No. 12 - Rasnick Family Genealogy

Transcription

Rasnick Family
Newsletter
The voice of the descendants of JACOB RASNICK – Hessian Soldier, and his wife Mary “Mollie” Counts,
parents of the RASNICK-RASNIC-RASNAKE Family of SW Virginia.
No. 12
Winter 2006
Inside this issue:
EDUCATION, SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, PUPILS, PATRONS
Middle of the World School
Dickenson County, Virginia
circa 1910
photo courtesy Dennis Rasnick
Good News!!
Y-DNA results are back and prove the link between the RasnickRasnake-Rasnic Family in America and the Rührschneck Family in Germany!! An
exact match was found in 36 of the 37 markers tested, indicating a match within a genetic
distance of one. According to Family Tree DNA, this means that there is a 99% likelihood
of a shared common ancestor in a genealogical time frame. Thanks to all involved in this
ground breaking project: DNA donors Charles Rasnick, John Stuart Rasnick and
Christian Rührschneck; and coordinators Harriet Rasnick and Donald F. Potter, Jr.
Christian Rührschneck
& new wife Fatima
Father Dieter & stepmother
Waltraud Rührschneck
Sister Kathrin
Rührschneck
Willkommene Neue Vetter!
C O R R E C T I O N:
http://freepages.gen
ealogy.rootsweb.co
m/~jacobrasnickpr
oject/
The photo in the last issue of the RFN (No. 11
Summer 2006) in my interview with Earl Rasnick
identified as Earl and his wife Ethel was
incorrect!! My apologies to Earl’s family for
this mistake. Please note the correct photo
below. ~ Marie
Access YOUR Rasnick Family
Website today!!
Rasnick Family
Newsletter
The
Edited and Published by:
Marie Rasnick Fetzer
57 Overland Trail
Mineral
30559
Ethel
andBluff,
EarlGA
Rasnick
mariefetzer@tds.net
Wedding Day
1-877-550-4726 toll free
Annual subscription dues $15/yr for two issues
Ethel and Earl Rasnick
Wedding Day
2
~E
D U C A T I O N~
& the Rasnick Family
Recognizing the importance of a good education early on, our Rasnick
family has, for more than 200 years, produced many dedicated patrons of
education, fine students, scholars and teachers. Not surprisingly, this tradition
continues on today.
Consequently, there is an abundance of information available on this
subject. Many sources were used in putting together this issue of The Rasnick
Family Newsletter, including books, manuscripts, historical accounts, personal
letters and documents, contributions from members of The Jacob Rasnick
Project, and data gathered from the Internet. Some stories have been printed in
their entirety, however most are excerpts or extrapolations which were edited
for clarity and shortened for the purpose for which they are being presented in
this publication. I’ve attempted to appropriately credit the sources and obtain
permission for their use whenever possible.
For much of the information, I relied heavily on the following:
• “School and Community History of Dickenson County Virginia” copyright
1992 by Mountain People and Places, reprinted 1994 by The Overmountain
Press, edited by Dennis Reedy. Portions reprinted here with permission from
the editor. This book is composed of a large group of writings produced by
county teachers between 1925 and 1930 at the request of the Dickenson County
School Superintendent J.H.T. Sutherland, and were initially printed in The
Cumberland Times newspaper in 1980-81 as part of Dickenson County’s
centennial celebration.
• “Some Sandy Basin Characters” copyright 1962 by Elihu Jasper
Sutherland, Clintwood, Virginia. Portions reprinted here with permission from
Bill Sutherland.
• “Meet Virginia’s Baby” copyright January, 1955 by Elihu Jasper Sutherland,
Clintwood, Virginia. Portions reprinted here with permission from Bill
Sutherland.
• “Some Descendants of John Counts of Glade Hollow” researched and
collected by Elihu Jasper Sutherland; compiled and supplemented by Hetty
Swindall Sutherland; copyright 1978 by Hetty Swindall Sutherland P.O. Box
486, Clintwood, Virginia 24228. Portions reprinted here with permission from
Bill Sutherland.
• Photos from the Russell County Public Library Archives reprinted here with
permission from Kelly McBride, Director.
• “Wilder Days” Coal Town Life on Dumps Creek by Kathy Shearer. Clinch
Mountain Press, Emory, Virginia, 2006. Portions reprinted here with
permission from the author.
• “Folk Games on Frying Pan Creek in Dickenson County, Virginia” by
Elihu Jasper Sutherland. Printed in the Southern Folklore Quarterly, Vol. X,
No. 4, December 1946. Portions reprinted here with permission from Bill
Sutherland.
Just a reminder that when you read a statement taken from the above
references that refer to “today”, that it was likely written eighty years ago or
more! I hope that this issue of the RFN will enable you to get some sense of
what it was like going to school “back in the good old days” as one student put
it, and of the vital role your ancestors played in supporting the early educational
system in SW Virginia.
~ Marie Rasnick Fetzer~
Life in the OldTime School
by Hampton Osborne
October 1978
“School and Community History of
Dickenson County Virginia”
edited by Dennis Reedy
GAMES – One of the toughest
games in the old days was “Bull
Pen” which had lost its
popularity, thank goodness, when
I began to go to school. One side
was outside and the other side in
a ring or pen formation. The
outsiders would throw a hard ball
at the insiders.
If they hit
anyone, he went to the other side
until all of them had been hit.
Then they changed to the pen or
outside group. (This sounds a bit
like today’s dodge-ball.)
“Round-town”
and
“Straight-town” were popular
games. Round-town had four
bases in a circle, as baseball does
today. If the batter was caught or
crossed off both ways, he was
out.
Straight-town had four
bases in a row and you used the
same rules as you did in Roundtown.
Did you know….
That it is said that the
Hessian Jacob Rasnick
taught the German language to
children in Glade Hollow, and
that either he, or his son Jacob,
Jr. may have held the first
teaching certificate in SW
Virginia…
source: (unproven) Effie Rasnick’s research
notes.
3
“Life in the Old-Time School” continued….
Some schools had no toilets. Boys went
down one side of the hill and the girls the other –
better not go the wrong way either.
The teacher’s greatest headache was the
presence of lice and itch. For the itch, mothers
would apply liberal applications of a mixture of
Sulphur, lard and gunpowder.
When the
afflicted got near the fire, it produced anything
but a pleasant aroma.
PUNISHMENT – Teachers used some very
cruel punishments such as pulling hair, boxing
cheeks, or giving whippings for missed words in
spelling. The paddle was not used, but a bundle
of switches was always, or at least most of the
time, in a corner on the stage (the platform on
which the teacher’s desk and chair stood). There
the pupils were called up to be punished.
Sometimes the boys had to sit on the floor and
put their feet up on the stage. This was tough on
us and on mother when she laundered our pants.
Girls were not required to take this punishment.
For minor misdemeanors we were required to
stand on the stage for a good while. Sometimes
we had to stand on one leg, but we eased it down
when the teacher’s attention was in another
direction. Also, we had to stand on tiptoe and
hold our nose in a ring which the teacher had
made on the blackboard.
This was most
uncomfortable to us. The worst punishment for
bashful boys was to have them go to the girls’
side and sit with a girl for an hour or so. He
much preferred a tough whipping with a switch.
Some teachers required us to go out at the
end of the day and bow to them on the stage as
though they were “monarchs of all they
surveyed”.
Pupils were required to leave a book in the
door if they left the room during school hours.
I remember two teachers having to fight big,
grown boys some twenty years old or older. The
boys enjoyed that kind of program.
Courting was frowned upon by teachers and
parents. It was simply taboo, or else.
Daddy said that when he was in school, if a
boy did something that deserved a whipping,
another boy would come up to the teacher and
would offer to stand good for the offender’s
future behavior. If he had to be punished again
the boy who stood in had to be punished too.
This had its good points because the boy who
stood surety most of the time kept the other boy
out of further trouble.
There were two or three base games, but
“Stink-base” was the most popular. Two leaders
would choose up and were about thirty feet
apart. Boys on either side would try to run
around the other side without getting caught. If
he was caught he was put in the “stink” near the
other side. If his side was able to retrieve him he
could go back home again. If not, he remained
in the stink until one side or the other were all
captured.
Marbles were played altogether different
from the way they were played in later days.
“Keeps” were not thought of because that would
have been gambling.
One game which could have been called
gambling then was “Hull Gull”. It was played
with chestnuts, beechnuts or chinquapins. You
guessed how many were in a hand. If you
guessed right, you got them all. If you were
wrong, you lost yours.
“Ante Over” was a ball game in which one
side would get on one side of the school house
and the others would get on the other side. One
side called out loudly “ante over” and the other
side called out “ready” and threw the ball. Then
they ran around the house and threw the ball in
the crowd. Whoever was hit had to join the
other side. They did this until one side or the
other was broken. Then they changed sides and
started all over again.
Friday afternoon in the old schools were
taken up in debates, recitations, spelling bees,
and question and answer periods. There were no
holidays, except two weeks off in the fall for
teachers and students to pull fodder to keep
“Pide” giving milk for the family.
Beginners were expected to master the
ABC’s before they were allowed to read. This
was called “Chart Class”. Penmanship was
stressed a great deal and much artistic lettering
was desired.
EARLY SANITATION – Water was carried
from a nearby spring and children drank from
small gourd or tin dippers. Children would spit
on the floor. Grown boys would chew tobacco
during study hours and have puddles of amber
on the floor. Children would sometimes swap
bites from apples and borrow chewing gum.
4
Buffalo School
by Tina Powers, age 13, Nora School, 5th
Grade
“School and Community History of Dickenson County
Virginia”
Photo courtesy of “Meet Virginia’s Baby”
BUFFALO SCHOOL
by Hampton Osborne
“School and Community History of Dickenson County Virginia”
Without a doubt, Old Buffalo School, near the
headwaters of McClure River near Nora, Va., was the most
noted school. This old school was built at the mouth of
Buffalo Creek and was first a subscription school of about
three months term. All the pupils were grown men and
women. They paid $1.00 per month. Some time before
1879, this old building was burned. Soon afterwards people
became interested in having a free school there. Simpson
Dyer, Sr., offered the land and furnished the timber to build
the old school house. Elijah Counts stuck the first axe in the
first log for the new building. They built a large chimney in
one end, a large door in the other end, a window on each side
of the room, three feet by six feet, and long split log benches.
In 1885, E. C. Rasnick or J. C. Rasnick made new desks of
sawed planks.
Many of our earliest leaders in Dickenson County
received their elementary education there. A few of these
were: A. A. Skeen, judge and Commonwealth Attorney;
William A. Dyer, Division Supt. of Schools; William
Sutherland, minister; Ezekiel Rasnick, squire; and Walter
Deel, teacher, who taught school 47 years in Dickenson and
Buchanan Counties.
The old school building was also used for church
services.
5
The school house was made of logs
notched and laid together, they had very few
nails. They didn’t have any large windows,
they had the space between the logs dobbed
with clay except a little space for the children
to see through which was filled with bits of
glass. The doors were made of rough planks,
and it was built 20 ft. sq.
They had long benches with out any
backs and didn’t have any desks. The
teacher’s seat was a stool.
They had a large wide fireplace. They
did not have any stoves in Buchanan County
then. There wasn’t any such place as
Dickenson County. It was all Buchanan
County.
Some of the books were Holm’s speller,
Powers’ arithmetic. The Powers’ arithmetic
was the first arithmetic for free schools in
Virginia.
History of My School Life and Incidents Related Thereto
as Best as I Can Remember Them
by William Ayers Dyer
Superintendent of Dickenson County Schools 1905-09.
Taught 13 schools in Dickenson County.
I was born May 10, 1880 at Stratton, Dickenson County, Virginia and started to school to Johnson
Skeen at the Buffalo School in 1885 when I was 5 years old.
I went to school on Monday mornings and then spent the rest of the week at my Grandmother’s
home which was about half way to the school, which was a distance of three miles.
About all I can remember about this school was that they had a small stage built like a chair for the
pupils to stand in when they did something wrong and also for the pupils to get up in to say “their
speeches”. Pupils were made to stand in the floor for punishment for small infringements of the teacher’s
rules. They sometimes used a switch for other infringement of rules.
I can also remember Mr. and Mrs. Skeen and Henry Rasnick being in a dialogue on the last day of
school.
I think Jonas Rasnick taught in 1886 and he was the second teacher that I can remember going to.
The games we played at the Buffalo were straight town, round town, base, bull pen and antnee over.
The girls made playhouses and played with dolls most of the time.
I remember one year that the winter was so cold that the river froze over until the ice was 14 inches
thick and the snow two feet and the thermometer 18 degrees below zero and we went back and forth on
the ice. One evening as we came from school it was so cold that Nellie Sutherland froze down in the road
and my brother Scott picked her up and carried her to the fire and in all probability saved her life.
The schoolhouse was built of hewn logs. Not
long after the school was built Ezekiel Rasnick made
some crude desks with receptacles in them for books.
I think it was in 1896 that I was going to school at
Hatchet and boarding at Uncle Noah Deel’s that a
smallpox patient was found on McClure and the schools
near there were closed and I was caught away from
home, so I had to get home some way as they
quarantined all the roads and you could not travel by
them. After the scare was over I went back and
finished school. While I attended school at Clintwood
Paris Colley broke out with smallpox and everybody
got scared and moved out of town. Every hog pen,
chicken house, barn and every building of any kind
were filled with people that was afraid of the smallpox
and the town was deserted for awhile.
In 1901 and 1902 I taught at the Cold Spring
School near the home of N. D. Rasnick and boarded
with him at $1.00 per week and received a salary of
$30.00 per month.
Photo by Marie Rasnick Fetzer
6
Buffalo Was a Famous Dickenson County School
by William Ayers Dyer
“Meet Virginia’s Baby”
A Pictorial History of Dickenson County, Virginia
Elihu Jasper Sutherand
About 1875, a small log school house was built at the mouth of Buffalo Creek and a subscription
school was taught there. The pupils, all grown men and women, were charged $1.00 per month for three
months. Sometime before 1879, the house burned. In 1879 an agitation started to get a free school in the
neighborhood. Simpson Dyer said he would give the site for the school house any place on his land. A
site was selected on a knoll at the mouth of Buffalo Creek.
