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Family Tradition
Out Here Magazine, Pages 22-24 ^
| Fall 2013
| Nancy Dorman-Hickson
Posted on 08/26/2013 2:12:38 AM PDT by Yosemitest
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I've been there a few times, and I recommend it as a place to see, but in the daylight.
Here's some more history from
another site.
Celebrate the past and the present at Kemper County Mississippi ( November 6, 2008 )
... By information obtained from Juanice Evans, Executive Director, Kemper County Chamber of Commerce, the county reports a rich history even though little is known of the first inhabitants of the area.
The first recorded history begins with Native Americans, the land of the Choctaw Nation.
One Choctaw legend gives Nanih Waiya Mound(located northeast of Philadelphia Mississippi, off of State Highway 393)
as the birthplace of the Choctaw Nation.
The Nanih Waiya Mound and Village Park are listed on the National Register of History.
For more information: call (662) 724-2770.
The first white settlers may have arrived in the Kemper County area by the latter half of the 18th century as they established farmsteads and trading posts.
These settlers were in place when Andrew Jackson built the Jackson Military Road from Nashville to New Orleans.
Known today as the Old Jackson Road, parts of Jackson Military Road are still in use.
The 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek officially ceded the area, and on December 23 1833, the Mississippi Legislature created Kemper County --naming it in honor of the Kemper brothers, Ruben, Nathan, and Samuel.
Ruben Kemper, at 6' 6" was a giant of a man, even for those days, and served as a spy for General Jackson during the War of 1812.
Dekalb, the county seat of government, was named for Baron Johan Dekalb,a German soldier serving under French General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War.
After being wounded 13 times, the Baron gave his life for American independence at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina,
an area that reputedly gave Kemper County some of its early settlers.
It was during this time that Sciple's Mill became into existence and the mill is still in operation.
Mr. Edward Sciple is the present day owner of the mill located 10 miles northwest of Dekalb.
The mill was built on the site around 1790 by a Dr. Hunnelly
and was purchased by the Sciple family between 1830 and 1850.
Since that time there have been seven generations of Sciples working the mill.
The mill is powered by a Leffel Water Turbine Wheel, which develops 250 to 300 horsepower.
The mill can grind 32 bushels of corn or wheat per hour.
The present day wheel was placed in operation in 1880.
The mill museum is open for tours (free admission) 8 am to 3 pm on weekdays except during deer season.
On weekends, visitors can tour the grounds only.
The old mill building is a virtual museum of 19th century as there are displayed tools
and implements of every kind that hang from the ceiling and the walls.
Most of the school children in this area have toured Sciple's Mill
and arrive home with wide-eyed amazement to tell their parents and grandparents all about the water mill.
I must tell you that in addition to the mill museum, there is another opportunity at Sciple's Mill.
It's a musical opportunity.
Every Saturday night beginning at 5:00 pm, the mill house is open for music and dance.
Again, there's no admission fee, no smoking, no liquor, and no bad language allowed --a time of fun for all ages. Musicians come out to sing their songs
-- from Blue Grass to Gospel, Country and a little Rock-n-Roll too.
Mr. Sciple says, "When it gets too hot, we'll just jump in the creek."
...
To: Yosemitest
One more thing>
Grist for the Mill, January 2, 2010
Chew on this
Grist mills were once a focal point in any early American community just 60 or 70 years ago (all the way back to 200 years ago).
However, in just these recent years, people living in America have witnessed such a rapid transition of livelihood,
such monuments of our history are easily forgotten; their relevance a ghostly whisper from the past.
In any town, village, or city across countries and across continents grains have served as a necessary part of providing sustenance and life.
The symbolism I would like to associate with grist mills of our early American experience is exactly that sustenance they were an integral part of everyday life.
They were places of gathering and community.
They provided fresh ground grain which is unheard of or almost inaccessible in this day and age.
The nutritional potency of fresh ground grain is far greater compared to what we find on the shelves of the supermarket.
