FAQ

New Sherwood: The Legacy Of Our Land 1908 - 1978

Donna and Howard McConnell happened to be walking by on the day that Marcia Cagle, a neighbor on Rittenhouse Road, was moving in. Her parents, Mr. Frank and Mrs. Barbara Cagle, were there to help. In the conversation we discovered that Mr. Cagle is an authority on the Methodist Children's Home, which still exists on Reynolda Road. Why this interest? All our land once was part of the extensive farms owned and operated by the Children's Home. Recently the Cagles paid us a delightful visit on a sunny afternoon, allowing us to learn much about the Home and its history.

Mr. Cagle resided at the Home as a youth, from 1937 until 1943 when he was drafted for World War Two. After his military service Mr. Cagle held positions in financial management here in Winston-Salem until being accepted as the Business Manager for the Childrens Home in September of 1963. He retired from that position after 24 years, in 1987.

During his youth there were over 400 children in residence, from infants to high school seniors. The farm was a self-sufficient enterprise, growing all its own food and performing all its own maintenance. The farm operation included grazing land, timber, an orchard (now Arbor Acres), a truck garden for vegetables, some 65 milch cows for dairy products (they churned all their own butter) and about 200 hogs for their pork. Sherwood Association members have understood that our land was once a dairy farm. In fact, the area where the Villas now stand was part of the hog pasture. Truly there was a dairy farm but it was only a part of the whole.

The older boys shared the more responsible jobs on the farm. A typical day for Mr. Cagle started at 3:30 AM when he had morning chores, so he could get to school by 8:30. Athletic practice ran from 3:00 PM until 6:00 every day, since he was a varsity player at Reynolds High School in all three seasons. After supper, study hall ran from 7:00 PM until bedtime at 9:00.

Supporting over 400 children plus staff was a production operation on the farm. All the children helped out as soon as they could. One should hasten to say that this was NOT "child labor". The children were helping on the farm just as children over all the nation's farms helped their families. They were involved in every aspect of the operation according to their age and abilities.

The farm operated prior to the days of mass chemical fertilizers; one could say that all the food consumed by the hundreds of children and staff was (in modern terms) "organically grown". This required the older boys to "muck out the stables" every day. They took the manure spreader out when it had been filled. Every scrap including leaves was composted and added to the soil.

A major divestment occurred on June 2, 1978 when the Shaffner/Allspaugh tract of 402 acres was sold to the W. Bryan White Realty Company for some over $1.8 million in cash. On the death of Mr. White, the land was acquired by Mr. Tab Williams and Mr. Lewis Hubbard, founders of The Sherwood Company. We see those names in our covenants and deeds.

One final note about today's culture. A Children's Home is sometimes, accurately, described as a repository. In the days during the Great Depression and after, our own Children's Home, and others maintained all over the Nation by the various Churches, were indeed training centers in the human values we all prize -- industry, respect, and ethical living. The "Graduates" invariably went forward in their lives, as did Mr. Cagle, to broadening responsibility in their communities.

Reference: "The Children's Home -- The First Seventy-Five Years", Dr. Perry Lefeavers, Hunter Publishing Company, Winston-Salem, NC; Copyright 1983 by Dr. Perry Lefeavers, Elizabeth City, NC. A reference copy is available, for study only, at the Carolina Room, Forsyth County Library downtown.