Gatewood: About fifteen, twenty miles outside of . Mr. Stonewall, in the past,
has been a medical practitioner. A folk medical practitioner. Mr. Stonewall, where were you from? Were you born and raised here? Did you come in here−Stonewall: Born and raised in .
Gatewood: How did you get down−
Stonewall: I was raised all over the world. I left that at one year old. My
granddaddy, he bought a place in . And not knowing, old man Billy, the man he worked for, was a horse trader. And he showed nothing but show horses. Fine horses. And he traveled all the time. And he told my grandfather to come down, look the place over, and buy it for him. If he want it, he could pay him for it. Well, he ran out of money down there. Looked around. He found him a place. And he moved down there.Gatewood: What part of was it?
Stonewall: East of . About two miles and a half from town. But now, the city
limits done covered it. And my grandfather on my mother’s side was the one whose name was Perry. And my grandfather on my Daddy’s side, his name was James. They called him Jim all the time. And Perry, they called him Jim, too. So there was two Jims. But when his children got up big enough, he prayed for them to leave there. He didn’t like for them to stay in . He didn’t like the people in . And they said a man there was no more than a dog. So he left.Gatewood: What year was this, Mr. Stonewall?
Stonewall: And he was too old. He was 113 years old when he died.
Gatewood: Good grief!
Stonewall: And great-granddaddy, he was Jerry. He was 135. And he died with
pneumonia by him hanging wet clothes in the house. Took a (?) in the corner back there. And then he left, they buried him. And then, my ancestors, my granddad used to take me on his knee and tell me about his ancestors that discovered the , you know. Two hundred years before Chris Columbus come here. And they come and showed me the route to come, they come through by . On into the . And some of them stayed over here, and some of them wouldn’t. They fussed and fought and went on, one tribe against the other one, they just continued going like that. He tells me there never was a buffalo in this place.Gatewood: Is that right?
Stonewall: Never was a buffalo in the . Said what you had here was bison.
Gatewood: Was what?
Stonewall: Bison.
Gatewood: Uh huh.
Stonewall: It wasn’t buffalo. They come over here hunting. His ancestors come in
here hunting. That’s my great-granddaddy now. My great-granddaddy told me about his daddy, and his great-granddaddy would come in here hunting. And come through by the way of . Oh, he told me so much. I’m 83 now. And by George, I can hardly think of none of what he told me about.Gatewood: Well now, when they moved from , did they move up here?
Stonewall: No. They didn’t. They didn’t leave there. He was too old to leave,
and he just lay down and died. But the children left. Some of them died in , and some of them live in now. And some is in . My wife’s children, or sister’s children now are in . And some is in . Let me see. I might have, there was one in . But he left and went back to . His wife died. His name was (?) He’s named after my granddaddy’s brother.Gatewood: Now you were born, you were born where?
Stonewall: I was born in .
Gatewood: And then when did you, when did you move down? Did you move down with
your parents?Stonewall: No. I went to school. I went to work then. I got big enough, I had an
operation at thirteen, and went to . And then I left away from there and never did go back (?) . And after him, I (?) Harvard (?)Gatewood: Is that right?
Stonewall: And after I left him, I went to work in an (?) shop. One thing to
another, one job into another, I worked in so many different things. I worked in a steel mill. I worked in, (?) I can’t think of. (?) run a garage, I work for him a long time. And (Max?), I worked for him. I left Max (?) at the (?), I ain’t never been back there, either. I left there when George (?) drove in that morning. George (?) come in there, “You want to go with me?” “Yeah.” I (?) in the car with him and drove, went driving for him. And drove for him (?)Gatewood: What kind of car did he have?
Stonewall: He had an old one.
Gatewood: So you drove it and kind of kept it up for him?
Stonewall: Mm hmm.
Gatewood: Uh huh. How many years did you work there?
Stonewall: About eight, nine months. And then I went to demonstrating (bread?)
for the Arm & Hammer soda company. Traveling all over the . After I had done that− good God, I couldn’t tell you, so many different places, man, I can’t even recollize. I can’t recognize them now. I can’t really (?) all of them.Gatewood: Sure. Sure. When did you move down here?
Stonewall: To ?
Gatewood: Yes.
Stonewall: I left about 35, 40 years ago. Tax drove me out of . Too many taxes.
And that’s where I worked in the airplane shop there a long time. Worked every day of the year for two years and never lost but one day. Just one day out of two years. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday again. Well, I left and come here. Then I took a notion that I wanted to go to school. I went to then and went to study medicine. I finished in . Then I went on back into and took a post-graduate course, (?) . Took a (?) test, and come on back to . And the time is World War I. And World War I, why, we had plenty troubles. And (?). Treated us like dog. And we’re going to have a rebellion, there’s war coming out (?) We’re going to have a rebellion. So he called the old men in the first one. But in the second one, they took the new men, the best in the race. And this time, they ain’t going to, if they don’t do something about what they’re doing, with this president they got, I don’t know what in the world he going to do. But just as sure as he’ll do what I think he’ll do, they’re going to destroy . I believe my (children?), that’s exactly what he going to do with social security. And done took their money. And some of them got to have their money, you know that. And they need it. Cause it look like to me that they ain’t doing nothing but just heating up trouble. And (?) are getting better. And if you don’t do something, there ain’t but one way to control this here high price, is to control the price. If he puts his foot down and set down on the price, put the (?) on the price, he’ll come through. But otherwise, he’ll never (do no good?) He’ll never (?) if he don’t control that price.Gatewood: How did you come to decide your formal training, how did you come to
start practicing medicine when you moved down? And learned so much about the herbs and the roots.Stonewall: Well, I was brought up with that. My granddaddy was a doctor. And ,
I’m trying to think of his name now. I know him as well as I know my right hand, but I just can’t think of his name. He was one of my teaches. He taught me diagnosis. And my granddaddy, he taught me roots, herbs, barks, seeds and flowers.Gatewood: What was that last thing?
