“YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE”

General Custer Nicholas, his given name, was born 8 July 1895 and raised in Calhoun County, West Virginia; he moved to Ohio in the early 1960s and died there 24 April 1979.

According to information compiled by David Bennett of the North Alabama Heritage Association, he references an article from ‘The Daily Reporter” from Dover, Ohio, June 19, 1971. “He learned to play the banjo when he was 12 […and also learned to play the Spanish guitar, mandolin, and fiddle…] and fell heir to his first dulcimore when his left-handed brother could not learn to play it and gave it to him… The oldest dulcimore owned by the Nicholas’s came from General’s wife’s family. A relative had died and left a dulcimore already cut out but unassembled. Her Grandfather, Isaac Drake, of near Elkhurst, WV. glued the instrument together and learned to play it. ‘It’s way, way, over one hundred years old,’ according to Mrs. (Hollie) Nicholas. Nicholas makes no secret of the fact that he attended school only through the third grade, but his natural talent and personality have filled in for the lack of formal education. He made his first two dulcimores…completed both of them in a week. He has made eleven in all, using walnut, maple, and cherry for the body and necks, and poplar for the sides. Everything about the instrument is handmade except for the strings. His sons, Raymond [40], of Carrollton, and Arthur Lee [38], …[?]…instruments and play along with their father, all are extremely proficient. According to Arthur Lee, it is a hobby in which the entire family participates.
“General said the very best picks are made from the No.18 size spring from a pocket watch, but since those are hard to come by these days, the Nicholas’s make their own picks from plastic jugs.”
[The four strings are three banjo first strings and one second or third. They may be tuned in various ways but the Nicholases tune theirs to the G major scale. The frets are wires inlaid into the neck. Raymond explained that in making his instruments he slides the wire to be inserted as a fret down the neck of the instrument until he gets a true tone and then inlays it. The Nicholases use handmade wooden husking pegs to form the various notes, sliding the heavy end up and down the neck of the instrument while they pick the notes. “We didn’t know they were called husking pegs until we started to school,” one of the boys explained, “We always called them shucking pegs.”
In 1971, following several months of research in Ohio, General and Raymond, of Carrollton, and Arthur Lee, of Richville, were selected by the Smithsonian Institution to participate in their Festivsl of American Folklife, July 1-5, in Washington, D.C. General is retired but both sons are employed by the Timken Co. in Canton. They arranged to take their vacations so they could accompany their father to Washington. None of them read music but they all can play anything they hear. They have appeared in many folk festivals in Ohio and West Virginia. Their invitation to Washington came as the result of an article written about them by Frank Morgan, editor of the Quaker City Home Town Weekly. Each of the men received a personal letter from Gov. John J. Gilligan last week, congratulating them on being selected to represent Ohio. When asked how large a repertoire they had, Raymond said they could start playing right then (Saturday afternoon) and continue straight through until Monday morning without repeating too many numbers.]

His son, Raymond Lloyd recalls, “In 1938, when I was 8 years old, we kids got the measles or mumps and the whole family was quarantined. So my dad, General Custer Nicholas, went up the hill by our house in Holly, West Virginia, cut down a black walnut tree, picked out some good pieces and made a few dulcimers. A dulcimer is a four string [sic] instrument you lay on your lap to play.
“In my senior year of high school, I decided to make a dulcimer in my wood workshop. My instructor asked me if it could be played. He eventually convinced me to go on stage and play the dulcimer at graduation ceremonies. He then handed me my diploma; I flipped the tassel and cried in front of the whole class amid the applause.
“My dad and I were invited to Columbus, Ohio for the state fair, in the early 1970s, to demonstrate the art of making dulcimers. We also recorded background music for an educational film called ‘Wonderful World of Ohio,’ which showed how people lived years ago.
“I’ve kept my Dad’s original dulcimers and still make dulcimers…thanks to my dad, who passed on the talent.”