Jonas Rasnick and Ezekiel Rasnick were two of the students who attended the Buffalo School that
became teachers.
The school was used as a church on Sundays by the different preachers. Old time debates were held at
this house at night. Men of the neighborhood would take part in these debates, and from them some of the
best speakers in Dickenson County were developed.
This school was really the forerunner of the free schools in Dickenson County. Soon after 1903 the
house was torn down.
BUFFALO REUNION GROUP – 1953
Front row: Martha Mullins, Aily Powers, Bessie Sutherland, Nellie Bowman, Lamarchian Blair Moore,
Tennessee Blair, Cora Dyer.
Second row: Noah Sutherland, Alex Sutherland, William A. Dyer, Aubrey Lee, Holiday Sutherland, Dakota
Blair, Germaine Blair.
Third row: Tilden Counts, Walter Deel, Richmond Sutherland, Morgan Sutherland, Lafayette Blair.
Fourth row: Milton French, Grover Sutherland, Rufus French.
7
to heed the rules. The pupils would soon see a
long switch or bunch of them by the teacher’s
side. Occasionally he would strike a long switch
on the floor and cry out, ‘Mind your books.’ This
would cause the pupils to squirm for they knew
that meant business.
“The patrons were to board the teacher, he
taking a week around with each of them –
‘boarding among the scholars’ it was called.”
Schools Before 1880
Recollections of Richard L. Counts
(former Superintendent of Wise County Schools)
of school conditions as the War Between the States
ended, and later.
Elihu Jasper Sutherand
Reminiscences of Pioneer Educational
Problems
“As has been said, the Josh Branch house was
built as a camping hut. It was fifteen by eighteen
feet, built of small, rough, round logs, the largest,
twelve inches in diameter, covered with three foot
rough boards nailed to round logs for rafters, broad
puncheon floor, rough board door fastened with
string or peg bolt. The chimney was built of sticks
and mortar, extending slightly above the roof; four
or five-foot fireplace, rocks for andirons, rough
rocks for hearth. Floor was seven feet to ceiling
(but no ceiling). No windows, no furniture of any
kind. Small split logs served as seats, with auger
holes to place wooden legs. Slate rock was framed
for ciphering, with softer slate for pencils. Perhaps
the only redeeming feature of such a place for
children was the short term of only two or three
months.
“There were cracks between the logs large
enough for a cat or little dog to crawl out. Some of
these openings between the logs had been filled
with small pieces of wood or mortar but due to age
and weather deterioration the mortar had crumbled
and fallen out. On one occasion when the weather
began to get cold, the teacher took the pupils and
went to the woods and gathered moss from trees,
logs and damp places to fill the cracks to keep the
wind out.
“The pupils, large and small, had to walk a
narrow dirt road one to three miles to reach this
school.
“The curriculum was the three R’s, reading,
writing and arithmetic, and of course spelling was
included.
“The county was sparsely settled and but few
families lived in reach of the school, but they were
large families. Five families made up the school,
namely, my father’s (E.S. Counts) twelve children;
Uncle Noah Counts’ ten children; Elijah Rasnick’s
ten children; James Rasnick’s ten children; William
F. Grizzle’s eight children, but not all were of
school age at one time.
“In opening the school, a long list of ‘don’ts’
and ‘do’s’ were read, and woe to him who failed
by William James Artrip
Elihu Jasper Sutherland
“The first free school was taught where the
school at Skeetrock now stands. Noah Sluss, a
crippled man from Kentucky, was our first
teacher, and the first school was taught in 1879.
The citizens built the school building of hewn
logs. One half of the end of the room was out,
which served for a fire place. There was only a
dirt floor and we sat on split benches. Our feet
wouldn’t touch the floor and when we got restless
we couldn’t move about much because of the
splinters on the benches. We took potatoes to
roast in the fire for our lunches. The ones who
could afford a tin cup could bring molasses and
corn bread in the cup, with a white rag tied over
the top. We set our cups on the bottom rung
between the logs.
“We wrote on a slate and used our shirt
sleeves or coat sleeve, with the aid of a little spit
to erase our slates. We studied aloud and went to
school from sun up to sun down. If the teacher
had turned us out to exercise or play, he would
have been dismissed from the school since our
parents did not believe in that.
“Our treat at Christmas usually consisted of
about two tablespoons of dark brown sugar, if the
children could talk the teacher into treating. One
teacher I had was taken out to the creek and
ducked three times before he agreed to treat us. I
had gone to school with married men who had
families and went to school along with their own
children.
“There was no such thing as grades and there
were very few books. We borrowed books from
neighbors; we passed our books on to others.”
8
James McCoy was the first settler on Sandy
Ridge in 1850. He had come to this part of
Dickenson County about 1820-1825 on a hunting
expedition. The first school house was erected in
1875 near John McCoy’s house. This was a
subscription school. This house was destroyed by
fire.
In 1882-4 a new house was built eastward of
John McCoy’s, about one-half a mile. This was
named “McCoy School”. About 1898 the house
was removed, about 50 yards from the present
place. This was built of plank, with the cracks
stripped. The name of this house was Cherry
Knob, in honor of a large wild cherry tree.
In 1915 the Cherry Knob School house was
removed again a short distance, and a two room
building was constructed. This house still retains
the name as before “Cherry Knob”. They had a
good supply of desks, before this the long bench
was used.
Before a school was erected on Sandy Ridge,
the children were sent to Lick Creek.
Cane Creek School
by R. M. Stiltner
Virginia”
Among
its
early settlers,
Providence
guided to the
Cane
Creek
vicinity Mr.
James
Rasnake, Mr.
Abe Musick,
Mr. Dave Tiller, and others. The first school
building was a wooden structure, very rude in
appearance but answering the urgent need of
training the future citizens. It was erected in 1886
by Elijah Rasnake and probably others helping at or
near the mouth of Little Cane Creek, a tributary of
Indian Creek and directly between what is now
Duty post office and Jahile post office.
The second building was erected in 1902 by
Elijah Rasnake and probably others helping. It
was a frame building, one room type, and located
about two hundred yards from the old site up Little
Cane Creek.
The third building was erected at the close of
the school year 1912 on the same location but just
in front of the old building. This was a two room
type modern frame building and gave
conveniences for a three teacher school.
We can readily see that by school development,
the vicinity roundabout has also been developing.
Many persons have gone forth from Cane Creek
School and community with molded life and
character of which they have been very proud.
Work of most every type has been dealt with by
persons from this one locality and yet it is filled
with honest dealing, upright, and spirited people
which stand forth a splendid example of manhood
and womanhood.
Cherry Knob School
by Flossie McCoy – 1929-1930
Virginia”
The black boards were made of poplar plank
and painted from the sap of trees. This building
contained five windows, two on each side and one
at the end of the house. It was lined on the inside
with wall paper. There was a platform in the end
where the teacher sat on a seat with a small table in
front where they kept their books and other things.
Some of the teachers were: Rufus McCoy,
1915-1916; Letcher Counts, 1923-1924-1925;
Nora McCoy, 1928-1929; Flossie McCoy 19291930.
We gave a pie supper and entertainment
October 12. We raised $22.00. A water fountain,
pencil sharpener, a mirror, two waste baskets,
erasers, some pictures, a wash basin and towels
were bought with the money. The floor was oiled
twice.
Our school closed in March. We did not
have an entertainment as we thought it best to
study our books, and not spend too much time on
entertainment.
Cherry Knob
by Stella Hayes
Virginia”
9
Clinchco
By Misses Fisher
Our first school house was a five room dwelling, built by the Clinchfield Coal Corporation.
It was located on what is known as “Grave Yard” hill.
After two months of school, the influenza broke out. Our school house was converted into
a temporary hospital. Then it was that our teachers, Misses Topper and Stone showed their
ability and interest in the people of Moss (Clinchco) by acting as emergency nurses. After six
weeks of struggle and strife, school was resumed in the old store building across the river, near the
C.C.&O. railroad station, at which place the term was finished. I might mention that on account
of the severe weather and inadequacy of the building that pupils did not advance in their studies
as rapidly as they otherwise would have done in a more comfortable and modern building.
With the beginning of the new term, Mr. Cooper, the Clinchfield supervising principal,
paid the school a visit on its opening day and by an enthusiastic address in which was explained
that the students who best attended and made the highest average were entitled to a two dollar
and a half gold piece.
Some time during this term Miss Edith Vance, (Mrs. Rasnick) was married, but still
resumed her duties as teacher.
During the fourth term, the teachers planned the organization of baseball and basketball
with the anticipation of playing match games with other schools.
During the sixth term music lessons were given, the commencement exercises were an
Operetta given by some of the students, and a play was given by the larger pupils and was
evidence of the advancement of the school.
four months. The teacher’s salary was $25.00
per month. At the end of the term she treated
on candy.
During the 1902 term a bell was bought,
a League was organized, but failed after a few
months.
On League nights the patrons
debated and discussed school problems. On
Friday afternoons the teacher and pupils had
spelling races and recited speeches.
Alice Dyer taught the 1903 term. She
had the first pie supper at Cold Spring. The
money was used to buy school supplies.
During her term new seats were made out of
plank by William and Newton Rasnick.
John McCoy and Cowan Turner taught
in 1908 and E.C. Rasnick taught the 1909
term. During his term the house was papered
for the first time. A teacher’s association was
held at Cold Spring. Rufus McCoy taught the
1920 term. E.C. Rasnick taught again in the
1923 and 1924 term. The new Cold Spring
school house was built in the fall of 1923. It
was built one-half a mile from the other
school.
School and Community History
Cold Spring
by Letcher Counts
Virginia”
Cold Spring school house was erected
about 1898. Elijah and William Rasnick gave
the lumber, windows, and nails. William
Rasnick gave a lot. All of the patrons helped
to build the house. Elijah Rasnick made the
black board. He made it of poplar lumber and
painted it black with homemade paint of elder,
sourwood and walnut bark. The seats were
made of split poles with peg legs.
For the first few weeks of school they
kept fire in a ham boiler as they had no stove.
Later they bought one.
Ida Lee taught the first term, the same
year the house was built. She had sixty pupils
and one-half studied their ABC’s. Geography,
reading, grammar, spelling and arithmetic
were the subjects taught. The school term was
10
Noah Rasnick, Jeff Kiser, Andy Grizzle,
Buckenridge Smith, William Rasnick and
Elijah Rasnick. The pupils were: Lavada,
Morgan, Alliafair, Ruth, Rosina, Maggie,
Chlow, Mary, Margaret, Rachael, and Aily
Rasnick; Alva, Jonas, Sheba, Louise and
Lydia Smith; Danny, Jessie, Noah, and Ora
Grizzle; Samuel and Hattie Kiser; and Vertie
Rose.
They studied spelling, reading,
grammar, and arithmetic. They used slates to
write on.
Jonas Rasnick taught the first two
schools. The term was three months. The
teacher was paid $25.00 per month by the
county.
Laban Smith taught the last school. The
schoolhouse got burned during his term. He
finished the term in Jeff Kiser’s dwelling
house. John McCoy built a cabin at the
present home of N. D. Rasnick in about 1797.
The place was called McCoy’s Camp. In
1866, Wilson Hayes settled at the same place.
Elijah Rasnick settled on Coon Branch in
1877, with his bride Phoeba Smith Rasnick.
William Hayes settled on the present farm of
W. S. Rasnick’s.
The neighborhood of Cold Spring is
thought to be the best developed apple
producing section of Dickenson County.
Several orchards are of commercial
importance.
These are owned by N.D.
Rasnick, J.M. Rasnick, George L. Mullins,
S.A. Smith, A.W. Smith and J.C. McCoy.
Some of the special needs for the future
are: a better library; a phonograph, so pupils
can hear the world’s best music; a local board
of health that will instruct the uninformed
people on matters pertaining to the prevention
of diseases; a well so that a safe supply of
water can be had; a better playground; another
room added to the present building, as one
room is not sufficient.
The first school in the community was
built in 1872 on Coon Branch about one and
one-half miles from the present Cold Spring
house. It was called “Rasnick’s School”. It
was built of hewn logs, and contained two
windows and one door. The seats were split
poles with peg legs. The blackboard was
made of dressed lumber painted black. A
stove was used to heat the room. The house
was built by the patrons. Their names were:
The History of the Cold Spring School
Rasnick Schoolhouse
On a bleak and snowy day in the month of November in the year 1887, a group of men sat huddled
around a little fire on Coon Branch. They were men of this community. They had come together for the
purpose of deciding where to build a schoolhouse. The group of men consisted of Noah Rasnick, Elijah
Rasnick, Jefferson Kiser, Andy Grizzle and William Rasnick. They were the oldest and most prosperous
citizens of this community at that time, therefore, the building of the schoolhouse was left to them.
After discussing where to build the schoolhouse, and how to get the funds, they finally decided to
erect it on Coon Branch, near where Elijah Rasnick lived at that time. As to the funds, each one of the
men present agreed to work on the house until it was finished. They decided that it was too late in the
autumn to begin work, they would wait until the following summer.
Winter passed, the long cold dreary months, spring brightened into beautiful summer. The men
came together again to decide on what day to go to work. After talking over the situation, they decided to
go to work at once. The house had to be made of logs, as there were no saw mill near. Jefferson Kiser
and Elijah Rasnick agreed to cut and haul the logs. Noah Rasnick, Andy Grizzle and William Rasnick
agreed to lay the foundation of the schoolhouse.
11
After the men began work, the schoolhouse was soon finished. It consisted of logs, four windows,
one door and rough hewn blackboards. The school house was named the “Rasnick Schoolhouse”.
Soon after the house was finished, school began. Mr. Jonas Rasnick taught the first school in the
winter of 1888. He also taught the second term in the autumn and winter of 1889-90. During the first
term, there was no stove in the schoolhouse, therefore the teacher built huge log fires on the outside of the
schoolhouse, where the pupils would assemble when they became cold. At this time the school term was
very short. The students had few books, and they did not get very good instruction.
