Methodist Church Cemetary, near Bell's Crossroads,
outside of Troutman, NC. Twice widowed, he is buried
there between his first and second wives.
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Methodist Church Cemetary, near Bell's Crossroads, outside of Troutman, NC. Twice widowed, he is buried there between his first and second wives. |
John Arch Collins was the oldest son of Pleasant Henderson Collins and Wilmeth Alice Bass. He was named for his two grandfathers--John C. Rudolph Collins and Archibald Bass. His father had developed an incurable bone disease in his leg at age nine. To save his life, his leg was amputated above the knee. A kitchen table had been moved under a chinaberry tree for the "surgery". During the amputation he threw a pair of scissors at his sister, Martha Pauline Isabella Epsy. She carried a scar on her leg the rest of her life. He wore a peg leg.
The homeplace was on Cornelius Road. (see map)
Pleasant Henderson Collins, "Hence" for short, had a violent temper. When the children angered him, he would give them a harsh whipping. Therefore, they would run away from him and hide. If a plowed field was nearby, they would run across it because Hence's peg leg would stick in the soil. He would get loose and spring forward on his good leg, landing close to them, but then his peg leg would stick in the soil again, and they could get away to hide under the house where they would not be seen until he had gotten over his anger.
Since John Arch was the oldest, he was put in charge of the others as they worked out in the fields. He never got over being the "boss".
Hence Collins was a very successful farmer, miller and sawmill man. He operated the sawmill and the grain mill with a steam engine. The farm became a family co-op. Once the steam engine blew up, knocked Hence down, and blew his hat up into a tree. Fortunately he was not injured. This was the end of the milling.
Prior to 1906, probably 1904-5, John Arch went off to school at the Boonville Academy which had become the Yadkin Valley Institute located in Boonville on the northwest side of Yadkin County near the Surry County line. Tradition says that the town of Boonville was built where two Indian trails crossed. The east-west trail was used by the Cherokees and the north-south trail was used by the Catawbas. Daniel Boone made many visits to this area after his family moved from Pennsylvania to Bear Creek near Mocksville in 1750. He would come back to bear and deer hunt in the Yadkin River Valley. He camped frequently west of Boonville where there was a large spring. This land is now owned by Sammy Richardson.
The school was under the direction of Mr. R. B. "Bob" Horne and his assistant, John Allen, from Boonville. The Institute was a boarding school for boys and girls. Students from many parts of North Carolina came there to enroll. Tuition ranged from $2.50 to $20 a month.
Room and board were provided at Angel Hotel and in private homes for $6.50 a month. Some residences providing room and board were: Ford Day, Luther Jones, Marion Speas, Frank Woodhouse, W. W. Woodruff, Alvin Carver.
Yadkin Valley Institute and School of Business were very advanced for that time. Students came from as far away as Virginia and Central North Carolina. There were nine faculty members and two hundred thirty-seven students. Literary societies were connected to the School. They purpose was to stimulate interest in literature, writing, oratory and music.
Subjects taught in 1894 were spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, history, natural philosophy, physiology, botany, astronomy, chemistry, algebra, bookkeeping, geometry, trigonometry, Latin, French, German, Greek, rhetoric, composition, literature, elocution, vocal and instrumental music.
Report cards reported the number to times absent from prayers, the number of times absent from recitations, general conduct, times tardy, and demerits.
It was here that John Arch met Bessie Cartwright from Union Grove in Iredell County. Later when we went the thirty miles from Bell's Crossroads to see Bessie, he would often fall asleep in the buggy on the way home. The sound of the horses hooves on the bridge before he arrived home would awaken him.
He began to write his diary of daily happenings beginning January 1, 1906. when there was a Collins' Reunion. Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Frank Baker had returned from Texas. The reunion was held at Pleasant Henderson Collins' place so everyone would have an opportunity to see them again. Among those present were members of John C. Rudolph Collins' family, the Henry Collins' family, and the Mary Collins' family who were the children of Richard Collins and Susanna Dillon. Annie Mayes told me she remembered hearing stories of Richard Collins coming across the Atlantic Ocean to America. One story related that the mother knitted socks for Richard on the way over.
