Haseltine Slatton Powell's Sewing Basket

“I brought the sewing basket that belonged to my great-grandmother Haseltine Slatton Powell, better known as ‘Hassie.’ Hassie was very self-sufficient. She lived in Tuckaseegee, North Carolina, which is up above Western Carolina University. Back in the day, she and her husband Thompson Josiah Powell, better known as ‘Thomps,’ owned a 400 acre farm. It was a big, white farmstead and they were very self-sufficient. She used this sewing basket in a lot of different ways. She made all of her children's clothes with it. But the story that that I'm especially interested in relaying is about her two children: her daughters Jerdie, her youngest, and Faye, who were playing out in the woodshed when Faye accidentally cut Jerdie's finger off. It was the index finger and it was cut at an angle. During any other time, it would have taken a lot of medical training to reattach a finger like this. Grandma Hassie had no medical training. But she did have a Cherokee Indian herbal book, turpentine, honey, fine silk thread. She just grabbed the finger up and reattached it with the fine silk thread. About two weeks later—because they were in such a remote area, it would take two weeks before a doctor could get there—when the doctor finally got there he basically told her she was crazy; that the child would die of gangrene and she needed his medical expertise. Grandma Hassie turned him down. She said I think we're doing OK. So [later], when Jerdie was 90 years old, at the last family reunion she attended, she showed us her finger, that it was in good shape, and that it worked very well. It had a very slight scar on it. And so, grandma's sewing box really came in handy.”

Interview edited for clarity

Submitted by Evelyn Coltman on July 9, 2022