My Mother Viola Estelle McKnight - 1888-1973

Mom and Dad had eleven children nine boys and two girls, I will write something about each of them starting with the oldest through the youngest, me.

As far as I know mother quit school after the third grade and went to work in the cotton mill which was about the only place for a youth to get employed. After Dad got out of the army he went back to college before getting a superintendent job with the mill where she worked. I guess things worked out for them to meet, start dating, and get married.

All I can say about what happened from that time will be just what I remember hearing when I was growing up. They got married September 14, 1905. Mom kept working in the mill until she had her first child Edna. After that she stayed home and took care of the home. They had a new addition to the family about every two years which stopped when I came along in 1928. Dad died in 1929.Being the baby of the family, I guess mom took better care of me than the rest of the children; I followed her around and did about everything that she did. I can remember her making me little gowns from flour sacks and later on making shirts from feed sacks. I don't remember every getting a new shirt from the store until I was in the seventh grade in school.

I would help her do the house work and she always did the gardening. Later I would help her with the plants; as I got older she would make me feed the chickens and the pigs then later cows and mules. As far back as I can remember she would be up before daylight to have breakfast for all of us guys so that we could work in the fields. She always work until after dark since there was so much to do in those days. One time she fell down the steps of our upper staircase and broke her hip. The doctor wanted to put it in a cast but that would keep her from doing the work around the house. This was around this time the older ones were leaving the farm and doing public work. She had to put her knee in a chair and slid it all around the house while she did everything that needed to be done. This picture is Mother with a friend of the family, Lo Campbell pictured at our old home place.

She would try to teach everyone to cook. She would say that we might marry a sorry woman that wanted to sleep all day. She taught me to cook about everything. I did not marry a sorry woman although she did not know how to cook so my cooking came in handy.

I can say mom did a great job keeping the family together after dad died. Some folks wanted to split us up and put us in a home for orphans; she always said that she did not have orphans. She kept us together on a little two horse farm as sharecroppers and with her determination and Gods help she made it. Later on in life some would say that she was a harsh woman but I think she was a hero for what she went through and what she stood for. I guess my being the youngest I could know her better and knew the life she had to live. She did it all for her children and I can vouch for that after having a family of my own to raise. I did not realize how much mom suffered until I got old and have all kind of medication for my ailments, she had none.

She spent her last six or seven years in bed and her two older daughters took care of her and she had many bad days and sometimes she seemed not to be the mother that she surly was. It was my Mother that made me to be what I am today, she taught me the Bible and what it was all about trusting God for everything and never complain about anything. She said that if I truly trusted God, everything would be alright, and at 82 years she was right. She was a great person as a young single mother was able to keep a family of eleven together during the great depression. She did her best and with Gods help she made it. This is a picture of her father, Samuel M. McKnight and some additional pictures of Mother.

My Father James William Gurley - 1877 - 1929

James William Gurley was born on August 16, 1877 in Union County, NC and died August 27, 1929. He married my Mother, Viola Estelle McKnight, on September 14, 1905 in Charlotte, NC. She was born on January 5, 1887 in Mecklenburg County, NC. She died on December 5, 1974 and was buried in Statesville, NC in the Oakwood Cemetery. See picture of his father below.

My Father served in the Spanish American War and was 27 in this picture. He served and fought on the Philippine Islands. He was sent to Japan to catch a ship to the United States and landed at Hampton Road, Virginia, an army camp at that time. He was discharged March 31, 1901. He was promoted to Corporal.

After serving in the Spanish American War , my Father attended the Balwin College in Charlotte which took place before he was married. He was well educated and a highly intelligent gentleman. He was offered a professorship in a school at that time but refused. He was thirty when he married my Mother who was eighteen. He was the superintendent at the Calvan Mill in Charlotte. Edna was born in Charlotte, George was born two years later. They moved to Concord where Fred was born and my Father worked for Joseph Cannon founder of Cannon Mills. He did not like Concord so they moved back to Charlotte on Belmont Avenue and worked at Chatdwick Hosken Mill where he was a superintendent of mills. A union strike stopped work until workers received a raise. He was head of the union and ran the Union Commissary to feed strikers’ families. After a year, we they moved to Mooresville where he was a superintendent. He worked there until he became too ill to keep the job.

From Mooresville we moved to Sherrills Ford where we the family farmed the Roland Craven farm. One year later there was another move to Long Island on the Brown farm owned by Long Island Yarn Mill. Mother and Edna worked in the mill. My Father and the older boys worked the farm and also worked at the saw mill owned by Captain Brown. Two years later the family moved to the Raymer farm on the Catawba River; my parents liked to fish.

