 |
|
|
About Us | Exhibit | Education | Directory | Links | Contact Us | Site Map | Home |
|
|
Int: Jehu Camper is a man of vision and humor as anyone who knows him will tell you. He's something of a celebrity in and around the small crossroads town of Harrington, Delaware. Harrington is much like other rural .farming communities in Dent. County, outwardly similar that is until one comes upon Jehu's mailboxes, his driveway, his home, Jehu Camper is a folk craftsman, a folk artist, a self-taught worker in wood. Jehu who is in his eighties has 'been whittling g assembling objects for over seventy years. He said he's always had a good attachment to the rural past of this region; the scenes and experiences that for him have made life memorable. In his special way Jehu Camper liars devoted much skill and spare time to preserving in wood a bit of the American past. JC: In traveling around the neighborhood in working I would observe the things that were used to make a livelihood while I was here on earth that's being destroyed. And I knew that someday some people would want to see these things in their original form. So in order to do that I conceived the idea of making replicas of most of the things out of wood. Int: Jehu's sense of humor is seldom far removed from the tangible. Jehu's is a country humor, an earthy bound home humor based on everyday events; the little distractions of minor disasters that make everybody laugh. JC: This old fellow's got a barn that started to smolder in the night and he thought he'd ???????. He got started but for some reason or other he stuck the shovel in the stone wall. I have no idea what happened but something takes place. This is Snuffy Smith with hips coffee machine. I never knew of Snuffy making any coffee but he said it was a coffee machine. I don't know maybe he made a little spirits. This old fellow here is a shoe cobbler. When I was a boy in town we had a shoe cobbler in town named Jones, ???? Jones, and he would repair shoes. Mr. Jones wasn't quite that ugly but he just turned out that ugly. Hosea's been to the watermelon patch with the mule and sled and some watermelons. On his way back he cut one to see if it was ripe. He'--- doing alright. This man's being playing poker and he didn't too good. He's caning home in a barrel, but better luck next time. I've tried to add something to all of them for a little bit of humor as you go along. Int: Jehu is not one to avoid the risqué in subject matter. A series of outhouses attests to that. During the Depression Jehu built real outhouses under the WPA project working for twenty-five cents an hour. In his collection you can find an outhouse for any person regardless of size, shape or circumference. The objects Jehu carves are made expressly as gifts or to go in the small museum he built to hold his ever increasing collection. He will often carve a piece that someone who expressed an interest in a particular carving or for someone or event from a remembered way of life. Jehu refuses to sell his carvings claiming he most enjoys giving his work to those who love it simply for what it is. JC: All I've given away you couldn't really haul them in a truck the number of things I've given away. It's a right pleasant feeling to walk in a house of somebody's and see something you made sitting on a mantle or on a what-not or a window sill. It's a good feeling. Int: Jehu will tell you that he whittles for pleasure. He's never thought of himself as a commercial craftsman. Quite the contrary. But Jehu's means of livelihood has been nearly as varied as the host of objects he's produced. Earlier he became familiar with agricultural implements in helping with the work on his father's farm. At different times, since World War I, he has been a rural mail carrier and a railroad worker. He ran a garage and restaurant for twenty-five years. In 1950 Jehu took interest in State politics and was elected to the Delaware House of Representatives and State Senate. But today, retired from day to day work, he serves as a vice-president to the Peoples Bank of Harrington. Whatever Jehu's work he's always found time to expand his collection and to share it with others. Jehu's wife Lillian is also a craft person in her own right and is known locally for her beautifully caned chairs and a willingness to teach this craft. Together the Camper's attend local craft shows during the year where they're always a favorite attraction because of their friendliness and eagerness to explain their crafts. Jehu has long been involved in organizing the annual Delaware State Fair and since 1931 has been superintendent of its hobby and craft show. Each year Jehu and Lillian have taken pride in displaying their carvings and each year people come back to talk to them and see the additions to the collection. Travels and several magazine and newspaper articles have done much to enhance their reputation. But it's only been during the past ten years, and especially since the 1976 Bicentennial, that Jehu and Lillian and their talents have become better known beyond Kent County. Participation in the 1978 and 1979 Sussex County Folk Artists in the Schools Program helped. At an appearance at the Sussex County Folk Festival in June 1979 Lillian shares Jehu's enjoyment in exposing school children to a world of the past. In doing so he says he also hopes to spark an interest in the are to whittling. JC: There was a little boy down in Delmar School. He was just as cute
as he could be. The little fellow I guess he may be in the second or
third grade and he had blond hair and he was well dressed and he came
up to me and said, "Mister I'd like to ask you a. question."
I said, "Okay son what is it?" He said, "How much bigger
do you think I'll have to be before I can be able to do this?"
And just as straight and firm I said, "Well". I felt his muscle
and looked him over right good and said, "Another year and you'll
be ready to go". He said, "You think so?" I hope he made
it. My father gave me a Barlow penknife, a two-bladed Barlow penknife,
when' I was eight years old. And we had an Indian, half Indian, that
lived-with us and worked on the farm. And in order to supplement his
wages he made axe handles, all kinds of handles. During rainy days,
Saturday afternoons and Sundays he'd be working on these axe handles.
And one day he was a settin' in the shed and working on an axe handle
and it was raining and I had my Barlow penknife out and was just a whittlin'
and he said, "Boy why don't you make something instead just whittlin'?"
I said, "Well I don't know how to make anything". He said,
"Well I'll show you." So the next time he come to work he
brought and old ???? that had some white pine strips in it about an
inch square and showed me how to make a windmill. I got it done and
put it up on the barn and it run and I went into mass production of
windmills. I had one on the clothesline, one on the henhouse, one on
the toilet and my mother said if the old cow stood still long enough
I'd put one on her. I got started whittlin' and I never stopped and
I'm eighty-three years old and I'm still doing whittlin'. When an idea
presents itself then it's a challenge from then on whether you can do
it or not and you start in. And you get part of it done and then you
think of something else that would be an attraction to add it and you
keep adding to it until finally you wind up with one unit. Wood had
always been fascinating to me. When I was a boy my dad would carry me
in the woods and I'd pick out different trees; dogwood, oak, pine, holly
and he'd correct me if I was wrong, the different kind of wood and it's
always been fascinating to me to pick out a wood after it comes from
the sawmill. And Most of the things I make are in the rough, crude. But they represent
some part of the folklore living in the various areas my ancestors did
when they were here on earth. This Int: Jehu Camper now eighty-two continues to create with humor and energy his replicas of the America and the people he's known. And Jehu as always explains better than anyone else why he's devoted so much of his life to that creative end. JC: Most everybody if you stop to think has someway of expressing theirselves. Some do it singing, some in acting and athletics and numerous things and that's the only way that I could think of that I could express myself and also create something in history that would be carried on after I passed out of this world. And I often had thought that I would like to leave something behind besides a name on a tombstone to remember the name of Camper. And I feel if I do this I may be able to do it. I came out of there and my wife said, "What are you going to get into now?" I said, "Well I've got two things in mind, whittlin' and women", so I've turned out to be a pretty good whittler.
|
|