Matewan Oral History Project Collection
Sc2003-135

Vada Mayse Interview

Becky Bailey: This is Becky Bailey from the Matewan Development Center, Wednesday, June 27, 1990, I'm in the home of Mrs. Mayse, and Mrs. Mayse can you hear me okay?

Vada Mayse: I can...can't hear to good you know, you have to talk loud as you want to.

B: Okay. What is your name, your whole name?

VM: Vada Mayse.

B: Okay, and when where you born?

VM: I was born in uh...eighteen and ninety-eight, January the eleventh, eighteen and ninety-eight.

B: And where were you born?

VM: Ransom, Kentucky.

B: What were your parents' names?

VM: Lawrence Whitt and Octavia Hatfield.

B: Was she related to the Feud Hatfields?

VM: Yes, she was related in a distance from Devil "Anse" Hatfield...She was a distant related to 'em.

B: Uh-huh...When you were born did a mid-wife help your mother?

VM: No.

B: Did, did a midwife help your mother when you were born? Do you know?

VM: Yes, my Aunt Elizabeth Hatfield...brought me to this world. (laughs) This world is awful. (Someone in background said that their mother use to deliver babies)...alot of people did back then.

B: Okay. Where you raised on a farm or...

VM: No, I wasn't raised on a farm, you know how that works.

B: Did you ever meet any of the people like Cap Hatfield, or any of them did you know any of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud people?

VM: No, I...I never met none of 'em, just hear about them, you know.

B: What did you hear about them?

VM: Well back at home, when they's at home with my parents.... They'd all talk about, you know, the Hatfields and McCoys... it's hear say....

B: Uh-huh. What kind of house did you grow up in, did you, did you what, what kind of house?

VM: Well, it was uh...a weather-boarded house...with winders (windows) in it...

B: Uh-huh. Okay, how many rooms were in it to you remember?

VM: Uh...four rooms, four rooms.

B: How many uh...

VM: The last. Of course they had moved from place to place at the last, most of the last, the one I lived in ten years...it was a weather-boarded house...

B: Uh-huh...Did your parents move around alot or, or you did?

VM: No, they'd sell one and buy somewhere else or uh...

B: Okay, did your father ever work in the timber business?

VM: In the timber? Yeah, that was his, most of his work, was workin' in timber, filing saws...uh...I think the name of of saw fall, fall saws, daddy worked to cut timber...and he worked around saw mills.

B: We've heard that they use to take the logs down stream, is?

VM: Yeah,

B: Is did they, use to take the logs, down stream when they cut the timber up they would take it down, down the river on...

VM: Up or down? Yeah, most I can think about they haul them out of a holler...when in the timber, haul them down the holler, that's down stream...to where they worked there to the saw mill.

B: Okay...when did you come to this area?

VM: You mean West Virginia? Oh, in this building it (someone in background said eight years ago)...eight years ago. When this building was first put up...I reckon' it was in '82, I been here eight years...

B: Okay. What do you, what do you remember about Matewan, how, how far back do you remember Matewan?

VM: Well, in the year of fourteens, I come to Matewan just stayin' with my aunt, she was expecting and the first time I ever been in Matewan and in the year of '14. And she, and she gave birth two twin babies,(laughing) I stayed with her about two months, I think two or three months. I tell it just like it is, like it was...

B: What did the uh...what did the town look like?

VM: Well, uh, as well as I can tell ya, or remember just somethin' here like it looks right now...only a little church house is sittin' in the corner of my aunt's lot where Caplans owns that little place now ain't it...uh...that house that she lived in all it's gone out there ain't nobody, mostly I think used for parking ground in there...

B: Uh-huh. Where uh...so most of the building there were brick when you cam there at that time or?

VM: Building was brick? Had uh...if had I don't remember.

B: Okay. What were the streets like was it paved or was it dirt?

VM: Honey's they's just like they are now as well as I remember, they was paved, paved streets...

B: Uh-huh...Okay, do you remember of the names of any of the stores that you would go to there in town?

VM: Stores? Yeah, I....uh....(unintelligible) Joe Shaffer, Sam Shaffer, and his wife was named Martha...Sam Shaffer, his wife was named Rose, Rose they called her. I know Sam and Billy they was brothers, their wives was a sister...

