CityView Magazine

66 | October/November • 2009 to own a beautiful horse and buggy and despite herself, the romance began with Fannie's acceptance of a buggy ride. Their marriage was a successful one. Sam was the ultimate breadwinner, and Fannie was a homemaker in all aspects of the word. She had a love of nature and grew flowers and a vegetable garden. She was also an excellent cook who prepared meals for the men and women who worked in the mill office. Sam and Fannie's oldest child, Alice Gadsby Hodges, was born in 1892. Before they were done, there would be 12 children in all – six boys and six girls – all of whom grew to adulthood except the youngest who died in a swimming accident when he was about 6 years old. According to family members, young Robert Hodges drowned in the mill pond. After that, Sam and Fannie moved because Fannie no longer wanted to live near the pond in Hope Mills. And so they left the place where Fannie delivered her 12 children. Fannie's mother, Mariah Buxton, was there for each delivery, all at home, and all within a stone's throw of the mill pond. Sam did an outstanding job of providing for his large family. He often brought home fresh fruit, fish and gunnysacks of oysters to be roasted in the fireplace at night. He made homemade ice cream in a hand churn and was famous throughout the community for his oyster stew. Fannie made cakes from an old iron mold, putting it right in the middle of ashes to bake it. The Hodges children walked the 10 miles to school in Snow Hill. The walk was repeated on Sundays to attend the Snow Hill Methodist Episcopal Church on what is now U.S. 301. Older family members loved to talk about "climbing the mountains" at Red Hill, the site of today's South View Townhouses on Elk Road. Games played by the Hodges' children were "walking tall, kick the can, high jumps" and later ball games. Papa, as Sam was called, would referee the more competitive games while Mama (Fannie) made balls out of yarn and baby dolls for the girls. "Papa would stand at the door of the house with a towel and we would see who could run the furthest barefoot when it snowed," said Alice Hodges Johnson, Sam and Fannie's oldest daughter, in a 1991 interview. "He would wipe our feet off with the towel when we ran back." The Hodges home was near the village cemetery and the older children told stories of watching in wonder, "as the mule-drawn wagon passed with coffins in full view." Once during a strike at the mill, when officials brought in a group of Italians to work, Alice said her Papa made them stay in the house when it got dark. "Those Italians would run all through the woods near our house and we were scared to death because we couldn't understand a word they were saying," Alice said. The Hodges' children were often too busy working to play much. They milked cows and delivered the milk, for 10 cents a quart, to people in the mill village. They gathered flowers to sell and picked up cotton that had blown off the trains between stations to make a little money. They raised their own chickens, turkeys and hogs and there were other chores as well. Sam had a baritone voice and liked to sing. Later there were musical instruments in the home – a banjo, accordion, organ and piano – all of which the children were encouraged to play. Church services were a must and the family always sat down at meals together. The family dining table had two benches on either side with Papa and Mama sitting in chairs at each end. The Hodges family tells the story of some of the mill officials – "Mr. Cotton, Mr. Beattie and a Mr. Gilliland." According to family members, Mr. Beattie had a motor boat, and he would often take them to ride in it. After moving to the country, off what is now the Parkton Road, the Hodges children still had to walk to school, so Sam decided to do something about it. He gave land on which to build a two-room school house. The school, named Gillis Branch, became a center for community activities and served as a place of worship on Sunday for a Presbyterian congregation. These efforts led to the establishment of the Mars Hill Presbyterian Church. During the Depression, when the mills closed, Sam went with the Northern mill officials to work in Oddmore, Pa. He lived away from home for a couple of years using self-taught skills blasting iron and farming to earn money to send to his family back home. It was especially hard to make it farming in those days and there was little, if any, mechanized farm equipment. Sam would clear new ground, dig ditches, plow, plant and harvest crops, prepare for market, care for livestock and butcher. Fannie helped too, milking cows, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, minding her garden, cooking three meals a day, doing laundry and cleaning and replenishing lamps with oil for night use. In those days there were lots of grandchildren around and as many as 20 often sat down at the dining table. In 1975, Gov. James E. Holshouser, Jr. proclaimed Aug. 9 as Hodges Family Day in North Carolina. Holshouser cited the following reasons for the proclamation: "Whereas Samuel J. Hodges was one of the first major black landowners in Cumberland County; whereas he donated land for the first black school in Rockfish Township and for Mars Hill Presbyterian Church, USA; whereas the Hodges family left a long line of descendants in numerous professions – including doctors, teachers, architects, nurses, social workers, musicians, farmers, etc.; whereas the family now resides in more than 20 states and three foreign countries; and whereas the Hodges family has contributed immeasurably to the growth and development of North Carolina." "When faced with a mountain, I will not quit. I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath – or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine, with God's help."

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