Appalachian History

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Happy Thanksgiving y'all
2007-11-22 14:30:00
Now git on out of here and go have some turkey. We're closed today!
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Hard work, fresh air, and plenty of food
2007-11-21 14:30:00
Shortly after taking office in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt announced plans for creation of a "conservation army." FDR at first saw the Civilian Conservation Corps primarily as a forestry organization -- fighting fires, planting trees, thinning timber stands, stopping soil erosion and floods -- but the field personnel of the State and Federal agencies involved soon realized that CCC labor might also be directed toward the construction of forest improvements--particularly roads, trails, buildings, and recreation sites. The CCC men literally built the foundations on which the national forests now stand.Camp Ellison D. Smith F-l, located near the Whetstone Road in Oconee County, was the first CCC camp to be located in South Carolina. This and two others soon to follow employed approximately 800 men at their peaks, and remained operational for nearly 10 years.The men of these camps built Oconee State Park, Long Mountain Fire Tower, and Walhalla Fish Hatchery, and rebuilt Highway ...
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The turkey was dressed out the day before
2007-11-20 14:30:00
"In my younger days, during the 1920s, work was very good, and I would see men at the commissary company store, flipping gold and silver coins in the air and catching them as they fell. Shopping at the company store was an event. We all had our favorite clerk and would stand in line to have him wait on us. I recall Mr. Norman, the store manager; Mr. Bartlett; Mr. Ross, and a Mr. Meadows. Potatoes and pinto beans were the big sellers for a long time. "Beans came loose and were ordered by the pound. I will never forget when a clerk was scooping up beans from the large bin under the counter, and he threw a scoop of them in the floor under the counter. Come to find out someone had forgotten to close the lid at closing time, and the cat found a new litter box. Bread came unwrapped; eggs loose; and if you wanted meat, Mr. Bartlett, the butcher, cut it on order for you."One of the officials of the company, every Christmas, would give dimes to all the kids who came by, which was all of us. ...
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Hog-Butchering Day
2007-11-19 14:30:00
"Butchering conjures up the image of a country diet laden with generous servings of ham, shoulder, tenderloin, bacon, sausage and spareribs. The restocking of our primary source of hog meat began every spring with the selection of four shoats. Their pre-slaughter fattening schedule coincided with cutting and shucking corn, hand-husking ears of golden grain, and storing each day’s harvest in the crib. Much of this bounty was used in a two-month feeding regimen designed to induce rapid weight gain and, in turn, soften the fat properly for rendering into lard."Hog slaughtering was a festive time that required a late fall day of well-coordinated activities, and instilled a sense of espirit de corps. A willingness throughout the neighborhood to pitch in and help each other lifted the load of this annual ritual. Farmers were freer to do so because their field work was winding down. The various tasks also needed many eager hands racing against shorter daylight hours. "My favorite ...
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The Santa Train pulls into town
2007-11-16 14:30:00
In Appalachia Santa Claus comes the weekend before Thanksgiving. Since 1943, the Santa Special, more commonly known as the Santa Train , has traveled 110 miles through the mountains of eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and northeastern Tennessee to distribute loads of candy, toys and other goodies to eager bystanders, most of whom have made it a family tradition. The train typically passes through more than 30 towns delivering 15+ tons of goodies and Christmas cheer.This year Patty Loveless, a native of eastern Kentucky, will be taking her third trip aboard the train, during its 65th annual run tomorrow. Loveless grew up in Pikeville, where the trek begins. She rode the train in 1999 and 2002 and chronicled the trips in a song she wrote and recorded titled "Santa Train."Train staffers throw candy, crackers, popcorn, bubble gum, cookies, stuffed animals, electronic games, hats, handmade gloves, mittens, toboggans, T-shirts, wrapping paper and other treats from the train’s caboo...
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Strap that Alabama fan on my back!
