Ruralite Cafe: Published 01/17/02

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

History is best told through primary sources

That's especially true when I stumble across information that conflicts with what I've always heard or read. In this case, stumbling wasn't required - I walked right into it. In fact, as a particularly appropriate saying goes, "If it had been a snake, it would have bitten me."

It concerns one of Jackson County's most famous stories - a tale that ignited the career of arguably the county's most successful writer, Sylva native John Parris.

When Parris was 17, he wrote about a Holiness preacher, Albert Teester, who was bitten by a rattlesnake during church services at Double Springs Church of God on Cullowhee Mountain. Teester refused medical treatment, and the story attracted widespread attention in the national press. Teester would talk only to Parris, and the big-name correspondents who flocked to Sylva found themselves interviewing the preacher through Parris. The Teester story was printed in newspapers around the world and brought Parris a job offer from United Press. Parris accepted the job and became the news organization's youngest correspondent.

But let's get back to the story of the preacher and the snake. Most versions we've read indicate Teester was in the habit of handling snakes.

"The eyes of the world focused on Jackson County in the month of August 1934 as a rattlesnake-handling Holiness preacher sparred several rounds with a huge diamondback," according to the Aug. 30, 195, edition of The Sylva Herald.

Recently, when I found myself talking to someone who had attended church at Double Springs, I brought up the snake-handling incident. I was quickly told that the story had been blown way out of proportion through the years, that snake-handling was not routine at Double Springs and that many church members had resented the onslaught of publicity that surrounded Teester.

In a subsequent, calmer conversation, my source agreed that the basic facts had generally been correct: The incident did happen at Double Springs, the preacher, Albert Teester, was bitten during a service, and Teester did refuse medical treatment. However, several people present when Teester was bitten had always maintained that the snakes were brought to the service by others and that Teester was challenged to handle them.

When I consulted 1934 editions of The Ruralite (The Herald's forerunner) and The Jackson County Journal, published by Dan Tompkins, I found published reports support the version passed down through the family of church members.

Here is the Journal's account from Aug. 14, 1934:

"It all came about because, following the Holiness belief that those who have received the 'second blessing' can handle serpents without harm, Teester had preached such as the fact, at the little church of his faith on Cullowhee Mountain. Some of the boys of the community caught a rattlesnake, it is said, boxed it up, and carried it to the church, presenting it to Teester, to give him an opportunity to prove his faith by his works."

While subsequent articles and letters in The Ruralite and Journal indicate that Teester took full advantage of the publicity engendered by the incident, the initial reports do support the contention that he was not in the habit of handling snakes, as does information found in "The History of Jackson County." In the chapter on religion, with regard to the Church of God, chapter author Cliff Lovin writes:

"It was in 1934 that both the county and the church received a national notoriety that neither sought. A local Church of God preacher, Albert Teester, was working with an ordained one, E.D. Hopkins, on Cullowhee Mountain preparing for fulltime ministerial work. He was accosted one day by a group of neighborhood people who handed him a box filled with rattlesnakes. When he took one out to prove the New Testament assertion which promises that Christian believers can take up poisonous snakes and not die, he was bitten and came close to death. He refused medical attention and lived, and his story appeared in the New York Times on Aug. 10, 1934. He became a celebrity, speaking on a national radio broadcast on Aug. 15, and began a career as an evangelist for the Church of God. The incident died down with some local people reacting angrily to what they thought was inaccurate publicity."

In this case, oral tradition matches written history and proves, once again, that primary sources, like weekly newspapers, are invaluable to providing an accurate record of a community's past.

Teester's rise as an evangelist and the subsequent editorials and letters to the local newspaper are interesting as well. We'll take a look at some of those in a subsequent column.

Back to Archive: 01/17/02.