George Archibald Shuford

"...the subject of this sketch determined early in life to acquire for himself a more advanced and broader education than his father was able...to give him....He was always fond of books and took but little interest in mechanical arts, while he had even less fancy for the life of a farmer.  Until fourteen...he resided in the country, attending the schools in his neighborhood, notably Sand Hill Academy in Buncombe County, and Davidson's River Academy in Transylvania County. [His mother died, and his father remarried.  See Mary Frances Shuford, M.D. oral interview of The Southern Research Center, Inc.]  Afterward his father purchased a farm adjacent to the village of Brevard, and...resided there for several years.  At this place [George Shuford] attended the high schools for which that village was for several years noted....Later he entered the Franklin High School, and then the Waynesville High school....To acquire means to pay for his education, he devoted his vacation to selling books, collecting debts for business men and also assisted his principal in teaching during school sessions.  In one vacation of less than three months he was so successful in selling books that he was able to pay from his profits all his expenses for the next scholastic year, including board, tuition, text-books and clothing, and in another vacation he made enough by collecting accounts to pay all his expenses at a boarding school for the entire year.  Thus for seven years he worked during vacations and assisted during sessions of the school in teaching mathematics, in which he was well advanced, while reciting to his principal lessons in Latin, Greek and the sciences...When 21 years of age he entered the sophomore and junior classes at Emory and Henry College, Virginia, where he undertook a special course of study designated by the college as the "Latin scientific course," but ill health and a lack of means prevented his pursuing his studies at this institution....[See Mary Frances Shuford oral interview of The Southern Research Center, Inc.] He began study of the law at Waynesville, N. C., under Hon. J. C. L. Gudger and Hon. Garland S. Ferguson, and later he entered the law school a Greensboro taught by Judge Dick and Judge Dillard.  Having obtained his license in January 1879 to practice law, he returned to Waynesville and soon after became associated with Mr. Alden Howell, an experienced practitioner.  This co-partnership proved successful and satisfactory, and continued as long as Mr. Shuford remained in Haywood County.  In 1882 he removed to Asheville and entered into partnership with Hon. Thomas Johnston...which lasted...until the death of [Johnston] in 1902.... before two years had expired he was chosen presiding judge of the inferior court of Buncombe County which was afterward converted into the criminal court of that county....In Feb. 1892, on the resignation of James H. Merrimon as judge of the twelfth judicial district of North Carolina, Gov. Holt tendered Judge Shuford the appointment to the vacancy, and he accepting it, rode the circuits that year with such satisfaction to the people that at the succeeding election he was nominated and elected to the office by the vote of the people of the entire State, and was commissioned for a full term of eight years. A question arose as to the length of the term for which he, with certain other judges of the state, were elected...Judge Shuford promptly decided to relinquish all claim to a full term and to re-submit his election to the people.  This contest...led to Judge Shuford's retirement from the bench on Jan. 1, 1895. He has since continued the practice of the law at Asheville....(1917. Ashe, Samuel et al. Biographical History of North Carolina, Vol. VIII, pp.469-471.)

"On Dec. 27, 1892, Judge Shuford...married Miss Julia Dean...of Floyd County, Georgia....Their union has been blessed with two children, George Adams and Mary Frances Shuford. (1917. Ashe, Samuel et al. Biographical History of North Carolina, Vol. VIII, pp. 473, 474.)

Shuford:  His uncles did [participate in the War between the States], but my father's father was a farmer, so he was left at home to furnish food, and he was a little bit old for it anyway and he never did go to the war.  And my father was just a small child when the war broke out.  I think he was born in '55.  Well, in '65 he was about ten years old.  He remembered, very well, remembered the soldiers coming home, and told me about that.  Now uncle Asberry lost his arm and there were two or three of the uncles were in the Confederate Army.

Silveri:  And you do remember stories told to you about the war years, right?

Shuford: I remember my father telling about so many came through and they were so ragged and they were so hungry  that my grandfather said that they couldn't feed anymore.  Just tell them to go on.  That there wasn't any food there for them.  And one poor fellow came dragging up the road and my grandfather said to send word out to him, then he looked out and saw that it was one of his best friends that was coming, and so he sent the boys running down the road to bring him back, and my father remembered that.  And what he remembered very well indeed was that my father's mother died when he was about... soon after the war, and left six children, and there was a widow Jones that lived in Asheville and had good farms and was quite well-to-do, and the widow Jones had six children with the little...  The Jones's had been Union people.  And my father said when they got his family, you know the Confederates, and he said when those two families got together the Civil War wasn't anything to what went on in that household.  