B: What kind of things did they sell at Shaffer Brothers, what did they sell there?

VM: What they had in the...Well, well as I remember he just had dress clothes and coats there, I know me and my sister bought us a coat there about that time,a winter coat...two of my sisters... we, all three got us a coat there in the winter.

B: Okay, What do you remember about World War I, did you have any brothers that fought in World War I or anything?

VM: Well, yeah I had two brothers and uh...growed up with them at home...they're all a vets, World War I and World War II, Charlie went.

B: Uh-huh...Okay. Did they fight in the war?

VM: Uh...my oldest one I think he was called and took the examination but he never was called to war.

B: Okay, how about the flu epidemic, do, did anybody in your family get sick during the flu epidemic?

VM: Huh?

B: Did anybody in your family get sick during the flu epidemic, the influenza?

VM: The influenza?...No, not as I know of.

B: Okay, alright....What about the Matewan Massacre, down there with Sid Hatfield and them did you here about that?

VM: Well, I just hear say about it...All I know 'bout Sid Hatfield, I never paid mind of it, payed much attention to everything so I don't know what happened.

B: Uh-huh. Okay, did you ever get married?

VM: Yeah,I was married a couple times.

B: Uh-huh, When did you get married the first time?

VM: Well the first time, I got married to Jim Teddy and uh...December the 17th, nineteen and nineteen...

B: Uh-huh. Okay, what was his name?

VM: My husband?

B: Uh-huh

VM: Well, uh... James Teddy (?) uh...given name back then by the name of Jimmy, Jim all the time.

B: Uh-huh, Okay did you all have any children?

VM: Yeah, we raised...raised four of 'em...We had six... lost two little ones...

B: Uh-huh, How did they die?

VM: Well, one of the boys died at the time of birth...the other one died in second summer year, most likely it was killed in the second summer. The doctor took care of 'em but...at his house...

B: Uh-huh. Did a doctor help you deliver your children or did you have a mid-wife?

VM: Had a big mid-wife, no all I knowed back then it woulda scared me to death to see a doctor come.

B: Why did it scare you for uh...to see a doctor coming?

VM: Of course they didn't scare me but...it was just then you didn't want one, (unintelligible)

B: Who was your mid-wife?

VM: Well, I think Aunt Molly Hatfield delivered my oldest baby... I had Caroline Hatfield, no I had Sarrie Colemen, delivered my third boy. I had Caroline Hatfield delivered my daughter Bobbie... Had old Mrs. Smith delivering my last two little girls, I reckon all that makes six of 'em.

B: Did you have to pay...?

VM: Huh?

B: Did you have to pay them?

VM: Yeah.

B: How did you pay them?

VM: Cash on the barrel.

B: How much did it cost?

VM: Well, not to much at that time, I think a couple of dollars, couple dollars was what they charged, back at that time.

B: What did your first husband do for a living?

VM: Well, he was a mechanic, work like that what...what he was doing mostly, he worked in the mines some, not too much in the mines, mostly a mechanic worker, garage, garage work.

B: Uh-huh. Okay, did he die or did you all get divorced?

VM: Well we divorced and he, finally passed out and left.

B: When did you all get divorced?

VM: Well, in the year, I lost him I'll have to study....I don't, don't know what year it was, all the things going don't pay no attention to um...

B: Uh-huh... When did you remarry, do you remember?

VM: Well we got married in here nineteen and nineteen, December the 17th, 1919.

B: Uh-huh. Okay, How about your second husband?

VM: Well, we got married in July, uh...July the fifth, nineteen and fifty-one.

B: What was his name, your second husband?

VM: William Mayse.

B: Why did you all get married?

VM: Why did we?

B: Uh-huh...

VM: Well, we, I thought, I needed somebody to help me [make a] to live...I reckon he wanted somebody to (laughs) cook and wait on him...

B: Uh-huh...Had he been married before?

VM: My husband? Yeah, his wife's name was Laura Honaker...

B: Uh-huh...Did you all stay married or did you all get divorced?

VM: No, me and my...ended up to together...Oh let's see, he died in January, the sixth, in the year of '66...

B: Uh-huh. Okay, after you got married did you work or did you stay at home?

VM: Well, I lived...farmed around and raised a garden...He drawled a little pension...then uh...public assistance, wudn't much.

