The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • V1

A A 2 3 2 0 0 7 Catawba Valley Neighbors www.charlotte.com/catawba SECTION ALEXANDER, BURKE, CALDWELL AND CATAWBA COUNTIES Our lives Our news Telling Jack Tales: Celebrate folklore of Appalachians Escape the heat at the ninth annual Jack Tales Festival in the mountains of Caldwell County. Having begun as a celebration of Ray birthday, the festival is now in memory of Hicks, with all proceeds going to the Ray and Rosa Hicks Fund. Ray Hicks has been called the pre-eminent Jack Tale storyteller of America by folklorists, festival producers and listeners. Jack Tales are stories, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, that were brought to the Appalachian Mountains by people migrating from Scotland and En- gland. They were passed down orally and can be traced back in the Hicks family at least eight generations.

Included in the festivities will be old-time music with Glenn Bolick, John Fowler and oth- ers. Traditions and Bolick Pottery will be open all day, and food will be available for purchase. ANN DOBBINS MORE THINGS TO DO 6V This Weekend COURTESY OF DIANNE HACKWORTH Storytellers Orville Hicks (left) and Glenn Bolick (right) are shown with the late Ray Hicks. Ninth Annual Jack Tales Festival 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Bolick and Traditions Pottery, 4443 Bolick Road, Lenoir.

Directions: 14 miles north of Lenoir off U.S. 321. Turn left at Blackberry Road, next to St. Lutheran Church, go one-half mile, then right on Bolick Road. Cost: $5 adults; $3 children ages 5-12.

For children younger than 5. Details: 828-295-5099. By Marcie Young Frank McCourt, author of the autobiographical story of a boy struggling to overcome his poverty in Ireland, headlines the Lenoir-Rhyne Visiting Writers Series, which begins its 19th season next month. McCourt will speak at 8 p.m. Nov.

1 at P.E. Monroe Audito- rium. The series brings eight pre- mier authors to Hickory and gives the community a chance to talk with the writers about their prose, craft and inspiration. The season, which runs Sept. 13 through April 12, showcases an impressive lineup of lit- erary prize winners, including journalist and former CNN chairman, Walter Isaacson; and author Jon Scieszka.

Scieszka will be in town April 12 for The Lit- tle Read, communitywide reading program for elementary school children and their families. Thomas Rain Crowe, an environmentalist and air-quality activist, opens the series Sept. 13. Short biographies of the writers on 3V. L-R series features McCourt, 7 others author headlines lineup for the 19th annual event at the Hickory college McCourt By Hannah Mitchell The walls that shelter Dwight Austin and his family also protected his great-great- great-great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Dil- lery Austin, back when modern-day Alexan- der County was still wilderness.

Benjamin Austin, a Revolutionary War mi- litia captain, finished building the log house about 1780 while he hid from British forces. He had escaped from British prisons in Charleston and Savannah, the second time heading straight for the Austin property here, a land grant by Royal Gov. William Tryon to father, William, whose grandfather immigrated from Scotland. Benjamin stayed here until the war was over, married the widow of a local storekeep- er and never left. Neither have his descen- dants.

been Austins here ever said Dwight, resting on the front porch one afternoon last week. The Dart landed here among the woods that lead to the Austin property in the Ellen- dale community, near the headwaters of the Middle Little River locals call it Ginger Creek. The place, set back from the rest of the world by a winding gravel road, gives an inkling of how it must have been in Benja- day, when early Americans had more land than they knew what to do with. Dwight has 47 of the original 3,700 acres. Next door, his brother, William has 46.

Since Benjamin, each generation of Austins has cared for the old house in a long line who defied the American tradition of picking up and moving. The history spans Amer- Union soldiers once camped on the prop- erty when great-grandparents lived here. hidden all the chickens and Dwight said. soldiers) never bothered said his mother, Ellen. Home endures alongside the nation PHOTOS BY JEFF WILLHELM The Austin family on the porch of their home in Alexander Ellendale community.

Sharon Austin holds her grandson Isaac. Her husband, Dwight, sits beside her, and their sons Jeff (left) and Robert sit at their feet. Generations of this family have lived in this house since 1780, when militia Capt. Benjamin Dillery Austin finished building it while he was hiding from the British. The mortar of 8 generations Near the Austin homestead, the graves of Benjamin and Mary Austin are well marked.

Headstones were made recently to go along with the original footstones. The Point of The Dart The idea behind The Dart is simple: looking for the kind of news the media usually report. We throw a dart at a map of one of the counties in the Catawba Valley, and write about happening at that spot. We hope this feature will bring out stories that too often are ignored and will help you meet some of your neighbors in the region. SEE Austin family members occupy property in Alexander County since Revolutionary War They see their work as a mission to Honor, And that they do.

Members of the Sabre Society of North Carolina do- nate many volunteer hours each week to the new Hickory Aviation Museum behind Hickory Regional Airport, a small but ambitious show- case for military aviation and Hicko- role in it. The Sabre Society, originally formed in 1991 to rescue a rare but dilapidated FJ-3 Fury from a ballpark in Taylorsville, also puts on popular air shows. The group opened the free museum May 19. The Fury was the Navy version of the Air famed F-86 Sabre Jet. At the museum, members work on new displays, offer tours of the museum and airport to school groups and the public, and they maintain an increasingly impressive collection of retired military aircraft.

Newest on the tarmac is an A-4 Skyhawk, according to Jim Malcolm, society member and tour director for the museum. aircraft we got two weeks ago, the A-4 Skyhawk, is a Navy bomber that came out in 1954 and was originally designed as a nuclear Malcolm said. spent Catawba Valley CHANDA BLITCH Combat aircraft land at Hickory airport New aviation museum features rare planes, Huey copter plus memorabilia COURTESY OF CHANDA BLITCH Hickory Aviation Museum Director Jeff Wofford stands beside the newly acquired A-4 Skyhawk at Hickory Regional Airport. SEE RELIGION 8V Habitat for Humanity plans to construct four houses for Building on Faith week in September.