2023-02-16 20:39
Please welcome guest author Amanda Winstead. Winstead is a writer from the Portland, OR area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Along with writing she… Read More
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Appalachian History Blog
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Folktales, anecdotes and quotes drawn from Appalachia. Emphasis on the Depression era.
2023-01-20 11:41
Please welcome guest author Amanda Winstead. Winstead is a writer from the Portland, OR area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Along with writing she… Read More
2022-12-09 09:49
Please welcome guest author Brandy McGhee. Growing up and living in Appalachia most of her life, Brandy has strong ties to the area. After becoming and working as a nurse for 20 years Br… Read More
2022-11-02 17:48
Please welcome guest author Culley Holderfield. Holderfield learned to love stories on the front porch of a cabin in a hollow in Western North Carolina. After completing his studies at U… Read More
2022-10-17 15:10
Please welcome guest author Adrian Johansen. She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest, but covers a variety of topics related to sustainability, diversity and development. You can foll… Read More
2022-06-03 10:48
Please welcome guest author Emma Houston of Gardener’s Path, an information source about all things gardening. In this guide, she’ll lead you through some of the histor… Read More
2021-10-25 20:07
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Please welcome guest author Deborah Hampton Michael. Retired IT and HR Executive, Deborah now resides in NW North Carolina and spends her time resea… Read More
2021-08-06 18:36
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Please welcome guest author Derek Piotr. Derek is a performer, folklorist and author based in New England, whose work focuses primarily on the huma… Read More
2021-06-17 15:22
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Photo above: Contestants at the annual Georgia Old-Time Fiddlers’ Convention outside Atlanta’s Municipal Auditorium, 1920.
It’s jus… Read More
2021-06-12 19:23
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Photo above: Olivia Tutwiler’s opening diary page in background; illustration of woman with good luck clover looking into a VPI mirror, from the 1… Read More
2021-06-09 09:02
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Photo above: Early model of laurel pipe ‘Spartan’ from D&P Pipe Works. Manufactured 1942-43.
…at least, it’s not the cl… Read More
2021-06-03 14:06
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Photo above: highlighted detail from ‘The Wrestlers,’ by British painter Charles Turner, 1810
The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA, December… Read More
2021-06-01 09:00
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
“I’ve wandered down to the village, Tom,And eat beneath the tree,Upon the school house playground,That sheltered you and me; But none w… Read More
2021-05-27 09:00
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Photo above: Cover closeup of 1908 novel “The Dark Corner” by Zach McGhee.
The Dark Corner. When South Carolinians today refer to that na… Read More
2021-05-24 09:00
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Parcel Post Service became available to Americans on January 1, 1913. Farm families, having made Rural Free Delivery a nation-wide success, were especia… Read More
2021-05-20 09:00
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Photo above: Hiwassee College May Queen and court. May 14, 1936. Original caption says: “Ordered by Hiwassee College,” significant because… Read More
2021-05-17 09:00
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Photo above: 1937 view of the site of the old South Fork Reservoir Dam, the collapse of which caused the Johnstown flood of 1889.
“I saw… Read More
2021-05-03 09:00
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
The short answer is “No.” That said, what we almost always refer to today as the ‘Kentucky long rifle’ wasn’t always call… Read More
2021-04-12 09:00
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Photo above: Hosea Bailey sitting in Velmer Bailey’s barn.
Please welcome guest author Christy A. Smith. Smith is a part-time Professor in… Read More
2021-04-09 16:28
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
No one really knows where this term for the morel mushroom came from. “The term molly moocher appears to be unique to central Appalachia,” s… Read More
2021-03-29 16:18
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
The original caption on the photo above reads: “J. R. Reynolds hauling fertilizer to his two-horse farm in Hart County, GA, March 28, 1939.&rd&hell…Read More
2021-03-24 09:00
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Photo above: Harsell family friend Franck Taylor reached out to Horace Kephart, sending him a bunch of these cards and asking for his help finding the… Read More
2021-03-22 09:00
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Reviewed by Kent Masterson Brown, President, Witnessing History Education Foundation, Inc. Lexington, Kentucky
Over the years, such notables as Lyman… Read More
2021-02-16 10:00
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Photo above: 1882 view of Gunnison, CO as seen from roof of the Lewis Hotel.
continues from yesterday…
While Cap and Joe hid out at Dan Ch… Read More
2021-02-15 10:00
Estimated reading time: 16 minutes
Photo above: 1880s photo of Gunnison, CO, Main Street, looking north from Tomichi Ave.