B: What do you remember about Matewan?

VM: Well, I was just, just hear about Matewan and things that happened and I come to Matewan and lived where the store was... just by the what they say uh...I know where it was...

B: Uh-huh...Did you ever hear of a man called Greenway Hatfield?

VM: No, I heard of him but no, I think he use to own this possession (Hatfield Bottom) along there somewhere then. (someone says Uh...huh)

B: How about R.W. Buskirk?

VM: Huh?

B: R.W. Buskirk.

VM: R.W. Buskirk, only Buskirk I know...is that, do you know what his wife's name?

B: Um...there...he had two, Imelda and Ruby?

VM: Imelda Buskirk, yeah. Well, I heard about them, I don't know 'em.

B: Uh-huh. Okay, how 'bout the Blue Goose Saloon? Did you...

VM: Um?

B: The Blue Goose Saloon, did you ever hear about that?

VM: No, I don't remember.

B: Okay. Okay, um... lets see, what are some of the people that you remember, from Matewan, does anybody stand out in your mind?

VM: Well, I had aunt, uncle and aunt, Charlie McCoy married my mother's sister, Ellie Hatfield...and he owned a barbery (barber) shop, while he was livin'

B: Do you remember where his barber shop was?

VM: Well, it was there in, year '14 when I stayed in Matewan. He, he finally gave it up in Matewan and moved to Huntington, he had a little family made and they all moved to Huntington.

B: Okay, Were there any floods back then in Matewan..

VM: Uh...

B: that you remember?

VM: Uh...there was some high waters, you know, and out in the country where we lived, I don't think it ever damaged Matewan, I don't...that I know of, in my time, I don't...remember hearing of any damage.

B: Okay, they said there used to be a swinging bridge, there that connect...connected Matewan to Kentucky, do you remember that bridge?

VM: Yeah, I remember that swingin' bridge, 'cause, I started out on it one time and got scared and turn around and went back. Walked up the railroad up to McCarr and they use to be a bridge up there you could cross alright at that time..

B: Uh-huh. How big was that swingin' bridge, do you remember how big it was?

VM: Well, just, well, as far as, I remember just a plank all the way across I don't think there was any banisters on...I don't remember any.

B: Oh my...

VM: Well back then my head didn't swim like it....like it does now. (laughing)

B: When you were a young girl, did uh...was girls allowed to smoke or drink or anything like that?

VM: No, when I was (young) women didn't get to smoke or drink either....or, well I didn't want none, drinkin' or just a dram, actually we call it a toddy. It tasted awful good. (coughing)

B: What would happen if a girl got caught drinkin' or smoking? What would happen if a girl got caught drinkin' or smoking?

VM: You mean if their parents caught them? Well, they'd take a whip to us, (unintelligible)

B: How 'bout cutting your hair, where girls allowed to cut their hair back then?

VM: No, they didn't want to seem like back then, I would've been a shame to cut their hair they thought it was pretty...

B: Uh-huh, so did, did it every get fashionable here like in the 1920's to have your hair cut short, did many girls cut their hair short, in the '20's?

VM: How, my...my hair come out thin, when Bobby was a young baby, Come out awful thin then I had it cut then, short, 'til it growed out...and got thick, I...let it grow out.

B: Did you get sick when she was born or?

VM: Well, I took flu or something and was sick a long time... one day, it was hard...but I did, I never gave up. I was getting up and go in the kitchen and cook something...I was able to stand up and hold of things of 'em and done my cookin'.

B: Uh-huh. Were there any automobiles in Matewan when you came in 1914?

VM: In nineteen and twenty?

B: In fourteen.

VM: No,

B: Okay...

VM: There wudn't none in Matewan, but you'd hear of them in Huntington, maybe see their picture in catalogs or something.

B: Where there any in 1920?

VM: Uh?

B: Where their any in 1920, any cars?

VM: No, no not out in the country there wudn't.

B: Okay...

VM: Allec Hatfield,my brother-in-law took the first car up Blackberry...

B: Uh-huh. What did it look like?

VM: Well, it look like most cars now, as well as I remember, Oh, we'd hear the roaring, coming roaring, we got to clawing over the fence gettin' out of the way. We thought they was dangerous. We thought they'd run right over you if you didn't get out of the way. Of course, my brother was driving, just like now, they went by the law, you know.

