I was lucky enough to interview Mona Lee Shelton, from Shelton Laurel, NC. Shelton Laurel is in Madison County and is referred to by the locals as “God’s Country”. Why, you ask? It’s God’s Country due to the fact of all the natural beauty this community has. You drive in on a two lane road, which is main road to travel anywhere in this community. As I was traveling to meet Mrs. Shelton, I was amazed by the tall mountains I was surrounded by that seemed to go on forever. Furthermore, there was just a peace about this community I felt as I as driving. As many may know, the Shelton Laurel Community was the site for a well known Civil War battle site, The Shelton Laurel Massacre. During the Civil War, thirteen men were shot and killed. Today, there is North Carolina Historic Sign directing people to the location of the graves. The Appalachian writer, Ron Rash, even wrote a fictional book about the massacre and the Shelton Laurel Community, set in the 1970’s, entitled The World Made Straight. With all this in mind, I jumped at the chance to get an inside glimpse of this historically popular community!
My main purpose for talking with Mrs. Shelton was her knowledge of the local cemeteries in the area. When I first talked to her about Appalachia 2.0, she automatically told me about the older cemeteries she could show me. As excited as she was to show me, I was up for whatever adventure she had planned!
I met Mrs. Shelton on her front porch, where she has a wonderful view of the mountains that I saw on drive in. After talking for a few minutes about what I would like to know, she told me to “load up” and she would take me around, sharing what she knew about her community. We took a short drive up the road and traveled up a gravel drive. It didn’t look like anything was up this drive, but she told me to “just wait and watch”. So I did as Mrs. Shelton told me. As soon as she got past one large curve on the drive, it opened up into a large field filled with numerous graves. And again, I felt that magical peace.
As we were walking through the cemetery, Mrs. Shelton knew a story about almost person who had been layed to rest in this cemetery. There were Civil War soldiers, WWI and WWII veterans, along with unmarked graves. Mona said that it was local knowledge/legend some of those unmarked graves were the graves of slaves from the 1800’s. After learning this, it was amazing to me that the leaders in the Shelton Laurel Community were still caring for the grounds. Too many times, we hear about unknown cemeteries being found during the construction of large projects, and nothing is done about the graves. They are simply absorbed into the building of the projects…
I guess that’s one defining quality of the people from the Appalachian region; as a whole, they care for their community members long after their death. Those that have passed on still seem to be respected, no matter how long they have been gone. And they always remain in the memories of those still living. At least, this is the feeling I got while Mrs. Shelton was telling me all she knew.
Mrs. Shelton also shared with me the concept of “decoration”. And for those you who don’t know what decoration is; it’s when the family and community members come to the cemeteries and decorate the headstones. They will place flowers and meaningful ornaments around their loved ones, showing their love to the ones who have passed on. I have participated in my fair share of decorations, but Mona Lee told me something I didn’t know. People used to have church services during these decoration days. I asked her if it was like having the funerals all over again. “Why no! People would whoop and holler. We always had a good ole time!” She also said they would have a huge lunch afterwards. Everyone who came to the service would bring a covered dish and they had fellowship along with great food. After hearing this, my thought was “how much better could it get?”
There is a poem that Ron Rash wrote that I feel matches what Mrs. Shelton shared with me. I’ll make sure to find it and post it. See if you agree!
Mona and Luis Shelton are my next door neighbors. I love them dearly. My family came to Florida after my Dad passed away. My brother is a Vietnam Veteran and needed my help. Mona keeps in touch with us, as we still are her neighbors. My husband comes from the mountains of Greece and was accepted from the get go. I come from a military background and grew up all over the world. Mountain folks took a few years to really accept me, as it was said to me from my other neighbor on the next mountain over. "Well come here and let me take a good look at you" I had to get a right away to cross over their land to get electricity put on the 70 acres we purchased. This older mountain woman met me on her porch with a shot gun in her hand. " There's a lot of talk about you going on in these here mountains. Come and sit with me a spell. I sat and talked to her about where I came from. She says people are afraid of you. I asked her Why?. She says that "a woman of your vastly traveling and education have people afraid if you" I asked her if she was afraid of me. " Shucks no, I ain't afraid of no flatlander" I told her , other than the Shelton family, no body would talk to me and if I tried to talk to them, they'd act as though I wasn't even there. She said it was gonna take these mountain folks a while to trust you. I asked her what did she think. She sat there for a while, with her shotgun across her lap. Finally she says" oh heck I think you're the one thing these mountain women need. I think it's about high time that we women could use someone as smart as youin up here in these mountains. We might just learn a thing or two". She sign the right away for me and welcomed me to the community, saying "just give us a little bit of time and we'll come around. A little word of advice, if I may" " Just stay away from being too friendly with the menfolk and you'll be ok". I told her that I'm married. She says "yea I know, your also beautiful and smart and all the menfolk are a talking about you" We a good laugh about it. It took the women, other than the Shelton clan, about five years to finally start talking to me. I love the mountains in Madison County. But truth be told, the mountains can be unforgiven, and we couldn't have made it if it hadn't been for the Shelton clan taking us in and showing us, mainly me, how to survive the the mountains. We are still in Florida, but making plans if returning to the only place I call home. Shelton Laurel
ReplyDeleteHello!!! Any information you could give me on where the cemetery is that has the two stones with those killed in the massacre would be greatly appreciated. Also if Mona still lives there I would love to talk to her. My grandfather and all of his family were from Shelton Laurel.
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