By Miss Nancy Watkins
Madison, Rockingham County
Biography Sketch of Ex-Slave,
Anderson Scales, 82
Three fourths of a mile from his master's mansion in Madison on Hunter
Street, with his large plug tobacco factory across the street on the
corner (where [HW: in] 1937 stands the residence of Dr. Wesley
McAnally,) in some "quarters" which Nat Pitcher Scales had near Beaver
Island Creek, Anderson was born to slave mother, Martha Scales of a
father, "man name uh Edwards." Baby Anderson was the slave of William
Scales, at one time the world's largest manufacturer of plug or chewing
tobacco and he was named for Henry Anderson, the husband of Mrs.
William Scales' sister. Cabins here "quarters" consisting of three or
four log ones. Cabins were near the old "free white schoolhouse" or
rather the "schoolhouse" for whites.
Rolling around the yards with the other pickaninnies, Anderson passed
his babyhood, and when he was a boy he went to be house boy at Marse
Jim Dick Cardwell's on Academy Street facing Nat Pitcher Scales' home,
later that of Col. John Marion Gallaway. Here he learned good manners
and to be of good service. Later he was houseboy in the big house just
beyond the Methodist church at James Cardwell's who had a mill five
miles west of Madison and whose wife was Sallie Martin; granddaughter
of Governor Alexander Martin. Here Anderson learned more good manners
and rendered more good house boy service such as sweeping floors,
bringing in "turns" (armfuls) of fireplace wood, drawing water from the
yard well and toting it into the house, keeping flies off the dining
table, carrying out slops and garbage, for every town house had its
back lot pigs.
Larger [HW correction: Later] Anderson was hired to Nat Wall, (colored)
farmer and blacksmith, then to Joshua Wall, white planter of Dan Valley
northeast of town a few miles.
White men would get contracts to have the mail carried to various towns
and Anderson Scales was hired by one of these contractors to carry the
mail from Madison to Mt. Airy, fifty miles distant in northwest Surry
County. He would go by horse and sulky (sulky) on Monday, return on
Wednesday; go on Thursday, return on Saturday. This was in the late
1870's and 1880's.
During the tobacco season, he worked in factories in Winston (no Salem
then) and Greensboro. Then he worked in Nat Scales' factory in Madison
and in that of his former Marster, William Scales. He married Cora
Dalton and started his home a mile up the Ayresville road from town.
The railroads having come with the consequent transporting of freight
to and fro, Anderson started a public draying business of one horse and
a wagon, which lasted thirty eight years and was given up by him to his
son-in-law, Arthur Cable who now, in 1937, has an auto-truck and hauls
large paper boxes from the Gem Dandy Suspender and Garter Company
located across Franklin Street from Anderson's house boy home, that of
James Cardwell, to the post office. From the freight train depot,
Arthur hauls merchandise also in paper cartons to the feed stores which
do not own an auto truck of their own, and he hauls to the garter
factory a few two by three foot wooden boxes loaded with metal fillings
for the suspenders. This is a complete contrast to the loads "drayed"
by Anderson through the 1880's, 1890's and the 1900's to about 1915
when the automobile began to change the world of transportation, and
Anderson's one horse wagon dray business along with it.
For thirty-eight years Anderson met every train to capture the trunks
of visitors or "drummers" in town. Two immense hogheads packed with
leaf tobacco was sold on the floors of Webster's ware house and
Planters' warehouse. Two stacks of tobacco baskets loaded with the
bundles of leaf, Anderson, five feet high, and his lean horse could
dray from the sales floors to the packing houses where the tobacco was
packed and pressed into the hogsheads or else stored for removal at a
greater profit. One such packing house was converted into the Gem Dandy
Garter Factory about 1915, and today three of the original five remain.
One or two are still used for tobacco packing, though the season of
1936-1937 marked the hauling of immense loads of tobacco direct from
the sales floors to the Winston-Salem buyers. One pack house is used as
a fertilizer sales house. One loaded to the roof comb with heavily
insured tobacco was mysteriously burned during the World War where such
insurance collections were the fashion! Thus Anderson's dray business
dwindled. Any kind of hauling he could get done, and his horses, as
they died from strenuous work, would be replaced by others who in no
time learned the meaning of Anderson's constant pulls on their reins
and his constant and meaningful clucks. With no swivel features to his
wagon, Anderson could nevertheless work the horse and wagon into any
kind of close position for loading and unloading. He always said the
baggage of the writer was the heaviest he carried. This was so because
of books packed in the trunk or in boxes and twenty-five cents a piece
was the fare!