B: Uh-huh. These cars, my uh...my grandmother got spanked the first time her father saw her riding in a car, were, were young ladies not supposed to go riding around in the automobiles?

VM: Huh?

B: Could you...a girl ride around in an automobile if she wasn't married?

VM: No, not 'til I was married, no, me and my brother he finally bought him a car, when they uh...come out of everybody went to buying a car, and my husband bought a car...

B: Uh-huh. Was it a Ford or?

VM: A star. Uh-huh, I don't reckon' I left anything out in there, that oughta been in the refrigator.

B: How did he learn how to work on cars?

VM: Who, my husband? Well, he had books on them, showed what was what and what to do, he works on what he wants too. Uh, he just kinda experienced by workin' with them himself,

B: Uh-huh

VM: And like it wudn't no trouble for him to learn.

B: Uh-huh, why did you all get divorced?

VM: Well, Satan separated us uh...don't put it down that way, I gave him a divorce, but the way he was doing it, he wouldn't living right? So just say, we was divorced. I don't, don't think any thing wrong, but he, he wudn't living right, and I just signed papers for our divorce.

B: Uh-huh. What religion where you raised in?

VM: Most of the time Primitive Baptist Church.

B: Do you remember any of your ministers, back then, who was the preachers?

VM: A preacher?

B: Uh-huh.

VM: Preacher Anderson Hatfield, John Welch, Corla Hatfield and others...

B: Uh-huh. What, what do you remember about preacher Anderson Hatfield?

VM: Well he married me and my husband, my first husband...and we kindly lived in the neighborhood, he was related to my mother... uh...di...distant.

B: Uh...Uh...do you remember what he looked like, or anything like that?

VM: No. Well, uh...He just looked liked another Hatfield is all I know. He wore chin whiskers....

B: Uh-huh. When you were growing up did any of the women in your family smoke pipes?

VM: No, I don't, just when you slip around, my sister had one in the hills, my mother never knowed it. She, she had it hid out. All us parents was strict, if she would of caught us smokin' she would of killed us.

B: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

VM: I had two brothers, and I was counting my sisters, well just say, Virginia, Lilly, Vadie what somebody called her, Jenny, Lilly, Maudie, Berthie,

VM: Gladys, Lassie, Vergie, Gardener, that's it uh...

B: Seven...

VM: Uh...how many does that make? (someone in background said seven)

B: Okay, Did you go to school when you were young?

VM: Huh?

B: Did you go to school when you where young?

VM: Yeah, I got...I got, through the fourth grade year, and got ready for the fifth...I quite school at that time.

B: How old were you when you quit?

VM: Uh...about twelve.

B: Uh-huh, why did you quit?

VM: Well they just kept me home to work...I'd rather went on to school but, just the way people lived, back then you had the ones that could work, but them out there on the farm workin'....no way they wanted me to go to school or not...

B: Uh-huh, did they let the boys go on to school or?

VM: Well, if they wanted to but, my oldest brother he he got married and my youngest he never went to school, to much on account of his eyes, his eyes they gave him trouble. But, he graduated his self at home...there wudn't nothin' he couldn't work out...

B: Uh-huh, had he gotten' sick, is that why he had trouble with his eyes, was he sick or?

VM: No, his eyes got so bad that, he...wudn't hardly able to go to school.

B: Did um...did you all ever use herbs or anything out of the mountains to doctor people with?

VM: I don't know, the doctor never did recommend nothing like that, not as I know of. My parent would make herb tea sometimes, different kinds...

B: Okay, can you remember any of the herbs that you all would use, or any of the things that you would use to make tea?

VM: Birch for one thing but, now at the present time I don't remember too much, yellow root.

B: Okay.

VM: I can't recall, the other uh...

B: Okay...How about when somebody would get the shingles?

VM: Huh?

B: When somebody would get the shingles, what would you all do if somebody got the shingles?

VM: On the house?

B: No, uh...when they would get the shingles on the body?

VM: I don't know. You mean how...

B: How did they get rid of it?

VM: Shingles what is that? I never knowed of it especially come up, be questioned about things back then.

B: You, you say one time what was wrong with your arm?

