BERTHA THOMPSON MCELWAIN
LINKS IN MCELWAIN WEBSITE
INDEX TO THE MCELWAIN WEBSITE
JOHN ALLEN MCELWAIN I
WILLIAM THOMPSON MCELWAIN
JOHN ALLEN MCELWAIN II
nfarmilo@litestream.net
I'm re-writing this information on Frank McElwain and his first wife, Bertha Thompson because, somehow, all of the information went to the never, never-land of cyberspace. I have searched and searched for my back-ups to no avail. I'm starting this time with BERTHA since I have received a request from the Penland Archives for more information on her. I have very little but she must have been "quite a lady".
BERTHA THOMPSON
I have an article from a newspaper or news-magazine about BERTHA. I don't know who printed it but it was written by ARTHELIA "TILLIE" BROOKS entitled "People I Meet". She says,
"Most of the people who have been presented to you in this column were citizens of "these parts" by virtue of having been born here: but with Mrs. McElwain it is a different story. She came to spend three days and has stayed 21 years.
When Miss Lucy Morgan set up the cabin at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933 to show the work being done at Penland in weaving and pewter, Mrs. McElwain was living in Evanston. She was quite active in the work of St. Lukes Episcopal Church in that city, having been acolyte mother for 17 years. When the rector asked for volunteers to help with the Penland booth it was natural for Mrs. McElwain to offer her services. Penland was an outgrowth of The Appalachian School which was a responsibility of the Episcopal Church. She enjoyed every minute of this pleasant duty.
After, Mrs. McElwain had a very serious jaw operation in 1935, her doctor recommended a change of climate. He suggested Florida or California, but when she asked if Asheville would do he agreed. When she arrived, however, she found it a bit smoky. Remembering her experience two years before in the "Penland Booth", she called Miss Lucy and asked if she might come there. Miss Lucy explained that although their summer institute was about to begin, there was a room vacant for three days which she might use. She came (the woman who was to use the room did not) and that is how she has become "woven" into the very heart and fabric of the institution in these 21 years. Billy Ford, who was born shortly after she came, can bear testimony to the "heart" aspect, and as to the "fabric" the evidence is even more concrete.
In the days when she first cane and Penland was getting established, she pitched in and did whatever she could do to help. She stayed at Penland during the summer and rented Miss Amy Burt's house during the winter. About 12 years ago she bought the house, for year-round living and since that time her main responsibility at Penland has been to finish, furnish and keep in repair Radcliffe House for the school. She has done this through the sale of articles which her family, personal friends and friends of the school have given her to pass on. She is very faithful and efficient in the discharge of this task which she has set for herself.
A few months ago when Miss Lucy was debating as to whether or not her thirty-year-old evening dress would do justice to the occasion of being honored by a sorority at Chapel Hill, Mrs. McElwain remembered that her grandaughter had just sent a nich green evening dress that might fit her. After a tiny bit of loosening of two seams it fit perfectly. With a black lace mantilla, shyly offered by a little girl from Ecuador, Miss Lucy looked fit to be presented to a king. Before she got away, Mrs. McElwain said, "I'm sory, Lucy, but I'll have to charge you five dollars for that dress." That five dollars is probably invested in the new bathroom added to Radcliffe this past year.
Mrs. McElwain asks but one thing for her service to the school - her Sunday dinner. Since she likes to maintain contact with the students, this is the way she gets acquainted. After they meet her the students usually find their way to FAR-AWAY HOUSE many times while they are at Penland. Her guest book, hand tooled by a friend in England, bears testimony to their visits, with drawings and tributes by students from many countries of the world. One does not write in this book until after more than one visit.
Not only those connected with the Penland school feel the warmth of her personality. All the families "on the mountain" are especially near to her. One member in each of these homes has been the recipient of one of her Super deluxe Circus Tent Birthday Cakes, except one new family. She has been informed that a little boy in this family has a birthday the same day as hers - September 8. It is safe to say that this little boy will have one of her special cakes on that date.
It is a joy to visit FARAWAY HOUSE - charming both outside and in. She has had a few visitors in the last three weeks from which she wished her house had been more faraway. She found a blacksnake on her back porch and one near the wood pile; a house snake jumped from the door ledge on her when she opened the screen door Sunday before last.
