James Edward Morris stands six feet, four inches tall. Women find him extremely attractive. His skin is the color of cocoa, and he is a dapper dresser. He’s known for dressing to the nines when running errands around Martinsville, a small Virginia town located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near the Virginia-North Carolina state line.

Today, James Edward is on a mission to retrieve items for his eldest daughter, Ruth Ellen, to bake a chocolate cake, a family favorite, to celebrate the end of a profitable cherry harvest. Walking towards the general store’s front door to exit, he spies two White women approaching. He steps aside to give them plenty of room to enter, diverting his eyes, trying to make himself invisible. The year is 1915, and he knows Black men can be lynched for simply gazing upon a White woman’s face without first being addressed. The women pass through the door without incident, and he exits. He walks briskly down the wooden sidewalk in the chilly autumn air. The chilled air is welcomed as the summer had been extremely hot and humid. There is a slight breeze at 10 am, and a thick cloud cover. But later today the breeze will diminish, and the clouds will give way to bright sunshine, with temperatures rising to 78 degrees. This is a typical October day in southern Virginia. James Edward climbs onto his buckboard wagon hitched to his two prized Tennessee Walking horses. They are beautiful. Their brown coats glisten. As he pulls on the horses’ reins and sits his burlap bag of groceries on the seat next to him, he glances at the back of the wagon where his two sweet little girls, Maggie Belle, six years of age and Mary Ellen, five, sit. Their long dark mahogany pigtails brush just below their shoulders. He gives them a wink and a smile as he hands them two Hershey’s Chocolate candy bars. They squeal with contentment, “Thank you Popa.”  They love riding into town with Popa. Any opportunity to leave Horseshoe Pasture and venture into town is viewed as fun. Once leaving Martinsville’s city limits, the ride home is bumpy. But Maggie Bell and Mary Ellen don’t mind the rough ride at all. They are too focused on consuming their chocolate bars! Once they turn onto Chestnut Knob Rd., the sisters wave to the people outside in their yards. Most of the people living along this road either work for their father, are family members, or they attend church and school with them. It is an all-Black neighborhood. A community filled with love and a true sense of safety. They pass Holmes Memorial Presbyterian Church at the corner of Chestnut Knob Rd and Soapstone Rd. The Morris family attends church there every Sunday morning; and on Wednesday nights they go there for bible study and a community potluck dinner.

Just pass the church is the Horseshoe Pasture Community School. It consists of two buildings. One houses the classrooms used by kindergarten age kids through sixth grade. The second building is where the seventh graders through twelve graders are taught. Maggie Bell and her siblings attend school from the first of October to the beginning of May. They learn arithmetic, reading, English, history, and science. Maggie Bell excels in arithmetic and science. The Morrises are sure she will be one of the first females in the family to attend college.

In early May the family busies themselves preparing for cherry picking. Harvesting begins in mid-June and lasts until the beginning of August. During harvest season, it is all-hands on deck. Even the children are required to work so the school year ends at the beginning of May. Children begin cherry picking around the age of nine. The kids are instructed to look for a deep, uniformed reddish color to determine if the fruit is ready for harvesting. This signifies sweetness and ripeness. They are taught to gently detach the cherries with a slight pull to preserve the stem. They know roughly yanking the cherry off will tear the woody fruit spur, which is essential for the next year’s fruit. After harvesting the cherries, they carefully place them into a container to prevent bruising. The younger children have to use ladders to reach the fruit at the bottom of the trees since they grow between 12 to 18 feet high.