Please welcome guest author F. Keith Davis. Davis is a lo… Read More
2021-02-02 10:00
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Photo above: Children of Maldonia and John Fullwood with friends, circa 1919. (Photo courtesy of Allen W. Fullwood)
Please welcome guest au… Read More
2021-02-01 10:00
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Please welcome guest author Marcus C. Thomas. Thomas is a native of Sand Mountain in DeKalb County in Northeast Alabama. He is a 25-year veteran FBI… Read More
2021-01-11 16:48
Photo above: Modern day topographic map; arrow points to intersection of Georges Creek and the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy, approximate location of the Favorite’s sinking.
“T… Read More
2020-12-31 10:00
In an effort to assist veterans with claims, for the past year the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been engaged in a proj… Read More
2020-12-30 10:00
Please welcome guest author Janet Smart. We’re pleased to present the first chapter of her new novel Where the Stars Grant Wishes. “The story was inspired by the novel Christ… Read More
2020-12-28 10:00
Photo above: Behind Roberts is the Anchorage in Marietta, OH, where she lived 1911-18.
Dorothy James Roberts made her reputation with her Arthurian historical novels, in which she recreat… Read More
2020-12-25 14:39
This site would not be the richly textured community it is without the thoughtful contributions this year from the following writers—some old friends, some new friends:
Jason Burn… Read More
2020-12-23 10:00
Please welcome guest author Derek Piotr. Derek is a performer, folklorist and author based in New England, whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers genres as diverse… Read More
2020-12-22 10:00
Please welcome guest author Bonnie Heiskell Peters. Peters is a native of Union County, TN and was appointed its County Historian in 1994. She wrote the Union County entry for… Read More
2020-12-21 10:00
Please welcome guest author Jim Casada. ‘Christmas Heartbreak’ is a slightly revised version of a chapter from Casada’s latest book, “A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Mu… Read More
2020-12-18 10:00
Please welcome guest author Lynn Salsi. Salsi is a university writing professor (Kennesaw State University), storyteller, and author of books, plays, and short stories for children and a… Read More
2020-12-17 10:00
Shimmering trinkets. Memories hang on branches at every height. Your soft white glow illuminates the room and your corner in magical light. You may not be the tallest, nor are you the first… Read More
2020-12-16 10:00
Please welcome guest author Jim Hamilton. Hamilton is an extension agent and county director with North Carolina State Cooperative Extension and adjunct professor at Appalachian State Un… Read More
2020-12-15 10:00
Please welcome guest author Anne G’Fellers-Mason. Mason is Executive Director of the Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The Heritage Alliance is based… Read More
2020-12-14 10:00
Please welcome guest author Sherry Joines Wyatt, Curator, Montgomery Museum of Art & History, Christiansburg, VA. As curator, she is responsible for managing the museum’s… Read More
2020-12-11 10:00
Photo above: UMWA Local 1440 Members lend a hand to clean out the Museum’s new home.
Please welcome guest author Lou Martin. Martin is a founding board member of the West Virgin… Read More
2020-12-10 10:00
Please welcome guest author Ted Olson. Olson has lived at higher and at lower elevations in the Blue Ridge region, working as a college professor, a National Park Service ranger, and a natur… Read More
2020-12-09 10:00
Please welcome guest author Joshua Salmans. Salmans is a quirky librarian at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. He enjoys interacting with people to highlight thought, culture, and pe… Read More
2020-12-08 10:00
Please welcome guest author Ian Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick is an accomplished clogger turned ballad singer from Claiborne County, TN. He received his BA from Mars Hill University in P… Read More
2020-12-07 10:00
Please welcome guest author April Martin, program director at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, Newbern, VA. Martin is also coordinator, Farm at Selu, Radford University, and museum coord… Read More
2020-12-04 10:00
Photo above: Cover from a small six-page souvenir/advertising pamphlet with illustration attributed to George C. Aid, ca: 1924. Collection: The North Carolina Museum of History.
Pleas… Read More
2020-12-03 10:00
Please welcome guest author Barbara Taylor Woodall. Woodall is a veteran of the Foxfire Books and a 7th generation Appalachian still living on family homelands in the Georgia … Read More
2020-12-02 10:00
Please welcome guest author Fred Sauceman. Sauceman has dedicated decades of his career to sharing unique stories about Appalachian food and culture. The Greeneville, TN native is senior… Read More
2020-12-01 10:00
JoLynn Powers originally posted this piece on her site West Virginia Mountain Mama. It is reprinted here with permission.