Store-bought white flour is nothing short of dead(ok, maybe a bit dramatic how about barely kickin?)
before it graces our lovely tongues;
there are practically no nutrients left in this over-processed flour(thats why it always needs to be fortified!).
As a food activist, it doesnt take much effort to put the pieces together the agro-industrial complex has bitten us in the ass.
Its not pretty folks.
I visited Sciples Mill in Dekalb, Mississippi today.
My mother took me to this mill when I was in middle school.
I still remember the trip. We hung out with Edward Sciples, the mill man and he showed us around.
My grandmother and sister were with us as well.
I actually have pictures of us sitting in a pile of grain sacks(my sister in I in peg-leg rolled jeans and baggy sweatshirts).
At that time in my life, the grist mill didnt mean much to me.
It was one of those trips that my mom thought would be enriching for her children.
I had no idea what was going on at the time. I barely knew how to cook for myself,much less ponder on the origin and quality of my food.
Flash forward about 20 years, and the grist mill takes on an entirely new meaning.
I am currently staying with my mom for a few months in Mississippi after living in San Francisco and Eastern Europe (and the former Soviet Union) for the past 10 years.
Looking back, I realize that much of my time and energy after college (and Mississippi) has been concerned with food and how I feed myself.
And, this makes sense considering the swirl of fashionable foods, diet fads, and ways of eating that I have diligently kept at arms length
while bush-waking through the world to find my own way of eating.
Jessica Prentice in her book Full Moon Feast writes about her troubled relationship with food as a youth
and how isolated she felt in her struggle to feed herself and feel satisfied.
She says that it never occurred to methat all of America might be suffering from what journalist Michael Pollan would later call our national eating disorder.
... My mom and I bought some grits and yellow corn meal and left our money in the honor box.
I love the honor box.
I suppose Edward doesnt like customer service.
Why is this so satisfying!?Well, I guess I do know.There are layers to this transaction:a native, traditional food adopted by European colonists,
a energy-efficient water-powered mill operating since 1790,
family-owned and operated for 5 generations,
and a locally produced food(however, I dont know the varietal of corn genetically-modified??? dont know).
Thats why it felt good.
(By the way, due to a recent tornado, the mill has fallen into disrepair.If any of you out there want to fund/help out with a great project check into helping the Sciples get their mill going again!)
And, Ive been making tons of cornbread since this recent Thanksgiving due to an amazing recipe that has fallen into my lap:
1 1/2 c buttermilk (or kefir/yoghurt)
2 eggs
1 T honey
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
Stir this together.
Then stir in:
1 1/2 c corn meal
1/2 c whole wheat flour (or kamut/spelt)
1/4 c butter, melted
Cook in a round skillet at 425 for 30 minutes.
I would suggest mixing honey and butter together to slop on the cornbread.
Take my word for it
The first few times I made this cornbread, I bought Fully Belly Farm cornmeal from Bi-Rite Grocery in San Francisco.
... Heres a little poem written by Edward thats outside his mill door:
This little hamlet called Sciples Mill
Surely must have been the Masters will
Tho the timbers are worn from rain and storm
The turbines still turn to grind the corn
The water ripples as it flows along
The birds chirp and sing their song
It is so quiet, so peaceful and still
It surely must have been the Masters will
To have a place like Sciples Mill
2
posted on
08/26/2013 2:40:31 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest
I love places like this. Thanks for posting it.
3
posted on
08/26/2013 2:45:40 AM PDT
by
OldNewYork
(Biden '13. Impeach now.)
To: Yosemitest
Thank you for a great read to start the week!
4
posted on
08/26/2013 3:18:50 AM PDT
by
mcmuffin
(Freedom's On The March - Wave Goodbye!)
To: OldNewYork
It's not hard to find, but it is a little difficult.
If you have at least half a day to visit there, then go.
It could take a full day, and I think they do have camping on the weekends, but I'm not sure.
Go to
www.mapquest.com and paste in
"525 Sciples Mill RD, De Kalb, MS 39328". Then click on "Get Directions".