As they pull up to their property adjacent to Chestnut Knob Rd., the girls see the semi-dwarf trees lining the road. Their father states, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you!” It is a saying their father uses daily. Words the family lives by. James Edward is considered rich by most rural Black peoples’ standards in 1915. He owns and operates a 72-acre commercial cherry orchard. The orchard is beautiful, and a magical place for a child to grow up. The children sing songs in the orchard, play games, and eat lunch perched upon the trees. The Morrises use a high-density planting design. This enables them to plant approximately 340 trees per acre. A standard cherry tree requires more space between each tree; hence James Edward grows semi-dwarf trees. Using dwarfing rootstocks and planar training systems, such as a tall spindle system to create a “fruiting wall” increases their yields per acre, and profits. He grows the Black Gold cherry variety and has approximately 25,000 trees. This orchard is how the Morrises earn a living. Cherry trees typically live and produce cherries from 13 to 30 years.

He purchased the land the orchard now occupies from the O’Reilly’s at the age of 26 in 1900 with the help of his brother, John Payton and father, Milton Morris. The O’Reilly’s were a white Irish farming family out of Tennessee. The O’Reilly’s grew strawberries and sweet potatoes in Tennessee until they decided to only grow orchard crops. They’d owned the land in Horseshoe Pasture since before the Civil War. Originally the family lived on this land until they bought land in Tennessee. They abandoned the acreage but never sold it. Once the O’Reilly’s decided to grow orchard crops, they determined the Horseshoe Pasture property would not produce good fruit. Most in the area felt the O’Reilly’s made this decision because after the Civil War, a colored community sprang up around their property. By selling the property for top dollar, they were able to start an orchard in the predominantly white Virginia town, Ararat, located fifty-seven miles southwest of Martinsville.

Just 35 years after the Civil War, James Edward and his brother managed to build up large bank accounts. They spent $1100 to purchase the land. John Payton, a veteran of the Spanish-American War earned money and benefits from fighting for his country. The Spanish-American War led to Cuban independence, and Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. territory. In 1898, after the war ended, John spent a year and half in Puerto Rico, before returning home. He learned how to cultivate cherries and other orchard crops like oranges, lemons, and limes. With this knowledge, he headed home and taught his older brother how to grow cherries since the climate in Martinsville would not support the growth of citrus crops. Milton amassed large sums of money during Reconstruction that he willingly gave to his oldest son. Milton understood buying this land would improve the lives of future Morris generations. They cleared three acres to build a house and dig a well, using the remaining acreage to cultivate their orchard.

Pulling up to their two-story white clapboard home, Lou Vicey waddles out of the front door. Trailing closely behind are Maggie Belle and Mary Ellen’s five other siblings! They are Mattie Lee, 15; Ruth Ellen, her grandmother’s name’s sake, 24; James D, 2; Edna Louise, 9; and Catherine, 11. Lou Vicey is pregnant with her sixth child. She is due in two weeks. Ruth Ellen and Mattie Lee are both helping out with the younger kids while their mother waits to deliver their new sibling. Ruth Ellen married Posey Penn several years ago and lives three miles down the road from her parents. She and her husband help during harvesting season. Mattie Lee, who is almost sixteen, is set to marry her fiancé, Homer Marshall I in six months. Catherine and Edna Louise are half siblings to the other kids.

James Edward’s youthful indiscretions caused the family much trepidation! James Edward dated Lou Vicey, his childhood sweetheart, and had his oldest daughters out of wedlock, which was taboo, but it did occur frequently. Families went to extremes to hide the birth stories of the illegitimate children. Ruth Ellen was born in 1891. Milton and Ruth Ellen, James Edward’s mother, the original Ruth Ellen in the family, were appalled by their son’s actions. But laid most of the blame at the feet of the young, beautiful Lou Vicey Frances. Lou Vicey was about five feet, six inches. She had long chestnut colored hair, light brown skin, and could read and write well. Initially, she had many suitors, but her heart always belonged to James Edward. After having two babies out of wedlock, her marriage prospects started to dry up. Since James Edward’s parents disliked her, they forbid him from marrying her. They liked America Abington. She was also well-educated and beautiful. She was extremely light-skinned, and could pass for white, with waist-length strawberry blond hair. James Edward was extremely attracted to America, but continued to date Lou Vicey, without America’s knowledge. In 1899, Mattie Lee was born. James Edward finally acquiesced to his parents’ demands after the birth of his second illegitimate child, marrying America in 1903. Shortly after their marriage, Catherine was born in 1904, and in 1906, Edna Louise arrived. After giving birth to Edna Louise, America never recovered and died. Milton died two years later. Four months after Milton’s death, James Edward married Lou Vicey, his one true love! They made a wonderful, loving home for all of the children. Catherine and Edna Louise blended well into the family. Lou Vicey showered love and affection onto the girls as if she birthed them.

