“There are few places in America more beloved than the Blue Ridge, rising like an ancient Great Wall across a third of the breadth of the nation. It has the burnished beauty of a country long lived in, of doorsills worn thin, of deep cook footpaths beneath the poplars.” – Opening words to Richard C, Davids’, The Man Who Moved a Mountain.
The Blue Ridge is a wondrous place, some would say the hills and valleys are plucked right out of a book. With numerous stories and songs to sing; some of hope and joy, others of loss and pain. The story and legacy of Bob Childress might seem like a tall tale at times, but his prevailing attitude, faith, and love has made him a Blue Ridge legend and hero.
Rev. “Bob” Robert Childress was brought into this world by another mountain legend, Aunt Orlean Puckett on Jan. 19, 1890. Bob was born to Babe and Lum Childress within “The Hollow,” located just above the North Carolina border. He was born into the poorest of the poor, as a child being hungry was commonplace in the hollow, at least in his family. With multiple brothers and sisters, winters were long, while fall spoils were greedily received.
Food wasn’t the only thing scarce in the hollow. Churches were few and far between and schools were practically nonexistent. When Bob was 6, a teacher was sent from Guilford College to start a school and Sunday school in the Hollow. Bob vowed to attend every meeting and he did. He even received an attendance award — a pair of red suspenders. After eight years of school, his beloved teacher, Miss Sally Marshburn, married, leaving The Hollow and heading closer to her home in North Carolina. Bob was devastated, and rarely attended school afterward.
His young life was plagued by drinking, fighting, and debauchery. If he wasn’t picking fights with others, they were picking fights with him. He was troubled with many trials and different jobs. He worked with lumber, and as a blacksmith at one time. He was on a continuous path of drunkenness and pain until he met his first wife, Pearl, and that’s when he started to turn his life around. Bob even joined up with a posse tasked with finding the fleeing members of the Allen family after the trial in Hillsville. He moved his family to West Virginia in search of work in the coal mines and continued his journey for self-discovery.
Pearl passed quietly in 1918 after the family returned home to The Hollow, leaving Bob with two children and lost hope.
Bob had been searching all his life for a purpose, and with the loss of his wife and the security of his two children to worry about he started getting straight, even more so than after his marriage. He would take the kids to church each week and his blacksmithing business prospered. The church became his crutch to lean on, with the need to help others growing inside him.
Married again in 1919 to Lelia Montgomery, Bob started on a path that would lead to many new and exciting things for him and his family. The years to follow would find Bob finishing seminary school to become a minister, cultivating a persona of faith and good works, and the creation of seven unique and amazing churches still recognizable today.
Couldn’t make it on the rough mountain roads to church? Bob would come pick you up.
Did you need help chopping wood? All you needed to do was call the Reverend.
He made church and religion accessible to the hollow and beyond. Some of his hardest work was done on and around Buffalo Mountain. Buffalo was known for its hard men and women. Killing, lying, and shame crept over the mountain like a terrible storm, never to leave. Some would say that Bob helped calm the storm.
Bob’s legacy continues to live on in the seven churches he created and the many people whose lives he touched. It you want to learn more about the Rev. Childress check out The Man Who Moved A Mountain, written by Richard C. Davids, or take a trip to one of the churches he built.
Churches he built:
– 1919 Bluemont Presbyterian Church
– 1925 Mayberry Presbyterian Church
– 1926 Buffalo Mountain Presbyterian Church
– 1932 Slate Mountain Presbyterian Church
– 1946 Dinwiddie Presbyterian Church
– 1954 Willis Presbyterian Church
– Indian Valley Presbyterian Church, the only Bob Childress church not to be faced with natural rocks.
Emily Morgan is the Guest Services Manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com