Artie Sharp (K)
(5:01) Artie Sharp’s son Jack tells about snake handlers in Waterloo, Alabama.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Artie Sharp September 20, 2011 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah (Also present are: Lee Freeman and Mrs. Sharp’s son, Jack Sha...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/256 |
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Electronic |
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Oral Histories Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| topic |
Oral histories -- audios and transcripts |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Artie Sharp (K) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Oral histories -- audios and transcripts Snake cults (Holiness churches) |
| description |
(5:01) Artie Sharp’s son Jack tells about snake handlers in Waterloo, Alabama.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Artie Sharp
September 20, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
(Also present are: Lee Freeman and Mrs. Sharp’s son, Jack Sharp)
Clip 11
Rhonda Haygood: Lee tells us that there’s a story about the snake handlers in church.
Artie Sharp: Yeah, Jack you tell Lee about the snakes.
Jack Sharp: In 1957, we moved down here from Indiana, but in 1953 is when the snake handlers came into the church on Bumpass Creek and it was called Bumpass Creek Holiness Church and so James D. Price was the one that was the pastor then. And so these men one night just happened to walk in with this box with what you call a Timber Rattlesnake, you know. And so everybody in the church got up and started running out. And so it was another man that was helping James D. Price then preach at the church. And that is the church that I pastored for ten years, you see, after I got grown. And so they couldn’t keep the snake handlers out of the church. You know, they didn’t believe in handling snakes; the pastor didn’t. So they had to take them to court. And so Frank Potts was the one that was involved in all that. In fact, it hasn’t been that long ago, whenever Frank died that they had an article in the paper concerning Bumpass Creek Holiness Church, see. So they took them to court and it was the Covington brothers; it was the three of them. They had fined them twenty dollars and court costs for disturbing the peace. And so that stopped the snake handling there. Alabama had a law against handling snakes at the time but they didn’t press it that far. They just got them for disturbing the peace, you see. And so they let them off the hook real easy. So that ended all the snake handling there.
AS: I don’t have much time but I’d like to tell the story about the woman that got snake bit. I was at my cousin’s house at a prayer meeting and these snake handlers come in and she wanted to handle the snakes there. Scared everybody to death, but she said, “Oh, God’ll take care of me.” She was quoting scripture about, you know, you can tread on serpents and drink poison and it won’t hurt you. Well they kicked this old can, they had a can there, lard can with a snake in it. They lived on a big, big ol’ pond, manmade pond, rattlesnake pond. And so they kicked that can around and got it real mad and stirred up and you could hear it rattling and he opened it up and turned that snake out. And he reached down behind that snake’s neck and he grabbed that snake with the back of the neck and it started a great big rattler and it started curling and twining and twisting and his sister took it and put it up across her shoulders, wrapped it around her neck up across her shoulder and she stretched out both arms and he begin to climb. He crawled from one end, hand to the other and he’d turn and come back and she was quoting scripture all the time that God’s gonna take care of her. And so I’m getting more scared all the time and I’m backed away back over yonder. Well after a while it went on, that snake would turn and she’d say, “Oh, he won’t bite me. He won’t—God’s taking care of me.” And about that time he got her on the jaw when he turned back. He turned back. He was mad because she wouldn’t let him go off I guess. When he’d get to the end she’d turn him back again. He bit her on the jaw. Well she just kept quoting scripture. Somebody said, “She’s bit.” And her brother said, “Oh, she’ll be all right. We’ll just pray for her.” Well, they started praying for her, her hand began to drop and he began to, her brother got him and put him back in the can. And after a while she began to get staggery, she couldn’t stand up. They laid her down and I’m there when she couldn’t talk anymore and she just went into a coma and they wouldn’t let, the Covington boys wouldn’t let them bury her for three days because they thought she was still alive. And he had a sister way up north somewhere that was a registered nurse. He wanted her to come and take her vitals every so often and see if she was dead. And she did come; she wouldn’t at first. But she did come and she’d take them vitals and they couldn’t get no reaction at all from her. But she never got cold, she never got stiff and the day they buried her when the funeral home, the law was after them and they was gonna make them bury her. And my sister-in-law said, my husband’s sister, said that the day that they buried her they saw her move. She saw her move her little finger, her little pinky. And said she never did get cold. So anyway, they tried to pray her back but they buried her anyway.
