Bridging gap between new arrivals and longtime residents
Ledford tells a long story to demonstrate the mutual suspicion of longtime Madison County residents and new arrivals. Ledford has positioned himself as an intermediary between these two parties.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with John Ledford, January 3, 2001. Interview K-0251. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- ROB AMBERG:
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Do you, with this, with the road and we're already seeing it.
This has been going on for a while. It's not just the highway
that's changing this. We've been seeing a
real influx of new people coming into the county
with new ideas, different kinds of thoughts about what community is all
that kind of thing. How does that, how does that conflict with the say
the local community and is that something that you as sheriff kind of
anticipate as being an issue as being problematic or-
- JOHN LEDFORD:
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Well, I'll give you an example of that. This is an
interesting story. I had a man at the lower end of the county who sold
property to two people out of Raleigh. They bought the farm. Got along
very well, but there was a, the old man took care of a cemetery and had
a right of way through the property he sold to the cemetery. The problem
being is that I think a lot of people in Madison County do not really
know what a right of way is. They might have abused the word right of
way to the point where he was going to do what he wanted to do on that
road going in. It came down to a verbal confrontation. Blows may have
been struck and warrants were drawn and it came across my desk. When it
was all said and done, the people who had moved in from Raleigh had
charged this man with assault. The man comes to me and wants me to go
down and talk to these people and see if we can get the charges dropped.
So I go down and spend an afternoon with these people, very nice people.
Very nice. Moved in here, educated and work in banking I believe in
Raleigh, but these people, they had some means but they wanted to come
back. They really wanted to get along. They felt like that they were
being bullied over by this guy. In my mind this guy here may not have
thought that he was bully over them. He just simply thought that,
"Well, hell I sold them the property. I've got a
right of way, and I'm going to use the right of way.
It's my cemetery, and I've got to get in and
I'm going to show who boss is." I spent the day down
there and talked them into dropping the charges. I don't
really want to say talked them into dropping the
charges. I basically gave them my word that this guy will not be a
problem to them, and it's not going to be necessary to go on
into court. It might be handled-see Haywood and Buncombe have
what's called mediation. Down here the sheriff does the
mediating. I had spent the afternoon with these people, and
we'd come to an agreement on all that and went back and told
this man that and thought we had it worked out and the guy who had
violated these people's space and hell then he decides he
wants a trial. So we go over and have a trial, spend all day over in
court over something that should've never been there started
with. In the end the exact same thing the judge found is exactly what I
had worked out. My point being on that is you've got people
coming into the county who are used to doing things one way.
You've got people in the county who are used to doing things
another. I think the people who live here are determined that
they're not going to be run over by the outsiders. I think
the people that are here are, or are coming in here are somewhat afraid
of the mystique of some of these people in these communities of being
gun-toting mountain people, and they don't want trouble. I
think it's just a whole lot of fear based upon ignorance, or
maybe they just don't know.
- ROB AMBERG:
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Or just even a lack of contact.
- JOHN LEDFORD:
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Lack of communication maybe is a better word.
- ROB AMBERG:
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Exactly.
- JOHN LEDFORD:
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That's kind of funny because I know the old farmer because
I'm from Madison County and grew up in there. I know them
all, and I can talk, I can talk their language, but I've been
out of here and worked off from here and I understand how an educated
person moving in here from Raleigh would think and might, and what their
customs might be. Maybe that's a good thing. So as long as I
can continue to function as a go-between.