The Ballad of Hillary and Clemmie

 I love to read. Recently, I finished reading a book called "Raffle Baby" by Ruth Talbot. The author was inspired to write the book after reading a newspaper article, supposedly from the area of Boone, North Carolina, during the Great Depression, about an 18-month-old girl that was being raffled off by a mother who could no longer afford the child, and came up with this macabre plan to rehome the infant while making needed money at the same time. Our modern sensibilities nearly 100 years later find such an event abhorrent, but apparently desperate times created desperate scenarios, and this is one of them. Although the result of her inspiration was a very readable work of fiction, it wasn't entirely off base. I did not find the article from Boone, NC, however, in a more recent article published in Asheville, NC, I discovered the clip below, from Dallastown, Pennsylvania. 

The Asheville Times

Asheville, North Carolina • Wed, Aug 16, 1950Page 21

The article above is not the subject of this post. It only led me to what inspired this post. 

Ever drive by an interesting house and wonder who lived there? What kind of folk? Or heard the story of the event and wonder what came after? I read old newspaper stories and wonder about the people in them and what became of them after this moment in time. This is one of those stories. 

A man named Hillary Hartley was arrested in July of 1930. He was charged with the seduction and assault on a "Mountain Girl" named Clemmie Miller. Read below. 

Watauga Democrat

Boone, North Carolina • Thu, Jul 24, 1930Page 1

Clemmie, who was reported to be 20 years of age in this article, claimed to have had a relationship with Hillary Hartley, a young man she claims raped her, impregnated her and promised to marry her. She also claimed that he 'mistreated, misused and doubted her". She came to court in the last stages of pregnancy, to testify on the charges against the Blowing Rock fellow, despite still being enamored of the man. 

She entered the courtroom and was gravitated toward the defendant, described as "youthful".  They seem to have embraced, or hugged, and her affection for him was evident to the courtroom. His end may have been to act deceptively and perfidious, in order to sway coerce Clemmie into not testifying against him. His hug worked, and the girl then acted ambivalent, not wanting to convict him. 

Clemmie had lived along the New River, an incredibly beautiful and low-lying stream that runs through Watauga, Ashe and Allegheny Counties in North Carolina, wadable in places, its banks embellished and festooned with the glitter of mica enriched sand. Hillary had taken her from her mountain home in the winter and brought her home to his father's house in the more settled town of Blowing Rock. He apparently grew tired of her and she had been driven out and assaulted. 

Having been deflowered and impregnated by Hillary, she had begged for him to make her "a decent woman" by marrying her. He did not share her feelings and had not viewed her as wife material, only wanting a casual affair, and unwilling to accept the consequences of his lust and actions. He thereafter became angry and abusive toward the girl. He had testified that he had intended to marry her when he became financially able, or "got in shape". He also admitted to assaults in the form of slapping her, saying he considered that his right as long as they were engaged. 

Hillary was given a $1000 bond, considered a high bond in 1930 and the financially devastation of that era in American history. The girl, Clementine, went home to her mother to complete her pregnancy. The article ended with the consensus of the courtroom crowd that the girl was in love with her flippant assailant. 

With this, we are left wondering what happened to Hillary, to Clemmie and to their baby. Who were they exactly, and what became of them?

Hillary D Hartley was born on April 16, 1908, in Avery County, North Carolina. He was the son of Henry Eli Hartley and wife, Delphia Louisa Hodge and the youngest of their ten children, preceded in birth order by Pantha, Will, Percy, Myrtle, Ida, Raymond, Ila Mae, Reeves and Charlie. 

Name	Hartley Baby
Age in 1910	2
Birth Date	1908
Birthplace	North Carolina
Home in 1910	Linville, Mitchell, North Carolina, USA
Sheet Number	8a
Race	White
Gender	Male
Relation to Head of House	Son
Marital Status	Single
Father's Birthplace	North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace	North Carolina
Enumeration District Number	0145
Enumerated Year	1910
Neighbors	View others on page

Household members

Name	Age
Henry E Hartley	49
Louisa D Hartley	46
Willie L Hartley	21
Percy Hartley	19
Raymond Hartley	14
Ila M Hartley	11
Reeves A Hartley	8
Charlie M Hartley	6
Hartley Baby	2

His parents seem to have taken a good, long time to decide on a name for their last offspring, as he is shown in the 1910 census simply as "Baby Hartley", at the age of two.  This year, they were found in Linville in Mitchell County, NC. By the 1920 census, the family had moved to the town of Blowing Rock, in Watauga County, North Carolina, both mountain towns, which is where Hillary, and Clemmie, are found in the 1930 census, the year of the newspaper article. 

At this moment in time, Henry and Delphia only had the two youngest sons, Charlie and Hillary, living with them. Seventy-year-old Henry was employed as a Mason in Rock Work, Charlie, 23, was a laborer at a Golf Course, and Hillary was employed as a Carpenter's Helper.