This year is a real treat for me as I work at Adaland Mansio… Read More
2020-11-30 10:00
Generations of students have trotted their fresh-off-the-press copy around to schoolmates and teachers, imploring them to “Sign my yearbook!” Yearbooks from high school and colle… Read More
2020-11-12 10:00
At the Pleasure of the President
Please welcome guest author Jeffrey Webb. Webb is a teacher and writer from West Virginia. He holds an MFA in creative writing and a BA from West Virg… Read More
2020-11-10 10:00
Please welcome guest author Barbara Ellen Smith. Smith’s research and activism focus on economic inequality and social movements, especially among working-class women and men, in A… Read More
2020-11-04 10:00
photo by Marc Meyer
Please welcome guest author Donald Edward Davis. Davis is an independent scholar, author, and former Fulbright fellow. He is the author of Southern United States… Read More
2020-11-03 10:00
Its latin name—tyto alba—simply means ‘white owl.’ The name gives no clue whatsoever of the terrors the barn owl has stirred up in the imaginations of mankind the wor… Read More
2020-11-02 09:00
Please welcome guest author Dan Wallach. Wallach is the Executive Director of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library, Greenville, SC. Become a member of the museum by visi… Read More
2020-10-30 05:00
Please welcome guest author Gayle Stanley. Gayle was born and raised on a small mountain farm in Southwest Virginia, where she still lives today. Preserving local history… Read More
2020-10-29 09:00
Please welcome guest author Jason Burns. Burns is an award-winning storyteller and past president of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. Since 2006, his work with the West Virginia Spe… Read More
2020-10-28 05:00
Halloween Frolic, by BIDDY BYBE
[The West Virginian. (Fairmont), October 19, 1916]
That ghosts walk and supernatural powers rule on Hallowe’en is the ancient superstition used to… Read More
2020-10-27 05:00
Found Among the Manuscripts of the Late Montmorency Sneerlip Snags, Esq.
Please welcome author Brandon Ray Kirk. Kirk is an author and associate professor of history located in southe… Read More
2020-10-26 05:00
Please welcome guest author John VanArsdall. VanArsdall is an old-time musician, promoter and historian of Appalachian mountain music, teacher and storyteller. He has lectured at ETSU in… Read More
2020-10-23 05:00
This piece by Eva Smith-Carroll originally ran on the West Virginia Memories site. It is reprinted here with permission.
Late last night and the night before,
Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers… Read More
2020-10-22 05:00
Please welcome guest author Elton Camp. Camp is a near lifelong resident of Appalachia. After retirement, he took up a hobby of writing about its people and practices, with the emphasis… Read More
2020-10-21 05:00
A GHOST NEAR SCOTTDALE.
It Has Been Seen on Different Occasions
and is Causing Much Talk.
SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.
[The Pittsburg Dispatch; Sunday, October 12… Read More
2020-10-20 05:00
Please welcome guest author James Rada, Jr. Rada writes non-fiction history and historical fiction. His books include the historical novels Canawlers, October Mourning, Between Rail and… Read More
2020-10-19 05:00
Tipper Pressley has been writing about all things Appalachian on the popular blog Blind Pig and The Acorn since 2008. She recently started a YouTube Channel called Celebrating Appalachia… Read More
2020-10-16 05:00
Please welcome guest author Judi Tarowsky. She is a member and past president of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. She has been a professional teller for about 12 years. Her ori… Read More
2020-10-15 05:00
Please welcome guest author Denise Smith. Smith lives in Rocky Gap, Bland County, VA, as have 11 generations of her ancestors. She graduated from the school of hard knocks and Emor… Read More
2020-10-14 05:00
“Mama had ways of making us go to bed and (the more difficult problem) stay in bed. She told us scary stories about ol’ Scratch Eyes and Raw Head Bloody Bones. In all my life I h… Read More
2020-10-13 05:00
Please welcome guest author Wayne Easter. “I was born in a one-room log cabin (in 1932) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge,” he says. “We had ‘very little of noth… Read More
2020-10-12 05:00
Please welcome guest author Sarah Loudin Thomas. Thomas writes historical fiction set primarily in her home state of West Virginia. To learn more about her stories, visit www.SarahLoudin… Read More
2020-10-09 05:00
Mercer County, WV
Please welcome guest author Wendy Johnston. Johnston is a librarian, activist, researcher and Appalachian scholar. She’s a native of West Virginia, now living… Read More
2020-10-08 05:00
A fire snaps. Light footfalls over the loose earth near my feet. A pungent smoke mingles with the acrid smell of clotted blood. I wiggle my nose. Little movement. Something cakes both nostri… Read More
2020-10-07 05:00
AL . com ran a piece in the spring of 2019 titled “The best-known ghost tale from each Alabama county.”