Mr. Laban Smith taught the third school, during the autumn of 1890. During his term of the school,
the house was burned, and the people were left again without a schoolhouse.
Nothing was done toward the building of a new schoolhouse for more than nine years. Finally Elijah
Rasnick, William Rasnick, and Noah Rasnick agreed to erect a new schoolhouse at their own expense.
This was in the year 1899.
The building of the schoolhouse began at once. This time it was possible to secure sawed boards to
build the house from. This house was built on or near the top of the ridge, as this was near the center of
the population of the community.
The new house contained two windows on each side and one in the rear end. It also contained one
door, and old rough made blackboards. The seats were poor. They were made of long sawed boards with
backs, but no desks. As many as six children often sat on one seat. A rough made chair and desk from
undressed lumber was the best the teacher had. A heater in the center of the floor gave the heat to the
entire room. Large cracks could be seen in the walls and floor.
In the year 1900 the name of the schoolhouse was changed from the “Rasnick” to the “Cold Spring”
school. John L. McCoy taught the school in 1908. E. C. Rasnick taught in the year 1909. Rufus V.
McCoy taught the term in 1920.
The old house had been condemned for a number of years before the people began to appeal to the
Board for a new building. At last the Board consented to erect a new schoolhouse, but the people could
not agree as to the place where the school should be located. Some of the patrons wanted the house built
near the old house while some of them wanted it moved to the top of the ridge
where the land was level.
After a spirited fight between the patrons the house was moved to the top of
the ridge, where it stands today near the center of the neighborhood. It is
surrounded by beautiful scenery, orchards and fields of grain. Standing at the
schoolhouse one can get a magnificent view of the Cumberland Mountain more
than twenty-five miles away.
Mr. H. E. Rasnick taught the first 1923 term in the new schoolhouse. He was
followed by Ida Mullins. During this term the equipment of the room was
improved much. A desk, chairs, and many pictures were bought. The school was
standardized. This was the first school to run nine months in this community. The
patrons heartily made up the required amount necessary to standardize the school.
Cold Spring School
This was in the year 1924-25.
House Foundation
in 2004
During the next year maps and blackboards were bought, and today the
Photo by
COLD SPRING schoolhouse is one of the best equipped one room schoolhouses in
the county.
Cold Spring School
In the summer of 1899 a small school house was built of rough planks with four small windows. It
was built on brushy spur, better known as Brushy Ridge. This little school building was situated on the
hillside near Mr. N. D. Rasnick.
12
This rugged little school got its name Cold Spring by being situated close to many cold springs. The
nearest one was near Mr. N. D. Rasnick’s home, which the early students revived with its pure water. The
aged patrons of this community and their children are proud of the Cold Spring School. The Cold Spring
school remained on the hillside for about twenty-two years with several beautiful green trees shading its
top. The people on Brushy thought it the most beautiful spot on earth. Each Friday afternoon some of the
parents would visit the school, making old time talks, different from those of to-day.
Mr. Elijah Rasnick made Cold Spring’s first blackboard. He made it out of poplar planks and
painted it with paint made from different kinds of bark. This first board served the school for several
years.
Then in the year 1923 Cold Spring school was built out on top of the hill in the prettiest spot on
Brushy Ridge. When the house was first built big chestnut and oak trees stood close by shading it. The
new building was so beautiful to the people that they visited it long before it was finished.
Some of the graduates of Cold Spring School are: Rufus, Alice, Nora, Flossie, and Pearl McCoy;
Saphronia, Phoebe, Herbert, Naomi, Winifred, and Celia Rasnick; Delphia, Francia, and Mae Mullins;
Lona and Ruth Counts. From the above result shows good progress being going on at Cold Spring
School.
The building was filled with many interesting things. A big library filled with books for all grades,
some maps and a flag.
On March 4, 1929, the pupils and teacher were surprised to find the house and its equipment burned
to ashes. Another building was built in the summer of 1929.
COLD SPRING SCHOOL – 1917
Back row, left to right: Willie Long, Arthur Smith, Clara Smith McNeer, Vernon Smith, Delphia Mullins Williams,
Rufus McCoy, Sr., Dealie Grizzel, Alice McCoy Hayes, Maynard Smith, Miss Ethel Reedy (teacher).
Second row: Carrie Grizzel, Phoebe Rasnick Bodea, Safronia Rasnick, Nora McCoy Rasnick, Francis Mullins, Willie
Smith, Ira Mullins.
Third row: Winifred Rasnick McCoy, Lillian Smith Wolfe, Bertha Rasnick, Mae Mullins Carrico, Celia Rasnick
Culbertson, Naomi Rasnick Smith, Ethel Smith Howell, Stella Turner Hayes, Anna Turner Page.
Sitting: Pearl McCoy Grizzel, Flossie McCoy Phillips, Roy Tipton, Maynard Tipton, Herbert J. Rasnick, Louis Grizzel,
Stuart Long, George Long, Stuart Smith, Hudson Grizzel, Frank Turner.
13
Cold Spring School built 1923
Photo Courtesy “School and Community History of Dickenson
County Virginia”
Report Card 1931
Student: Bessie Lee
Teacher: Nora L. Rasnick
Courtesy Gay Lee Deel
"The people on Brushy thought it the most beautiful
spot on earth."
Photo by Marie Rasnick Fetzer 2004
14
against him. If he was wise, he immediately
ran for the hills for, before he could get a start,
he found himself pursued by the entire school.
Sometimes a whole day passed while the
teacher hatless and often coatless dodged from
hollow to hollow followed by a yelling troop
of boys and girls. If he were caught, and he
usually was, he was again asked to treat. If he
persisted in refusal he was hustled to the
nearest water and repeatedly dipped under
until he acceded to the demands of his captors.
The treat which followed consisted of apples,
maple sugar, candy, or even in a few instances
whiskey.
Whipping was an ever present cure for
all breaches of discipline, and if a teacher had
a strong right arm, and an M. S. (Master of
Switching) degree he was eligible for the best
school in the county regardless of his lack of
book “larnin”! The pupil who prepared a poor
recitation had to stand on the “dunce stool”
and wear a tall paper cap called the dunce cap.
History of Counts School
by E. H. Anderson
Virginia”
The first school building to be erected
where the Counts school now stands was built
about 1885. This early schoolhouse was a one
room affair built of logs, and covered with
clapboards. Cracks between the logs were
“chinked” with split pieces of wood and
liberally daubed over with yellow clay. A
large fireplace occupied one end of the room
and supplied, or denied heat depending on the
amount and kind of fuel used. Light was
admitted by small windows cut out in the log
walls.
The equipment of the room was meager.
Chestnut poles, twelve or fourteen inches in
diameter split open, and mounted on legs,
serves as seats. The teacher had a wooden
bench to sit on; he had no desk. Slates served
in lieu of both tablets and blackboards.
Pencils for writing on slates were usually
secured at some convenient slate ledge.
Suspended by a string was an old piece of iron
which when struck with the iron poker served
as a bell. This was considered a luxury as in
most schools the teacher assembled the pupils
by going to the door and calling “Books!
Books!” in stentorian tones.
Elihu Rasnick taught the first school in
the building just described. Other teachers
followed, including Clement Rasnick. The
school terms usually lasted from three to five
months.
The story of the pioneer school would
not be complete if the custom of “treating”
was not mentioned. Since in the beginning the
amount of the teacher’s salary depended on
the number of pupils he taught there was a
mutual feeling that the pupils were doing the
teacher a favor by attending school and
therefore should be rewarded by a “treat”
sometime during the term. This feeling has
been carried over even down to the present
day in some communities. If the teacher
refused to treat he came to school some
morning to find the doors and windows barred
We played "London Bridge", "Drop the
Handkerchief", "Squirrel-in-a-Tree", "Go in
and Out the Window", "The Farmer in the
Dell",
many versions of tag. We also
played something we called "Ain't No
Bears/Haints Out Tonight".
Whether we
sang bears or haints depended on how many younger ones
were playing.
It was best played at dusk, lots of good
places to hide and a better chance to sneak in to base with
all the shadows. ~ Karen Street Tiller
"Old Granny Witch fell in a
Ditch, found her a penny and
thought she was rich."
“Rotten Egg”
I'm sure there was a beginning, I can remember
this much:
All the children in a circle (boys & girls) what
ever the first part was, it ended with one being
picked. They would squat down, lock their
hands under their legs as tight as they could.
Then two would swing them (one on each arm)
if their hands wouldn't hold, you were a "rotten
egg". I don't remember how many times you
were swung. It depended on something.
~ Sharon Fontell Owens Sexton
15
The boys going to
this school were
denied most of their
play time as wood
was needed to keep
the large room
warm and the
chimney being
about four feet wide
required quite a lot
of fuel.
~ Hampton Osborne
Yates School
“
courtesy "Meet Virginia's Baby"
“School and
Community History
of Dickenson
County Virginia”
edited by Dennis
Reedy
A one-armed Confederate
soldier taught in this building for a few years. He
did not receive a pension from the government and
had to teach to support himself. He was very
poorly prepared to teach. He could read and write
but could not cipher. ”
~ W. T. Walker
“History of Turner School”
School and Community History of Dickenson County Virginia
“The first teachers in Virginia were paid
in tobacco because at that time money
was not available and tobacco was
worth a price. In Wise Co., just after its
organization, teachers taught as many
as five months for as little as $14.00.
The rate of pay was fixed at $.04 per
pupil per day.”
“The
first
transportation
furnished
pupils
at
public
expense was in the year 1913-14
when horse drawn conveyance
transported pupils to the East
Stone Gap School. Even earlier
than this pupils were transported
by a ‘Dummy Train’ which ran
between the Southern Depot and
L. & N. Depot and to the Big Stone
Gap School.
About 1920-21,
pupils were transported at public
expense
by
the
Interstate
Railroad into Appalachia from
the Stonega Collieries.”
“I am reliably informed that
a certain teacher before the
Civil War was requested to
treat the children.
This
treat
during
one
of
the
sessions was in the form of
whiskey which was poured from
a coffee pot and served to
the pupils of the school.
This information is accurate
in that it was given by one
of the pupils who got a
little
too
much
of
the
intoxicating
liquors
and
staggered home drunk.”
“The Story of Wise County Virginia”
by Luther F. Addington
19th Century Classroom
16
Abednigo Kiser, teacher
Photo courtesy “Some Descendants
of John Counts of Glade Hollow”
Flat Top
Still Standing in 2006
Photo by Marie Rasnick Fetzer
The first school ever taught at Flat Top was about the year 1881, by J. M.
Rose. The building was built of hewn logs, a one room building, and was
known as the “Swinfield”. Later this building was moved and another erected
near the center of Leck in about the year 1883. This building made no
improvement over the other one. It was taught by John M. Rose. While he
was teaching this building burned.
The following year 1884 Mr. Abednigo Kiser taught in a dwelling house,
near the place where the building burned. In the year 1885 another building
was erected in the same place and with the same equipment. In 1886 there
were no schools. In 1887 this school was taught by Henderson Buchanan. He
taught in one end of the building and he and his wife kept house in the other
end of the building. There wasn’t any partition in the building and this
attracted the children from their work.
Prof. R. L. Counts and others taught in this building in the following year.
By this time the community was stimulated to an interest in order to secure
better equipment, etc., met together at the old school site, made arrangements
and built a third house, without the help of the county or district. After the
house was built we had better facilities, desks, and blackboards. The patrons
employed Prof. Reed, by his energy and knowledge of teaching, inspired the
community to a new interest for an education.
E. C. Rasnick taught in 1893-94; John L. McCoy in 1899; E. C. Rasnick in
1902; and H. E. McCoy in 1908.
The community, still feeling the need of better equipment, met again with
I. E. French, Supt. of Schools in Dickenson County, and citizens agreed to pay
the interest for one year on the money to build the new school house. It was
built in 1914, the first one in said district with good equipment, lights, desks,
blackboards, etc.
17
“When I was
three years old,
I went up to the
school house at
Flat Top. I was
still nursing, and
I’d go up and
pinch the
teacher’s leg so
he’d know to let
me go home and
nurse. I could
read the primer
by age three. I
used to stand up
to the boys and
say ‘you’re not
my boss!’”
~Jeanette
Rasnick Rose
Flint Gap
The school site was selected and laid out by J. P.
Sutherland, who was then acting as trustee for the
Sandlick District. The work was begun in the year
1905. The building itself was a good one of the kind.
It was made of logs to start with, then was covered
with boards which lasted until 1926. It was then
covered with zinc in 1926.
C. V. Rasnick gave the site upon which the
building was erected. He gave some timber from
which the walls were constructed.
He also
contributed some money to buy nails and other
necessary things for the building.
Dr. T. C.
Sutherland gave some of the timber for the building.
J. H. and E. J. Rasnick were also contributors of the
material and labor.
The building being in a sparsely settled
community, it required more than a year to complete
the structure. School opened in 1907. The names of
some of the other teachers were W. E. Rasnick 1911;
Alta Rasnick 1913; Grady Rasnick 1914-15; and
Bessie Rasnick 1920. The school was discontinued in
1925 on account of insufficient number of children to
make the required average.
In order to make my history complete I must
mention some of the boys who attended school at
Flint Gap and have started upon a life career with
reasonable success. Charles H. Rasnick possibly
completed seventh grade. He spent most of his time
on the farm and in the coal fields until he was called
to the service of his country. Charles H. Rasnick
entered the service at Camp Lee, September 22, 1917.
After being trained there for several months, he
crossed the ocean to take part in the greatest struggle
the world has ever known. He has spent most of his
time in the coal fields since he returned home.
Corporal W. Grady Rasnick likewise heard the
call of his country and reported at Camp Lee for
service Sept. 22, 1917. He fought battles in many
places, and was victorious in each event. Since his
return home, he had been employed in the coal fields
of Dickenson County. He is now doing general
insurance business.