Anderson's wife and children at home were making the acre homestead pay
with cow, pigs, chickens and vegetables quickly grown on soil enriched
from his dray horse stable as well as the cow stable: "snaps",
tomatoes, Irish potatoes, roasting ears, butterbeans, squash in the
summer, in the spring mustard and onions; in the winter "sallet" from
the "seven top" and turnips, too. Fruit trees planted in time gave
fruit for eating, canning and "pursurving" while all the little darkies
knew where wild strawberries, crab apples and black berries grew for
the picking. With Mommuh taking in white folks' washing and the dray
horse money coming in, Anderson Scales prospered in Madison where he
started from zero scratch. He had money in the bank.
Anderson said after "Srenduh", [HW addition: the surrender] he learned
to read and write at a negro free school taught by Matilda Phillips.
With his wife, Cora Dalton, sister of Sam Dalton, Anderson joined the
African Methodist Church fifty years ago. This was located just across
the street from the home of his former employer, Nat Wall until 1925
when it was abandoned with its parsonage and a new brick church built
on the Mayodan road with stained glass memorial windows, electric
lights, piano, well finished interior, and christened St. Stephen's
Methodist Episcopal Church. The omission of the word "South" emphasized
the fact that the members considered it a northern Methodist church as
well as African. In this church, Anderson was exhorter, trustee and
class leader. In then religious capacities, his education by the
colored teacher, Matilda Phillips was a great help to him.
Anderson's second wife was Dinah Strong who had no children. She died
December, 1933 from a goiter on her throat.
For ten years or more Anderson has operated a grocery store in the
corner of the Mayodan and the Ayresville roads. Customers come more at
night, so Anderson has time in the day to work his garden patches of
onions, snaps and the like and to stop and rest on the porch of the
small store house. Clad in good dark clothes, a low crowned derby hat,
he often snoozes as he rests his eighty-two year old frame.
Anderson and many of his children were distinguished by their very
large round eyes with much white showing. One of his sons inherited the
blackness of his skin. This was "Little Anderson" who once sought a
warrant from a local justice to punish by trial some boy at the tobacco
warehouse, who had remarked thus: "Boy, charcoal would leave a light
mark on your skin!"
Anderson's son, Will Scales, was the first husband of Bertha who had to
nurse him through the terrible spells he would have from liquor
debauchery. Will was the servant of the Nat Picket family and once Mrs.
Pickett herself went down to their home and nursed Will through one of
his terrible "cramping spells." After Will Scales' death, Bertha
married Cleve Booker, plumber, ex-World War veteran and of surpassing
good nature from Washington, Georgia. Their oldest son they named
Chilicothe, Ohio, because at that city, Cleve was in war camp and met
Bertha who had gone there to go out in service.
Some of Anderson Scales other children still live in Madison in homes
marked by good construction, clean well furnished interior, artistic
surroundings. Martha married Arthur Cable who also holds an honored
place in the church. One daughter married Odell Dyson. Fannie Sue
married Thompson. Walter married Morris Carter's daughter. He died in
early 1937 of pneumonia in West Virginia. So his widow went to help
take care of "Pap Anderson". Nancy Scales married Eler William Wells.
When told that the pioneer graveyard of the Scaleses which is a mile or
so west of his store was a thick tangle of growth and no stones to the
once wealthy tobacco manufacturer, William Scales, Unka Anderson
exclaimed May 19, 1937: "You don't mean to tell me my ole Marse ain't
got no tombstone to his grave".
A merchant's wife stated that about 1930, Anderson had more ready cash
in the bank of Madison than any white man in town, but Uncle Anderson
disclaimed this.
But the Depression of 1930-1934 did not injure this energetic black man
who started in a "quarters" cabin a mile or so west of his present home
and store, lived all his life in Madison and faces the "one clear call"
with comfortable snoozes on his own front porch. Respected by white and
colored, Anderson Scales, 82, has guided his life by the gospel
preached by his pastor, also an ex-slave, William Scales of Madison.
By Miss Nancy Watkins
Madison, North Carolina
Rockingham County