Now, when they get to Cherokee County, they tiptoe around whether the O… Read More
2020-10-06 05:00
Please welcome guest authors Steve Gilly, Gena Gilly & Rod Mullins, producers of the Mountainlore podcast. MountainLore brings the folklore of Appalachia to the rest of the world.&nb… Read More
2020-10-05 05:00
Please welcome guest author Gary Carden. “I am a storyteller and I have been so all of my life,” he says. “I have four books, eight plays and I now tell stories on the… Read More
2020-10-02 05:00
Please welcome guest author Jeremy D. Wells. Wells was raised in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky where the trees, streams, fields, hollows and people influenced every fibre… Read More
2020-10-01 05:00
Please welcome guest author Susanna Holstein. Professional storyteller, writer, poet, blogger and balladsinger Susanna Connelly Holstein is from Jackson County, WV. Her work has been pub… Read More
2020-09-30 10:25
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EARL FULLERLetters Home from WWIIBorn July 18, 1920; killed in action May 07, 1945
Please welcome guest author Gayle Stanley. Gayle was born and raised on a… Read More
2020-09-10 05:00
Please welcome guest author Derek Piotr. Derek is a performer, folklorist and author based in New England, whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers genres as dive… Read More
2020-08-21 05:00
Robert I. Ullom was unlucky around timber. When he cheated death in late 1912, the car he was riding in careened around three horse drawn wagons hauling timber, and over a steep embankment… Read More
2020-08-14 05:00
Please welcome guest author April Martin, program director at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum, Newbern, VA. The museum houses the registry discussed below. She & Dr. Tal Stanle… Read More
2020-07-30 06:00
ARTHUR STORY BUSHING,
son of Sgt. Alvin C. York’s personal secretary
by Lisa Soland
(Arthur Story Bushing, while obtaining his undergrad degree at Maryville College)
Dr. Ar… Read More
2020-07-21 16:15
Picture this. It’s wartime. A band of marauders from the Other Side attacks your farmstead, kills your husband, and kidnaps your five children. Six years pass; you receive no informati… Read More
2020-05-21 16:18
The type of ‘boxed house’ shown here, made out of a board and batten style construction, can be found from southwestern Pennsylvania down through Alabama. Why are they called &ls&hell…Read More
2020-05-20 10:57
In the America of today, the Ohio town of Chillicothe has a fixed name. The town name doesn’t ever designate more than that one place.In Shawnee culture, however, the village name of C… Read More
2020-05-15 06:00
Please welcome guest author Elizabeth DiSavino. DiSavino is assistant professor of music at Berea College. She has presented at the Appalachian Studies Association conference and wa… Read More
2019-11-11 10:40
The post Happy Veterans Day appeared first on Appalachian History.
You Might Also Like:Happy Veterans Day! Read More
2019-11-07 05:00
“One of my elections was contested. They accused me of buying gingerbread and using other ways of influence on the voters. Giving them money. They figured what they done, I done the s… Read More
2019-11-01 05:00
“The Mormons in the hills of eastern Tennessee were often under attack by people from other churches. Near Bybee on November 6, 1934, I wrote, ‘Went around & visited about 4… Read More
2019-10-31 05:30
SALLY GOODIN’
Love her, love Sally Goodin’
Love her, sweet thing Sally Goodin’
A big piece of pie, a big piece of puddin’
Give it all away, to hug Sally Goodin&rsquo&helli…Read More
2019-10-29 05:00
Now began the building of Middlesborough, the name which [my employer, Mr. Alexander A. Arthur] had proposed for the town having been adopted. Men of all trades and callings were entering Ye… Read More
2019-10-16 05:00
In October 1960, Dr. Bernice Eddy gave a talk to the Cancer Society in New York without warning her employer, the National Institutes of Health, in advance. She startled the attendees by ann… Read More
2019-09-20 05:00
Prior to easily retrievable birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates, and digitized record keeping in general, the family Bible held the ultimate narrative of ancestral hist… Read More
2019-09-10 05:00
The American Museum of Science & Energy is today’s No. 1 Oak Ridge, TN tourist destination. But from 1941 to 1949 Oak Ridge was a town that did not exist. It was one of the top sec… Read More
2019-09-09 05:00
Deer hunting season got underway in Georgia this past Monday, September 9. It’s all too easy to forget that in the early part of the 20th century, there simply were no deer to be had i… Read More
2019-09-04 05:00
Dr. Richard Banks, one of the most shining ornaments of the medical profession in this State since its organization, was a native Georgian, born in Elbert County in 1784. After obtaining the… Read More
2019-09-03 05:00
At 3 A.M. a storm began to brew in the northwest, and a few minutes later Commander Zachary Lansdowne, the skipper of the dirigible USS Shenandoah, was back in the control car. The Shenandoa… Read More
2019-09-02 09:01
The post Happy Labor Day! appeared first on Appalachian History.
You Might Also Like:Happy Labor Day! Read More
2019-08-30 05:00
The Battle of Blair Mountain marked a turning point in the national movement to better the conditions of working people by demanding the legalization of unions. It was the largest armed labo… Read More
2019-08-26 05:00
Richwood, WV Aug 26, 1937 — “The Cherry River Navy’s flagship ‘Clothespin’ is riding at anchor this morning, resplendent in gala attire awaiting her christening… Read More
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