The Origin of the Name of Carcassonne, KY.
by Michael Caudill
Carcassonne’s name came from a French folk tale, or a poem by Gustave Nadaud.
The Folk Tale: When Reverend Hendricks D Caudill, Sr. was establishing a school at Gander, a remote community in northwest Letcher County, Kentucky, he heard or read the following story about Carcassonne, France. Carcassonne was known as the “city of the cliffs,” and the school was being built on a mountain ridge, with many cliffs in the vicinity. He also was impressed with the intelligence and creative thinking of the heroine of the story, and the willingness of the community to bond together to save their city in time of need, much as his community was doing to build the school for the area children. So when the school building was erected, along with other outbuildings and dormitories, it was named Carcassonne Community School.
Eventually the post office at Gander was moved into one of the campus buildings and in the 1930’s, Gander was renamed Carcassonne. However, if you stand at the remaining school building and listen patiently at the right times of year, you can hear the cry of the migrating geese which gave the community its original name.
The Clever Old Woman of Carcassonne*
A tale from the Languedoc region of southern France
Once, long ago, when the town of Carcassonne was in siege, the inhabitants had nothing left to eat. Hunger and sickness had killed so many people that those who were still alive were in despair.
The Mayor of the town assembled all the people on the public square, to speak to them. “My friends,” he said, “we shall have to surrender o the enemy; our provisions are all gone.”
“No, no!” cried a shabby little old woman. “Don’t give up yet. I am sure that the enemy will leave soon. If you will do as I tell you, I promise you that the town will be saved.”
The Mayor thought it would do no harm to listen to her; and the old woman said:
“First of all bring me a cow.”
“A cow!” the Mayor cried, “Why, there is not one cow left in the whole town. They have all been eaten long ago.”
But the old woman insisted that she must have a cow, and every house was searched until at last one was found in the hut of an old miser. He had hidden the animal in the hope of selling it for a goodly sum. But the soldiers seized the cow, in spite of all his wailing.
“Now,” ordered the old woman, bring me a bushel of meal.”
“But there is no meal left in the town,” the Mayor protested. The old woman insisted, however, that without the bushel of meal she could do nothing; so again the soldiers were sent from house to house, to collect every grain they could find, until at length a basket full was brought to the old woman.
After watering the meal to make it heavier, she fed it to the cow. The Mayor declared it was wicked to give good grain to an animal while women and children were starving, but the old woman only shook her head and smiled knowingly.
Night had fallen before the cow had finished eating, and the old woman led it to the town gates.
“Open the gate,” she ordered the sentry, and as the big iron doors swung open, she quickly pushed the cow through. The enemy soldiers had heard the creaking of the doors, and they came running up to the gate. Great was their joy when they found the cow, and they lost no time in driving it before them to their camp.
“Where did you find this cow?” asked the enemy King.
“Just outside the gates of the town. They must have let it out to graze.”
“Oh,” exclaimed the King, “I thought they were starving in there! But I must be mistaken, for if they were hungry they would certainly have eaten this cow – even though it is not very plump.”
“Yes, they must have more provisions than we thought they had,” answered the soldiers. “It has been a long time since we have eaten fresh meat,” they said as they looked at the cow hungrily.
“Well,” suggested their King, “kill the cow and we shall have steak for dinner.”
To the soldiers’ amazement, when the cow was cut open, they found its stomach filled with grain.
When the King heard of this, he said: “If the people of Carcassonne still have enough grain to feed it to their animals, we shall have to wait here too long a time before they surrender, and we ourselves shall probably starve before they do.” So he gave the order to break camp, and left with his army that very night.
And that was how the town of Carcassonne became free again. The people were so grateful to the old woman that they carried her in triumph through the streets, and presented her enough money to enable her to live in comfort for the rest of her life.
*From “Picture Tales from the French,” by Simone Chamoud, 1933.
The Poem: Hendricks also read a poem entitled Carcassonne, by French poet Gustave Nadaud. It is about an elderly man whose greatest regret is that he never looked on Carcassonne. Finally, a friend offers to go with him, to complete his final desire. In this sense, Carcassonne is more than a location, it is a state of mind, much like Utopia, El Dorado, or Xanadu. This poem may have been even more impressive than the folktale above in convincing Hendricks to name the new school Carcassonne. With the education students would receive here, they would be able to go wherever they wished, following their own dreams.
Epilogue:
To many of Hendricks’ children, the clever old lady of Carcassonne, France did not hold a candle to their caring and creative mother, Anna Dixon Caudill. While Hendricks was developing Carcassonne School, serving as Letcher County’s first County Extension Agent, preaching, teaching, and trying several entrepreneurial projects from mining to saw-mills, Anna quietly raised their eight children who survived to adulthood. When philanthropists sent barrels of clothing to the school, she organized, supervised, and managed the resale of these items, allowing the financially strapped children and adults of this depression era to clothe their families for pennies on the dollar. A young man heading for a job interview could purchase a like-new suit, new shoes included, for less than a dollar. If he did not have the cash, he could work it out at the school, where help was always needed clearing land, gardening, building or repairing. Although Hendricks received most of the publicity when the story of Carcassonne was picked up by the media, friends and family in the community usually spoke of them as if they were a single entity. “Hendricks and Anna” rolled off the tongue easily. That’s just the way it is with many solid mountain families.
