Flora Pledger and Lillie Hamlin standing in Five Row, circa 1930

Flora Pledger Interview 1

DateJune 26, 1980

MediumDocument

Credit LineReynolda House Museum of American Art Archives

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object numberOH.01.005.1

DescriptionFlora Pledger was interviewed at Reynolda House and at her home by Lu Ann Jones for the Reynolda Oral History Project. Born in 1899 in Yadkin County, Flora Pledger moved to Five Row in 1916 with her husband Ellis Pledger, who had been traveling twenty miles a day to work at Reynolda where he received three times the pay he had been earning. Flora Pledger described her home in Five Row as “...the best place I’d ever seen. I loved it, I loved it. And if it had water and the electricity that I’ve got now, I’d rather be there than anywhere that could be. I just naturally loved it.” Ellis Pledger worked on the farm and at the heating plant. Flora Pledger did seasonal work at the farm until 1935 when she was employed full time by the Babcock family doing general housework before becoming the head cook. In the 1960s, when Five Row was scheduled to be demolished for the construction of Silas Creek Parkway, Flora Pledger successfully appealed to Charlie Babcock to pay for the removal and relocation of the Five Row church and school building.
ProvenanceThe Reynolda House Museum of American Art Oral History Project, established in 1980, gathered recollections from Reynolds family members and former employees, residents, and guests of the Reynolda estate. The interviews explore life at Reynolda and in Winston-Salem, N.C., during the early and mid-twentieth century, touching on the area’s socioeconomic, political, business, and cultural history. Early interviews conducted in 1980 were done by Lu Ann Jones; later interviews were conducted by museum staff.

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