Her latest visitors are a family of rats in the air duct in her heating system. How to get rid of them without an ensuing odor is her current problem. Last week a boy with a love for snakes found a little one near her house and put it in his pocket. He went with her to the basement and attic. Later in the living room he announced that his snake had disappeared. It's anybody's guess where it will turn up full grown!
Many of the decorative items in her home are her own handiwork - the curtains, drapes, tapestries, pewter and copper. She is especially proud of the drape which gave her entrance to the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild - they told her at school she was not doing it right. I like the walnut cupboard which she said Tarp Pitman's grandfather had made. It had, when she got it, four coats of paint, with tobacco and snuff boxes for corner braces. The plain wood now looks beautiful and soft and the copper corner braces make it a truly decorative piece of furniture.
Mrs. McElwain was born Bertha Thompson, near Steubenville, Ohio. When she was twelve, her family moved to Chicago (abt 1884), where she received her high school education. After that she attended Chicago Froebel Kindergarten School and did post graduate work at Hull House while Jane Adams was there. She taught eight years in a city settlement and for a time in a private kindergarten. She married Frank McElwain in 1900. They had two boys.
John Allen McElwain has a direct mail advertising service in Chicago (see link for lots more). He has three children - Edward, Phyllis and John Allen IV. Edward has provided her with her only great-grandchild (more now).
The other son, William McElwain is a lawyer in Big Rapids, Michigan, played for the Chicago Bears and has one daughter, Irene (see link for lots more).
Besides these boys Mrs. McElwain has four "adopted" daughters - women who have claimed her as mother - Rose Lazier in Canada; Mrs. James Andrews in Chapel Hill; Carrie Radcliffe in Quimby, FA; and Mary Gonnerman in Kansas City."
From: Penland Archives
To: Norma R Farmilo
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: BERTHA
Thank you, Norma, for yesterday's e-mails!!!
The article on Bertha was great and must have been published locally (NC) maybe by the Mitchell County paper. I will send you what info I have on Bertha but I probably won't be able to get to it for a week or so. I only work three days a week at Penland and next week is the school's spring board of trustee's meeting which makes it impossible to get any "regular" work done. But, I promise. I will e-mail you with some additional info. I think it is terrific that you are giving Bertha her own page. It is such nice way to honor her. "Mackie" as she was affectionately known as was much beloved by the Penland community.
You may have noticed in the article that one of her "adopted" daughters was Carrie Radcliffe. Carrie was a rural nurse and midwife in the Penland area from c. 1935 to 1940. The building I am researching, Radcliffe House, was originally called Health House and was to be a health clinic for the community.
Thanks, again, for all your work on "Mackie's" account!
Michelle
In the summer of 1953, I, John Allen McElwain IV, drove to Penland to spend a week or two "loafing". I found my Granny, Bertha Thompson McElwain, a "whirlwind" - no one loafs around her.
"Faraway House" in which she lived was a log home with a magnificent stone fireplace and chimney. The chimney was constructed to also be the stairs to the attic. She had a hand pump in the kitchen sink for water. The water was pumped from a spring/pool down below the cabin. I took it upon myself as a project for my visit to install an electric pump and put in the pipes to deliver water to her kitchen.
As a going away present, she made a bag full of powdered sugar puff cookies (Swedish Butterballs) as a surprise and a "thanks for everything". She said for me to shake the bag loosely each time I took a cookie.
I was not yet down the mountain when I was shaking and wanted a cookie - my mouth was watering. Into the bag, while driving down the mountain, I got a cookie and popped it into my mouth - UGH!!! She had used flour not powered sugar. Instead of melting in my mouth it practically glued my mouth shut.
In spite of the cookie episode I remembered that trip for all the good people I met and to this day how much everyone there loved "Mother Mac".
From: Penland Archives
To: Norma R Farmilo
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: more on Bertha McElwain
Thank you, thank you, thank you! A great story! Please convey my appreciation to Al McElwain. Faraway Cottage/House still stands and has been lovingly restored by it present owner.
Michelle
nfarmilo@comcast.net
Thanks for visiting my McElwain Website
Please send me anything you have on these families including corrections.
nfarmilo@litestream.net