John M. Rasnick left Dickenson County with
the third company to be organized in Dickenson
County. He arrived at Camp Lee Nov. 7, 1917 and
sailed for France about May 25, 1918. He arrived in
time to take part in some of the greatest battles that
the world has ever known. He has been employed in
18
the coal fields most of the time since he
returned. He is now a candidate for the office of
treasurer of Dickenson County.
Napoleon B. Rasnick left for Camp Lee May
24, 1918. He participated in the battles at
Argonne Forest and Thaiocort, France and was
carried to the hospital on account of gas wounds
he received on Oct. 3, 7 and 30th – Argonne
Forest. Bone returned to his company on Feb.
17, 1919. He has been working in the coal
industry the greater part of the time since he
came home. Young Rasnick is now in the
Walter Reed Hospital. He is being treated for
the gas wounds which he received in the
Argonne drives.
W. E. Rasnick taught school for several
years. He enlisted as a 2nd class seaman on
Sept. 3, 1918 at Richmond, Va. He was
stationed around Hampton Roads, Virginia.
When he came home he found employment with
the Dickenson County Bank. He was elected
clerk of the circuit court of Dickenson County in
1919. He has been an efficient clerk and
performed each and every duty in a business
like manner.
History of Flint Gap School
by Simpson D. Powers
“School and Community History of Dickenson
County Virginia”
The Flint Gap School house is located on
lower end of Sandy Ridge. It is on the ridge
between Lick Creek and Frying Pan Creek.
Laurel Branch which flows into Lick Creek
head up on the south side of the school house.
Breeding’s Branch heads up on the north of the
school house, and it flows into Frying Pan
Creek.
The school house was erected about twentyfive years ago. It was not built by the county,
but by the citizens of that section.
J. H. C. Rasnick, C. V. Rasnick, J. H.
Rasnick and Fletcher Powers did most of the
work in building the house. The other citizens
who could not help work on the house donated
their part in money.
The Flint Gap School house is not just a
plant structure, as are most of the houses now
Ralph & Jackie Rasnick
and children
1953 Graduation from University of Tennessee
Fitness Award 1935 Ralph Rasnick
Flint Gap School Children ~ 1915
Grady Rasnick, teacher, is in middle of picture
19
Photos courtesy Dennis and Jackie Rasnick
days, but it is built of logs. The walls of this house are
at least ten inches thick.
Following is a list of some of the teachers who
taught at Flint Gap: Alta Rasnick, Willie Rasnick,
Grady Rasnick, Bessie Rasnick, and Flossie McCoy.
The monthly average for 1928-29 was twenty. This
was the year that Flossie McCoy taught.
Two or three years there wasn’t any school at Flint
Gap. There wasn’t enough pupils to make a school but
now there are enough pupils to have a good school, and
for the last five or six years the Flint Gap School has
been progressing nicely.
at his work. Occasionally, he would gaze back
over the school-room, and often he would line up
several pupils around this platform, for staying
out late at noon.
Since the playground was very small and
inconvenient, the school children had to be
satisfied with very little exercise. The girls would
play housekeeping, having moss furniture; some
would play on stumps, and especially on a pine
tree that lay behind the school building. They
would climb it and get the cones. This building
cost two hundred and fifty dollars. The first
teacher was Professor R. L. Counts. The building
today is used as a polls for elections.
After seventeen years a new two-roomed
house was planned and built beside the old one.
When it was completed, the old building was put
on rollers, and moved across the road. This
building was built with more conveniences. O.
Deel, one of the teachers, who was a lover of
athletic games, decided to have a baseball
diamond.
Greenwood
March 4, 1930
by W. L. Counts
Virginia”
Flint Gap School-1918
Grady & Esther Rasnick, top left
Photo courtesy Dennis Rasnick
The History of Greenwood School
by Hillman and Smith
At the beginning of our schools in 1888, we only
had a one-room log building, sixteen feet wide, and
twenty feet long, having one window and split benches.
By the year 1894, the community had grown greater.
The people decided to build a better building, and they
built a one-room frame structure, twenty-four feet wide
and twenty-four feet long, with four windows. There
were shelves in the rear of the building for lunches, hat
and coats. There was a platform where the teacher sat
20
Greenwood School is situated in the
Southwestern part of Dickenson County, being
two miles from the Wise-Dickenson line. The
topography of the immediate vicinity is beautiful.
It offers some of the most excellent opportunities
for fruit growing and truck farming of Dickenson
County, although the near-by mines of Tom’s
Creek attract and receive the bulk of labor.
The first school at this place was built in
1888. It consisted of a one-room building about
16 ft. by 20 ft. It had one window and split
benches. By the year 1894 the community had
grown greater. The people decided that a larger
house was needed. So they constructed a oneroom building. It was 24 ft. wide and 34 ft. long.
After a period of seventeen years a tworoom building was needed. It was built by D. G.
Kelley of Clintwood, Va. in 1911. It cost more
than $800.00.
were Jessie and Jonas Grizzle, sons of the
late William Grizzle of Breedings Branch.
Grizzle School History
School and Community History
Hammond
by Delbert Davis
County Virginia”
Middle of the World School circa 1910
Photo courtesy Dennis Rasnick
The first school for this community was located about
two miles from the present site of the school house, and was
then known as Center School. The school at Center, or the
middle of the world, as it was sometimes called, was taught
by Noah Counts when the building burned.
No one seems to remember exactly how long it was from
that time until another school was built, perhaps a year or
two. It was in April 1909 that the contract was let for what is
now known as the Grizzle School. It was built by Noah
Grizzle. The land upon which it stands was once owned by
Jessie Grizzle. An old water mill that was once operated by
Jessie and Jonas Grizzle still stands near the school. It was
still used a year or two after the school was built.
By changing the location of the school it was much
nearer for a large number of pupils; and some that had
attended school at Center found it as near to go to Flint Gap
or Dog Branch School.
Grizzle School and Community Report
by N. Violett Counts
The Grizzle school house was built about the year 1910.
This house was built one year after the Middle of the World
school was burned in 1909. The name, Grizzle, originated
from the name of the first settlers in that community, who
21
The Hammond school was built in
about the year 1908. It is situated on Sandy
Ridge, about two miles west from Carrie,
Virginia. It is a one-room school with only
one cloak room and one class room. Two of
the teachers were
Homer Rasnick, and
John McCoy. The
school has one
library, with twenty
volumes.
It had
more, but the books
have been lost. This
school went by
name
of
Kiser
Homer Rasnick
School until about
teacher
1920.
History of the Hatchet School
County Virginia”
The present school in this community
is Hatchet School. It is located near the
mouth of the Hatchet Creek on McClure. It
was built and paid for by the citizens of this
community. The house was built in the year
1892. There has been several successful
pupils left this school, such as doctors,
teachers, and lawyers. Some of the teachers
at the Hatchet School were C. R. McCoy
1914, R. V. McCoy 1922, and Alice McCoy
1925.
The school has decreased in
population about 75%. There is not much
prospect of a future school here any more,
due to the fact that there are not enough
pupils to make a school.
School and
Community History
Ivy Spring
by Hardaway Baker
Ivy Spring school got its name
because it was built near a big
spring on an Ivy Spur. The first
school that was taught in this section
was taught in 1889. The school
house was built in 1888. The
present day house was built in 1922.
History of Ivy Spring School
Flossie McCoy
Ivy Spring School
The first school had nine pupils on
roll. Some of graduates of Ivy
Spring School are as follows:
Grover Rasnick, Gray Rasnick, and
Maggie Rasnick.
School History
Nora School
by Annas Smith, age 14, grade 7
Nora had no school except
sometimes a subscription school in
the old church house until Mrs. H.
F. Binns began to teach in the
Church house. The children went to
Open Fork, Stratton and Hatchet. In
1916 the McCorkle Lumber
Company built a school house in
Nora because they wanted the camp
children to go to school. The
number of pupils has been very
irregular due to camp people
moving in and out. There has been
as many as forty-five. In 1924 the
lumber company moved away.
Since then the school has been
small.
Ivy Spring School ~ circa 1917
on Hazel Mountain
Photo, which originally appeared in an unknown SW Virginia newspaper is owned by Sheila Hall.
22
(Teacher) Sarah Reedy.
First row: Charlie
Kiser, Mont Phillips,
Dewey Rasnick, Alice
Kiser, Andy Phillips,
Charlie Horne, Guy
Sutherland, Clyde
Horne, Clayton Hicks.
Second row: Ruby
Rasnick, Geneva Kiser
Phillips, Mae Rasnick,
Scott Kiser, Lily Perry,
Nannie Gray Rasnick
Sutherland, Ruth Kiser
Sutherland, Callie
Phillips Johnson.
Third row: Julie Kiser,
Margie Kiser Bailey,
Leaphy Kiser Wise,
Frank Phillips, James
Rasnick, Ed Rasnick,
Creed Horne.
Fourth row: Orlena
Sutherland Blair,
Margarete Kiser
Phillips, Ada Kiser
Shook, Grover Rasnick,
Phoncy Sutherland,
Tester Sutherland.
Open Fork School History
History of Rock Lick School
by Toona Long, Nora School, Fifth Grade,
Age 12 Years
by Mabel Colley
Virginia”
Virginia”
One frosty October morning, after much
discussion and planning, a group of sturdy
mountaineers shouldered their “doublebit” and
strode to the location decided upon, and
proceeded to construct the first school house
on Rock Lick. The location was about a half
mile from where the stream flows into Frying
Pan Creek, and about equally distant below
the deer lick, from which Rock Lick gets its
name.
The teacher ruled by force of will, or by
the rod, usually standing with a long
“hickory” in his hand. It was a “blab” school
and it was appropriately called for everyone
read aloud at the same time making noise like
that of the breaking up of a Primitive Baptist
meeting.
Some of the teachers who taught in the
new frame building that was constructed after
the second log house was torn down were
Letcher Counts, Maloy Counts and Susie
Rasnick.
Two-room building
erected 1917
This is a school history about the Open
Fork in the olden days. It was built in 1885 by
the parents who wanted to educate their
children. Every child’s father built their own
seat and a whole family would sit on one seat.
Every recess the children would get out and
get wood instead of playing. One or two
would chop the wood and others would carry
it in until time to take up. The school lasted
about four and a half or five months. All the
teachers kept the same rule. When ever they
did anything, they would whip them if ever
they did it any more a harder whipping than
before, and that would break them from their
mischief. Some of the teachers at Open Fork
were: Ezekiel Rasnick, Noah Grizzle, and
Henry McCoy.
Stratton School
by Milan O. Sutherland
Virginia”
Our school is located at Stratton, Va. on
a hill in sight of the C.C.&O. railroad. We
have a cemetery near by. Its name is Dyer
Cemetery. Our school was built by the
patrons of Stratton in the year 1899.
One of the Stratton teachers was Mr.
Rufus McCoy who taught in the year 1923-24
and had 30 pupils.
Noah Grizzle
A family member told me that Jacob William Rasnake
attended a school in Lebanon for one year during 1895-1896.
That would have made him about 56 years old. It was called a
men’s college and was located where the elementary and
middle schools are located now. Since Jacob preached, the
age he would have been when he attended this school, it may
have been a program of the ministry. ~ Karen Street Tiller
Ezekiel Rasnick
23
“Article of agreement made and entered into between
Wm. Sutherland, Wm. F. Grizzle and James H. Rasnick
Trustees of the one part and the under Subscribers of the
other part witness that the said trustees for their part agrees
to Superintend the work of the Frying pan Church house
for the use of Schools, and the under Subscribers bind
themselves to pay the Said trustees the sum of their
Subscription and the said Trustees bind themselves to pay
the Money received by them for the Sawing plank or
anything necessary for the building of Said house. The
Subscription to be paid between this and the 1st of January
1876. This Nov. the 27th 1875.
Sulphur Spring School
by E. J. Sutherland, 1925
Virginia”
The first schoolhouse erected on Frying Pan Creek
in Dickenson County, Virginia was a one-room, hewed
log building. It was built about 1875, William
Sutherland donating one-fourth acre of land for this
purpose and sufficient timber out of which to hew the
logs and rive the boards, etc. At that time, the
community was part of Buchanan County.
The school was called Sulphur Spring by reason of
its being near a sulphur spring. In the earlier days this
spring was used as a lick by the deer, bears, etc., and
was a noted place for hunters’ “blinds”. It was called
by these early hunters “Yaller Lick,” but the school
authorities considered that “Sulphur Spring” was less
grating on the nerves of modern civilization than
“Yaller Lick,” so the good old name had to go to make
room for the present name.
Beside being used as a schoolhouse, the old log
building served as the home of the Sulphur Spring
Primitive Baptist Church from the organization of this
church in 1879 to the year 1898 when this church
erected the present commodious churchhouse just
across Yellow Lick Branch.
As far as I have been able to ascertain, the
following are the names of some of the teachers, year
and term length taught at Sulphur Spring: 1908, Elihue
J. Sutherland, 5 months; 1910, Alta Rasnick; 1912,
John M. Rasnick; 1920, Elihue J. Sutherland, 5
months.
“Names of Subscribers
Wm. Sutherland
$2.00 paid
Wm. F. Grizzle
2.00 paid
Newton Sutherland
2.00 paid
James Sutherland
2.00 paid
Elijah L. Rasnick
2.00 paid
J. P. Sutherland
2.00 paid
James H. Rasnick
2.00 paid”
The subscribers and their friends went into the
neighboring forest and felled oak and poplar trees, sawed
proper length logs, and with broad-axes hewed them into
house-logs. These logs were lifted and notched into place
by willing hands, and over the log walls was built a roof of
rough clapboards riven from the bodies of nearby oaks.
The new building immediately became the community
center for the Frying Pan Valley. William F. Grizzle
became the first local schoolteacher.
A free-flowing sulphur spring bubbled up near the
house, and it gave the name Sulphur Spring to the school
and to the Baptist Church organized a dozen years later in
this place. The schoolhouse became the voting place for
the community. The log schoolhouse was supplanted in
1907 by a frame building. Church services had been
removed two hundred yards up Frying Pan to the large
new church house built in 1898.