My Father died on August 27, 1929 at Uncle Calvin and Aunt Edith’s home on the Gurley farm. He was buried in the Olivet Baptist Cemetery in Long Island, NC. After his death, the family moved to the Thomas Farm for two years then moved to the Hollon Farm in Oak Dale and Cool Spring Community and stayed there for two year. We moved once again to the Propst Farm where the family stayed and finished high school with outstanding honors. Ola, J.D., Mark, and Glenn graduated from Cool Spring High School. As they were growing up, Edna, George, Fred, Howard, Ola, and J.D. went to eight different schools.
In the upcoming weeks, I will share stories about each of my brothers and sisters. You may want to watch the movie, The Grapes of Wrath. It will let you know what everyone went through growing up back in the 1900 - 1930s. Times were real rough and many folks did not know where their next meal would be. Later, World War II came along and many men joined up to fight for our country. My brothers and I were fortunate but many of the men never returned home, they fought for the freedom that we have today. I encourage everyone to comment and add other information and stories to what I write.

My Grandfather, George Wilkes Gurley

Settling in at 1014 Cathey Road in Charlotte, NC

We finished moving into our new home. It was an easy move since we had David, Eric, and Glenn Jr. to help us unload everything. On our first Sunday back home, we joined Mulberry Baptist Church; we have always believed when you moved your bed you move your church membership. We felt at home the first day with all of the old friends that were there. We moved back near our old neighborhood and right around the corner from Glenn and his family, it seemed like we were at home again. We did miss our friends that we left at the beach but we have kept in close contact with the beach bunch and visit them as often as we can. It was good to be back in Charlotte and close to our three children and seven grand children and six great grand children which has been a great blessing within itself. We have always been a close family and enjoy time spent together. We started having what we called Family Sunday once a month with a big dinner and an afternoon of fellowship at our house.

After being back in Charlotte for a short while, Hazel felt led to open our home to have a ladies Bible study and asked Betty Peele to lead the group. The ladies Bible study started in September of 2000. Betty taught weekly until her eyes began to fail and she moved to West VA to be near her son in 2005. The Bible

study continued with Lucille McNeil as the teacher and the study is still going strong meeting every Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.Another highlight on returning to Charlotte are the five new great grandchildren and the many new friends that we would never have had if we stayed at the beach. Pam, Glenn, and Mike's families and many friends gave me a 75th surprise birthday party and we did the same thing on Hazel's 75th birthday. At the time I thought that 75 was old but now I am blessed to be going strong at 82.

I love and cherish my family and dear friends and would not trade them for all of the gold in the world. I realize that without God and you I would be nothing.

In the next series of blog posts, I will be sharing more about my parents and siblings. I will feature one of my family members each week for the next few months.

Moving Back to Charlotte

In October 1999, Glenn, Pam and Mike and their families decided to have a fiftieth anniversary party for us at Mulberry Baptist Church in Charlotte. It was on a Saturday and we had a great party with many of friends. One of our lifelong friends Tom Worthy was not there. I asked his wife Margaret where he was and she said that He was not feeling good and did not think it wise for him to get out. She shared that he was going to see his doctor on Monday and he would find out was wrong. On Monday night we called Margaret to see what the doctor had to say and Tom answered the phone. He said that I should talk with Margaret; she shared that the doctor said that Tom only had three to six month to live. The next morning at 4:00 a.m. we were on our way back to Charlotte to see them. After a short visit we went by Glenn's house to tell him about what had happened. He was not at home but we saw a house 1214 Cathey Road for sale which was right around the corner from his house. We went on over to Pam and David's house to tell them and after hearing about Tom, Pam ask us if we would move back to Charlotte so we could be together and help each other should something like happen to us. I told her that we would stay at the beach and not consider moving back. She asked us to pray about it I said that I would pray but I would never move back to Charlotte. On the way home we did much praying about what we should do.

That night we called Glenn to let him know what had happened to Tom and the we came by to see him but he was not at home. I also shared what Pam had asked us to consider. He shared that the perfect house was for sale just around the corner and we ask him to see what was the price and let us know. In the meantime he asked a realtor friend of his to check, well she did and set up five other houses for us to look at and asked him if the next Wednesday morning would work. We decided to come on back up and look at them and visit a little with him and Robin. We arrived at Glenn's house a little before nine and met with Lisa Nobles. We first went to see the yellow house on Cathey Road. After looking at the house Hazel said that she did not want to live in this house. I ask the lady if we could come back later that day by ourselves and she said we could. We did not like any of the other four houses that Lisa showed us. After lunch I got a pad and pen for Hazel and ask her to write down everything that she could not live with when we went back to the house. We took a good look around and afterwards she said that she loved it and had decided it would be the house we would buy.

We went back to the beach and in a few days we made an offer on the house. After some going back and forth we finally bought the house and we closed on it after Thanksgiving. The couple needed to stay in the house for a couple weeks which was fine with us. By Christmas we had most of the painting and other things done and were able to move in by the first of January 2000. We could see first-hand how fast God can work in the lives of his people. We are so thankful that Pam asked us to pray about coming home to Charlotte! Listen to me tell about our move to Charlotte.

