. He couldn’t hardly walk, but he could really get upset oftly quick. And we could make him upset oftly quick. Is someone going to talk to Teddy’s brother, Curtis? AG: I’m not sure about that. We were just given one person each, that’s all I know. DC: Yeah, someone talked to Richard. There’s an old lady down in Jerome. I don’t know. Betty Funkhouser, Mike’s mother. I don’t know if she ever worked at Bryce’s or not. She is about 83 or 84. I can’t remember if she worked down at Bird Haven or not when it was going. But just about everyone around that worked there are gone. I don’t know of anyone that worked there that is still living. AG: Do you remember playing on the site at all? Teddy had mentioned…I believe he said you and some other of the boys would take boats and put them in the creeks and rivers. DC: Them little wooden boats. Yeah. And then we had a way off from the old big house we had a swimming hole. It was pretty deep… it was probably five feet deep where we would go swimming in the summer time. Yeah, we played in the creek with them wooden boats and toys. I tell you it’s been so long ago. I forget. AG: You said there were only twelve people working by the time the … DC: I don’t really know if it was that many AG: Do you remember when the production started to decline? And why? Other than the lack of demand. �DC: It must have been in the 40’s. I don’t know exactly when it started. I think it was in the 20’s, it might have been in the teens. And I don’t know if that paper says it or not. I don’t believe it does. I don’t see any dates on here except this 1930 up here. It says that had as many as 40 varieties of birds down there. I don’t see anything. It doesn’t says is how long it was there or when it was started. AG: You mentioned your wife was interested in collecting these. How big is you all’s collection from Bird Haven? DC: This is about it, because you never see it for sale. And I guess a piece wood, people just threw it away. Now back right after the Carrs bough it, they had a sale in Edinberg with a bunch of stuff for sale from Bird Haven. But, they run everything up so high that I couldn’t afford to buy it. They’re billionaires. AG: I know a lot of these pieces are collectible. Is there any pieces that you remember being made that you would like to see at some point? DC: I got one bowl out here my wife really likes. Let me go get it. I think she likes that as well as she does any others. AG: That is an interesting looking bowl. DC: Yep. I think it’s made out of one piece of wood. They used a lot of bandsaw blades. AG: And probably a lathe. DC: It must be white oak, I guess. I wouldn’t have any clue. But they used a lot of walnut. There’s some walnut trees down there. They were this big around when I was a kid. I used to pick up walnuts under them. You can imagine what they are now. Right in front of where the old �house was. I used to go down there and pick up the walnuts over the summer. Of course, back then you almost had to give them away because there was so many walnut trees around. Now you can’t hardly find any walnut trees. There’s a butternut walnut tree down there. It’s the only one I know of around here. Instead of a round walnut it’s round and it’s about this long it’s about that big around. It’s called butternut walnut. But here’s a time card. Francis Barb. There she worked 5, 8, 9, 10, 19, 20 hours, $1.25. There’s one, this one got $2.50 for 10 hours. I just found this stuff laying around on the floor down there. This one night watch, guard the boiler. Eleven hours, $2.75. Gilbert Barb, that was Richard’s, the man that those two ladies talked to Sunday, Gilbert was his uncle. Let’s see is this Irene Anderson, I don’t know who she is. And here’s some of the stuff out of the post office. This is another Irene Anderson. Five hours, it don’t say how much she got…0h there it is $0.63. It’s really interesting to just walk around and pick… Most of this stuff came out of the old post office. Here’s some of those pictures and some of the cards they sent out to people. One cent post card. These here…like this man here he sent this card back and said “Dear Bernie” which is Mr. Clark, everyone called him Bernie. “Polly and I have been going over our needs here and are wondering if you could send us samples of the mahogany, black walnut, and yellow post bed. Then he says “Also on the chest of drawers, could you substitute a smaller oval hardware and call you made.” I don’t know I can’t hardly read part of it. But these cards here are like this one sent back “We are ordering for the salad set. Please send some of these wooden pieces to 28207209 people are asking for them. Thanking of you.” They must have had a store in East Albright, New Jersey. And they was ordering this wooden stuff to sell in their store. Here’s one that says “Gentleman please advise us when you will ship our last order.” This was (19)38. This is interesting stuff. And let’s see. Here is one of their sales papers. �AG: When you were walking through Bird Haven was there any particular reason you picked all this stuff up? DC: Just about every day I’d go down I’d just see something laying and I’d pick it up. That was after I spent all that money for nothing. Must be a picnic bench I guess there. If I’d see something laying I’d pick it up. And I wish I’d have picked more up. AG: How often do you go through these things and just look at them and reflect? DC: I looked at them a couple weeks ago. I have some phone books from 1952, but I don’t know where I put them. I put them some place and I don’t know where they’re at. I’ll have to look for them one day. I wanted to show you this. This is 1916. It’s the price list for 1923 for copper tubing. AG: And this was found at Bird Haven? DC: Yep. Everything laying here was found at Bird Haven. But this… you wouldn’t see that mailed through the mail today would you? AG: You would not? DC: with Putin’s picture on it. I found this. I guess they had Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Look at the prices in that. I couldn’t find no date on it. AG: It’s a lot cheaper than it is now. DC: Holy smokes. It’s like in 1958, I was in the hospital 29 days with pneumonia. And my hospital bill and doctor bill were $600 for 29 days. Now it would be $600 for half a day…or more. Because my cancer treatments was $15,000 apiece. It’s unreal. Let’s see if I have got �anything else I want to show you. You want to read that. I wish I had another copy. I would let you have it, but that is the only copy I’ve got. AG: You said your property butts up to the woods, or that you could walk through the woods to get to Bird Haven. DC: Bird Haven. Oh, yeah. Right out here. There used to be a path down through there. They made a road out of it now. It came out down at Bird Haven. AG: I could imagine since everything is so close that the trees were a lot similar to those on the Bird Haven property. DC: Well they didn’t cut all of it on Bird Haven. Because it wouldn’t have been enough property. They had to have some of this maple and black walnut. They must of bought some of that some place else. AG: Do you know where they bought it? DC: No I don’t. It’s like I say. I was born in 42 and it probably closed in 50…I think 55. I wouldn’t have been very old. AG: Did your mom or your grandfather work there while you were alive? Or was it before? DC: Yeah. I used to turn the blower for my grandfather down in the blacksmith shop. I remember he made axe handles, and hammer handles, and hatchet handles with a draw knife. AG: Did he teach you any of those skills while you were there? DC: No. We’re talking 40’s and 50’s. In the 60’s no one bought stuff like that. You went to the store and bought it. Back in the 40’s and 30’s you had someone to make it for you for maybe $0.25. He always sat out on the porch and made those handles out of hickory. He’d cut the trees �in the woods and let it dry. Then he would make the handles. I thought of something else a while ago, but now I can’t think of what I wanted to say. AG: There is a lot of history in this area. Other than Bird Haven what were some of the other major manufacturing jobs that you know of? DC: Well that had the old iron furnaces. Where they got the ore out of the ground dragged out here to Alum Springs. You probably saw it when you come by. Well the old furnace is there. And then to left of it as you are looking at it. It’s more stone it comes out here but it’s not as high as the furnace. Well, Teddy’s daddy used to have a beer joint there. And he sold some bread, eggs, and stuff like that. But he had the beer joint downstairs, and he raised chickens upstairs. Couldn’t do that today. I can remember an old man used to come in there and sit down, and Elmer would poor him a beer and he’d break an egg in it for him. Beer and egg. Elmer used to suck them eggs, Teddy’s daddy. He’d just punch a hole in the end of it, and suck the egg out of it. We found a nest down here, he lived down the road here a little ways from me. Found a chicken nest, had nine eggs in it. Elmer sucked three or four of them, and we took the rest to the house and all the rest of them was rotten. He was probably sucking rotten egg. Now if you have ever smelled rotten egg, I don’t know how he could stand it. Him and I used to make some white lightening. We’d tap these sugar trees, and we’d cook it down. And we’d use that instead of water, you got more white lightening out of it. And if you want to make brandy you don’t put sugar in it. And if you got a 50 gallon barrel of mash with no sugar in it just apples, corn, whatever you wanted to put in it, you only got about three and a half gallons out of it… maybe three gallons. Well if you put 100 pounds of sugar in it you got thirteen gallons out of it. Ten pounds of sugar make a gallon of white lightening. I used to do a little stuff. Where’s this going? Just the class? �AG: It’s going to the Shenandoah library. DC: In Edinburg? AW: Shenandoah County Library. DC: Who do you know that works down there? AW: We don’t have contact with them. We have it with our professor, who has been talking to them. DC: What’s his name? What is your professors name? AG: Dr. Friss. Evan Friss. DC: It’s someone that works at the library, that I know, that’s doing this. I saw him down at Bird Haven. I mean it don’t make a difference, that’s in the past. Elmer and I used to do that, and it a wonder we didn’t get blown up. Because Elmer had laying chicken, and this man on Bryce mountain, the one that invented the seat belt, come by here and talked to Elmer about taking that chicken litter and making methane gas out of it. Well we dug a hole in the ground and put a roof over it. And we set this chicken litter in 55 gallon barrels down in this pit. And that chicken litter would make methane gas. But you can’t see it, smell it, or nothing. We would use that to cook our white lightening with. I can’t think of that man’s name, but he invented the seatbelt. His wife, I think, still lives on Bryce Mountain. He passed away, but I can’t think of his name. Yeah, I had an interesting life. AG: You said your wife was the one that mainly wanted to collect these things? DC: All of this stuff here, 95 percent of it… I bought this at a sale. The rest of this stuff I got at Bird Haven. �AG: Is your wife from this area too? DC: Yeah, she’s from Jerome. Which is about five miles on down the road. Yeah, she’s working now. Got to keep her away. No, most of this came right from Bird Haven. AG: So, it’s just leftovers that were never sold? DC: All of this came out of the shipping building. I got lucky I even got it because people was going in and taking stuff. Wasn’t no locks on the doors. Just lucky to get it. Trying to think of some other stuff, but I don’t know. AG: When you bought stake into the property, how many of the original buildings were there? DC: Oh, everything was there, but a lot of the buildings were ready to fall down. AG: The people you grew up with around Bird Haven, do you still communicate with them? Do you all ever talk about Bird Haven and what it was like? DC: Mr. Alexander, the one that bought it, he’s passed away. I talk to some of the other people that bought in yeah. AG: What about the kids you grew up with on Bird Haven? Like Teddy and all of them. DC: Oh, yeah. I seem them all the time. AG: Do you ever reminisce about Bird Haven? DC: Sometimes, Teddy he don’t like to talk like his daddy. And I don’t like to talk much either. Really, Teddy didn’t go down to Bird Haven, that I remember, much but he didn’t have any working down there. I mean close. Like I say my mother named my oldest brother, he’s passed away now. Mr. Clark, Bernard was his middle name, so mother named my brother Leroy �Bernard. I’m not too sure, but I think my mother might have worked in their house a lot of times instead of working in the factory. I just can’t remember. They had a man that lived with them, a boy. He’s passed away now, but he was a lawyer. And he lived there with them. And I just can’t remember too much about it. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed David Cline Location The location of the interview Basye, Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 49:47 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource David Cline Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Cline, David Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring David Cline of Basye, Virginia. recorded by Anthony Green of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anthony Green Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/slPcOlPP--4" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 24, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP4 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-002 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/da1b09fb84c38083fec54ab8b0af52ca.pdf ec175892d7e67407a9a49b1da0adbb07 PDF Text Text Ashlen Clark HIST 441 April 11, 2017 This interview was conducted with Betty Richards on March 22, 2017 by Ashlen Clark with assistance from Tiernan O’Rourke on the topic of Bird Haven. AC: This is Ashlen Clark interviewing… BR: Betty Richards… AC: About Bird Haven. Mrs. Richards how did you come to work at Bird Haven? BR: Well it was right after I got married. The first job I had. And it was close to where I lived, I could walk. And also my husband’s grandmother worked at the, for the family. She did their cooking and cleaned the house and that’s how I got my job. And I think I worked probably maybe two years. I’m not sure, I can’t remember. But then I had my first child and I, I didn’t work anymore for a while. AC: Alright. You said you lived close by, you could walk. So did, you, knew about Bird Haven before you started working there? BR: Oh yes, yeah. AC: Was it a place that before you started working there you visited a lot, or is it just something that you didn’t really visit, or how was that? BR: Well I visited with my husband’s grandmother I helped her sometimes to clean or whatever. And I knew what the place looked like and everything. Yeah. AC: Was it, the family that lived there, was it just the family that owned Bird Haven or were there other people that lived there? BR: No it was just the family that owned Bird Haven, it was Mr. and Mrs. Clark, and Mrs. Clark was married before and she had two sons. And the one son run the place, John Gray Paul is his name, and we called him Spizz. AC: Why did you call him that? BR: I don’t know, he had a nickname, someone gave him that nickname and I don’t know how, why, and he always when he come, he, he would stay at the house a lot and come over and �check on, you know, what we were doing and everything. And he had two cocker spaniels and every time we’d see them cocker spaniels we knew he was coming. AC: That’s really great. BR: He was a good, he was a good boss. AC: Yeah? BR: Yeah. AC: So did you have a lot of interaction with him? BR: Well, yeah. And nothing like any parties or anything but he was real friendly and nice. AC: So when you were working there what was your role? What was your typical day like? BR: Well it was about, I’d say 8 or 10 women in one, one building and the men would make the things and they would bring them to us and we had to sand them and then they’d have to be stained and then it would have to be sanded again and then a shellac or something put on it. And then from there it would go up to the, it was a post office back there then. It would go up to that building and the orders would be carried out and packed and sent. AC: Okay. So when you, when the packages were sent out were they mostly local people that were ordering or further away or do you know? BR: No it was lot of different states. AC: Okay so a fairly big production? BR: Yeah, yeah. And we made a lot of things. I had a lot of them but I moved about eight times since I’ve been married and every time I moved I guess I left something. ‘Cause, or I gave it away. So, and I gave my minister a tray that he wanted it had the label on it. AC: Oh wow. BR: And he died and we told his son to be sure and let us get, buy it back but we didn’t get it. AC: Shame when that happens. When you were working in the shops, what was your, what specifically did you do with the pieces? BR: I helped to sand the things off and stain them. And then we had a lady that, she had a, you know, a machine that she would spray them, spray the things. �AC: Okay. So did you come to work there because it was some place close or because you had a connection or what brought you to start working there? BR: Well I, this was back in 1948 when I got married and wasn’t too many jobs around that area and because it was close and they needed somebody and I applied for it and I got it. Yeah. AC: Awesome. So how would you describe the environment like within the community and within the shops? Was it a good place to work? Did you enjoy your time there? BR: Oh yes. Everybody that work there was real friendly and we all got along good. Yeah we had a lot of fun, I mean, even though we all worked, we still had a lot of fun. AC: Yeah? BR: Yeah. AC: Were they mostly people that you knew outside of work from the community, or did you meet them at work? Were they local people? Br: Most of them were local. Now some of them came from over in Mount Clifton which is not too far from Bayse. And well now the one man lives in Edinburgh, but he didn’t live there when he worked there. But I think most of them were local. AC: Okay. What kind of impact on the community would you say that Bird Haven had since it employed a lot of local people? Was it positive for the community? BR: Yeah it was. Yeah it gave people work and make a living and I worked, back then I made 80 dollars a month working there. They only paid, I don’t think they paid every week, it was like every two weeks. AC: Okay. So for the people who weren’t local and like main community members, how did they react to bird haven? Did they, like, people come visit from outside or how did, how did Bird Haven interact with further away… BR: Well back then Bryce, they called it Bryce Hillside Cottages, was open and a lot of people, that was busy all summer long. And of course people that would come there and to Orkney also would visit local places. And I’m sure they, that he sold a lot of things right there. AC: Okay so it was, you could actually buy things from Bird Haven rather than ordering them and it being mailed to you? BR: Yeah. And the workers could buy, you know, anything. I can’t remember if we got a discount or not but I, I had quite a few things. I had a magazine cradle, and I had a saw book table but I don’t know what happened to those. Well I gave some of them to my mother-in-law �and I had trays and we made lazy Susans but I never, that I didn’t want. But I got a few things. I got those little stools and some trays. And we made salad bowls and forks and the little bowls to go with it. Those were a good seller. AC: Oh wow, yeah. BR: Yeah. They were a good item, they sold good. AC: So what was the most common thing ordered, or the most popular items? BR: Probably the salad bowls. AC: Okay. BR: ‘Cause it was a big bowl and then the little ones and then the salad fork and spoon. And it was all made out of wood. AC: Wow. BR: And of course there was instructions with that with how to do it because you, you couldn’t do too much water on that wood. AC: Right. So what kind of instructions would come along with that? BR: Well like every once and a while to oil, just your regular oil that you use to cook with, to maybe just clean it with that. And dry it good. AC: Okay. Cool. We had a little bit of background information that we were given and it talked about how some of the items that were made represented like the heritage of people in the community. Did you see that represented through the stuff that was made? BR: Well, when, I don’t know what year Bird Haven really started but they made toys and also puzzles. Now we weren’t making those when I started. AC: Okay. BR: I never saw any of those. AC: Okay. BR: They, they’d already sold them all and changed over to different, the other different things that we were making. �AC: Okay so it was, they didn’t make everything, like all of that, their entire span? They kind of transitioned into the other products? BR: Yeah they changed from the puzzles and the toys and, to more things that were I guess more useful. AC: Interesting. BR: Now I don’t know who changed it or why, but I. (phone ringing) Uh oh. Excuse me a minute. AC: You’re fine. TO: Go ahead. BR: Hello? Can I call you back I’m being interviewed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright bye. That was my minister. AC: Oh. That’s fine. BR: Now did that upset… AC: No it can be cut out, and we can just put it right back together. BR: Oh well you, could you hear what I said on the phone or anything? AC: No I couldn’t, I couldn’t hear you. BR: Okay. I mean, I hope it didn’t mess you up. AC: No, no, no, no. We can, when we put it on the computer we can take out parts. BR: Oh okay. AC: So we can, if you want us to take that out, we can just take it out and put it right back together. How did having this job at Bird Haven as your first job, how did that effect future jobs you had or just anything? BR: Oh well I don’t know. I guess I just learned to work. ‘Cause I was young and, I don’t know, it was just nice and everybody got along good and everything just sure is different now. AC: Yeah? �BR: Yeah. And let’s see, from there I didn’t work for a good while, then, because I had four children and I didn’t work until I had that last one and then I worked at Bryce and I worked at a apple place where we graded apples. And I don’t know I just learned to work. AC: Yeah. So but it was a good, good experience as a first job? BR: Oh yeah, yeah it was nice. I mean everybody got along good. We just had a lot of, a lot of fun. AC: Yeah, good. BR: In fact, the one man you’re going to interview we picked on him a lot. AC: Really? Why did you pick on him? BR: Oh just, nice, it wasn’t mean or anything. AC: Yeah. BR: But he was really, he really was good to get along with. Yeah I still once and a while talk to him. AC: Good. So are you still, you said you talk to him, but are you, are you in contact with a lot of people that you worked with? (phone ringing) BR: Excuse me again. AC: You’re fine. BR: Hello? Betty? I’m being interviewed now, I’ll call you back. Alright. That was a lady from my church. AC: Oh, you’re a popular woman. Do you still keep in contact with the people you worked with? I know you mentioned the one man. BR: Yeah, I don’t, I talk to him once and a while and once in a while I get to see him but I don’t visit much anymore. I guess I’ve gotten lazy and I’m old and I just like to stay at home. AC: Yeah that’s fair. BR: But once in a while I do talk to him on the phone. �AC: Okay that’s good. So even after you stopped working, you said you stopped to have kids. Did you stay local, did you stay involved with the community? BR: Yeah I stayed local for a good while and then we moved to Maryland and lived down there, I think it was like seven or nine years, and then I didn’t like the city. So I moved back and I lived up there for a couple years and then we built this house, this was my home-place. That big house down there was where I was born and raised. AC: Oh wow. BR: And so we built this and I just, we moved back here. And I worked up at that country store that’s closed for, oh I don’t know, probably close to twenty years. AC: Wow. BR: And yeah I stayed in the area. AC: Yeah. BR: And I go to that church up there. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah. AC: Did you see a difference in the local area once Bird Haven closed and stopped providing jobs there? BR: No, I don’t think so because a lot of people had cars and they would, you know, go a distance to work and a lot of people would even go down to the city from our area to work everyday. AC: Oh wow. Okay. When we were talking to one of our other interviewees, they mentioned how after Bird Haven closed there was kind of an in between period but then in more recent years there’s kind of been an uptick in the interest in the items that were created at Bird Haven. Have you noticed anything about that? BR: You mean, since the new owners took over and bought the place and they started having a lot of animals and ducks and chickens and stuff. AC: Oh okay. BR: Yeah it’s been interesting. �AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah and also the people that bought it, their, it was the woman’s grandmother that was from this area. And her husband, she and her husband I think it was, had a little resort on past Bird Haven. It was called Shenandoah Alum springs. And so see the, it all kind of dates back to, she, she was her, her grandparents and parents were from this area, that own it now. AC: Oh so have you been back down there since it closed? BR: One time. After, let’s see, yeah I’ve been there since they took over. AC: Okay. BR: ‘Cause it was, it’s a big difference in what, now they have it, ‘cause it, they did a lot of different things. In fact, they moved the big house. AC: Really? BR: That Mr. and Mrs. Clark lived in. Now I haven’t been back since they moved that, I’d like to see where it is. AC: Yeah? BR: Yeah it was a beautiful place and it was a lot of land and it was a couple houses on it. AC: So were those houses occupied at the time? BR: No, maybe one of them was but other than that no. AC: Okay. When you went back were all the old buildings still there? BR: Yeah. AC: Did they still have stuff in them? BR: Yeah, in fact, they said when they closed it was a lot of the, like, the bowls and other things that were made was still in there that they had never, never got rid of. Now I don’t know what they did with it or if they still have it or what. AC: Yeah. Do you know why Bird Haven closed? BR: No. Mr. John Gray Paul went to, moved to Harrisonburg. Well let’s see, I guess his mother and his step-father probably died and then I guess he didn’t want to keep it up. I really don’t know. I can’t remember. But he went to Harrisonburg and he was a lawyer. �AC: Oh. BR: I think he’s still living, I’m not sure. AC: Okay. Interesting. BR: Mr. Polk could probably tell you, the, the man that worked there too that’s still living, he could probably tell you if Mr., if John Gray Paul is still living. I don’t, I can’t remember if he is or not. AC: Okay. BR: I think if he is he’d be pretty old. AC: Yeah? BR: Yeah. AC: So you said you have some of the products from Bird Haven. Do you know, has there been a bigger interest in those items since they’re no longer being produced? BR: Well I think anybody that sees them at, some of them come up at auctions, they have, we have an auction every week down in Edinburgh. And I’m sure some of those come up in auctions and yeah people are interested in it. Now that one right there my, my daughter’s friend gave to her and it’s a name on the back of who owned it. AC: Oh. BR: And I guess it was probably bought at a sale. And what it is I don’t know. If its… AC: This one? BR: Yeah. If it’s supposed to be a bowl, I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. AC: Interesting. BR: I, maybe I need to take that down to Mr. Polk and let him look at it. See if he can tell me what it is because he worked there before I started. AC: Okay. Awesome. TO: Do you want me to get that? �AC: No we can get it in a second. Let’s see. Were there any other things that you had come to mind that you remember, or even just positive stories or anything about Bird Haven? BR: Well the only thing else, in the ladies, it was like, about everybody was relation. It was two sisters, in fact it was two, two bunches of two, four sisters that two of them were, you know, sisters. It was Hazel and Pearl Ryman were sisters and then Lena and I can’t remember her sisters name, and, you know, it was like family worked there. And all of us knew everybody. You know we were all friends and it was just nice. And I think about today if I had to go apply for a job, I don’t do computers, I don’t know how I’d get one. AC: So a lot different than jobs now? BR: Oh yeah. Of course that’s been, well I’m 85 and I was probably 18 when I, or maybe 19, when I got that job. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah. It’s a lot different from now when it was back then. A lot different. In fact, people helped each other more back then than they do now. AC: Yeah. So we also were told about just like, the many different types of equipment that was there. Were you mostly just using the sander? Because you talked about sanding. Did you use any of the other equipment? BR: No, no we did it by hand, but then like I said, they had a machine for the, to spray the bowls with the, whatever they used, I forget what it was, you know, to make the, so that especially the bowls, so they wouldn’t, so you could use them. AC: Yeah. BR: But so they sprayed everything. I mean it was some kind of finish they put on them. AC: Alright. BR: And they had the one item that it was really, really pretty was a cobbler’s bench coffee table. AC: Oh. BR: It was probably that big but it was expensive. AC: I’m sure. �BR: But it had a lot of little parts, you know, and was really a lot to do to get it to, so it was able to sell. I mean it was a lot of work to it. AC: Yeah. BR: But it was nice. AC: So definitely high quality objects? BR: Mhm. And we had tables, had folding tables. Oh and we had a lot of stuff. Right now I can’t, I wish I had kept a diary. More than once I get mad at myself I didn’t but it was quite a few items that they made. And that lazy Susan was a good seller. AC: Awesome. BR: Now what, what did you say this is going to go into? AC: This is, will eventually end up in the, I think Shenandoah Library archives. BR: Oh okay. AC: The people who own Bird Haven now are who kind of got this kick started, they wanted to find out more about it. BR: They come to our church once in a while. AC: Oh really. BR: Uh huh. See her grandmother, we have a, we did our ramp in her memory when she died. AC: Okay. BR: Because we got a lot of, people sent a lot of money in her memory. And she’s buried in our cemetery. AC: Oh wow. Wow. So you know the new owners fairly well? BR: Well I’ve met them, they’ve been to our church a couple times, yeah. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah they’re very nice. Have you met them? AC: No, no not yet. �BR: They’re young. Or to me they’re young, not as young as you, but they’re young. AC: I’m trying to think, you answered all of them really well, you kind of combined some of my questions together. The people that worked there that were local, do they still live in the area, do you know? I know you said you keep in contact with one of the men but… BR: He lives in Edinburgh and the lady that worked there too. She worked there I guess after I quit, she lives in Woodstock. AC: Okay. BR: And we had one lady when she left and went to the bank, she worked in the bank for I don’t know how many years. So a lot of them went different places and got jobs. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah. AC: Yeah. Were there any stories you had about working there, things that, I don’t know, because I, just really anything that you can think of that we haven’t touched on even just small things? BR: Well I got one but I better not tell it. TO: Definitely tell it. BR: Well I told you that our boss had two, two cocker spaniels. Well we were allowed a break in the morning and a break in the afternoon and also we had I think was a half hour for lunch. And we could always see when he was coming cause those dogs would be ahead of him. Course we didn’t, I mean, we didn’t, take advantage of him. We did our breaks like we were supposed to and everything. But it was kind of a joke, you know, that he, when we’d see those dogs, he was behind some place. Yeah. But he was nice, he was a very nice boss. AC: So, at Bird Haven, what was it, how was it kind of set up? Was it in like open fields, was it lots of trees around, where the buildings close together, what was like the layout? BR: Yeah the buildings were all close together, you all haven’t been back there? AC: No. BR: Well you should go back there. Yeah the buildings were all like in a, you know, together, and it, the post office was back there at that time too. And the house was over, kind of over in the field from the buildings and it was a stream run through it. It was a beautiful place. And the �one couple that worked there, they lived on a house across the stream right close to the building where we worked. AC: Wow so people lived real close? BR: Yeah. And then it was another house down from, down further in the woods, it’s a lot of woods, around there. And it was a house that was real, built real funny. It had, the doors were double, you know what I mean, like the Dutch. Remember, you probably remember how the Dutch, when you went to school you learned that stuff, how they had their doors. Well it had a door like that and it, but it sat empty for years and years and years. I don’t know what they did with it now. If they repaired it and somebody lives in it or what, I don’t know. My son goes down there right often, him and another man from the community and I mean they talk to the people that own it. Yeah. AC: Okay. BR: Now you’re not going to have all of this on it? AC: Well we can cut parts. And if there’s anything that you want us to go back and cut out we have a release form that you can just make note of that there. BR: So you’ll send me a copy of what this sounds like? AC: If you want a copy we can get you a copy. BR: Yeah I’d like to, yeah. AC: Yeah, yeah we can definitely get you a copy. BR: Yeah. AC: Oh I had something else. BR: I see Sam’s made a friend. TO: Yeah. I’ve been playing with him this whole time. He’s really adorable. I wanted to try to keep the meowing out of it so I just started petting him. Team work. AC: So you said you were born and raised right up the road? BR: Right down there. AC: Right down there? �BR: In that next house. AC: Oh okay. BR: My daughter lives there now and of course she put a big addition to it. AC: How do you feel about that? BR: Well its nice, but now she wishes she wouldn’t, because now she lives by herself. AC: Oh okay. BR: But when she did that she was married and had, he had two children they were small and she did that so that everybody would have a bedroom and everything but now they’re all gone. AC: Okay. BR: So she’s by herself and it’s a big house to keep up for heat and stuff. AC: Yeah. So you said that the owners of Bird Haven, they lived on the property, so were they involved in the day to day a lot or were they kind of more, you guys just ran everything? BR: Oh you mean back when we were… AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah they lived on the property. AC: Yeah. BR: But Mr. and Mrs. Clark, they didn’t come over and check on anything, Spizz did it all the time, her son. Yeah. I don’t know what Mr. Clark, if he was in some kind of government or what, they probably retired back there. I don’t know really the true, the first story. Probably you could talk to Mr. Polk he can probably tell you. AC: Okay. BR: When it started and everything. I only learned after I got married. And ‘cause his grandmother was working there. AC: Okay. And you mentioned a lot of woods, or a lot of wood, trees and stuff, growing on the property? BR: Yeah. �AC: Is that where they got the wood for their products, was actually from the wood on the property there? BR: You know what I don’t know but I bet, I guess they did. AC: Okay. BR: Now back that road is some houses built. You came by there, you probably saw where it said Bird Haven or… AC: We may have. TO: Maybe yeah. AC: Yeah we may have, I think, I think… BR: Right in the middle was like a flower, flower arrangement and then it was a sign. AC: Oh okay. BR: I think it said Bird Haven. Well back that road is where it is and I don’t know if they own all that now where those houses or built or what. But I know there’s some houses built down in there. AC: Okay. BR: People from the city, you know, came out and bought the lots and built. AC: Yeah. Okay. So when people, you said people would come and stay at the cottages nearby would they just come and kind of walk around? Were there any, you said they could buy, were there gift shops? How, how did the visitors interact with what was going on in day to day work? BR: Well my father-in-law drove a taxi and brought people out from Mount Jackson. Back then the train run and the bus also. And he would bring people out and they would stay all summer and then the Bryce’s had transportation that they would take them places to see different things in the community and well they had activities all the time. They had dances, they had, my husband set up pins for the bowling alley and they’d have picnics and all kinds of stuff like that. It was, you know, to keep them all entertained cause back then it wasn’t like it is now. You could go, people didn’t have cars like they do now. In fact, when I grew up it was only one car in this area, the rest of us walked to church. But it was good, I mean it was good for us, one family would start and then we’d keep falling in and all of us walked together to church. AC: So it was a tight knit community then? �BR: Yeah, yeah. It’s really changed though. I mean we have a lot of people now that you know, come from the city and different places and build and I used to know everybody that lived around here but now I don’t. AC: Okay. The Bryce cottages, the Bryce Hill cottages, when did those show up, when were they built? BR: Oh gosh. I don’t know, it was before I ever went up there. But now they’re, the cottages are all closed and they have what they call the Bryce Hill, now, they have condos and town houses on it. And but there’s no recreation or nothing any more, they don’t run it anymore it’s just people, it’s just private people, that come up and stay like maybe the weekend or when they have a vacation or whatever, and then of course they have things down at Bryce Resort that, you know, they can do. AC: So did you know if, once those were built, was there a big difference in people coming in and visiting since there were those cottages? BR: Oh yeah, it must be, I believe that at the post office now its 500 boxes and back then it was probably, I think Bayse was 2 people. AC: Oh wow. BR: Now it’s really, it’s really growing up. AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah and we used to have a post office down here. Course we’d have to walk to it to get our mail which was about probably a mile. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah and it was a store and a post office. AC: Yeah? Interesting. I’m trying, you covered so many of them. You’ve been really helpful. So I know you said that the people working there could buy the different products, was that a common thing, did people, for people to buy the things that they’d built? BR: Yeah I think everybody that worked there probably had some, bought some items yeah. Yeah I can’t remember, I don’t think we got a cut on anything. We paid whatever he, whatever the price was. But yeah I’m sure a lot of them had. Probably a lot more than I got. I didn’t buy everything that we made. But I did have that cradle, magazine cradle, and then that table that was a, what did they call that, a, it was real strong. It was a table you know you put in front of your couch. �AC: Okay. BR: Yeah. AC: Yeah. And when you were working was it like an hourly job? BR: Yeah. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah we worked, I guess it was like eight to four or something like that but we only got paid twice a month I think. We didn’t get paid every week. AC: And then, I know you said when you were working there they had switched away from the toys and the puzzles. Do you know if that switch kind of increased production, if people were happy with that switch? BR: I don’t have no idea about that. AC: Okay. BR: ‘Cause it was, when I started it, they weren’t doing any of that. The puzzles or any of that, anything. AC: Okay. BR: Now like I say, Mr. Polk can probably tell you about that. ‘Cause he worked there before I did. AC: Yeah. And you said the men and the women were kind of separate because you were doing different types of jobs. So what types of things would the men be doing versus what you guys were doing? BR: Well like cutting out the things and then one of them would glue them together and I guess like you said I never, I don’t know, but I’d imagine some of them probably had to cut the timber or whatever for them. Or I don’t know if they got, bought the lumber or I, I can’t remember about that. They might have bought the lumber and then the men had to cut out everything and you know that was their job. AC: Okay. And we kind of talked about this some already, but after Bird Haven closed I know you said people had cars and they were driving elsewhere but was it something that people were disappointed about it closing? Did they kind of wish it had stayed open or how did people view that? �BR: Yeah I think they would have liked for it to have stayed open, yeah. But I’m pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Clark both died and Spizz was by himself and he didn’t want to I guess mess with it. Like he moved to Harrisonburg and he was a lawyer I guess to start out with and went back to being a lawyer. AC: Yeah? Okay. I think that’s most of my questions, can you think of anything else? TO: No. AC: You’ve touched on a lot of it, is there anything else that just, you wanted, anything that you can remember that you want people to know about Bird Haven? BR: No, except it’s a beautiful place and its, it’s a landmark. And I, you know, I hope people will remember it. Cause it was nice, it was nice to work there. And I don’t know, it seems like every things changing to the little person goes out of business. Yeah. I guess I would say probably, I don’t believe it was over probably 20 people or maybe 25 working there when I worked there because it was, I would say, probably 10 women and at least 10 men, maybe more. I don’t know anymore. I would have to sit down and think who all worked there. AC: So it wasn’t a big… BR: It wasn’t a real big... AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah. And I did help to pack, to mail stuff. Everything had a you know, number you know, that’s what we went by to pack. AC: Okay so did they have people that specifically worked in the post office, or was it just that the people who did that also helped with the post office? BR: The ones that owned Bird Haven did the post office too. AC: Okay. But did they have like you guys send out everything, like you were saying, or did they have people that their specific job was in the post office? BR: No just the owners worked in the post office. AC: Okay they just worked there. BR: See now, when I worked at the store in Bayse well it was about five of us, only one person was allowed in the post office to work. So if anybody came in for their mail, we couldn’t get it, it �had to be the person that was, I guess they, I don’t know how they picked them, but anyhow it was one person. AC: Okay. BR: Of course I think it’s changed now. ‘Cause when the woman owned the store she did the post office then, and she worked by herself and I mean it was a lot of work because Bryce had already come in and a lot of people already moved in. And after she retired they had three or four people and they had computers. She didn’t have a computer. AC: Oh wow. BR: She had to at the end of the day figure up everything. AC: Wow. So very different? BR: Yeah. Yeah. Those computers are nice, but then again sometimes they’re not so nice. AC: Yeah? BR: Yeah. AC: And you said since it was kind of smaller, you said maybe ten women and ten men, was that because they wanted to keep it smaller or did a lot of people want to work there or… BR: Well I don’t know about that, I guess we had enough to do what they needed done. All the items they made they had enough to do it. AC: Okay. BR: I really don’t know, but I know it wasn’t a big operation, I mean, I know it wasn’t 50 people, I’d say it wasn’t over 25. I might be wrong though, maybe Leroy Polk can tell you. AC: So when you weren’t working, what sorts of things did you do around here? BR: Well back then wasn’t a lot of cars, everyone didn’t have a car. You just did things that was close. Church things, there was a lot of things going on at church. And community and we had a lot of things you don’t do now. We used to have a, what do you call that when you hide things and you have kids to hunt them, and we’d do that in the woods and around in the community. And they’d have to go all over to find them. That was the church. We had the youth group and every year we’d have a what do you call it a, I can’t think of what it’s called but we’d hide stuff and they had to find it. AC: Like a scavenger hunt, is that… �BR: Yeah. AC: Okay. BR: Yeah and also back then we went on the hay rides, man would come with his tractor and with hay on it and we’d all go and then cook hotdogs and stuff like that but you don’t do nothing like that no more. Now kids all they do is watch TV or that doggone phone stuff. My daughter-in-law is a, or ex-daughter-in-law, is a teacher. She teaches, you’re not supposed to call them retarded but mentally challenged, and she has a rule, and a lot of them are smart, that their phones have to go on the shelf when they come in, they’re not allowed to have their phones while schools going on. But she says you walk the halls and them kids all walk with their heads down they’re doing their phones. AC: Yeah, I believe it. BR: I think that’s getting to be like a addiction, I really do. AC: Yeah. TO: Yeah it gets bad, I can see that. AC: Definitely. Definitely lots of different things. BR: Yeah. You can’t sit down and carry on a conversation with anybody anymore, they’ve got those phones so you might as well forget it. AC: Yeah. Trying to think. BR: So now you’re, are you studying, what are you studying to be? AC: I’m studying history. BR: History. Oh that’s interesting. AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah. AC: So I think things like this are great. BR: Yeah. AC: And they’re important. �BR: Yeah they are. You know what, we have a book club here now and it was my turn this Sunday but it’s been too many things going on I couldn’t get to the library to do what I wanted to do. And I’m going to talk on cemeteries all over the Shenandoah County. AC: Oh cool. BR: And also funeral homes, you’d be surprised how many funeral homes there are. AC: Really? BR: That people don’t know they were funeral homes. They’re just a building. AC: Yeah. BR: And so I was going to talk on that and also how funerals have changed. AC: Yeah? BR: Since I was growing up. And people don’t realize that. AC: Yeah. BR: So I… AC: If you want to talk about that now you can, the ways that they’ve changed you can feel free to talk about that. BR: Well like when I was a teenager when anybody would die down at our church, a lot of people around here didn’t have phones then. When someone would die they had a code that if it was a man they’d toll the bell so many times, everybody in the community could hear it and we would know it was a death. If it was a woman, it was so many times, or a child. And back then well, they didn’t take them to the funeral home. They did to embalm them but then they brought them back to the house and we’d go to the house. And you’d have flower girls, might have ten, fifteen flower girls, and everyone would go to the house. And they’d have a service there and then take them to the church, well they’d have the casket up front, open, during the whole service, and then they’d have everybody to view them at the very end. Which made it a long funeral. I’m glad they quit that. But it’s just how different things are. Now, now at the church down here now, they have them at the back, the casket at the back. And you go in and do that and when it’s time for the funeral they close it up and take it up front and that’s it. And no flower girls or nothing like they used to. AC: Yeah. �BR: Its really different. AC: Yeah. BR: Yeah but a lot of things are better. Yeah. AC: That’s really interesting. I didn’t know, I didn’t know a lot of that. BR: And its, its, now my uncle, is 102 years old. AC: Wow, does he live around here? BR: He lives over at Conicville. AC: Oh ok. BR: And he calls me, he hasn’t called me today so I’m beginning to wonder what’s wrong with him. Sometimes he calls me three times a day. AC: Oh wow. BR: And where his house is, it was a funeral home on that road and people don’t know that. AC: Yeah. BR: Cause now it’s just a house. And its sitting empty. AC: Interesting. BR: So that’s what, I’m interested too to check to see where all the funeral homes were. And over when you go back, when you hit Bayse and go down that hill, you go up the hill and then down the hill, there was one right there. AC: Really? BR: There were what used to be called wetlands but now it’s a car place. That was a funeral home. AC: Interesting. BR: And back then also they took them in buggies. They had you know horses. AC: Yeah? �BR: They would take them in. Yeah. Yeah and you know, it’s something to think about. I wish I’d have wrote down a lot of stuff cause now I’m 85 years old and its nobody I can ask anything anymore cause everybody is gone. Up at our church one day we were cleaning and we found in a closet something wrapped up, it was like a handle, and we were curious what it was. Its been there for years and nobody’s bothered with it. So we got curious and we unwrapped it and all it was was like a handle for an axe but it was real nice, smooth and everything. And now we don’t know what it was for or who wrapped it or put it back there or anything. AC: Wow. BR: Cause all the old folks from our church is gone. AC: Yeah wow. It’s always interesting to wonder why things like that are there. BR: Yeah and we have like a tray and I’m sure that was made at Bird Haven, ‘cause one of the men that belonged to our church worked at Bird Haven and he made a lot of the things in our church when we built a new church in 1954. And he made a lot of things like benches and for rooms and Sunday school rooms and stuff. And it’s a tray with a handle and we can’t figure that out and it’s got little grooves in it like you would set a glass. It’s got maybe eight of those, so we think it was how they served communion. AC: Oh. BR: That the glasses were in those little grooves and they just passed the tray around, but we don’t know what it is. AC: Wow that’s really interesting. BR: We put it out on display all the time when we have homecomings and stuff hoping somebody will know what it is. AC: Yeah. BR: But like I say, all our old members are gone. AC: Yeah, don’t have those people to ask anymore. BR: No, no. AC: And you mentioned, just then, with the man that worked at Bird Haven and he built some stuff for the new church. So did the church and other places in the community, did they go to bird haven for things they needed, do you know? Or was it just a connection, he happened to work there and he went to the church? �BR: Yeah he did it, probably he did it for nothing for the church. AC: Oh okay. BR: But he did a lot of wood work of different things for the church, our church. Yeah. AC: Okay. BR: Now he has one son living yet, the man that did all that, Richard Barb. AC: Oh okay. BR: I don’t know what he could tell you. AC: Yeah. BR: Now he lived as a, when he grew up as a child and everything and going and went to school, he, cross the stream there where we worked, that’s, his parents lived there and it was three children they all lived there. He might be able to tell you something. AC: Okay. He might be on our list, ‘cause we have a list of people and I don’t know who all is on there. So he might be on there but… BR: Might be, Richard Barb is his name. AC: Okay we’ll write him down. BR: And he lives back, Sarah lane. When you go up from here to Bayse. AC: Okay. BR: On the left hand side, its back in the woods where he lives. AC: And you said besides the owners, that was the only other family that lived kind of, that close, like right across the stream? Or were there other people that lived pretty close like that? BR: Well, like I said everybody lived not too far you know, some of them lived over in Mount Clifton or Mount Hermon over, that’s on 263 after you leave Bayse. AC: Yeah. BR: That’s about as far as any of them lived that worked back there. �AC: Okay. Alright. Well I think that’s about everything that we had so unless there’s anything else that you wanted to share? BR: Well I think I’ve said enough. AC: Just making sure, because anything you want to share is, we’d love to hear it. BR: Well I hope you get a good turn out and everything for it. AC: Yeah. BR: And put it on record that people and maybe even my great grandson might be interested when he gets growing. AC: Yeah. And that’s, that’s why we’re doing this, to document it and that’s why we wanted to make sure anything, if there’s anything we didn’t cover, if there’s anything else you wanted to be remembered about Bird Haven and your experiences there. BR: Now like I said that Betty Dillinger, I think she went to work after I quit, I can’t remember, she wasn’t working there when I was working there. It was either before I started or after I quit, I didn’t know she worked there. But they told me that was one, there was three people living yet that worked there. AC: Okay, interesting. BR: And Leroy Polk he lives in Edinburg. AC: Yeah. Okay. BR: Yeah. AC: Awesome, well I think… BR: Would you all like a bottle of water or something? AC: I’m okay… TO: I’m fine, thank you. BR: You sure? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Ashlen Clark Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Betty Richards Location The location of the interview Edinburg, Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Betty Richards Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Richards, Betty Basye (Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Betty Richards of Edinburg Virginia recorded by Ashlen Clark of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ashlen Clark Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qB7uLiWaX8Q" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/371Ww_0caw8" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 22 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource WAV File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-003 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/312aac7da0eeecea452c6e784362397f.pdf 58fdfe5c57364415352c773ba1ef54f9 PDF Text Text Hubert Barb Oral History of Bird Haven Interviewed by Camille Weber March 20, 2017 Location: Hubert Barb’s home Edinburg, VA Project: Bird Haven and the Shenandoah Community Workers Oral History The Truban Archives Shenandoah County Library �WEBER: Cool, so we’re gonna go ahead and get started. I guess just start with your name, birthday, where you’re from – basic information. BARB: My name is Hubert Barb. I was born at Bird Haven. I’m 76 years old. WEBER: So you’ve lived here your whole life? BARB: Well, I worked up in Washington D.C. a while. I was in Vietnam. Then I worked construction -- Highway and bridge construction. Wife: In Charlottesville. BARB: Out of Charlottesville until I retired. WEBER: So you grew up living at Bird Haven BARB: Bird Haven and Jerome. WEBER: I guess just to start, can you just tell me what it was like living at Bird Haven? BARB: Well, it was pretty…pretty tough. That was during the Depression; the end of the Depression to the Second World War. I enjoyed it. My father owned the farm there below the bird haven factory. And, um, that was nice. We lived right there on the creek and we… He farmed and worked at Bird Haven. My mother worked at Bird Haven after the hotel burned – or part of it burned. And, um, it was nice. I had to walk all the way out to the road to catch the school bus. And one time I missed it. Likely froze to death. WEBER: Oops, I’m sure you didn’t miss it again after that. BARB: There was a creek crossing. You could drive a team of horses across, but you couldn’t – there was no bridge or anything. There was a log laying across the creek that we walked cross. And it was – I picked up the Montgomery catalog at the Post Office at Bird haven and was walking home across the log and it had ice on it and I slipped off it and into the water. But I didn’t get the catalog wet because Mum wouldn’t been terribly upset if I got that catalog wet. We didn’t have much to do. The one place that I remember real well was the old Dodge place. WEBER: What was it? BARB: It was a house. The Dodge family owned it, but I guess they all died out. There was no one there. It was a part of Bird Haven and they stored all of the old toys and puzzles in there. We got in there and threw that stuff all over the place. And they… we probably wasted a fortune in homemade toys and puzzles. The other thing I remember real well is that Bernie Clark had a Great Dane dog. Of course, we were small. That dog was taller. I could walk underneath it. I was scared to death of that dog. But it never bothered anyone. Then Richard’s family moved up there. They lived down there in the 2 �Frye place. I guess it was around ’48 somewhere around there. There wasn’t much to do, except, work and play. We did a lot of playing and a lot of fishing. I remember the flood. I believe it was ‘48. They had a flood that come up underneath the house. Richard and I was out there on the back porch when the water come up under the porch. – trying to fish. It was, of course, Mum was scared to death. She was the only one. Dad was off working somewhere. He couldn’t get home. When he got home of course the flood was over with then: everything that washed away or was going to wash away. BARB: The other thing I remember real well is – we had a chicken house near the creek and it froze over in the wintertime. We would go ice-skating on it. Of course we didn’t have ice skates, we’d go in our shoes. And the ice broke and I fell in. Richard helped drag me out. WEBER: How old were you then? REPEAT WEBER: How old were you? BARH: I was probably 8 years old… 8 or 9. WEBER: So how long did you live at Bird Haven? BARB: Uh, I believe we left there in ’51, which would’ve made me 11 years old. I think that’s close to the time. WEBER: And you were born in the Peppermint House? Is that right? BARB: I was born in the house down at the creek and below…. You know where the lake is? You ever been down there? WEBER: No BARB: There’s a flood lake in below Bird Haven. Our house was right there, of course it wasn’t built then. The dam was built after we left there years ago. It was… I was born in that house in 1940. There was no doctor or anyone. One of my uncles went up to 717 and got a midwife to come down and help deliver me. WEBER: Did you learn about this from your parents? BARB: Beg your pardon? WEBER: Did you learn about this from your parents? They told you about this? BARB: Yeah. Yeah. WEBER: So, how did the Great Depression impact Bird Haven? 3 �BARB: Well, we didn’t even know there was a Depression because we didn’t have anything to start with. We raised all of our food. WEBER: Did you ever feel secluded from the nation because you were a close-knit community? BARB: I guess we did because it was a close-knit community. It was about all Barbs who worked there at the toy factory. Most of it was packed and wrapped and shipped right there from Bird Haven. There was a post office there. They wrapped it up and shipped it off to the big cities like Washington, New York, Boston, and it went all over the eastern United States. WEBER: And did they ship toys, bowls, everything under the moon? BARB: Yeah. WEBER: Did you play a lot in the toy factory? What did you kinda do? BARB: I was there, around the toy factory a lot. We didn’t play inside. WEBER: Did you get to play with the toys and test them out? BARB: No, we just played around there. But, we played at the Dodger place mostly because we could get those toys and throw them away. WEBER: And were those toys made in the factory? BARB: Yeah. They made them in the factory and later on they got away from making puzzles and toys to making little knick-knack type furniture. WEBER: Why’d they change? Why do you think they changed? BARB: I imagine it had a lot to do with Bernie Clark. He owned everything around there. And he was a governor of Connecticut who moved down here at the insistence of his wife who was, she was a daughter of a judge up at Harrisonburg. And she had one son, which wasn’t Bernie’s, which was a judge’s – John Paul. She was the one that had the money. It was a real thriving business while Bernie lived, but after Bernie passed way it kind of went down hill because no one was managing it like it needed to be managed. WEBER: Had your family moved away already, when Bernie passed? BARB: Yes. WEBER: So, it was after ’51. BARB: Yeah. 4 �WEBER: So, your mom worked at the hotel. What was that? What was the hotel: The Alum Springs hotel? BARB: That hotel is no longer there, but it was up until, it must’ve been 20 years ago obviously destroyed the rest of it. It was a thriving hotel at one time. WEBER: Did a lot of tourists come? BARB: A lot of what? WEBER: Tourists: People from out of town? BARB: Yeah. WEBER: Why did they visit? For the mountains? BARB: The water. WEBER: The mineral water? BARB: Yeah, it had arsenic in it, which wasn’t good. Although they claim it was medicinal type water, but I doubt that. It had a lot of water with iron, sulfur, manganese. WEBER: Did you ever help at the hotel? BARB: No, I was just a kid. WEBER: What did your Dad do? BARB: My Dad was a carpenter and cabinetmaker. WEBER: At Bird Haven? BARB: Yeah, at Bird Haven, but then he went into business for himself and it failed too. After that we moved to Jerome. And he went in to cutting timber, but if I understand right, that toy factory, Bird Haven factory, started in 1927 I think the date was. It probably closed down about 1960 or ’61 somewhere in there. WEBER: Do you know how it started? BARB: Not exactly. I know it started as a community type thing. It was not built to make a profit. It was just built to form what I understand was to promote forestry and forest industry. You know, people drawed a salary and it was supposed to be a nonprofit. WEBER: It helped keep the community going? 5 �BARB: Yeah, pretty tough times during the Depression. WEBER: Did your parents help form Bird Haven? BARB: They were involved, but not in any big way. They were just part of it, but it was mostly Barbs. A lot of Barbs worked there. You know from Basye and Bird Haven. There was only a couple families who lived on and in Bird Haven. It’s funny that we would’ve had a post office, but what kept the post office going was the industry that Bird Haven produced. I can remember one, I seen it on the Internet: a stamp that had Hitler on it during the Second World War. Richard’s mother, Sarah, worked in the paint shop and she did the painting. That’s probably what killed her. She had cancer. Those sprays that they used to paint the furniture wasn’t very good for you. Whether they chose facemasks, if they wanted to, but most of them even used the facemask and Richard’s father, he worked there in the post office, where dad sorted in the post office too wrapping things to ship out. But he also worked on the lot making furniture. He was really good at making things. WEBER: And your Dad too? BARB: Yeah, my dad too. WEBER: Did you learn from your Dad how to make things? BARB: No, I never learned anything. WEBER: Did you not want to? BARB: I can’t remember what I really was interested in – mostly playing because I was just a kid. We never got into the craft part of it, which I regret but it’s part of life. WEBER: What was a typical day like? What did you guys play? BARB: Well, in the summer we played there around the toy factory over at the old house that they put all these old toys in. We played a lot there. WEBER: Were there a lot of kids? BARB: No, Richard and me. WEBER: Anyone else? BARB: I had another cousin, Hope Miller. He lived down here in Jerome but he spent a lot of time with us and that was about the only three people we played with. WEBER: You and Richard were really close? 6 �BARB: We were, then, very close. WEBER: What was it like going to school so far away from where you lived? Did you like it? BARB: Yeah, I think I did. I had a schoolteacher at Mount Hermons where I first went to school. She was the pastor’s wife. We were Lutherans and she taught school at Mount Hermon. A circle was the teacher’s name; Miss Circle. WEBER: What was your favorite subject in school? BARB: Math. Math and science. WEBER: Did you continue on with math and science? BARB: Well, sort of. I never finished college. I went to George Washington University at night. I was working for the FBI and went to school at night for a couple of years but I never finished. WEBER: How did you end up working for the FBI? BARB: Recruitment. They recruited. They were asking for employees when I graduated. I put in my application and after months they accepted me. I was planning on going to VT and had been accepted, but we didn’t have any money and scholarship was unheard of. So, I left to go work for the FBI and go to school at night because that was a big thing for J Edgar Hoover to get young people to get a degree in accounting or law and become an agent. He promoted that a lot, but for me it was hard trying to go to school and work 8 hours a day. I gave that up and decided to go in the army. I figured I was gonna be drafted anyway. WEBER: What year was that? BARB: 1962, I believe when I went in the service. WEBER: What did you do in the service? BARB: I was in the Special Forces. I was a medic. That was my primary MOS. (Military occupational specialty) WEBER: And you served in Vietnam? BARB: Yeah. WEBER: For how long? 7 �BARB: It was 2 terms. I think it was 13 months when I got out. I decided I didn’t want to go back. WEBER: What was that like, serving in Vietnam? Were you prepared? BARB: It was an experience. WEBER: Did any values from Bird Haven help you? Anything you learned at Bird Haven? BARB: I was a survivor. I could live off the land. Of course just about anyone who come out of the Depression in the rural areas learned how to survive because there wasn’t any work other than Bird Haven. WEBER: What at Bird Haven taught you how to live off the land? Did you hunt or fish? BARB: Oh, yes. Hunting and fishing, fishing mainly. I love to fish. I don’t fish anymore, but I loved it when I was young – trout fishing for brook trout. That stream up there used to have many brook trout in it, but it doesn’t anymore. It’s not hardly a stream anymore. The water table has dropped so much it doesn’t have much water in it, but it did then. WEBER: Did you just fish with other kids? BARB: Richard was about the only one. I fished with Hope some. He was only the cousin. We kindly picked him up to spend the summer with us and we farmed. I didn’t do much. One of the things that happened to me when I was small was I put a pea in my ear and it sprouted. They sent me to Harrisonburg to have it removed. That was interesting. WEBER: Why did you put a pea in your ear? BARB: I don’t know, it’s what kids do. WEBER: Did you ever go to Harrisonburg a lot when you were younger or stay in Bird Haven mostly? BARB: We stayed in Bird Haven. We go to Mount Jackson once a week. Moomaw had a flatbed truck that he would haul everyone on that flat bed truck into Mount Jackson to see a movie and we’d come back at night and that’s about it. WEBER: Was that a special trip? BARB: To me, it was. It was something to go to the movies. It cost 15 cents. WEBER: These days movies are $12, no popcorn included. (Laughs) 8 �WEBER: Popcorn is like $15. BARB: Yeah, we went to see the movie Hacksaw Ridge. I got a bowl of popcorn and I believe it was $25. Wife: It was expensive. BARB: I love popcorn. I don’t each much of it anymore, but I used to. WEBER: So that was special? BARB: Yeah. WEBER: And you went in Harrisonburg? Where did you go see it? BARB: Winchester. Wife: Maybe 2 months ago. BARB: When Hacksaw Ridge first come out; that was quite a movie. WEBER: I saw it. BARB: Did you see it? WEBER: It’s a local story, well Lynchburg… so a Virginia story. BARB: He’s from Nelson County. WEBER: Had you heard that story before? BARB: I heard the story, but I never paid much attention to it. I heard about him. WEBER: Does WWII interest you? Do you like to study it? Read about it? BARB: I read some about it, but I read about Vietnam more than anything. WEBER: Because you served? BARB: Yeah, it was a part of my life. WEBER: Do you still keep in touch with people you went to Vietnam with? BARB: No, I kindly tried to get away from it. I did communicate with a boy that I was with. He’s retired. We both got out of the service at the same time, but he went back 9 �again and became an officer. He was a Major. He teaches at Appalachian State teachers college in Asheville, NC. We did communicate a while there, but he wanted to talk about things that I didn’t really want to talk about that much. And then there was one other guy that was older than us who got out of the service at the same time. And, he signed up with CIA and wanted me to go along, but I wasn’t interested going back in that area of the world. I communicated with him for a while and then I don’t know what happened. He probably got killed because he was in Laos as an undercover agent with “Usum” team, which was supposed to furnish food and help items for the Laotian people, but they had a lot of CIA agents mixed in with them. I imagine he probably got killed because I lost communications with him and the last letter I wrote him came back, so there was no return address. WEBER: When you lived at Bird Haven, did you write any letters to people? Or were most friends from the community? BARB: Most friends were community. We were very local. WEBER: Did you like that? BARB: Yeah, it was nice. Nice and rural. It was kind of a carefree place. We didn’t have anything and we didn’t know what it was to have a lot. It never really bothered us as kids. I enjoyed it. When Dad lost the farm, which really bothered me a lot. He had mortgaged the farm because he and another guy had a business and the other guy stole all of the assets and left dad sticking with it so he lost the farm. $1500, which is nothing today, but it was a lot of money back then when land only brought a couple dollars an acre in this area. WEBER: What did you do on the farm? Did you guys have animals? BARB: We had chickens, hogs, a few cattle, raised corn and barley, wheat. But there wasn’t much of a market for it, so we had to feed it to the animals there at the farm. We sold very little of it because there wasn’t any market to amount to anything. Just about every one was farming if they lived in a rural area. WEBER: So you couldn’t sell it to the community because everyone was farming? BARB: Traded. There wasn’t any money. We traded hams and eggs for things that we needed like sugar. I can remember during the war, the ration stamps. Sugar rations, gas, everything was rationed that was contributing to the Second World War and I tore up a bunch of sugar stamps and that was very enlightening to me. I got a good wailing for it. They didn’t mean that much to me, but they did to mom. WEBER: Did Bird Haven contribute to the war effort like the Home front effort at all? 10 �BARB: I would say they did. The fact that you know they made things that weren’t sued for the war but they were used to feed people like bowls and things like that. I don’t know that they would’ve contributed much in any other way to the war effort. WEBER: How did you get your news about what was going on? Did newspapers come through the post office? BARB: Mostly the radio. WEBER: So, you had a radio? BARB: Mhm. We didn’t have electricity, but we had our battery radio. Big one that set up about that high. (Raises arm to hip height) WEBER: Was it community radio? BARB: No, it was ours. WEBER: Did a lot of people come over to listen? BARB: No, there weren’t a lot of people who lived around there. The Clarks and Richard’s parents and mine was the only families that lived in Bird Haven. It was very isolated and still is for that matter. There isn’t much there. The factory is still there, but everything has been scrouged and people took away the old lays and things like that. They’re all gone now. I’m hoping that eventually they’ll make that whole area into a museum. WEBER: To keep the story alive? BARB: Yeah. The hotel is gone, so that history is gonna die other than what’s written and recorded. WEBER: Is your wife from the area? BARB: She’s from Hudson Crossroads. WEBER: How’d you meet? BARB: At a dance. Wife: Well, tell her the truth. BARB: (Laughs) Wife: Can I tell her? (Proceeds to talk) On the school bus, my hair was always real long and naturally curly. He and his friends would wait until I was ready to sit down and then 11 �they’d pull it. You talk about being hurt, I turn around one time and smacked them both upside the head and the school bus driver said, “Do it again. Get them,” because he knew us all. The bus driver did. Remember that? BARB: No. Wife: I do. WEBER: How old were you? BARB: That would’ve been in high school. WEBER: So you were long gone from Bird Haven? BARB: Yeah. WEBER: And then you started dating? BARB: Not a whole lot. I didn’t date until I got out of high school. That wasn’t been on my mind. I had to get up at 4:30 AM and milk cows, feed chickens and hogs before I got ready for the school bus. There was a school bus down here but in Bird Haven there wasn’t. You had to walk I guess about a mile or further to catch a school bus. WEBER: So you got your exercise? BARB: Oh, yeah. Plenty of that. WEBER: Running through the woods? BARB: Yeah, yeah. WEBER: How long have you been married? BARB: 53 years? Wife: No. How many more? BARB: 54? Wife: Yeah, we’ll be 55 in…(Pause) BARB: August. WEBER: So you got married before you went to Vietnam? 12 �BARB: Just before I went to Vietnam. I got married in August and left for Vietnam in October. WEBER: Where did you get married? BARB: Over at St. James Lutheran Church in Hudson Crossroads. WEBER: Was there a church at Bird Haven? BARB: No. Powder Springs. (Points at picture above head.) There’s the church I got married in. WEBER: It’s beautiful. BARB: The nearest church to Bird Haven would’ve been Powder Springs and that was a union Church. Three denominations went there: Lutherans, Reform, and I believe Church of Christ, wasn’t it? Wife: I think it was. WEBER: Did you walk there? BARB: Yeah. We didn’t have a car. WEBER: No car? BARB: Yeah, no car. Dad didn’t want us to use the wagon either with the horses. Some people went to Church you know they take their horses in town to the hitchin’ rail. We never did. We just walked. WEBER: How has the area changed over the years? Has it changed much? BARB: No. Bryce Mountain, which was part of our home place – that’s the biggest thing. A lot of people live on Bryce Mountain, which wouldn’t have been there when I was growin’ up. It’s more of a retirement area now. Pete Bryce bought the land and started Bryce Mountain, which is not Bryce Mountain. It’s Cedar Ridge, but the name has changed to Bryce Mountain. If you look on the USGS maps it’s still Cedar Ridge. It’s a ski resort without snow. We don’t get much snow anymore. But back when I was growing up we really got snow. I can still remember the snow drifting up in front of the house up there it was 6 or 8 feet deep. We’d cave into it and build igloos in it. That was a lot of fun. We didn’t have anything else to do in the middle of winter except go to school. WEBER: Did that affect the factory at all? The snow? People could walk? 13 �BARB: Yeah, they walked. But, they considered that everyone around there was kindly local. Back then to be a mile or two away from where you worked wasn’t that big of a thing. You got up early in the morning and walked to work. WEBER: So a lot of the people who worked in Bird Haven didn’t live at Bird Haven? BARB: No. WEBER: They walked? BARB: They walked. And later on, some of them had cars, but a majority didn’t have cars. WEBER: When did your family get a car? BARB: It must’ve been in the 50s. We had horses. WEBER: Did you ever feel like you needed the car? BARB: Not really. I did when I was in high school, but the first car I ever drove was a Studebaker; a 1954 Studebaker. WEBER: What was that like? BARB: It was nice. I drove without a license. It wasn’t a big thing back then. There wasn’t that much traffic. WEBER: How’d you learn to drive? BARB: The hard way – just driving. I never had no driver’s Ed or anything like that. But driver Ed in school is a great thing I think. To get trained to drive. WEBER: So, what’s this dance where you met your wife? BARB: That was at Stony Creek dance hall down by the furnace. WEBER: Was it part of the high school? Was it a high school event? BARB: No. It didn’t have anything to do with the high school. It was just a place to square dance or any other type of dancing. That was before rock n’ roll. WEBER: And you asked her to dance? To square dance? Is that how you met? BARB: I don’t remember. Wife: Yes, it was. 14 �WEBER: Did you listen to music at Bird Haven? BARB: Bluegrass. Of course it wasn’t called Bluegrass then. WEBER: What was it called? BARB: Music. (Laughs) Wife: That’s what it was. They called it music. BARB: We had that radio and it was battery operated and there were about 6 stations that you could pull in on it. One was up in New York, one in West Virginia, and another in Bristol, VA. I don’t remember the others but they were the big stations then. They played what I call, it wasn’t country, it was more of a… (Pause) Wife: Remember, Dad called it hillbilly music. BARB: Yeah, I guess that’s what it’s called then. I love bluegrass. That’s my favorite music. And rock n’ roll is alright. WEBER: Did you ever play an instrument? BARB: No, but I sure wish I would’ve learned, but I never did. I sang to the cows when I was milking them by hand. WEBER: Do you remember what you would sing? BARB: I made up most of my songs. It was kindly rural, just whatever come to mind. WEBER: Did they make instruments at Bird Haven? Guitars? BARB: Not that I know of. I don’t’ remember any instruments that they made, but they should have because although that area wasn’t near as musically inclined as on the Blue Ridge Front, like Elkton and through that area, that’s where your real mountain music comes from. WEBER: Were there social events at Bird Haven? BARB: I don’t remember any social events. WEBER: Because it was mainly family? (Nods yes) WEBER: Did they have to work on weekends? 15 �BARB: I don’t remember them working on weekends, but I’m sure some of the guys like Stuart and my Dad would mess around in there making things on their own. WEBER: Did they sell things on their own? BARB: No, no. It was all shipped out most of it. But later on after Bernie died, the boy would take things up to New Market to sell them. He never shipped them out like he was supposed to. That’s what the downfall was. He kept the money. It was on a downhill trend. WEBER: Had you already been gone after that? BARB: Yeah. We left, probably ’51 I guess. WEBER: But you kept in touch with people? BARB: Oh yes, Richard, Stuart and the family. We go up there. WEBER: Do you still keep in touch today? BARB: Yeah, some. Richard was down here yesterday for 5 hours. WEBER: Do you enjoy that? BARB: Oh, yes. He’s a character. WEBER: Did you enjoy growing up with him at Bird Haven? BARB: Sure, yes. That was nice. WEBER: Do you have a favorite memory with him? BARB: I guess my most favorite memory was fishin’ off the porch with him during the flood, we didn’t catch any because it was a flood and then the Dodge place – playing in the Dodge place and destroying those toys. WEBER: What’d it look like, the Dodge place? BARB: It was a big frame house. The rural houses are. The Dodge family apparently was a well to do family at one time that had a lot to do with Basye. I don’t know what happened to them, they all died or didn’t have any males in the family because you don’t hear of them anymore. WEBER: Do you still have any of the toys from Bird Haven? 16 �BARB: Don’t have any toys, but I do have a couple of things I’d like to show you. BARB: (Pulls out black and white print of Bird Haven Display House and Post Office) BARB: That’s where they sold the stuff out of and this is the post office. WEBER: Where did you live in relation to here? BARB: About a half a mile down stream from there. There’s twenty of them made and my family’s got seven of them. WEBER: How come your family got 7? BARB: We bought them. This is a box that the toys came in. That was the puzzle box. The puzzle isn’t in it. This is one of the later pieces. I think that was a thimble box, maybe. WEBER: Was this a cheese board? BARB: Yeah, probably. WEBER: Plate. BARB: The plate was my mother’s. That’s a burn on (Points at “Bird Haven” logo on backside of plate). It’s an old one. If you look on the back it’s burnt – the stamp. WEBER: What kind of stamp is that? (Points at plate with plastic stamp) BARB: That’s got a plastic thing on it. WEBER: So you never helped make the toys, though? BARB: This I believe is what you laid your forks and stuff on. WEBER: Do you still use these today? BARB: No, I don’t use them. WEBER: These are cool. BARB: This is a knick-knack shelf and it’s burnt on in place. WEBER: Wow, that’s somethin’. BARB: Here are some of the toys. 17 �WEBER: So how did you get all of these? BARB: We bought them. (Opens plastic bag of wooden toys: elephant and camel) WEBER: How did you destroy these? BARB: Throwing them around. Throwing them at each other. WEBER: And they would just break? BARB: Mhm. This was my grandmother’s. (Shows off bowl) WEBER: Why did they switch from a burn on stamp to a stick stamp? BARB: I don’t know why. WEBER: Was it after you already left? BARB: Yeah. This is a burnt stamp here. WEBER: Do you know the wood? BARB: Maple. The only three woods that I know that they used was maple, cherry, and maybe some yellow pine was the only woods that they used. This was given to me by a family down there – the McWilliams family. I gave them to my daughter. I’m not gonna try to collect. WEBER: Do you like to look at this stuff? BARB: Oh yeah, I love to look at it. This is a nice piece. It’s not marked, but it’s Bird Haven. We call it roundabouts. This is a nice piece, too. It’s not marked, but it’s Bird Haven. WEBER: You can tell because of the wood; so soft. BARB: That’s in really good condition. WEBER: Does this bring back good memories? BARB: Oh yes, yeah. WEBER: Do you look at this stuff a lot? BARB: Yeah, once in a while. This here is one of my favorite items because I used to throw them away. (Shows off puzzle box) The puzzle was in there made out of wood. 18 �WEBER: Did you ever put the puzzles together? BARB: Some, yeah but we threw them away then. These are the originals. WEBER: This tells you what was in the water (Arsenic), but people still came? BARB: Yeah, they didn’t know any better. And believe it or not, a case of water, half gallons, with twelve in a case was $4, which is a lot of money I think. WEBER: But today? BARB: I imagine that water would be condemned now. It had arsenic in it. As near as I can tell, they made gunpowder there during the civil war. You know where that’s at, don’t you? If you come down Alum Springs Road this way on the left hand side is the old furnace. WEBER: We saw it. It’s beautiful, falling over. I like the stone. BARB: If you go up the road a little bit, you go into Bird Haven. WEBER: Toda, the gate is open. We’re going to try and go to see, but you have to stop at the office. BARB: I don’t even where the office is, but he’s restored most of those buildings. I’m hoping he’ll make a museum out of it. These were tore down and replaced. (Points to stairs on print) See, that one is signed and this one is signed here. I think this one is the original. They called them artist proofs. This guy lives in Timberville. WEBER: So did you ever spend time in there? (Bird Haven Display Home) BARB: When I was a kid, but I haven’t been in it in years and years. WEBER: Did you ever do any work at the post office? BARB: I was in it, but that’s about it. They wouldn’t have let me do anything. Wife: We moved from here for 48 years, remember we was in Charlottesville for 48 years and just home on weekends. That makes a difference when you’re here on weekends only and not during the week because then you’re trying to do things with a family. In Charlottesville for 48 years, so I think it’s hard to do stuff then because we started to do ore things with family. BARB: But, I remember the hotel was still standing or at least the 2. There were 3 parts of the hotel, and one part burned down and that’s when they laid momma off. That hotel stood there for years, I don’t know when it was tore down, but it may have been turned into a chicken house for a while. It’s a shame it’s not still standing. 19 �WEBER: Maybe they’ll rebuild a replica. BARB: It’ll have to be Mr. Carr to do that. WEBER: Who is that? BARB: He’s the one that owns it: Alum Springs. He owns the factory WEBER: How old is he? BARB: You know, I don’t know I’ve never met him. He called me to tell me some people up at JMU was gonna give me a call for an interview and I thought it was great. Then I drove in there and I see he’s restored all of the buildings there at the factory. I didn’t know if he’s got a road built down to the old house or not where we lived, but I understand he’s restoring that house too. It was a log house; part of it was a log it wasn’t all log. But interesting story about that was Dad had helped make some moonshine and he had a half galloon jug of it and Mo Barb came down and helped Dad drink it and dad put it away in one of the cabinets and the next day the Revenue Officer came in and arrested him and took the whiskey and everything. And Mo who had helped him drink it had turned him in to get the money because that was a big thing. You got money from the government for turning people in who made moonshine. Of course dad hadn’t made it he just helped make it. Bill Moomaw was the guy that was making it. He was quite a fella. He had a thrashing machine to thrash grain and hew as a big farmer. He had a lot of equipment to farm with and thrash. It was putting shocks then to thrash it out. Also, he made pictures. The old camera that had the big, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen them, they were about this long. He made pictures. Thrashed stuff. He was probably the only thrashing machine in the country then. Maybe they had one over in McConicsville, I don’t know. WEBER: Was this while you were still at Bird Haven? BARB: Yeah and after. He come down here and went all around Jerome and Bird Haven to thrash the grain. He’d thrash it for shares of the gain to sell. And I had an Uncle Gilbert Barb that lived on that road going down tot Bryce Mountain. As a matter of fact, the middle of the gold course is on the property that he owned. Pete Bryce bought it for the Bryce Mountain golf course. WEBER: There was a lot of community involved? BARB: Oh yeah everything was community. WEBER: Any final thoughts to share on Bird Haven? Advice? 20 �BARB: The only thing, I just hope that it does get restored and they turn it into a museum and start putting pieces of furniture that were made there in it. I think that would be wonderful. WEBER: I think so too. BARB: Yeah, maybe that’s what he’s going to do. I don’t know what his intention is. His wife is tied up with the Alum Springs hotel some how or other. I don’t know if his wife worked there, but probably her mother worked there. My mother worked there and she was 94 years old when she passed away about 2 years ago. If you go on the internet and dial up Alum Springs hotel, Bird Haven, VA her obituary is in there because it mentions the fact that she had worked there at the hotel. There isn’t a lot of history on the internet about Alum Springs hotel or Bird Haven for that matter. WEBER: That’s what we’re here for. BARB: We don’t have any pictures of the old Bird Haven went it was in operation. Picture was a precious thing back when I was a kid growing up. Bill Moomaw made picture, but I don’t have nay of them. My brother might have some I’m not sure. WEBER: But you have the artist proofs. BARB: Yeah. WEBER: Well, thank you for sharing your story I enjoyed listening. BARB: I enjoyed talking about it. End of interview 21 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Camille Weber Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Hubert Barb Location The location of the interview Bayse Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hubert Barb Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Barb, Hubert Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Hubert Barb of Basye, Virginia, recorded by Camille Weber of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview, downloadable transcript (under files), and podcast highlighting the interview. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Camille Weber Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zPYDWQJSNlU" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hLbJZDJQTtw" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xz-uaM2kEL8" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 20, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-004 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/ac91b1c368d6bf9d99d806afeb032006.pdf a7fa8b4970831aa900e7c9424e2d257f PDF Text Text Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewer: And that works. So, I guess for continuity, can we just have your name and, you know, where you are from? Shamburg: Donal Gustenian Shamburg. Interviewer: And you were born in? Shamburg: I was born on the Supinlick Ridge west of Mount Jackson. Interviewer: Ok, Ok. Can you talk to us a little about your childhood and what you remember about it? Shamburg: Yeah I can talk about that. Uh, when I was a boy at school age… and this will tell you how old I am. I walked to school. About a mile in a one room school house with all the grades but just about one child or two in each grade. The school house is still standing there. Yeah. Interviewer: Growing up in a school like I guess you got to know the kids in your grade. Shamburg: I knew every one of them Interviewer: You knew everyone one of them? Where you ever any good friends with any of them? Shamburg: Yes good friends and the first thing that we learned when we started the school was the multiplication tables. And that is something you will use the rest of your life. Yeah. Interviewer: Did any of the teachers really stick out to you as role models or anything like that? The teachers in the school house? Shamburg: Do what now? Interviewer: Did any of the teachers in the schoolhouse stick out to you? Where there any you really remember or? Shamburg: Well yes. Alright. Our one teacher that come to school early in the morning before the children to make fire her name was Mrs. Good. And course had this big round stove. And she went to go make fire in the stove. What she threw in there caused it to explode and come out on her and that kill her. Our school teacher. That is the one instance yes. Interviewer: What happened after that? �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: Well the superintendent in school would come to the schoolhouses years ago. Now they send somebody else. They would come and we’d would see him coming up the lane and everybody got real quiet, yeah. “ Superintendent’s coming!” “Superintendent coming!” “ Here he comes!” So we watched that very closely. Interviewer: From the article that we were given it said you grew up on Bird Haven or in the area. Shamburg: Alright. I was more towards the town of mount Jackson Interviewer: Ok, ok. Can you describe Mount Jackson a little bit and what you remember from your childhood? Shamburg: Well it had one theatre. Now all the movies was about cowboys. You can’t even get that on television no more. But uh, then…. I’ll tell you the story about the poor lady who walking down the boardwalk. They had a boardwalk. And she fell down. And the lady got up, he laughed at her. And you know what she told him? She says, “What I see of you, mister, you’re no gentleman.” And what he told her “ What I seen of you your no gentleman either.” (laughs) Interviewer: So that was something you saw walking down in Mount Jackson? Shamburg: No I didn’t. Interviewer: From what the articles that we were given it said that your mother worked at Bird Haven. Can you talk a little about that? Shamburg: She worked some at Bird Haven but she worked more in Shenandoah Valley Spring Hotel, which was just a little ways up and she worked there. Because a lot of people from the city came back there in the summer cause it was cooler back there. And they had their own milk cows. They milked them cows and fed that to the people who’d come from the city. Yeah. And my mother worked there a lot. Now we would ride from where we lived at Mccainy back with the lady that worked in Post Office. Yeah Mcrider was her name. But anyhow, then we’d, well the first thing they started making a Bird Haven were toys out of wood. Wooden toys. And sales of them kinda got down then they started making furniture. Little stools and all that kinda stuff. Out of the lumber back there. Yeah. Got dry and then they’d get it in there. And if I remember right it was probably, maybe half a dozen or so men there working there and she worked there some. But most of the time she went up to the hotel. Because the lady that run the hotel is some relations to us. Years ago 3 men come there. One was Joseph Lonas, and the other bother was Jim Lonas and my great grandfather was Sam Lonas. Ok. The one became undertaker and I think this lady’s…I ain’t got it figured out exactly what relations this lady is got but I’m gonna find out if she comes around here today, but any how. The next one up was Jim Lonas and he had a store across the road. That’s when you got bananas off of a great �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell big long thing and then you cut off a bananer so in the store. Can’t imagine that now. And the next one up was my great grandfather Sam Lonas and he was a life stock dealer. So he would hock his horse. All these stories I’m telling you is not when they had automobiles a’buzzin up and down the road but everything was horse business. But he’d hook his horse up to his wagon and take a dog along with him and go cross to Mathias, West Virginia and he would buy a couple head of cattle or maybe a couple turkeys that was good and bring them over to Mount Hermon there. Yeah. That was his business. Yeah. Interviewer: Do you remember anything about Bird Haven? Where you allowed on the premises? Shamburg: Well, since I was small like I say I would go in there but there was one family, Arb was his name and he lived there at bird haven in a house him and his wife. Of course he was kinda the head of the woodwork business too. Interviewer: Can you describe that house a little bit? Do you remember anything about it? Shamburg: No it was just a plain house there. There was nothing modern or anything. Them days you didn’t have a lot of electric in your homes. Interviewer: Did your mother make any friends with anyone there? Shamburg: We were all friends. All friends cause there wasn’t too many there and they all come from around. Yeah. One women that worked there at the hotel, Sally Delootter was her name and she lived way up on the North Mountain but she would come down there worked at the hotel. She had a couple boys and one of them is still living. They’re Delootters Yeah. Of course I would meet with them, you know. Yeah. Interviewer: So you would meet up with them and… What would you do? Shamburg: Play. Play, play ball or anything simple. Interviewer: Baseball? Anything that you? Shamburg: No, that wouldn’t… but I have to tell you this story about the cows. They had nice Jersey cows there and they had a calf. So they didn’t want the calf so I bought the calf off what couple dollars I had, I think it was five dollars to give for the calf. And I kept that calf for a cow. Growed her up. And I still grow cows. Interviewer: When did you first buy that cow? When was that? Do you remember? �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: Uh no, just when I was a little boy or so I’d say, its about… I have this fear of my age now. How old am I? Will you tell me? Make a guess! You think I’m sixty years old yet? ( winks) (points) how about you? Interviewer: I think the paper said 88. Shamburg: (laughs) yeah that’s exactly. Yeah. Interviewer: So that was a while ago. Why did you become interested in farming? Shamburg: Wasn’t nothing else to do. You had a little land and you’d begin to farm. The first thing I raised were turkeys from the neighbor back there. He had a chicken house and he started the turkey and he brought the rest of them over and then I finished them out on range. Then they stopped that now. That is how I used to raise all my turkeys outside. And now they put big buildings up and they’re not ranging them outside. But they would get real pretty out their heads would get real red you know and all. That’s is how I raised 6 kids. Yes. I had 4 girls and 2 boys. And the worst thing that happened in my life is when my wife died. Yeah. That was 6 years ago. The next thing happened: a tornado comes through my farm and torn 400-foot chicken house all to pieces. That was in 2011. But have all my family lives within sight of where we live. My son lives with me and he farms and my other son lives within sight and he farms. Yeah. We keep beef cattle now. Interviewer: When did you start just focusing on cattle? Shamburg: Why did I? Interviewer: No, When. When or why. Shamburg: Well, you could start with cows in a small way. As they produced you could keep their offspring and that would increase your heard. And the males why we’d send them to the market for other people to buy to put them into feed lots to feed them, as they do today. Yeah. Interviewer: I guess since you mentioned your wife when did you meet her? Shamburg: She what? Interviewer: When did you meet your wife? Shamburg: I met her… I’ll tell you when I got married: 1958. But I had met her before because she lived up from Birdton on the Branch Mountain. And people would find out about them up there and they’d go up there and get a girl to come and take care of their children while they done other thing. So that is what she did. And her sister moved down real close to where we lived to take care of some boy �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell that their daddy and mother worked at Rockingham Poultry. So she came down there. Course I went over because I wanted to meet her or just met her and it went on from then. Yep. Interviewer: So you married her in 1958. What happened in the mean time with getting to know each other? Was it a long game or how did it go? Shamburg Well wasn’t anything to do back then but the movies and a lot of the homes in that area didn’t have current. And up at my grandfathers home they had a lot of children, his son did, but they had a building they made a building there and they put sawdust in there. Then they’d go to the back in the winter at Basey, Stoney Creek, and cut ice off that creek, haul it up there and put it in that saw dust and cover it all up in the building and that is where they got their drinking water. Cooled awhile, through the summer next. And it stayed in there a long time too. Interviewer: Was that popular way to do it? To get drinking water during the summer? Shamburg Well if you didn’t have no electric. But the next thing come, and I for worked the man up there in Mount Jackson. They had an icehouse there. They’d get these big chunks of ice and set them on a truck and cover them up and then go on out the road and they give each one of them to families there a sign that they’d put up on the window that said 25, 50, 75. So you’d take the ice pick and go down there chip off so much about 25, carry it into the house, put it in their little thing in the house to hold ice. Interviewer: They had a thing in house to hold the ice not in the back? How would that work? Shamburg: They’d just set the ice in it. Cause they’d know how much they need to use until the next time you come out the road. Interviewer: To go back to Bird Haven, I guess, the toys and everything that they made, do you remember anything about those or how they were built? Shamburg: Well yeah they made kinda nice little toys. Always pretty small, you know. And then when the sales come down then they began to make stools and all kinda different thing put in the house to use in the house. So that’s is the main thing I remember. Interviewer: Ok. Shamburg: Now you want me to do you what to tell you about my first car? Interviewer: Absolutely. Yes �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: You want to hear about that? Think I ought to tell him that story? Shamburg’s daughter (Alessia): No. Shamburg: Oh yeah I’m gonna tell it. Yeah. Cause I’m not ashamed of it. My first car was a 31 Model A ford. And it was second hand, I give 125 dollars for it. And I used it for a while. My grandmother and I would go to see our my relatives from down in Martinsburg cross to Matthias and she would sit in there and I’d go down the road and that boy that old thing was a roaring gemny-wiz cause I wanted to go over and I’d give her hell and the old thing roared but about 60 was it. Yeah. But then… now this never happen but I teased the girls about that. You see it had this big gearshift up in the middle. And I’d tease these girls about that. I’d say “ You know, you want to ride on my car?” And I’d go up them old hills you know and it didn’t want to pull. And I’d pull that thing back in low gear and the hand would slip off that gearshift. Cause you sitting beside of me. You got that didn’t you? Yeah. I thought there would be some girls, sure, who would want to ride in my car! (laughs). Alright, next question Interviewer: So who did you live with growing up? You mentioned your grandmother did she live near you and your mother or? Shamburg: Yeah. I often wondered… but anyhow I’m gonna tell you the story about the three men, the Lonas men. And where they come from I have no idea. But they got a certain amount of land. Each one got a big area of land. And they didn’t have the money to pay for it I know so I reckon they granted them that. Each one and they all build houses on that same road on the land that they got. Yeah, ok. And my grandfather and another fellow by the name of Mr. Will Hepbern decided they had to have some more income. So they decided they were going to walk back to West Virginia in the coalmine country. So they started a’walkin. Can you image starting to walk way back in there. Buckhannon, West Virginia: that is wear they landed. They dug coal a little awhile and said to the heck I cant take that so they just done other things for awhile. But they met four girls. And their last names were Fallons from Buckhannon, West Virginia. Well, when they come home then these four girls come home (with them). One of the girl’s boyfriend had an old car and they must of come home in that car. So my grandfather married one and Mr. Hepbern married the other. And they all lived there then. They’re all dead now. They are buried at Mount Herman church. Interviewer: So when your mother was born did she stay in that area right beside them? What did she do? Shamburg: Well yeah. At McCainy my grandfather, David Shamburg, he built a little store there in McCainy and big house on the other side of the road. And that little ol’ �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell store is still standing there. Cause I use to go there and kinda hug him up a little and get a piece of candy. Do you want a piece of candy? Interviewer: I’m good right now. Alessia Shamburg: Tell them about you growing up, you and your grandma and your dad died. Interviewer: Yeah. What was the name of the store? Shamburg: It was just McCainy. (slides candy across table) Ok. Yeah it was just a county store, you know, and all. The mail carrier Mr. Will Mumal would go to town with his truck and bring mail out from Mount Jackson that come on the train or the bus or anyway they could get the mail to Mount Jackson. They had a train track had a depot in Mount Jackson and that is where they would get the mail. And he’d carry it out the road and stop at each little place like McCainy in there and take the sack of mail in house and they’d open the bag up say” Well, Mr. So-and-So lives here. Well we take his mail out, take his mail out.” And Mr. Mumal he would bring feed and all that stuff from Mount Jackson out. And we would catch a ride back out to Basey, back to Bird Haven. Interviewer: When did your mother first get the job at Bird Haven? Shamburg: Well, after my father died. And she… first place she worked was at Bryce’s because a lot of people would come out of the city to Byrce’s and Orkney Springs were it was cooler in the summer time and that’s when we would start to go back to Bird Haven of course. But she also worked at Bryce’s making beds and all that kinda stuff. For the guest that were coming to spend the weekend back there or something. Interviewer: And then she moved on to Bird Haven? Shamburg: Yeah but she didn’t work long at Bird Haven. Interviewer: How many years? Do you know? Shamburg: Of, maybe… It was off and on. It wasn’t like she come there everyday for weeks and weeks and weeks. She might work there a while and then go to the hotel or wherever they needed her. Interviewer: You keep mentioning the hotel. I guess, can you describe that too? Shamburg: Well it was a big building and it was about 3 floors or 4. And that’s where they feed e’m, on one floor and of course it had rooms on the other floor. That’s where my mother worked there doing that kinda work. And Mrs. Fleeta Ross �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell had to run it and I think that she and this lady here are of some relation. But I’m gonna find soon as I get to talk to her. Because I knew all the people. I can now almost name every family from Orkney Springs to Mount Jackson. Now that’s gonna take awhile but I know there names now. Interviewer: Did you just get to meet them all? Shamburg: Well just anything we done we learnt to know the neighbors. A lot of the neighbors were local names that you could remember. But we had a lot of them moved into Bryce Mountain and built, comes to our church and they had such different that its hard to keep the names, it is for me and for other that associate with them more so yeah. I go to church at Mount Herman United Methodist. It was United Brother till they merged and its United Methodist now. And I live at within site, I can walk to church or ride a bicycle, drive a car. Yep. That is how you learn to know peoples by their familiar name and their relatives. Interviewer: Did the church play a big part in your younger part of your life? Shamburg: Well, let me tell you how long I’ve been agoin’ there: 88 years and 9 months. You caught that, didn’t you? Okay. (laughs) Interviewer: So your mother was a big churchgoer then? She would drag you there sometimes? Shamburg: Yep. Interviewer: So when your mother was switching in-between the hotel and Bird Haven do you know which job she enjoyed more? Which one she would meet more people from? Did like anyone from those place come to your house and eat food with you or eat dinner? Shamburg: I didn’t quite catch your question. Interviewer: So your mother would switch in-between working at Bird Haven and the hotel. Was there a particular one she enjoyed do you know? Shamburg : Well she liked work at the hotel more. Because she worked there more and she was familiar with the owners of it. Yeah. Interviewer: Did you get to meet any of the people she worked with ever? Shamburg: Oh yeah I’d be there. Course I was outside there at the hotel just doing odd jobs: pick up the paper and things that need to be done. Because Fleeta told my mother to bring me along so that I had someone to stay with at the hotel, that is why I was there. �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewer: So if she was ever working at Bird Haven would you go to pick up odd jobs? Shamburg: No I wasn’t that old. Interviewer: Did you ever go onto the premise or did you stay away? Shamburg: Did I ever do what? Interviewer: Did you ever go to Bird Haven or did you mostly stay away from it? Shamburg: Mostly at the hotel, yeah. Interviewer: Did she ever bring back on the toys or stools or anything like that to play with? Shamburg: Oh yeah we meant to bring one along. Stools and different things. They sanded them down and man they were beautiful stuff. Of course they sold it as they could get money. Interviewer: Do you remember when it shut down? Shamburg : No I don’t recall. I can’t get in my head exactly who bought the toy factory and he resold it then. Yeah. I might think of that here before I get out of here. Interviewer: So when that eventually stopped happened did she start solely work for to the hotel or did she start working on something else? Shamburg: Mainly that was it. Interviewer: And then you got your start in farming from getting a small calf from someone. Shamburg: Yeah. Interviewer: As you got older did you eventually kinda move off and start focusing solely on farm work or did you or anything else? Shamburg: How about repeating that question. Interviewer: When you first got into farm work were you doing anything else on the side? Were you doing any sort of odd jobs or did you see the farming avenue and went with it? �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: Well yes. The first thing I raised were turkeys on range that Mr. Fancler back at Orkney started in his house. And when we sold them they made $1900 and Mr. Ashby Fancler said “ I’ll give you $1000 and I’ll take the $900”. So that started me in the turkey business. Yeah. Then after that I built a poultry house of my own and then it begin to get children and them children helped me inside ‘cause those that were in the house, we’d take and clip the ends of their peaks off a little so they couldn’t pick and scratch feed out. And them children just love that job. They just loved that job. Help debeak them turkeys (Laugh) Didn’t, Alessia? Come on tell it. Shamburg’s daughter: (laughs) Yeah. Shamburg: They had to hand them up to me and the wife and we would snip them off. Well, then we were with working with the next bunch and they sent a couple Mennonite men down. But they would not drive a car so they had to send a chauffer to them down there. Then they come and debeak them. Interviewer: How many children did you have? Shamburg : Only had six. Interviewer: How many brothers and sisters did you have? Shamburg: Just one, just one brother. He is dead now. Interviewer: Did he also get involved in farm worked? Shamburg: Basically there what’nt anything much for a young person to do. If any land came up for sale where I lived for I always tried to buy it cause you could buy it for about 100 dollars an acre. Well, then another person would die and his land would come up for sale so hat is how I got it all bunked together. Then the children they got old and they would begin to get married. They’d give up their Shamburg name and they went with other names. And I give them a place to build their house they wanted to build. I said go up there and just take a piece of land and build. Can’t do that anymore though. Of course they don’t stay at the same place now. Cause years ago when her husband came down to see her he drove a little Volkswagen (laughs). Yep. Interviewer: Go ahead, sorry. Shamburg: But that must have worked cause they still together and they have two children. They live within sight of me, right at Mount Herman Church. They all live right in site. When you get old you start to appreciate that too. They do everything for me they can do. �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewer: Do you have a part of farm work that you really enjoy? That you like doing? Shamburg: Well I enjoy raising chickens, all of that. Or turkeys. But then when the tornado come through it torn these chicken houses all down. But it didn’t tear the houses up, where they lived. And that evening it was a’storming there. I was out there outside of my house. So I said “Well it’s just a storm I’ll just go to bed.” Went to bed and next morning and why my son call me and said “Dad says you better come up here.” I said “What’s the matter?” He said “Storm tore the chicken house down.” I said “You mean take the roof off?” He said “Hell no! Tore it all to pieces!” 400-foot double story chicken houses. Yep Interviewer: Had there been any other storms earlier in your life that had taken out things like that or was it a first? Shamburg That was about it. But every time they talk about a tornado we pay attention. Interviewer You mentioned your father earlier can you explain a little about him? Do you remember him? Shamburg: Well he had a truck that he could haul lumber or… wasn’t long distance but the logs and the things like that. He’d go up in the hills there toward Morning Star and there were some people up there you had to consider. Because a lot of people went in there selling pots and pans and all that stuff and it was told that some of them didn’t come out. They killed them up there and got the pots and pans and stuff. Can you imagine that? (CAMERA DIES AND INTERVIEW IS RESTARTED) Interviewer: Alright I believe that works. Ok, we only probably have about 20 minutes. If I can get this situated…. Sorry. Just don’t want to stay… okay, that will… that will do. Um, since I guess since you were talking about your father when did your father meet your mother? I don’t think I asked that yet. Shamburg: Don’t know. I don’t recall exactly when it might have been. Well he died in 1936 so it must have been in the 20’s, early 20’s along there. Because them days a lot of their marriages was your neighbor’s daughter. So that’s how that happens. Interviewer: So you grew up during the depression then? Shamburg: Yeah. Interviewer: Did that have any impact on you, growing up, that you know? �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: No. Interviewer: Ok. Were you pretty insulated from it or could you tell its affect? Shamburg: No, I didn’t…. Let’s see. The war. The war started in about 1933. One of the wars we have: we had so many of them, you know, different places. But I think about 1933. But I wasn’t… then it went on till about 1940 couple … and different wars… but that got over with. But I was old enough to be drafted. And since I was in agriculture my neighbor down there he went down to the draft board and told them I lived with my mother and that I was in agriculture and so they give me a small deferment. Then the war ended, yeah. Interviewer: Did any of your friends go over and fight? Do you know? Shamburg: Yes. Down there at the community store at Basey their names were Funkhousers. And Neven Funkhouser, he had a sawmill but then his wife Gladys, she was a Mumal, but she married Neven and they had a good many children. Some of those boys was killed over there and never got back. That was one instance. Yep. Interviewer: So if you go deferred from WWII there was also Korea. Did you get drafted for Korea? Shamburg: No, nuh-uh. no. Yep. Interviewer: I know you didn’t spend a lot of time on Bird Haven, did you know how WWII and the depression affected those areas? Even the hotel, was there a distinct impact? Shamburg: Well since you was young and sometimes we had to walk to work. Back over the ridge there. We didn’t get to go a lot of other place or do other things. Yeah. And your age had something to do. Yeah. After I got older then I got into agriculture. And I’m still in it. Interviewer: Did you have any other interests? Like an interest on cars or anything like that? Did you ever work on cars? Shamburg : Ah any old thing… since my first car was a Model A. Then the next year… well the Model T was first. You had to crank that to get it started. So a lot of people, older men, would go to town they’ get all snuttered up on beer and stuff in Mount Jackson and come out there. This one fellow, Floyd Holman, he pulled his Model T there in front of the country store and he’d go in there a little bit, he’d come out and he’d crank that thing, get it going you know. You had to pull the throttle down and spark up when you cranked it or it would kick you. Anyhow us boys would chuck the back wheel. Well he would get in that thing and he’d kill it. He done that about 2 times and he’d get in there and boy he had that Model T wide open just �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell a hummin’. We just slip that old chuck out behind the back wheel and he jumped that thing clean out in the middle of the road. That was our fun. That was our fun. Interviewer: What would you mother or grandmother do for fun? What would they do outside of work? Shamburg: Nu-uh. That is mainly all they done… Interviewer: Sorry, have to think for a second. Shamburg: Seems to me that in my mind Sam Clark bought Bird Haven one time. I think his name was Sam Clark. I might be wrong about that. Interviewer: Who was that? Shamburg: He bought that and resold it. Interviewer: Ok, Ok. Shamburg: So I didn’t, I didn’t know much about Bird Haven. Interviewer: Have you gone up there recently like any time after it was sold? Shamburg: Oh yeah well I drove through. See, they started raising hogs back there. And I’d drive around back there to see these hogs and cattle. They started raising some cattle and they put a big fence around that whole lot of it back there. Yeah. And bought more land too. Yeah. For that place back there. I don’t see how it worked for him because: all woods back there, all woods back in there. But the hotel down there later on it was own by Fleeta and John Ross and they decided they weren’t gonna have people no more. So Elmer Delooter started raising chickens in that hotel. Yeah, raising chickens. And then you could sell them wood to heat the heat for the little chickens. Yeah, that was one thing that we would do back there. Interviewer: So they would use the hotel building as like a chicken cope? Shamburg: Yeah. Interviewer: So they just didn’t take people any more? Did they gut the placeand use it as a chicken cope or did they just leave it as it is and just put chickens in there? Shamburg: Yeah I rekon I don’t know. They had chickens in there I know. Interviewer: Wow. After your mother stop working for the hotel. did she just work for the hotel till she died or did she do anything else? �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Shamburg: Well we bought a farm of my grandfather’s sisters farm. Had some land to it. Of course then that was our job to raise some cattle there and a little corn and different things. Not a lot of acres but enough that we could survive on. Yeah Interviewer: So you keep talking about livestock. Was there any other crops you would do? Corn, wheat? Shamburg: Mainly corn cause that was your big thing. And you could graze some of it and use any grasses for hay. Yeah. They made years ago they use to haul and cut your hay down, put in on a wagon, haul it in the bar, throw it in the bar. That was taken a lot of labor. Then the next thing that come was a little square baler. Oh that there is wonderful. Well then you had to get that bailed up and get that in to dry. Then the next thing come is the round baler. Round rolls. That’s… then you could set them outside. Of course now a lot of people put’s plapstic around them. You see them white ones sittin’. Yep. Then, take your take your tractor, if you are on a roller, has thing that go into the hail bale, take it out in the field, roll it out. See, less labor. Yep. And I got cows at four different places and my sons they do it most of the other times. Interviewer: You are talking about all this labor saving stuff. Before that were you hiring a lot of farm hands? Shamburg: No, raising them chickens I done it myself. Except when we debeaked ‘em. Then I had help with debeaking them chickens. Alessia: You hired help. You hired Help. Shamburg: I didn’t not. Alessia: No you hired help when you were farming. Shamburg: Not much, not much. You did have to have some help. putting hay in the barn you got a hay roller or different things. You had to have some help. Sure. And then you could hire people for about 50 cents an hour or you could go back to Basey and it was always some men who wanted a couple dollars there at the community store and you could pick up somebody to help you a day or two. Yeah. Interviewer: Did your mother start working on the farm after or did she continue to work at the hotel? Shamburg: Oh she helps us come out afterward and chuck corn of some out… yeah. She worked hard an so I done everything I could. uh-huh. �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewer: Do you remember anything about her personality? Was she just a hard working individual or was she silly? Shamburg: Well, her and I got a lot good but every now and then we would disagree on things a little bit about how the farm and all. But, as far as her personality, it was ok. Yeah Interviewer: So she was fairly nice? Shamburg: Yeah she was. uh-huh. Interviewer: Same with your grandmother? Shamburg: Yeah. Oh, my grandmother. See I would stay with her all summer long until winter time. Then she went down to the city to stay with one of her children. And that was 16,17 B Street North East. Yeah, you don’t remember that place do you? (looks at Alessia) Wouldn’t think so. (laughs) Interviewer: So what would do when you stayed with your grandmother. Did she live on a farm too? Shamburg: No she lived there were the store was at McCainy. Yeah. Interviewer: So you’d work at the store I assume? Shamburg: Uh mainly my grandfather. Of course she had the house up there, take care of the house. And take care of me when I was a little boy I use to stay with her. And she learnt me how to eat apple butter bread and milk sittin’ on her knee. You know what I like today? (laughs) Apple butter bread and milk. Interviewer: Let me see… That is probably good enough. Since you didn’t really know much about Bird Haven, that is fine. Got a lot about your life, which was good. Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that you didn’t really Shamburg: No and I didn’t get to mention all them peoples name from Orkney Springs from Mount Jackson and their families. Alessia: We’re not going to (laughs) Interviewer: So there were about 12 families that worked at Bird Haven is was about around that many? Shamburg: Probably so. Of course I didn’t learn to know all them back there because I wasn’t there that much. Cause through summer months why I stayed with my grandmother at McCainy. �Transcript of interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewer: Did any of the kids from those places did you get to meet them when you were younger? Shamburg: Not too much except for school times. Yeah. And when I walked to school for awhile then they started abringin’… well some of them went to Triplet middle school in Mount Jackson and they had a car to ride in. Then after that they started with the busses and they are still bussin’ it now. Yeah. But it wasn’t that thickly of a population with people cause when I went to school was only maybed 6 or 8 or 10 people at the school and they all walked. Everybody was that close walked to school. Interviewer: Was it just an elementary school? Shamburg: Yeah, just a plain school Interviewer: Did you go eventually go to middle school and high school like those eventually? You mentioned a middle school that you would get bussed to. Shamburg: Well then the next town was Mount Clifton and they had a school there. And we would go there till we got to an older age and then we went go to the high school in Mount Jackson. Yeah Interviewer: And after high school? Shamburg: Huh? Interviewer: Did you finish high school? Shamburg: No. About the first year or so in school and I decided I was tired of that and I was gonna farm or mess around out there. Interviewer: Okay. Yeah. That should be good. Thank you so much for everything…. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Dillon Broadwell Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Donal Shamburg Location The location of the interview Mt. Jackson Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Donal Shamburg Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Shamburg, Donal Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Donal Shamburg of Mount Jackson, Virginia, recorded by Dillon Broadwell of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview, downloadable transcript (under files), and podcast highlighting the interview. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dillon Broadwell Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZhduWFH4WfE" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9lXnnoY63TM" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zhWWPtxwBno" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 26, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP4 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-005 Bird Haven https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/582205f54230b701df77b24552b76d50.pdf 015e0482cfb92e80720f26cfe0503269 PDF Text Text Emily Schmitt 4/10/17 HIST 441 Interview Transcript Emily: Okay, so could you state your name and age? Annabell: Annabell Reedy, I was a Reiman. I’m 88 years old. E: Awesome. So how long did you work at birdhaven? A: It must’ve been at least 2 years, uhm I didn’t work at the factory now I have in my notes that I worked for Mrs. Clarke. My mother is the one that worked at the factory. I would walk to and from work with her and work at the house, while she worked in the factory. It was a long long walk. E: How long was it? A: Oh guessing now it had to have been about 3 miles, which back in those days that was nothing. E: So what did you do at the Clarkes? A: I cleaned the house, washed windows, moped the floors, I moved furniture, thing like that. E: So how old were you when you worked for her? A: Between 12 and 14. E: So what did your mom do at the factory? A: You know I’m really not sure, but I think she was planing or smoothing down the wood things or the items that they had made. E: So how did your mom and you get the job at Birdhaven and at the Clarkes? A: A lot of the neighbors that my mother knew, they were friends, worked there, and they needed more workers right away. I cant remember how old my mom was, but if I was between 12 and 14 I could calculate it suppose and tell you then but she would have had to have been in her--- you’ll have to work it out with math. E: So what was like your average day? �A: Oh well I think my mom would start around 7 and 7:30 and we walk to work through the fields and stuff which is in here and I don’t know if it was 5 o’clock when they got off and I would work 3-4 days a week at Mrs. Clarkes. E: So when you weren’t working at Mrs. Clarkes what would you do? A: Stay home and work. E: What would you do? What type of work? A: Oh well I’d always milk the cow, no one could milk the cow but my mother, she wouldn’t let daddy get home from work and milk the cow so I always milked the cow morning and evening. We had chores I had an older sister and a younger sister at the time. My older sister must’ve been 2 years older and my other sister was 15 months younger than me so we were kind of in-between. We always had housework and we did garden work, we did the laundry by hand. E: Can you tell me a little more about what’s in there? (In reference to her notepad) A: Want me to read it to you? E: Sure. A: This portion of “Moved Home” is and in-between section of my life period of reminiscing and this is titled “Momma and Me”. Many days weekly, were spent at the bird haven factory area, the house as well as the factory. My momma at one time had become a worker over in the factory and Mrs. Clarke engaged me to clean the house for her. This had become a weekly routine, as I would walk to and from home these days that I went there also. At this point I was 12, between 12 and 14, other days I would walk to meet momma through many fields and wooded areas, crossing fences of long forgotten and neglected old homestead. I recall one was called the Suzy Henceburger farmstead. We began to whistle the call of the wipperwell, until we could finally see each other (that’s how we knew we were getting closer and closer to each other) and finally could see each other that’s how we would meet each other on our return walk home. My momma was a slender, not tall, about 5”4. I’ve often reflected back to these times, timing when to begin the walk, wondering how she could make that long trek through all those fields and woods after a days work out at the factory. She seemed energized by something, I never understood as a young daughter. Now after all these past years I favor a few rejects from the old Birdhaven factory, a half wooden bowl which is to be hung on the kitchen wall it could hold fruit or whatever, also a magazine cradle of which I have removed dowels making it into a doll cradle it now holds an antique baby doll filling it just right. These are precious memories of which I treasure dearly oh to have those years, weeks, even days, to reflect upon. Little do we realize these precious memories at that time, only when we too have grown children then our momma was. As a very young girl child I can still see and recall those tired, weary housewives, coming out of that door at Birdhaven leaving a good days work. Yes �worn and weary but usually smiling content to be on their way home for their families, just like my momma. They’d chat then separate each going there way, two’s even three together, home to finish that day to do what each must do to prepare for the following day. Another days work at Birdhaven factory, a good, reliable pay for those in need. Yes this truly is God’s country, our beautiful Shenandoah Valley growing much more beautiful as the years rush by faster than our own Shenandoah River, quietly but steadily flowing. E: That’s great. A: That’s just a portion of it and I got other stuff. I hopefully I want to get it entered into the Shenandoah book and put it all together as “MVD Home” like moved home. E: That’s awesome. So do you remember what the community was like? Like how the people interacted with each other like did people get along? A: Oh yes! I can remember and a store back in Basye, which you have to go by to get to Birdhaven. Everybody knew everybody and they knew your business as well as we knew their business there wasn’t a secret, you couldn’t keep a secret in a small town like that. E: So what were the grounds of Birdhaven like? Do you know? A: The grounds? E: Like were there multiple buildings? How was the factory laid out? A: There were, I don’t want to call them motels but like cabins, especially up at Basye I think they were Bryce’s, before there was a Bryce’s with huge homes and everything and they had a grocery store and a post office all in one. I think that is still the same place the Bob Folkohouser and I think it may be a son or grandson that runs the store. I haven’t been back since we’ve moved back, we’ve only been here about two years. E: Would you want to go back? A: Oh yes. We will eventually. There has just been so much, I had broken my hip and I took a while recuperating from that back in Pennsylvania. Then I was kicking off my boots here up on the hill in a cabin just like this one and I slipped on a rug and you know where they show you on your x-rays, there is a thing on there its metal there is a round ball but there is a cap on it, when I fell I knocked the cap off. That was in February, the 1st of February. Painful. It was worse than anything I have ever ever had, that why I am here now at my daughters, she seldom leaves me alone but you have to be alone sometimes. I still drive a little bit not a lot but I leave every 3 or 4 days, you have to or else you go stir crazy. �E: Yeah. So do you know why you and your mom ended up leaving Birdhaven? Why did you stop working there? A: Well I was going to school then all the time and we moved from there, down in that area, my grandma and grandpa lived down farther away from Birdhaven. He died first he went to go get the mail down a long dirt road to the main mailbox route, and lighting struck him and he was killed. Not too long after that my grandma died they had put the house up for sale and that was Frank and Susana Barb that owned that house and people from Washington bought it and built a stone house close to it. I think we moved to Basye, closer because it was just through the field, in the backwoods I’ll call it and we moved there so that’s why we moved, it was a few years after that,it wasn’t right away. E: Do you think working at Birdhaven or at the Clarkes shaped your life in anyway or your moms life? A: Oh I’m sure. You know in those days everybody had to work. We weren’t affluent people we were poor people like everyone else who lived around us, so were all in the same boat basically. I enjoyed it we worked up at Bryce’s as teenagers my sister and I, making beds and doing the room’s stuff like that cleaning up in-between. Momma was still at Birdhaven at that time or before im not sure, me memory is not the best it will come and go and sometimes its gone. So we were well known there and more in the book will tell you the happenings of the things that happened here because I to scool at Triply High School and I left there at 12th grade of course. I didn’t happen to catch a picture of it because I was long gone because I was out working where they had better jobs, waitressing, I worked at the Southern Kitchen in New Market for a couple years, worked at the restaurant in New Market another restaurant, wherever you could make money. Young teenagers boys and girls were working there was no lying around then besides the housework that we did at home. E: So do you know why Birdhaven ended up closing down? A: You know we had moved away then from the Birdhaven area and I think when new people, I’ll say the sons and daughters I can remember one son cause I could see him as he stood in the doorway, that’s the only time I could remember him there at the house and he lived there with his momma, but I cant remember the father, maybe because he was always at the factory, I’m not sure. E: So what was the Clarkes relation to Birdahven? A: They owned it! E: Oh they owned it? So what were they like? �A: She was a precious person to work for very considerate, kind. I can see her when she was standing in the kitchen you know these things fly threw a person when I’m this age when you see a person and then they’d forgotten about it. The son was tall, but I can’t remember the father, I don’t know why. Yeah they owned Birdhaven and it is nothing absolutely nothing because when we first came back from Virginia from Pennsylvania we took the tour up there, we knew one of the men who was working up there he and his fiancé. They were trying to I think rebuild it into--- they had a hoop house. Do you know what that is? E: No. A: Well I didn’t either. A hoop house is well there are a lot of farmers, their not all farmers but they are growers, they would use this plastic, long like a building its arched like this (hands up in the air creating an O) and you can grow year long. This has become prominent down here, which I didn’t know about it either. We went through the one the women; Shanda was the women’s name, she had tended it from planting the seeds she had cucumbers growing on one side and they were like this (fingers measuring out about 12 inches), other things that were growing there were peppers, and I cant recall the other green stuff, but they had a regular garden there and this was in the cool months of the year. They would take these to markets in like Harrisonburg, I remember that they had a place that they took it up there and Birdhaven, the business I’ll say would sell it, they had fruit markets up there, and they would make sandwiches I think on the place, they did a fantastic business. But they had decided not to go that route I think it was the granddaughter of Mrs. Clarke that I met once, and I don’t know if I met the husband or not, the owner that owned it then they were renovating it, they had torn down a lot of it, the had town down the old buildings of course. They had stuff; they had storage backed up in the back. Have you ever been there? E: No A: Oh I was so amazed when we saw it, we knew the young couple real well, now we got to go there and see it. E: So what was the biggest change from when you worked there till now? A: The modernization of it. And oh the entrance way is absolutely beautiful. Oh it was nothing but a dirt road when we worked there. E: So you said that you walked 3 miles to work? So im assuming you lived 3 miles from Birdhaven. Where there any people other than the Clarkes that lived there? Or was 3 miles normal? A: Oh yeah. Well this was on the dirt road coming from Basye, you’ve not been back there so its kinda hard to explain. You’re coming from Basye on Mechanum Rd and they have it posted that they have it all. Its so changed, so beautiful, the entrance �way is just marvelous. You should really take your camera back there to get some pictures of the entrance way anyway. They gave us a tour of it and showed us the old buildings and stuff like that and of course the factory has long been gone I understand. E: So do you know what they made in the factory? Like woodworks but of what kind? A: Well like I said they made small items, I don’t know if they made anything big or not. She’s got so much moved like her magazine cradle/magazine rack; I know that was one of the things. When they made mistakes on it or had a slash in it then they would put it in the back and then anyone who worked there could get it for almost nothing I think, yeah you were allowed to buy it, they almost gave it away I believe. People were poor then and I mean poor, I mean I treasure my doll cradle that was a magazine cradle. E: Do you still talk to any of the people that you met at Birdhaven? Do you know any of them still? A: Oh they’re all dead. That was 60 years ago, at least. I know the mother of one of the woman that I had met here at an auction and she was a Henceburger and I knew she worked there, but its just a faint remembrance. So many of the people that I knew at my age, they’re gone. This women that I had met, she had a stroke, she died. E: Do you remember any stories? A: That they used to tell? E: Or that you remember? Like any funny stories that really stuck out to you that you remember? A: No. It could be later because I’ve been bringing this to my mind now, so I’m not sure. There’s a lot that 88 year old its called when you have it packed so far, there’s so much up there (motions towards head), that’s what the doctor told me because I wasn’t being able to remember things, he said its not that you’ve not been able to remember its just so full up here. I have a book I have written then I’m on my second one that I couldn’t remember, he said “it’ll come back to you but it comes in flashes, and when it comes in flashes write it down so you’ll remember it later on”. Yeah. E: So what did you do after you worked in the Bryce area? A: It was called Bryce’s resort, they had across the road do you know where the bowling alley is? E: No �A: Have you ever been back there? E: No A: You haven’t been back to Birdhaven? E: No, that’s our next stop. A: Okay you should’ve gone there first. Are you originally from here? E: No I am actually from Northern Virginia, we are trying to gather as much information as we can about Birdhaven. A: My younger sister, she lives in Staunton, I’ve been talking to her since we’ve begun talking and I’ve been writing this and she came up with the name of the place that we used to walk through field, it was an old dilapidated building there it was huge farm at one time, the Suzy Hencburger place. I didn’t put it in here did I (in reference to her notes) but there were a lot of flowers that always grew in old home places always like the Easter lilies and daffodils always there you know where people lived. The fences were all broke down some of it was wire some of it was wooden. We had a path through there; you know we cut through there to go to the grocery store too, to go up to Basye. E: That’s really cool. A: Yeah. What I should have done, everything has been so busy here the past 6 months, is to make a run back there that might have brought back more memories. I had a,what was that box, it was a box it had Birdhaven on it, its in storage I know, I have no idea in what storage area it would be. It was like a cardboard box this size (with hands measures out about a foot) and when you took the lid off—do you know what a jewelry box looks like? That little layer there, it was there and it had the logo of Birdhaven on the top of it. Now they had those back there so when you go back, I’m trying to think of where they would be, because we saw them. Ask them if they have any of the small boxes, they’re in storage they are out in a building that he showed us. E: So do you remember anything specific about the house you worked in, like the Clarkes house? A: I can see it going up the steps, it was a large home, pristine, who ever kept it up before I got there if she was ill or what and she needed help, but it was beautiful, old furniture, antique furniture like I said it was pristine, neat, no scatterations like the cane hanging there stuff like that. She was a very neat person. I can’t think of what her first name was, of course we never called her that, it doesn’t make much difference. She had to have been in her, age bracket them, I’ll say in her 50’s or 60’s. E: And you said she has a son, correct? �A: I don’t remember his age at all because he was a real tall fella. I can see him standing in that doorway or when you kinda come in he’d be standing there. I don’t know what kind of car he drove it’s been so long; it’s something I wouldn’t remember anyway. I wasn’t into cars then. E: So did you do anything else or did you just clean the house? A: I used to work in her garden. I was a garden freak, I love to work in the dirt, tended to her flowers, planted them and I still do I love to do that. I pulled the weeds from the onions that’s one of the things I can remember in the garden. E: So how close was the main house to the factories like was it close to each other? A: It was walking distance, oh yeah. There was a creek I think as your going up the wooden steps, on the right there was a little tiny creek going there, yeah, then there was the Birdhaven gravel, well it was dirt then. E: So did your mom enjoy working there you think? A: Oh yeah. She’s like me she always liked to work, to keep busy, she was always busy with her hands. E: Did they work on the weekends or was it just the weekdays? A: I think it was just the weekdays. E: Okay. So like a typical workweek now? A: Yeah. E: So when you worked at the house what was your schedule like? So you got to the house and did what? A: It wasn’t set roles, she was very lenient. Good to work for. I would just say what would you like me to do next or something like that. It was always like if there are dishes wash the dishes, make the beds, clean up, pick up, neat up, bounce the pillows on the furniture all that stuff, do the bathrooms. I cant remember if they had a bathroom in that house or not, I’m trying to think, I cannot remember, I’m sure they did but I cant remember. Because back then they did have bathrooms in homes. E: So did you do anything fun on the weekends when you were younger, or did you just work the entire time? A: We used to walk up to Basye, they had a bowling alley up there, underneath because there was a restaurant and a little store, no it wasn’t a store what was that place? Well there was a little place rinky dinky but I remember the bowling alley �was you came up around the curve and drove in it. We used to walk with outher kids from other areas there were the Walker twins I know we would get like 4 or 5 or 6 of us together and walk in the evenings, that way we would have company walking back at dark. E: So besides the Walker twins who else would you go with? Just like friends? Or people that just lived near by? A: Oh yeah everybody walked mostly, especially teenagers. I know there was a young boy who lived down in a farmhouse; I remember because he used to ride the school bus, they called him Jessie James Barb, I remember him. Oh god that’s been so long ago, oh my. There was a lot of Barb’s who lived there in the area, it was Barb, Barb, Barb, Barb. We stemmed from Barb’s my mother did she was a Barb. My dad of course was a Reiman they lived over in Forestville; they had a big farm over in Forestville. E: And you lived on a farm? A: Yeah I lived there; I would go over in the summer time when I was big enough to thin corn. When the corn came to be thinned that’s where Annabelle went. You couldn’t even see the end of those fields and there was another girl about my age that lived a couple houses down, it was like 3 or 4 houses in the area next to grandpap and grandma’s farm. At that time grandpap would hire people, kids you know to thin corn. You don’t know what thinning corn is do ya? E: No can you explain it to me? A: There were fields of corn, not like in your garden; I mean literally fields of corn. When they planted it they planted it row by row by row of course and when the machine would drop it, it would drop to many kernels in it and we would go by each row and pull the suckers they’re called the suckers. Here’s your corn (motions with hand from table to as high as her hand can reach) here’s your sucker (motions hand only few inches off the table) you pull those up and threw them away so that the ear of corn could get more strength from the other two, and anything over 3 you didn’t leave it there you pulled them up, and at the end of that row you could have lemonade if you wanted to or whatever. You never thought you would get to the end of that row, but we always had fun doing that there was always 4 or 5 of us doing that, working in the fields, you know friends, kids my age. So it was something nice to do. I stayed over there during the summers sometimes. E: How long would that entire process take to do all the fields? A: Oh I can’t remember that honey that would take weeks. E: Weeks? �A: Yeah it would depend on how many people you had pulling the corn through the fields. E: How many hours a day would you do that for? A: We would work till noon. I can remember one time it was so awful hot, even though you would have the corn to shield you, and when we went in because it was across the road from granpap’s farm and I went on an laid on the swing on the porch because I got sick and I drank spearmint tea, and I drank to much of it and got sicker, and I cannot stand to smell it to this day. I do not drink tea at all, none, because of that episode. So it’s these things that come into your mind and what you did. I was probably oh I don’t remember, but I was big enough to thin corn. E: Did you do anything else; you said you milked the cow? A: Grandpap always milked their cow, I milked the cow at our house we lived at grandpa’s and grandma’s place, the other this was momma’s family. Now the thinning of the corn was my daddy’s family. E: Did you do anything else other than thin corn? A: We would work in the garden, pull weeds, picking up potatoes when they were plowed you know harvested. We always worked, we worked everyday, everyday! Sunday’s grandpa and grandma went to church and we went to Sunday school, I can recall that of course, all the time. So it was weekdays weekdays weekdays. Each summer was busy doing things and I know grandpap Barb or I mean Reiman used to plant peanuts on his farm where we planted corn and that was always a fascination to me. You know when you pull a peanut up? You don’t know what that is. E: No, explain it to me I’m very curious. A: Peanuts grows--- when you plant it you hull it, you know what a peanut is in a shell? E: Yeah. A: You take that out its called green peanut. You plant the beans inside that peanut. Plant it in a row; do you know anything about a garden at all? E: Mhm. A: You know how you would plant onions, a set, it would be onion set, onion set onion set, that’s how you would plant peanuts it would be peanut, peanut, peanut, peanut. When they grew it would be growing like spinach or kale, it was real like this (motions with hands) underneath the soil, granddad always knew when it was ripe that’s what we called it, or “ready to pull”, and you would pull them up and the �soil was nice, and then you’d shake off the dirt, and you would lay it on a place like brown bags, they didn’t have newspapers then, and for them to dry, then you would hull them, I mean take the green stuff off like the leaves and stuff. Have you seen the peanuts in the store? That has the peanuts in the hull? E: Yeah. A: Okay. That hull is a cardboard around it, it’s kind of a cardboard, yeah well you have to roast those, you have to put those in the oven and roast them. They’re delicious that way. E: You did that in the summers? A: No the fall, they were growing during the summer. E: Then you went to school? Did you go all the way through high school? A: Mhm. E: Then what did you do when you graduated high school? A: I went to grade school 1-6th, down below Birdhaven down further, do you know where Gerome is? E: I think I’ve heard of it. A: Okay. It’s a little town you close your eyes you missed it. We would ride the bus and up till 6th grade you walked to school. It was called Lindamoot school, it was 16th grade, in one school. Sits on a hill, it’s a house now I think they renovated it. After you went through that school you rode the bus to Mt. Jackson. I went to Triply High School. E: Then what did you do afterwards? A: Well to go to high school I had an aunt and uncle and they had 2 children that lived in Mt. Jackson so I could go to high school it wouldn’t cost me anything I stayed with them and worked at their house. I did housework, I ironed a lot I was perfectionist at ironing. Give me a white shirt, I love to iron. I would do their bathrooms of course so I could earn my way to school, and that’s how I got to high school. E: That’s awesome. Then after high school what did you do? Did you still live in the area? Did you move? A: I moved from town to town I think because I was dating then, and that’s when I met my ex-husband, that’s a story I don’t tell. So anyway it was a good life. �E: You said you moved back here from Pennsylvania, what made you move to Pennsylvania. A: My husband drove a tractor-trailer; they had a station in Verona that’s just before Staunton, of course we lived up there for awhile because it was close to there work, wherever they got located you had to move too. We lived down here until nineteen ninety--- I can’t remember it now, but they moved from Verona which they call it Staunton down to New Market. Do you know where the Pidthen home is in New Market? They called it the Pidthen home, it is now a—down on the left it is now a big huge place up on a hill like I think it might be a care place for older people I believe. I haven’t gotten into much of the town to know where exactly things are because I’ve been busy. When the relay station came to New Market then we moved back down. We lived in New Market we lived there we lived in Strathmore for 7 years before we were transferred to Pennsylvania. Now another station a relay station for the trucking company, its called Mason and Dickson, went up to the outskirts of Pennsylvania—Harrisburg, we lived at Strathmore then, do you know what that is? Strathmore farm is? The B and B breakfast. Do you know where Cover Bridge is? E: Yes Yes. A: Around that turn after you come out of that bridge was, what we always called it the Strathmore house. They have now made it into a B and B, but I believe they’re closed. We lived there for 7 years, while the men mostly stayed up in Verona in hotels. That’s how we got to Pennsylvania. E: Well do you have anything else you would like to say? A: I can’t think of a thing until you get down the driveway and I’ll think I should have told her that! Well leave me your phone number and your full name and I’ll call you if I think of anything else. E: Yes of course just let us know. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Emily Schmitt Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Annabel Reedy Location The location of the interview Edinburg Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 42:48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annabel Reedy Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Reedy, Annabel Basye (Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Annabel Reedy of Edinburg Virginia recorded by Emily Schmitt of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emily Schmitt Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bv-CVuize8g" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 30, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MOV File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-006 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/ee41818872b07b9ba3b076b87adf4ab0.pdf a42e552bf60ad6fad3490edd18c2a1a4 PDF Text Text Richard Barb Interview Transcribed by Emmy Freedman Emmy: Please state your name. Richard: Richard Barb. E: Where are you from? R: Jerome, Virginia. Born in 1938. September 29th. You weren’t born on Bird Haven? No. We moved to Bird Haven when I was in first grade. I was seven years old. And I lived there until I joined the air force in 1958. When did it close down? You know, everyone asks me this, and nobody knows the answer. But near as I can figure it was between ’60, ’61, that time. Because I was home from Iwo Jima in 1959. And I came back from Germany in 1963. And somewhere in between it closed. I left in ’58 and I was gone for four and a half years. Did you continue school at Bird Haven? First grade, we were living in Jerome at first. I started school at Charlie Miller school down by the church. They closed it, so then I had to go to grade school in Conicville, Virginia. Then we moved up here and they switched me to Mt. Herman school, which is closed and gone now. And then from there I went to Tripley. What was your experience like living there? Bird Haven? I just lived there. See, my parents both worked at the community workers store. My daddy was a foreman, he ran the place. And my mother basically sprayed all the stuff with a new finish. They both worked there until it closed. Did your parents have those jobs before they moved there? Yes. Yes, I don’t really know what year they started but I’d say it was around ’30-something. 1935, ’36. Originally the place built wooden toys and jigsaw puzzles. Then they switched to making bowls later on, which is what they were doing back when I first was around. Did they move there out of convenience? �Yep. They wanted him there because he always made sure the fire was turned off at night and everything because fire… this, that and the other and they ask him all the time anytime anyone wanted to know anything. He basically had the heart and the farm. Were there a lot of other people there? No. In Bird Haven there was three houses. The one we lived in, the one the owner lived in and then our old homeplace down below my great great grandfather had built or built. Did you get to play with the toys that were made there? Yeah, I played with the toys, which I don’t have anymore. But, you know, it’s like anything else. Time changes. But they had the toys, they used to have the jigsaw puzzles. Now, one of the kids we had was Hubert. Now, he was there in the homeplace. But they were the only ones around there in Bird Haven. Did you have a favorite puzzle? Well, I got one hanging in the bedroom that’s never been cut out. It’s just a picture of a deer jumping through the woods. Do you have a favorite memory from Bird Haven? Well, basically the fact that you could do what you wanted to do. We used to go hunting, I could go fishing in the little stream and the little trout would come up from Stony. And just running around free through the woods. How far was school? Well, it was about six miles to Mt. Herman. But I had to walk from the house to the road to wait for the bus, which was basically a mile. Did kids from school like to come over and play here? No. When you left school, that was it. You didn’t see them until the next day. How did you learn woodworking? Practiced. (Points to table) I did quite a few things that I give away to people because when I was in Tennessee I had a woodworking shop that I built 20 by 40 and I built people stuff and gave it to people. Like my Godson, I made a cradle for him. It was the type that sat on a pedestal. All you do is pull a couple pins out and the whole thing came apart. I made it out of cherry, just like that. Made with Virginia cherry. What’s the best wood for woodworking? �Uh. Well, maple and walnut and cherry are all real hard woods. They’re a little hard to work with, but still I like the walnut. But it’s rather expensive. But can you sell it for more? Oh, yes. Did you make other things? Yeah, I made a few other things. I made kitchen cabinets and I made a bed for my son when he was living in Tennessee in Knoxville. A lot of little stuff. Do you have a favorite thing you built? Oh, the cradle I made for my godson. Made it out of cherry, too. How long did it take you to make it? Well, I was working full-time so I only did it in the evenings or whenever I got home because a lot of times I’d be gone for weekends. So it took me quite a while, about six to eight months. But I had it done before he was born. How old is he now? Oh, God, he’s probably 50. Is the cradle still around? Oh yes, they got it. So it stayed through the generations? His kids slept in it, too. E: (pointing to blankets around the house) Did someone make these blankets, too? R: My wife made them. She made that. She was doing that type of stuff all the time. Did she experience Bird Haven? Yeah, a little. But not much. Because we came back from Germany in ’63. What was the hardest part about living in Bird Haven? Fact that there just wasn’t anything there. I mean, to get your groceries and everything you either have to go out to a little community store or you have to go to Mt. Jackson. �What was your experience in the military like? I enjoyed it. I mean the basic training, that was a pain, but it really wasn’t that bad because I used to stomp up and down the hills here in Bryce all the time so I was in the condition for it. Did living on Bird haven help prepare you? Well, you definitely got your exercise in because going to school I had to walk a mile each way to get to the bus. Plus stomping through the woods all the time. I mean, working in the garden and cutting wood and this, that and the other weren’t that enjoyable, but we did it. Did you say you were in the Air Force? Yep. Where were you stationed? I started out in San Antonio for basic and then I went to Amarillo for tech school and from there I went to Iwo Jima and then from Iwo Jima I went to Germany for three years. So I got to see a little bit of country. And you met your wife in Germany? Right, she worked for Vantage Radio over in Ramstein air force station where I was stationed and I did work for them at night. That’s how I got tangled up with her. When did you get married, and where? We got married in ’62 in Ramstein, Germany, and she passed away, let’s see, right at 20 years ago. What was your favorite thing about her? She was a good hard worker. You could trust her. She didn’t go out and blow money. These other guys, their wives would drive them crazy trying to make enough money to keep them going. She wasn’t like that. If she spent over $20, we discussed it first. Even though she had a check book and knew exactly what we had. Do you have any kids? One son. He lives in Brewer, Maine. So your son grew up around here? �Yeah. He grew up in, let’s see, Bird Haven, Chesapeake, Virginia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We sorta moved all over like military. How did he like Bird Haven? He liked it. But he was so little he didn’t realize what was going on at the time. Right. How old was he when you moved away? When we moved away from Bird Haven he was probably six or seven. Something like that. Because he ended up going to college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, MTSU. So once you got back from your service, what did you do here? What did I do? I worked for Bryce’s for a little while and then I went to work for Eileen, which was a clothing manufacturer in Edinburg. I was in charge of production and control and as for that I drove tractor trailers for 30 years and then I retired and that was it. That’s all the jobs I ever had. So woodworking has always been more of a hobby? Just a hobby, yeah. Do you still get to do it? Every once in a while when I get the energy. Are you working on anything right now? No. What was the last thing you made? Probably just some picture frames. Do you want to tell us about your childhood on Bird Haven? Childhood on Bird Haven? You just, well. We did a lot of hunting, go out and gather mushrooms in the summer. Go fishing. And every weekend we usually go to the river or something out in Mt. Jackson and do some more fishing. Did a lot of, y’know … I was never into sports, other than hunting. And fishing. Sports at school, no. I read library books. That was my big thing. As many books as I could get out, I’d read it. It didn’t matter what it was. What’s a really good book you read recently? �Uh, Jesus. I can’t even think now. The last one was one of Bill O’Reilly’s and I can’t even think of the name of it right now. I just jump from one type of book to the other, it doesn’t make a difference. I like a lot of stuff with World War II, Vietnam War and then just old Westerns or whatever. Like I’m reading John Grisham now. So, you know, I just jump around. Do you still like to hunt now? No. I gave that up. I couldn’t bring myself to shoot an animal anymore. What did you like about hunting when you were younger? I dunno, it was just a challenge. You would just see which could outsmart the other one. Who usually won? It did. What would you shoot at? Deer, squirrels, rabbits. Were they everywhere? Yeah. Back then they were. How big was Bird Haven? Well, land-wise, I think it was 75 to 100 acres maybe. But then before it was all over with I think it was close to 300 acres. Did your parents live on it until it closed? Yeah. And then what did they do? They went and worked for Rocko’s back in Edinburg. Poultry plant. There weren’t many jobs around? Do you have a lot of neighbors? I got one of the first to come in, Christina, who im related to. And then on the left, next house on the left is Bernadette and her husband. And then across the road is the Pope boy who lives there. Down there I got another relative, Gary and Linda baker. And then theres �another house being built one of these days on the left, then you got jimmy Delaurey and his wife and bill bean. And that’s it. That’s the whole neighborhood. E: We drove by one house where two dogs chased us down the road? R: The one on the right or the one on the left? E: Left. R: Oh, you’re talking about that first house there. I always play with that dog when I come in, especially the white one. Ill stop at the bottom of the hill and make him come down and then we race each other to the other end of the road. E: They’re very energetic. They were out-racing my car for a little while. Oh, yeah, he loves to do that. Is it nice and peaceful out here? Very quiet. Is that why you wanted to stay in the area? Yep. Despite living in Florida? Well, I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, that was nice. But it was still too many people. And I lived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for 21 years but I was out on the out of town. When I first moved there you could leave the driveway and be in the middle of town in five minutes. Now you’re lucky if you can get out of the driveway in five minutes. What happens when it snows? Not really. If it gets too deep I just stay home. Nah, this last snow we had eight inches I was out plowing snow from probably about 8:00 until 12. Opening up people’s driveways and the road going out. Do you ever go to Harrisonburg? Yeah. I go up to the VA all the time. Out on 42. What’s your favorite thing to do there? Or are there too many people? �Harrisonburg? (laughs) Go to Costco, get groceries and come home. Yeah I usually go up there a lot of times to see a movie. If they got a good war movie I’ll go … Like “Hacksaw Ridge.” How was that? That was great. Based on a true story, of a guy who was conscientious, objective, but he wanted to serve so he became a medic. Yeah, it was very interesting. Do you have a favorite movie that depicts war really well? Probably the one on Charlie and company in World War II. What’s your favorite thing about this whole area? Well, this was Bird Haven until they incorporated everything. Bird Haven had its own post office. When they closed up, they closed the post office and somewhere it just more or less disappeared and everything was called Basye. See the old original building when you first went in, where they had the showroom upstairs, there used to be a dentist office on the right side, post office on the left side and then the back end, that’s where they got all the products ready and packed them up and boxed them and shipped them out. And the next floor up was the showroom for tourists. And the next floor they had all the labeling equipment for labeling the boxes and everything. Was your house on Bird Haven like this one? Yep. Except it was an old house. I mean it was old, old. What year do you think it was built? Probably back about the ’20s. Maybe. Or maybe earlier than that. How far was it from where we’re sitting now? From where we’re sitting now? Just straight over the hill. Maybe a half, three-quarters mile. Does it still exist? Yeah. It’s still there. And the old homeplace is still there. Do people live there? No. The only one, the Carrs built a new house where the owner’s house used to be. They tore it down and built a new one. How long have you lived here? �Here? I’ve only lived here now for about 12, 13 years. Because I built this house with my mother, and she passed away when I was living away from here. And then I decided one day that I’d move back home. So I came back up here and did a bunch of work. Put new flooring in, new siding on. Everything. And moved in. Does your son ever come back up and visit? He comes every once in a while. Mainly I go to Maine. Do you like it there? It’s all right. Winter’s sorta a little discouraging for me. 10, 15, 20 below zero is for the birds. Especially with all the snow. Well, my grandson is in Limestone, Maine, going to school and my son got a weather forecast for him for 15 days. Out of the 15 days, they were supposed to have snow 11. What’s your favorite activity to do here on a normal day? Read my books. Where’s your favorite spot to read? Right where she’s sitting on the sofa. In fact, I was sitting there reading when you came up. That magazine there. Yeah, it’s talking about World War I. It’s been a hundred years since that. What’s your cat’s name? Peaches. Is Peaches good company when you’re reading? Yeah, she lays on my lap. Well, actually, I put the recliner up and she lays between my legs. When did you get Peaches? My girlfriend’s son brought those two over here. (points to painting of two cats above the couch.) And they were little kittens. And something happened to it. Someone either shot it or a coyote got the black one. And he’s been here ever sense. It’s probably been a year and half, two years now. Does she shed a lot? Yes. Yeah, you need a vacuum cleaner all the time. �Does Peaches ever go outside? All time time. Yeah, she got a door. She goes through the sliding glass door. It’s got a section in it, it’s got an animal door in the bottom of it where they go in and out. She never got attacked by the dogs? Not that I know of. She never said anything. Camille: Were there any animals at Bird Haven? Yeah, my dog. I always had a dog when I was a kid. Like a hunting dog? Nah, just a mutt. When I was homeschooled at Bird Haven, someone threw a dog out and she had pups and I got one of them. It was a good dog. It hunted. It’d bring my mother rabbits. Alive. She was always proud. She’d sit in the door of the paint shop where Mom worked and sat there with her rabbit when she was ready to go off work. Did your parents like Bird Haven? Oh yeah. You see it was my dad’s homeplace was right there on Bird Haven. He was born in West Virginia, but they also had a place there where they stayed. My dad’s mother was fullblooded Cherokee Indian. And she believed that you should own property because they don’t make anymore and she died when I was a baby, probably out and maybe two or three months old and she had a massive heart attack and died. So I never do remember her. Do you keep up Cherokee traditions? No, we can’t document it. We know who we are, but we can’t document it. Even my cousin out in Oklahoma tried to adopt the manner of it and couldn’t. Why not? Well, nobody’s got a record of it. Your grandmother also lived on bird Haven? Yep. Was she born there? I don’t know where she was born, somewhere in Carolina. How did your family end up on Bird Haven? �I have no idea. That’s before my time. I guess mainly because my daddy worked there. He’d been there for years. Ever since I can remember. So it was prior to ’38. So that was just home to him? Yeah. What about your mom’s family? She was born in Jerome. She was one of 13 kids and they lived on a small farm and all the kids had to work on the farm. But then they moved? Yeah, she always worked somewhere. So your parents had really skillful trades? Right. Do you remember a lot about what they did? Yeah, I remember most of it. Like my grandmother and grandfather were farmers and a lot of the kids, one was a school teacher, another used to be a manager of Leggett’s department stores up in Delaware but Harrisonburg is where he started. Used to be one of them on main street. Right where the square is. And they worked all kinds of jobs. They had one that was a mechanic down in Martinsurg, West Virginia, another kept running the farm. And the girls, they all married and lived all over the country. But, basically, all of them are still in Virginia. Now there’s one girl left she’s about 95 right now. And there’s two — one, two, three — of the boys left. And they’re all in their 80s. Do you keep in touch with anyone that you knew from Bird Haven? There’s no one here really to keep in touch with. Well, David Kline, yeah I know him. And Kurtis and Robert. They’re brothers. That’s about it. Now Leroy Pope, down in Edinburg, gotta see him every once in a while. Now he worked back here. Which was funny because he was back at Bob’s little store back here, trying to find Bird Haven. And my daddy’s there and he asked him “well, what do you want to know about it?” and he was like “Well I wanna see if I can get a job.” And he said, “Well, I’ll take you back and show you where it’s at.” And then he said “you’re hired.” And he said “What do you mean?” “You’re hired. I just hired you.” So he worked there for years, too. So did you learn woodworking from your dad? Basically, from watching him and everything. �Was he a good teacher? Yeah. I tried to get him to open up his own shop after it closed there but he wouldn’t do it. He was afraid of this and that, you know. Would you ever wanna do that? I don’t really wanna do anything now. I’m too old to worry about it. What year did you retire? I retired when I was 62. So must’ve been 16 years ago. Yeah. I mean I do whatever I want to do. I don’t do whatever I don’t want to do. I mean every summer I like to ride my bike. Oh, long trips. I like going to Texas, down to Florida. You name it. How long does that take? Well, if I go to the West Coast, it takes about a month. You know, by the time you see things, go to Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, four corners and around through Utah. There’s a lot of scenery. And I love to stop at museums. Especially the military museums. What’s the best one you’re been to? Pensacola. The naval station. They have a gigantic air museum there. Now this summer I wanna go to Dayton, Ohio, and go through the Air Force Museum there. That’ll probably take three days or so. To go through it. I like to see everything while I’m there. I don’t like to rush through it. Have you taken a bike trip to Florida before? Yep. I went to Pensacola. Are you going to bike to Dayton? Yup. All my traveling I do during the summer is on motorcycle. Soon as the weather breaks. Our first trip will be the third Sunday in May. We go to Pigeon Forge. Which is just a short trip. To some of the other guys it’s a long trip but for me it’s just getting started. I drove to Maine, been up to Canada. �Yeah, I just like the idea, I don’t know why. What’s the farthest you’ve gone? I’ve gone all the way to California, all the way up into Canada. California would be the farthest. I think that trip we rode almost 8,000 miles. What was your favorite sight to see? Yellowstone. Did you go and explore? Yeah, we rode all through Yellowstone, we saw Old Faithful, you name it. We saw it all. E: Do you know the band Rush? R: What? E: My dad likes this band called Rush. And the drummer, whenever they go on tour, he just rides his motorcycle to the places. R: Oh, ok. E: And he writes books about it, too. So what was the most recent trip you’ve taken? Well, I just went to Pigeon Forge. I had a lot of doctor’s appointments so I couldn’t really do any riding last year. The year before that I went to Waco, Texas, to the Texas Rangers Museum and down to Corpus Christi and down in that aircraft carrier. That was a good trip. Especially when you get down to that hundred-degree weather. Now, Palo Duro Canyon is fun too. It’s just south of Amarillo. Yeah, it’s the second largest canyon in the United States. Who do you go on these trips with? My nephew and I went to Utah one year. We was gone about three weeks, I guess. And back through Colorado and around. A lot of times I go with Glenn Franklin and Money Shoemaker, Jerry Crowder, Larry Prior. Just about a dozen of us that I ride with. Usually there’s only about four of us at a time. Or just two when the nephew and I go. We plan to go to Alaska in a year but he had an accident in the big city of Harrisonburg and broke his wrist. That eliminated that. Do you wear a leather jacket? A lot of times I wear a short-sleeved shirt. �Yeah, it gets a little warm. Leather is hot. I got a leather jacket I wear sometimes. I got the other with all the back support and the elbows. But that one was fairly cool in the summer because it’s got little air holes all over it. But still you got the protection. But when I got in the accident, when I had the leather jacket on, back in ’63, still got mud on it I haven’t been able to get off. Have you ever seen Rolling Thunder in D.C.? I’ve seen it on TV, but I’ve never been to it. That’s too much of a crowd for me. E: It’s overwhelming. R: Yeah. Have you been involved with it? E: Sometimes my parents and I go on a little bike road over there and watch it… R: Yeah, that is a mess. E: It’s cool though. R: Yeah. Been to Vietnam wall? World War II monument? The Iwo Jima monument? Yep. R: Oh, you’ve been to all of them. Yeah, I live very close. And the Korean War one? Yeah. Oh, ok. R: You know, the guy who did the Iwo Jima monument used to live in Mt. Clifton. Yep. That’s where he passed away at. What inspired him to make it? I guess just seeing the flag raise in Iwo Jima so then he made the monument. In fact, I got pictures somewhere on the Iwo. There was like a set in stone cliff. Some GI had come in there and carved out the flag raising on there and then white-washed it. And it looks just like looking at the statue. This guy was really good. But I don’t know who did it. See when I was there on the anniversary of the battle, they had the marines come in and they would have this ceremony and raise a new flag on top of Mt. Suribachi. Now the Japanese own it again. �Have you been up to those monuments in D.C.? Yeah, I’ve seen all of them. Did you ride your bike? No, not for that. That was years ago. What took you to D.C.? Just to see those monuments and things. And I’ve been to Arlington Cemetery. A few years ago I went down for a friend of ours. He had died and got buried there and we went out for the services. Which was very interesting. It’s so beautiful there. Yeah, it’s well-kept. What was the service like? It was very enlighting. Because of the case and everything, the way they do it. And what really gets you is they got all those tombstones laid out. I mean … it’s amazing how many people are buried there. E: I like how Peaches likes the tripod case a lot. R: Well, all you gotta do is throw a paper box down and she’ll be in it. Such a typical cat. Is she good company? Yeah, she’s a pain but she’s good company. Cats, they don’t talk a lot. They don’t give you any backtalk either. When was the last time you had a dog? Oh, God, it’s been 10, 12 years ago. See the little picture up here? Beside my grandson? The dog there, licking my head? That was the last dog I had. He was about 20 years old when I had to have him put to sleep. His heart was so bad that he couldn’t walk. He couldn’t walk from me to you. He’d keel over. That’s a long life, though. �Yeah, he was a good little mutt. He was supposed to be a purebred with long hair, a Mexican Chihuahua, but we never could figure out what he was. What was his name? Well, I called him Killer a lot, but his name was Teddy. A little different. Yep. Why Killer? Because he was a mean little devil. Like if you were sitting there, and he was sitting on the sofa beside you, I couldn’t touch you. Couldn’t even get close to you. If he was sitting beside her, same story. My dog, but he wouldn’t let me to ya. Whoever he was with, that’s who he’d protect. When I’d go to work, I’d have to hold his mouth shut if he was beside my wife to kiss her goodbye. So protective of other people. Yeah. And he would bite. My wife got a call one day that if she didn’t come to Germany within 72 hours she’d never see her mother alive again. So we put the dog in a dog hotel. And I come home from work at the end of the week and I go down to see him and I couldn’t bring him home so I took him some rawhide bones to chew on. I walked in and that dog was jumping that high off the floor because he thought he was going home. And the girls told me “don’t come back until you’re ready to take him home.” Well, my wife came back from Germany and picked him up and I come home the second weekend and I say “how you doing, Teddy?” He bit me in the hand and I mean blood flew everywhere. It was three days before that dog had a thing to do with me. And I wasn’t the one who put him there, I just left him there. But a long-living dog. Yep. I had a cat that lived for 21 years. After my wife had passed away, I walk out the garage one day and it was laying there on the mat and I thought it must be sleeping and then I realized hmm it’s not breathing. Yeah, she just died in her sleep. Oh, what a way to go … We saw an alpaca on our way here. Yeah, they get those. It keeps the coyotes out from their cattle and stuff. Oh yeah, they’re just like a watch dog, except bigger. I didn’t know that. Yeah they get ’em and put them in with their cattle and stuff. Keeps coyotes and stuff away. �Are there a lot of them over here? Quite a few. Have you ever had one? Uh-uh. No. They seem like they’d be fluffy pets. Noooo, you must be talking about the llama because the alpacas are a lot bigger. They’re great until they spit on you. Have you ever been spit on? No, never been around them much. But if you’re going across Wolf Gap Road into Wes Virginia, there’s a place over there just after you pass Perry Zoo, on the left, they used to have 25-30 of those over there. Of the llamas. I don’t know if he sold them or what he did, but I mean he had a whole field full of them. Camille: They’re like a really good investment. There’s an alpaca field down in Monida, Virginia, and my dad has a house down there. And ill go and play with the alpacas. Because they can be insured and get good money. It’s a good business. What was the one they had back, not an ostrich, some other type of bird. I mean these people made all kinds of money and then pfft that was the end of that. But yeah they were high dollar. Someone said the meat was selling for $60 a pound. But it’s like everything else. The gold rush is over. These ones, they like the fibers. It’s good for sweaters and stuff. Yeah, it’s supposed to be real soft. So where’s the farthest place you’ve traveled to, outside the United States? Iwo Jima. I forget how many miles it is to get to Japan, and then you have another 750 from Japan down to Iwo Jima. One of those Pacific Paradises. Was it pretty, despite the issues? It was pretty, like it was ugly. There was a good looking female behind every tree but we didn’t have anything but a shrub bush. We didn’t have any trees because they’d all been blown up during the war. Never growing back then until ten years after the war was over. How long were you there for? �I was there for a year. It was an isolated tour of duty. And it was actually a refueling emergency landing strip. We had aircrafts … in fact the aircraft than I came from Iwo back home on had been there four times with engine problems. People would leave and get on a plane to Japan and end up back at Iwo again until they got the plane fixed again. What was your favorite thing about serving? About service? I guess just being with all the other troops. Just like a bunch of brothers, like a family In a way, was it like living in Bird Haven? Well, my family was smaller, it was just three kids and my parents. But right down the road there, was my grandparents. They had 13 kids and God only knows how many grandchildren. So it was a pretty tight-knit group. Do you miss it at all? At times, yeah. At times I especially miss my parents even though they’ve been gone for years. Yeah. I miss my wife, too. Even though she’s been gone for 20 years. I feel like you can never forget that, though. Yeah, it’s hard to, you know. Do you have any other final thoughts on Bird Haven? Not really, no. I didn’t know anything about it coming into this. Oh, ok. Well, I remember back when I was a kid the small factory. They had at least 28 people working there. They worked six days a week. That’s how much they had. And after the owner died, it was left to his step-son and he ran it into the ground. I mean that thing would still be going if they had had someone who managed it. But he would take everything they made and instead of putting in orders, I mean they had orders shipping all over the the United States. He’d take it up to New Market and sell it beside the road and pocket the money and just let the factory go. And that was the reason it ended up closing up. It wasn’t that they didn’t have the business. They had the business. But he wouldn’t let them fill the orders. He was a great guy. His nickname was Parasite. How did he get that? That was the nickname I had for him. �Any particular reason why? Yeah. Because he was always stealing everything. The only thing he was interested in was himself. I feel like that’s the antithesis of what Bird Haven was. True. I don’t know what year it was opened or anything. Here’s some of the stuff that they made. A cheese plate, a salad bowl. Who’s Philip Bard? I’m not really sure. Oh, he’s not related to you. He was a little bit before my time. Did they have a lot of social events? No. The main thing around here was uh… oh this is of Bryce Mountain. What inspired the design of these items? You know, I have not the faintest idea. They used to make them, I don’t know if it’s in there, but the big cobbler’s manch. I always wanted one, but never did end up with one. Made out of magazine racks. And a lot of small stuff. And everything made from maple, they got most of the lumber out of West Virginia. Had their own dry kiln where they dried it out. They got it fresh cut. Did you ever make anything that was sold? No. Everything I ever made I gave away. That’s nice. So when you moved back to Bird Haven, where did you work? When I moved back here I was retired. I didn’t do anything. I’m a firm believer that when you retire, that’s what it means. You don’t do anything. Except mow the lawn and take care of your junk. I look forward to the day. Well, thank you so much for talking to us. And it’s so pretty out here. It’s a nice reprieve from college. �Yeah, well just down the road out here there’s a ski slope. Have you been down there? Well, I was gonna say if you want to I can take you down there and show you that. Is it right outside? Yeah. Yeah, we’ll see it. Do you have anything else you want to add? Not that I can think of. I’ll think of it after you leave. