The Local History collection at the Transylvania County Library includes recipes and stories of a well-loved lady of yesteryear who lived in the See-Off Mountain community, Allie B. Harllee.

Allie Congdon Blackmer Harllee was born in Dahlonega, Georgia on March 31, 1881 to parents Fenton and Clara Blackmer. Allie was an only child and just four years old when her father passed away. She lived with her single, working mother into her young adulthood and eventually worked as a bookkeeper with the Atlanta Constitution.

Allie attended an Atlanta business college and Milledgeville Women’s College, which is now Georgia College & State University. She met and later married Captain Harry Lee Harllee at a small at-home ceremony in July of 1904. Her new brother-in-law, Percy Harllee, was a real estate agent, and he purchased land in 1911 where the “Blue Bird Box” would be located, off of the present-day Hogsed Road. The land had been owned by Bunyan Hogsed and was part of a land grant given to Nelson Thompson in 1854 for military service.

Allie and Harry are listed together on the 1920 federal census in Atlanta, and a new family member shows up on this census too. The couple is said to have adopted their daughter, Myrtle Lawson Harllee, and although exact documentation couldn’t be found, other resources indicate that she was adopted at the age of three by the Harllee family after Myrtle’s mother passed away. Presumably, after her mother’s death her father chose to rehome Myrtle and her brother Marion. Marion went to live with his maternal grandmother, and Myrtle went to live with the Harllees.

Sometime during the span of 1920 to 1930, Allie and Harry divorced. Allie and daughter Myrtle moved to Transylvania County, where Allie became a schoolteacher for the Dunns Rock community school and for the Sunday School program for children at her church. She at one time also served as the military draft board coordinator for Transylvania County. She was remembered for her singing voice, piano playing, and love of nature.

The “Blue Bird Box” was the name that Allie gave to her home in See-Off. She loved the peaceful birdsong that often filled the air and felt like her cozy cabin was as whimsical as a blue bird’s nesting box. Her daughter Myrtle and her husband Frank inherited the house when Allie passed away in 1958. They retained it until Myrtle passed away, when Frank then sold it to Herbert Walker and his wife. They in turn sold it to the Bromfield family, who built a second house on the property and maintained the Blue Bird Box as a guest house. Bromfield heirs owned the property until it was sold in 2018 to the current owners.

Allie B. Harllee died on January 20, 1958. She was remembered fondly by her former students and neighbors, who knew her as “The Angel of the Mountain.” Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Local History Librarian Laura Sperry. Sources available upon request. For more information, comments, or suggestions, contact NC Room staff at [email protected] or 828-884-1820.