Wilburn Edison Nuckolls

How Edison Nuckolls first learned music no one can remember, but learn it he did. "Oh, he just picked it up along the way." He could fiddle and he could ring a banjo and he could play most anything with strings. Edison grew up on the county line between Ashe and Alleghany in the community of Furches, also known as Cranberry, in a time before radio existed and when phonographs were rare. He learned music from friends and relatives, and farmhands and traveling horse traders--anyone with a song to sing and a tune to play.

He and Maggie Hill [Edison's First Wife] had two boys, Bland and Grey, and a daughter, Phyliss, and they all played music. Maggie hammered a 5-string banjo, Phyllis played tenor banjo, Bland the mandolin, and Grey the guitar. Edison Fiddled: "John Henry," "Old Hen Cackle," "Home Sweet Home." Phylis, the youngest child, remembers,

The whole family played music. We played one time for a contest at Nathan's Creek School, and my brother Bland...was sitting on the edge of the stage with his mandolin and he just fell asleep and tumbled off. Bang! But the rest of us kept on playing! The Children, we just chorded, you know, and Dad would give us signals when to change. He would take his foot and give a little kick, so we always watched him. We were so tiny!

Nuckolls Family Band Scottville, NC mid 1930's Maggie (banjo), Phylis (tenor banjo), Edison (fiddle), Bland (mandolin), Grey (guitar).

Grey Nuckolls continues:

When I was a kid back there in the 1920s we used to have corn shuckings and molasses making, and at our home once a month they had candy making, and there'd be music playing and square dancing for family and good friends. Sometimes Dad would take us around to fiddlers conventions. In Boone one time we took second prize, which was a sack of flour!

A corn shucking was a way to get your corn shucked for free. Sometimes you'd find a row of red kernels in an ear of white corn--if you did that you could get your choice of any girl and kiss her! After the corn shucking, they'd clear out a room and have a big dance. People seemed to really enjoy life in those days, not so much stress like today. You might only make a dollar a day, but you didn't have to worry about withholding tax, and nobody had any insurance either!

Corn shuckings and other communal activities had a long tradition in Ashe and Alleghany Counties where most citizens raised all of the food that they put on their tables. Sugar was scarce and expensive, and often molasses was the only sweet substance available. Molasses making was a long, slow task that required mashing sorghum cane in a horse-turned mill, followed by a lengthy process of boiling and filtering. But hard work was tempered by the opportunity to socialize and the promise of entertainment when the job was done. Friends would arrive to help at all stages of the procedure; music and dancing was sure to follow. Edison Nuckolls would often bring his family string band to such gatherings, knowing that he in turn could rely on his neighbors to assist him when the need arose.

THE FATAL COURTSHIP by Ephram Woodie & the Henpecked Husbands

...by the time Clay Reed joined Ephraim Woodie's band in 1927 he was well respected as a fiddler. Ephraim was then still a bachelor but Clay had married Bertha Church three years prior, and Edison Nuckolls had tied the knot back in 1917. In jest, Ephraim began calling his two partners "The Henpecked Husbands." The name stuck and soon the threesome began playing at local dances and social events with handbills announcing: "We Play Banjo, Violin, Guitar. Singers of old time songs, as 'Cluck Old Hen' as well as love songs. It takes 4 to 6 hours to play all we know. Come Bring All Your Friends And Sweethearts."

In the fall of 1929 Ephraim Woodie and the Henpecked Husbands got a chance to make recordings for the Columbia Phonography Company. They first recorded "Last Gold Dollar," with Clay Reed fiddling and Edison Nuckolls on banjo. Ephraim Woodie sang in his nasal mountain accent.

Modest Sales can be attributed in large part to poor timing. Columbia 15564-D by Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands was released in 1930, a time when nationwide record sales began a drastic decline in response to the collapsing American economy. A recording career was clearly not a practical pursuit. Edison and Clay had families to feed and fields to plow, and Ephraim had yet to finish high school. But the band continued to do what it did best--performed around home, at box suppers, square dances, schools, picnics, and parties.

Handkerchief Dolls

When friends and neighbors gathered at the Nuckolls' house to hear music, most of them would bring the children along. Edison had a pair of dolls that he'd made from two handkerchiefs, and he used them to entertain the kids, as described by his daughter Sandra: "He would tie one of those dolls to his strumming hand with little pieces of black thread and it would hang down almost to the floor. Then he'd make it dance. When he played the banjo that doll would dance exactly to the beat! One handkerchief was black and one was white, they were supposed to be a black man and a white man, I think that's what the impression was."

Bill Williams (fiddle), Charlie Cox (guitar), and Edison Nuckolls (banjo) played music together for more than three decades.

The music of the Lost Provinces is pure old-time music, music from the heart and soul, not motivated by publicity potential or profit margin. Music for the home and the school and the backyard and the front porch. "Kitchen music." Music at the country store on Saturday night and music at church on Sunday morning. Live music. This is the music of the Woodie Brothers and the "Henpecked Husbands," of Clay Reed and Donald Thompson, of Bill Williams, Charlie Cox and Edison Nuckolls. None of these names are famous, nor are they likely to be. These men never made a hit records or played in concert halls. In fact, none of them were music professionals at all, their recorded legacy just a handful of scratchy old records and a few reels of tape. but their importance cannot be overstated; these musicians were bearers of a vital cultural tradition, their motives were ones of creative expression and social interaction. And the tradition lives on through all the children and grandchildren who continue to sing and play music.

Wilburn Edison Nuckolls, born Mar. 11, 1895; died Aug. 22, 1975; buried at Cranberry Community Cemetery; married 1st Margaret (Maggie) Nevada Hill, Sept. 18, 1917; married 2nd Edna Alice Cox, Mar. 18, 1927. Edison received his education at Furches, NC and Applachian College in Boone, NC with a degree in teaching. He and Maggie Hill eloped by buggy to the depot in West Jefferson, NC, and boarded a train to Chicago to join his brother. Later they left Chicago and went to Colorado Springs, CO, where Edison was employed with the gold mines.

After a few years, they returned to Furches and lived on a farm his mother had purchased for them, January 2, 1931. Edison became engaged in farming, cattle raising, lumber, and owned his own sawmill for over 20 years. Edison was a great musician and played all instruments. He played five-string banjo in a band, having recorded and broadcast on a radio station in North Wilkesboro, NC. He also had a private band at home in which every member of his family took part in playing. Edison was a very hard worker and was one of the last farmers in the county to work the land without the aid of a tractor, but instead used horse-drawn machinery. His machines can now be seen at Shatley Springs Inn along with other antique machinery.

See more information on the Wilburn Edison Nuckolls family listed under the descendants of Sara Jane Shepherd Nuckolls.