Courthouse Series No.1

Growing Up Between the Jail and The Courthouse Through The Eyes of a Child

Not many people can say they grew up in jail. Well, I did. My father was Sheriff Neal R. Kitchens, who served a total of twenty years as sheriff of Clay County. He went in to office first as a Deputy Sheriff and was then elected High Sheriff. He was stricken with ALS ( Lou Gehrig disease) and passed away in his late fifties. Every kid needs a hero and Daddy was my idol and my hero throughout his lifetime.

Daddy moved my mother, Mable Kitchens and me to the living quarters of the jail, now the Clay County Museum, when I was about three or four years old. Mother had poor health for a few years and we had a helper move in to give Mother some additional help, cook for the prisoners, and keep an eye on me. I was probably given more freedoms and responsibilities than most kids my age. After all, we were living in a jail and I had to grow up pretty fast. I always felt that I raised myself. That may be one reason I have been so independent all of my life.

The Clay County Courthouse was just over a hundred yards from the jail and I made my usual trek there every single day.

Most of the county offices were located on the lower level of the building. I felt that all of the people in that building were my good friends. Mr. Arthur Jones would come out of the Register of Deeds office and greet me with “Hello, young sprout.” “You’ve got a smile on your face as big as the sunshine.” I rushed down the hallway to see “Miss Lizzie Scroggs” who had the softest, sweetest voice of any librarian around. She would say, ” Now , Janet look at the books all you want, but be sure to put them back where you got them.” I often stopped in to see Mr. Tom Gray, an attorney whose office was located across from the Sheriff’s office. I thought he was such a handsome man. He wore a coat and tie and always smelled goo, and he was so-o-o tall, I thought. I remember Mr. Alan Bell who was associated with the Clay County Schools and George Martin who had a very clear voice and told a lot of funny stories. He served as Clerk of Court for several years.

My favorite and most exciting office was the Sheriff’s office. It was also the Tax Collector’s office. After Mother’s health improved she served as part time tax collector. I can remember people coming into the office asking if they could pay a portion of their tax bill because they were unable to pay the whole bill. Mother wrote a receipt on the partial payment pad and the people came back later to complete their payment.

Around ten o’clock each morning there was a “coffee break” . Secretaries, receptionists and other helpers came for coffee that was boiled in an enamel pot on top of the big old pot-bellied stove. I remember the Lovin twins, Juanita and Lolita, Dwayne Long Beal, and Mary Bill Allison most vividly. Everyone enjoyed this time together, drank coffee and told a few funny jokes. Then they went back to their respective offices. I loved those girls. They were family to me.

Court was held upstairs in the courthouse. When I was very young I remember how high and big those stairs were to me. Often someone gave me a boost all the way to the top of the steps.

I loved it when court was in session. I especially liked it when Thad Bryson, the DA out of Swain County, was there. He called me “Johnny Jump Up” and bounced my around on his knee. John Queen from Haywood County was another favorite. He was a tall, slow moving man with an easy smile and a totally bald head ( this was a long tie before bald heads were cool). He came to the living quarters of the jail a day or two before court  and cleaned bunches of trout fish daddy caught. We had a big fish fry most every time court was held. My mother always laughed and said that John wore all the hair off the top of his head as he leaned over the sink to clean the fish and his head rubbed the cement wall above. Even though I was little I never believed it.

I liked to hear all those important people argue back and forth over each court case. I never knew what trail was going on or what they were arguing about, but sometimes they surely sounded angry. I guess I just wondered who would win the argument.

It was also exciting when the “revenuers” quietly slipped into town, and , along with daddy, went still hunting. The stills were confiscated and all of the moonshine was brought back to the jail to be destroyed. There was an old,old potato house that joined the back yard of jail. It had a sloping tin roof. The “revenuers” poured out gallons and gallons if moonshiner over the old tin roof and the little town of Hayesville brightened up with the smell of “raw white lightening.”

As I search my memory I think of all the times the prisoners dropped heavy twine down through the bars. I tied a nail tightly to the twine and stuck the nail through an apple from our own tree. Then, they carefully pulled the apple up the side of the wall of the jail and through the bars. (At least they had a healthy morning snack) . The prisoners also threw money down from the upstair cell that wee called the “run around cell”. It held prisoners who needed a night or two to sober up but who were not considered dangerous. I went to town to buy candy, chewing gum and snacks for them. Usually I shopped for the goodies at Mr. Charlie Carringer’s store located where Cut Worm’s Museum is now.  Sometimes I went to Booth’s for special kinds of candy. Starr Bristol helped me select the candy and she made sure I got my share as a tip. I loved Starr. She was an original. Can you imagine things like that  happening in our jail system now? Not likely.

There were so many exciting things happened during my childhood- sometimes not just exciting, but downright scary and I observed it right down to the end. Things got really hairy when the T.V.A. announced they would be coming in to build the Lake Chatuge Dam. That was a really big thing for our county.  It brought so many new people in to the county to work on the dam. Most of them worked hard during the day and liked to relax with a few drinks in the evening. Sometimes things got out of control.

We has several beer joints and around the county. Daddy often worked around the clock during these years. He would come home, take a nap or two during the day and often not even take his shoes off for a night of rest. Not many people could have stood up ender these conditions.  I watched him bring in jail birds day after day and night after night. I also watched many fist fights, but never really worried too much about Daddy. I always knew he would be the one left standing. He really was a powerful man.

Daddy was out of the sheriff’s office for a few years and we moved from the jail when I was about nine or ten years old. He started clearing land around his grandparents’ old home place on Cold Branch and Peckerwood. His small herd of registered polled Herefords increased. He bought a small saw mill and ventured into the lumber business. What started as small operations ended up on a fairly large scale. Mother was always there for help and support. The farming and lumber operations took pace on what is now known as The Ridges at Mountain Harbour Golf Course.

I don’t think daddy could get the excitement of being sheriff out of his system. A few years later he decided to run for office again. He was elected and went back in as Sheriff of Clay County. He moved a deputy to the living quarters of the jail and our family moved to a little house on Riverside Drive in town.

My association with the courthouse was the same as before, the only difference was there were some new people and different faces around the offices. Mr. Neal Rogers and Mont Reece were always favorites.

The court square has always been my playground. I roller skated hundreds of miles within the court square. We town kids played hide and seek, running in and out of the courthouse. We hid upstairs and outside in the bushes by the courthouse and the trees in the courtyard.

There were a few things to do during those years, but we never knew it. We kept busy with Scouts, getting a group together to make home-made fudge, pop popcorn, make popcorn balls, play ball and in general, act goofy.

When we were young teenagers we tried to find someone who was old enough to drive and who had a driver’s license. Early at night we lapped the square a dozen of times. When we got tired of going around and around forward we stopped the car and backed round the square in the opposite direction. How exciting is that? Well, pretty exciting when you get to back around really fast. We only hoped not to cut any corners and make a circle out of a square!

The funny thing about it is that now I’m seventy-six years old and I never, ever go to town without driving around the square once or twice. I say to my Hubby, ” Honey, let’s lap the square before going home.” I look up to that wonderful courthouse and think to myself, “Keep looking unique and stately, you beautiful old building. You played an important part in my life and in the lives of all the people in Clay County. You have served us well for many, many years and you still have a lot of living to do.”  If walls could talk, I think the old building would reply, ” Yes, sweet girl, I hear you and I sense your love.”

Janet Kitchens Powell