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Emmy Freedman Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Richard Barb Location The location of the interview Bayse Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 57:39 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard Barb Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Barb, Richard Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Richard Barb of Basye, Virginia, recorded by Emmy Freedman of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview, podcast highlighting the interview, and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emmy Freedman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xshOi-g1_8s" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 20, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-007 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/c04fd2e97143b906335c3b43c8996317.pdf ecc77d85d9ec3983e65d6069798cc629 PDF Text Text Shen: Okay, for the formal start, I just briefly introduce myself. I'm Jiahao Shen and I'm a History student in James Madison University and this oral history interview is for the behalf of the Bird of Haven community, and the interview will be preserved at the Shenandoah County Library. You have informed me before that you uncle used to work there, so I say you have uncles that used to work at Bird Haven? Moomaw: That's correct. Shen: Based on what you know, what kind of the experience is this? Moomaw: He worked there immediately out of high school, and I think they were making the wooden balls and maybe some of the wooden furniture. I don't think -- as I recall he told me that they were no longer making the toys and the puzzles and so on. Shen: Is that the uncle that's from your mother's side or father's? Moomaw: My father's side. Shen: Do you meet regularly? Have you met regularly especially at your young age? Yes, at your young age? Moomaw: He went to work there after he graduated from high school, and for a year and married and moved to Ohio. We've maintained contact, but not very regularly I guess. Shen: Discuss about his experience, so how he's feeling about the life at Bird Haven Community. He's not living there? He's only a worker there? Moomaw: Right, he actually lived in Orchard Springs. I'm not sure that there are many people that live there. To what extent it was a community, I don't know. I know that there were several farm houses down there and there were families that lived on the property, but not all the workers by any means did. Shen: So you said all the workers a lot of people, I mean people even if they did not live there, but still they come from the region that's pretty close from the neighboring community? Moomaw: Yes. Shen: Okay. Your uncle as you said is also there, it's a very unique local community, so it's not -- How do you think is diversity of the Bird Haven Community based on what you know? Moomaw: The diversity? Shen: Yes. Moomaw: It was just basically people who lived in the area, and they were pretty much we all came from families that migrated from Pennsylvania in the 18th century. They were farmers and so on. There may have been a few people that these were German, they're called Pennsylvania Dutch. They may have been a few people that 1 �worked there who spoke some of the dialect, but it was say a very non-diverse community. Shen: Okay. The community is pretty local community. How you always think about your uncle? What kind of person he is and what kind of career himself is very impressive? Moomaw: As I said, they married, moved to Ohio. I remember that we went to see them and other more distant relatives there in 1953. I went to a Cleveland Indians baseball game. Cleveland Indian and Boston Red Sox. They were major powers in the American League in those days. He went there for a factory job, because that type of jobs were not available here. He grew up on a farm as would many of the people who worked at Bird Haven. I don't know how long he had the factory job, but sort of, and I think they were still relatives, he started working part-time for a farmer. There was a relative that also worked for him. At that time, originally it was a draft horse farm, a working horse farm and by the time he got there, the big thing was chickens and eggs and also I guess wheat and soya beans and stuff like that and then cattle. As he was given more and more responsibility, and eventually the man who owned the farm had him in his will and he became a farmer in Ohio. [laughs] He didn't actually end up in the industrial world. Shen: Good. The things that's he did before and after, before he moved to Ohio and after he moved to Ohio are pretty different. The job he did after he moved to Ohio is more industrial or agricultural? Moomaw: When he first moved, but then he quickly switched to within, probably 10 years to farming. There was a lot of -- as I said, we opened a farm here. Working at the -- we sometimes called it the toy factory and we sometimes called it Bird Haven. The wood working was something that -- We have some chairs that were made by, would have been his great-grandfather. People made their own furniture quite a bit, and I think some of that carried over into the Bird Haven Cooperative. Shen: Have you ever been to the Bird Haven before it's closed? Moomaw: I never went through the factory. It probably closed when I was eight or 10. There was a post office there, and I remember going back to the post office, probably riding with my grandfather's brother who was the rural mail carrier. His post office was established there, because of all of the items that they shipped out. Then when it closed down, the post office didn't last much longer. Shen: How is it like the Bird Haven operates or after it closed down, is that still function, become functional or land just being sold? Moomaw: The people who owned it lived there for a while after it closed down. I knew their son or step-son, and my parents had a restaurant, general store kind of thing that they operated in the summer. There was hamburgers and sandwiches and beer. I guess where I met the step-son was at this place. He would come by and have a beer or two, and he had a tab. I think I'm right that he paid with -- not every 2 �time or not always, but occasionally he paid with a piece of craft work from Bird Haven. My brother I think has those -- I don't know if you've seen those, have you seen the artifacts? The wooden bowls and so on. My grandfather, one of the things that the workers could do was to use the equipment’s after hours to make furniture and so on. My grandfather had a number of side tables commissioned, he had some walnut lumber, he had those made there. Shen: There are still some people, currently there are still some people living in the Bird Haven? Moomaw: The people that -- it was bought, they started a housing development. There’s a housing development with 10 to 12 houses. They may -- they may have sold some of their land to Bryce resort. It’s a ski resort, you know about Bryce resort. It's a ski resort, there’s a lake that is built on what was Bird Haven property. They use the water as a source to make snow. Shen: That resort turned in an industrial company? Moomaw: Resort? Shen: Resort. Moomaw: I think, I'm not sure about that. Shen: You had Mentioned before, the people used to as the Bird Haven community that used to make their own furniture. What are you saying about that relationship with the outside community? If it is pretty much self-sufficient community. Do they even have some economic financial business relationship with outside? Moomaw: Well, at that time -- it was founded in the 1920s I think. At that time, there was more of a cash economy that people would -- by that time, they would use the catalogue. People would order things. There were a number of general stores around and then at Mount Jackson there were fairly good size farm supply and furniture stores. People would buy that certainly. It wasn’t really self-sufficient at that time. Earlier, you still had a lot local crafts probably in the late 1800s. A few of things still survive. One of the thing that a lot of churches here do is make apple butter. Apple butter, it’s a spread for bread or whatever. It’s a community project and I think that was done quite a bit. There were people raised that picked a cause. When I was a kid, probably every family around here butchered and had a very careful use of all of the parts of the hog. Some parts I didn’t participate in, I probably should have but pickle pig's feet and all that which is part of Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. Is that your question? Shen: For the Bird Haven community, what scenes they make benefits for? It's for the agricultural products or some handmade things? Which one make more benefits? Moomaw: At Bird Haven? Almost everything that they made at Bird Haven was sold through catalogs and shipped out. The people in the area would get some of the 3 �people that work there. There are people who have some very nice collections of things. It’s an item like the mount Jackson museum. If they can find an authenticated piece from Bird Haven, they'll try to get it for their collection. There is a museum in TimberVille which is in Rockingham county 20 miles from here that has a lot of the equipment from the factory. Apparently what happened when the factory closed they just one day they closed the doors and walked away and all of the equipments and someone was there, and someone at the museum at TimberVille was alert enough at that point to get a part of that collection. Shen: For the neighbor community, for the community that's pretty close to there of Bird Haven, were you supposed to have a lot of interactions with them? What kind of things at Bird Haven surprised people mostly? What’s the general impression about Bird haven when it was still in use or after it now became functional, what's the general problem? Moomaw: I think there was feeling somewhat of a feeling of loss. I think it had gone through a gradual decline. I don’t know when -- the peak may have been in the late 20s and early 30s. I remember when my uncle worked there, by that time, it was a stop gap thing for him. It wasn’t a source of very much employment I don't think. There was a feeling of loss. I seem to remember that at one time there was a sign there saying that it was a bird sanctuary which is maybe where the name came from. There were stories that it was founded by someone from New York I think and they had some connections with the area and they thought that this could be an opportunity to build up some local industry. There is a little bit of information about that is in the Mount Jackson museum. Shen: For the people who used to work there, is there children that still live in the neighboring community or go pretty much outside. You have mentioned that your uncle moved to Ohio. Is that a pretty common thing for the children that distanced themselves from the previous worker. Moomaw: I think probably a lot of them would have moved but there are also a lot still living around here like Mr. Shamburg. I can think of three or four people that I know that had relatives, parents or grandparents who worked there. Shen: What is the common popular reason why the bird Haven wealth had failed? Moomaw: I've never actually had any discussion of that. I guess it would be related to after world war two, you've got the big manufacturing expansions and you got more or less of this craftsman kind of a thing. If it were -- If it had managed to stay operating, it might be something that would be -Moomaw: Yes. It's just -- I don't know. It seems like at one time it should have been a fairly -- it was a fairly strong ongoing concern. I have a puzzle that I bought on eBay that was in -- It was shipped back from England. They had some fairly wide market. Shen: When it was still functioning, the most perfect they made is from their handmade crafts, not their agriculture. 4 �Moomaw: Right. Though basically, it was not agricultural at all. The people that found it -- This is not great agricultural land around here. The people that found -that were looking were trying the develop industry that would provide opportunities for the members of the local community. The industry -- the type of economic activity in the area has always been tourism. It fit in with that pretty well. If you drove through springs, you saw the big hotel. You need to go back and look at that again. One of those buildings was built before the Civil War. The big one was built just after maybe 1870s. It was -- They would have three or four hundred people that would come. People stayed for a couple of weeks. It was a typical spring resort kind of thing. Not hot springs but mineral springs. And then there was another episcopal conference center. It was founded in the 1920s which was about the same time that Bird Haven was started. There was a lot of tourist activity. A lot of people -- including the farmers depended a lot on these summer resort activities. I remember seeing a letter once from a pastor who had served two or three churches in the area. It was like, "Maybe you all be able to pay me now. I know that there was a good summer at the hotel and should have some money.". That was the major market activity other than agriculture. Of course, in those days you had pretty large families. A lot of people migrated. When my uncle moved to Ohio, he had moved to an area where he had an aunt and four or five cousins, and the cousins had children. It was that kind of move. Shen: Yes. It's been a tourist center, not for the Bird Haven but for the whole community, has been a long period of time being tourist center. Why were the things that such incoming of the tourist. It's a pretty substantial amount of tourists. They've not saved the Bird Haven to continue to function because it still failed. Moomaw: It's a good question. The last peak in the tourism particularly at the springs hotel. There was also that Mr. Shamburg told you about, and there was also the original Bryce Resort was basically a summer resort with some cottages and so on. There was a lot of that and the peak was during World War Two. After that, automobiles and air conditioning and a little bit later the interstate. That type of summer vacation just went away. I don't know that the tourism was providing support for Bird Haven. I would think it would've been. I'd never thought about that. Shen: Is that like absolutely, that Bird Haven was failed. Is that there like the industry companies that established in this region. Moomaw: Not a lot. It's, there's some. There was a lot of people. People would go to DC, go to, move out of the area. Particularly, well you've got the orchards and you've got there was an apple processing plant at Mount Jackson. Then they developed. They had --They have a small industrial park and so on. It's never been enough to provide enough employment for people to stay. 5 �Shen: Before it failed, has that put stable company, I mean pretty much the, pretty amount of the families from generations worked there, is that pretty stable? Moomaw: I think so. It was like probably like from 1925 to 1950s, so probably cut -there would be a couple of generations. Shen: After it failed, what's the children of these family continue to work across the - If they don't have the option to work on the Bird Haven, what's they choose to do commonly? Moomaw: Well, they -- One of the things that there was a little -- they would have continued to work in -- for the various resorts. There was very -- Right now, Shrine Mont, which is the Episcopal Diocesan conference center and it's a combination of the original Autumn Springs Hotel and the original conference center. They probably, at this point, they have maybe ten to 15 year round employees. That's something that has grown over the years. Probably, when they, in the '50s, they probably would have been, for year round, they may have been six or eight. There was that. But --A lot of people would go into the military and come out with some sort of job training because he was in the military and he was at communications and he worked for AT&T and he then became -- He came back and was managing the resorts. Another cousin who was in the military, worked for the government, started people -My generation was the first generation where there were many people that went to college. There were a couple of families around here with a -- further back when the kids went to college, and when you go to college, who knows what happens to you. Again, earlier on, they were the large families and there was not enough economic activity in the area to sustain that population. Shen: How are you seeing about the failing of the Bird Haven community? What indication it gives the -- marks the transformation of the local society or marks the declining of the local economy. How is the thing goes? Moomaw: How what? Shen: What indication is its failing in regards to the local community? What kind of impact it gives? Moomaw: I think it was probably slow enough and not big enough that it probably did not have a big impact. I don’t really know how many at their maximum, how many employees they had, but I don’t think it would have been a big effect. Shen: So it's more about the emotional loss. Is that pretty much influential part of the local community. Moomaw: Well, I think it was. I think it was an influential part and -- but it for such a short period of time. See, I suspect maybe World War II depleted the work force and the -- I don’t know if they may have had problems getting materials and that sort of thing, and then, after World War II, there were these changes that affected the tourism economy. 6 �I think it also, didn’t happen right away but Toys "R" Us took care of the toy factory and IKEA took care of the furniture. Whatever was comparable to Toys "R" Us, and IKEA back in the '50s, but you see the -- Now, I think that a handcrafted thing like that could -- there are places where you find that and so, they tend to be more like little art communities. There's a place in Alexandria called the Torpedo Factory which is -- it was a torpedo factory and now it's set up with lots of artisans. It attracts tourists, and it's that kind of thing. Shen: So such like the handcrafted traditions still continue on? You have the Bird Haven crafts what's the feeling? Moomaw: There are a number of people in the area that have maintained that artisan thing. The mantle that we have was something that was -- I don’t remember who it was, but there was someone in the area, a builder, felt that they could put together something like that. We had some people come in to build some bookshelves. So, there are some people like that still around, guess they're working more independently. Shen: I've some pictures of the Bird Haven. What do you think about these two? Probably, they're handmade tools. Is that still common in local communities today? Is that still the common thing or it’s just a -- mostly it disappear-- when the Bird Haven was failed. Moomaw: I've seen people serving salads with Bird Haven stuff, but I think it’s something that’s been -- some crafts have been in the family so -- But yes, there are a lot people in this area, close-by and then further out into the valley that have Bird Haven stuff. Shen: Have you seen this since when you were at a young age? Have you seen these things that made by Bird Haven when you were at a young age? Because it's not -Moomaw: Yes. Shen: - okay. So, they sold some very frequently or at the -Moomaw: People in the community, yes, I don't know. A lot of people in the area have -- I think it was quite popular. Shen: I also have the picture of how -- What's made community very unique? Is that -- this house -- Have you seen the house that's the Bird Haven? Such as a relation -how would you describe these houses? Is that pretty modern or is that pretty oldfashioned or something? Moomaw: Well, this may have been an old house. I suspect this was maybe built for the factory, I don’t know. There would be people who would. Did you show this to Mr. Shemberg? I don’t know. This looks like it could have been like a log house, and this looks like -- I think the Post Office was in one of those actually, and this is 7 �something like a barn, but it looks like it was built for the factory actually. This looks like it could be very old, and these are not so old. Shen: Therefore, we can say that the felling of the Bird Haven as the -- was the point. What kind of the lifestyle compare before and after it's fallen. The lifestyle of the -- not only about the Bird Haven, but also about the whole local community, what change that accompany with the falling of the Bird Haven? Moomaw: I don’t think it was big enough and fast enough that it had much of an impact. There may have been a couple of families that were impacted by this. Shen: What about the lives thereof -- If we put into the broader context, what about the difference between their lives, their -- your generation and your parents' generation? Moomaw: And what was the -Shen: What's the difference, the big difference between your generation and your parents' generation, because the Bird Haven actually failed at a very young age, as you -- so I think the question could be raised, what kind of the difference overall, between your generation and your parents' generation? Moomaw: Again, I don’t think it was -- what happened was that you started having a shift in the type of agriculture that was taking place after World War II. You've seen all these old chicken coops around. That was, after World War II, that became -people who had been farming moved into that, the agricultural land around is -There are lots and lots of fields that were farmed 75 years ago with crops, that no longer are. In this area, there's practically no one growing crops. The only type of agriculture is beef cattle, and they grow hay, and chickens. Bird Haven, did not really affect that. It might have been different if it had become a large -- maybe something that employed 75 to 100 people, it could have had an effect on the number of people living around here and that sort of thing. There was a factory, a truss factory, that was in between here and Basye, that just went out of business and it operated from maybe 1970 to 2010, I guess. It had maybe as many as 100 employees at one time. It more than made up -- it wasn't right away, but it more than made up for the loss at Bird Haven I think. I think probably some of the people who worked there, their parents may have worked at Bird Haven. Shen: You have mentioned due it's role, it's place in society, due to its size, it's pretty limited. It's loss has not really imposed a great impact on the community. Moomaw: I think that's fair enough, yes. Shen: What's the folklore or the popular memories, the popular stories, about Bird Haven that you have heard about at a young age? Moomaw: I think there was maybe at that -- I knew about it. I knew that it was sometimes called the Toy Factory, but I didn't quite know why. I was surprised to 8 �learn, not long ago, about all the shipping that they did. About the post office being opened, basically because of all the shopping they did. Apparently, they printed books there at one time too. There was a lot of things going on there that if it had continued, it would have been a nice addition to the community. We've got the Bryce Resort, the ski resort. We've got the hotel, the conference center, and so on. I'm sure it was something that tourists, when they came, one of the things they did was they went to Bird Haven to see -- Julie, your mom took people to Bird Haven? Juile (Interview’s wife): Yes, she took them because they made beautiful maple dishware and tableware. Moomaw: This would have been about 1951, '52. Her parents came to the conference center here, and she knew about -- I guess a little bit later too after you all moved here? Julie: Yes. Moomaw: She was very interested in local artisans, and so on. That was one of the things that people would do when they came to stay a week, they would go -Shen: So it used to be a large tourist center. Bird Haven also makes things unique, like the animal figures. The center obviously failed. You said the local community also continued to make such objects, or did they just disappear? Moomaw: I don't think so. There may be some folks that do that woodworking but I can't think of any. Shen: There are displays in the museum in Mount Jackson. There's photos. Moomaw: Of these things but I don't think anyone's continuing. I don't know of anyone who -- there might be someone who does. Shen: What's the nowadays the local artisans provide? What kind of the works they provide? You've said your handmade crafts tradition does not continue. Moomaw: I think furniture. I think there's some people -- Furniture and furniture repair, and that sort of thing. Shen: It turns out to be more practical products. Moomaw: Yes, but with a slant toward the craftsmanship. Shen: What about your own story, your ongoing background? What about the environments, the communities that yourself grew up. What kind of community it is? Moomaw: What type of community? Shen: Yes, where you grew up. 9 �Moomaw: Where I grew up? Shen: Yes. Moomaw: It was Orkney Springs, is where it was. 10 years earlier, there were probably a lot of kids around, but it had become a somewhat older community. Basically, there was me and my cousins. It was very family-oriented. We made a lot of trips -- not a lot of trips to Ohio, but we went to Ohio, my grandparents. My grandmother had a brother in Florida, and they would go to Florida fairly frequently, every other two or three times in ten years. We had relatives in D.C. We would go there. Things that stand out, going to a baseball game, going to the zoo, these were things that you did them infrequently enough that you remember the particular trip. Shen: You have mentioned that -- Are you retired or still teach? Moomaw: I'm retired. Shen: You used to be an economy professor at Oklahoma State University. Where did you study for, before you become a professor? Moomaw: I went to the University of Virginia. Then when I finished there, I went to Princeton for graduate work. Then I went back and taught at Virginia for a short time, and then I went to Oklahoma. Shen: Is Oklahoma also a huge agricultural state? Moomaw: Yes, it's like beef and wheat. I think there's some herb that's not legal to produce, that sort of thing. [laughter] Shen: What's a difference you observed that you can see between Oklahoma and the local community? Moomaw: We were in Stillwater, which is a town that is smaller than Harrisonburg. The people, you have both the university community, which they tend to be similar wherever you are, and I'm sure it's that way in Harrisonburg. That the faculty and so on, they hang out together, I suspect. But again, Harrisonburg is bigger. Then the people that we knew, it was a friendly little community, very much like here I think. Shen: From your view, from the economic view, how will you define the community, it's economic situation, it's economic environment nowadays? Moomaw: Here? Shen: I will say like there -- at a young age, did the economic difference between -at a young age -- right after the felling of the Bird Haven and nowadays. Moomaw: There's less agriculture. In addition related to being a tourist area, the large retirement community. Again, the Bryce resort is organized around skiing, 10 �there's a golf course, very fine golf course I'm told, and then there a lot of people that are -- that are retired there. The Lions Club at in basing is one of the largest in the zone or the district and it's growing and most communities, the Lions Club are small and shrinking and the reason is this retirement community. We have people coming in from Northern Virginia and also, mostly Northern Virginia I think, but also Richmond people that come and ski and they're attracted by various kinds of amenities. Then when they get here, they tend to affiliate, some of them, with community organizations. The other big one is at the lake of the woods which I think is near Fredericksburg and I think it's a retirement community. I think there's another big one at Smith Mountain Lake which is again, has a retirement community aspect. Now, the Bryce resort, that has -- Well I was going to say that that's almost a hundred percent retirement community, but there are people who actually move here and tend to keep employment in Northern Virginia and they can telecommute and actually physically come here. I've been surprised to learn how much that takes place. So the retirement community has added -- the retirement aspect has added a lot to the economic activity. So you've got people that are providing services when one of the -- I think his father worked at Bird Haven. He does tree work. So he cleared this area out here for our view and it's something he's done landscaping, that he's done a lot of for the Bryce Retirement Community. Shen: How are things there that people from the local community -- Do they have some apparent difference especially when comparing with the other parts of the Virginia like this Charlesville? Moomaw: I don't know what, how -Shen: Do they have some apparent difference? Moomaw: Yes. I think the similarities would be to the the rural areas outside of Harrisonburg. The rural areas outside of Charlesville have millionaires. There's a little bit of a dynamic between the people who retire here and the people who grew up here. The people that retire here from Northern Virginia refer to the locals and the locals refer to the people -- what do they call them? Coming here is one thing. And if you've been here 30 years you might still be and come here. We're a little bit different situation because I grew up here, my wife from Woodstock then we moved out, then we came back. We were gone for 40 years. So we count as local, but in some ways we also count as coming back. So I'm involved with the Lions Club in Bryce which is mostly people who have retired there maybe 10% percent from the people that have had deeper roots in the area. Also the Veriton Club which is -- The Veritones are a community service organization that was found in Virginia and they have a rural focus. So most of the members of the Veriton Club tend to have people that have deep roots in here. 11 �Shen: For all the places that you have been experience and have been lived, study or teach -- taught certainly for a while, which one you love most of it? Moomaw: Which? Shen: Which one you love most of it? Moomaw: That I liked most? Shen: Yes. You liked mostly? Moomaw: This is where I chose to retire. Moomaw: Okay. That says a lot. Moomaw: It would be nice if we were a little closer to Northern Virginia. It's a little bit of a -- you have to plan to go to North Virginia to do something. I think if we're going to have family connections here too, I would think that maybe someplace near Winchester or near Harrisonburg would have some advantages. Again, Harrisonburg is like 45 minutes. Again it's a little bit of a trip, a lot of people go frequently, but we've enjoyed coming back here. Shen: How far is there from the place that you grew up. Moomaw: You saw the house, go to the house and then you go past two driveways, the house is where I grew up. [laughs] It's not very far. Shen: So is that your neighbor? Actually your neighbors, the people you're familiar with are still here? Moomaw: The people know -- My parents sold it in the 60s I think. Now the people that live there now are -- His parents retired at Bryce and he ended up here with his wife. My grandmother also grew up there. So pretty deep family roots. Shen: I think that's good. 12 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Jiahao Shen Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Ronald Moomaw Location The location of the interview Orkney Springs Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ronald Moomaw Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Moomaw, Ronald Basye (Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Ronald Moomaw of Orkney Springs Virginia recorded by Jiahao Shen of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jiahao Shen Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6hvJpsfn9lI" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qygjkqM6E04" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 26, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MTS File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-008 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/a0be89c4775ee0122446c0973f1eec2c.pdf 18f8e083058b75f3af39e6e9b5818904 PDF Text Text Jillian Craven Transcription of Interview with E. Curtis Delawder JILLIAN CRAVEN: So my name is Jillian Craven, and I am with Curtis Delawder, and we are talking about Bird Haven, the date is March 24th. So what is your relationship to Bird Haven? CURTIS DELAWDER: Well my grandfather used to own part of the property that is now part of Bird Haven. Uh, the greenhouse down by the creek at the lower end, it’s not in very good shape right now, it’s falling down, he owned that, and then Bird Haven absorbed three or four different properties after they closed the plant. Uh, we have relatives that worked there, but I’m not…you know, like the…Stuart and Barb, their son lives right across the road, Stuart and his wife both worked there. I remember going on down there when I was a little boy and I’d sit for hours watching Stuart in the, working on the wood lathe, making bowls and stuff like that. Uh, I’d just sit there and watch…uh, because I was nosy. J.C.: So your grandfather owned the land, and then your father also worked in Bird Haven as well… C.D.: He worked next to Bird Haven on the Alum. He worked for the Alum Springs Hotel and that property which adjoins Bird Haven, so he didn’t actually work for the uh, what was it, Shenandoah Community Workers I believe it was. He didn’t actually work for them. But Tom seemed to think I had some knowledge of the Bird Haven basically. I was a kid going down there watching...uh…it was just unreal to me as a young kid living out here in the boonies, to watch ‘em making this furniture and bowls and stuff like that out of a piece of wood. JC: And you said you used to mow the lawn for them as well? Cd: I did. When I was in high school, uh it was probably just before they closed the plant, I mowed the lawns, tended the garden, I might’ve been 13…13 or 14, for the owners but I never worked in the plant. JC: So can you recall for me what the general layout of the plant was, then? CD: Well that little—well we had the showroom and the post office, and that little block building was where Stuart’s lathe was, and then across from that was I think the finishing where they did the �shellacking and whatever. Uh, that big long block building, uh, they had machines in there for gluing the wood and stuff to put it all together, but uh, I didn’t spend much time in that section. JC: Um, so you mentioned “the lathe” what exactly does that entail? CD: what? JC: A lathe? CD: Lathe! There are wood lathes, there’s metal lathes, and you put a block of wood on ‘em and you have tools that you use to cut it and trim it down, uh, like you see these table legs that are, uh, Elizabethan? Is that—you know, where their funny shaped or whatever, uh that—they cut those with a lathe. Nowadays I think they just use a plastic mold but they used to make little like, milking stools, uh…magazine racks, uh, big salad bowls and then they’d have forks and spoons to mix the salad with and stuff. Uh, before—originally, when they first started and I wasn’t aware of this until uh Leslie and her husband bought the property and I was down there one day nosing around with them, uh, they started out making crossword puzzles. They were wooden crossword puzzles, back before the war, and—of course I wasn’t born until the war was almost over so I wouldn’t know anything about that. JC: That’s so interesting, so what were some of the more prominent or common jobs then would you say, were they lathes, or, um— CD: Well they were—you had people that uh, glued, and uh, I think Stuart was the only lathe operator, I think his wife worked in finishing, uh Sarah. And, let’s see, what was, there was, a James Barb I believe that worked in the uh, building where they glued all the stuff together where they assembled. And of course they, you know, they had to sand and finish the wood before it was varnished and whatever but, I really don’t know that much about their procedures. JC: And you said your father worked at the Alum Springs— CD: Hotel. JC: What was the relationship that the hotel, or resort/hotel had with Bird Haven? And were they fairly close? I know that there were a lot of resorts in the area. �CD: Well they joined each other, ha ha, I mean I don’t know, um, uh, the Alum Springs Hotel they had uh, Alum Springs, but there’s also an arsenic spring just inside the Bird Haven property line. Uh, I found that out when I was doing some work for the, uh, census back in the late eighties. Um, I think they know where it is, but ha ha ha you don’t want to let the animals get anywhere near to it. JC: Were there outside elements, like whatever was going on with the war or certain politics that effected Bird Haven at all would you say? CD: I’m sure it had some effect on it, but uh, I wouldn’t have any personal knowledge of what that might’ve been. I know that the Alum Springs Hotel, shut down the hotel and turned it into a chicken house. I mean, a three-story chicken house with an elevator. Umm, that was uh, probably in the early forties that they did that. JC: And how long had Bird Haven been operating for? Or was operating for, would you say? CD: Ha ha, I have no idea, it was always there—I remember it. Uh, they used to make uh, little boats, uh those uh… I don’t know what you’d call them like a little windmill on a stick? Uh…and uh, stuff like that, early on. The only reason I know that is because they had a bunch of ‘em stored in an old barn just on the other side of the plant. Uh, they always called it the Dodge Barn, but I have no idea why, evidently it was the owners of it before Bird Haven bought it. JC: Do you remember why Bird Haven closed or if there was a specific reason? CD: I guess it was just economics. Well the owners were getting old and uh, I mean the, the demand for wooden salad bowls and milking stools and stuff like that I guess, it just wasn’t there, I don’t know, uh, I don’t remember a whole lot about why it closed I don’t even remember when it closed. JC: Do you, or can you recall for me what the sense of community was like around Bird Haven? Would you say it was close knit or… CD: --Oh I’m sure it was close-knit but there wasn’t that many people around here. Um, when Bird Haven was in operation…(recalling under his breath) one…two…three…four…maybe �five…six…When Bird Haven was in operation from here to Bayse, there were four houses—no I’m sorry five, because there was one out there by (*incomprehensible name but I think Ortney Gray*). So take a look now at how many houses there are between here and the Ortney Gray. Uh, so the people that worked there lived fairly close because not everybody had a car. Uh, and a lot of people relied on the postmaster for a ride here or there if they needed to go to town, they’d ride with the postman, the mailman, to town or whatever. Uh, so the—it was a close-knit community, everybody worked together at that time. If somebody had a car and was going to town, they’d stop at the neighbors to see if they wanted anything or needed anything from town while they were going. So you know, everybody helped everybody out. JC: Do you have—what’s your most prominent memory or your favorite memory of going to Bird Haven? CD: Watchin’ Stuart workin’ on the lathe. I mean that was—Like I said, in the summertime, when I was young, maybe eight, nine, ten years old, I’d go down there and sit for hours. Maybe I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the rest of the plant because maybe they didn’t put up with me for being so nosy asking questions and stuff. But Stuart was always—he didn’t seem to mind me watching him. JC: Did people stay even after Bird Haven closed? Did people stay in the area or did they move farther away? CD: I don’t think anyone left the area because Bird Haven closed. JC: Did they get other jobs that were similar to what they did? CD: Probably not. ‘Cause I don’t know of anything, any plants or anything around here that did that type of work. JC: And so, your grandfather and your father what did they do after Bird Haven closed? CD: Same thing, my grandfather he owned that farm down there by the greenhouse and this ridge down through here, and he owned this house and property up here on the corner on the turn, and he farmed and did most of it with horses. My dad, he worked, for the hotel, well the poultry �division of the Alum Springs Hotel. He took care of their chickens, ‘cause after they turned the hotel into a chicken house they built two other buildings as chicken houses. But I don’t know that that really had any impact or that Bird Haven really had any impact on what they did. JC: So would you say—you were showing me a video earlier of what they would show at the theatre, is that something that you would do for fun as well? CD: (turns to his computer) Uhh, by the time I was old enough to go out there the swimming pool was in disarray, I mean they didn’t maintain it. At one time it was a big swimming pool, creek fed so it was always cold. But uh, that was always part of the trip, you know. I had this—Halibut Springs is the little gazebo out there (turning to me) did you get both those pictures? (Pointing at a picture) Right here. This was Halibut Springs. And of course like most it was supposed to be a healthful thing and that’s what this commercial is supposedly about—he had a bunch of glasses of water from the springs and threw his canes away and run off. JC: So the springs were supposed to be all-healing, all-powerful? CD: Right. And of course, Bird Haven is just across the fence from them so maybe they had some of the benefit from the springs, but this is the swimming pool. And I think this was in 1941, so it’s almost been….let me go back to the swimming pool… JC: So were there other kids in Bird Haven primarily? CD: Well yeah. So Stuart and Sarah lived right there across from the main house down over at Bird Haven and they had…three children. They were down there. Theodore Barb lived between here and Bird Haven on down the hollow, he had five or six children. Poke and Louise lived in the greenhouse, they had four or five children. I forgot about a house down the hollow here, a log cabin…five children there. So there were a lot of kids around. The school bus between here and Bayse loaded up. JC: And did the kids ever help out at Bird Haven or was it more just adult jobs? CD: It was more or less adults, I don’t think any, there were never any children that worked there I don’t believe. �JC: I didn’t know if there were any odd jobs like sweeping up or something. CD: No I don’t think so, I was probably the youngest one working there and that was mowing the lawns and weeding. I never saw any kids around because it was dangerous equipment they weren’t gonna let any children hang around. It’s a wonder Stuart let me hang around the lathe. JC: And were you ever able to see some of the toys that were made there? CD: Well yeah, because we used to find them and take the boats down and float them down the creek. And the windmills and whatever but, that barn had fallen down around stuff that they had stored out there, I guess it was stuff they couldn’t sell or whatever, and after the plant closed down or whatever, neighbor boys would go down there and get these boats and stuff and we’d float ‘em down the creek. JC: Were there any aspects from Bird Haven’s society that differ from today’s society would you say? CD: *long pause* Bird Haven society was just the normal society for the life’s times of that era. Just like this is the lifetime, lifestyle of this era. You know, it just, the people have adjusted to the area and the times. It just is a lot different—everybody’s got a car, everybody’s got a television set. When Bird Haven was up hardly anybody had a car hardly anybody had a television set. Television came out what, was it just before the fifties? Early fifties? So uh television was just coming out when Bird Haven was closing down. JC: You also mentioned they were called the Shenandoah Community Workers as well. CD: That was the name of the plant I believe. JC: Okay so that was the name of the plant, but Bird Haven was the name as well I believe? CD: Bird Haven was the name of the community I guess, or the property just like the Alum Springs Hotel or Bayse, Conicville, that was the name of the area. I don’t ever recall that there was any stores or anything like that around Bird Haven, but the post office was there. And I’m not even sure why it was called Bird Haven. When—I can’t remember the name of the people who owned it— when they closed the plant down they sold the property to a retired army colonel Ham. Ham then purchased, well he owned the property where the greenhouse was on, then he bought Bird Haven �then he bought Theodore Barb’s place, then he bought some other to put it all together as Bird Haven. Then Colonel Ham sold it to the developer who developed some of it, he used the main house for a sales office. He didn’t develop a whole lot of Bird Haven, he did put, he took about twenty acres of it up by the road that they divided and put houses on but…now I done forgot your original question… JC: What was the difference between the Shenandoah Community Workers and Bird Haven? CD: Shenandoah Community Workers was located at Bird Haven. Supposedly it was a bird sanctuary but at that time I remember passing through a lot of towns that had signs that said they were a bird sanctuary. And you still see a lot of them in West Virginia I believe you know you got “Bird Sanctuary” when you come into the town. I have no idea why it was called Bird Haven. Why was it called Bayse? Or Conicville? Or Jerome? It goes too far back. You know my ancestors built the road across the mountain for homestead but didn’t give it a name. *Phone Rings* CD: Let me see who this is, do you mind? *First recording stops, second begins* JC: Are there any memories that you have about Bird Haven that you think would be essential to us recreating it? CD: Not really. I can’t think of anything, like I said my best memories were watching Stuart. JC: And did you learn anything through watching Stuart and going to Bird Haven? CD: Oh I’m sure I did. I didn’t learn how to use a lathe. But when we were young, every weekend, especially on Sundays a bunch of us kids would get together and we would just roam around. I mean, we had these whole mountains, not a care in the world to roam over. And it was all learning experience, everything we did or every place we went there was something to be learned. Just walking across the street you could learn things. Anything in particular or special? I couldn’t pin that down. JC: With this project, what would you prefer Bird Haven’s legacy to be? �CD: *long pause* I personally I appreciate the things they’re doing to restore the buildings and stuff to what it was, I think that there’s a lot of history there but unfortunately most of the people who made that history are no longer with us. I’m glad to see them restoring the buildings, I would like to see them put to some use. I mean, what good is a building if it’s not going to be used, but then again that’s a big undertaking to restore those buildings to what they were. I don’t know but I see that furnace falling apart out here, the side wall falling down and I’m so disappointed that that’s happening I hate to see it. But I hate to see all these old, big old barns on these farms and stuff falling in disrepair and being allowed to fall apart. I bought a farm just to get the barn. It’s one of those big old barns and the timber’s just a log. And I’ve spent, well, what I’ve spent is irrelevant, trying to restore it and preserve it, ‘cause I don’t want to see it fall down, I don’t want to see it destroyed. JC: Would you say that your father and your grandfather enjoyed their time working on the resort and with Bird Haven? CD: *laughs* Well, I don’t know if enjoy is the proper word. It was a way of life. It was an available way of life. And in that day and age, you used whatever you could find, whatever was available. But I think, isn’t that the same thing we have today? We use what is available? Are you being paid for this? You’re doing it as a hobby or as a class project? JC: A class project. CD: A class project, okay. But you will be paid for it then won’t you? You’re gonna get grade, alright? Are you enjoying it? I hope you are. JC: It has been really fun to learn more about Bird Haven. CD: Well I have more about the community and the area than I have about Bird Haven itself, but it was always a part of the community. JC: Would you consider Bird Haven to be, and the Shenandoah Community Workers to be particularly successful when they were at their peak? �CD: Oh I’m sure they were or they wouldn’t have lasted that long. I mean, they changed their production to go along with the times. You know they started with crossword puzzles, then to little toys, then to furniture and salad bowls and stuff like that so they had to adapt to the times. And that’s what the community has done that’s what Bird Haven has done, is adapted to the times. JC: Do you have any last-minute or additional comments or things you would like to have shared about Bird Haven? CD: No other than I’m glad to see them restoring the buildings and stuff though I hope they can put them to use. JC: And how would you want them to be used in that sense? Would you like it to go back to their— CD: Well I don’t think there will ever be a demand for the hand-made salad bowls… JC: They’re beautiful I mean I’ve seen them they’re beautiful. CD: They did make some beautiful stuff there’s no doubt about it. But after they closed the Shenandoah Community Workers, the Mervin Dellanger out there opened a plant to make basically the same stuff they were making at Bird Haven previously. And he opened a store there, but that didn’t evidently turn out too well he turned the plant into a pallet-manufacturing shop to manufacture pallets and apple crates, the big apple crates, so he wasn’t making any money on salad bowls. *laughs* you had to adapt. JC: Well thank you so much for answering some of the questions that we had CD: I don’t know that it would be very helpful… JC: You gave us a different side from what we have seen before. