Heritage/History

Woman’s Work: Dillsboro Museum Celebrates Legacy of Appalachian Women

Dillsboro Museum Celebrates Legacy of Appalachian Women

Sisters Edna Corine (left) and Edith Irene Monteith (right). Photo courtesy of Appalachian Women’s Museum

By Lauren Stepp

They say behind every great man is a great woman. But sisters Edna Corine and Edith Irene Monteith, Dillsboro natives of the early 20th century, would guffaw at that old adage. They, like so many other tenacious WNC women, stood on their own two feet, making history beside, not behind, our region’s men.

When it was rare for women to live alone, the Monteith sisters cared for a 14-acre mountain homeplace, today flanked by Highway 23 between Sylva and Dillsboro Edith tended crops, sold quilts and made crafts while Edna, the older of the two, served the local post office. “Fiercely proud and loyal to their family heritage, they worked hard to preserve what had been left to them by their parents,” says Cathy Busick, Appalachian Women’s Museum (AWM) board president and a distant relative of the Monteiths.

Established in 2005 to preserve the Monteith farmhouse and its ten outbuildings, AWM is a resource that recognizes the under-told stories of Appalachian women. Partnering with Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center (MHC), the museum has curated exhibits like Women’s Work: Stories of the Appalachian Women’s Museum. This 2011 exhibit featured Jackson County pioneers who broke barriers: Gertrude Dills McKee, NC’s fi rst female state senator; Daisy Zachary McGuire, NC’s first licensed female dentist; and Samantha Bumgarner, the first woman to sing and play banjo on a country music recording.

The display distinguished itself by showcasing women who were basket weavers, cooks, nurses, factory workers and farmers. “To my knowledge, AWM is the only museum with a primary focus on the contributions of southern Appalachian women,” says Pam Meister, MHC director. “These contributions are massive: from the matriarchal structure of Cherokee society through the essential work of female settlers to the women of today.”

This spring, AWM will focus on women in education, the arts, and health and medicine. Volunteers are also preparing an exhibit on the Monteiths and their estate, now housing the museum. Restoration is still in progress. “The original volunteers spent eight years unearthing the outbuildings from kudzu and cleaning out the sisters’ ‘collections,’” says Busick. “Edith and Edna didn’t throw anything away, so let’s say it was a historian’s treasure trove and an organizer’s nightmare.”

Museum historians are also working to uncover legacy from lore. Perceptions of the sisters ranged from admiration to disgust. Community members balked when Edith married Clyde Frizzell, some saying the relationship lasted no longer than a day. Others reduced the pair to loners, reporting that they bought more cat food than human goods. An equal number of townies saw them for who they were: strong-willed mountain women.

“Although I never met them,” Busick says, “my dad had colorful stories of how, as a young boy, he used to plan his fishing trips to be at their house around dinner time. His ‘spinster cousins’ would then make a big fuss over him and feed him like a prince,” says Busick. “It’s our mission to gather and preserve these undocumented stories that have been passed down through families.

For more information, visit appwomen.org and find them on Facebook.

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