All these old wonderful memories constantly stirred around Maggie Belle’s mind. Sitting on the porch of the same two-story white clapboard house she was born and raised in, staring out into the orchard, Maggie Belle is teleported back to the day her sister, Ruth Ellen, baked that delicious chocolate cake. Maggie Belle is six years old again. But it is actually 1979, and she is 70 years of age. She’s forgotten she married Harry Napier I and had six children of her own. It is as if it was just yesterday she was riding on the buckboard wagon with her father and sister, eating a chocolate bar. Her son, Harry, came out of the house. “Mom, are you ready for dinner?”  Maggie Belle spoke in a child-like voice, as she often did, “Are we having chocolate cake!” Harry responded, “No, not today, Mom!” She did not recognize her son and wondered why he was calling her, “Mom!”

Harry had returned home in 1978 to find the house in disarray. His mother was burying the silverware and dinner dishes in the backyard. When he asked her why, she stated, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you!”  Harry knew this saying well. His mother repeated it often when he was a boy. The land nurtured his family, and in return he cared for the land. Returning home after a successful career in the Air Force as a pilot, he continued to nurture the orchard and his mother. The caregiving lasted for eight years. During that time, his mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis destroyed much of her memory. But her early years of growing up with her family on this property never vacated her memory. On the day she died surrounded by her children, she whispered into her son’s ear, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.”

James Edward Morris stands six feet, four inches tall. Women find him extremely attractive. His skin is the color of cocoa, and he is a dapper dresser. He’s known for dressing to the nines when running errands around Martinsville, a small Virginia town located in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near the Virginia-North Carolina state line.

Today, James Edward is on a mission to retrieve items for his eldest daughter, Ruth Ellen, to bake a chocolate cake, a family favorite, to celebrate the end of a profitable cherry harvest. Walking towards the general store’s front door to exit, he spies two White women approaching. He steps aside to give them plenty of room to enter, diverting his eyes, trying to make himself invisible. The year is 1915, and he knows Black men can be lynched for simply gazing upon a White woman’s face without first being addressed. The women pass through the door without incident, and he exits. He walks briskly down the wooden sidewalk in the chilly autumn air. The chilled air is welcomed as the summer had been extremely hot and humid. There is a slight breeze at 10 am, and a thick cloud cover. But later today the breeze will diminish, and the clouds will give way to bright sunshine, with temperatures rising to 78 degrees. This is a typical October day in southern Virginia. James Edward climbs onto his buckboard wagon hitched to his two prized Tennessee Walking horses. They are beautiful. Their brown coats glisten. As he pulls on the horses’ reins and sits his burlap bag of groceries on the seat next to him, he glances at the back of the wagon where his two sweet little girls, Maggie Belle, six years of age and Mary Ellen, five, sit. Their long dark mahogany pigtails brush just below their shoulders. He gives them a wink and a smile as he hands them two Hershey’s Chocolate candy bars. They squeal with contentment, “Thank you Popa.”  They love riding into town with Popa. Any opportunity to leave Horseshoe Pasture and venture into town is viewed as fun. Once leaving Martinsville’s city limits, the ride home is bumpy. But Maggie Bell and Mary Ellen don’t mind the rough ride at all. They are too focused on consuming their chocolate bars! Once they turn onto Chestnut Knob Rd., the sisters wave to the people outside in their yards. Most of the people living along this road either work for their father, are family members, or they attend church and school with them. It is an all-Black neighborhood. A community filled with love and a true sense of safety. They pass Holmes Memorial Presbyterian Church at the corner of Chestnut Knob Rd and Soapstone Rd. The Morris family attends church there every Sunday morning; and on Wednesday nights they go there for bible study and a community potluck dinner.