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Jillian Craven Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Elmer Curtis Delawder Location The location of the interview Bayse Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Elmer Curtis Delawder Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Delawder, Curtis Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Elmer Curtis Delawder of Basye, Virginia, recorded by Jillian Craven of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jillian Craven Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VujssuUaXA0" frameborder="0"></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0du4SgMuhCU" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 24, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MTS File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-009 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/691da801273ed08d57a02aa9c93af485.pdf 87c555d89f4ac7466cbe467da48ee4f0 PDF Text Text Josh Leach Hist 441 March 24, 207 Interview with Betty Dellinger Josh Leach: Hello, I am Josh Leach, sitting here with… Betty Dellinger: Betty Dellinger Leach: It is March 24th, 2017. Alright, so my first question for you is just to describe what it was like to grow up in the Bird Haven area. Dellinger: Oh it was, it was my home all the time ya know I lived there, I was born there, not at Bird Haven but in the Basye area. I went to work there when I was about nineteen and I worked there for about nine or ten years, and then I had a baby so I quit working at that time. It was a wonderful place to grow up, it was just, it was just, just a good place. Leach: Could you describe some of the activities you’d do as a kid around the area. Dellinger: I worked at Shrine Mont which is a seasonal resort from the time I was twelve years old till the time I graduated high school. Just in the summer cause I went to school in the winter and worked in the summer. And I worked all the time seven days a week ya know, but that was the way that we did cause we had to do that to buy our things to go to school ya know, so we worked in the summer time my sister and I both. Leach: What did your parents do in the area? Dellinger: My dad worked on a sawmill and my mom was just a housewife. Leach: How did growing up in that area shape your childhood and the opportunities you had after your schooling? Dellinger: Well I never got really very far because I just moved seven miles away when I got married. So I was in that section ya know most of my life. And it was just wonderful people we knew everybody, and everybody, ya know neighbors, got along real good together, it was just a good place. That was before Bryce came in. Leach: Who’s Bryce? Dellinger: Bryce is a ski resort. Leach: Oh okay. Dellinger: We lived close to the ski resort at that time. Leach: Could you explain some of the events that lead you to enter Bird Haven as an employee? Dellinger: Well I got married and I didn’t do anything for several months and then there was an opening at bird haven and I applied for it and I got the job and I lived right there my �husband ran the community store right there at Basie so I started working. He run the store and worked at bird haven Leach: How did you meet your husband? Dellinger: In school, we went to school together and he was from close, ya know close around. Leach: What did you do in Bird Haven? Dellinger: Well to start out with, we worked ten hour days which was a lot ya know at that time. I started hand sanding, everything was hand-sanded ya know everything had to be sanded. You know they made whatever they made. The men you know used the saws and everything to saw it out and it came to us to be hand sanded. So we sat there 10 hours a day hand sanding. And you know sandpaper, all the time we had to keep our fingers wrapped up with Band-Aids all the time because they would bleed from the sandpaper ya know. So we did that 10 hours a day to start with, and then finally several years later I got in to the shipping part of it to you know to pack em and ship em. We ship em all over. Texas and California and everywhere, we shipped out of Bird Haven and they had to be packed. So I got in the packing and that's where I was when I could work. And the post office was right there. We just packed it and the post came and took em, the post office was right there at Bird Haven. It was a pretty neat set up at one time. And before that they made they made different things they made puzzles, and toys, and things like that to begin with. But that was before I started working there. That's how I got started. Leach: How many different departments were there in Bird Haven? You said you worked in the sanding and shipping department. Dellinger: Yea the sanding, and then there was finishing, and we had a finishing department, packing department, and production you know. And the men worked in different, they had lathes that they turned this, these, you know the products on and they had different buildings there. They had lathes and they had a part where they glued, you had to glue the boards together you know to make like that table there had got, had to be glue. They had places where they turn so the spindles and things, they just about everything and quite a few buildings with different departments. And they did the glue, the men did the glue, and then the sanding and they run em through something to finish em, a machine to finish em. Leach: Did most people like you switch from department to department? Dellinger: No. The ones that did the finishing you know they had sprayers where they sprayed the finish on. And if you got in that department you know, you know you had to be a little bit more. You know you had to know what you're doing. So the women in there and they, when they got there they usually stayed there. So it was quite a few different jobs �and you know different departments. You went from one to the other, so it was it was quite an operation at one time. Leach: Did you, could you describe some of the training that you would go through, did you go through training process? Dellinger: I didn’t go through any training when I started, I just started sanding. No, but packing was a little bit you know, a little bit about you know numbers and things like that you know orders that came in that was a little bit more. You know you had to learn a little bit more about that. But no just sanding was sanding. And then they sprayed a sealer on it. They had to be sanded again. So it was really sanding two or three times before. The women would spray a sealer on and then it would you’d have to sand that off and then finish it. So it was sanded a couple times before it got finished, quite an operation. Then you had to let it dry you know. And then I did some inspection too, they had to be inspected before they were sent out. So you know sometimes they had cracks and sometimes they you know weren't sealed just exactly right. They had to be inspected before they were shipped out. I got in on that too so. Leach: What was it like between the workers and the overseers? What were the bosses like? Dellinger: We only had one boss, he was okay. He was, I mean he was alright. He was good to me I mean. His father in-law, oh no his step father is the one that really owned it. But he was just you know he was a manager and he worked there. So I don't think he knew too much about it sometimes that’s the way with a lot of the bosses. But he was all right. He was good to work for. Leach: What was it like between workers? Dellinger: The workers got along real good. It was just like a, almost like a family you know because most of them had been there long time. Some of them was all that they ever really did and they live right around there too you know. Some of them even lived on the Bird Haven property. It was just like a family working together. Leach: How did that translate into family life around the area? Dellinger: Pretty good family life, in fact my mother worked for the owners of the place as a housekeeper. And you know in later years she, they had a big place you know, had big house on there and she cleaned the house and did cooking and things for them. So it's just like a family you know. It's just, well the people, you never change jobs and you know nobody hardly ever quit when you went there you know, you stayed a long time. It was just, just like a big family. Leach: Were there any problems ever within the community because you guys worked so closely together? Dellinger: I don’t think so, not that I know of. Everybody knew everybody, and everybody were related to someone at some point, so yeah, it was a pretty good set up. �Leach: You talked a lot about the workers and you guys sanding, and running the lathe, and spraying. Were you well informed on the business side of it about who was buying and where it was going? Dellinger: Not until, not unless you got into the packing and the shipping part. You know I mean the orders came through that. If you did, if you were sanding, until I started out there I didn't really know a lot about it because the orders came through packing and shipping. You know through the shipping department and the packing department, but if you were just hand sanding our whatever you was doin, we didn't really know anything about the orders. So you had to be in that department. So and it was about three or four women that did that most of the time. Leach: About how big was the total workforce there? Dellinger: I was trying to count em up the other day and I couldn’t. I don’t know it was probably about 15 or 20, something like that maybe 15. Leach: In your department? Dellinger: No in the whole place, whole place. And some of them were really aged you know cause they’d been there the whole time. They were there I think still; most of them were there when they closed you know. It wasn't real big but it was, I mean at that time which was good because you know employment back there wasn’t you know at that time, wasn’t too much you know. If you got a job you usually stayed with it for awhile. Leach: Were most people happy? Dellinger: I think so. I think the workers got along real good and they were happy. A lot of em were family I mean some of em were family, husband and wife, and brothers. It was kind of like you know just like a family. Leach: What kind of lifestyle did that lead into people living? With the compensation that you guys received, what were you able to do outside of work? Dellinger: We didn't do a whole lot, we just worked. That's like, that's what it was you know. A lot of people around there were farmers and you know how that was, you work from dawn till night. It wasn't very much. Most people, well some people back around in there went to Mt. Jackson on Saturday night. You know they had that movie and restaurants and things like that, my family did that a lot. My dad worked at saw mill and on Saturday evenings we would go to Mt. Jackson. But other than that most of em just stayed at home you know cause a lot of em had big families, and you know small children, and they just had to work all the time. My mother came from a big family my dad did too. You know I just, just had to work. But you did have, we did have Saturday nights. We went to Mt. Jackson on Saturday nights just to go to the movie and have a coke or a hamburger or something like that, and that was a big deal. That was a big deal then. Leach: Could you describe best for me the grounds of Bird Haven, like the buildings you would work in. �Dellinger: The buildings were good. They kept them up real good at that time. I mean some of em are old, but you know, and they built a new finishing part while I was working there so that you know that, that was up to date. A lot of the buildings were old but they were well-kept. And I understand some of fell down they are, but they were at that time they were pretty good. Leach: Explain to me some of the items that were most popular that you guys would ship out. Dellinger: We did stools, cobblers benches, magazine racks, folding tables, racks, whatnot racks, bowls; that bowl on the refrigerator is one of em, I got one the living room you'll see that’s the bowls and what else I got? Crickets, back there in the corners a cricket they made. I think that's about all I have. But Cobblers benches was, and you never, you've never worked at anything till you sanded one of those because it was huge. And then we had to sand all, you know, we had to sand everything because it was made there, made everything. The bowls weren't made there. They were shipped to us but we finished em, sanded and finished em, but everything else was made there. And the cobblers bench, that was something shipped too and you had to have special boxes to ship that in and it weighted, it weighed a ton almost you know. But that was something that was the biggest part, biggest thing we made was the cobblers bench. I don't have one of them. I wish I would have gotten one but I didn’t so, and they had to be stained. You know they had to be stained and they stained em with a brush. And then when they were stained, then we had to sand em off and then they had to be sealed, and sand that off. Then they got two coats of finish on top of that. So you can see how much work went into one piece of furniture. Leach: About how long from production to finish would it be for average sized item? Dellinger: Well if you had an order for em right away they went right through which would be maybe a couple of days if you had an order. But if you didn't, you know and you did what was ordered first and then the others just kind of came along and they were stored there until they were needed. But if you needed them, you know, when they went through pretty quick if you had an order for them. It all depended on if you had an order you know what you have an order for. And we made forks and spoons to go with the bowls, yeah. So we had to sand all that get in the prongs of the forks and sandpaper it's quite a job. Leach: What were some of the most popular items, what did people tend to buy the most? Dellinger: I think the bowls were probably the most popular, salad bowls because they made this big salad bowl and the smaller bowls and the forks and spoons to go with them. I think that was probably the most popular. Yeah. The small, you know because they would buy em in sets you know and made different size but bowls big and small ones. I mean we didn't make them we finished making them. And they were quite popular at one time. We shipped a lot of them. Leach: What's your fondest memory of Bird Haven? �Dellinger: I guess the people, I like people. We all work together good. You have some really good people to work with. It was good work. I mean you were inside you weren't outside you know working. It was inside work all the time, was long days but he people were really good, and they were good. We were all friends you know neighbors, worked together in the church a lot. A lot of em you know were in church with us. Leach: How about your least fond memory? Dellinger: Probably my fingers bleedin, cause you can't, you know your ends of your fingers holding sandpaper it didn't take long for them to wear it through. So we have to keep them bandaged all the time. So I think that's probably the worst part. Leach: Could you describe to me what led you to leave Bird Haven. Dellinger: I had a baby. Yeah I had a baby, that's why I left. I left in September of 61 and she was born in November 61. So that's why I left then I stayed at home you know for a couple years and I never went back. I don't know when Bird Haven, somebody asked me that I really don't know when they closed. I know I was working there in 61 so I don't know much about what year they close by. I never been back. And I got on the job [inaudible] after a couple of years so I never knew why, but it did close sometime around that time. But that's why I quit. Leach: Did you stay in contact with some of your coworkers? Dellinger: Oh yeah, oh yeah we went to church together. We were all good friends most of us. In fact I just talked to one last Sunday. I think you all interviewed him, Leroy Polk. Well he was one, I think he and I probably only two that’s left that, everybody was workin there they all passed away. What we were talking about Sunday about Bird Haven. He worked there I think he said he went to work there about '47 so he worked there for a long time. He's up in his nineties now, I think were the only two that’s left that worked there. Leach: When you first started working there were you one of the younger employees? Dellinger: Yes I was probably the youngest; all of em or most of em were older than me. Leach: Was that the trend? Less young people were going there at the time that you did. Dellinger: Yes because the ones that were working there had been there for years. I mean they didn't hire, you know, they didn't hire very many. You know, just if you got a job there you were pretty lucky to get one. And I was just, I was young I think about 19. Yea I was the youngest one there. Leach: Was it hard for people to get jobs in there? Dellinger: Yeah because you know there wasn’t any turn over, you got a job they stayed there. Some of em you know been there for years and years and years and didn’t have the turn �over, unless somebody passed away or something. People got a job they stayed. And it was close to home for most of them, you know, they didn't have far to travel you know they just stayed. Leach: That’s interesting. Dellinger: Yea I hadn’t thought of it in years until just recently. Leach: How has working there impacted the rest of your life.? Dellinger: Well I've worked probably, practically all my life and you know I said, like I said I worked in the summertime. I just wanted you know wanted a job. I just didn't know anything else but work really. And was close to home you know and I didn't, yea I was driving at that time but I probably didn't even have a car. So you know it was just, just an easy place to work. Leach: What about after you left, how did it impact you? Dellinger: Well I had a child to take care of, so that took up my time. And then I went to work and she started to school. And so, I've known work all my life and there never was, until just now since I retired, you know that I hadn’t been working. Then my husband passed away too so that was kind of hard, but I live close to my daughter now. So everything's working out okay. Just being by yaself is not any fun. We were married 63 years, you’re around somebody that long takes a little while to be by yaself. But that's the way it is. Leach: What did [your husband] think about Bird Haven? Dellinger: Oh he liked Bird Haven. He run the community still back there so he was busy but, yea he liked bird haven. Leach: Did a lot of the workers frequent the community store? Dellinger: Yes. Yes, because that was the only store in there at that time. Oh yeah, yea he had a good business. Leach: Could you describe to me kind of the layout of Bird Haven, in that were there separate buildings for separate departments or was it all kind of lumped together? Dellinger: No there were separate buildings. It was kind of you know they were kind of all together but, close together but they weren't, they were different buildings. Where we hand sanded and where they glued the boards together and everything was one part. And when they run lathe was another part. And finishing was separate and packing was separate It was separate buildings and it wasn’t all one big building. Lumber you know they had to keep the lumber dry and they got loads of lumber in. And you know they had to have a place to store that, so it was separate buildings. Leach: Did you, did the different departments interact a lot? Dellinger: No you were too busy. At lunch or something like that you might break or something. But then most of time you were busy you were at it 10 hours a day. �Leach: How was it even affected by the outside world? Did you feel like there were there economic pressures on you guys producing these materials? Dellinger: No not really. It was kind of just by itself I mean just you know, just the only guy we ever saw was the boss. You don't see him very often because he just kind of let you do your own thing. But no I don't I don't think it was. I think it was kinda just like you know like a community. Leach: Can you describe to me a typical day, working there from start to finish? Dellinger: Well when I first started, I started hand sanding and we went in at 7 o'clock in the morning. And, you sit down right away went to work and then you got a break, probably about 10 o'clock you got a break maybe 15 minutes or half an hour. And then when you finished then you went back and started again. And then lunchtime. And then you had a break in the afternoon too. So other than taking our breaks and lunch, you are at it all the time. And the machinery was running you know all the time the machinery that the man used. That was running you know all the time. Leach: What was the atmosphere like? While you were working was there conversation? Dellinger: Oh we could talk, but once you work [inaudible] when you were running those machines you didn't, you know, you couldn't talk too much. And on some of them it was just one man doing it you know like running the lathe. And it was just one man so other than that to break time, lunchtime you didn't really get to see each other. But yeah I was working with another woman, and we worked together, we could talk together while we were working because we were working right there together. But with the machine and everything running, and you didn't have too much of an opportunity. Leach: Were you very close with the other woman you worked with? Dellinger: Oh yea we were good friends, we were really good friends. And then we would go down for lunch, when we would probably go, mostly we would go down to the finishing department and if we didn't have sanding to do, hand sanding to do, then we would go to the finishing department and do a sanding down there. You know sand off the sealer that was on it if we didn't have, especially if you were rush for an order they would send us down there to help with that too. So sometimes we were in both places. All depended on the orders and when they had to get out the kind of thing. It was mostly hand sanding though because you had, everything had to be hand sanded one way or the other one time or the other. But I never did do any of the finishing or anything. I just, packing and hand sanding is mostly what I did Leach: Were there ever any major problems with work? I mean working with wood its flammable so... Dellinger: No I don't think so. Leach: Were there a lot of safety precautions? �Dellinger: Well some ‘specially in the finishing department, had to wear a mask you know for that spray came back on you, you know that kind of thing. Yeah there was there, but I don't think that was for any of the other departments. You know just the people that were spraying they had kind of little booths like they had to and take precautions for that. Other than that I don't think, course you to be careful around that machinery you know, and that was dangerous. I don't remember ever having really bad accidents or anything. People, you know, people knew what they were doing because they were and had been doing it for years so they really knew what were the proper precautions to take. No, other than the spraying part, there wasn't any specifics. Leach: What kind of lessons did you learn besides just the sanding and shipping? What did working for Bird Haven teach you? Dellinger: To get along with other people, I think it was most of it. Because I never did have any problems you know. When you were close with people like that you know I think that helped me in later years because in later years I was cafeteria manager in school. So you know they taught me to get along with people. And just really nice people back there, they were really, really nice people, all of em. Think that helped me a lot. Just because when you’re a manager your main thing you have to get along with people. That really helped me. Leach: Did any of the jobs you had after bird haven resemble the stuff you were doing there? Dellinger: No, nothing I ever, never had any other work like that. And then I worked at a school so you know, I retired from the schools so it was it was quite different from bird haven. Leach: If someone were to come up to you and ask you about Bird Haven what would be the first thing you would tell them? Dellinger: Say, I would say it was a good place to work. And you know I really learned a lot there. It was, it was good to work there, people got along good together and never had any problems you know. It was hard work but it was it was good work. Good place. Leach: How long did you say you were there for? Dellinger: I think about nine or ten years, yeah. Because I know I quit in ‘61 I think I went to work there in ’51 or ‘52 may have been ‘52. So it was 9 or 10 years somewhere around there. Leach: How did they treat workers leaving? Dellinger: Okay, I mean it was alright I’d have probably stayed if I wouldn't had to quit. You know I had I stayed long you know long enough. So yeah you know not very many of them quit. I think the one lady quit and went to the bank to work, so that, you know that was okay if you got another job. They never said anything about that. Yeah it was good people. I mean good people to work for you never got told about anything and that you did everything wrong. So you didn't see the boss very much so you just kind of went on �your own but you knew what to do. So you just went with it. Yeah you could, he never said anything if you had to quit, not very many people did. Leach: When you did see the boss what would he be looking at, what would he say to you? What was your relationship with him the boss? Dellinger: Oh he was okay. Leach: You said he doesn't Come around a lot? Dellinger: So well maybe you could see him once a day maybe, but he lived there in the house you know close. And he'd just come over and just well everybody knew what to do and he just more or less went on his own. You know we'd see him maybe once a day maybe, maybe not that often but he never said anything much to us just kind of let you go your own way. So I guess he thought you knew what you was doing, so go ahead. Leach: Is there anything else you'd like to add anything you think is worth telling about Bird Haven? Dellinger: Just that, you know I really enjoy working there. It's a great place to work and good people to work with never you have any problems. So it was just, just a good place to work I think. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcription https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/094b2156cb3abfcdbb2f17b1c74151dc.JPG 2db5f516c82c3a93850f47fc57b73a29 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Fruit and Nut Bowls Description An account of the resource Fruit and Nut Bowls manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers at Bird Haven Virginia. https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/c352a5b142dd3119da8e71769026ae95.JPG 307fe17dd516f6c8cf996a3d35e06a15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lazy Susan Description An account of the resource "Lazy Susan" manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers at Bird Haven Virginia. https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/b6e60fca527d721f544534d5d50cca35.JPG a8d3619ed5ad2a4e0e145f9e48341d0f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Magazine Rack Description An account of the resource Magazine Rack manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers at Bird Haven Virginia. https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/86e47cf91f3f1b1d7d0a21d5787e1465.JPG 63a173ab69c859c633288d9c8c2989ec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Milking Stool Description An account of the resource Milking Stool manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers at Bird Haven Virginia. https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/caabc6610e310167506c53e25b8a1a21.JPG bf8ed0251364483a4851c8918aeb4949 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Salad Fork and Spoon Description An account of the resource Salad Fork and Spoon manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers at Bird Haven Virginia. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Joshua Leech Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Betty Dellinger Location The location of the interview Woodstock Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 34:37 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Betty Dellinger Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Dellinger, Betty Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Betty Dellinger of Woodstock Virginia recorded by Joshua Leechof James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview, podcast highlighting the interview, photograph of items manufactured by the Shenandoah Community Workers in Betty Dellinger's possession, and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Joshua Leech Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_hL1YKRtpnw" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 24, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP4 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-010 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/f0f6404049c287e004cb0a540b3ce423.pdf 7b2f62f0963925bca7ce4b28d5143c45 PDF Text Text Leroy Polk – Bird Haven Interview Transcription Interviewer: Kaitlyn Kissane Interviewee, Narrator 1: Leroy Polk Narrator 2: V. Polk – Leroy Polk’s wife Sound and Video Operator: Emily Schmitt Monday March 20, 2017 This interview was conducted with Mr. Leroy Polk, a ninety-three year old man who worked at Bird Haven gluing lumber and making wood products for fourteen years. His wife of seventyfour years, Mrs. V. Polk, was present during the interview and can be heard speaking, sometimes at the same time, throughout the interview contributing information and helping Leroy remember details. Kaitlyn Kissane (KK): Would you start by telling us your name and your age? Leroy Polk (LP): I’m Leroy Polk and I’m ninety-three years old. KK: How long did you work at Bird Haven? LP: Fourteen years, from 1947 to 1961. KK: What was your job at Bird Haven? LP: Gluing lumber, another guy and me, Harold Barb was his name, we glued all the lumber that was glued from the fourteen years that I worked there. We glued for the things that we made and then also for the ones that turned on a lathe. KK: Okay. LP: Okay *laughs* KK: So, what would – is this okay? Okay. – What would a normal day at Bird Haven have looked like for you? LP: A normal day of what? KK: At Bird Haven. LP: That I worked at Bird Haven? It was nice, I enjoyed it, I enjoy working with wood. Still do, but I’m not able to do it. KK: Did you live in the community of Bird Haven? �LP: Well, not so far away, maybe, well I lived a while at Basye, between Basye and Orkney Springs. But, then we lived maybe five or six miles from there, from Bird Haven. KK: How did you first hear about or get your job at Bird Haven? LP: I was at Basye at a restaurant and I met a man in there and we got to talking. He said his name was Stuart Barb, I told him who I was, I said I was Leroy Polk. I asked him where he worked, he asked where I worked and I said I was, at the time, I was working at an orchard. He said he worked at Bird Haven and I said just where is Bird Haven, he told me where it was. Did I tell you what his name was, he said it was Stuart Barb *laughs*. He said well if you come back tomorrow I’ll give you a job. So, I went back and he hired me, I worked over there then from that’s what I said, 1947. I enjoyed every minute of it. Yeah. I love working with wood. KK: Had you done any work with wood before you got your job there? LP: No. I didn’t. KK: Why do you love working with wood? LP: Because I enjoy doing it, *laughs*, KK: Yeah LP: Making pretty things, I like doing that. KK: What was your favorite thing to make? LP: Well, I liked to do all of it, but wall racks. We made, me and this other guy Harold Barb, he and I worked together and we made a whole slew of wall racks at a time, and magazine rack cradles. We made carpet benches too. And everything was made with a pattern, we glued up the lumber, then planed it, and put it on the pattern of what we were going to make. Then, we sawed it out on a band saw, and sanded it on a drum sander, a big drum sander. Then we sorted it all out. At last, after we got done with that part, it went to the people that hand sanded, they had to sand it smooth and go the way the grain run, because if they went crossways it showed up when they stained it and put lacquer on it. That’s about all I can tell you *laughs* KK: Did your job change at all over the fourteen years that you were there? LP: No. KK: You did the same thing? LP: I did the same thing, this other guy and myself, we worked at the same thing. KK: Did he work there as long as you did? �LP: Yeah, fourteen years. V. Polk (VP): But he’s passed away. KK: What was the community of Bird Haven like? LP: It was just you went there and went down through the woods where the shops were and that’s all that was in there. It was just the shop and the man that owned it *laughs* it wasn’t much of a place, it was just the buildings and the shop. The man owned it lived a little ways from there, that’s about all that was in there. VP: Post office, they had a post office at one time. LP: Oh yeah, it had a post office, in the building, there was a three story building there. They didn’t use, when I was there they didn’t use the top floor because before I went there they made puzzles and birds, wooden birds and puzzles. They painted the birds made of wood and that’s where they got the name of Bird Haven. But, I never got in on that because they has stopped making them when I went there to make bigger things. KK: What were the different buildings? LP: Hmm? KK: What were the different buildings that were there? LP: Different buildings? Yes, there was a big old barn when I went there to go to work there was a big barn, this three-story building, and then on down further was some other building. It had finishing, where they sprayed lacquer and stain on finished things and a dry kiln where they brought lumber from Cash, West Virginia over on a trailer truck. They would put it in there, and down there at the other end was a furnace, that fired through pipes that dried that lumber out. In that furnace room was a man that had a lathe and he turned things on the lathe and another man, Chris Barb, turned on a lathe, and Will Hepner, he turned out on a router trays, like them tray I got over there. He turned that out and then Harold Barb and I would finish them then. We’d get them together and everything then like I said they went to where they hand sanded. Then it went from there to where the women worked in one building and they put stain on them. They would put that stain on there and after it dried a little bit and they assessed that it was all done they would wipe it off with a rag and then, after it dried good, they put lacquer on it to make it nice and slick and shiny. KK: How many people worked at Bird Haven? LP: When I first started I’d say about thirty. But some would leave and then some would come and when it got down to the end there wasn’t too many working there. It went pretty good until towards 1961. Earlier we had all the lumber glued up and everything, Harold Barb and me. There was a step-son, Bernie Clark’s step son, John Gray Paul, they call him Spiz, he kind of messed things up. He would get orders for things to go out and he didn’t send them out, he’d call back �and cancel the orders. That’s what happened to the Bird Haven. He told Harold Barb and me that along about June of ’61 that if we could find another job, we ought to get it, because he was going to close the place up. So, we hunted around, then I heard that there was an opening at the school in Mount Jackson, so I took that job. He let the rest of the people work until right before Christmas nearly then he said were closing the shop. He took some of the things to New Market in a building he had there and he sold out of that. KK: Wow. LP: Yeah, I hated to see it happen, but I think it was all through him that it closed. KK: Do you think that other than the amount of people there did Bird Haven change at all while you were there besides the management? LP: Did it change? No, not more than when he came up there and messed up things. KK: So, the processes were all the same? VP: He’s dead now. The man. LP: Yeah, we worked ten hours a day and half a day on Saturday, ten cents an hour. We made big money *laughs*. When we first went to work there, you worked a month and twenty days and they held the twenty days back on you from there to the end until you quit and then they gave you that twenty days up onto whatever you made then *laughs*. KK: Did you all live, all of the people who worked at Bird Haven, did you all live near each other? LP: No, no they lived, well not too far from one another. They lived around back there, all around there in Basye, where they lived, most of them. One, Stuart Barb and his family, they lived back there, right close from there. KK: Where were you living when you worked at Bird Haven? VP: “McHaney”. LP: Well, when I first started I was living in Mount Herman. Then later moved to “McHaney”. KK: How long did it take you to get to work each day? LP: Twenty minutes, to a half hour. Sometimes if where we went then there was a double ‘S’ down the hill and in the winter time it got icy and it was hard to get around that. Course, that’s not there anymore, they took that out and put a straight through. VP: They’d take turns driving. �KK: Is there anything or any memory that stands out to you the most about your time at Bird Haven? LP: Not, really. KK: Did you enjoy working there? LP: Yes, I did. I would have liked to kept on, if things would have worked better, if it had worked out alright I would have liked to have just kept on working there all the rest ‘til I retired. But, it didn’t work out. KK: Do you know where you guys were sending, shipping things that you were making? Were they going all over? LP: Oh, I don’t know, there were some women that shipped them out when they got orders. They would wrap and pack it, because it was shipped out right there at Bird Haven, from the post office. The mail courier, he would make two trips to Mount Jackson a day from Orkney Springs and he would stop in at Bird Haven at the post office. Then he drove to Mount Jackson two times a day. He would take the things that they had for sale wrapped up and everything, boxed up, he would take it along to Mount Jackson, from there I don’t know where it went. KK: How many different things could you make in a day? Were you guys making a lot? LP: Well, in a day, well it just depends what we were making. We would make so much of it at a time, but I don’t know how long it takes to do it. It just depended on what we were making. KK: What was the easiest thing to make? LP: What did I do? KK: What was the easiest thing that you guys made or the things that didn’t take as long? LP: I don’t really know *laughs* I never thought about timing. We would make how many things at the same time. We didn’t, I don’t know how long it would take us to do it. KK: Is there one thing that you made a lot more of? LP: Yeah, we made more wall racks in a time, then we did things like carpet benches, we made some of them but we didn’t make too many of them at a time. In a time I mean in a couple days or a week, we’d take a while to get that done. VP: It’d take time, work like that, like waiting for it to dry before they could finish it. They would do like one thing one day and maybe something else another day. KK: Was there one thing that you guys made that was really popular, like you made way more of that than anything else? �LP: Yeah, I think wall racks. Carpet benches went good but we didn’t make too many of them at a time-period. Wall racks we made sometimes fifty at a time. KK: What was the process like to make a wall rack? LP: We had to glue up boards, they was planed on one side and then we had a cut-off saw that would cut them up about the length we wanted the things, usually about four feet. We put it through a big band saw to rip them and cut the edges. Then from there it went to a tongue groove machine, it was a big groove machine that Harold would run through on the one side and it would cut a tongue on it. Did you ever hear of tongue grove boards for flooring? Well this machine would do that. He would run it through on one side and I would get it at the other end and turn it over and run it back on the other side on the edge and cut a groove. So, that way when we glued them we would take them to that big glue wheel that had clamps on it. That had a dip in the floor, the glue wheel was so big around that it had to have that dip out in the floor to make it come straight out to where a person was going to work. Put the boards in and tighten up the clamps. But it was in this paper that somebody else said that they poured the glue down in that dip and run the boards around, but that’s not true. That dip was there because the thing was too big around that it had to come. Then we would take the boards and we had a glue pot about the size of a gallon bucket. It was lined on the inside with copper and it was electric and it had little old glue things about as big around as your little finger that were electric and would melt that glue. It had a little brush about an inch wide and Harold Barb, he’d usually hold a board up, dip that there glue, I mean brush in the glue and put it on the one side, on one edge of the board and we’d lay it in the clamps and then he’d get the next one and put it on and put it together there. When we had about the width we wanted the things, he’d tighten up two clamps and I’d tighten up two and we’d do that until we filled up that whole wheel of clamps. Then we’d leave it till the next day, from there we’d plane it, plane the boards and whatever we were going to make, put a pattern on and saw it out on a band saw. Then it went from whoever was supposed to work it. KK: Wow. You’ve described some of the equipment, what was all in the space that you worked in? LP: Well, in this old barn that was there when I went there, but after years later, after they had the fire, after part of the finishing place burned down. I’ll start there and go back to the barn. The dry kiln had pipes that had water went through but it was like baseboard heat you have in the house, water goes through there, hot water baseboard. It goes through your furnace and circulates around and that’s the way the furnace, it was in one end of the building. The dry kiln where the lumber come in from Cash, West Virginia, where they put it in. There was big pipes about two inches through, the water went through there and then on into another room that was all in this one building, a long building, it had finishing where the women would finish making them, putting