Stonewall: Roots, herbs, bark, seeds, and flowers.
Gatewood: And plow?
Stonewall: And flowers.
Gatewood: Flowers.
Stonewall: The blossoms.
Gatewood: Could you mention some of the things that are found native here that
are good for curing certain things? Just a few of them. I know there are a lot of things.Stonewall: Goldenseal, that’s one. It will regulate you, especially for a woman.
And (?) some preparation, it will remove the cause of that trouble she got. That’s two. And one (dose?) will do that. They sell high as the devil now. But you don’t want to (?) There is another one, oh, good God, there’s so many.Gatewood: I know. Just mention some of them. I’ve heard tell there’s a thing
called life everlasting. You ever heard of that?Stonewall: (?)
Gatewood: What’s that good for?
Stonewall: Steam (?) and break out a sweat and the common cold. Something like
that, like boneset.Gatewood: I guess there are a lot of different barks of trees, aren’t there,
that can be use to−Stonewall: Yes. I used, (poison?) use a toothpick. There’s a disease of the
mouth you call giraffey tongue. Giraffey tongue. Well, the best thing that you can use for any disease of the mouth is cinnamon bark. Now, I’ve got a boy in here, he’s very allergic to (?) and he takes (?) in his mouth every time he eats them. And have to use up (?) to stop it. I’ve told him to take some cinnamon bark off that tree right there. And he (?) and wash it twice. And got better. And he don’t like it cause it don’t taste so well. But you ain’t looking for something that taste good for you. Now, ginseng. The nation is looking at ginseng. And ginseng was used way back yonder in King Solomon’s time. It says, you take ginseng for the (healing of the nation?). Well, the scripture tells you plainly, don’t pay no attention to science. Don’t it do that?Gatewood: Yes, it doesn’t really treat science.
Stonewall: Yes it do. It’s in between natural science and synthetic science. Now
that is the difference right there. There’s a difference between synthetic medicine, inorganic, and organic drugs.Gatewood: Interesting.
Stonewall: Now that’s two different (there?). They discovered a seed that was
used in the finest plum trees there ever was in the world. It grows in Queenland and in are the only two places that that tree grows that I know anything about. And I have to order it from that. A Frenchman used it. And he shared it had to be put in a fluid extract (?) the quality of drugs would not be too (?). in the solution. So I put it in, I tried to (?) like he did. But I took him at his word. I put it in a fluid extract. It takes three weeks to make a tincture. I put it in a fluid extract, and then vibrated down. Wouldn’t let it boil, just vibrated down in order to get out a whole lot of it. Only boils it down (?) Now my wife has got diabetes right now. And one thing about it, you shall not lose your eyes or lose your limbs or nothing about you. And if you stick to it and (?) I notice a man here the other day, and I’m reading one of the foremost doctors in the , he said, “There is no cure for rheumatism.” Well, that is a lie! There’s eighty different styles of rheumatism. Eighty different kinds. I find eighty different kinds. Every one of them has to be treated differently. I had one kind will draw you in every shape in the world. I have another kind, (?) They call sciatic. That’s a nerve in the system. And it (?) If you take it back there, and you’ve got sciatic there, you can put electricity to it and help it. But the main thing is to treat it and get it away from there and use (electric?) to keep from eating that (cut?) off the bone. And if you do (?) that bone, you can’t walk. You’ve got no (?) there, whatever.Gatewood: Any natural ways to deal with rheumatism? Any herbs or−
Stonewall: Yeah. Plenty of them. Plenty of them. Plenty of them.
Gatewood: What are some of them around here?
Stonewall: Yeah. (?) is one of them.
Gatewood: Is that the scientific name or the common name?