The household was rounded out by Clemmie Miller, Servant, aged 20. The newspaper seemed to suggest that Hillary was a boy, making Clemmie sound like an older woman, but she was not, and Hillary was a full-fledged adult at the age of 21.

Watauga Democrat

Boone, North Carolina • Thu, Mar 26, 1931Page 4

I never discovered the outcome of the trial of Hillary Hartley in the case of assault and seduction against Clemmie, but I found out that was not his only tussle with the law. A year later, in March of 1931, he was arrested for Breaking and Entering and earned a sentence of two years in the State Prison. 

Shortly thereafter, probably soon after his release from prison, Hillary married, truthfully this time, to Alice Elvira Craig, or maybe not, as a license is not found, but they made a home and had a family.  They started out in Blowing Rock, eventually moving to the town of Lenoir in Caldwell County, raising a family of six children, four daughters in a row, followed by twin sons.

Hillary worked as a Housepainter and Carpenter. He passed away at 79 in 1987 and is buried in Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina.

Clementine Alice "Clemmy" Miller

Clemmie's life diverged from that of her first love, Hillary. But was it really love or was it a longing born of desperation? Had young Clemmie been terrified of the life that would await her as a single mother in the 1930 Appalachian hills and hollers? Was she more terrified of the shame and ostracization, and social banishment of her unwed position, than the blows born of resentment from a man unwilling to accept responsibility for his part in the problem, his body unburdened by the repercussions? Had she preferred the title of battered wife over that of a trollop with a bastard child?

Clementine had been born on May 19, 1910, in the tiny community of Elk, Watauga County, North Carolina and had grown up there, until Hillary Hartley swept her away one day in her late teens, loading her upon his horse and taking her to his parents' house. She was the daughter of Willie Festus Miller and Laura Triplett Miller, from families, the Millers, Tripletts, Wheelings and Wheelers, the latter two possibly having the same origins, family names with deep roots in the mountains of Watauga County. 

Clemmie, as she was called, was the fifth child in a typical enormous mountain family. The order was:

Emory Layfayette Miller, Mary Hestoria, Sarah Lillian, Blanche Opal, Clementine Alice, Vanna Pearl, Ray Jesse, Robert Monroe, Violet Jo, Norman Arky, and Reba Ivalee.

As we saw, Clemmie was living in the Hartley home in 1930, working as a housekeeper and laborer. The child of Hillary and Clemmie did not live, its gender and passing unknown and the reason obscure. What happened to that innocent little life? However the unwanted child came about its' end, its absence allowed Clemmie to move ahead in life. While Hillary was pining away in prison, she married, first to Hardie Alexander Hagaman.

Hardie Alexander Hagaman

Hardie Hagaman was a tall, slim and almost handsome man, mountain sturdy and calm. Born in the beautiful Valle Cruses, Watauga County, Hardie grew up in Laurel Creek.

Laurel Creek Falls

Born on July 30, 1885, Hardie was a full twenty-five years older that Clemmie. He had married once already, to Lulu Ella Harman, with whom he had nine children: Gradon, Flora, Lawrence, Rosie, Ethel, Robert E. Lee, John James, called "Brownie", Anna Laura and Gilbert Vaughn. Hardie and Ella divorced and she seemed to have never gotten over the shame of it, or the loss of her husband, and in a way, never let go. 

Hardie and Clemmie were married in Boone, NC on November 11, 1933. He was 45 and she was 23.

Their first child, a daughter named Elizabeth, was born on May 22, 1933, six months before Clemmie and Hardie were married. She died at the tender age of one year and 13 days, again, breaking Clemmie's heart. She was buried at Zion Hill Baptist Church in beautiful Valle Crusis on June 14, 1934. The child had bronchial pneumonia, and her grandfather, Henry, was the informant on the death certificate.

Next came Willie Jean Hagaman, born on May 3, 1934, just a year after Elizabeth. She died on February 22, 1935, at the age of 9 months, 19 days. The informant was a man named Ronald Ward of Buck Creek, and the undertaker was named as her own father, Hardie. 

Mrs. Sadie Love of Sugar Grove, the registrar, had written that this was a "death without medical attention, probably Infantile convulsions." So, it is unknown what really killed this little girl. Her obituary stated she suffered an illness of one week.  She joined her sister at Zion Hill. 

Willie Jeans' obituary. 

Unbroken, Clemmie tried again. This time she was expecting in duplicate. 

Next came twin boys, named simply Joe and Jerry, born on March 3, 1936. Born small and early, the lost their breath the same day they had gained it and died that very same day. 

Clemmie's last attempt at motherhood was made on December 27, 1937, when a son she named Lowell Gray came into the world. This one took. She may have taken especially good care of him having lost five children only seven years prior and the twins just a year before. 