Silveri: At least they didn't shoot at each other over it, right?

Shuford:  No, they were too ferocious for that.  But he was almost grown.  He went to live with his sister anyway, until he was grown, and then went off to school...  But he always remembered the Widow Jones very, very cordially because she was so kind and...  But the families just didn't mix, the children weren't alike you know.  Most of them, both families were almost grown and marriage occurred.

Silveri:  Now where was your father living when the war ended?

Shuford:  In Transylvania County.

Silveri:  Transylvania County. How did the family adjust after the war?  It didn't make much difference to them.  They just wanted to farm as usual in the occupation of farming, didn't they?

Shuford:  Well, it didn't make too much difference, because the war hadn't been through here.  Now down in Madison County, I think it did make a difference.  They carried the war on there as personal feuds you know.  But not out in Transylvania, there were more Confederate people out there.  It was a more prosperous county.  And the intelligent people, you know, who came up here, they got the best farms and the Shufords kept on going until they reached Transylvania County where there's good bottom land, and they were smart enough to get a good farm.  All of them did.  Down on Little River. 

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Shuford:  Well that was true.  My father often said his ancestors came up here because of the pasture land at that time and it just got too crowded for them down there at Watauga County.  I don't know, they just "had walk in their feet" anyway.  They wanted to move and come on, they were pioneers, you know, to move on up here.  And then some of them were like my Uncle Jason.  They just wanted to get away from people.  And Uncle Jason, when it got crowded in his house or in his town anywhere, he'd just go out and climb a mountain and sit down on a rock.  And  stay up there by himself you know.  He couldn't stand people too much and I think there are a lot of mountain people like that.  They just don't like a crowd.

Silveri: What opportunity for education was available to your father in Transylvania County?

Shuford:  Well, I heard him tell about walking five miles to school.  They went to school a few months, until the boys were needed on the farm.  And, the education that meant most to him was on court day, he would go down to Brevard and hang around the court house.  That was to look into all the lawyers.  Even as a little fellow he was going to be a lawyer.  And that, he got a pretty good education from that.  

Silveri:  How many brothers and sisters did he have?  

Shuford:  My father, he had one sister and four brothers I think.  

Silveri:  Okay, a family of six.  So it's not terribly typical of the mountain families.  They're usually twelve, ten or twelve.  He was in a small family I think of mountain (inaudible).

Shuford:  Well, you see his mother died.  I guess she died of tuberculosis, I don't know.  Anyway, out of some complication with child bearing.  Anyway, she was a young woman.  And then Grandpa Shuford married again and the Widow Jones already had her six, you know, and that made twelve.  That's pretty good.  But the family broke up.  The Shufords moved off and moved out.  And then the Jones's moved out as soon as they got old enough.  And they weren't college people.  They didn't go on to school.  But my father did.  He went to college, and his queer old uncle, Uncle Jason was the one that helped him through college, Emory and Henry.

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Silveri:  How many years did your father serve as judge?

Shuford:  It wasn't too long. I'm not sure whether it was four or eight.

Silveri:  Oh, eight years.  And a Superior Court Judge, which meant he had to travel around the state.

Shuford:  Yes.  But mother, as a bride, went with him.  She traveled around the state with him.  And was always wined and dined everywhere she went.  And one story she loved to tell was that, well, she was very pretty, don't you see, and quite young looking for a thirty year old bride, and one lawyer asked the Judge to come to diner and bring his daughter.  And Mother just loved that.  She told that always.  Daddy didn't think much about it.

Silveri:  Do you remember any stories you father told you about being the Judge?  (inaudible).

Shuford:  Oh, yes.  And some that were told about when he was a bachelor.  One...  He was absent minded you know, and one my mother told was that Judge Shuford had invited her to go for a carriage ride, and something came up in his business... he was just terribly busy, and when the time come to take his girl out on the carriage ride, he just couldn't go, he couldn't leave his business.  And so he took the carriage on down there, and then the driver ( laugh) you know, and told him that she could go on and take the drive.  She sent the carriage back with a very cool note.  It said the pleasure of the drive was to be with him, you know.  Well that hadn't occurred to him.  He thought she'd go off and enjoy the afternoon.  (laugh)

Silveri:  I see why he didn't get married until he was thirty-seven.