Stonewall: (Phito??) is the active drug that come out of the root. And come from
poke root. People will eat something like poke salad. (?) about the first part of the spring, they would never have typhoid fever. And she had two things (?) and if you did get it, you treat it with (?) .Gatewood: Well, how was it that we had these bad outbreaks of typhoid fever back
in your time? If they could have been eating the poke salad? They just didn’t know to do, what to do?Stonewall: No, they ain’t never thought of that. And furthermore, not many
people know it today.Gatewood: Well, I’m sure they don’t know it today. But I was thinking maybe in
earlier times there were people around that would help people if they came to you, to tell them what would be good to take, to do.Stonewall: Yeah. Providing he knows it when you went and got it. Some people
have a name for one thing, and it’s another. That’s why it’s different (?). That’s why they can’t learn nothing about organic drugs. If they had said it “organic,” like they have, (study?) inorganic (?) it would have been way (yonder?) in front of them. You understand that? It would have been way (?) in front of them. This vine that grow down here on the river, it’s called forget-me-not. And it grows, we’ve got another one in the forest they call forget-me-not. And it’s not the kind we got down here. The kind we got down here has little (points of potatoes?) on them. Well, (?) about as big as your thumb. (He takes?) potatoes and extract them. Grind them up, extract them, and rot them. Now he (?) and then rot them is best. And then when you’re (?), why it won’t be nothing in it, whatever. And just keep piling it in there until finally you come into growing a mushroom. Then you take that fungus off the mushroom. Take the fungus. And extract it. And then you’ve got something that will wake up the devil. Now it go down and kill a half a dozen different diseases at once. But you have to handle it mighty particular. Because while it ain’t poison, understand, the one that come from this fungus is. There’s a difference right there. Being transported from organic to inorganic.Gatewood: Unless you know what you’re doing, it’s very dangerous.
Stonewall: Yes, it is. It’s very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
(?) help began with God. You know that. And he told what to do. If you want to live a long time, you do what he said to do. And you know, you’ve read it, haven’t you?Gatewood: Yeah. Not probably enough. But I do read.
Stonewall: He said that you want, who is it that don’t desire many days − that’s
many years − and have peace and long life. He that follows my commandments and be obedient to me. Now that’s what don’t set so (?). You’ve got to die to this world to be alive in the world to come. Now you get the world crucified under you, and you’re crucified under the world. Whatever you ask (?), then you (?) Now take ginseng, as I start to tell you. They don’t know the ginseng (?) today. Ginseng extends life. It’s a life extension drug. That’s the only one on earth I know anything about.Gatewood: You don’t say. The only thing I’ve ever heard is that it’s a sexual aphrodisiac.
Stonewall: That’s right. Aphrodisiac is oldest sort of (?) in the world. And
don’t do a thing in the world. Aphrodisiac is naturally, now what in the devil do you want with aphrodisiac? You can’t beat the ones you got.Gatewood: Do you remember anything about the delivery of babies in the homes
when you were coming up?Stonewall: Oh, yeah.
Gatewood: Did they do more of that in the homes?
Stonewall: They don’t a lot of it. sometimes they had to call a doctor.
Gatewood: But there were a number of midwives that practiced?
Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: How did the people in the communities respond? Did they come and help
the woman out?Stonewall: Oh, yeah. Used to have (?) have a baby now, nobody in my house, just
me and my wife. I got twelve myself. We done all of them but two. She was on a soft bed, and I couldn’t, one got hung on her pelvis and I couldn’t get it loose. (?) I carried her to , to a man that used to work (?) she did. And I took her to him. He was a doctor. And he was whole hospital at the time.Gatewood: And you were able to get all the way from, were you living here at the time?
Stonewall: Yeah. Right here.
Gatewood: All the way from here to Somerset in time for him to−
Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: That’s tremendous. What year was that?
Stonewall: I think, and Peggy’s about eighteen years old.
Gatewood: Back in the sixties.
Stonewall: Eighteen, nineteen. Shortly, about nineteen. It was about nineteen
years ago. (?)Gatewood: Well how about the treatment of illness, and the way the community
supported it? Was it mainly home remedies and people that knew something about various herbs and roots?Stonewall: Yeah. Lots of them, had lots of them. A good nurse is better than a
doctor. (?) Number one good nurse is better than a doctor. For I done raised my hospital there in (?). I found that out. I had an old crooked leg woman that come from . And she was a number one girl. I mean to tell you, she was a good one. And I paid her twenty-five dollars a day to stay in that hospital and answer the phone. And it got so bad in , I got to calling doctors and (?) to come out (?) And I’ve sold out and left. Come back to (?). Got two children down there by my first wife.Gatewood: Do you remember any of the epidemics? Like 1918? Where were you then?
Stonewall: 1918? I was at .
Gatewood: I see. You weren’t here during those epidemics.
Stonewall: Huh?
Gatewood: You weren’t out in the countryside during the epidemics. That bad flu thing.
Stonewall: No, I was at . The government station (?)
Gatewood: You were mentioning earlier how important the water source is. Would
you comment a little on that, in terms of health?Stonewall: Yeah. There ain’t a drop of pure water on earth. It comes down to (?)
what it is There ain’t a drop of pure water on earth. That’s a whole lot to say. Sure is.Gatewood: The body is a large part−
Stonewall: The body fights off trouble (?) Your blood fights a trouble (?)