The land on which this log
building stood belonged to
William Sutherland, and he had
agreed to give a one-fourth acre
lot for this purpose, but
following the leisurely custom
of the mountains, the deed for
the lot was not made until
August 7, 1889. Mr. Sutherland
frequently provided a friendly
home for students from a
distance, enabling them to
secure the advantages of
attending
Sulphur
Spring
School.
Additional information obtained from school registers
submitted by Fletcher Powers give the following
information: E. J. Sutherland, 1908-09, 5 months, $45.00
salary, grade 1; Alta Rasnick, 1911, 5 months, $28.00
salary, grade 3; John M. Rasnick, 1912-13, 5 months,
$30.00 salary, grade 3.
First Schoolhouse in Frying
Pan
“Some Sandy Basin Characters”
by Elihu Jasper Sutherland
The first schoolhouse on Frying Pan was built in 1875. In
the papers left by William Sutherland at his death was found
the following striking record of the initial school action of
the citizens:
William F. Grizzle
patron and teacher
Photo courtesy of
24
Winfield revealed himself to be an intelligent and
precocious boy, but unfortunately a fever as a child
affected one of his legs, leaving his knee joint stiff
and enlarged, rendering him a cripple the
remainder of his short life. It is very probable that
this boyhood illness had much to do with
Winfield’s special mental training. He decided
early on that his feats must be of the mind instead
of the body.
Winfield Scott
Grizzle
The lad had the advantage of having a kind father
with much ability and experience as a school
teacher. Winfield attended the local school at
Sulphur Spring, where his father taught at
intervals. The school was rarely kept open more
than four months each alternating year. He had
other teachers, and one of them states that at
fourteen the lad was a better scholar than the
teacher.
Winfield did one thing unusual for a boy of his age
and day – he wrote a diary. It covers a period of
almost a year – Winfield’s fifteenth year.
May 1885
“Mon. 25th Showery pa deaden some trees Noah
work at clearing him a watermellon patch A.M.
Mother wants to send me to [school at] Clintwood
in dirt and rags Noah’s old jacket and the like”
“A Mountain Lad”
Winfield Grizzle did go to school at Clintwood,
but whether his mother sent him “in dirt and rags”
as he ruefully stated in his diary, is unknown. We
can assume quite certainly that his parents
provided him with adequate clothing. The frame
school house in Clintwood gave it a decided
advantage over the other schools in the Basin. To
come to this school was considered a wonderful
promotion for a country lad in his teens. He was
well liked by his teachers and fellow students, and
progressed rapidly in his books.
“Some Sandy Basin Characters”
by Elihu Jasper Sutherland
edited and shortened for clarity
by Marie Rasnick Fetzer
Reprinted here with permission from the author’s
son, Bill Sutherland.
Winfield Scott Grizzle was the great grandson of
Jacob Rasnick, the Hessian Soldier, and his wife
Mollie Counts. His father, William Franklin, was
one of the earliest teachers in his community. His
mother, Mary Rasnick, was the daughter of Jonas
Rasnick and Rachel LaForce. Jonas had given
Winfield’s parents a one hundred acre tract on
Breeding Branch on Frying Pan Creek, and this is
where he was born on February 4, 1870. Early on,
The following letter was written by him in school
at Clintwood:
“Clintwood, Virginia
November 15, 1886
25
Vanderbilt was the name given by students to their
boarding house or dormitory. The teachers were
Professors James Vicars and Jasper E. Strickland.
A schoolmate long afterwards paid this tribute to
the young student:
“Winfield was a very
handsome and wonderfully bright boy.”
“Mr. N. R. Grizzle
Dear Brother
“It is with pleasure that I endeavor to answer
your highly appreciated letter rec’d today. I was
very glad to hear from you, but very sorry to hear
of the sickness and death in the community.
“We are doing very well in our school now
although it isn’t very large. I think it will increase.
I am glad to hear that you and H. W. Sutherland
are in a hurry to get here. N. T. Long still comes to
the spring and what is better washes there once or
twice a week. But I don’t think you had better
build too many air castles in which she is to form a
conspicuous part, for I think she has become much
enamored with our friend, R. J. Smith, although
there has been a split or two.
“If you want a list of my studies I will give
them – Arithmetic, Grammar, History, Anatomy,
Physiology and Hygiene, Rhetoric, Latin
Dictionary and Algebra. James M. Thornbury
went to Baltimore and got his position to begin
work at the first of January. $90.00 per month and
expenses. He is now very sick – went down to the
South of the mountain to survey and got so he
could not sit up. He is a little better now. It is
something like Nuralgia.
“Glad to hear that you have started Literary
societies in your neighborhood. Hope they will
come to the Vanderbilt. Sorry to hear that some
Democrats are so terrible shocked over the results
of the election.
“ ‘Lingiling Spooity’ (Bud Jones) stays with
me frequently. He is here tonight. He is anxious
to see you. Tell H. W. Sutherland that neither he
nor you need see any unnecessary trouble about the
‘force’, for neither of you ever had the honor of
being acquainted with this particular force. Tell
Ma she needn’t be alarmed – I’m only joking. Tell
Lydia I will write to her by Pa if I have time. I
hope you will be hardly so tardy in answering my
letter this time. You can send it by mail if no other
chance. Tell James and Jonas to write to me. I
would like to write more if I had time, but it is past
ten o’clock and they are all in bed snoozeling and I
think I’ll be there to in less than no time and sleep
with Lingiling spooity.
Winfield Grizzle’s misshapen knee prevented him
from being very useful on a farm. He was too
young to teach school and there were no jobs in his
community suited to brain and not brawn. Eight
miles north of the Grizzle home a merchant
operated a country store at Sand Lick. Learning
that a clerk job in the store was open, Winfield
applied for it and got it.
Then suddenly the dreaded clutches of typhoid
fever reached into the community and laid its fatal
clutches on the choicest lad – the budding young
scholar. The nearest doctor was twenty miles
away, across two high mountains. He was young
Winfield’s Clintwood friend, Judge Henry M.
Jones. A swift messenger was sent for him. He
came, and every known remedy was tried but
without avail.
On August 9, 1887, the fever racked boy breathed
his last. The strong arms of friendly neighbors,
including his grief-stricken employer, Mr. Colley,
and one of his former teachers, Fletcher Powers,
bore his remains on a litter from Sand Lick eight
miles up Frying Pan to the log home on Breeding
Branch.
Such was the sad “return of the native.”
High on a ridge above his
old home he was laid to
rest
in
the
family
cemetery.
A simple
tombstone marks his last
resting place, but his near
relatives being dead or
scattered to the four
corners of the earth, this
sacred spot is not seldom
visited. He sleeps quietly
in this secluded spot in his
beloved hills.
“Goodby
“W. S. J. Grizzle”
26
Mary Rasnick Grizzle
Winfield’s mother
RASNAKE SCHOOL children
1930
Sandy Ridge, Cleveland, Russell Co., Va.
Photo originally published in the "Heritage of Russell County, Virginia, Vol. 2”
Submitted by Frieda Marie Patrick Davison.
(Teacher)
Grace
Kiser
7th
Grade:
Martha
Puckett,
Willard
Thompson
6th
Grade:
Margie
Thompson,
Ava
Artrip
4th
Grade:
Nolan
Kiser,
Vertie Puckett,
Edna
Thompson,
Ruby
Kiser,
Odell
Kiser.
3rd
Grade:
Grapha
Brookks, Elsie
Kiser, Edward
Rasnake, Lona
Rasnake.
2nd
Grade:
Brady Brooks,
Arbutus
Rasnake,
Collier
Rasnake,
Henry
Rasnake,
Mildred
Rasnake, Tom
Vance.
1st
Grade:
Con Rasnake,
Earl
Wilson,
Grover Wilson,
Homer Wilson.
kept a-pushing on me and I got scared. I was
screaming. I run for that school house and actually
hit ran right in that school house after me. It went up
to the teacher and everybody said, ‘Oh no, Billy,
what you doing in here?’ He
chased me in there is what he
done. So that's where I went, to
the school teacher, and here he
followed me.
And she says,
‘Why, he's our pet, he won't hurt
you’. But I didn't know that.”
“There was a school, I don't
know how far it was. We had to walk to it. We had
to walk out of that holler to go down to the main
road, which wasn't much of a road, either. There
wasn't no cars, wagons or horses. And the first day
they took me to school, I went out. I got tired sitting
at the school, listening to 'em. I told Effie I wanted
to go out. She said, ‘Well, let's go outside there.
Don't go far away, just go out there and look’. And
there was a goat out there, and it was a pet goat. The
school children played with it and it would butt them
and they'd butt it back and all that kind of stuff and it
~ Earl Rasnick
27
SOUR WOOD MOUNTAIN SCHOOL
This school was located at the Dickenson-Buchanan-Russell
County, Virginia lines. Photo courtesy of Lynn Rasnake Thompson.
28
either getting rid of them or they were getting
rid of me! I retired up there.
I had the first through the seventh at the
Rasnake School and I often wondered how
you taught. We just had the regular subjects,
reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Some of the
boys got larger than I was, much larger! But
they behaved very well. No problem at all.
Of course, the parents was behind them on
that. If they didn’t behave mention it to the
parents. We spanked, we used the switches
off the trees. I sent a little boy one day to get
a switch to switch another one and he was
smart about it. He said, “I didn’t come down
here to get switches.” So I got two switches
and used one on him.
I enjoyed those small schools more than
I would have the larger ones. We were more
like family, the teachers were.
After they closed the Rasnake School,
they made a church out of that little building.
The Primitive Baptists, they used it for a long
time. Then that stopped. Someone bought it
and tore it down. There’s not many families
left out there. It’s very different. I don’t visit
up where I used to live that much. It brings a
sad feeling on me. I think about all the houses
up there and all the people and how all of ‘em
are gone. The houses are down and nowhere
to be found. It’s just hard for me to do.
Zora Kiser Rasnick
“Wilder Days” by Kathy Shearer
Portions reprinted with the
author’s permission
Edited by Marie Rasnick Fetzer
Zora was born in 1915 and lived about
three miles up Hurricane Fork from the Shaft
where her parents, Powell and Caroline
“Carrie” Kiser, managed a store and a farm.
They had grown up on Sandy Ridge where
Carrie’s father, Elihu Kiser, served as
postmaster in the post office which he named
in her honor. Zora became a teacher, first at
the Rasnake School next to her house, and
then at other schools in Russell County. She
married Con Rasnick.
When my parents got married, they
moved down close to the Skeens Branch. The
school was right in front of the house and the
store was right beside the house. The school
was already there. I suppose the little school
was called Rasnake School because there were
a lot of Rasnakes there. I remember all of
those teachers because they stayed with us at
night. Now V.C. Kiser didn’t but those others
did, because they were from a little distance
away. And we had a little house out back at
the school. Got our water from a spring in the
hillside, ran through a cliff. That was one of
my chores and that was the children at
school’s chore, to carry in the water. Had a
dipper in a bucket. All drank out of the same
bucket. Heated with coal and wood.
I attended this school and then I taught
there. I went to Emory for two years after I
graduated from Cleveland High School in
1933 and at that time, you could teach with a
two-year certificate, so I dropped out and then
I went back during the summer and finished.
In all my teaching, it was about 38 years.
After they discontinued the school I taught at
Clinchfield. I was the last teacher there. We
had four rooms, but one was vacant. We had
first and second, third and fourth, and then I
had the fifth and sixth.
Then they
discontinued Clinchfield and I went on to
Clinch River School on Gravel Lick. I was
Rasnake School
Photo courtesy “Wilder Days”
29
Sourwood Mountain School
also known as the
circa 1905
OLD RASNAKE SCHOOL
Photo courtesy of Gail Breeding Watson
Granddaughter of Arnold Rasnake (Row 4) and Lillie Rasnake (Row 3)
This school was located on the Hurricane Fork of Dumps Creek near Skeens
Creek in Russell County Virginia. This ungraded school preceded the Rasnake
School and served the same families.
Row #1 Left to Right: Holland Kiser, Doris Grizzle, Roy Breeding, Fred Kiser, Billy Grizzle, Walter Grizzle, Seldon
Grizzle, Garnett Breeding.
Row #2 Left to Right: Effie Taylor, Temperance Breeding, Dora Taylor, Lula Kiser, Winnie Breeding, Farris Rasnake,
Pinkie Rasnake, Ada Taylor, Lutish Rasnake, Casia Rasnake.
Row #3 Left to Right: Dosha Breeding, Celia Taylor, Ida Rasnake, Winnie Grizzle, Lillie Rasnake, Hallie Rasnake.
Row #4 Left to Right: Arnold Rasnake, Frank Breeding, Russell Skeen, Earl Breeding, Mary Skeen, Snoda Breeding, Sada
Rasnake, Stafford Rasnake (Teacher)
30
sleds to ride in the snow with a steering mechanism.
These were sturdy and lasted for years, a raft for use on the
pond, a bridge across the creek where we acted out “Billy
Goat Gruff”, a swing made by using strong rope and a
wooden seat. He let us help in his shop. We could pump
the bellows to get the horseshoes red-hot. We could pour
water over the grind rock when he sharpened his tools. He
taught us how to saddle the horse, took us with him to get
the Christmas tree, to gather nuts. We could go with him
when he took grain to the mill. He included us when he
went to see historical places, told us the significance of the
visit. One such visit was in 1938 when he took Janice,
Vera and me to the old home place of John and Mary
Magdalene Counts’ homesite at Glade Hollow near
Lebanon, Virginia where they lived in the late 1700’s and
early 1800’s. He told us about New Garden Fort, helped
us locate Indian artifacts, tomahawks, arrowheads. He
taught us about minerals and fossils, the stars! He let us
help with selecting baby pigs and kittens. He taught us
how to dress poultry, fish. He mended our shoes. He
taught us to sharpen knives, to shoot a rifle and how to
clean a gun.
When I was in fifth grade I memorized Longfellow’s
“The Village Blacksmith”. It reminded me of my father.
My father was possibly one among the last generation to
excel in all the skills needed for a self-sufficient family
farm. I am indeed thankful that I grew up at the time I did
and have a father who was able to do all the things his
forefathers passed on to him.