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| title |
Artie Sharp (K) |
| titleStr |
Artie Sharp (K) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLoral_hist256 |
| url |
https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/oral_hist/id/256 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/oral_hist/id/256 |
| _version_ |
1782468788858388480 |
| spelling |
Artie Sharp (K)Snake cults (Holiness churches)(5:01) Artie Sharp’s son Jack tells about snake handlers in Waterloo, Alabama.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryArtie Sharp2011-09-20sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishIs part of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library collection.Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Artie Sharp
September 20, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Rhonda Haygood and Patti Hannah
(Also present are: Lee Freeman and Mrs. Sharp’s son, Jack Sharp)
Clip 11
Rhonda Haygood: Lee tells us that there’s a story about the snake handlers in church.
Artie Sharp: Yeah, Jack you tell Lee about the snakes.
Jack Sharp: In 1957, we moved down here from Indiana, but in 1953 is when the snake handlers came into the church on Bumpass Creek and it was called Bumpass Creek Holiness Church and so James D. Price was the one that was the pastor then. And so these men one night just happened to walk in with this box with what you call a Timber Rattlesnake, you know. And so everybody in the church got up and started running out. And so it was another man that was helping James D. Price then preach at the church. And that is the church that I pastored for ten years, you see, after I got grown. And so they couldn’t keep the snake handlers out of the church. You know, they didn’t believe in handling snakes; the pastor didn’t. So they had to take them to court. And so Frank Potts was the one that was involved in all that. In fact, it hasn’t been that long ago, whenever Frank died that they had an article in the paper concerning Bumpass Creek Holiness Church, see. So they took them to court and it was the Covington brothers; it was the three of them. They had fined them twenty dollars and court costs for disturbing the peace. And so that stopped the snake handling there. Alabama had a law against handling snakes at the time but they didn’t press it that far. They just got them for disturbing the peace, you see. And so they let them off the hook real easy. So that ended all the snake handling there.
AS: I don’t have much time but I’d like to tell the story about the woman that got snake bit. I was at my cousin’s house at a prayer meeting and these snake handlers come in and she wanted to handle the snakes there. Scared everybody to death, but she said, “Oh, God’ll take care of me.” She was quoting scripture about, you know, you can tread on serpents and drink poison and it won’t hurt you. Well they kicked this old can, they had a can there, lard can with a snake in it. They lived on a big, big ol’ pond, manmade pond, rattlesnake pond. And so they kicked that can around and got it real mad and stirred up and you could hear it rattling and he opened it up and turned that snake out. And he reached down behind that snake’s neck and he grabbed that snake with the back of the neck and it started a great big rattler and it started curling and twining and twisting and his sister took it and put it up across her shoulders, wrapped it around her neck up across her shoulder and she stretched out both arms and he begin to climb. He crawled from one end, hand to the other and he’d turn and come back and she was quoting scripture all the time that God’s gonna take care of her. And so I’m getting more scared all the time and I’m backed away back over yonder. Well after a while it went on, that snake would turn and she’d say, “Oh, he won’t bite me. He won’t—God’s taking care of me.” And about that time he got her on the jaw when he turned back. He turned back. He was mad because she wouldn’t let him go off I guess. When he’d get to the end she’d turn him back again. He bit her on the jaw. Well she just kept quoting scripture. Somebody said, “She’s bit.” And her brother said, “Oh, she’ll be all right. We’ll just pray for her.” Well, they started praying for her, her hand began to drop and he began to, her brother got him and put him back in the can. And after a while she began to get staggery, she couldn’t stand up. They laid her down and I’m there when she couldn’t talk anymore and she just went into a coma and they wouldn’t let, the Covington boys wouldn’t let them bury her for three days because they thought she was still alive. And he had a sister way up north somewhere that was a registered nurse. He wanted her to come and take her vitals every so often and see if she was dead. And she did come; she wouldn’t at first. But she did come and she’d take them vitals and they couldn’t get no reaction at all from her. But she never got cold, she never got stiff and the day they buried her when the funeral home, the law was after them and they was gonna make them bury her. And my sister-in-law said, my husband’s sister, said that the day that they buried her they saw her move. She saw her move her little finger, her little pinky. And said she never did get cold. So anyway, they tried to pray her back but they buried her anyway.
http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/oral_hist,256 |