against resistance. A person that will never use nothing weakens his resistance. You know physiology, if we came to study physiology, number one is he get sick. Water is a very particular thing. But it’s a most common carrier of all disease. Water. Now there’s a spring in the middle of the river down here. Right down here in the river. You can go right down through my place, down through, and it’s in the middle of the river. But it used to be on the side of the river. But it’s in the middle of the river now. And you can’t keep your feet, hands, in the water, I guess, twenty minutes, to save your life. You’re too cold. But the main thing is to do what I aim to do, was to put me a pump station there. If I could get this place, if the government would turn this place over to me and sell it to me, or give it to me, or allow me a chance to pay for it in any way, I’d fix that thing. Part the water away from around it, build a crib in it, and go down about 65 feet in order to catch it up there. And then, I’d put a ram on this side, and it wouldn’t cost me five cents for all the water I wanted to use. And all, have good water, too, to drink. What are you taking my picture for?Gatewood: I wanted to have something for the visual if we did a slide show type
thing. I’d like to get some pictures, if I could. In fact, I’d like if, if it’s possible sometime, maybe not today, to bring the video camera and maybe follow you out, you know, when you’re looking for, if you look for some herbs or roots or something. Show us how you look for them, what they are. You know, just to give kids an indication of what it’s all about.Stonewall: They all don’t grow around here. I’ve got books with every kind.
Gatewood: Yes. I know they don’t all grow. We’re particularly interested about
the ones that do grow here.Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: If you could tell us about some of those, it would be very helpful.
Not only for the schoolchildren, but it would be helpful for scholars to know, know what sorts of−Stonewall: A person ought to know something to do for himself. That’s what he
honestly needs. I’ve got a name of, I guess, fifteen or sixteen thousand, or twenty-five or thirty thousand different herbs. But I have to get some from . Then they’d have to be classified, looked over, because people got to be so peculiar now. They send you a thing you order. And after you order, you get it, it’s got arsenic in it. They sprinkle it with arsenic and everything. It has to be analyzed, and looked at fairly good. And see if it’s the one you ordered. Now I’m been trying to get one African herb, I’ve been trying to get it for about four years. And I ain’t got it yet. But you got one in by the same name, but it’s nothing like that. They call it, in the nursery, . Well, it’s not columbine. Columbine I’ve been trying to get from has a big potato in it. Has a great big potato on it about that long. It grows in a swampy place. And you use the small roots (in place of?) the big ones. And I be doggone if it don’t come lighting you up showing every disease that you can put your hands on. I don’t now whether it will cure a contagious disease, except in a particular way you’re handling that contagious outbreak. But it come mighty near the best thing there ever was this side of heaven that I know anything about. He would never depart from it. and one of the kings, I noticed in tracing it back, one of the kings thought he had it. And he went down and had the he plant put in his garden. But it’s the female is what he wanted. But he didn’t know it until three or four years after that. And he didn’t get the female plant. He wanted the female plant, but didn’t get−Gatewood: He got the wrong one. He got the wrong sex of the plant.
Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: What’s some of them right around here? Some of the things that are
good for various things.Stonewall: Right around here?
Gatewood: Yes.
Stonewall: Well, I don’t know. I had one growing right down there, I (know it
from?) American health magazine. It showed it here and my grandma used to (?) called pennywinkle. Which they found out it cured cancer. And that was last month. And it cured cancer. They tried it in two different (faces?). They tried it in breast cancer, and they tried it−[End Tape 17E2a, Side A. Begin Side B.]
Gatewood: If you could think about it, I know there’s a lot of things you (have
to say?) about it.Stonewall: I (?) anything. I can haul them out.
Gatewood: I got, what could they do for, was there much they could do for diphtheria?
Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: What’s good for that?
Stonewall: Well, they make poultices for diphtheria. And they produce
immunization shot for it. You see, you can, you can, if you know how to handle it with organic, you can take organics and inorganics and different kinds and use them to overtake it. Let me tell you what’s a fact. This inorganic medicine is usually killing too many people. And it’s children and too many people, and fixing them where they can never do good and they’re going to come to be allergic to every God thing it is on earth. You can’t even drink the water you was raised with. Now you watch it. Now, they got some inorganics is good, if you know how to handle them. But everybody can’t take them. It won’t agree with everybody. Take a person that’s on a diet. And she’s got anything like that disease you call, you get too fat. What you call it? I can’t think of it.Gatewood: Obesity.
Stonewall: Obesity. Obese. Now, in a person that got that disease, go ahead and
get on a diet. Well you just listen to that thing. You never heard as many diets in all the days of your life.Gatewood: That’s the truth.
Stonewall: And then at the same time, any person on a diet can’t keep a normal
mind. He’s got some kind of psychiatric away from his mind, and he will absolutely show it if you get a good psychiatric doctor (?), he’ll show it. Because you can’t depart, after you go ahead and depart from different drugs, you understand, from different foods, what it takes to sustain the mind. And they don’t know exactly which one that is. But now he perishes away from that, and not just perish away from that, you die before you get it back. Because it’s so slow. Some of them say, “Well, you can put it in your sleep, and he’ll rest a while.” Some of them, at some stages, they put to sleep and help rest and quiet. But that ain’t the same. Any person who’s on a diet going weak in his own mind. Some people are too crazy about food anyhow, and they eat too much. That’s one of the main things. Now they liked starve me to death in the United States Army, in the first world war. And right today, I don’t know when I get hungry unless I get awful weak. I get awful weak. Then I know I go need to go get something to eat. And if my wife didn’t watch out for me and come down and call me, I’d starve to death. That’s why I’m so small now. One thing I know, I healed up and kept my strength. Number one condition until just about a year ago, I went to have an operation. Second operation, major operation I’ve had, since I’ve been a man. Well he operated on me without even cut the skin. He moved it with a wire. Well, after he did that, I was so low in blood that he had to pump somebody else’s blood in before he could wake me up. When they finally got two quarts of blood in, and he woke me up. Gave me a dose of medicine. Took all my teeth out. I had good teeth at my age. Eighty-three years old and sound teeth (?) I took three doses of it. Every one of my teeth come out but eight at the bottom and four at the top. It dropped out. I wouldn’t take no more of it. That will show you that the drugs they got, if you don’t know how to handle them, the (?) will take any action of your stomach and knock every one you got. Injure you in some way.Gatewood: What do you think, you think we’ve gone backward or forward in medicine?