I was fascinated when my mother showed us how
the mother goose protected her eggs in the nest during a
snow storm, how the mother cow got her calf to a place of
safety in bad weather. She taught us much about nature
such as birds nests, mountain tea, berries, birch bark, wild
honeysuckle, frogs, hollow logs, mushrooms, butterflies. I
remember the awe I felt when she showed me a brown
thrush’s nest on the ground near a grapevine and a
partridge’s nest with twenty-two eggs in it, watching
young robins being fed by their parents. She cautioned us
to watch out for snakes in the creek, how to kill a
copperhead, what to do if a snake bites us, taught us about
tadpoles becoming frogs.
My father and his siblings attended the subscription
schools near their home. He went directly to college
classes from these un-graded schools. He earned credits at
Emory and Henry College, Radford State Teachers
College and the University of Virginia. He qualified for
the normal professional teacher’s certificate, the highest
rank offered in Virginia at that time. He taught for twentyeight years always maintaining excellent standards.
Faye Counts
Strickland
Edited by Marie Rasnick Fetzer
Printed with permission from
Madge Counts Maxfield
“Education in my family held
high priority.”
I was born January 30, 1928, the sixth of seven
children of William Letcher Counts and Coosie Rasnick
Counts, at their home near St. Paul, Virginia. My parents
were my earliest and most impressionable teachers.
Mother’s father, Elijah Rasnick, gave land for the first
school building in the community, helped in its
construction, made a slate board and benches for the
students. My mother walked the few miles with her sisters
to this un-graded one-room school until her marriage.
They studied subjects ranging from the basic 3 R’s to
anatomy and physiology, geography, geometry, had
debating and spelling bees on Friday afternoons. She
learned many poems and passages from the Bible from
memory. She always spoke with affection about her
teachers. Music was an integral part of my mother’s life.
She went with her family to the singing schools in her
community where she learned to sing using shaped notes.
Grandfather Rasnick encouraged his grandchildren to
attend Berea College in Berea, Kentucky before public
high schools were established in Dickenson County.
My Counts grandparents (Elihu and Elizabeth) had a
fine collection of books, some professional, some
historical. They shared these with us. I thought my
father’s family was exceptional in their travels, their
education.
My father reflected the steady and unfailing
encouragement that brings out the best in a child, truly a
blessing from God. He was my fourth grade teacher, one
of the best in my years of schooling. He didn’t have much
in the sense of physical provisions, but he opened up the
avenues of the world to me, making it seem a wonderful
place waiting to be explored.
The one-room school allowed me to proceed at my
own pace. I could compete with all age levels, reinforce
my weak areas, and move ahead as ready. I could enrich
my learning by attending the higher levels.
My father had a way of entering into a child’s world.
He made toys for us from wood and leather. He made a
“dancing man” of wood. He made a child’s rocking chair,
While he was away at Radford in 1922 and at
Emory in 1931 my mother kept the farm operations
going. We took pride in his accomplishments. One
example was the art sketches he did, another was his
collection of rocks and minerals. He kept abreast of
31
classes. Grammar became a reality; I could make sense of
its components. My teacher showed understanding and
encouragement, gave me a sense of self-respect. New
students from Big A Mountain and Swords Creek schools.
I found new friends among them.
In the eighth grade my mother was selected
homeroom mother. I was very proud of her. In the spring
Gerald Gneyong and I were chosen as mascots for the
senior class. Ralph Robinson was my “eighth grade
sweetheart”. I cherished my homeroom teacher, who was
also my math teacher. I made new friends among the
students from Pine Creek School and Finney. I especially
liked my civics class and Glee Club. I tried for
valedictorian of my high school class, was elected class
and student body president.
My sister Vera paid for my piano lessons in the tenth
and eleventh grades. Ruth Boyd was my piano teacher,
and I loved her. I especially appreciated Janette Breeding,
my English teacher in the tenth and eleventh grades. She
was a scholar, a Christian leader.
My oldest sister, Vera, helped me learn to read and
write. Also my father was an excellent teacher for my
handwriting. My sister Madge was a gifted artist, was
precise in her handwriting. My brother Oren was
musically talented, gave me my first ukulele. My mother
often illustrated the stories she told us.
My parents bought their first automobile in 1931 so
that my oldest brother and sister could attend high school,
as no bus service was provided. Education in my family
held high priority. When I started school, we walked two
miles to the nearest elementary school. My sister Janice,
age three at the time, couldn’t understand why she couldn’t
go, too, as we were constant companions.
In the spring of 1937 there was an epidemic of spinal
meningitis in our community. Schools were closed in
early April.
One student remarked that she liked to see the
school bus with “those red haired” students come in. They
were my brother Bill and two cousins.
During WWII both my brothers served in the US
Navy. They continued their college education under the
GI Bill following the war.
I attended Berea College, and my freshman year
there was a naval cadet corps on campus during WWII. I
transferred to Appalachian State Teachers College in
Boone, North Carolina for the remaining three years of my
college education. I attended the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro during the summer of 1948 to
obtain certification in vocational home economics. I
obtained my master’s degree in education at the University
of Virginia in 1966. I taught and served as school
counselor for thirty-six years. I served as secretarytreasurer of the Counts Family Reunion for fourteen years.
My father served in the same capacity for twelve years.
progress in educational methods and philosophy
throughout his years of service. He and my mother took
great pride in seeing all six of their children graduate from
college and enter into successful careers. Four of their
grandchildren are teachers. His younger brothers and
sisters attended boarding schools at Council, Grundy, and
Chattanooga, Tennessee. The three younger children
attended Lebanon High School after the family moved to
Lebanon in 1918.
Grandfather helped his younger brother in going to
medical college. He provided a house for his brother’s
children while he was away at school. He, my father and
his brother Noah attended the inauguration of Woodrow
Wilson in 1913. In 1906 when my father was attending
normal school at Big Stone Gap, Virginia, he participated
in spelling bees open to the community. He “spelled
down” John Fox, Jr., author of “Trail of the Lonesome
Pine”, to be the champion speller. My grandmother’s
younger brother, Richard Sutherland, was my father’s first
teacher. He boarded with my grandparents and taught my
folks and his two brothers at home. Later Richard went on
to become a doctor. He was a scholar, my father’s favorite
teacher. Later my father taught my grandmother to read.
She learned quickly. He died of cholera at Louisa,
Kentucky, in his last year of medical school, during an
epidemic there. His family grieved at his death. His
community needed him. His family had counted on his
living among them.
My father’s uncle, John Counts, married my
grandmother’s sister, Phoebe. They lived nearby, spent
much time together. They became teachers, writers and
business people. Meloy Counts became an accomplished
reporter for the Detroit Free Press, published a book.
Another cousin of my father’s, E. J. Sutherland,
became a noted historian, poet, genealogist. He married
Hetty Austin Swindall who published his records after his
death, including “Some Descendants of John Counts of
Glade Hollow”. They made their home in Clintwood
among kinfolk and friends. She is much loved and
admired.
The year we moved to Russell County was filled
with adjustments. Most of my adjustment at school was
notable. Now I was the youngest member of my class.
My teacher wondered whether I belonged with the group.
She learned that I could compete favorable with the others.
I loved the songs my music teacher taught us. I had a role
in our class pageant on George Washington’s birthday as a
colonial child dancing the minuet and the Virginia Reel.
My mother and sister Madge made costume of red crape
paper with ruffles for me. I got the measles and didn’t get
to participate in the pageant. Our beloved principal, Mr.
A. A. Countess, died that spring.
My seventh grade was a happy year for me. I
admired my teacher and made much progress in my
32
“Grandfather Elijah Rasnick
was a
capable teacher whose jovial style of imparting knowledge
regarding various subjects made learning a pleasant and
effortless experience. He displayed an interest in the spelling
ability of his grandchildren and taught us to facilitate spelling by
the
usage
of
syllables,
as
in "O-pe-chan-can-ough"
(Opechancanough, the Indian chief). Other examples using his
method of spelling which we were encouraged to know were
gizzard, salamander, hippopotamus, and Nebuchadnezzar. He
also emphasized the physical and aesthetic value of good
posture. Occasionally, upon observing us exercising poor
posture, he immediately informed us that it would be necessary
for our respective fathers to tie a board to the culprit's back for a
minimum of two hours daily. This declaration on his part
resulted in immediate improvement of our posture, as we were
unable to imagine how we could perform our routine activities in
his specified position. Furthermore, he repeatedly admonished
us to be temperate in all things, e. g., appetite, language, and all
activities. He also taught us the technique of making crow's feet
and other figures, preferably with twine string; however, in its
absence, Grandfather was good at improvising. In addition, his
knowledge of nature was extensive. He taught us to identify the
constellations, the nature and habits of animals, fowls, reptiles,
and insects. He also communicated his knowledge of trees,
shrubs, and plants. This information included how to manage,
utilize, and, when appropriate, protect all of the above
mentioned. On the other hand, he taught us how to protect
ourselves from the very same, as well as the elements. He also
explained how to read the lie of the land so that it could be
utilized most advantageously. Being a man of his own time,
Grandfather possessed personal, historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural knowledge dating back to the Civil War.
During discussions of this period, he transmitted a sense of
history to the listener. In addition, he permanently enhanced and
facilitated the historical knowledge, especially for youngsters
fortunate enough to be in his presence. He explained the Dred
Scott Decision and the economic conditions which apparently
precipitated the Civil War. His personal memories of this period
were extremely vivid.”
~ Vera Counts Barosin
Excerpted from “Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia”, published
by The Historical Society of Southwest Virginia, publication 12, 1978,
pages 17 to 20. This sketch may be read in its entirety at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~vawise/HSpubl73.htm.
33
Emma and Dominic
Rasnick
Children of
John & Beth Rasnick
Luthersville, Georgia
Emma and Dom Rasnick
Nov. 2006
are
Homeschooled!
Alfred
and
Peggy
Patrick
at his
Masters
Graduation
Va. Tech
1960
Retired 1998
Dean of
Business
School
Eastern Ky.
University
TOM
RASNICK
Volunteered his skills as a
builder to renovate daughter
Mia’s private school in
Warm Springs, GA.
A Family of Teachers
children of …RUTH Rasnick & JOHN C. McCOY
Five of their seven children went to college. All four below attended Radford State College.
Alice McCoy Hay – Ruth’s oldest daughter, taught at Hatchet, Nora and West Dante. Alice was teaching school
and boarding in the school district when she had a tubal pregnancy and bled to death. She was found dead at the age of 21.
Flossie McCoy Phillips -
Taught in many one room school houses in Dickenson Co., Va. including Ivy
Spring, Flint Gap, Cherry Knob, Nora, Hatchet, Ramsey Ridge, Fairview and Wakenva. Also taught at West Dante. Health
problems forced her to quit after 15 years. She was the youngest person to get a teachers certificate in Dickenson Co. at that time.
Rufus V. McCoy -
Taught at Wakenva, Cold Spring, Turner and Hatchet. Was a dedicated supporter of free
public education and introduced legislation to the Virginia Assembly during his two terms as delegate to provide free text books for
students. He supported educational expansion in all forms and was quick to lend support to the community college program in
Virginia.
Nora McCoy Rasnick - Taught at Ivy Spring, Cherry Knob, Owens and Cold Spring. Nora died at the age of
23 due to complications from a pregnancy.
Memories…
Ruth’s First School
+ Rush Branch +
“Mom was teaching at Ivy Springs
Mrs. Ruth C. McCoy was born
February 4, 1882 at Nora, VA. She is
the daughter of Elijah and Phoebe
Smith Rasnick. Her first school was
Rush Branch, a log structure, chimney
in one end, and split log benches for the
children to sit on. Her first teacher was
Madison Mullins, who she said would
carry her from her house about a half
mile to the main road every day. Other
teachers were John Skeen, A. A. Skeen
(later became a judge), Ezekiel (Zeke)
Rasnick, Jonas Rasnick, Ida Lee and
George Rose. She studied McGuffey
Readers and Speller. The school term
was three months each year. One year
the students attempted to duck her
teacher Jonas Rasnick, but failed. He
had failed to treat at the end of the
school session. She said that she also
studied Maury Geography, and a
Hygiene and Physiology, which are
now combined in a health book.
~Hampton Osborne
on Hazel Mtn. when she met my dad and they were
married there in 1938. Mom would start each school day
with a different student ringing the big bell for classes to
begin, then she would check the roll call, and then start
with a couple verses from the Bible and sometimes read
a patriotic poem or sing ‘America’ and say the Pledge of
Allegiance. She usually started classes with the younger
students reading while the older students had study time,
or sometimes we older kids would help the younger ones.
We did our work on the blackboard. The library was
almost non-existent as we only had very few books. No
art classes or music, just the 3R’s. We had an hour for
lunch and two 15-minute recesses, most of us carried our
lunch. In the winter most of these country schools had a
big old pot bellied stove. My first cousin, Rufus McCoy,
Jr. was my fifth grade teacher and we almost had a fire
in the school, the stove fell apart, and we all had to go
home. One of the students tried to catch the stove and
burnt her hands pretty bad.”
~ Mina Phillips Summerton, daughter of Flossie McCoy
Phillips
34
“One
time there was a
teacher, all you had to do was mention anything of
what happened and have a snake in it, and she'd cover
her ears and say ‘Ooohh!’ and go outside the door.
One of us would go out there and tell her, ‘We're not
going to do it anymore’. Then she had a habit while
she was teaching, of walking all the way around the
school, and when she'd catch one of us doing
something we wasn't supposed to and things like that,
she'd give us a smack and tell us, ‘You're going to
have to stay after school’ or something like that, or
have to go up to the board and put your nose in a ring.
So, I don't know who gave me this snake, but it was
one of them you hold and do like that. You've seen
'em, haven't you? When you first look at it, it looks
like the real thing. I put it in my old fashioned desk
and I saw her going on this side, making her rounds,
and I let on like I didn't see her or anything, and I
knowed when she got up and crossed the window to
get to my row. I was in her last row. And as she came
up that way, she looked to me and I was always
aggravating her. And when she got close to me, I
pulled that snake out on her, and boy, did she scream,
and she went all the way to the principal of the school,
and he come up there and they searched all the desks.