Shuford: You can see why he had to marry someone like my mother.  And then they told another story, only he was, um he took a young lady to the theater, and it was raining very hard. Well, Daddy was always awkward.  He'd stumble over his feet with great ease, and then he just had one eye, and that made him even more awkward, you know.  Well, he was putting out for this young lady and he got her out of the carriage, and he raised his umbrella and he was taking her into the theater, and as they walked down the aisle, people started to applaud, you know, and he just sort of puffed up.  And he thought, well hell, they're applauding the judge coming in you know, and then he got down to the seat, and was showing her to her place, she looked up at him and said, "Judge Shuford, will you please take your umbrella down."

Silveri:  When he was judge, we're talking about the 1880s, about, when he was judge?

Shuford:  Well, he married... yes, he was judge in the 1880s.  He was married, I guess it was '92.  I'd have to get the Shuford's book.  My brother was born in '95.  He either married in '92 or '93.  And they had a Christmas wedding, that... did you know Mr. Charlie Webb?  He was my father's best man.  They all went down to this plantation.

Silveri:  He was the owner of the...

Shuford:  of Citizen's Times, uh huh.  Charlie Webb was courting my  mother's step-sister.  She was just a beautiful girl.  And Daddy thought it'd be so convenient for Charlie to go down there, you know, because he was courting Aunt Lu.  And so he asked Charlie to be his best man.  So the bride, groom, and Charlie go down to Rome, Georgia and then they had a terrible storm, and terrible rain, and high water down there.  The C- River always got out and spilled over fields you know.  That high water was just something they lived with.  And it was at Christmas time, and the last time I talked to Mr. Charlie Webb he was laughing about that.  They were in the old hotel there in Rome, Georgia waiting to, they had to go down to the plantation on a train.  And the railroad tracks had been washed out.  And he said they were sitting there in the lobby, and some people who had had too much Christmas came in, and one fellow had a whole bundle full of Roman Candles, you know how they went off shooting everywhere, and so the fire got a little bit low, and this drunk just picked up the Roman Candles and threw the whole bundle on the (laugh) on the fire.  And then they started shooting off, and all the people darted and got under the furniture and under the chairs.  He said it was the funniest thing he ever saw in his life.  And the bridegroom got out of the way.  And the next day they had to take all the relatives from Georgia down to the plantation, and Mr. Webb says that there was some old ladies, dear old souls, but very tottery you know, and they had to get them off of the freight train that went so far and take them around through the mud and put them on another freight train that had come up to meet them and take them on down to the plantation to the wedding.

Silveri:  Your father kind of rolled the circuit as a Superior Court Judge, so he must of tried cases in all possible states, huh?

Shuford:  Yup, I guess he did.

Silveri:  Did he ever tell you any stories, well, did he ever handle any uh, any uh, well known cases.  Any uh, that caught the attention of the newspapers.

Shuford:  I'm sure he did, because I... he was sick in his last years and he got to be very deaf and he had to give up his court room practices because of his hearing.  And uh,  once I heard him talking to my mother about his business right at that moment and what it had been, and he said, "Well, when I was practicing law here in Asheville, there wasn't an important case in this part of the state that I wasn't on one side or the other."  And Mother was one of those that said, "Well, you're doing all right now..."  I remember she comforted him.  And he said, well, he hadn't, he hadn't made it in his last years.  He'd been sick too much.  And mother said, "Well, you've got the two finest children in the world."  So, who dreamed about going about anything else?  That was her treasure she wanted and she thought that was enough for him to be satisfied with.

Silveri:  Did he specialize in things?  Was he a criminal lawyer? Or did he care?

Shuford:  No, he did anything that came along, but he specialized, well they didn't have specialists then, anymore than they had specialists in medicine, you know.  They did everything that came along. But land cases.  Whenever he'd go on a lot about something, mother would say, "Well, you remember that mountain land you sold. And, well, there's no use to go into that anymore."  And his last important case was a land case though.  Mountain land.  But he really didn't have the health to try that.  He got my uncle from Rome, Georgia to come up and help him. 

Silveri:  When did your father die?

Shuford:  He died in 1920. 

Silveri:  1920.  He was born in '55.

Shuford:  Yeah, I think he was sixty-four.  I had gotten through college, and I've always been very thankful that I could know him, that I was an adult when I knew him best, you know.  I could really appreciate him, and appreciate his fine character.  

Silveri:  So, how many children did your mother and father have?

Shuford:  Just two, my brother and I.

Sarah Jean::  Can I just ask,  does the Superior Court Judge the whole state, or just Western North Carolina?

Shuford:  I'm sure he went over the whole state because at that time now, well, my brother did too.  He tried cases down in Raleigh and around, but I've heard him tell about cases down in the eastern part of the state down in there.