Stonewall: Well, in some things you improve. In some things, you went back. One
thing about it, you’re (?) people and killing people better than you’re doing anything else. Some of them, you’re going to (?), and some of them, you could get more if you didn’t charge so (damn?) much. It’s too much money. They got so now, they’re charging so much money. And mostly after money, heedless what the drug is doing. That’s what’s so bad.Gatewood: How about in the earliest time? Do you remember where doctors, was the
profession built on money then? Or was there more sort of community exchange type of−Stonewall: There’s different classes of people at different times of the season.
Some doctors, way back there, were so interested in their patients, they wouldn’t even, a patient was talking to him, he may (?), just stay right there in the house. I’ve done it many times. You don’t get no doctor to stay around you now. (?) called a doctor. I know him well, too. Knowed him before he finished school. And he (botched?), he went ahead trying out medicine. And gave him a shot. And then he run off and forgot his hat. (?) get his hat, (?) got his hat, and called him to come get it. He was (?) I got one, (?), doctor gave her a shot and killed her dead as (?). He’s a twin, (Nelson?). You know (Nelson?), don’t you? Well, he’s a twin to Nelson. Agnes was her name. That’s her picture on the wall. Eighteen years old when he killed her. She died in my arms. Headed to the sanitorium. If we hadn’t given it to her in a shot, I might have could have done something. But he give it to her in a shot, and it’s impossible for me to do anything to check the (toxic?) effect of the drug.Gatewood: You think the effect of TV is on health?
Stonewall: Huh?
Gatewood: What effect do you think the TV is on health? People knowing how to
take care of themselves.Stonewall: Well, I don’t think much of it. Because we need to take them and
educate them. And show them things they don’t know. What is it to you when you can’t move the (?) drug (?) hot water. And hot water would injure some (?), so delicate. And then (he weighs?) the action and the therapeutic value. And if hot water kill it. A weakness shows the disease that you’ve got might be advanced too far, and it can’t reach it. And if you don’t know what to do, why, you’re in a bad shape. Now if you tried (?) drug and you might be able to cross it different time, and different one, and shed disease all right immediately. The proper way to do is the way I do if I have to practice. What I do, I notice a disease and make sure he has what I’m treating him for. That’s the main thing. Well, after I find out what he was doing. And had (?) diagnosis, I’d light out after it. If it didn’t yield, I’d give it a few doses of organic drugs. And strictly for that trouble. And most any disease would yield for a (?) or two, day or so, before you get better or get worse. And then, as soon as you see the change is made, then come with one or two doses with inorganic drugs and wipe it out completely. Then give them a tonic then, (?) system, bring them right (?) That’s the way you have to do. If you expect to be in the residence of any patient that’s sick, and a man ought to be in the residence of his own family.Gatewood: Did you ever, you probably didn’t, because you didn’t come into this
country until late, but did you ever hear any talk of a guy by the name of Dr. (Medico?)? Used to practice down here and used to commercialize, sell a lot of herbs and roots? About the turn of the century?Stonewall: No. Dr. (Medico?)
Gatewood: He was called Dr. (Medico?)
Stonewall: No, the only doctor that I know of in business, he shot him from one
building across to another one. (?) was the name. He shot him in his office. One man standing on this side, shot across the street and killed him in the building. I was a little bitty boy when he did that. I was just about four years old.Gatewood: That wasn’t down here, was it?
Stonewall: Well, it was in . That’s where it was. Old man (Louis Davis?), before
he died, he knowed it. Knowed him well. And he come out to open (?), he couldn’t do nothing at all. He went down, and he took his crutches, he went down on crutches, too. Took his crutches, tore them all to pieces. He said, “You come to me on crutches, I know you’re going back without them, let’s tore them all to pieces (?).” He said, “Now sit down there.” He sit down there and talk with him a little while and get him to (?). You never have that no more. Old man (Louis?) died. And I’ve got a great big boy big enough to sit in his lap. And he never did have (?) Never did have another pain in his leg no more. Now some people, they just (easier killed?) than others.Gatewood: A whole individual thing.