stain and lacquer on. It heated from that furnace, heated that water through the whole building there. One winter it must have got out of fire and the pipes froze. Some guy, he had a blow torch and he was trying to thaw out the pipes, trying to thaw the ice out of them. He was in the lacquer room and it caught afire, that lacquer caught afire. That’s what burnt that building down, most of the building, it burnt down the one where �the women worked in to put the lacquer and stain and stuff on the things that was made. Then after that they built the building out of cinder blocks. But, it burned up that part, then they built that out of cinder blocks, then they built another one there where the women would do the finishing, then they tore that old barn down. But, that old barn when I started, it had a cut off saw, it had a big rip saw, a planer, this tongue groove machine, and a machine that made dowels. Dowels, them little dowels and big dowels too. After they built that other building. In another part of the barn, that part wasn’t heated, but it was closed in though, the other part was closed in where they did hand sanding. That part had in it a band saw and a smaller rip saw, tables where you’d put the stuff together and a big old drum, big drum sander that ran with an electric motor, and a drill press. I had never seen one like it and never seen one since like it. You did it with your foot, to run the bit, you’d put it down like that you did it with your foot. You had both hands free to hold what you were drilling into. So, I don’t know if they still have that anymore or not, course it’s been sixty years since I’ve been there. KK: Have you been back to that area? You haven’t been there for sixty years? LP: No, I haven’t but that man that called me, that owns it, he called me and invited me back. But, I just haven’t got there yet, I plan on going if nothing happens. I don’t know what he looks like, I never did meet him. Just like I had never met you girls before, but you’re pretty girls. Nice. VP: No, haven’t been back, he’s talked to the man, he wants him to come back. KK: What time would you have gotten there in the morning? LP: About seven-o-clock, maybe sooner than that, because we worked ten hours a day. KK: What would have been the first thing you would have done, then what time did you have lunch, then what did you do then when did you leave? LP: * laughs* We ate lunch about twelve-o-clock. But, we had a half hour to eat lunch, I guess I marked down my time, I reckon, didn’t mark time while eating. I can’t really remember to tell you the truth *laughs* that part. We went to work right as soon as we got there, because we worked ten hours a day, didn’t have too much time to mess around. I’ll get back to the barn, they tore it down after they built the block buildings, they tore that part down. But, the block buildings weren’t like the wooden buildings because the wooden buildings had a metal roof on them. These other old block buildings they had tile roof on them and they were more flat. They were always leaking, they had to be getting up there to put tile on all the time. They weren’t as good a buildings as the original buildings. KK: So, the original building was a barn and were all the different parts of the process all in that one barn? �LP: No, where they finished them, where they put the stain and lacquer and stuff on them, that was in a different building. It was a long building, that building had that part at the end and then the kiln dry in part of it, it was sectioned off, then a boiler room was at the other end, but each one was to itself. But, in another part was where we made the things, in a different building, where we made it and planed it and got it ready, that was in a different part. That was in the old barn but then they tore it down, after they built the others then it was two different buildings there that they had the finishing where they put the stain on and the lacquer, that was in one part of the block building, the other was in the other building. KK: How many buildings were there once they built the new cinder block ones? LP: Just two, but they were sectioned off for different things. It was a pretty long building, it had sections just like you have a room here, like walls for the living room and the kitchen, your bedrooms. That’s the way that was, but it was for the machines, the different machines that we had. It was where you had walls to divide them up. KK: Were you part of the Shenandoah Community Workers? LP: What? KK: Shenandoah Community Workers? LP: Shenandoah Community Workers, what do you mean by that? KK: The group of people that were living and working there, at Bird Haven? LP: Was I in the community with them? VP: They all lived around there, it was a community, Bird Haven was called Bird Haven, but it was community workers that worked there. KK: So, you mentioned that they made the birds and puzzles before you got there, what was different before you got there? What were they doing besides making the birds and puzzles? What else were they doing different before you started working there? LP: Before I started working there they were making, I don’t know when they stopped making the puzzles and wooden birds, things like that. I don’t know what year they stopped making that because they were making things that I helped make they were making them when I got there, when I went to work there. VP: They were making birds, just like little birds, like that little red bird. They would paint them. But, that was before he got there. KK: Were you still making as many products towards the end?Before - �LP: Before we closed? Up till, I’d say five months before it closed we had the things made up that we were making. They wasn’t finished all the way through, like I said, the man that I was working with we had the things made up, when I say made up, we had them already made what we made. From the ones where they went to finish hand sanding, putting the stain and lacquer and stuff like that on the rest of the almost six months, five months I got to say before it closed. VP: They didn’t know that, they just finished what was already made up. KK: Can you tell me about the different things that you have still from Bird Haven that you made? LP: Yeah, I have a magazine cradle, a tray, a stool, and two wall racks that I made there, that come from there. But I don’t have the stamp on them, it was a label, it had a yellow label there. I never even thought about getting them to put it on there. Because the stool and they tray that I have, I made on my own time and I made it out of different wood, I put a walnut and a maple, together in strips. But, I made it on my own time, I made that in about 1955 and that other stuff there too. That stool, children would come, well people would come but they had children, and they would play with it, course they would bump it around and since 1955 *laughs* that’s a lot of playing with, they loosened up some of the legs up there ain’t much I can do about that. Not too bad, not too bad I don’t think. KK: When did you make the wall racks? LP: The wall racks? About the same time, I’d say, course them there I bought them myself, because I made them. Harold Barb and myself made wall racks, we’re the only ones that made them. We glued the lumber, we made the wall racks and we made the stools. VP: When you were making them, sometimes him and the man he was working with, if they wanted something for themselves they would work on Saturday after they had closed. That’s how we got so much stuff, others too if they wanted some they’d buy it. LP: But lazy susans, one man he made, I’ve got pictures here in the paper here, in the paper here *shuffling paper* Do you want to look at them? This here shows were lazy susans, Stuart Barb, he’d turn that on his lathe. But, we’d have to glue it and everything and saw it out on the board. He had a lathe that had a plate on the end of the shaft, it was electric though, I meant it run by electric motor, he would do it out with a chisel. VP: I’ll tell you girls, that was a nosy place. When it all was going, running you’d go insane with all that noise. I don’t know how they did it. LP: Oh, that theres what we got over there, that’s the magazine cradle. We would drill holes, the side is a half inch thick. We had to run them through the boards after we glued them up, we’d run them through this big planer and cut it down to about where you want the thickness. Course, you just have to run it through there, take just a little off at a time, because if you took too much off it would tear holes in it and it wouldn’t be no good. *shuffling paper* There’s another page here, *shuffling paper* if I can find it. *laughs* Oh, that’s just reading there, that’s just reading there. �We made a lot more things than this, it doesn’t have the carpet bench on it. It didn’t have the wall racks on it that we made. The spoons, we made wooden spoons and forks, Stuart Barb, we sawed that out of a thick, Harold and me, we’d saw them out of thick boards, about that big. Course there was a pattern and everything they did with a pattern to cut it out. Then put a thing on there to shape it and saw it out. Then Stuart, he put it on that lathe and he had that chisel that he’d run back and forth like that till he cut them out, shape them out. Then after that he’d saw them out on the band saw and sand them on that big drum sander, shape them up. I don’t have any of them, I made two of them, a knife and a fork, I had sort of like that there, different colored wood, I don’t know what happened to them. KK: What is all that, what is in that paper? LP: Do you want to read it? VP: No, you tell them what they are. LP: This tells about what this is *shuffling paper* VP: Tell her what the pictures are. Tell her what the pictures are, that’s what she wants you to tell her. KK: You can just tell me about the whole paper. LP: Well, this here paper, somebody made it, the Chamber of Commerce. VP: The Chamber of Commerce in Mount Jackson LP: They did this, the Chamber of Commerce, it says in here that they talked to different ones who worked at Bird Haven. But, some of them that they talked to I knew, but some of them I didn’t know. Well, I knowed them but not when they worked there - two men that’s in here they never worked there when I worked there, if they worked there they worked there before I ever went there. I worked from ’47 till when they closed. They had in here about the glue wheel, about having there dip down there and pouring that glue down there and running the boards through it, that’s not so. That there was because the wheel was so big around that it had to have room for it to come up to where it could come right straight out from you where you could put the boards straight in. I’ll give you this paper to let you read, if you want to. KK: Is there anything else in the paper that they got wrong about Bird Haven? LP: No, not that I read. *shuffling paper* Then they got here a doll cradle, well that there was a cradle just like the magazine cradle, more than that. We made it without the dowels inside, the dividers. That there’s got them dowels in it, it was divided for magazines cradle, this would lift them out. Harold and I, we glued the boards, we planed them, we sanded them, then put them together. We drilled holes on the sides, on the ends, we drilled holes in to put screws in. It was �put together with screws in the end pieces. We sanded them, after it was all together we sanded them on a big drum sander. I’d hold it here on my chest, felt like rubbed the hide off, I’d put them on there and rounded them. Well, there’s one, we rounded them there and counter sunk where we’d put the screws in, we’d put them together. When I first went there I think we used just a screw driver like that but then later on they got some that were ratchet screw driver. We put a screw down in there like that, it went pretty good, but sometimes it was pretty hard. But, I enjoyed it, I liked working with wood, make pretty things. I did some of that since I’ve retired, up until a couple years ago, I had to quit. I had a little building out here and I had a couple things in and I made things. VP: He made bird houses and he made churches, like the churches around here. LP: Since I retired I made replicas of seven churches, I have one of where we go to church, St. John’s in Edinburg. I made seven I know. I often wished that I had taken pictures of the things that I made since I retired, but, I never thought about it. I made church bird houses, shaped like a church. I made a lot of things shaped like a church, I made some little banks shaped like a church. Oh, I made, what’s that called, with them covers a crossed, you got them upstairs. You lay them covers across VP: I can’t think of what you made that you got a cover across it. LP: No, it’s about this tall. VP: Honey, I don’t know what you’re thinking about. LP: We just talked about it the other day, you forgetful as I am. VP: No, but I can’t think of it. LP: It’s about this wide and it had them strips of wood that goes through there and its up here. VP: Oh, the magazine racks. LP: No. VP: Not magazine rack but quilt racks. LP: Yeah, I made some of them. KK: Did you use all the things that you have learned at Bird Haven to build stuff once you retired? LP: Did I do what? KK: Use the skills that you learned at Bird Haven, or did you kind of figure it out? �LP: Yeah, I used them. But, then somethings I just figured out by myself. Just like I got a thing out there that we saw somewhere that you can put VP: I’ll show it to you LP: Yeah, she’ll show it you, but we saw it somewhere and my wife said she’d like to have one and I said well you draw it and I’ll make it. So, she did and I made it and we hung it up there on the wall out there. It holds cook books and stuff, there’s a little drawer. VP: It holds books for. We were out one day and I said I want one like that to hold books and he said well if you draw me a picture. I’ll show it to you, that’s where my cooks books are. KK: Were there anything’s like the fire that made people leave Bird Haven, or changed? LP: Yeah, when they had the fire we couldn’t work. So we worked, some of us, we worked in the orchard picking apples until they got things built back up. I had a little ladder when I went to the orchard, well they have ladders. There was one there that was narrow at the bottom as it was at the top. I was up in there and I had a bag of apples hanging here and I was putting apples in and that ladder turned like that and I come down through and I fell over a limb. The bag went on one side and me on the other and I *laughs* I think I busted some ribs. That laid me out for a long while from picking apples. KK: How long was Bird Haven shut down for the fire? LP: Oh, I don’t have no idea. Couple months anyway, I don’t know, I never did keep a count of it really. We was out work until they got it back on with the blocks and stuff. They had to move the machinery. They tore down that old barn then, that three story building as far as I know is probably still there, them old block buildings too I guess, I don’t know. But, I’m sure they still are, but I don’t know what shape they’re in. VP: But we’re going back one day, girls, were going to see it. LP: But then, where the dry kiln was and the boiler room, that didn’t burn, so that might still be there because it had a metal roof on it. ‘Cept they built these block building in one place and they built onto that part. Then they built another over on the same lot but not right against one another. VP: They had hole, somebody working for them back there LP: If she wants to talk she should talk up loud, shouldn’t she? *laughs* VP: No, I should not, I don’t want that going on there. KK: Do you know why the guy wanted to shut it down? Or wanted to stop you all making stuff? LP: No, he didn’t work there, he just *laughs* he didn’t do anything really, but just - �VP: He was a step son LP: I don’t know. Later on they told me that he’d become a judge in Harrisonburg, but he’s not living anymore. I seen him on 81 one time and he had a Studebaker Car. I was coming from Woodstock where I went to go to work after I was working for the school, working on the maintenance. I was coming south on 81 and this car passed me and he motioned for me to pull over. I seen who it was and I pulled over and he said if you ever need a good lawyer or judge well let me know *laughs*. I didn’t really want to, but I didn’t have to have him anyway. I’d been afraid to have him anyway when he messed up that Bird Haven job. KK: Did you ever have to fix any of the equipment in the shop? Did it ever break? LP: Oh, yeah. The band saw blade tore sometimes, one time it tore and I cut my finger here on the knuckle. See that one I can pull that up there, but that one I can’t pull it up any further. Cut the ligaments there, had to have some clamps put on it. One time I ran my thumb in the rip saw, that kind of hurt too *laughs*. I was pushing a board through and it flew someway, it was so quick that I didn’t have time to think about it really. KK: Were there ever any other accidents in Bird Haven? LP: Never anything more than that, couple little things. KK: Was the work physically hard? LP: Hard? Well carrying that lumber was very hard, because you went down to the dry kiln and we carried it up to that barn. You’d have to carry it on your shoulder and then if it had two-inch stuff then we’d carry that he’d get one end, maybe it was twelve or fourteen-foot long. He’d carry one end and I’d get on the other end and we’d carry them boards up. We’d use that for carpet benches, we did the same to glue them together, the same way that we did the other stuff. We ripped it and everything. That was the hardest really, we’d carry it up to that old barn. After they built them block buildings onto that part that was left, the dry kiln and the furnace room, they built on to that right there and we could just go out and go around the corner and get the boards out of the dry kiln. Then didn’t have to carry it so far. KK: How far was the distance that you had to carry it? LP: Before that? When the old barn was still there? Well, about from here over to that house over there. We carried it over our shoulder. Course I wasn’t but twenty-three years old then when I first started *laughs* and I was only so much older fourteen years later. KK: How long had you worked, you worked at an orchard before you started before at Bird Haven? �LP: Couple years I worked on a farm, I grew up on a farm, until I got married. Well, after we got married, we got married the next day after I become nineteen. I married that lovely woman over there for seventy-four years *laughs* VP: *laughs* LP: But I still worked on a farm until I was about twenty-one, then I worked in an orchard after that for couple years then, about two or three years, then I started working at Bird Haven. KK: Did you move to be closer or did you just stay where you were living? LP: No, I stayed where I was at. We lived in Mt. Clifton before we bought here. I drove from Mt. Clifton to Bird Haven for a while too and that there was a little further. It was further than Basye, I mean further than “McHaney”. It was maybe twelve no, about ten miles I reckon from Mt. Clifton to there. I don’t know how many years before it was closed, not too many years in Mt. Clifton though. I’d pick up some guys and take them along, well one man that worked there for two years at the end. The last two years he did the routing because the man that was routing out the trays in the boiler room where Barb had a lathe. His name was Will Hepner and he was working there routing out trays when I went to work there and then he worked until he retired two years before it closed. George Miller, his wife had worked there when I went there but she quit about two years before it closed. Her husband got on and he routed out the trays for the last two years. Betty Donner was one of the girls that did the, helped to do the, she is still living, she was one of them that helped to put the finishing on the, the stain and lacquer on the things that we made. She would work in the packing place wrap them and ship them out, ship the things away. But, she is still living, far as I know she is about the only one that worked there that is still living. Her name is Betty Donner. KK: Were you close with or friends with the other people who worked at Bird Haven? LP: Was a close with what? KK: Were you close with or friends with the other people who worked at Bird Haven? LP: Friendly. KK: Friendly? LP: Yeah I was friendly with them yeah *laughs*. I knew about all of them, well I knew them after I got there *laughs*. I didn’t know some of them before I ever went there though I knew them after I got there *laughs*. KK: Did you LP: Yeah? KK: What were you going to say? �LP: I don’t know *laughs* VP: *laughs* LP: I’m waiting for you. KK: *laughs* What was your favorite part about working there? LP: My favorite part? Going home I guess *laughs* VP: *laughs* LP: I don’t know, I just like to work with wood, that’s all. Make things, nice. I liked being with my co-workers and all. VP: Girls I think you got his whole life’s history *laughs* LP: What do you go to ask up there young lady? All: *laughs* Emily Schmitt (ES): This is all Kati’s interview KK: Well are there more stories that you have about Bird Haven? Did anything funny ever happen there? LP: Oh, I don’t know, not that I know of really. I can’t think of. VP: The Clarks, when they owned it, I think they had some wild parties out there. *laughs* But none of those boys were ever invited. LP: Yeah the Clarks that owned it, they, I guess they did, I don’t know I didn’t get to any of them, the parties. They had parties but they didn’t bother us at all, so Bernie Clark owned it but he stayed, there was a little creek that went through there and he stayed on his house. He would take his wife and they would go over to Harrisonburg about once a week and get their things that they needed and somethings they didn’t need *laughs*. But they had good times, I understand they had good times. Like I say I wasn’t to any of them parties. KK: Who decided what you guys made there? Who came up with the designs for the pieces that you guys made? LP: My boss, Stuart Barb and his son, still lives, his son he’s is younger, he still lives back around Basye. He’s got a house back there, but he didn’t work there though. Course I knew him from the time he was a little bitty baby. But he after he grew up he went when he got out of school and everything he has a sister and another brother, as far as I know, but I don’t know �where they living. Him and his brothers is truck drivers, they hauled, I don’t know – sirens going off over here. KK: Did you, like the people who all worked there, did you guys ever get together? LP: No, we was together enough through the day *laughs* we never got together after that. KK: Have you, after Bird Haven closed, did you ever see them? LP: Yeah, I see them every now and then, but not very often. VP: Like I said they are dead. LP: Yeah, I see Harold Barb, I’d see him every now and then, and the others. But, we just didn’t get together after that too much. They would do their thing and I did mine *laughs* *phone rings* LP: There goes the telephone. VP: Oh, gosh. Lynchburg, I’m not going to answer it LP: Well cut it off. KK: That’s okay. VP: We keep getting prank calls. LP: We get scam calls, calls from scammers. VP: Wait, because it will go on the answering machine and if they don’t leave anything. KK: Anything else you want to say about Bird Haven? LP: No, not that I know of, except that I got to go, I want to go back to Bird Haven before long and meet the man that owns it now. See what else he got back there yet. I’d like to go. It would have been a good time in February if I just did it because the weather was real nice all through February. Not too bad put there now though. But somethings just happened that I didn’t get to go, that’s all. KK: What do you hope to see when you go back there? LP: See what, how things look *laughs* but I understand that the trees, a lot of the trees is cut down. Not much trees there anymore, it was woods and it was an old dirt road that went down around turns to go in and out. I don’t know what the road is now. Like I said I don’t know what �kind of buildings is there anymore. He invited me back but I just haven’t got there, course I don’t think he’s there all the time. VP: He travels. LP: He’s got a job that he travels he says. I got his telephone number though and he’s got mine. VP: I think he must be some kind of salesman, figuring something like that. LP: I don’t know what he looks like, he don’t know what I look like *laughs*. KK: Do you know what happened to all of the equipment and stuff after you guys left? LP: No, I don’t know, I think somebody else owned it before this man did. I heard that the, bought it after it closed, that he had another shop somewhere else in the county, he was going to take the things, the planers and saws and equipment somewhere else, but I don’t know what he left there. I don’t know what he did or what he didn’t. But, I know they left that there glue wheel there because it would have been hard to handle, to take. Unless they tore it all apart, they could have tore it apart, they’d be unable to handle it I think. Sorry I can’t help you any better. KK: No, you helped us so much. I didn’t know a lot about that stuff, so, that was great. LP: Well, I hope it goes alright with you. KK: Oh, that will be great, it’s going to be a really good, really good source of information for our class. LP: Well it was really nice to see you girls too, talking with you, and you can come back to see us anytime. KK: Oh, yeah, I would love to hear about how your trip to Bird Haven goes, you will have to let me know when you guys go. VP: We’ll tell you what we see down there. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kati Kissane Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Leory Polk Location The location of the interview Edinburg Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 1:13:44 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Leroy Polk Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Polk, Leroy Basye (Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Leroy Polk of Edinburg Virginia recorded by Kati Kissane of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a video interview, podcast highlighting the interview, and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kati Kissane Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g6qWLi8ix10" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 20, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MOV File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-011 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/007b947c6d78cc648476edccc81b4433.pdf e983af6416e4d206162910b70d7a3145 PDF Text Text Nathaniel Mayo Transcript Nathaniel Mayo: My name is Nathaniel Mayo. I am here with Robert Moomaw. He was a resident of Bird Haven, Virginia and I am here to interview him about his time there. How are you doing today sir? Robert Moomaw: Okay Nathaniel Mayo: Alright my first question is, how did you come to live in Bird Haven? Were you born there or did you like move? Robert Moomaw: Well first of all, I didn’t live in Bird Haven. I was born and raised in Orkney Springs, which is about 5 miles from Bird Haven. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay how did you come to work in Bird Haven then? Robert Moomaw: Well I’m not sure whether it was through my sister in law, the manager there or it could have been through my uncle who was the mail carrier and he delivered mail there every day. Nathaniel Mayo: Oh okay. Did your sister in law live in Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: No she didn’t. She lived in Orkney Springs also. Nathaniel Mayo: Oh okay. Since you didn’t live there, I’m sure you knew people that did. How close were you to these people? Were you friends were you colleagues? Robert Moomaw: I was class mates with some of the Barbs that lived there. I knew, before I started to work there, I knew a few of them. Nathaniel Mayo: Are they the ones that like convinced you to work there, in Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: No not really. �Nathaniel Mayo: Now that we’ve established that you didn’t actually live there and that you came there to work, what did you actually do while you were there? What was your profession? Robert Moomaw: Well I was 17 years old and very engrained in this sort of work. I started out working with Harold Barb and we would… one of our jobs was put lumber in and out of the kiln to dry it and the other one was planing this lumber to get it ready for the buildings and things it was building. Nathaniel Mayo: What did you build? What was built with this lumber? Did you actually do any of that building or…? Robert Moomaw: Yeah I helped build some of it. I didn’t do any of the actual assembly, but there was a lot of hand-work, sanding and that sort of thing. They made cobbler benches, which was a really nice coffee table is what it was. And the made magazine cradles and whatnot shelves for the corners. They made a lot of bowls, I never actually worked with on the bowls but they made a lot of them. And they made spoons and fork sets. And some other things that I don’t really remember. Nathaniel Mayo: Did you actually ever get to use any of your products or did you just provide them for other people? Robert Moomaw: What was that again? Nathaniel Mayo: Did you actually get to use any of the products that you helped make or facilitated making or did you just make them for others? Robert Moomaw: I do have a few of the things here. Nathaniel Mayo: What do you have? If you don’t mind. �Robert Moomaw: I have one of the magazine cradles. I have a load of forks. My daughter has a shelf that fits in the corner of the room? Nathaniel Mayo: Did you like being a woodworker or is there anything that you wished you had learned or done instead? Robert Moomaw: You say did I like working with them? Nathaniel Mayo: Yeah, like did you like being a woodworker Robert Moomaw: Yes, yes. I enjoyed my time there. It was work, nobody was pushing you, you worked at your own pace or your partner’s pace, and that was it. Nathaniel Mayo: Is there any other profession that you wish you would have gone into instead or are you happy with what you did? Robert Moomaw: Well you have to understand that I was only there 13 months and after that I moved to Ohio. I had various jobs here. I worked in several factories and I worked for a large supply business and actually ended up retiring from that. I was a manager. Nathaniel Mayo: Have you lived in Ohio, since you lived in Bird Haven Robert Moomaw: Yes I have. Nathaniel Mayo: Did you prefer to live here in Virginia or is it better up there in Ohio, just curious? Robert Moomaw: Well it seems like there was a better opportunity in Ohio at that time. Actually I think it has been for me. In the meantime in the 60-something years I’ve been here, I’ve acquired a 200-acre farm and I think its worked out pretty well for me. Nathaniel Mayo: What have you done since you left? What have you worked on or where have you worked in Ohio? �Robert Moomaw: I worked... I started out the first job in a rubber plant, making rubber gloves. I worked there for 6 years. And then I moved on to a job on a farm. Nathaniel Mayo: What was… now going back to Bird Haven… you said that when you were working it was at your own pace? Nobody was pushing you. That it was from what I can tell, good working conditions. Robert Moomaw: Good working conditions? Nathaniel Mayo: I’m sorry? Robert Moomaw: You say good working conditions? Nathaniel Mayo: From what I could tell they were… nobody was pushing you making you do anything you [don’t] want. Is that the case? Is there anything you did while you were working that didn’t feel necessarily safe or that you didn’t want to do? Robert Moomaw: No I felt safe all the time, there was no problem with that at all. And I got along with all the other people I was working with. I had no problems with it. Nathaniel Mayo: What other workshops were there? Were there metal-working? Robert Moomaw: No I don’t think so. As I remember, there was a fairly large building which had a large planer in it. Nathaniel Mayo: A large what? Robert Moomaw: Planer, where you plane the lumber to get it ready. There was also a room in there where some older gentlemen who did a lot of hand-sanding. They sat there with an apron on and a piece of sandpaper and just sanding away. And there was a large drumsander in there in a different room. They had some band saws and I don’t remember exactly all… There was a potbelly stove which kept us warm in the winter. �Nathaniel Mayo: Would it be safe for me to say that the industry of Bird Haven was wood products or lumber? Things like that? Robert Moomaw: Everything we worked on while I was there was… yes maple lumber. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. Were any of the working conditions in the other buildings other workshops? Were they different than yours? Did they get worked harder not as happy things like that? Robert Moomaw: I can’t really say. There was a paint shop with mostly women, or maybe all women that worked in that. I really can’t say what the conditions were, but I don’t recall anyone leaving while I was there, so it must not have been too bad. Nathaniel Mayo: So, I’ve done a little bit of reading about Bird Haven and from what I could tell there was a more community feel in this area. Did you get a chance to experience that? Robert Moomaw: What was that again? Nathaniel Mayo: I’ve done a little bit of reading on Bird Haven… Robert Moomaw: Okay. Nathaniel Mayo: And from what I could tell, the workshops, the people, including you based on generalization, which is bad, it was more of a community based work environment. Robert Moomaw: Yeah I would say that. Nathaniel Mayo: How would that… How did that present itself? Robert Moomaw: Well I’m not sure I know exactly what you mean but… Nathaniel Mayo: Like how could you tell that it was a community-based work environment? Robert Moomaw: Well it was a small place. There was 12-15 people working there at that time, and they all got along well, a lot of them were related. There were a lot of Barbs there? �Nathaniel Mayo: Do you think that the family connections helped to make it more of a community, more of a like…? Robert Moomaw: Well that I don’t know. The people that owned it, I wouldn’t say it was very closely, I don’t think that I saw more than one or two times in the 13 months I was there. There was another younger man that… I guess you could was all of our boss, but he didn’t come around often. Nathaniel Mayo: Was he just the manager, I guess? Robert Moomaw: I guess you could call him that. Nathaniel Mayo: How do you... If there was… actually no not that question. Do you think that since there was a tight or kind of tight community in Bird Haven while you were there, that other workers would help you if you needed it? If you asked, things like that, in any sense of the word? Robert Moomaw: Yeah, I get that feeling. There was cooperation. Nathaniel Mayo: I’m sorry? Robert Moomaw: There was cooperation, between the workers. Nathaniel Mayo: What is an example of that? What happened? Robert Moomaw: Well… oh I don’t know… if you needed a couple hours off once in a while, there was no problem for someone covering for you. I guess other than that I don’t have an example right now. Nathaniel Mayo: While you were in Bird Haven, were you able to establish any sort of relationship with anybody there? Like romantic, friendship, things like that? Robert Moomaw: No. Nathaniel Mayo: No? Were you just a worker? �Robert Moomaw: I was just a worker. Nathaniel Mayo: Do you have any good memories of Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: Do I have any what? Nathaniel Mayo: Do you have any good memories of working there? Robert Moomaw: Oh yeah, I have good memories. Nathaniel Mayo: Like, give me a few while you were actually working. Robert Moomaw: Well we had fun, there was some horseplay. We usually ate our lunch together and talked and joked and get the news together if there was any. Nathaniel Mayo: Is there anyone in particular that you feel like you were closer to that you worked with? Robert Moomaw: Uhh… not really I guess. I got along well with everybody. Nathaniel Mayo: That’s always good. If you don’t mind me asking do you have any bad memories of Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: Do I have any what? Nathaniel Mayo: Any bad memories of Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: Bad? Nathaniel Mayo: Yeah, bad. Robert Moomaw: Oh, I don’t think so. Nathaniel Mayo: Alright. From some of my reading, I was able to see that a lot of outside interest, like a lot of outside parties, took interest in the work that you did there and the products that you guys made. Were you able to experience any of that? People coming in and… people coming in from outside the community and wanting to buy your products? �Robert Moomaw: Well I think that was going on but I wasn’t involved. Nathaniel Mayo: You weren’t the person in charge of…? Robert Moomaw: No I wasn’t part of it. I didn’t sell anything or anything like that. Nathaniel Mayo: Like, you just made the stuff? Robert Moomaw: I helped to make it yes Nathaniel Mayo: While you were making… while you were actually working, is there any event or any particular day or thing that happened that really sticks with you that you’ve carried with you ever since? Robert Moomaw: No I don’t think so. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. What was the political ideology of the people of Bird Haven? Did you ever get a chance to experience, learn any of that thing, or any of that stuff? Robert Moomaw: No I don’t think it was ever… we never talked about it from what I saw. Nathaniel Mayo: Do you mind if I ask you what your political ideology was at that time? Robert Moomaw: Well I was 17 years old, politics wasn’t really at the top of my list. I was more into fishing and hunting, and playing baseball. But my folks were Democrats all their life, and I haven’t said I’ve voted straight Democratic party, but I have voted along that lines for a while. Nathaniel Mayo: Do you think that being a Democrat may have influenced anything you may have done while you were there? Robert Moomaw: No. Nathaniel Mayo: No, okay. Is there…? That’s my entire list of general questions. Now I am probably just going to start winging it. Is there anything in particular that you would like to let this museum know or let me know pertaining to your experience in Bird Haven? �Robert Moomaw: Well the only thing I can say, at least this is the way it seems to me, is we made quality products. I mean it wasn’t something that was just slapped together. It was made out of good heart, good wood, made to look nice. Nathaniel Mayo: I’m assuming then that you prefer high quality stuff, higher quality goods, than higher quantity? Robert Moomaw: Well yeah, I prefer American Made. Nathaniel Mayo: Alright yeah, I get that. But has that higher quality ideology stuck with you since this and do you think that this belief also pertains to the other people that worked with you? Robert Moomaw: Well I think so. Well I guess I can’t say on that. I was only there 13 months and I didn’t know a few of them before. I really can’t say on that. Nathaniel Mayo: Alright. Are there any – this may seem like a similar question to the one I just asked so if it is just let me know – are there any of your own experiences while you were there that you really want me to know? Like a specific day or a specific product that you made that really stuck out or wished you had kept? Robert Moomaw: Well the cobber benches were definitely their biggest and nicest product. I never owned one and I don’t even have a clue what they cost and Im sure it wasn’t cheap. Nathaniel Mayo: Do you wish that you would have gotten one of these benches then? Robert Moomaw: Did you say I would have? Nathaniel Mayo: Do you wish you would have? Robert Moomaw: Well I guess I haven’t thought about that but it would be nice to have one I guess. �Nathaniel Mayo: Could you go through the process of making on of these from start to finish, if you can recall? Robert Moomaw: Well I can kind of try. The tabletop I think was approximately 2 inches think and maybe I’m going to say maybe 20 inches to 2 feet wide. And we started out with, they had to plane the limber of course and then they’d have to be, glued together and put this lumber in… They had this big wheel type thing, looked like a small Ferris Wheel where you put this lumber in and put glue between it and clamp it tight and set it there overnight. And at least overnight, I don’t remember exactly how long. Then it had to be sanded and by that time you’d have the tabletop and that’s pretty much what I did, and then someone else took over and they had some more. Boxes like on top of it were where they put the supplies or tools and someone else did the turning of the legs and that was put together in another building. That’s about as much as I remember then. Nathaniel Mayo: So, you would say that this entire process is similar to, similar but not exactly like an assembly line? Everybody has a certain thing that they would do. Robert Moomaw: Yeah… but it was far from an assembly line. When we made those benches, we’d make… and I don’t remember what the number was… but we might make say 10 of them and get all that ready and we would all… Nathaniel Mayo: How long would it take you to make each of the various items? Would you know that? Robert Moomaw: No I wouldn’t know. Nathaniel Mayo: How long would you individually spend working on each item? Robert Moomaw: What was that? Nathaniel Mayo: How long would you individually spend working on a specific item or process? �Robert Moomaw: Well we had a… I wouldn’t say we had a deadline, but we had a certain amount of time to get so many ready. I don’t know what… It would probably take, from the time you started, it would probably take I want to say a week to get 10 of them ready. Nathaniel Mayo: Alright. And these are for the tabletops you said? Robert Moomaw: What’s that? Nathaniel Mayo: That’s how long… It would take a week for you to make 10 of these tabletops you said, right? Robert Moomaw: Yes but that’s an estimated guess, I really don’t remember. Nathaniel Mayo: What was your favorite product to make? Or if you don’t have one what was the community’s favorite product to make? Robert Moomaw: Well everyone worked on different things it seemed like. I know one guy, and I can’t remember his name, he worked on the spoons and fork sets. I think he fairly enjoyed that. He was there when I started and he was there when I left but I can’t tell you his name. Nathaniel Mayo: Are the… Based on what you know, did the other people that worked there did they tend to work there longer or were they there for a similar amount of time that you were? Robert Moomaw: I think longer. I’m sure of that. Nathaniel Mayo: Could you possibly be someone who worked there the shortest amount of time during that period? Robert Moomaw: Say that again. Nathaniel Mayo: Here, I’ll rephrase it. Were there other people that worked there worked there over a shorter period of time than you did? Less than 13 months? �Robert Moomaw: Not that I know of. I don’t remember anyone quitting while I was there. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. And when you left was it… okay were you fired or did you quit or did you decide that you wanted better opportunities up in Ohio. Robert Moomaw: Oh I quit. I wasn’t fired. I… I quit, I gave them my two weeks’ notice or whatever it was and I left there on good terms with everybody as far as I know. Nathaniel Mayo: Is there any specific reason that you quit or is it because there were better opportunities elsewhere? Robert Moomaw: Better opportunities I thought. Nathaniel Mayo: And did most people that worked there understand why you left? Robert Moomaw: What was that again please? Nathaniel Mayo: Did most people there understand why you left? Robert Moomaw: Oh yeah, I think so. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. I have got nothing else. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about? Is there anything else you would like me to know? Robert Moomaw: Well I don’t think so. That’s about everything… I didn’t tell you what the pay scale was. Nathaniel Mayo: Oh yeah, that just seemed like a rude question. What was the economic status of you and the other workers? How much was pay? How much was living things like that? Robert Moomaw: I was paid $0.55 an hour and my… the guy I worked with, I guess he would be called a lead-man and he got $0.60. And then there was two others who, one that worked on the… they did more… I can’t think what the word is. Did more precise things like go �work another lane and they got $0.65 at that time. And we worked 10 hour days, we started at 7:00 and ended at 5:30. Nathaniel Mayo: Was the $0.55 and hour enough to live on? Robert Moomaw: Well I guess it must have been. Nathaniel Mayo: Was it comfortable living or were you living paycheck-to-paycheck? Robert Moomaw: Well yeah, pretty much. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. And how easy was it for you to get like a raise or an advance in the company? Robert Moomaw: I really don’t know that. Nothing changed for me while I was there. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. Did a lot of other people get raises or promotions or whatever? Robert Moomaw: I don’t think so. That $0.55, $0.60, and $0.65 was prevailing rate while I was there. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. Were… Were there standard I guess gender assignments while you were there? Like women did one project while men did a different project? Robert Moomaw: Yes. Women worked in the paint shop. I think they also did some of … some of the assembly work. Nathaniel Mayo: Some of the what work? Robert Moomaw: Assembly… putting things together. Nathaniel Mayo: And what was different that the men did? Robert Moomaw: Well the men did the… men did… anything that took any sawing and cutting out. Things like that. Men did all that. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. �Robert Moomaw: I think the women worked in ways, they shipped things out by mail I’m sure. And the women did the packaging on that. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay, so the women were the more administrative side of the community? Robert Moomaw: Well, I don’t think they were administrative. They did the packaging. