Rabbit Box Blog

When Mom was a young girl, Grandpa Nelson worked at Dover Mill in Shelby. The family lived in one of the mill houses near the mill. She remembers that two of Nelson’s brothers also worked for the same owners, but not necessarily in the same mill. A little online searching reveals that the two owners of the mills were Jack and Charles Dover, and they owned three mills at about this time.

At any rate, she remembers when Earl Scruggs, who would have been a teenager (but the internet reports that he began playing professionally at about that time), came by the house with his band. They set up in the living room and played several songs, although Mom says she was too shy to pay much attention to their playing. She hid under the couch while they played. Nelson always made friends wherever he was, and it’s possible he knew Earl or the Scruggs family from work. Earl worked in the Lilly Mill in Shelby according to stories on the Internet. He quickly decided being a musician better suited him.

Mom says the family didn’t stay in the house very long after that. Nelson always wanted to be a farmer, and he moved them to a farm down the same road. He lived on that farm as a tenant farmer rather than an owner. Farming was always a tough business, and it was especially hard in the 1930s, so he had to keep working in textile mills for most of Mom’s childhood. They moved a number of times, once to Lattimore, once to Iron Station, and finally to the old Nance farm in Alexis. As far as I know, Grandpa Nance’s farm was the only one he ever owned. He kept an outside job throughout my childhood, until he sold off most of the farm and “retarred,” as he always pronounced it.

Earl, as you may know, found other work, too.

Update, July 1, 2023:

When I told Mom about what I had written on this story, she remembered some other details. First, I should note that she hid under the “settee,” not the couch, a term that I don’t think they used in those days.

Mom remembered that both her parents helped start up the Lilly Mill. Nelson knew the man who started it (of course! He knew just about everybody), and he asked them to work, Nelson as a weaver and Estie as a spinner. In exchange he offered them a mill house rent-free. This offer particularly appealed to Estie because they were staying with relatives, and the wife was so cheap they didn’t get enough to eat.

Mom didn’t know how long they worked there, but Nelson and his brothers Ben, Blaine, and Ralph ended up working in the Dover Mills by the time of the Scruggs visit.