VM: Uh...what they call shingles, I reckon.

B: Uh-huh

VM: They say if it met around there it would kill ya.

B: And your, and what kind of doctor did your mother get?

VM: Faith(?) doctor was all, never gave me no trouble.

B: What did he do to it?

VM: Well, he just took hold of my arm and rubbed it. He used Faith on it.

B: Okay,

VM: Just asking God to heal.

B: Uh-huh...Okay, do you remember where there ever any big revivals in this area, you know, church revivals?

VM: Who?

B: Church revivals, did you ever go to any church revivals?

VM: Yeah, we had church all the way long. Were from Primitive Baptist, mostly.

B: How often a week, let's say in a week?

VM: Church of Christ,we went to Church of Christ a whole lot coming up.

B: Uh-huh... How often in a week, a would you all go to church would you just go on Sundays or?

VM: Mostly Sunday. My mother never hardly let us go at nights, she didn't believe in it, they always had the daytime church and she wouldn't hardly let us go at night church, and go on Sunday if we went.

B: Uh-huh...Did your mother make your clothes when you were growing up?

VM: Yes, she was a dressmaker and a bonnet maker...a lot of people would get her to sew for them and uh...make bonnets...

B: Uh-huh. What did the bonnets look like?

VM: Uh...I guess you can tell her can't you (talking to someone, Vada asked if she would tell her, and she asked Vada where her bonnet was?) Mine's in there in that chest.

B: Okay.

VM: It's ninety years old if you want to look at it.

B: Okay...

VM: Just more like a...

B: You say you all rode a horse?

VM: Huh?

B: When did you all ride horses?

VM: Back as when we come up in the up you know after the cars come out, in fact we kept our horses, my husband kept the horses just same...me and him rode horses.

B: Uh-huh... Did the women ride the horses side saddle or did they ride astride?

VM: Some would ride astride and some would ride the side..when they first come out I remember them riding astride, they thought it was the biggest shame ever was a woman riding astride...

B: Uh-huh...Was your first husband was he younger than you?

VM: Yeah,he was 'bout three year younger than I was.

B: Uh-huh. What kind of clothes did you wear when your were a little girl, do you remember?

VM: Well, my mother made our clothes all the time, she...she, had made most of 'em with a band in 'em gathered in the waist. (someone says "We'll see you later.")

VM: I'll be lookin' for ya.

B: You were saying what kind of clothes did you wear when you were little?

VM: My mother made a small...girl coming up she'd get 'em and put a band in them...or gather them....on that, run them into a skirt for you, gathered for me, open up the back...button.

B: When did a girl start wearing long skirts, how old was she when she started wearing long skirts?

VM: Back when they were real small, they were long, dragging the ground, (unintelligible) the women thought they was pretty little dresses, dresses draggin' the ground, but uh...

B: When you got married how long was your dresses suppose to be then, you know, after you got married, where you suppose to wear long dresses or ?

VM: Ah, we didn't pay much attention, we'd wear more long, we never did wear lots of short dresses.

B: Uh-huh. Okay, did women ever wear pants out in public or slacks?

VM: No, not when I was a coming up. Not...you be a workin' in the field or anything but they wouldn't let nobody see 'em we'd take 'em out and wear while they was out in the briers, and weeds, and uh...workin' in the corn, or anything, they go take 'em off before they'd let anybody see them.

B: Uh-huh

VM: Where nobody would catch 'em with pants on. Well, I guess they givin' in to the best of my knowledge.

B: Okay. Well uh...Thank you for talking to me.

VM: Ya...ya all is welcome.

B: And would you spell your first name for me?

VM: V.A.D.A is the way I spell it, M.A.Y.S.E, Mayse.

B: Where did your name come from who were, were you named after somebody, I've never seen that name before?

VD: Had...never did see that name before, I don't know, my mother sa...said there was a old lady wanted, wanted her to call me Vada, she said if you call her she would buy me a dress, (unintelligible) she liked the name alright, she...she named me, Catherine Bouldin was her name she was, giving her name...

B: Uh-huh.

VM: Mother named her Daisy,

B: Uh-huh...

VM: (unintelligible)

B: Okay. Well thank you for talking to me today.

VM: Your entirely welcome.

Matewan Oral History Project Collection