Chapter Nineteen

March 2, 1939

I recall that in the erection of the Thermal City Hotel I weather boarded the west gable of the building. It was about fifty feet from the ground to the comb. In putting up the last boards in this gable I stood on two ten inch planks, about six feet long, to do the work

They built a little railroad about four miles into the mountains and hauled the timber to the mill on flat cars.Mr. Ab Weaver lived there at that time. His father was then living and resided with his son. Mrs. Thos. J. Stone, who now lives near Thermal City, is Mr. Ab Weaver’s daughter. She was just a small girl when we were building this hotel.

Mr. Kit Carpenter, with whom we boarded, was a very lively man and was always teasing someone. Very often he would play some amusing joke on his wife. His wife’s name was Elizabeth and he called her “Liz.” One day two or three extra men came in for dinner and Mrs. Carpenter was not expecting them, and did not have as much of some dishes as she would have liked. Before we sat down to the table she called Mr. Carpenter into the kitchen and told him not to eat any of some particular dish. As soon as we sat down at the table Mr. Carpenter said, “Liz told me not to eat any of that dish for she did not have much of it.”

Miss Lola Roseboro, a young lady from Georgia, and a niece of Mrs. Carpenter was teaching school near Thermal City and boarded at Mr. Carpenter’s. A few years later she married a Mr. Johnson, a railway engineer, and they had a son that married the young widow of the late R. J. Reynolds of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

About one mile from Thermal City was the Golden Valley Lumber Co. This company did a big business for several years. They built a little railroad about four miles into the mountains and hauled the timber to the mill on flat cars. They had a very small locomotive.

I recall the first time I ever saw the late Sol Gallert was at this lumber plant. He was paymaster for this lumber company. Mr. Gallert came from the state of Maine and later located in Rutherfordton as a lawyer. Mr. Gallert did me a favor one time that made me always have a kindly feeling for him. Mr. Gallert represented the county in the General Assembly of North Carolina. He was a Jew and a Democrat. He never married. He was a strong advocate of good roads and other progressive measures. He died several years ago.