PART TWO: Nearby views and history
The first thing I was handed when I walked in the door was the book The Man Who Moved a Mountain by James Davids (Fortress Press 1970). The story is about Bob Childress, who fought his way from dire poverty into the seminary so he could become a preacher for the Presbyterians, and how he basically civilized the very cruel and violent people of this area. They were mostly believers in an old version of the Primitive Baptist Church where, apparently, ignorance was considered a mark of holiness and if a person killed another person on some pretext or other it was God's will, obviously, and not to be punished. If a person not your kin took sick, you kept away, you don't help. Bob changed that by example and by teaching, and even brought in the law to shake and shape things up. He had reason to fear for his life several times, but died of old age.
I read it right away (no television, so reading is all there is, great!) after arriving and started looking for Buffalo Mountain, on the flanks of which much of the book takes place. Buffalo Mountain is visible from the house, although for these views we stepped away from the house some distance.
The story is almost unbelievable, and may be colored just a little to be great propaganda for the Presbyterian church, a church to which I once belonged. The local Presbyterian congregation in College Station, Texas, sponsored our coming to the US as refugees, and helped us get started as new Americans. Wonderful people, close lifelong friends to my parents, even though we moved away and stopped being Presbyterians over time!
Not far from the house stood a chapel built through the efforts of many people, people inspired and organized by this man. Chapels like this dot the countryside.
The view from the church is beautiful:
From here it is just a few miles to the house with the deck that James built.
Go back to the house where Rachel and James live.
See a historic mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway
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