[footsteps]
[ROBIN] I love sharing the history
[JIM] Every week Robin Goddard unpacks history for visitors at Little Greenbrier School in the Smokies
[ROBIN] Tell them all about how school was back in the 1800s
[JIM] And there's a lot of fun to unpack
[ROBIN] We'll look at the children's toys
The ball in the cup
Throw it up, catch it
[ball lands in cup]
There it is
[JIM] Goddard teaches a popular subject she learned all about as a child
[ROBIN] I love sharing the stories of the Walker Sisters
I grew up with them
They have quite a following
[JIM] Goddard spent weekends and summers helping a neighbor who was best friends with the Walker Sisters
[ROBIN] Ms. Elsie Burrell took me with her from the time I was 4 years old until I graduated from high school
Working, working, and working
[JIM] There was plenty of work helping a group of sisters famous for living like their ancestors
and refusing to leave their family home even after it became a national park
[ROBIN] They were proud of their land
The connection went back many generations
[JIM] The strongest connection was with the homestead where their dad, John Walker, built a two-story addition for his wife
then built a family of 11 children, four boys and seven girls
[ROBIN] Very crowded and you have to learn to get along
They were self-sustaining farmers
They had big gardens
He had big apple orchards
And anytime you see pictures of him you see him with an apple or cherries
[JIM] Fruits of John Walker's labor include building the Little Greenbrier School where his children were educated
His sons took their learnings out into the world and started their own families
But most of his daughters put their teachings to use at home
[ROBIN] Margaret is the oldest
She ruled the roost
She told you what to do and when to do it and you did it
She presented this demeanor about her
that they had to take care of their home place
If you go out and get married, who's gonna help me take care of it?
There won't be anybody here to do it because all the brothers had already married
Polly, she was known as a really excellent cook
Martha was very quiet
She was the accountant of the family
The next one was Nancy Melinda
Nancy, I did not know
Nancy died before this became a national park
The next one was Louisa Susan
Louisa was my favorite
She loved to laugh and she loved funny things
Louisa was the one that wrote all the poetry
Then Sarah Caroline
Caroline is the only sister that married
so she did not live in the house
And the last one was Hettie Rebecca
Hettie was knitting and doing needlework, perfected in it
You had seven girls and only one of them married
[JIM] But Caroline wasn't the only one to discover love
Both Polly and Martha were engaged and both were nearly widows
The men they loved worked for the lumber company
and died in railroad accidents on the job
[ROBIN] They had a hard time getting over it
And the sisters used to say, "Poor sister Polly"
[JIM] Their father, John Walker, died in 1921
and sister, Nancy, died 10 years later
Five sisters remained married to the land
when the State of Tennessee came courting with a proposal to buy their property and donate it to a new national park
[ROBIN] They were not happy
No government's gonna get their land
And they were not about ready to sell
[JIM] After years of trying to buy the land, the government finally took it through eminent domain
Then the five sisters changed their tune and negotiated for payment
along with a lifetime lease that would allow them to keep their home until they died
They would not have to pack up their history
[ROBIN] The mood that I saw all the time was, "This was our home, and we don't want to leave"
[JIM] So this land officially belonged to the government, but it was still home to the Walker Sisters
Coming up in part two of our series, we're going to show you what it was like for them living in a national park
and how the sisters became national celebrities
[KENT] Their story is somewhat unique
[JIM] Retired park ranger Kent Cave may not have written the book on the Walker Sisters
but he was an editor
[KENT] Edited this book by Rose Houk
The Walker Sisters presented a public relations nightmare for the government
[JIM] In the early days of the park, the sisters held out on selling their land
but time eventually ran out
[KENT] The park had already been established
[JIM] In 1941, their 122 acres became National Park Service property
[KENT] The superintendent was very much worried about the image that the park would have
to be seen as throwing out five elderly spinster ladies living in a log cabin
[JIM] So the government paid the Walkers for the land and agreed to let them stay on the property until the last sister died
But living in the park meant following park rules
[KENT] The problem with staying on it is that you were so restricted
you had no real way to make a living if you were a farmer
[JIM] Still the sisters held on to as many of the old-time ways as they could
There was no electricity, no bathroom
The only running water was from a cool spring
[KENT] There's a spring house there, a very fine spring house
[ROBIN] Spring house was the refrigerator what kept everything cold and fresh and preserved
[JIM] These sisters living like the olden days got older
Polly died in 1945
[birds chirping]
The four remaining sisters kept making their own clothes, using newspapers for wallpaper
then landed in one of the most popular magazines in the country in April 1946
[KENT] Saturday Evening Post did a full feature layout
[ROBIN] They were instant movie stars
and all the visitors that would come want to see those old ladies and how they were living like the 1800s