Son of Hardie Alexander "Hard" HAGAMAN and Clementine Alice "Clemmie" MILLER. Married Cora BROYHILL.

Lowell Gray Hagaman, age 79, of Clemmons and a longtime resident of Blowing Rock, died August 11, 2017, at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem. He was born in the Beech Creek Community of Watauga/Avery County on December 27, 1937.

Lowell worked for Sealtest Milk, making home deliveries throughout Watauga and Avery Counties. He then spent 30 years working in the manufactured housing industry, owning Landmark Homes in Wilkesboro and retiring from Clayton Homes. Lowell enjoyed travel throughout the United States and many foreign countries. He always felt very blessed and wanted to share with others. Lowell especially loved his family. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Boone, where he enjoyed serving in the food pantry ministry.
    
Lowell is survived by his wife of 57 years, Cora Broyhill Hagaman, of the home; two children, David L. Hagaman of Greensboro, and Rev. Dr. M. Scott Hagaman and wife, Hanna, of Marion; two grandchildren, Laurel L. Hagaman and Benjamin G. Hagaman.

Lowell lived a long, normal and happy life.  She had one child who thrived. 

For every glimpse of happiness, Clemmie had more than her share of sadness.  Hardie passed away on April 29th, 1943.

His estate papers left property to several of his children, (but not all) and Clemmie.  He was 57 years old. Clemmie was 33. 

Hardie's first wife, Ella, outlived him by 23 years. She passed away in 1966, and her death certificate lists her as married and gives her husband's name as Hardie A. Hagaman, although he and Clemmie had been married for a decade when he passed away. Her obituary headlines her name as "Mrs. H. A Hagaman." She is called a widow. She never truly got over him. 

Young Clemmie moved on with her life. Soon after a brief mourning period she married for a second time. Her next husband was named Estel Shannon Dobson from Knott County, Kentucky, where he lived as a logger, until after 1930. He then moved to Watauga County, NC and became a cattle dealer. 

Estel had been married twice before. With Effie Owens he had three children, a son and two daughters, the youngest who died as an infant in 1935. That marriage ended in divorce, and he married Annie Pearl Bodenhammer, with whom he had one daughter. She died in 1946. He then married Clemmie. 

In the 1940 census, Estel and Clemmie are living in Watauga County in the New River Township on the Hickory to Rutherford Road. He is working as a Cattle Trader, buying and selling and Clemmie is working as a cook in a Lunchroom. With them are Estel's daughter, Glynna Mae, 11 and Clemmie's son, Lowell, 12. They had no children together. 

Estel died on May 7, 1969, in Boone, North Carolina.

Clemmie was now 59 and twice widowed. She wasn't finished with the possibilities of love. This time she married a minister, Rev. Theodore Charles Hellman

Theodore Hellman had been born on January 19, 1914, in New York City, NY, making him three and a half years her junior. Theodore had lived in New York until 1951, having worked there as a Fireman, a machine operator and an EP operator. What brought him to North Carolina is unknown. 

He divorced his wife, Ruth Catherine Engle Hillman with whom he had had six children, in Watauga County in November of 1978. It appears he also lived for a while in Florida and Tennessee. Sometime afterwards he married Clemmie, before 1981, as she begins appearing in records as a Hilleman by that time. 

Clemmie remained with Theodore Hellman until the end of her life. 

She passed away on January 21, 1997, at the age of 86, in Blowing Rock, North Carolina and was buried in Boone at the Mountains Lawn Memorial Park and Gardens.  She was survived by her husband, Theodore, her son Lowell and two grandchildren. 

Her widower,  Theodore, would marry a third time to a lady named Grace. 

His obituary stated that he had survived the death of three wives. His fourth, Grace Dupis Hilleman survived him. Clemmie was one of the three. 

As the 20th century progressed and times and morals changed, the situation Clemmie had found herself in at age 20 was not as dire as she must have imagined in her young mind. As small towns go, she and Hillary may have ran into each other from time to time over the years, as he must have returned to Watauga from Caldwell County to visit family and attend events such as weddings, graduations and funerals. Who knows what went through their heads at that time. He raised a half-dozen children and she but one. One could wonder if they ever thought of the child they had shared and he had been taken to court over. 

Hardie Alexander “Hard” Hagaman

Son of Daniel Webster Hagaman & Mary White (Farthing) Hagaman

Hardin Alexander Hagaman, well known citizen of Laurel Creek township and efficient chief deputy sheriff for many years under the late L. M. Farthing, died at the home on April 29. The funeral services were conducted by Reverend Tom Stansberry at Zion Hill Baptist Church on April 30th, and burial was in the neighborhood. He was 57 years old. He is survived by three daughters and six sons.

Watauga Democrat, May 6, 1943, Page 5