It is probably the family came to Philadelphia and down the Great Wagon Road that follows the Indian and buffalo trails to the Catawba River Valley This was the original interstate road for the United States. An old road to Charlotte N. C. came through the Jacob Troutman farm and the John Arch Collins Farm. This road is now a gully caused by erosion as the road went straight down hill.
From Grace Isabel Troutman Collins' biography in Descending Jacob's Ladder by Thomas Troutman:
Grace Isabel Troutman was the sixth child of Jacob Caldwell Troutman and Margaret Louise Troutman...After graduation, Grace began a career as a public school teacher at the Troutman Graveyard School, and later at Bethlehem School (now Celeste Hinkle School), on the Old Mountain Road near Highway 70. She, like other teachers, received room and board at the Nash home near the school. One of the popular events of the day was a Sunday afternoon sing using shaped-notes. At times the sing was held in the home of Jacob and Margaret Troutman.
At such a gathering, Grace met John Arch Collins, a successful young farmer, deputy sheriff, and sawmill man. Jacob Troutman teased John Arch about his strong bass harmony as they sang, "Amazing Grace." After a suitable courtship, the two were united in marriage by the Rev. W.H. Halliwanger, pastor of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, 01 September 1915.
John Arch Collins, a widower, brought to the marriage two children, Nellie Blanch Collins, born 22 October 1908 and Annie Hazel Collins, born 28 April 1910. After the great flood of 1916, [John Arch and Grace Troutman Collins] bundled up their newborn son, Ernest Troutman Collins, born 11 June 1916, and went to Young's Creek to see the flood waters.
In 1920, plans were made to build a new house using forest pine lumber. The money to build the two-story, four-bedroom house with wrap-around porches, was borrowed from the Federal Land Bank of Columbia. John Arch sawed most of the lumber on a sawmill powered by a Frick Steam Tractor. By the time their second son, Clyde Louis Collins, was born 20 May 1921, the family had moved into the new house and the old house was moved west down the hill to become a tenant house.
When John Arch was away, Grace helped manage the tenants and the hired hands who helped farm the land and work at the sawmill. Some of the hired hands were prisoners who were released to John Arch rather than serve time in jail. "Miss Grace," as she was called, was highly respected by these men.
In the mid-twenties, John Arch worked the night shift in the Police Department in Mooresville. Grace had not yet learned to drive. One Sunday morning she went upstairs when John Arch was sleeping, slipped the car keys out of his pocket, drove the car around the house a few times, and announced, "Children, get dressed. We're going to church." Blanch declared that she would walk. However, all the children, including Blanch, got in the car. The 1924 Dodge Touring Car had a very loose steering wheel and Grace came close to the ditch a few times, but she made the trip safely. After that, she drove anywhere she of the family needed to go. Grace taught a large young adult Sunday School Class, and later became Superintendent of the Sunday School.
The Great Depression came. Blanch and Hazel had moved to Winston-Salem. Cotton was down to 4¢ a pound. This would hardly pay the fertilizer bill. Grace helped keep the farm from foreclosure by helping with income. As a member of the Home Demonstration Club, she arranged for a table at the Farm Women's Market at Statesville. There she sold fresh and canned vegetables, butter, eggs, cottage cheese, and baked goods (especially cakes, including white and dark fruitcakes). She used the telephone, the only modern convenience in the house, to take orders. If people could not come to the market-she delivered to their houses. In addition, she dressed broilers and turkeys raised on the farm and sold them.
Weekends with Sunday dinner was a celebration at the Collins' home. Married children came home for the weekend, bringing the grandchildren. After church, Grace, and the adults available, would gather in the kitchen and cook a scrumptious meal, using all meats, vegetables, cakes and pies a plenty. Sometimes relatives would come home from church as well. When the last guests drove their car out of the backyard, Grace would say, "Well, the storm's over." Then she and John Arch would get a much needed Sunday afternoon nap.
By the late forties and early fifties, John Arch was not well. He had developed a heart condition that grew progressively worse. Grace became the primary caregiver. John Arch cashed in a life insurance policy with the Junior Order of America and paid off the mortgage on the house built in 1920-21...