Stonewall: Well, if you trust the lord for wisdom, and look for that, then you
(?) I’ve had patients I had to pray for. They was in such a bad condition. Knowing the world, I don’t see how in the world so many people (?) I read it the other day in a book from . And I wonder how in the name of God they (?) in when I lived in , we was 75 miles to the North Pole. And we’d see the planes going over and carrying mail to , you know. See the sunshine on the wings of a plane, at night. And by (?) I got a letter from . A (?), you think about that. Where the ground done turn blue, it’s so cold! And I got a letter from there, and they sent me a book. And the book is over there by you now. The church has been tied up 400 years on something, on the sanctuary. And he untied it. And sent me the book. It’s a little bitty yellow book. It got (?) name to it, and anything (?) I’ve seen. (?), or something like that. Can you pronounce that name? (?) Yeah, that’s it.Gatewood: I never heard of it.
Stonewall: Now he’s in . When I got that book, I got the letter from . And I got
that book. It come from . He got a place in . Read the back of that thing, where his picture’s at. I don’t see (how they were?) able to get my name on it so well.Gatewood: I guess people talk about you.
Stonewall: Ain’t got nothing to talk about. Sure (?)
Gatewood: [laughs] How many acres do you farm?
Stonewall: I have eleven-and-a-half. Twelve acres. Eleven-and-a-half, and ten
were (?) I raise everything but bananas and coconut. I been sick for two years, and I ain’t raised nothing last year. And the weeds come up. And enough seeds to plant a hundred acres. I’ve got to work some way to get rid of the seeds in that ground. Now if you want to, I’ll have to look in guidebook.Gatewood: I got something here that might jog your memory a little bit. It might
not be quite kosher with the oral historians. It comes out of a book. But I’m sure that you could probably tell us more than what’s here. You just kind of glance through, excuse me, glance through some of them. they got there, got the identification of the type of thing, and then the official, the way the drug companies use it (?) and if it’s used locally. Do you want to just look through some of them?Stonewall: (?) or made into tea for stomach ailment.
Gatewood: You ever heard of that done here?
Stonewall: Oh, headache. Remedy, especially sinus headache. Two, three (?)
That’s a good drug, (?) strawberry. (?) second, third (?) Oh, yeah. (?) Diuretic, bring on a sweat. Diuretic, (?) expectorant, (?) and bronchitis. Not using medicine. But onion (?) use it in poultice or social (?), fever pneumonia. Let’s go back in, talk about garlic. Garlic (?). I’ve got a row of it down there in the field. It lowers your blood pressure, but it takes ninety minutes for it to stop. And one dose will do you all day long. And it ought not to be taken raw like it is. Whereas if you cook it in food just for flavor, you (?) One thing about it, it will ruin your kidney if you don’t use it in a, (?) slippery elm. You can go to a slippery elm tree, and get some bark off a slippery elm tree. And as soon as you put the hot water on it, it will turn it like snot. Come (?) from your nose, see?Gatewood: Very slippery. Slimy.
Stonewall: Yes. Yes. Slimy and slippery as it can be. Now you take it in that,
it coat your kidneys and stop them from doing that. In ninety minutes, your blood pressure begins to fall.Gatewood: Is that right?
Stonewall: That’s right. Regardless of how bad it is, she’s going down. She
might be sitting right on the edge of a stroke, but she’s going down. Starts in ninety minutes. It’s slow. But you can (?) your watch on it and see, it will start in ninety minutes.Gatewood: Is there any other use for that slippery elm bark?
Stonewall: Huh?
Gatewood: Is there any other use for that slippery elm?
Stonewall: Yeah. Aids the operation of constipated bowels. And eases the
intestines. (depending what kind of elm you got?) (black Indian elm, and dog branch?). You don’t need to be bothered with that, that thing (with the habit of drugs?). That’s what, that’s what you call wild marijuana.Gatewood: Is that right?
Stonewall: Yes, that stalk that was sitting right down there at the side of the
road. (?), people call it.Gatewood: Your Missus−
Mrs. Stonewall: Stonewall.
Gatewood: I’m pleased to meet you. I’m Tom Gatewood.
Mrs. Stonewall: Well, hi, Mr. Gatewood.
Gatewood: Okay, what you been doing? Working outside in the garden? I’d like to
see that garden you all got. [laughs]Mrs. Stonewall: (I’m very proud of it?)
Gatewood: That’s the thing nowadays. It’s hard to keep ahead of it.
Stonewall: Now they changed that altogether. (?) Once they were going on top of
that mountain up there, on the road, right at the (?) road. And (?) They changed the farmland there. He used to have one in that (?) (cough syrup?) But he can’t, he changed it and (?) I don’t think (?) other than what (?) , it’s still clean, but it (?) Virginia (?), now that’s a (picture?) today. (?) will kill you. He got his (?) in there. And (?) last year. (?) useless (running from the beginning?), there was a use for (?)Gatewood: Used it for burns quite often?
Stonewall: (?)
Gatewood: Did people quite often, if they got burned fairly bad, they wouldn’t
go to the doctor if they could handle it at home? Was the remedy in the home?Stonewall: In the burn?
Gatewood: I’m talking about in the past. Did they have to try to do something at
home with it?Stonewall: Oh, yeah.
Gatewood: There weren’t many doctors around.
Stonewall: Yeah. (?) World War I, too. Belladonna plant. (?) for poison ivy.
