Our History
Rufus Morgan Adapted from Foxfire, Summer/Fall 1975
Original interviews by Marie Auten and Linda Warfield
Rufus with a Foxfire student
Rufus Morgan was interviewed several times by Foxfire students in the early 1970s. Rufus was directly related to the Silers - a notable early family of settlers in Western North Carolina. Rufus lived in Macon County, North Carolina, and served as minister at St. John’s Episcopal Church of Cartoogechaye. He was also deeply devoted to the outdoors, and helped with the creation of the Appalachian Trail and is recognized as the founding member of the Nantahala Hiking Club, a group that still explores the mountains today. Below is just a small excerpt from the students’ work with Rufus. To read more about Rufus, check out a copy of Foxfire 4.
W
ell, I don’t know where to start except for where I started. My great-grandfather, William Siler, settled over across the valley, over here, about 1818. And the story goes that his house was the first house in Macon County that had windows. I remember the house quite well. It was a long, two-story log house. Porch was upstairs and down, the whole length of the house. My parents were married in ‘81 and my oldest sister was born there I think in that house in ‘82. And I was born there in 1885. Rufus studied and worked in many places, including establishing Penland School of Craft with his sister Lucy Morgan. He ended up in South Carolina during World War I, where he helped administer to those dying from the flu epidemic in 1918: I did work way back in the mountains. Then some events came up that I just couldn’t continue that particular job, so I went down to South Carolina. And during that time, there was that flu epidemic of the First World War. During the flu epidemic, I ministered through the Red Cross and saw more people die, I think, that year than I have in all the rest of my life. Foxfire: What brought you back here to this house, to Macon County?
Front view of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Cartoogechaye 86 - www.laurelofnortheastgeorgia.com - June 2022
Rufus Morgan: What brought me back was my heart. My mother loved it intensely, my grandparents loved it. My great-grandparents loved it and well it’s just inbred. And I have loved it all my life. When we used to come back and forth from Cherokee
