In August 1951, J.S. Dorton, manager of the N.C. State Fair at the time, went to Haywood County Extension office to see an agent named Mary Cornwell. After a few words of greeting, Dr. Dorton exclaimed, “Mary Cornwell, you are going to organize our education department of the N.C. State Fair and bring several of the mountain craftsmen to the fair in October and have them demonstrate their skills and talents.”
Thus, the beginning of the Village of Yesteryear at the N.C. State Fair. That’s how the story goes, according to Pamela Earp, the current superintendent of the Village of Yesteryear.
Now celebrating 75 years, the Village of Yesteryear is an exhibit that demonstrates traditional handicraft and heritage skills. Held every year at the N.C. State Fair, the village features more than 100 artists and crafters creating, displaying and selling time-honored handmade crafts. “A Maker’s Dozen” is a series that tells the stories of some of these artisans and educates about their heritage crafts.
“There have been only three superintendents of the Village,” said Earp. “The first was Mary Cornwell, who shortly got into the work after her encounter with Dr. Dorton. Then, once she retired, she handed it off to a fellow crafter by the name of Jim Trantham. Once he retired in 2009, he considered me to be his replacement out of two other people. We all had to present our case on why we should get the position and it ended up with me being chosen.”
Earp, a long-time Village of Yesteryear crafter, was born and raised in Smithfield and still lives there on a family farm. She is well known in the Village of Yesteryear as an accomplished corn shuck doll maker. She continues to demonstrate her craft each year.
“It all began on my honeymoon in 1978,” said Earp. “I visited a craft show in Boone and saw someone making a doll out of corn shucks. Not long after, we stopped at a rest stop in Maggie Valley. A guy named Jack Guy was selling those same doll kits half-off. I bought one and made a crude first doll. But I wanted to keep trying and find my own style.”
That’s all it took for Earp to get hooked. She honed her craft over the years and eventually showcased her skills and passion at the fair. Eighteen years after that fateful honeymoon trip, she joined the Village in 1996. “I always loved going there before, but now, I could be a part of it,” said Earp. “I helped with lots of projects there and got to know everyone.”
As superintendent for the last 17 years, she oversees the organization of the Village and manages new incoming craftsman. With those responsibilities, she doesn’t get to man her booth like she used to. However, she still gets to demonstrate her craft “here and there.”
For more than seven decades, the Village of Yesteryear has remained dedicated to its purpose of showcasing and preserving heritage crafts. Earp is hopeful that the Village continues to educate fairgoers and attract new craftsman.
“I am afraid that with the long-standing traditional crafts, that we will see a decline in the motivation to pass those on to the next generations,” said Earp. “What happens when the next generation says, ‘I don’t want to do that’?”
That is where the Village of Yesteryear comes in.
“Preserving the art of the past for generations of the future” is Yesteryear’s motto. All the artisans have a common goal of preserving their craft and demonstrating it for the generations to come.
Here are the voices of just a few:
“Most people don’t ever see how anything is made. That adds real value to the people visiting the Village of Yesteryear,” said Dan Dye, a silversmith.
“The whole reason I am there is to do what we all do best: Educate, inform and inspire. These crafts of ours are important to us and each of us have a passion about it, and we hope to tell others about it and share that passion,” said Mike Anderson, a fiddle maker.
“Everyone is doing what they are good at. There’s something beautiful about people doing their craft that people either underestimate or don’t understand,” said Scott McGhee, a bladesmith.
“Even after 75 years, our tradition continues,” said Earp. “Trantham’s granddaughters are now a part of the village. They make Ukrainian decorative eggs that they learned from vendors at the Village.”
Not only that, the Village draw thousands of fairgoers to the Holhouser building each year. This year, fairgoers will see two new craftsman, Joshua Cole and Kent Lee. Cole has worked with the potters of Yesteryear for more than 20 years and is now doing it on his own. Lee is entering for the first time with his wood decoy carving.
“With our tradition of handmade crafts, it goes on,” said Earp.