Yeah. Belladonna is used for so many different things, it’s an independent (?) wild indigo. Boy, you want (?) you take some of that.Gatewood: Is that native?
Stonewall: Oh my God. Look like (peanut growing?)
Gatewood: All over?
Stonewall: Yeah. (?) in large quantities. (?) bark. That ain’t right. I’ve been
doing some Now (benzoin?) comes from, off the (?) buds. You first take the balm from the bud. You can see the balm in the bud, too. And extract it out of there. And then you take the (benzoin?) from that. And use the rest of it for anything you want. It will heal anything you get. (?) compound. (?) oil and bark. Bark and twigs boiled in water which was used to make soap. And poured it in nice fragrant and of course there was some medical (?). He was crazy. And he was talking (?) compound (?) .Gatewood: [laughs] What’s it good for?
Stonewall: Well, anything you need antiseptic for. (?) Hemorrhoids and things
like that. But (tulip sweet bark?). Why you can rub with the doggone oil, and it’s good for anything. (?)Gatewood: And most of the things you see there so far, you find them around
here, either in your garden or in the forest?Stonewall: Oh, yeah. Right up there in the woods. (?) dried (yew?) Now (?) the
more you can do with that thing, the better it is. Now you take a person that’s down with pneumonia, or down with a bad cold, or down with sugar, diabetes. And he can’t get the sugar to boil, and you bring it to the skin. You (can ?) in a hot tea. Baby (?), they call it. Baby, felt like, looked like a baby’s leg, (?) baby fat (?) Yeah. It’s good for a year. You can keep it a year. If you beat it up and give it to it hot, it will break you out and bring every bit of that sugar right straight through the skin. And boy, in ten minutes, the sheets of the bed will be wringing wet with sweat. It’s a (?) preparation. (?) don’t grow here. I think (?) any other preparation, either. I believe they put it in there later.Gatewood: Well , would you have had this knowledge that you have had you not
taken that course? Would you have gotten that from your ancestors? Or did it mainly come from your formal education?Stonewall: I started it when I was small. Then I studied it when I went to
school. And I struggled to understand it. Knowing what to do and how to do it. Now you take penicillin. You can grow it out of (?), that’s what they usually do. And it’s absolutely non-poisonous. But if you don’t know how to handle it, you can kill a person with it mighty quit. A doctor killed a man’s wife right up here with pneumonia with it. And then, ten or fifteen years ago. And he’s dead, now. She had pneumonia. And the one that waiting on her (living yet?). He give her too big a dose, as long as she had. Give her too big a dose, she passed right on away. (?) she’s gone. The drug didn’t kill her.Gatewood: The doctors just didn’t−
Stonewall: They give her too much at one time. The drug is not poison. But it
will kill, if you don’t know how to handle it. You have to know how to handle every drug (?).Gatewood: That’s frightening when you think of the people who are taking drugs
now, without even doctors’ help.Stonewall: (?) different time. Why don’t you, why don’t you (?) that’s a (?)
remedy for you. (?)might be used (?) or women alone at certain times of the month.Gatewood: Now that list is the way the people used to use it. You might have a
better knowledge than a (?), since you got it from both sides, than they did. They may not have known exactly, you know.Stonewall: (Hornium?), that’s a dangerous drug. (?) extract (?) small doses (?)
[End 17E2a, Side B. Begin 17E2b, Side A.]
Stonewall: −better than that. You can’t use no kind of drug as I know anything
about in lockjaw. Nothing organic. I don’t know no organic that you can use for lockjaw.Gatewood: So you think that organic drug just wouldn’t do for lockjaw.
Stonewall: No. It will ease your (?) You die easy, that’s all. (?) That’s a good one.
Gatewood: Is that grown around here?
Stonewall: Yes, it grows around here, but it’s pretty tough to find. (?) that’s
turkey corn. (?), that’s another. (?) use in poultice. $17,000 any man could tell what’s it good for. Someone offered that. (?) showed so many people. And I’ve got the record in here. Sure have.Gatewood: And Mr. Stonewall, you’ve been here, then, for about twenty years,
have you? Living here?Stonewall: About thirty-five.
Gatewood: About thirty-five. Here and ? Or just right here?
Stonewall: Right here.
Gatewood: Right here. Uh huh. Have you seen much change in the way medicine is
practiced in those years?Stonewall: Yeah. I see some changes. Sure. They would go ahead and use the one
that improves the (?) . official they’d be better off and start filling (?) Now you take a person, I’ve got one right here in the house, that’s allergic to nuts. And she can’t eat coconut or nothing. (?) you eat a (?) and she went to kiss you and she’d break out in less than five minutes.Gatewood: What causes people to get more and more allergic? The (palpitation?)
Stonewall: It’s a weakness of the system by these synthetic drugs. Your body
wasn’t made from synthetics. You notice that? (?) whatever. You was made from the dust of the ground. And anything that grows in the ground is better for your health. That’s right. Now (?) what you get the nineteen edition of, eighteenth, nineteenth, thirteenth, fifteenth, either one, I think, (?) whole lots of stuff. And it gives you a whole lot of (line?) of every drug they used at that time. Now, that’s all organic. But now they done taken all the organic out of the United States (?) . And the dispensary. You see, what you want is the dispensary, 1916, ’17, every ten years. it doesn’t come out. You want to take it out until you get to the eighteenth. Make sure you get all the way back to ten. Go from the tenth up to where they took it out of there.Gatewood: 1918?