Just pass the church is the Horseshoe Pasture Community School. It consists of two buildings. One houses the classrooms used by kindergarten age kids through sixth grade. The second building is where the seventh graders through twelve graders are taught. Maggie Bell and her siblings attend school from the first of October to the beginning of May. They learn arithmetic, reading, English, history, and science. Maggie Bell excels in arithmetic and science. The Morrises are sure she will be one of the first females in the family to attend college.

In early May the family busies themselves preparing for cherry picking. Harvesting begins in mid-June and lasts until the beginning of August. During harvest season, it is all-hands on deck. Even the children are required to work so the school year ends at the beginning of May. Children begin cherry picking around the age of nine. The kids are instructed to look for a deep, uniformed reddish color to determine if the fruit is ready for harvesting. This signifies sweetness and ripeness. They are taught to gently detach the cherries with a slight pull to preserve the stem. They know roughly yanking the cherry off will tear the woody fruit spur, which is essential for the next year’s fruit. After harvesting the cherries, they carefully place them into a container to prevent bruising. The younger children have to use ladders to reach the fruit at the bottom of the trees since they grow between 12 to 18 feet high.

As they pull up to their property adjacent to Chestnut Knob Rd., the girls see the semi-dwarf trees lining the road. Their father states, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you!” It is a saying their father uses daily. Words the family lives by. James Edward is considered rich by most rural Black peoples’ standards in 1915. He owns and operates a 72-acre commercial cherry orchard. The orchard is beautiful, and a magical place for a child to grow up. The children sing songs in the orchard, play games, and eat lunch perched upon the trees. The Morrises use a high-density planting design. This enables them to plant approximately 340 trees per acre. A standard cherry tree requires more space between each tree; hence James Edward grows semi-dwarf trees. Using dwarfing rootstocks and planar training systems, such as a tall spindle system to create a “fruiting wall” increases their yields per acre, and profits. He grows the Black Gold cherry variety and has approximately 25,000 trees. This orchard is how the Morrises earn a living. Cherry trees typically live and produce cherries from 13 to 30 years.

He purchased the land the orchard now occupies from the O’Reilly’s at the age of 26 in 1900 with the help of his brother, John Payton and father, Milton Morris. The O’Reilly’s were a white Irish farming family out of Tennessee. The O’Reilly’s grew strawberries and sweet potatoes in Tennessee until they decided to only grow orchard crops. They’d owned the land in Horseshoe Pasture since before the Civil War. Originally the family lived on this land until they bought land in Tennessee. They abandoned the acreage but never sold it. Once the O’Reilly’s decided to grow orchard crops, they determined the Horseshoe Pasture property would not produce good fruit. Most in the area felt the O’Reilly’s made this decision because after the Civil War, a colored community sprang up around their property. By selling the property for top dollar, they were able to start an orchard in the predominantly white Virginia town, Ararat, located fifty-seven miles southwest of Martinsville.

Just 35 years after the Civil War, James Edward and his brother managed to build up large bank accounts. They spent $1100 to purchase the land. John Payton, a veteran of the Spanish-American War earned money and benefits from fighting for his country. The Spanish-American War led to Cuban independence, and Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. territory. In 1898, after the war ended, John spent a year and half in Puerto Rico, before returning home. He learned how to cultivate cherries and other orchard crops like oranges, lemons, and limes. With this knowledge, he headed home and taught his older brother how to grow cherries since the climate in Martinsville would not support the growth of citrus crops. Milton amassed large sums of money during Reconstruction that he willingly gave to his oldest son. Milton understood buying this land would improve the lives of future Morris generations. They cleared three acres to build a house and dig a well, using the remaining acreage to cultivate their orchard.

