‘Wandering Boy’ Left Home At The Age Of 12

It is not widely known that I left home and went out on my own at the age of 15.
I used to think that this was a notable accomplishment until I began to read of others that did the same thing at even younger ages. The youngest that has come to my attention was the late William Alec Kell, who at various times was a resident of Bristol.
Kell was born in 1893 near Chilhowie, Smyth County, Va. He was the son of George Kirk and Elizabeth Johnson Kell. His mother died when he was 3 years old. His father soon remarried to Polly Ann Heath.
His life work began at 5 years of age when he began helping his father load and haul sand from either Walker or Brushy Mountain into Chilhowie.
When he was 6, his father sent him to live with his grandmother in Groseclose,Va. There, his work duties increased.
Among other things, he had to carry firewood from nearby Glade Mountain. He also had the arduous task of doing the family wash (remember, this was not using a washing machine but was done by using an old-fashioned rub board and water had to be heated in an iron pot). He also had to carry the water from a distant spring, not only on wash day but every day, for family use.
When he was 10, his grandmother bought him a new suit and sent him off to Sunday school. But, he did not stop at the church.
Instead, he walked on down to Atkins, Va. There, he caught a freight train into Seven Mile Ford where his father and stepmother then lived.
Shortly, he took a job on the farm of Marvin Dungan, but for some reason he became dissatisfied with life as he knew it in the Seven Mile Ford-Chilhowie section.
So, at the age of 12, he severed all ties with employer and family and went out to face the world alone. The freight trains ran too fast near his father’s home to be able to safely catch one, so he walked to “Jesse’s Cut” on “Preston Hill” where the trains had to slow down, and there he jumped on board.
Far up in Virginia, he changed to another line that took him to near Rock, W.V. There, his car was put on siding and left (known as “sidetracking”). This siding was high on a mountain in an isolated area. He walked down the mountain for miles before coming to a farmhouse. There, he was taken in and lived for a while before roaming again.
At one time, Kell walked from somewhere in North Carolina to Marion, Va. Near the North Carolina/Virginia border, he arrived at a roadside home near breakfast time. He was very tired and hungry after walking most of the previous night. He asked for food and was served some very salty gravy. He later told that it made him so thirsty that he drank from every branch of creek that he crossed between there and Marion.
Later, while on a train to Roanoke, he met a “news butch” named Roy Kelly. A news butch went through passenger trains selling newspapers, candy, soft drinks and so forth. Mr. Kelly got young William Kell a “butchin’ ” job serving as an extra on six runs out of Roanoke.
One of those runs brought him into Bristol. Apparently, he liked it here so well that he quit “butchin’ ” and went to work in a snack bar in or near the depot.
By 1914, he had his own restaurant. It was known as “The Dixie” and was located between two bars on the notoriously wild and woolly Front Street across from the depot.
Later, Kell left Bristol and worked at various places across the country. At one time, he was a much valued and trusted employee of the Wright brothers, of early aircraft fame. At another time, he worked on the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
But Bristol was in his “blood” so he returned here, and it was here that he learned the building trade working under a Mr. Frizzel. And it was here, in the 1920s, that he met and married Margaret Frances Sexton. She was born on Solar Street in this city in 1910. At the time of this marriage, he was 31, and she was 17.
Kell was walking out Randolph Street one day when he saw this lovely girl working out in the family yard. He stopped and struck up a conversation with her. He there determined that he would marry this girl some day, and he did.
They established their home at 1121 Kohn St. They had five children – the two oldest died young and are buried in the Susong Cemetery, Bristol, Va. Three yet live.
In 1928, Mr. Kell was operating two businesses here. He had a restaurant in Bristol, Tenn. and a shooting gallery in Bristol, Va. But he still couldn’t stay put.
After marriage, he moved 17 times. Finally in 1941, he and his family settled at Adwolfe, Va. near Marion. Afterwards, he built a few houses in that area and later took up the trade of restoring old pianos. He who began his working years at 5 and retired 75 years later at the age of 80.
Mr. Kell died in 1985 at the age of 92. This “wandering boy” who bravely faced the world alone at the tender age of 12 now rests in the South Fork Baptist Cemetery near his home.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.