Off H-495 turn North-Northeast on "Smith-Galloway Rd" and from South to North on "Smith-Galloway Rd", you'll turn left on "Curtis Fulton Rd", a dirt road.
As you go down the hill, you'll see this.
Then you'll see this.
You can't miss it, because it dead ends at the mill.
Edward D. Sciple is at the house on the left.
Look for this man.
Have fun.
5
posted on
08/26/2013 3:22:23 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: mcmuffin
6
posted on
08/26/2013 3:24:14 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest
Thanks for a look at America’s better days...
7
posted on
08/26/2013 3:31:03 AM PDT
by
who knows what evil?
(G-d saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
To: Yosemitest
This is just one reason I love my home state. “Old times there are not forgotten.”
Wherever I go, no matter how far I roam in this world, I know that Mississippi is where I belong and, someday, where I will return.
To: OldNewYork
Look for
Dirty Jobs: Season 7, Episode 4 Animal Relocator (9 Nov. 2010) Mike travels to De Kalb, Mississippi, to spend a day at an old-fashioned stone ground corn mill.
Then he heads to Wills Point, Texas, to help relocate a pair of exotic Pere David's deer.
Runtime: 42 minutes
Original air date: November 8, 2010
Network: Discovery Channel
9
posted on
08/26/2013 4:04:19 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest
Thanks for the interesting link and story.
I had never heard of it.
My family has owned/operated farms in this county since 1889, so I have respect for things like this.
We have no water power, this part of Texas is normally pretty dry. Of late very dry.
A side note: my great great grandfather had a mill for livestock feed. It was wind powered and place on the 2nd floor of his barn. When the wind got high enough he would call the family out of the field to grind feed in the mill. I never saw that mill, but my father talks about it occassionally.
We are in the planting seed business. Primarily wheat. We have a seed cleaning and processing plant that my father built. It is not simple, not new, but works very well.
In the beginning we put the seed up in bags. For the past few years we only sold seed in bulk, typically in grain cart size loads.
Again, thank for the article and pic.
To: Texas Fossil
11
posted on
08/26/2013 4:07:54 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Have Ruck - Will Travel
Source Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular.[4] Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. The pining slave had been used in minstrel tunes since the early 1850s, including Emmett's "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry" and "Johnny Roach". The fact that "Dixie" and its precursors are dance tunes only further made light of the subject.[12] In short, "Dixie" made the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage.[13] This was accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comic black dialect, implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth:
- I wish I was in the land of cotton,
- Old times they are not forgotten;
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
- In Dixie Land where I was born in,
- Early on one frosty mornin,
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
The remaining verses drift into the common minstrel idiom of a comical plantation scenario, "supposedly [depicting] the gayer side of life for slaves on Southern plantations":[14]
- Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"
- Willium was a gay deceaber;
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
- But when he put his arm around'er,
- He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
The final verse mixes nonsense and dance steps with the freed-slave scenario:
- Dar's buck-wheat cakes an 'Ingen' batter,
- Makes you fat or a little fatter;
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.
- Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,
- To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.
- Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.[15]
The lyrics use many common phrases found in minstrel tunes of the day"I wish I was in . . ." dates to at least "Clare de Kitchen" (early 1830s), and "Away down south in . . ." appears in many more songs, including Emmett's "I'm Gwine ober de Mountain" (1843). The second stanza clearly echoes "Gumbo Chaff" from the 1830s: "Den Missus she did marry Big Bill de weaver / Soon she found out he was a gay deceiver".[16] The final stanza rewords portions of Emmett's own "De Wild Goose-Nation": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble."[17] Even the phrase "Dixie's land" had been used in Emmett's "Johnny Roach" and "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry", both first performed earlier in 1859.
As with other minstrel material, "Dixie" entered common circulation among blackface performers, and many of them added their own verses or altered the song in other ways. Emmett himself adopted the tune for a pseudo-African American spiritual in the 1870s or 1880s. The chorus changed to:
- I wish I was in Canaan
- Oaber darOaber dar,
- In Canaan's lann de color'd man
- Can lib an die in cloaber
- Oaber darOaber dar,
- Oaber dar in de lann ob Canaan.[18]
Both Union and Confederate composers produced war versions of the song during the American Civil War. These variants standardized the spelling and made the song more militant, replacing the slave scenario with specific references to the conflict or to Northern or Southern pride. This Confederate verse by Albert Pike is representative:
- Southrons! hear your country call you!
