Yes, quite true, the Atoah community once had a “racket” going.
The reader may immediately wonder what type of racket, short for racketeering meaning involvement in illegal business activities.
This racket went on for years, was never busted by the law, no arrests or charges ever made. There are two reasons for this, all the participants were juveniles and the only charge that could have been made would have been disturbing the peace.
Now that I have you really wondering, the word “racket” can also mean a lot of noise, at least in Graham County talk. The area around
the intersection of Atoah Road and Snowbird Road was once called Racket Center.
The Jason Fowle Hyde family lived in the large two-story house just below Snowbird Road, which is still at this intersection. He is credited by some accounts as having named the area Racket Center, due to the large number of small children living in the area at this time. The Ellers, Hydes, and others living in the area all had large families, so when the children were all outside playing, there was a lot of noise.
The old Atoah Baptist Church building sat on the bank of Snowbird Road a short distance from the Hyde home. The church had the name of “Wild Hog,” due to the fact that hogs that ran loose as did other livestock then, would bed down under the church at night. Mr. Hyde may have come up with this name also.
Fowle and his wife Martha Hooper Hyde had a grocery store that sat on the upper side of Snowbird Road just before the road to Atoah Church. You can still see where some of the bank was dug out where the store stood. Fowle also taught school for the Cherokees and was said to be fluent in the Cherokee language. Fowle taught the Bible in the nearby Atoah Church, which was the parent church of New Hope Baptist Church just across the hill from John Carver Gap.
The Hyde’s were charter members of New Hope Baptist Church and remained faithful members until their deaths, him in 1959 and her in 1982. They are buried in the Old Mother Church Cemetery.