And when she went out the door, another boy raised
the window for me and there was a ditch a little ways
from the building itself. I rolled that thing up and I
threw it and it went in that ditch. And when the
principal come up and was questioning us, all different
ones of us said, ‘All you have to do is mention a snake
and she runs out of the room. If someone mentions
what a snake done, or where somebody got bit, well
she'd scream and hold her hands over her ears and go
dead on us.’ So the principal said, ‘Well, we're going
to search the place anyway’, so everybody had to take
everything out of their desks. They thought maybe I
was the one who had it - which I was. That was at the
grade school at Logan, West Virginia. I was in the
sixth grade. You know what
she done at the end of school?
She gave us all ‘A's’ to get rid
of us!”
Mt. Carmel School Photo courtesy “Meet Virgina’s Baby”
Lebanon State School 1919 Photo courtesy Russell County
Public Library Archives
~ Earl Rasnick
Son of Oliver “Bud” and
Nancy Ann Grimsley
Rasnake
Old Finney School 1910 Photo courtesy Russell County Public Library Archives
35
Nora
Two
Room
School
Photo
courtesy
“Meet
Virginia’s
Baby”
December Graduation 2004 at the University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg.
Frieda Marie Patrick Davison, Dean of Libraries, is 2nd from left.
Frieda is the daughter of Beulah Rasnake Patrick and Clyde Patrick.
Bonnie Counts Carico
Retired teacher
“I am a teacher. I am from a family of teachers and have spent all of
Daughter of Bessie Rasnick and
Marshall Counts
my years at the elementary level. I was in the classroom for 20 years and am
working on my 8th year as Library Media Specialist in a school that serves Pre-K
through 8th grade. Also, two of my children are teachers, both at the secondary
level and one of my sisters is a teacher, elementary level also. My mother was a
teacher in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. My father retired from the public
school system, but continues to teach off-campus classes for the local community
college. My grandfather, a great-grandson of Elijah and Mattie Hobbs Rasnake,
was also a teacher.”
~ Karen Street Tiller
‘TEACHING WAS A GOOD
George Kiser
Associate Professor of
and Government was
2005 Outstanding
Teacher at the College
and
Sciences
at
University.
Politics
named
College
of Arts
Illinois
STEPPING STONE’
David Rasnick,
Taught the natives of
Papua New Guinea
PEACE
CORPS!!
with the
Reading Certificate Ralph Rasnick 1934 Courtesy Dennis Rasnick
36
ZOOLA RASNICK RICHARDSON
Mrs. Richardson was a graduate of Haysi High
School and Madison College (JMU). She was a
dedicated Virginia schoolteacher for approximately
40 years and, along with her late husband Alfonso,
taught many years at Sandlick Elementary and Haysi
High schools.
~Taken from her obituary Aug. 2003
Summer Normal
at Big Stone
Gap, Va. 1906
Letcher
Counts
Our Dedication to Mrs. Blanche Rasnake
“We the Class of ’57 dedicate the GARDEN ECHO to one
who is loved by all those who know her for her smile, her
words of encouragement, and her willingness to help
students and fellow teachers whenever possible.”
source: Internet
“he spelled down John
Fox., Jr., author of
Trail of the Lonesome
Pine”
Photo courtesy
Sand Lick Registers (In old trunk) 1880’s
No. of
School
3
1
6
5
3
12
12
12
13
5
5
6
4
School
Counts
Sand Lick
Lick Branch
Sulphur Springs
Counts
Senter
Senter
Senter
Wampler
Sulphur Springs
Sulphur Springs
Lick Branch
Rock Lick
Teacher
Noah Rasnick Grizzle
Joe Henry Rasnick (2 months)
James M. Rasnick
(Pastor 1900-02 Clintwood Baptist Church)
Noah Rasnick Grizzle (80 days)
Eivens Tiller
William Letcher Counts
37
Session
1888-89
1890-91
1888-89
1887-88
1895-96
1891-92
1894-95
1898-99
1893-94
1890-91
1892-93
1900-01
1904-05
TEACHERS/EDUCATORS
IN
THE
FAMILY OF JOHN MORGAN RASNICK
(Gabriel Lafayette Rasnake>Jacob Rasnake
Jr>Jacob Rasnake Sr) and MILDRED
CAROLINE HARRIS (Unknown Bowen and
Addaline Harris)
by Harriet E. Rasnick
FAIR LEE MCCONNELL RAINES (wife of Thurman
Raines, son of Sam Raines and Jennie A. Rasnick) Fair Lee
taught for more than 30 years at Grimleysville in Buchanan
Co VA and Cedar Bluff in Tazewell County VA .
John Morgan
Rasnick
DESCENDANTS OF JAMES WALKER RASNICK (John
Morgan Rasnick and Mildred Caroline Harris) AND
STELLA GRAY MCGUIRE (Francis Marion McGuire and
Nancy Cordelia Griffitt):
DESCENDANTS OF JOHN ROBERT RASNICK SR.
(John Morgan Rasnick and Mildred Caroline Harris) AND
ESSIE CLAIR ROSE (Charles Mayland Rose and Charlotte
Sizemore):
ESSIE CLAIR ROSE RASNICK (daughter of Charles
Mayland Rose and Charlotte Sizemore) After completing
high school at Berwind WV, Essie taught school for one
year in McDowell County WV and then married John
Robert Rasnick Sr. (John Morgan Rasnick and Mildred
Caroline Harris).
NANCY MILDRED RASNICK TAYLOR (daughter of
James Walker Rasnick and Stella Gray McGuire) Nancy
taught all elementary grades for 35 years at these Tazewell
County VA schools: Rhudy School in Thompson Valley,
Cedar Bluff, Pounding Mill, Richlands, Steelsburg, Jewell
Ridge, and Tazewell.
THOMAS ALLEN RASNICK (son of John Robert
Rasnick Sr. and Essie Clair Rose) After a 10-year stint with
NASA, Tom developed several private schools in GA. He
taught physics, chemistry, and algebra at Riverside Military
Academy in Gainesville GA in 1969; was headmaster and
taught math and physics at John Hancock Academy in
Sparta GA 1970-1972; was headmaster and taught math and
physics at Twiggs Academy in Danville GA 1972-1973;
and was headmaster and taught math and physics at John
Milledge Academy in Milledgeville GA 1973-1978.
CLAUDIA TAYLOR PETROVSKI (daughter of Claude
Taylor and Nancy Mildred Rasnick) Claudia taught for 14
years at these Tazewell Co VA schools: Cedar Bluff
Elementary and Richlands Elementary Kindergarten
(educable mentally handicapped).
HATTIE GRAY RASNICK ROISCH (daughter of James
Walker Rasnick and Stella Gray McGuire) Hattie taught at
these Tazewell County VA schools: fourth through sixth
grade for four years at Red Ash School, a four-room school
with two “chicken coop” additions used for classrooms;
fourth through seventh grade for six years at Steelsburg
School, a two-room school. She also served as Principal at
Steelsburg School for one year.
JANE CALVIN PRATT RASNICK (daughter of Samuel
Honaker Pratt and Ruth Calvin Sloan) Jane taught at the
schools which her husband Thomas Allen Rasnick
developed, where he taught, and where he served as
headmaster: John Hancock Academy, Twiggs Academy,
and John Milledge Academy in GA during 1970-1978. She
was a substitute teacher in Washington Co VA for one year.
CATHERINE A. RASNICK BOARDWINE (daughter of
James Walker Rasnick and Stella Gray McGuire) Catherine
taught at these Tazewell County VA schools: second and
third grade for two years at Sayersville Elementary School,
second grade for four years at Red Ash Elementary School,
and was teacher’s aide for 10 years at Raven Elementary
School.
SUSAN LYNN RASNICK (daughter of Thomas Allen
Rasnick and Jane Calvin Pratt) Susan has taught computer
classes at Greenville TN High School 1993-1994;
Washington County VA Skills Center in Abingdon VA
1994-2000; Patrick Henry High School 2000-present; and
Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon VA
1995-present.
MARGARET ELIZABETH RASNICK (daughter of
James Walker Rasnick and Stella Gray McGuire) Margaret
taught preschool, special education, and was teacher’s aide
at these Tazewell County VA schools: Steelsburg and
Cedar Bluff; and at Lebanon in Russell County VA.
DANA ELIZABETH MCKENNA RASNICK (daughter
of Robert McKenna and Elizabeth DeBusk) Dana is the
spouse of John Stuart Rasnick (son of Thomas Allen
Rasnick and Jane Calvin Pratt) and has taught kindergarten
and first grade at Van Pelt Elementary School in the Bristol
VA school system for 17 years.
DESCENDANTS OF JENNIE A. RASNICK (John
Morgan Rasnick and Mildred Caroline Harris) AND SAM
RAINES (William S. Raines and Rebecca Burke):
JAMES LEONARD RASNICK (son of John Robert
Rasnick Sr. and Essie Clair Rose) Leonard taught history
and coached sports at Vonore High School in Loundon TN
during the period 1954-1956.
PATRICIA RAINES (daughter of Thurman Raines, son of
Sam Raines and Jennie A. Rasnick, and Fair Lee
McConnell) Pat taught 30 years at these schools: Raven VA
in Tazewell Co VA; and Bartley, Berwind, and War in
McDowell Co WV.
38
KIMBERLY RENEE RASNICK FINDLEY (daughter of
James Leonard Rasnick and Effie Lewis) Kim has taught
first grade at Manchester Elementary School in Manchester
GA for 19 years.
Susan Rasnick (left)
Teacher
Computer Skills
Virginia Highlands
Community College
Abingdon, Va.
Ruby Rasnick Long
Bill Rasnick
Asst. Superintendent and
former Principal of
Tazewell Co. Career
Technical Center
To read a 1998 Interview with
Bill, go to
the following website:
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/faculty
_archives/principalship/r/368ra
snick.html
Principal
Ervinton Elementary
Virginia
Graduated
Radford University
Margaret Rasnic
Pennington High School teacher
Damon Rasnick
Superintendent
Dickenson County Virginia
Schools
Larry Rasnake
Principal
Cleveland Elementary School
35 yrs. in education
39
Dolores Ramsey Ham - taught
handicapped children for over
28 years.
Monroe Rasnake – taught science,
math and biology at Garden Creek
and Council in Buchanan Co., Va.
1967-70. Was at Virginia Tech for
four years and is currently teaching
plant and soil science classes at the
University of Kentucky. Three of
his sisters, Jane Presley, Marlene
Breeding and Lemona Presley are
also teachers, as well as his daughter
Sara Rasnake Devlin.
Betty Lee Justice Tanner – taught
over 40 years in Pike Co., Ky. and
was principal from 1960-1984. Her
sister Mary Lou Justice taught for
35-40 years. Her daughter Jennifer
was also a teacher and began teaching in 1970.
J. Samuel Rasnake –native of
Russell Co., has been in Sullivan
Co. School System for over 15 yrs.
He was principal at Chinquapin
Elementary School near Cedar Bluff.
Earned his masters degree in
Education in 1965 from ETSU.
Michael (Rasnick) Nation – teaches
in New Mexico.
Janice Counts Webb, along with
her sister Madge Counts Maxfield,
and Madge’s son Darrel C. Maxfield are all descendants of Letcher
and Coosie Rasnick Counts and are
currently teaching or are retired
teachers.
in the Revolutionary War. They were mercenaries or
volunteers. They liked this part of the country and
they just settled here. That’s about all I know.
I know that there were three different clans of
people with different family names that came out of
Germany – the Hesses and the Honakers and the
Rasnicks. Now Honaker, Virginia, that’s where that’s
named after. A lot of Honakers and a lot of Hesses
over there. There was a Counts in my mother’s
family. I believe her grandmother was a Counts.
Most of the older family members are about
gone. I do have a first cousin. She lives in Lebanon,
her mother was my mother’s sister. Her name was
Bama. They named her Alabama for some reason.
That was a strange name. She lives in Lebanon. That
is the only one I know.
My mother told me that the reason my granddad
passed away, he made whiskey for the government on
an experimental basis and it was so good it was like
brandy. And he would make small batches of it and
they would try it out. I don’t know why, but she said
that he began sipping it once in a while. He got
addicted to it and wound up like I said, with what
they called the heart dropsy, but it was really heart
failure.
I grew up in Kentucky. I was born in Trammel,
Virginia and my dad worked in the coal mines at
Trammel at that time. He had recently had his back
broken and his leg broken and he got better with that
and so his work was limited. So they offered him a
mine foreman job over in Kentucky – a new work that
had just started. So when I was two years old he left
with me on a train from Dante, Virginia and traveled
to Garrett, Kentucky in Floyd County, about twenty
seven miles from Prestonsburg, and started to work at
the coal mines as a section boss and that’s where I
grew up until 1940. Then I went to the Army from
there.
Living in the coal camps were really hard times.
I guess you’ve seen the coal camps. It was back in,
I’d say, I started remembering when I went to school
in 1929 up until 1940. We lived in a town, outside of
town. Looking back at it now it was really pretty
drab. We played a lot in the mountains. We got
away in the mountains as much as we could but it was
pretty hectic in the coal camp. That was in Garrett,
Kentucky – Consolidated Coal Company – Elkhorn
Coal. Living in a coal camp – you’ve always got a
bunch of neighbors that you don’t get along with.
There’s always squabbling and fighting. I could not
Hassie Meade
July 31, 2004
Coeburn, Wise County, Virginia
Interviewed, transcribed and edited for clarity by
Hawaii 1942
Photo courtesy Tena Mullins Slason
My name is Hassie Meade and I was born in
Trammel, Virginia, January 23, 1923. I’m 81, I’ll be
82 in January. My dad was Rancy Meade and my
mother was Martha Rasnick. I don’t remember my
grandfather (William Rasnick). My grandfather died
I believe in 1917. He died of, they called it heart
dropsy, and I think they call it something else now –
heart failure.
