Sue Nell Fell in the Well…

We take water for granted.  Just walk over to the faucet, turn the handle and get a drink, Right?  In the beginning, on our mountain farm there was no faucet. In fact, there was no running water in the house at all.  The water was carried from a spring located about three hundred yards down the hill.  Walk across the road past the mailbox, follow that fence down the hill a couple of hundred yards, and you will find a spring.  They carried water to the house from that spring several times a day.  The spring was not only the family’s water source, it was the closest thing they had to refrigeration.  So, milk and butter had to be carried to and from the spring as well.  Can you imagine the stories and adventures that took place on those treks up and down that hill?

There were two other sources of water available.  They were Moss Spring and an old well in the field below the road.  Moss is the family name of the people who originally owned the farm.  There is a spring behind Gerald and Betty’s house that carries the name Moss Spring.  If you walk through the field below the road, you may still find a certain rock pile.  That rock pile is a result of filling in an old well that used to be there.  That well was used for years to water livestock and to supply an annual cane sorghum grinding operation that will be written about later.  These other two sources, however, were not always reliable or as good as the one they used.  That one was so good, in fact, that Gerald and Betty used it for their water source until 1983 when Mockingbird Hill Water Association water was brought to both homes.  It would probably still be a good water source today, but it is still a long, long way from the house.  That is probably why just a few years after moving in, Grandpa and Grandma decided to dig a well closer to the house.

Now, just how could one decide where to start digging and if there might even be water down there?  The science of the 30s was a little different than now. An old man by the name of Jim Carter, a water witch, came out to the house with a Willow tree branch that was called a divining rod.  It looked a little like a large wishbone from a turkey.  With one side of the fork in each hand and the tip pointed skyward, through channeled energy, spiritual guidance, or some other mystery, he was led throughout the yard and grounds. Finally, with a downward thrust, the empowered rod dove into the turf.  “There you go, that’s where the water is!”  Based on that divine insight, that is where the well is today, just on the south side of the house.

The well was dug by hand.  They would dig down with pick and shovels and then lay stone and concrete to keep the earth walls from caving in. The James boys, mostly Bruce, did the digging and Glen Brasel probably helped laying the stone.  It took several days to complete a job like this.  Any new construction project brought curious children to watch and worried mothers to watch out for them.  Sue Nell was one of the children watching and Grandma was watching her.  There is no telling how many times someone told her, “Sue Nell, stay back, you will fall in the well.”  She should have been told a few more times I guess.  One day when the crew quit for lunch, they threw a couple of sheets of roofing tin over the hole and went in the house to eat.  We know that curiosity killed the cat.  Sue thought curiosity had killed her.  Sure enough, Sue Nell fell in the well and I expect her screams could be heard clear over to Scenic Point.  Everyone rushed out and Bruce Laverne reached down and pulled his baby sister out of the well.  Fortunately for Sue, it was only around six foot deep at the time.

Sue says that she was so young that she actually does not remember the incident.  The teasing, on the other hand, has gone on for over seventy years.  Grandpa had a nickname for everyone and “Sue Nell fell in the well” was here to stay.  Others added to it making, “Sue Nell fell in the well, thought for sure she’d gone to hell.”  You thought your little nickname was tough?  How would you like that one?  Today, Sue is real quick to add, “but she didn’t go to hell because she met Jesus.”

Sometime later, one of the neighbors was digging a well.  He wanted Sue to come over and fall in to his well.  He said that the one here was the best he had ever seen and he wanted his to be just like it, complete with Sue Nell falling in the well for good luck.

The well has been spectacular.  It was the only water source until 1983 when rural water came to the house.  There is so much more to be written about this well and water on the mountain, and we will share more stories another time.  What can you remember about the well?
And that's the way I heard it on the mountain,
Tony Peoples