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay and is there any… was there any change in that ever? Or was it always like that, in your experience? Robert Moomaw: I think it was always like that? Nathaniel Mayo: Okay and it never changed while you were there? Robert Moomaw: Not that I know of. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay what was the age difference between the workers there? Were they your age or…? Robert Moomaw: Oh wide, wide, range. There was men there that… it was in their 60s, it could’ve been a couple in their 70s. That would have been in 1950. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. Robert Moomaw: I can tell you this much. Some of them had children older than I was. Nathaniel Mayo: Oh okay. Robert Moomaw: So they would’ve been fairly old. Nathaniel Mayo: Did the age ever affect the work? Did the more elderly people tend to do one job and the younger tended to do the others? Robert Moomaw: Yes, yes that’s true. Nathaniel Mayo: What would the more elderly people do? Robert Moomaw: Well an awful lot of, two of them I’m thinking of particularly, they did a lot of hand-sanding, with a little piece of sandpaper and just sat there and smooth that stuff up. �Nathaniel Mayo: And were younger people… did they work more with the saws and the more dangerous equipment maybe? Robert Moomaw: Yeah I suppose. The equipment wasn’t real modern. I mean it wasn’t… we wouldn’t pass inspection today for safety. Nathaniel Mayo: Was it modern for the time or not? Robert Moomaw: Oh it may have been, some of it yes. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. And was there ever any instance while you were there that somebody got hurt, using a saw or sanding or…? Robert Moomaw: Nothing that I can remember. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay so it was fairly safe. It sounds like you enjoyed your time there. Robert Moomaw: Oh I enjoyed it. I didn’t know any better it was my first full-time job. Before that I worked at the Orkney Springs hotel, a dishwasher, a ten-setter in the bowling alley, a caddy on the golf course. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay, was it a good first full-time job? Robert Moomaw: Yeah I think so. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay. Did you wish that you had actually lived in Bird Haven, or was where you lived better? Robert Moomaw: Well Orkney Springs was near and dear to me. My grandparents and parents grew up right there in Orkney Springs. It was dear. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay and was there anyone else that you worked with that lived near you, or did they all live in Bird Haven? �Robert Moomaw: No some of them lived in Bird Haven, some lived in Bayse which is right there close. And some lived farther away, between Bayse and Mount Jackson. I think the farthest anyone lived was I would say, 7 or 8 miles. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay and I’m assuming it was easy to get there? Did you have a car then? Robert Moomaw: Yeah I had a car. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay and my last question is do you have any idea why it’s called Bird Haven? Robert Moomaw: You know I don’t have a clue, I really don’t. There was one time before I worked there, they made a lot of ornaments. And a lot of them would be, now I’m talking about yard ornaments, a lot of them was birds. They’d have them be birds, and have them all painted up nice and all. They’ll have them on a stick and stick them around the yard. But that was before I got there. The reason I know that they did it… well there was a boy, I guess it was Stuart Barb’s son who was in my class in school, and he would bring some of that stuff to school once and a while. But I don’t know if that had anything to do with being called Bird Haven. Nathaniel Mayo: Eh it could, I thought that maybe it was because they made bird houses or something. Robert Moomaw: Well, it’s a place that would be attractive to birds. I don’t recall seeing a lot of birds while I was there. Nathaniel Mayo: Do you have any idea what’s going on there now? Robert Moomaw: I have no clue. Nathaniel Mayo: Okay, well that is all the questions that I have got for you. Is there anything else you would like to add before we finish up this interview? Robert Moomaw: No I don’t think so. I think you have all I know or all that I remember. �Nathaniel Mayo: Alright well thank you for your time and you story. I appreciate it and I’m sure the museum will appreciate it, and again thank you. Robert Moomaw: Okay thank you. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Nathaniel Mayo Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Robert Moomaw Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 39:36 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert Moomaw Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Moomaw, Robert Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Robert Moomaw of Bloomville Ohio recorded by Nathaniel Mayo of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes a sound interview and downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nathaniel Mayo Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/adP58DrPths" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 7, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP4 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Recording Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-012 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Penelope Weinstein Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Richard Barnhart Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 38:56 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reid Barnhart Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Barnhart, Reid Bird Haven (Va) Basye (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Reid Barnhart Virginia recorded by Penelope Weinstein of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes an audio recording of the interview. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Penelope Weinstein Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Collection <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sj07YhBBo_E" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 2, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource MP3 File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Recording Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-013 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/737b299888aad84dfadfc8feb90cb48c.pdf 3373b6ee2871df165faa5fff61ed2bd0 PDF Text Text Oral History Transcript of Donald Moomaw By Tiernan O’Rourke D= Donald Moomaw T=Tiernan O’Rourke T: Thank you for joining me. I am interviewing… D: Donald Moomaw T: About Bird Haven D: Yes T: So how old were you when you first visited Bird Haven? D: Probably my middle teens; fifteen or sixteen. T: Why did you go down there? D: I probably went down there with my father to bring lumber to the big plainer. It’s the only one in the area. T: So you would bring the lumber to Bird Haven? D: Yes. T: And what did your father do? D: He was working in the woods and was director of the conference center here also. T: Was he a lumberjack of some sort? D: No, he just had a truck and hauled lumber for some folks. T: Oh alright. So you were around fifteen or sixteen, what did you like about Bird Haven? D: Well, it seemed to be a unique place. I did not see much that was going on. I had seen the things that they built, made like bowls, serving bowls and lazy Susans and things like that. T: So you were just interested in seeing how they put it together. D: Yes. T: Were you interested in carpentry at all growing up? D: Not a lot no. T: Just thought it was pretty cool? �D: Yes. T: So you started going with your father at about fifteen or sixteen, when did you start going by yourself? D: Probably sometime after sixteen because that’s when I had a driver’s license and I could get myself there. T: Would you go relatively often? D: No, average once a month maybe. T: Did you go more with your friends or by yourself? D: Usually by myself. T: And what kinds of things would you do there by yourself? D: Well I would basically walk around and look, and I worked in the flower garden for the owners of Bird Haven where they lived. I would pull weeds from the flower garden for them. T: Did they live on the compound? D: They lived on the compound yes. T: So what was it like to work for these people? D: It was fine, it was great. They treated me very well. T: So they were nice people. D: Oh yes, very nice people. T: Was it a very lavish house? D: No, I was never in it except on the porch or something or the kitchen. That’s as far as I was. T: Do you remember the names of the people? D: I think one of them, it was a son or step-son or something was John Gray Paul. And I can’t remember the gentleman’s name and his wife who owned it. I assume someone on the lines’ name was Paul. (soft chuckle) T: What was the stepson like? Was he nice? D: Yes, he was very nice. T: Was he around your age? D: No he was much older, probable twice as old as I was. T: Okay, so I guess you kind of had a job at Bird Haven. �D: I did, just working in the garden. Nothing to do with the woodworking part of it. T: Did you make any friends with some of the other people who might have worked there? D: Well I was friends with some of them. I knew some of them. T: Do you mind telling us about some of them? D: Well they were local people who were good at woodworking. That was their livelihood. And they were very good carpenters. Most of them. And the other folks were just, you know, they went there and learned their jobs and gave them a job and they learned how to do it and went along from there. T: So there were specialty workers and then regular workers. D: Yes. T: So I’m guessing you spent more time watching the specialty workers? D: Yes. T: (looking at table) So would you say that this lazy Susan right here that they hand carved the middle area? D: No I think they had tools to do that, called, like a lathe. They would put the wood in there and, I think they call it turning it with a sharp instrument and a sharp instrument would do those things for them if they held it in the right place. It would do those things for them. T: But someone had to make all those designs and stuff. D: Yes, exactly. T: That’s really cool. Were you even interested in doing that yourself or did you just like to watch? D: No, I was not interested in that. I knew I couldn’t do it then so. T: Were they older people doing this or were they around your age? D: They were older people, older folks. T: Did you ever see any children or people around your age at Bird Haven as well? D: Well now and then there would be someone there but I don’t recall who they were or what they were doing. I knew them most of the time, they were neighborhood people. T: Were they also neighborhood people going there for fun, just to check it out? D: I think they probably were children of parents who worked there. �T: And they were just there with their parents? D: Yes. T: So with this job that you had, did that cause you to go to Bird Haven more or did you just go for this job? D: I think I just went for that job basically in the summertime. Not much in the winter time. T: So just once a month to pick weeds? D: Probably more often than that. I can’t quite recall but I think it was more often than that. T: So you would go sometimes for the job and sometimes just for fun? D: Yes. T: So you grew up in this town around here is that correct? D: Yes. T: What were some things that you would do for fun around here? D: Well there wasn’t a lot to do. When I was growing up, all the kids were boys so we played baseball a lot, football, things like that. That’s about all. Hiked in the woods, played in the woods, things like that. T: That’s cool. So did any of your friends ever come with you to Bird Haven? D: I don’t recall that they did, no. T: Were there any other places like Bird Haven that you would also visit? D: No, there was nothing else in the vicinity like that. T: So the very first went to Bird Haven with your father, what was your first impression of this place? D: It was a pretty neat place. I thought a lot of people worked there it seemed to me. I have no idea the number. T: Did you ever think that you would work there at all? D: No because I was too young at the time. By the time I was old enough it was closed down. T: Did you have family that worked there at all? D: An uncle, that’s all. T: And what did your uncle do? D: I think he sanded a lot of the products when they were through. �T: So would you say he was more of the artisan type or more of a worker? D: I would say just a worker. T: Do you remember what he thought of Bird Haven? D: Well, basically I think he thought of it just as a job, which was hard to come by close to home then. And that it, he just thought of it as a job. T: Okay that’s fair enough. So what did your parents think about Bird Haven? D: Well they thought it was great for the community. It let the folks in the community work. T: So Bird Haven kind of created a bunch of home decor types of things. D: Yes, they created salad bowls and bigger serving bowls. All wood about that shade (looking at Lazy Susan). I think they were made of maple. They were all about decorating the home and make things to serve food out of and eat out of. T: So did people around this town really rely on Bird Haven for these things? Did they buy a lot of the goods that Bird Haven sold? D: I think they did, yes. And they had a shop where you could buy. T: On the compound? D: Yes. T: Did you ever go into that shop? D: I probably did but I don’t recall anything about it. T: So they made a lot of bowls and tools around there, was your father suppling a lot of the lumber that they used for these products? D: No, when he went down there with lumber, it was for his own use or for a neighbor who wanted something done and he would just haul it down there for them. T: So when you say for his own use or for his neighbor, he wouldn’t sell the lumber to Bird Haven he would just use the machines that they had? D: Yes, I assume they charged for it, I don’t really know. T: So what kinds of things would your father make with the wood? D: It was basically for construction, building construction. I don’t know that he made anything else. Basically just for the building. T: So I guess he would just be getting a full tree trunk into… �D: Lumber, yes. Like weather boarding for the side of a house. Things like that. T: Was the wood maple also that he would use? D: No probably it was oak or pine. T: That grows a lot around here? D: Right. T: So did you ever get into any trouble at Bird Haven? D: No, I don’t recall that I did. T: That’s good. Not even with the family? D: Right. T: So the family that you worked for liked you? D: Yes, that’s correct. T: So what would you say was maybe your favorite memory of Bird Haven? D: I don’t know, I guess just being there and um, when I went there for work, just to have something to do. To make a little money. T: Did they pay well? D: I guess they paid the going rate of that time. T: So did you ever get to go inside any of the factories at Bird Haven? D: No I don’t recall that I did. T: So how would you view inside them? D: There were windows or an open door or something like that. T: And you would just stand there and watch? D: Yup I would just stand there and watch. T: And nobody minded? D: Nope, no one seemed to mind. T: Did anyone ever come up to you and ask you what you were doing there at all? D: Nope, they didn’t. T: Would you say it was busy there? Like were there people moving around a lot or was it just kind of people doing their jobs. D: No just a lot of people doing their jobs. �T: So could you maybe tell me what Bird Haven kind of looked like? Could you describe what you saw there? D: Well, there was a large, long buildings divided into rooms where they did different jobs. One of them was a post office and one of them was where they put them together and one had the tools in it to make them in the shape they wanted and one was where they stained them and put the finish on them and I guess one of them was where they packed them off and mailed them off to the folks who had ordered them. T: So it was just one building? D: I remember it being one long building being divided into separate spaces. T: Okay. So I heard there was a toy building at Bird Haven. Was it attached to the long one? D: I’m sure it was, but I don’t recall. I don’t know. T: Do you remember any other features that might have been at Bird Haven? D: No, I don’t recall. T: So how would you usually get to Bird Haven as a kid? D: Usually I would be riding with someone, and when I worked in the gardens usually they (the owners) would come pick me up and take me and bring me home. T: How far away was that drive would you say? D: I think it’s about two miles. Two and a half maybe. T: That was pretty nice of them to do that. D: Yes, it was. Sometimes I would ride my bicycle. T: Yah that’s not that far. D: Yes, that’s right, not too bad. T: Especially in the summer in the mountains. D: Yes, that’s correct. T: So you started dating your wife at the time is that correct? D: About then when we were in high school yes. T: Did you ever bring her down to Bird Haven? D: I don’t recall that I did. I don’t remember that. T: Where would you usually go with her to take her out somewhere? �D: I would usually go see a movie in Jackson or Woodstock. T: Oh like decently far away, like by driving? D: Yes, by driving. About fifteen or twenty miles away. T: So your father was involved in the lumber/ resort business. Did your mother have any jobs? D: No, she did not, she was a stay at home mom. T: So what did your father do at the resort? D: He was the director. T: Of the whole place? D: Yes, of the whole place. T: Wow, that’s a pretty big job. Did you ever help him out with the resort? D: I worked there until I got out of high school and went to work for the telephone company and then I became the director in 1988. T: Of the resort? D: Yes, I moved back home in 1973 and became the director in 1988. T: That is very cool. D: Yes, we enjoyed it. T: Did people from the resort know about Bird Haven? D: They probably did in the early days yah. But after it closed they didn’t know much about it. T: When Bird Haven did close, how did you feel about that? D: Well, I don’t believe I was here then. I believe I was out on my own, either in the military or working away from here. T: Did you ever stop by it after it shut down? D: I was there sometimes yes. T: So what would you say was your favorite memory of Bird Haven? D: Probably seeing the people do their different jobs. T: What was your favorite job to watch? D: I guess the people using the lathe. That intrigued me. T: Did you ever get into wood working after seeing these people? D: No, I didn’t. I got to play around with it a little in high school, that’s all. �T: So your uncle worked in Bird Haven too. How close would you say you were to your extended family around this time? D: How do you mean? T: Were you close with your uncle? D: Yes, I was. T: So he just looked at Bird Haven as a 9-5 job? D: Yes, I believe he went to work there right out of high school. I don’t know how long he worked there but he eventually moved away and worked somewhere else. T: Was it the same type of work? D: No I think it was a different type of work. T: So you never really thought about working there correct? D: Yes. T: Was there a reason for that? D: Well I wasn’t old enough and by the time I got out of high school then I left for the military and after that it was closed. T: So it wasn’t because of anything about Bird Haven it was just bad timing? D: Right, yes. T: So Bird Haven was “different” from other factories. D: I think so, yes. T: Did you notice anything that kind of seemed different from what you’ve seen either before or after? D: Well, there was a lot of hand work, it wasn’t really all that mechanized. T: That’s interesting, anything else? D: No I don’t think so. T: Did the people seem any different? D: No they were all basically local people who knew each other. They got along fine. T: So it was just like people from around this town? D: Yes, from the community. T: Was this one of the communities where everyone seems to know each other? �D: Yes. T: Even if you weren’t close, did you know anyone who worked there? D: Yes, I did. I knew a lot of people who worked there. T: Do you remember anyone in particular? D: Well there were a couple of men who seemed to be the supervisors who were really good woodworkers who knew how to do most anything with wood and they worked there most of their life I think. They were much older than I was. T: And they lived around here? D: Yes, well they lived in about a 10 or 12 mile radius. T: Did you ever talk to them? D: I knew them, I talked to them but not a lot. Just in passing or something. T: So besides giving people jobs, how else was Bird Haven important to the community? D: Well, I guess they thought a lot of it. It was a neat place to go and they let you walk up and down the road that was there and look in the buildings and see what was going on. They didn’t object to that. T: So people would go down to Bird Haven? D: I’m sure they would. Not regularly but they would drive down there and see what was going on. T: You included I guess. D: Yah, right. Me included. T: So learning about Bird Haven, we heard about some other people talk about some almost paranormal things about Bird Haven like the river that ran through it had like magical powers. Did you ever hear of something like that? D: No I didn’t hear about anything like that. T: Yah apparently some people thought that… D: Well most of the water in the wells down there was iron water and there were a lot of springs with different kinds of water with different minerals in them. A lot of folks felt that it was good for you. T: Iron water, is that safe to drink. �D: Oh yes…I think so. T: Is that where this area gets its water from? D: Yes, well it comes from springs around here. T: So besides Bird Haven, was there other places you would visit around here? D: Well, no not particularly. T: So when you came back to this town, did you notice any changes that occurred here after Bird Haven closed? D: No, after it closed I think a lot of folks had to get new jobs. Of course that means a little more travel for them. They would leave a little earlier and get home a little later. T: So people still lived here. D: Yes they did. T: Was there any major migrations of people out of this town? D: No there were not. T: So people still stayed here. D: Yes, people still stayed here and traveled to their occupation. T: So did you ever hear people say anything negative about Bird Haven? D: No I have not. T: What about some positive things in particular? D: Well, people thought what they were doing was worthwhile and as long as people were buying it they were doing something that was needed. T: So people you would say liked their job there? D: Yes. T: So we mentioned that there were craftsmen that worked there. What were some of the jobs that the non-craftsman workers would do? D: Well sanding and putting the finish on the finished product. I assume they packed them up to be mailed away and probably sawing them to the length or the shape they wanted them in. T: So the craftsmen would be the ones to put the whole thing together? D: Yes, yes I’m sure they had a pattern or something to go by so that…or maybe they made the same thing all the time I don’t know. �T: That makes sense. Did you ever check out the toy section? D: No I didn’t do that. T: Did you ever see any artists around or people drawing at Bird Haven? D: No I did not. T: So did the people ever recognize you at Bird Haven when you would go down there? D: Yes, I think some of them probably did. T: Would they say hi to you? D: Yes. T: So it was friendly. D: Yes, very friendly. T: Would they ever give you anything like a souvenir? D: No I don’t recall that I ever got anything from them. T: So about this supervisor family that you worked with, do you mind telling us a little bit more about them, if you remember? D: Well, what I remember was that they were local people and they were very good woodworkers. T: So did they ever do any of the crafting at Bird Haven? D: I’m sure they had a hand in it some way or another. How to put it together and how to make the parts work together and things like that. T: So they weren’t like the owners were they? D: No, no they were not T: So they were like managers watching over? D: Yes, that sounds right. T: Did you ever meet the owners of Bird Haven? D: I assume I did. The people who I worked in the gardens for they were the owners then. I don’t know if they were the original owners or not. But they were the owners then. T: The gardens? D: They owned the gardens and the factories. T: How big were the gardens at Bird Haven? �D: Probably 20x20 or 30x30. T: So was it like a house garden, or was it a place you could walk through. D: Just a big flower garden. They had all types of flowers. T: That’s pretty interesting. D: With paths you can walk through it. T: So it was like a factory but it had this nice scenic area. D: That the owners had yes. T: Could workers go into the flower garden at all? D: I don’t recall seeing any of them there, no. T: Were you the only one that was in charge of its upkeep? D: Well I wasn’t in charge of its upkeep I was just employed there. I was the only one there when I was there. I don’t know if anyone else worked there or not. T: But it was basically just you cleaning up the flowers. D: Yes, correct. T: How did you like that job? D: Well, at the time it was okay. I didn’t mind. I was young and you worked on anything. T: What kinds of flowers did they have? D: I haven’t the faintest idea. T: That’s understandable. So would your father, when he was doing lumber work, would he get the wood himself or would he buy it from people? D: He would usually get it from local folks. People who worked in the woods and saw mills to make the lumber and saw the lumber. He would usually get it from them. T: So was he into construction? D: Not really, it was mostly for repair of the buildings around where he worked. T: The resort correct? D: Yes. T: Could you maybe tell me a bit about the resort? D: Well, part of it was build right after the Civil War. The Shrine Mont, that part of the conference center was built in 1925, so both of them have been here for a long time. It was �always for warm weather, usually opening the first of April and close the end of October. And the springs were the drawing crowd, like we spoke about the water. There was a lot of springs around and they were supposed to be good for you so they had water around where you could drink it. It was supposed to help you. T: That’s pretty nice. So being a child there, what kinds of things would you do for fun around the resort? Or were you mostly helping your dad? D: I’d help my dad some. Well they had a golf course one time and I would caddy on the golf course for some of the folks. It was a pretty crude golf course but it was exercise. And they had a small bowling alley. I had to set the pins by hand. They didn’t have automatic pin setters. T: Was that your job? D: I did that now and then. T: That’s fun. So did you get paid for it or were you helping your dad? D: No I got paid for it. Actually, the bowling alley was contracted out. Somebody else ran that and I just worked for the folks who were managers there at the bowling alley. They paid me. T: That’s a nice addition to a resort, a bowling alley. D: Yes, it was. Of course they don’t have that anymore. T: Oh really? They got rid of it? D: Yes, a long time ago. T: That’s a shame. D: Yup. T: So did you ever have goods from Bird Haven in your own home? D: We have some. T: Growing up I mean. D: Oh yes we had some. Yes we did. T: I’m guessing bowls and other stuff. D: Yes. T: Did you ever have any of the toys? D: I don’t recall having any toys. T: I know they made puzzles there, did they make any other sorts of toys? �D: I think they probably, I don’t know if you could pull or push around or move. Just like the kinds that could sit on a shelf for decorations. That’s what I think they were. I don’t really recall but that’s what I think they were. T: That’s probably the easiest thing to make as a toy. So did you ever see any very young children running around Bird Haven? D: No, I don’t recall seeing any young children. T: Did you see any children at all? D: Not any young children. Maybe twelve or teenagers would be about all I see. T: Would you ever talk to them? D: Oh yes. From the community, we were friends. T: Did you ever hang out with them at Bird Haven? D: No we never hung out there, for one reason or another we would be there but we would never hang out as like a group. We just happened to be there at the same time. T: Would you ever ride your bike there with them or walk back together? Or would you just kind of pass them and say hi? D: Just kind of pass them and say hi. T: Okay. Would you ever hang out with them in this town? D: Oh yes, we were around all the time. We would do things. T: So you would maybe play a baseball game? D: Yes, like play baseball. T: Did you have a best friend growing up that you would spend a lot of time with? D: Probably one of them here that I would play baseball with all the time who was a little older than I was. He happened to be the closest neighbor at the time. We hung out together. T: Do you remember his name? D: His name was Richard Funkhouser. He’s deceased. T: Did he ever go to Bird Haven? D: I don’t recall seeing him there. T: So would you ever spend any days during the summer helping your mother out? D: Yah, we had a pretty large garden. I worked in the garden with her. �T: You’re a bit of an expert on that. D: Yes, yes. (chuckles) They thought I was but I really wasn’t. T: How did you end up getting the gardening job? D: I guess the folks down there probably knew my dad and knew that I was around here and wanted to know if I wanted to work a couple days a week or something like that. T: And you enjoyed the job correct? D: Yes, yes I did. T: What other sorts of jobs that you had at this time? I know you worked in the bowling alley and the gardens. D: That was about it. And I would mow lawns for folks around here. Usually not for pay just for something to do to keep me out of trouble I guess. It gave me something to do. T: That’s nice. That’s very good of you to do. D: Yes, thank you. T: So you’re a teenager with a bit of money. What would you buy with this? Did you save it up for something big, or did you just kind of… D: I just kind of spent it on things that I wanted. T: Do you remember any of them? Like any fun purchases that you made? D: No I don’t recall any right now. I wasn’t saving for anything like an automobile or anything like that. Probably saving to buy a bicycle. And to buy baseball gloves and bats and those things. That’s all. T: That’s fun. Those are good summer toys. Did any of your friends have jobs as well? D: Yah they worked at the resort doing different jobs. Some of them I think were dishwashers and busboys and probably working on the golf course too. T: So what did you enjoy more, the bowling alley job or the gardening job? D: Probably the gardening job because I got to work outside. T: How are the summers here? Does it get too hot? D: No, not for a very long time. It might just be two or three really hot days and then it cools off. T: Because were in the mountains I would think it would be pretty chill D: Yes the mountains definitely helped. �T: So during the winter, it’s harder to go outside and do these things. What were some of the other fun things to do around here during the winter? D: Just go sledding when it snowed around. As you can see there are a lot of hills around so it wasn’t very hard to find a place to slide. T: That’s a lot of fun. So people still worked at Bird Haven during the winter time I’m guessing. D: Yes. T: Would you ever go down during then? D: I don’t recall being down there in the winter time. T: When was about the last time you went to Bird Haven? D: I don’t know. I was down there a couple years ago. There was nothing going on. For some reason I just drove down there to see what was going on to see what was there and what was still left. T: What did you see that was different? D: The buildings were in a pretty bad state of repair at the time. But I haven’t been there in a number of years. T: Did it bring back any memories? D: I remember walking though the buildings, or walking by them and looking in to see what was there. T: Were they happy memories? D: Yes, yes they were. T: So I guess I just have one final question. So if you could describe Bird Haven in one word, what word do you think that would be? D: (Taking a moment to think) Unique I think. I never saw any other place like it. T: And what do you think made it unique? D: Well the folks doing the work by hand. At that time there was not a lot of machinery around I guess. But they had machinery like lathes and saws that the average person didn’t have. And it was just a unique place to go and walk up and down the street and look in the buildings. T: That’s really cool, that’s very interesting. Well thank you for doing this interview with me. D: Yes sir. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bird Haven Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Bird Haven (Va) Shenandoah Community Workers Description An account of the resource Sometime in the early 1920s Philadelphia banker and philanthropist William Bernard Clark founded the Shenandoah Community Workers organization near what is now Basye Virginia. This group was designed to provide locals, many of which were economically disadvantaged, with good paying jobs based on their wood working traditions. Clark built a factory on property his grandmother had purchased as a personal retreat and named it Bird Haven Virginia. Initially the community workers focused on wooden toys and puzzles. Many of these featured birds, Hollywood Stars, or animals. Later the company began to produce small wooden furniture, bowls, and kitchen utensils. Bird Haven closed sometime in the early 1960s. Following this, most of the records were lost and much of the site's history was forgotten. This oral history project, conducted as part of a partnership between the Shenandoah County Library, James Madison University, and Bird Haven Farm, is designed to recover some of lost parts of the site's story. It focuses on interviews of 14 members of the Bird Haven community, including several employees and individuals who lived nearby. All interviews and transcriptions were conducted by JMU history students and are available for viewing in person at the Shenandoah County Library's Truban Archives. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Library James Madison University Bird Haven Farm Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral History Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Tiernan O'Rourke Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Donald Moomaw Location The location of the interview Orkney Springs Virginia Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 41:05 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Donald Moomaw Oral History Subject The topic of the resource Moomaw, Donald Basye (Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Oral history featuring Donald Moomaw of Orkney Springs Virginia recorded by Tiernan O'Rourke of James Madison University. The interview was conducted as part of a project designed to better understand the history of Bird Haven Virginia, the Shenandoah Community Workers, and the surrounding communities. The entry includes an audio recording of the interview and a downloadable transcript (under files). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tiernan O'Rourke Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Voices Oral History Project <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h2RWPPadilA" frameborder="0"></iframe> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 10, 2017 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource WAV File Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Recording Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2017-014 Basye Bird Haven Oral History Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/b5ff55f95b790313e37056595ce1b696.jpg 9eaf196b9a250066e2d8fd2318fb5484 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah Community Workers Logo Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah Community Workers (Bird Haven Va) Bird Haven (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of the Shenandoah Community Workers Logo. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Shenandoah Room Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Bird Haven Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/2f1184eadf3b48acdee04eef82438fe5.jpg 7b01664d6ee77f26841d37b4f8e82478 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 4-H Youth in Action Subject The topic of the resource 4-H clubs Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of a photograph showing a 4-H exhibit at the 1993 Shenandoah County Fair. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1993 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by the Guy Wetzel Family. 4-H Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/ea2dbad89f0156bc228a44101748839c.jpg d962e106b7fa4c5083665c7543996f82 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Board of Directors Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Undated photograph showing the Shenandoah County Fair's Board of Directors. Identified individuals are: -Second row, second from right: Guy Wetzel. -Second row, far right: James Allen Hepner -Back row, second from right: Bryan Allen Hepner Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource undated Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by the Guy Wetzel Family. Identifications by Erica Hepner and Zachary Hottel. Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/8732a64bc9905a9b57e686432051860b.jpg dbb473227db7075b3475676001854705 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1957 Premium Book Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of the cover of the 1957 Shenandoah County Fair Premium Book. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Fair Association Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by the Guy Wetzel Family. Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/f37f00978b5748572f6fad2b34ad4e6f.jpg 0f65208be4da6258fa47f72f76a356dd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Digital Image Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Prize Winning Bull Subject The topic of the resource Cook, Mike Fleming, Joe Dyke, Henry Shenandoah County (Va) Woodstock (Va) Fairs-Virginia-Shenandoah County Livestock-Virginia-Shenandoah County Description An account of the resource Photograph showing from left Joe Fleming, Henry Dyke, and Mike Cook with Cook's prize winning bull at the 1982 Shenandoah County Fair. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by the Henry Dyke. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Animals Cattle Cook Dyke Fair Fairs Fleming Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/13c73177f7729ca206cfaf871d578f30.jpg 27ebc0661b729240e995ba82b36800a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1917 Shenandoah County Fair Association Premium Book Subject The topic of the resource Hoshour, Samuel Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of the cover of the First Annual Exhibition Premium Book from the 1917 Shenandoah County Fair. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Fair Association Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1917 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by J. Wilson Ryman. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Fair Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/c464f183aec441d8c2c514252ca9f602.jpg bb573b0e3648632964f244badd42be43 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Digital Image Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1933 Fair Feather Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County (Va) Fairs-Virginia-Shenandoah County Description An account of the resource Scan of a stamped feather advertising the Shenandoah County Fair in 1933. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Fair Association Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1933 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by J. Wilson Ryman. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Fair Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/706dda936180b54abadae3c728f60214.png 75935c8b1cf835684e42a22a9c091d16 https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/a185590cb694eb7958b01ce1e5a341d9.png 4b5f65e7dc76024f5d222d97235b3d1c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jane Senseney Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Senseney, Jane Description An account of the resource Photographs of Jane Senseney, 1963 Shenandoah County Fair Queen. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1963 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by Jane Senseney. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Fair Fairs Queen Senseney Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/bc53d2bbf9347fddfc16182d54a0c856.jpg bfd6b6e533cfa043459a55680f526f58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shenandoah County Fair Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource A collection of digital images related to the history of the Shenandoah County Fair. It includes photographs of fair events, exhibitors, and agricultural displays. The items were scanned by the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper for use in the book "100 Years of the Shenandoah County Fair." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Virginia Daily Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1887-2015 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Language A language of the resource English Physical Object An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. Note that digital representations of, or surrogates for, these objects should use Moving Image, Still Image, Text or one of the other types. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1935 Premium List Subject The topic of the resource Shenandoah County Fair (Va) Description An account of the resource Scan of the cover of the 1935 Shenandoah County Fair Premium List Book. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shenandoah County Fair Association Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Northern Virginia Daily- Shenandoah County Fair Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1935 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Physical objects donated for scanning by Jason Bushong. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Fair Fairs Shenandoah County Virginia Woodstock https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/387730a0f3e0b87598b3fcfb463d140f.jpg 8791bfb6809d5bf411bc65b3cbeac65d Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 8x10" Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gulf Station Subject The topic of the resource New Market (Va) Parrot, George Description An account of the resource This photograph shows what was the Gulf Gasoline Station in New Market Virginia. Taken by Mt. Jackson photographer Hoyle Garber, the photograph was most likely used to market the service station when it opened in the late 1940s. Pictured are two unidentified station attendants and Dr. George Parrot of New Market with his automobile. This station was located at the intersection of Routes 11 and 211, two of the region's major highways. Before the introduction of the Interstate Highway System, this area would have been filled with cars travelling to Luray Caverns, Washington DC, and many other points. A gas station here would have certainly been a profitable business. Based on the photograph, the New Market gulf was a full service business that offered car washes, maintenance, parts, and of course, gasoline. The original station design reflects the clean, sleek, art deco design popular in the period. Today, this site continues to serve the community as a gas station, though its name has changed to Liberty and the building is remarkably different. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Garber, Hoyle Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived New Market VA Photographs (Historical) Collection, Truban Archives, Shenandoah County Library, Edinburg, Virginia, USA Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource ca. 1945 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 19-0723-018 Business New Market Shenandoah County Virginia https://archives.countylib.org/files/original/212ca561b5c231224bb15d023fe8de4d.jpg 36dd4aa2f4bfef5a7f7a6f28e39b119f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Allan Howt Digital Collection Description An account of the resource This collection contains 14 digital images scanned by Allan Howt of California. They were obtained from a series of glass plates he purchased on Oregon. Several are positively identified as being from Shenandoah County, especially the Stony Creek and Liberty Furnace areas. The location of others, and the identify of the photographer are unknown. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Allan Howt Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource ca. 1900- ca. 1910 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Glass Plate Negative Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nesselrodt Family Subject The topic of the resource Nesselrodt Family Description An account of the resource Scan of a glass plate negative showing the Nesselrodt Family in front of what is most likely their home. The adult male is Charles Nesselrodt, an elder in the and resident minister in the Flat Rock Church of the Brethren's Stony Creek mission. He lived from 1858-1935. Pictured from left to right is his daughters Annie and Cornelia, Charles, his wife Mary Jane, and daughter Virginia. The photograph was taken by William L. Mumaw a local photographer who lived in the area from 1878-1957. It is undated, but most likely was taken ca. 1900. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Allan Howt Digital Collection Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Shenandoah County Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource ca. 1900 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource William L. Mumaw (1878-1957) Nesselrodt Shenandoah County Virginia