- Up! lest worse than death befall you! . . .
- Hear the Northern thunders mutter! . . .
- Northern flags in South wind flutter; . . .
- Send them back your fierce defiance!
- Stamp upon the cursed alliance![19]
Compare Frances J. Crosby's Union lyrics:
- On! ye patriots to the battle,
- Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle!
- Then away, then away, then away to the fight!
- Go meet those Southern traitors,
- With iron will.
- And should your courage falter, boys,
- Remember Bunker Hill.
- Hurrah! Hurrah! The Stars and Stripes forever!
- Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever![20]
The Confederate States of America War Song Goes Like This:
- Southern men the thunders mutter!
- Northern flags in South winds flutter!
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
- Send them back your fierce defiance!
- Stamp upon the cursed alliance!
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
- Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!
- In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!
- To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!
- To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie
- Fear no danger! Shun no labor!
- Lift up rifle, pike, and saber!
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
- Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,
- Let the odds make each heart bolder!
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
- Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!
- In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!
- To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!
- To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!
- Swear upon your country's altar
- Never to submit or falter--
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
- Till the spoilers are defeated,
- Till the Lord's work is completed!
- To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
"The New Dixie!: The True 'Dixie' for Northern Singers" takes a different approach, turning the original song on its head:
- Den I'm glad I'm not in Dixie
- Hooray! Hooray!
- In Yankee land I'll took my stand,
- Nor lib no die in Dixie[21]
Soldiers on both sides wrote endless parody versions of the song. Often these discussed the banalities of camp life: "Pork and cabbage in the pot, / It goes in cold and comes out hot," or, "Vinegar put right on red beet, / It makes them always fit to eat". Others were more nonsensical: "Way down South in the fields of cotton, / Vinegar shoes and paper stockings".[22]
Aside from its being rendered in standard English, the chorus was the only section not regularly altered, even for parodies.[23] The first verse and chorus, in non-dialect form, are the best-known portions of the song today:[24]
- I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten,
- Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
- In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin',
- Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
- Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
- In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
- Away, away, away down South in Dixie,
- Away, away, away down South in Dixie.[25]
12
posted on
08/26/2013 4:49:34 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest; WXRGina; duffee; onyx; DrewsMum; Tupelo; mstar; jdirt; Vietnam Vet From New Mexico; ...
13
posted on
08/26/2013 6:35:53 AM PDT
by
WKB
To: Yosemitest; WKB
To: petitfour
15
posted on
08/26/2013 6:57:42 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest
Love old mills .... this is the one where I buy stone ground corn grits when I'm in the area:
Wade's Mill
16
posted on
08/26/2013 8:22:35 AM PDT
by
MissMagnolia
(You see, truth always resides wherever brave men still have ammunition. I pick truth. (John Ransom))
To: MissMagnolia
17
posted on
08/26/2013 8:35:38 AM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
To: Yosemitest
My sister gave me 10 bag of their meal as a gift. Good stuff !!
18
posted on
08/26/2013 10:38:24 AM PDT
by
Islander7
(There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda)
To: Yosemitest
Thanks for the info. will look them up, I sure would like some stone ground grits. Country ham, red eye gravy, eggs, buttermilk biscuits and grits. A nice alternative to bacon, eggs, buttermilk biscuits and buttered grits.
What’s the most important meal of the day?
“The next one.” -— Hagar The Horrible —
19
posted on
08/26/2013 12:07:41 PM PDT
by
duffee
(NO poll tax, NO tax on firearms, ammunition or gun safes. NO gun free zones.)
To: duffee
20
posted on
08/26/2013 12:09:12 PM PDT
by
Yosemitest
(It's Simple ! Fight, ... or Die !)
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