Pulling up to their two-story white clapboard home, Lou Vicey waddles out of the front door. Trailing closely behind are Maggie Belle and Mary Ellen’s five other siblings! They are Mattie Lee, 15; Ruth Ellen, her grandmother’s name’s sake, 24; James D, 2; Edna Louise, 9; and Catherine, 11. Lou Vicey is pregnant with her sixth child. She is due in two weeks. Ruth Ellen and Mattie Lee are both helping out with the younger kids while their mother waits to deliver their new sibling. Ruth Ellen married Posey Penn several years ago and lives three miles down the road from her parents. She and her husband help during harvesting season. Mattie Lee, who is almost sixteen, is set to marry her fiancé, Homer Marshall I in six months. Catherine and Edna Louise are half siblings to the other kids.

James Edward’s youthful indiscretions caused the family much trepidation! James Edward dated Lou Vicey, his childhood sweetheart, and had his oldest daughters out of wedlock, which was taboo, but it did occur frequently. Families went to extremes to hide the birth stories of the illegitimate children. Ruth Ellen was born in 1891. Milton and Ruth Ellen, James Edward’s mother, the original Ruth Ellen in the family, were appalled by their son’s actions. But laid most of the blame at the feet of the young, beautiful Lou Vicey Frances. Lou Vicey was about five feet, six inches. She had long chestnut colored hair, light brown skin, and could read and write well. Initially, she had many suitors, but her heart always belonged to James Edward. After having two babies out of wedlock, her marriage prospects started to dry up. Since James Edward’s parents disliked her, they forbid him from marrying her. They liked America Abington. She was also well-educated and beautiful. She was extremely light-skinned, and could pass for white, with waist-length strawberry blond hair. James Edward was extremely attracted to America, but continued to date Lou Vicey, without America’s knowledge. In 1899, Mattie Lee was born. James Edward finally acquiesced to his parents’ demands after the birth of his second illegitimate child, marrying America in 1903. Shortly after their marriage, Catherine was born in 1904, and in 1906, Edna Louise arrived. After giving birth to Edna Louise, America never recovered and died. Milton died two years later. Four months after Milton’s death, James Edward married Lou Vicey, his one true love! They made a wonderful, loving home for all of the children. Catherine and Edna Louise blended well into the family. Lou Vicey showered love and affection onto the girls as if she birthed them.

All these old wonderful memories constantly stirred around Maggie Belle’s mind. Sitting on the porch of the same two-story white clapboard house she was born and raised in, staring out into the orchard, Maggie Belle is teleported back to the day her sister, Ruth Ellen, baked that delicious chocolate cake. Maggie Belle is six years old again. But it is actually 1979, and she is 70 years of age. She’s forgotten she married Harry Napier I and had six children of her own. It is as if it was just yesterday she was riding on the buckboard wagon with her father and sister, eating a chocolate bar. Her son, Harry, came out of the house. “Mom, are you ready for dinner?”  Maggie Belle spoke in a child-like voice, as she often did, “Are we having chocolate cake!” Harry responded, “No, not today, Mom!” She did not recognize her son and wondered why he was calling her, “Mom!”

Harry had returned home in 1978 to find the house in disarray. His mother was burying the silverware and dinner dishes in the backyard. When he asked her why, she stated, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you!”  Harry knew this saying well. His mother repeated it often when he was a boy. The land nurtured his family, and in return he cared for the land. Returning home after a successful career in the Air Force as a pilot, he continued to nurture the orchard and his mother. The caregiving lasted for eight years. During that time, his mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis destroyed much of her memory. But her early years of growing up with her family on this property never vacated her memory. On the day she died surrounded by her children, she whispered into her son’s ear, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.”