Stonewall: Yeah. You, you get the whole outfit, how the whole Jewish outfits
completely. What they use in , , and .Gatewood: What amazes me is how these common, everyday people, fifty, sixty,
seventy years ago, were able to understand a lot. They made mistakes, I’m sure, but they seemed to have a wisdom in the use of these organic things. And know how to use them. How did they learn that?Stonewall: They come up with them. How medicine first started. And way back.
Beginning of the (Indian time in ?). And they draw the sap from the root by laying it on rocks and turn the part down over it and bake it under that until they runned into a stream. That’s the way they made the medicine then. Then they changed from that to old man (?) Greek orthodox.Gatewood: I know who you’re talking about, I think. The ones with the oath? Hippocrates?
Stonewall: He’s not a Jew. He’s a Greek. And he thought that, he started
medicine his way. And he come to boil it and using the tea of it. He was (?) when they stopped that. And then they come to extracting it out in oil. Then it evaporated down to (?) strength, and use it for that. I’ve got the record right here in the house, how they did it. I want to do it, I can do it. And they kept that up until a (gang?) come in. I keep up with all the medicine. I got the latest and the best medicine in the house. Books in the house right now. Anything you want to see. From 1982 back to year one, I’ve got it put away right in that room, right in there. And I just can’t even remember so much.Gatewood: Oh, sure.
Stonewall: But if you ask the questions, I can answer that.
Gatewood: I just don’t have the ability to ask the right questions. Why is it,
you think, that you’ve not been able to practice? I just gathered that you haven’t been able to practice much medicine in this area for the last 35 years?Stonewall: I don’t care to. I don’t care to. Too much pressure in medicine. They
don’t want to recognize (?) recognize, if you’re on any drug that you can get anything out of, they don’t want to recognize it if it’s an organic. If it’s inorganic, they (?) So they can use it themselves. Too much prejudice in medicine. I just quit. And I was talking to an (apothecary?) the other day. He said he didn’t know it was any prejudice in medicine. I said, God almighty, what in the world? Where have you been? He said, “I’ve been right here, but I never did get (it a thought?).” I said, “There’s more prejudice in medicine than anything you’ve ever seen.”Gatewood: Prejudice toward the organic practitioner?
Stonewall: Yeah. I said, “Now, you watch. It won’t be a little while before a
doctor come in here and ask you what I’m using. And what class of medicine is it.” And sure enough, he did. Dr. (?) come right in there and ask him. And he told him. (?) use the same thing he used. And the same class. He said, “Now I’ve got some tincture of catnip sitting up there. It’s the highest drug in the house.” And he won’t even look at it. (?) if I want it, I can make it.Gatewood: Probably better than that in the store.
Stonewall: Yeah, you’re right. I said, “That’s mighty funny to me. You keep that
in here. And look what it is. I bet you wouldn’t find it in another drugstore in town. You’ve got that special with somebody else.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s where I got it.” Special for a person come here and told me to get it for him. He said, “Now I know how to make it, and I just sent and got it and made it.” That’s what he told me.Gatewood: Is that a local druggist here?
Stonewall: Yeah.
Gatewood: Now what, the group, the people that in the last 35 years that you’ve
been able to work with? Your family? And people that might come to you?Stonewall: Well, anybody that come, I make sure that other doctors done give
them up. That’s the reason my name is so far. (?) all over the world. They come here from different places. , , . I never did hear of them, but they come. I don’t charge them a thing in the world, either.Gatewood: Well it crossed my mind with your skill of identification and knowing
how to use and mix organic substances, it’s surprising to me that you don’t at least collect things and sell them.Stonewall: I don’t want to sell them. I’m a Christian person. I don’t care to, a
person come that far, they give me more than if I were to charge them. They volunteer and give it to me. After they get well. Some of them (?) to get well. But I rather for them not do it until they got completely well and see that they’re well. You see? Then they can do as they please. (?) drug I have to take all the time (?) I take a dose of vitamin once every six months, or every six weeks, or every six months, or something like that. Might do. (?)Gatewood: Would you elaborate on why you said nursing was more important? The
nurturing role than the curative role?Stonewall: Yes. A good nurse is better than any doctor ever went in there.
Gatewood: Why do you say that?
Stonewall: Because she’s trained in everything. She’s experienced in everything.
All the cardiograms and all the new instruments they got. And she shouldn’t be too far back on diagnosing. And diagnosing is very important. If you know the signs and symptoms in diagnoses, it might lead you to diagnosing. If you know the signs and the symptoms that do that. Find out what’s the matter is the hardest job there is. You can kind the therapeutic for it. If you find the diagnosis, you can tell exactly what she’s doing to you. That’s what I wanted to have a (?) good knowledge of, diagnosis. And one way to get it, get the wisdom from God. Now you get tied up in it, you know exactly what to do.[End Interview.]
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