The large white-frame home on the grounds of the Cades Cove Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains is known as the Becky Cable home.
The home was built in 1879 along Forge Creek Road in Cades Cove and was bought by Becky and her brother Dan in 1887. The home was moved to its present location by the National Park Service after the park was established.
Probably the best description one could give of Becky Cable is that she was a hardworking, can-do, and innovative person.
Shortly after 1900, Becky’s brother Dan and his wife passed away, leaving four children. There was no orphanage in Cades Cove, so what would be the fate of these four orphans? Aunt Becky, as she was known, decided to rear those children. That in itself might not be considered anything out of the ordinary; however, Aunt Becky had never married. One would ask how a single woman in that day and time could support herself and four children. She might be a seamstress, midwife, or school teacher; however, those professions would likely not have provided sufficient income to feed five people in those days.
Aunt Becky divided the home’s upstairs into three rooms so she could board people. She added a room to the main part of the house and a kitchen to the back. She raised cattle, farmed, and was recognized as a hard worker. My maternal grandfather would have said she worked like a hired hand.
The land in Cades Cove is very fertile and porous, and the average annual rainfall is 50 to 60 inches, which makes for much better farming than most areas in the Southern Appalachians. With this in mind, the farmers in Cades Cove felt it was more productive and profitable to grow crops in the valley than to graze cattle there. So, what did the farmers do with their cattle during the growing season?
Overlooking Cades Cove, there are three balds on top of the mountains (Gregory Bald, Spence Field, and Russell Field). One might ask, “What is a bald?” In Cades Cove, a bald was called “a meadow in the sky”.
The balds had few trees and were mostly covered with grass. The national park is letting Spence Field and Russell Field return to nature.
In early Spring, the farmers would drive their cattle to one of the balds and leave them there until fall. A herdsman was paid .50 cents a head to look after the cattle while they were on the bald.
Aunt Becky drove her cattle to Gregory Bald, which is at an elevation of 4950 feet (overlooking Cades Cove).
Most of the folks in Cades Cove did not bother to go up to the balds in the summer to check on their cattle; however, Aunt Becky usually went up every two weeks to check on hers. That fact might not seem noteworthy; however, keep in mind the distance from Aunt Becky’s home to Gregory Bald was seven miles one way, and the elevation gain would be right at 3000 feet.
Those who have hiked to Gregory Bald to see the flame azaleas in bloom in June will assure you that the hike is not for the faint of heart. To top it off, Becky often hiked barefoot.
One story about Aunt Becky is that she was hiking to Gregory Bald one day when she almost stepped on a rattlesnake. She stopped and said to the snake, “You did not bite me, so I will not kill you this time”.
Another story about Aunt Becky is that if someone happened to be around her home at mealtimes, they were not allowed to leave until they were fed. Can you imagine what a meal that would have been?
When a person thinks about all of the hard work that Becky Cable did, they might wonder how old a person would live to be in that day and time. Aunt Becky died in 1940 at the ripe old age of 96. My uncle Joe used to say, “Hard work never killed anyone”.
Few people today could say they worked any harder than Becky Cable, and most of us would agree that she lived an impressive life and is greatly admired.
Tom Harrington is a regular hiker who reports on his hikes and mountain stories from the Smokies. See more of his column here.
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