King's Karpenters in McClellanville,SC

When returning home from Charlotte after Hurricane Hugo, we discovered that some of the men from North Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church had gone down to McClellanville which had been totally destroyed by Hugo. They took water, chainsaws, and any thing else that that the folks down there may need to keep going.

After getting back home I joined together with other men and went back to help repair damage in the town. After a couple days we saw that there was a small community north of the town that no one was helping so we got as many men together as we could find and went back there to help them. We met Robert and Mary Lennen who had lost everything that they had in their home. They had an old warehouse that was given to them to be used as headquarters for our work teams. They planned on living in the warehouse until everyone had been placed back in their homes then we could help them. Robert and Mary's house was one of the last two homes that we help build.

After a couple days we saw that we could not do all that needed to be done alone so we approached several other churches and we had three others that said that they would go down one day each week. We started repairing the houses that we could complete in the least amount of time and by doing this, let the people know that we would be on a job five days a week untill it was finished and found that they started helping us some. Not too long after we started the other churches kind of dropped off but before they did we had repaired over twenty homes and had built one new one. The men at First Baptist keep on going as much as we could At this time we decided to name our group the Kings Karpenters.

After working in McClellanville for two years we were not needed there any more. We left McClellnaville with memories that will be with us as long as we live. I hope that someday people will read this and say a prayer for those folks, that God will continue to bless them and their children. We returned to North Myrtle and started doing work around North Myrtle and it was not long the need was so great in and around the county we were repairing homes all over Horry county.

I left the group in 2000 and moved back to Charlotte but I will always be a Kings Karpenter. When we were formed as a team our first leader was Ben Martin who led us well for a few years but due to bad health had to turn it over to Leary Baker who let us for couple years untill he fell off his golf cart and had to give it up, but he still worked with us until the end. Bill Taylor took over and led the group until now and they are still doing what he and others can for the needy people in and around North Myrtle. Bill is one of the most faithful men that I have ever known. Even through much sickness and hospital stays Bill just keeps on working every Thursday and sometimes other days of the week. It has been going on over twenty years; may God continue to bless the folks involved in this project.  Listen to me tell this story.

Hurricane Hugo

Shortly after this trip, an event was about to happen that would provide an opportunity for the King's Carpenters to help folk close to home. On September 21, 1989 Hurricane Hugo was on its way to the coast of the North or South Carolina. Hazel did not want to stay at the beach and we chose to come to Charlotte and keep Betsy and Kati while Robin and Glenn went to Raleigh, NC to attend a weekend for educators thinking all would be well. We came to Charlotte and settled in and were ready to have a few days with our two grandkids. We stayed up until midnight to see what Hugo was going to do and wondered if it would come inland near our beach home. At midnight all power went out in Charleston, SC and we decided to go to bed because Hugo would only come ashore for a few miles and then back out somewheres along the coast of North Carolina. Little did we know what Hugo had in mind for its travels! About four in the morning Glenn knocked on my door and ask me if we were going to sleep through Hugo's visit to Charlotte. I got up as fast as I could and boy was the wind blowing and we could see that all of the trees were bent almost to the ground. All of a sudden it got really calm and the winds stopped blowing. We all thought it was all over but just in a little while it started again and this time it was really bad! We saw some green lights as transformers blew out.

When daylight came we could see trees and power lines down everywhere but Glenn and Robin did not have any damage to their home just no power. I got to thinking about the four great big oak trees near Pam and Davids house and envisioned them all down on their house. I told Hazel that I was going to try to get over and help them and would only know how they fared the storm by going there. I started out on the five mile trip and with all of the damage it took me one hour to make the trip and I only was able to get to within about one half of a mile. I ran the rest of the way and was relieved when I got to the house I saw all of the trees around their house were standing tall and was not blown down on the house. However, they did have about twenty five big oak trees to blow down in the woods near the house but no damage was done to their home. This is another way that God was looking after my family.

We told Glenn and Robin to go on to Raleigh to the conference and we would take care of everything. We had a freezer full of frozen food and a camp stove and plenty of gas for the stove. Every one's power was out but Pam had a gas water heater and city water, both were working. With Glenn's gas stove and Pam's water we did real well. Betsy and Kati liked the camp cooking and all the candles as we did our best to make do with what we had. Glenn and Robin made it to the conference, had a great time, and returned to find that all was well. Little did we all know that for the next two weeks they were to be without power. It even took longer for some others.

We went back to the beach to find that Hugo did not do any damage to our home only a few very small limbs down and part of a couple shingles from the roof.  Listen to me tell this story.

Church Building Trip to Jamaica Pictures/Audio

For the past two weeks I have shared about my two trips, one to Haiti and the other to Jamaica. I have some pictures this week for second trip so you can see the work that was done for this community in Westmoreland Parish.


Listen to me tell about these trips.

• Haiti
• Jamaica

The men on the Jamaica Mission Trip formed a group of men called the King's Carpenters. This video shows the results of the efforts of these men and members of the church, taken from video of the trip.