In our August 2011 e-newsletter, we ran a “Swannanoa Story” about the Depot (the old passenger train station) that used to be located near downtown Swannanoa. That story generated several responses from our readers, including the following recollections from Charles King, who was raised in Swannanoa, and lived in the section of Beacon Village that was then known as “Smith Village”:
Just west of the Depot was a water tower where the steam engines got water. I don’t remember when it was taken down. Also, east of the Depot was the coal yard where a lot of people got their coal. Most everybody cooked and heated with coal at that time (mid-to-late 1940s). The coal was delivered to your house in an old pickup and was put where you wished it placed. My dad, Elmer King, worked at Beacon and delivered coal on the side. I would sometimes ride along with him. I remember one time we were delivering coal to an older couple who didn’t want to go outside in the winter weather to get the coal. They had a spare bedroom they weren’t using and when my dad asked them where they wanted him to put the coal, they told him to back the truck up and put it right through the bedroom window. So that’s what we did!
We also received this recollection from Swannanoa resident Steve Moseley about his mother, Josephine Moseley:
My mom was born and raised on a farm in Madison County. She was lucky to be selected with some other farm kids to come to Warren Wilson to finish high school there [at the time, Warren Wilson was a coed farm school for high school-age students]. Irony would play a part as years later she had to relocate here to find work (at Chemtronics and Black Mountain Center) after my father died. She passed away right here in Swannanoa.
Thank you for sharing these stories!