Memories from the Homestead: The Vinings—remembering ‘Fiddlin' Jake’ [Part 2]

     Last week I gave ya'll a look back at the Vining family here in our Garber neighborhood in the Roark Valley not far from the Taney/Stone County line. I mentioned that Erastus passed in 1906. His wife Elizabeth passed nine years later in 1915.

The Vinings’ original 160 acres was a beautiful property, with Roark Creek flowing through the middle of it. Once the railroad opened for business in early 1906, postal mail routes were changed, and Garber became a distributing post office for two other communities, Irma to the north and Notch to the southwest in Stone County.

Charles Vining in the late 1940s fiddling a tune next to the front steps of Old Matt's Cabin. (Photo courtesy of John Fullerton)

In 1907, Erastus and Elizabeth's son Charles (Gussie) Vining, would take another job in addition to his farm work and railroad tie hacking. He accepted a position to carry the mail from the Garber Post Office to Notch, a three-mile horseback ride. This daily position lasted four years, and a few years later he agreed to another four-year term.

Levi Morrill was the Notch Postmaster, known to millions as the Uncle Ike character in "The Shepherd of the Hills" novel. In Gussie's eight years as mail carrier, only one time was he ever late with the mail, a time when he was two hours late. It wasn't really Gussie's fault.

"You see, it was really Uncle Ike's fault," Vining recalled in a 1947 interview with Bruce Trimble. "Before I got to the Forks, I found Uncle Ike down in the holler with a coon treed in a big oak tree. It took us two hours to get that coon."

The next day when Gussie brought the mail, he asked Uncle Ike what he did with the coon. Ike answered, "Ba thundas, son, what fer you think I was wiping the grease offen my beard? Ike pointed to the side of the post office where the coon's hide was neatly stretched over the pine siding.

Gussie's brother James owned the land where the Garber townsite would end up in 1907 on a small piece of land next to the railroad, about 300 yards from the County line. J.K. Ross negotiated a deal with James Vining and the railroad to plat a townsite on ten acres of land on the north side of the railroad tracks. This was the site where Gussie picked up the mail, riding across the valley to the Forks at Notch.

Harold Bell Wright's novel "The Shepherd of the Hills" changed the lives of many in the years following its 1907 release. Wright and Gussie had become well acquainted, and sure enough, Gussie was Wright's inspiration for the "Fiddlin' Jake" character. 

 It's not known how and when Gussie took up the fiddle, but it's very evident that he played at a number of parties and dances for several years. Wright introduces Vining as "Fiddlin' Jake" in Chapter 15 of "The Shepherd of the Hills." This particular chapter, "The Party At Fords," introduces Jake to the readers in a quote from Sammy Lane as she explained that her dad didn't play fiddle anymore, and Mandy chose Fiddlin' Jake for the doins instead. This can be found on page 134 in the earlier editions.

Gussie was asked many times in later years if he really played that dance the way Harold Bell Wright described it. He recalled playing at the Ford place several times and played at other events nearby, all in the Roark or Fall Creek valley. 

 In the late 1930s, Vining was offered a tour guide job from Lizzie McDaniel who was the caretaker of Old Matt's Cabin and owner of the 160-acre farm where "The Shepherd of the Hills" was written in 1905. Lizzie believed it was a great opportunity to have an actual book character at the farm; guests would often ask him to share his memories of Harold Bell Wright as well as the Rosses—Old Matt and Aunt Mollie. 

Vining recalled that Old Matt was known for his honesty and was respected by everyone. "After Old Matt sold the farm and started his store at Garber, I hauled ties and sold to him," he remembered.

 In later years, Vining worked every summer for Lizzie McDaniel, and after her passing in early 1946, he would work for Bruce and Mary Trimble. In addition to conducting guided tours of Old Matt's Cabin, he would occasionally play a few dance tunes on the fiddle, entertaining guests in between tours. Today, Gussie's dresser and mirror are on display in the bedroom next to Aunt Mollie's spinning wheel.

Gussie would often enter regional fiddle contests, and there's quite a bit of press about his appearances at the Eureka Springs Folk Festival in 1948 and 1949. My Granny Evelyn recalled working with him daily, the summer she worked as a Cabin tour guide in 1948. "Sometimes we were taking sixty people an hour through the cabin," Granny remembered. The popularity of the John Wayne movie version of "The Shepherd of the Hills" brought quite an increase in visitor numbers. The 1950 season was Vining's last year at The Shepherd of the Hills Farm. 

 Charles Augustus Vining (Fiddlin' Jake) would pass away on January 22, 1951, at the age of 70. He was laid to rest near his parents, and brother, close to several of his dear neighbors and Shepherd of the Hills characters at the Evergreen Cemetery.