Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Thurman and Nell Leatherwood

  • wcu_picturing-5535.jpg
  • This 1941 image taken by Irving Kip Stearns (1895-1942) of his aunt Nellie “Miss Nell” Madge Shank Leatherwood (1884-1965), a schoolteacher in Bryson City, and her husband Thurman Leatherwood (1888-1972), president of Carolina Wood Turning Company from 1947 to 1960, is part of the Stearns-Grueninger collection. The Leatherwood home in the background is located on Hospital Hill and belonged to Thurman’s parents, Robert Lee Leatherwood (1860-1907) and Fannie Carrie Simpson "Granny" Leatherwood (1864-1942). I. K. Stearns was president of Carolina Wood Turning Company from 1928 until his death in 1942. Stearns’ grandfather, Jeremiah Shank, started the company in 1903 as Bryson City Pump Works and it grew to be a thriving industry for the community. In 1911, Stearns was in the first graduating class of Bryson City High School. He had one son, Joseph Pease Stearns (1917-1948). In 1935, I. K. married Betty Grueninger (1896-1971).