Monday, February 4, 2013

The Road by John Ehle
Knoxville:  University of Tennessee Press
$24.95  - 401 pages

   In recent years, I have become interested in an obscure incident that occurred in Jackson County in 1882 - the accidental drowning of 19 chain gang convicts who were working on Cowee Tunnel near Dillsboro. Who were they? Where did they come from? Where are they buried?  The details are sketchy, and outside of a few basic facts, most of the stories have been passed down by oral tradition. Recently, some of my friends have suggested that I should read John Ehle’s 1967 novel, The Road. In essence, they suggested, Ehle’s painstaking research defines the setting of an amazing event: the construction of the railroad in the Swannanoa Valley by the Western North Carolina Railroad - the same entity that constructed the Cowee Tunnel.

   My friends were right. After reading Ehle’s epic novel, I know that this astonishing feat - the building of the Swannanoa Tunnel (which many had judged to be impossible) used hundreds of convicts, both male and female. The majority of the laborers were African-Americans. Poorly fed, working twelve hour shifts (24 hours a day) and subjected to inhumane working conditions, the work force was decimated by pneumonia, floods that burst through the tunnel walls and cave-ins that buried workers under tons of rock and soil. Many attempted to escape and were summarily shot. I also read a bit of One Dies, Get Another, by Matthew J. Mancini, which is a comprehensive history of the practice of “leasing” convict labor. The railroad companies, such as Western North Carolina Railroad, simply ordered convicts, much as they would order supplies: gunpowder and railroad ties.




   Perhaps the most provocative decision is when Weatherby decides to literally haul an engine to the top of the mountain, position it on the opposite side of the tunnel and begin simultaneous drilling  from both the east and the west. At some point, Weatherby become a kind of folk hero.  Convicts, mountain natives and local tradesmen are caught up in Weatherby’s dream: to complete this awesome project and send loads of produce out of the mountains and  into the world.  In effect, their hopes for a meaningful life is dependent on the railroad. Suddenly everyone is there, farmers, convicts, mules and oxen, all struggling up the mountain. Certainly, this tense ascent up a mountain turnpike is one of the most memorable events in The Road. But there are other remarkagle images: a burning boxcar filled with female convicts, careening down the mountain at midnight; an unforgettable Christmas program with convicts assuming roles in a Nativity scene and a crucifixion (with recently deceased convicts on fire-lit crosses); a cave filled with rattlesnakes and a midnight orgy in the  in the dark woods surrounding the convict’s quarters, and a marvelous pink-eyed albino child minister who denounces the railroad at a revival.

   However, the final obstacle to the completion of the Swannanoa tunnel proves to be insurmountable. When pneumonia and influenza sweep through the work force and the company doctor advises closing down the entire operation, Weatherby does the only thing he can do.  He chooses to keep working. When the number of deaths steadily increases representatives from Raleigh arrive to shut down the operation, return the surviving convicts to  the prisons and, finally, to request Weatherby’s resignation.  He agrees, packs his bags and goes home to Morganton where he has a  neglected wife and son.  It seems of little consequence that a few months later, this project is completed by other workers and engineers. The Road contains a complex sub-plot that deals with Weatherby’s relationship with his wife and son, his neighbors, his assistant, a man named Cumberland; a perverse mountain man named Plover who seems to be part poet and part Old Testament prophet, and Plover’s daughter, a tantalizing mountain nymph named Henry Anna who seems to become a kind of muse for Weatherby. (Henry Anna bears a slight resemblance to a
popular Appalachian stereotype - the innocent, intelligent and illiterate mountain girl who is “rescued” from a life of grinding poverty and ignorance by a well-educated “outlander.”)  It is to John Ehle’s credit that Henry Anna chooses to remain un-rescued.  And what about Weatherby?  At the end of this novel, he seems depleted or “used up.”  He has definitely lost interest in “the road.”

   Thanks to John Ehle  I have a better understanding of the victims who died in the cold waters of the Tuckaseigee in 1882.  Some of them may have been with Weatherby in Swannanoa.  They may have been there through no fault of their own since it was astonishingly easy to end up on a chain-gang in 1882. There were some new laws on the books that seemed to be designed to trap unsuspecting African-Americans.  Loitering and Vagrancy could send you to the chain-gang. Having no visible means of support.  There was even something called “destructive mischief” which sounds like vandalism.  Stay tuned.  We need to talk more about chain gangs.


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  3. I have no idea why the two posts above are there since they have noting to do with by blog.

  4. Is this a new book by Ehle? It seems forever ago since I read The Winter People, and the saw the movie.
    Same writer, isn't it? A bit grim...and as is so often the case, the book WAS better.

  5. This is one of his early novels and it ended up as part of a trilogy. Ehle became fascinated by railroads and the numerous blessings and injustices created by them. The protagonist in "The Road" is based on a real character who became obsessed with the idea of completing a construction that was considered impossible. It was
    possible, but it cost countless lives, mostly of the convicts who did the labor.

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  8. AARGH!! Spammers have overtaken this interesting blog with their trashy spiels!!

  9. Just a quick note here, on a past entry, today on WUNK (public television) there was a soothing, restful segment on train trips thru the NC mountains narrated by David Holt, whom you probably know. It was wonderful scenery,wonderful views around every bend...and then a tiny jolt of a snippet of this story and a picture of your convicts.

    1. Well, those were not "my convicts." That is a kind of stock image of a chain gang that was published on a post card and has been widely used in everything from p.r. for the Smoky Mountain Railroad to historical books such as "One Dies, Get Another," and "Worse than Slavery." There are no photographs of the 19 convicts who died in the Tuckaseigee on a cold morning in December in 1882. However, I recently (thanks to a railroad historian) found their names. Eventually, we may find their graves.

  10. This story is great!Now i know what happen to my Great- Great Grand father,He was Nelson Bowser.One of the 19