Carter Was Particularly “Violent” Toward Me

Eventually I will be writing and elaborating more on the contents of my mother’s 1945/1946 diary. I took some of her diaries with me on my getaway to Buckhannon in case I wanted to study them more closely. On Sunday evening, after taking a drive out to the old Weston Hospital (now the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum) and taking some photos and going in parts of the first floor, I came back to the hotel and began reading through her writings.

I do have her records from the Weston Hospital from 1946. And I recall a few times trying to “pull out of her” more about her own younger years, and this incident. Which I knew about in my twenties, from a family source, and from some things found in papers in our basement.

My mother told me her brothers came and took her out of college in Morgantown, W Va. I will not go into her verbal account yet, only to say she told me they “knocked her teeth out.” I do know my mother also had a full set of dentures and said she lost her teeth when she was young, in various ways.

In her diary from 1945/1946, she makes a bunch of notations in 1967 referring to things from the Weston Hospital incident. I read again, possibly with new eyes…since I am now more deeply exploring family secrets and mysteries from Buckhannon and beyond…she wrote, in 1967: “Carter was particularly “violent” toward me.”

Tonight, while scanning old photos for another piece, I noticed this photo of my mother in a tree. I scanned at very high resolution so I could better zoom in. I believe it is the only photo from that time period where I’ve ever seen what must be her natural teeth. The subsequent photos are from 1963, and show her dentures. While close in appearance, I really believe these are her natural teeth in the younger photo.

And after a number of more recent contemplations, explorations and considerations…I’m inclined to believe my mother, that her brother(s) were violent with her and knocked out her teeth in this incident. There are more notations in this part of her diary about a number of family things…that I am interested in researching more and piecing together, at some point…if it is possible.