And my grandmother (Elizabeth
Mullins Rasnick) was a small woman. She was about
five feet tall, blue eyed, red headed. The last time I
saw her she was about 85 years old. That was in
1940. They lived on Brushy Ridge and that’s where
they’re buried.
And she was originally from
Clintwood. I believe her family, I was trying to count
this morning, I believe it was eight girls and two
boys.
Elijah Rasnick the herb doctor was my great
uncle. He was my mother’s uncle. My granddaddy’s
old homeplace on Brushy Ridge is still standing.
People live in it right now. My granddaddy, William
Rasnick, at one time, Mom told me that he had six
hundred acres on Brushy Ridge. You couldn’t buy
nothing up there now. It’s a beautiful place to live, I
think. It’s flat.
All I know about the first Rasnick that came
over was that there was a Hessian soldier that fought
40
brothers kept my mother and she passed away in the
hospital down here in Norton. But they didn’t have
any home place. My dad built a house for $750. He
built it out of saw mill lumber. He ordered his
windows from Montgomery Ward. It burned down.
They papered the house with old-time blue paper.
Have you ever seen that blue paper with caps? You’d
put caps on it. You didn’t paste it down, you’d use a
four penny nail and that cap would hold it down. And
they papered it blue, all four rooms. And we lived
there ‘til I went to the service.
When my brother got killed, it changed my
father’s life. He was an alcoholic – he was a drunk.
Oh yes, until 1933, when my brother got killed, that
changed his life. That changed him from that
moment on. He was 79 when he passed away. He
was a minister – a good man. That turned his life
around, something just happened. He had a spiritual
experience. He was a Pentecostal minister. I’m the
same, Pentecostal. I’m an evangelist. I travel to
different churches. I have pastored about three
churches. There’s a lot of tears and burden and
anxiety about pastoring a church, so I prefer to just
evangelize and go to different churches.
I pastored a church once, I hadn’t seen any
Rasnicks. It was 1989 and I took the church and there
were two Rasnicks that went to church there. One was
Lanie Rasnake. Yeah, I pastored the Duty Church of
God. That was over on Indian Creek. I never will
forget her because she used to bring some meals to
the homecomings, didn’t she?
That is my sister’s
picture up there. She passed
away two years ago this
January – colon cancer. Her
name was Ocie. She was a
fine person. I’m telling you,
she was so neat. She ate right
and she wound up with colon
cancer – her and her husband.
She was our favorite sister.
They brought her in from
Oklahoma.
Ocie Meade
My wife was raised in
McDowell County, West Virginia about the same
way I was. When we go over there where she was
raised I get depressed. That’s how bad it was. Her
name is Nellie Elizabeth. Her mother was named
Susie Ford Parks and her father was Welcome (M.
W.) Parks. Her brother just passed away at 88. He
wait for Saturdays to get into the mountains just to get
away.
When we lived in the coal camps we had a
garden patch. The easiest thing to raise is a pig or a
hog because you can confine them and just feed them
anything. If you had cattle you’d have to have a place
for them to graze. So everybody just had a hog. We
all know that’s bad stuff now.
My brother Chester Meade, he was the oldest;
Frank; then there was Hughes; Junior; Lloyd and
Oakley. Six brothers and three sisters. My brother
Frank, I believe it was in 1933 when I was ten years
old, back then it was hard times
and he tried to make his way to
Ohio. One of my sisters had a
farm in Ohio and he was
traveling up there and so he got
to Marion, Ohio and he fell
asleep and rolled off a train in a
coal dump and it cut his right
leg off and left arm. One
Frank Meade
o’clock in the morning. So he
laid there till 7:00 the next morning, but he was too
far gone. They took him to the hospital – he passed
away in the hospital there. All my family’s gone
except me – I’m the only one left.
I grew up in a coal camp until I was about
twelve years old. My dad moved out of the coal
camp. We built a house, built a home. My dad was a
minister at that time. And so we went to church, we
were made to go to church, every Sunday. And I
went to high school. I played in athletics and the
future at that time, it was in 1940, didn’t look that
bright, and so some soldiers came through there
recruiting for the Army. We were just on the verge,
just before Pearl Harbor, and so I joined the Army at
the age of seventeen and I spent five years in it. I
came out when I was 22. In fact, I’ve got a picture
back there of myself if you’d like to see it.
My dad and mom, they lived at Banner when I
came back from the service. And my dad sold that
place and you know what they did? Like a lot of
families, my wife’s family, they went so many places.
Everywhere my baby brother went, they followed
him. I don’t know why people do that, and they just
followed him from place to place, they followed him
to Missouri, they lived there a while. He moved back
to Ohio and they moved back to Ohio. Just followed
him around. My dad and mom, when they passed
away, they didn’t have any home really. One of my
41
instruments. I play the piano and the organ and the
guitar. Well, they said, “you might be a good
bugler”. They had buglers in the Army at that time. I
learned myself how to play the bugle. And I got so
good they came and asked me one day, I was in Ft.
Jackson, South Carolina, would you like to go down
to Camp Wheeler, Georgia to train some buglers?
And so the draft had started at that time and what they
were doing was drafting all these big band people. I
had people with Harry James Orchestra and Tommy
Dorsey. They had musical ability. They could play
saxophone and all kinds of different instruments.
They were training to play bugles. They built what
they called a brush arbor away from everything. You
should hear that noise going on every day – thirty
guys trying to learn to play the bugle. A lot of guys
had played trombone all their lives and their lip
muscles were adjusted to that big mouthpiece on the
trombone and they couldn’t get a sound out of that
bugle. That was really something. Of course, later
on, they used recordings.
I was really having a rough, hard time when I
came home from the Army. I started having
nightmares. My baby brother slept with me and I
woke up one night choking him. And I’d wake up
and I’d look out and I would see Japanese come
across the bridge, we had a bridge there outside.
Man, I tell you, it took me a while. I still have a hard
time. A lot of times I think it is good to talk about it –
try to get it out of your system a little bit.
When I came out of the Army I did just about
anything I could find. The first job was driving a coal
truck down here at Coeburn from Banner for 50¢ an
hour. Then there was a man in town that started a
new electrical contract work, so I got a-hold of the
V.A. and I told them I’d like to work to learn to be an
electrician. And I worked for Reed Electric in
Coeburn for about three years and I learned a trade. I
traveled north and did that and I retired in 1980. I
went to work in a factory. I was an electrician for
about eleven years, then I took a job as maintenance
superintendent and I retired from that in 1980. In
1980 I came back down here and went to work in the
coal mines at the age of 58 and I had a hard time for
about six months getting in shape.
I’ll tell you a little story that happened in the
Philippines. Back then, they had V-Mail. They could
write a letter from home and they could condense it
and it’d be about the size of my hand. We moved up
one night. We’d set a perimeter. Nobody moved at
was an artist. I met my wife in
Ohio in 1968.
We’ve been
married 35 years.
She has
diabetes and arthritis. I’ve got a
few problems. I’ve had open
heart surgery back about two
years ago and I had an aneurysm
surgery about twelve years ago.
Hassie Meade
I was very fortunate. The Lord’s
really blessed me for a man my
age. There’s so many men my
age are just giving up.
I had a previous marriage.
The boy here is Dennis, and Rick
and Jim, they’re step sons. I
have a daughter, Nancy, that
Elizabeth Meade
lives in Tampa, Florida and
Hassie’s wife
another daughter, Peggy, that
lives in that same area.
You know what, I was undernourished by
seventeen years old. I weighed 106 pounds when I
went in the Army. They let me in on a waiver. I had
to get special permission. And in six months, I went
up to 150 pounds. You know, we had a hard time, we
just didn’t eat right. My wife was the same way. She
was skin and bones growing up.
I spent thirty nine months overseas and I was
wounded in the Philippines. Received two bronze
star medals. I was a staff sergeant in the Army. We
were on a river in Layte Island in the Philippines. In
early October, 1944, we were driving and we came
near a river. I was in a prone position facing the
river. A shot came from behind me. A sniper was in
a tree. He aimed for the back of my head. It missed
and got me in the right arm. I realized that I was hit.
It was a flesh wound – it wasn’t very serious, but I
felt a thump when the bullet went through. They told
me to get under a tank, and the tank driver started
twisting and turning and trying to locate that sniper in
the tree. And I had to go around with the tank as he
turned, and so it was more dangerous there than it was
any other time.
That night we had a typhoon, like a hurricane,
that came in. We dug in and it filled the water in the
foxhole up to my neck. They drove a jeep over top of
me and I held my arm up that was bandaged at that
time all night long. Next morning they were all gone.
When I went into the Army, they tried to judge
you very crudely according to your ability. I’ve
always been a musician. I’ve played a lot of
42
night. Anything that moved out there, you got it. You didn’t fire a shot,
you generally used grenades or hand-to-hand. And our side would put out
intermittent artillery fire at night. A shot here, or a shell here, or a shell
here intermittently, you know, to keep everything down. But they had to
zero in. The first shell landed smack in the middle of our perimeter.
About two hundred men were just digging in. I was sitting on a log
reading a letter from home. There was this guy right beside me, they
called him Long John, and that shrapnel went right by me. I was reading
that letter, and it sliced him open all the way across here. And it didn’t
touch his entrails, it just sliced the skin and they fell out. He grabbed his
entrails with his hands. After it was all over, they called an ambulance
and he got up and walked and held his entrails in his hands and sat down
in the ambulance. They took him back there and sewed him up and sent
Photo courtesy
Tena Mullins Slason
Hassie’s father
Rancy Meade as a baby
held by his mother Ellen Elam
Back of photo reads:
“Born of Cherokee
Indian Mother”
him home. No bleeding. He
didn’t bleed or nothing. It was a
slash just like you took a razor.
But it missed me, it went through
me while I was reading that
letter. Because like that shot I
was telling you about, it was
aimed for the back of my head. I
know it was. It just missed me.
It’s only through the grace of
God that I’m here today, through
many prayers. My momma and
daddy prayed in church.
IF you or someone you
William and Elizabeth Mullins Rasnick Family
Photo courtesy Tena Mullins Slason
Hassie’s grandfather William Rasnick in center, and
grandmother Elizabeth is at his left side
Hassie’s mother, Martha Rasnick, is top row at far right
43
know would like to be
interviewed, please contact:
mariefetzer@tds.net
1-877-550-4726
Earnest Rasnake,
Lue Ella Rasnake,
age 79, of Conway, SC, formerly
of Baptist Valley, VA, passed
away Friday, May 12, 2006
following a long illness. Born at
Bee, VA he was the son of the
late James William and Fannie
Davis Rasnake. He was a retired
Bridge
Construction
Superintendent and was a
member of the Little Freedom
Church at Deskins, VA. He is
survived by his wife of 59 years,
Mrs. Bonnie Vandyke Rasnake.
Graveside services were conducted at the Gibson
Family Cemetery at Bee, VA.
age 78, of Pounding Mill, VA,
formerly of Drill, died Sunday,
October 8, 2006 at the home of
her daughter. She was preceded
in death by her husband, James
Earl Rasnake. Services were
held in Honaker with the Rev.
Arvil
Arwood
officiating.
Interment followed in the
Rasnake Cemetery at Drill.
Obituaries
John Robert
Rasnick, III,
52, of North Tazewell, passed away suddenly
Saturday, September 23, 2006 in Winchester, KY as
a result of a car accident. He was born in Baptist
Valley, VA and was the son of the late John Robert
(Bob) Jr. and Betty Jane Porter Rasnick. He was a
Tazewell High School Class of 1972 graduate and
was currently a Maintenance Supervisor for Frontier
Kemper of Indiana. Survivors are: daughter, Jamey
Rasnick of Suwanee, GA; sisters Linda Rasnick of
So. Olmsted, OH, Harriet Rasnick of Glade Spring,
VA, Patty Hollandsworth of Wilmington, NC, Clara
Rasnick-Crabtree of Salem, VA; brother, Larry
Rasnick of Tazewell, VA; grandson, Spencer
Durkee. Interment was in Greenhills Memory
Gardens at Claypool Hill, VA.
Larry J. Rasnic
of Level Plains, AL,
passed away Thursday, May 18, 2006 at the age of
60. He served in the U.S. Army for 15 years with
two tours of duty in Vietnam. He received the
Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, and was awarded
numerous other medals. Larry was the great-great
grandson of William Patrick Rasnic and descended
down through John Rasnic. He was preceded in
death by his father, Harold Francis Rasnic and is
survived by his wife, Wanda Perry Rasnic, Level
Plains, AL.
Earl Rasnick,
94, died shortly after
midnight on Saturday morning, May 27, 2006. Earl
was the son of Oliver “Bud” Rasnake and Nancy
Ann Grimsley Rasnake. He is survived by his
daughter Nancyann Rasnick Serra. He was cremated
and a memorial service was held on Sunday, June 11
at the 7th Day Adventist Church in Sanford, FL.
James Clyde Powers
, 73, of Griffin,
GA, formerly of North Tazewell, died October 8,
2006 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in
Atlanta, GA. Born August 11, 1933 at Carrie, VA,
he was a son of the late Homer Clyde Powers and
Martha Bostic Powers. He was a graduate of
Graham High School, Bluefield, VA, Class of 1952.
He received an associate degree in accounting from
Steed College in Johnson City, TN, He was a clerk
typist for Ford Furniture Co., Bristol, VA, and was
also a clerk typist while serving in the U.S. Army in
Korea. He retired from Bowman Freight Lines in
Atlanta, GA. Graveside services were conducted at
Maple Hill Cemetery in Bluefield, VA.
Chalmers Hayes Rasnake,
91,
died early Tuesday morning, July 11, 2006, in
Dublin, VA. He was born June 2, 1915 in Russell
Co. and was the son of the late Campbell Rasnake
and Flora Stephens Rasnake. He was a retired
employee of RAAP and a member of the Dublin
Baptist Church. Burial was at the Highland Memory
Gardens, Dublin.
~ May they Rest in Peace ~
The Rasnick Family Newsletter No. 12
44

No. 12 - Rasnick Family Genealogy

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