Ralph Griffith LEVERING

  General Notes:

Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Civil District 19, Blount, Tennessee; Roll: T623 1559; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 28.
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Fancy Gap, Carroll, Virginia; Roll: T624_1624; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 1; Image: 935.
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Fancy Gap, Carroll, Virginia; Roll: 2439; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 2; Image: 54.0.
Birth :29 MAR 1871 in (Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy OH, Vol 4, Pg 1170)

taken from http://www.brpfoundation.org/memory.htmhttp://www.brpfoundation.org/memory.htm
In the fall of 1907, Ralph Levering, a strawberry farmer and surveyor from Maryville, Tennessee, walked hundreds of miles alone in the Blue Ridge in pursuit of a dream. Ralph's dream was to find an ideal site to plant an apple orchard - and he found it. Having walked the Blue Ridge from Asheville to Roanoke, this gentle, scholarly Quaker, with a degree in International Law from Columbia University, bought land on the southern slope of the range, below Orchard Gap. Early in 1908, Ralph, his pregnant wife Clara, and their two young children, Griffith and June, moved into an old log cabin on the property and began their new life as orchardists.

Raising a family, starting an apple orchard, and building a new house proved to be a tall order for Ralph and Clara. But, with the help of their neighbors, they accomplished all three tasks. In 1908, Clara gave birth to Samuel Levering, who eventually took over the orchard from his father after studying horticulture at Cornell. Ralph cleared the land and built stone walls along its contours, to help prevent erosion - walls that remain standing today. He planted Albemarle Pippen, Buckingham and other apple varieties - and later built a large apple cellar, of stone, to store the fruits of his labors. And, late in 1909, Ralph and neighbors from Orchard Gap community completed a two-story house for the family, known as "the Red House." On Christmas Day, 1909, the Leverings moved into their new residence. From their front porch, on a clear day, they could see fifty-five miles, clear to the Brushy Mountains.

As the years passed and their children came of age, Ralph and Clara established themselves as leaders in their community. It was Ralph Levering who surveyed, then helped build, the Orchard Gap Road, which later intersected with the Blue Ridge Parkway. And, as his orchard grew, he became the community's major employer. Outside the community, Ralph Levering made a name for himself as a commentator on national and international issues, particularly in the Winston-Salem Journal, where his reflections appeared weekly for many years. A leader in the local Moravian Church at Willow Hill, Clara started a school in the Red House and taught many of the community's children. An accomplished musician, she played a reed organ given to her by her parents on the day of her wedding. Today Ralph and Clara - Ralph died in 1945, Clara in 1961 - are fondly remembered both inside and outside Orchard Gap.

The Emerald Ghost, a play by Ralph and Clara's grandson, Frank Levering, depicts life at Orchard Gap from the perspective of Ralph and Clara's daughter June, portrayed by the critically acclaimed stage actress Barbara Bates Smith. Two events inspired the play - one of them tragic. In November, 1996, a fire damaged the historic Red House beyond repair - though its walls remain standing. Not long after this event, Frank's friend Nicholas Bragg, Executive Director of the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, surveyed the ruins sadly and observed: "When an old house burns, the fire drives the ghosts out."

Ralph married Clara Leila OSBORN, daughter of George OSBORN and Sarah Elizabeth WOOD, on 30 Jun 1898 in Morrow Co., Ohio. (Clara Leila OSBORN was born on 24 Jun 1877 in Peru, Morrow, Ohio.)