[JIM] Tourists came knocking and so did a new business opportunity
The sisters sold ragdolls, baskets, and even Louisa's poetry
[ROBIN] The visitors bought the souvenirs that they made
and it gave them a little extra cash money
that they could buy hats to wear over to church on Sundays
[JIM] But five years after these sisters found fame, Hettie and Martha had died
Only Margaret and Louisa were left
They felt like they couldn't keep up
[KENT] Louisa asked the park superintendent to have a sign put up to keep visitors away
because as she said they could no longer do their work because they were overrun
[JIM] The sign did not stop the sisters from being gracious hosts
[ROBIN] They had visitors anyway
It didn't stop visitors
If you were there at mealtime, you ate
and they would be offended if you didn't
Everybody ate didn't matter if you knew them or not
[JIM] Final meals and visits came in the 1960s
Margaret died in 1961
Louisa in '64
All their headstones side-by-side say "Sister"
A devotion chiseled in stone that was a decision
just like how they chose to live in an old log cabin
not because they had to but because they wanted to
A point those who knew them say should never be edited out of their stories
[ROBIN] They were portrayed as mountain women that didn't know much about anything except just how to live
And they were not that way
It was a personal choice
[KENT] They're not typical, they are atypical
and I think that's what makes them fascinating to a lot of people
[JIM] Now the Walker Sisters had a lifetime lease
but now that their lifetime was up
the park had to decide what was it going to do with this place
In part three of this series, we're going to look at how their legacy still lives on
[ROBIN] They could have improved their lifestyle
They chose to live the way they lived
[JIM] Robin Goddard says it's easy to get the wrong impression about the Walker Sisters
if you only look at old photos or the remote cabin they left behind when the last sister in the park died in 1964
[ROBIN] They were very knowledgeable of what was going on in the world
They were very smart, and they loved people
[JIM] Above all, they loved their home and the park had to decide what to do with it after the last sister died
[ROBIN] They hoped that the park would take care of it
[JIM] So in the 1970s, the park preserved some of these old buildings
including the main house where you can still walk from the kitchen to the porch
to the one other downstairs room
Plus a ladder up to the second story that is far from a penthouse
but the buildings are not the only thing saved from the Walker Sisters
[KENT] Great Smoky Mountains Association funded the purchase of artifacts that belong to the Walker Sisters
some 4,000 items
[JIM] Those items are preserved in a temperature- controlled archives building in Townsend
Everything from the sisters' clothes to handmade baskets
[VALERIE] Oh they're all just spectacular
It's amazing to see this collection
They also made these tiny baskets that they would sell as souvenirs
[JIM] Valerie Polk works as a videographer for the nonprofit Great Smoky Mountains Association
but her story is interwoven with the Walker legacy in another way
[VALERIE] My great-grandmother here Caroline Walker Shelton the only one of John Walker's daughters who married
[JIM] And the man Caroline developed a relationship with, Jim Shelton,
developed some of the best early photographs of the Walker Sisters and the Smoky Mountains in general
[VALERIE] How fortunate are we that he had a camera that he found that as the hobby that he wanted to do
I come across pictures that he had taken and it's really touching
The hollow chestnut tree
So it's my grandmother, both of her sisters, and her brother and her mother
I have lots of cousins out there who were also related to the Walker Sisters
[JIM] The sister's legacy lives on in photographs, relatives, and old buildings
and the buildings are preserved better than most
[KENT] One of the nice things about going to the Walker Sisters' Cabin is that it takes some effort to get there
So those people who are willing to make that trip
generally are people who will appreciate it more and not do damage to the structures
[JIM] While this remote location may mean less vandalism, it may also give the false impression they were isolated
This hiking trail used to be a normal road anyone could easily drive to see the ladies who lived in the park
[ROBIN] They delivered right to the front door
And if the mailman delivered and brought it in the house for them, they got a fried apple pie mm-hmm
[VALERIE] They were probably often surrounded by family
and of course, surrounded by the visitors that came to see them from all over
Now I've been able to take my own daughter back there and it's been a really special thing to see the cabin preserved
and to know that artifacts are here in the collection
to go to Wears Valley and see their graves and see the headstones that all say sister on them
and know that my great-grandfather is buried in that same area it's really special
[JIM] But make no mistake, the Walker Sisters were different
and wrote a story that still captivates millions of people who visit the Smokies every year
A different kind of devotion to their land and to each other worth the effort to see for yourself
as long as it makes the right impression
[KENT] They were a part of living history here to a lot of people
[ROBIN] If you portray them as stern old mountain women, that's not right
Think it's important because it's part of the history of the development of this national park
Their life will be preserved forever as long as there's somebody that will tell the story