2007-11-15 14:30:00
Future champion college basketball coach Sonny Smith was born November 15, 1936 in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, the son of a mill worker and a cafeteria employee at the local schools. His hometown, he said years later, wasn’t the end of the world---but that you could see it from there. He said there were so many shotgun weddings performed in Roan Mountain that the local church was dubbed "Winchester Cathedral." Smith rose to college basketball prominence by turning around losing programs at East Tennessee State University, Auburn University, and Virginia Commonwealth University during his 22 years of coaching leadership.Smith spent his first 11 years after graduating from Tennessee’s Milligan College playing semi-pro basketball and coaching in the high school ranks. As a high school coach in Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky, Smith began to make his contacts to move into the collegiate game. The legendary Vic Bubas helped Sonny land his first collegiate assistant ...
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The Grand Canyon of the South
2007-11-14 14:30:00
Breaks Interstate Park, located astride the SW Virginia/eastern Kentucky border along the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River, is one of only two interstate parks in the nation. Perhaps the scale of the 5-mile-long, .25-mile-deep gorge that forms the park's centerpiece cannot rival that of the Grand Canyon , but the 250 million year old "Grand Canyon of the South " IS the largest gorge east of the Mississippi.The park takes its name from this gorge, which forms a “break” in Pine Mountain. Passes through these rugged mountains were called breaks by early settlers. Where the raging waters have carved the solid sandstone to break through Pine Mountain, nature has dressed the canyon walls in some of the region’s most spectacular scenery. Daniel Boone is credited with discovering The Breaks in 1767 as he attempted to find ever-improved trails into Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley beyond. Both he and Simon Kenton explored here in the last quarter of the 18th century. Because of e...
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The tree rooted at both ends - Believe it or Not!
2007-11-13 14:30:00
Two photographs show the bent hickory tree that is rooted at both ends. One includes the mess hall in the background and two shirtless C.C.C. workers sitting upon the tree. Included with these photographs is a letter and envelope from Ripley's Believe It or Not, which states that this item will be depicted in the Believe It or Not cartoons on about November 14, 1935. The address on the envelope shows that the photographer, John D.Howell, was at C.C.C. Camp 3464, Cumberland Homesteads, in Crossville, TN.All photos from "Volunteer Voices: The Growth of Democracy in Tennessee" / Tennessee State Library and Archives, NashvilleCivilian+Conservation+Corps Ripleys+Believe+it+or+Not Crossville+TN appalachia appalachia+history appalachian+culture appalachian+mountains+history
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West Virginia's first woman physician
2007-11-12 14:30:00
Morgantown Post, Nov 13, 1937 - People of State Owe Much to Dr. Harriet B. Jones First Woman To Be Doctor In The State Served in Legislature - Pioneered in Fight Against TuberculosisEighty-one years old and in the late stages of a long and honorable career in medicine, statecraft, politics, and public welfare, Dr. Harriet B. Jones, referred to many times in no overstatement as "West Virginia's foremost woman," is not content to let the memories of a brilliant life impair her visions for the future. Not satisfied is she to rest upon the laurels she earned as West Virginia's first woman physician, as the first woman to serve in the State Legislature, as the founder of numerous hospitals and welfare institutions, and as a vigorous pioneer in the fight against tuberculosis. Dr. Jones lives in a modest home in Glendale, Marshall County. She lives simply and quietly and is very happy. In June, 1936, she celebrated her eightieth birthday. Her friends in the First Presbyterian Church at M...
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We just decided to get married, that's all
2007-11-09 14:30:00
"I got married in 1926. I met [Charlie] in Davie County, between Mocksville and Salisbury. We met at a friend's house. I spent the night down there with a friend. We just wrote to each other for quite some time. [Laughter] He'd come to Conover once in a while. My grandmother had died a long time before then. I was still boarding with my aunt and uncle, though. We just decided to get married, that's all. [Laughter] We got married at Mocksville. At a justice of the peace. He wanted to get married down there, and we just got married down there."We stayed down there for a little while, but not long. I got off [work] for a little while. Then we moved up here to Conover and lived up here for several months, and he couldn't find any work at that time. The Depression had started then, so we moved back to Davie County to his mother's. His father was dead. We lived down there a year then, and he worked on the farm. Then that next fall we moved back up to Conover, and he got work,...
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"A Hard Journey: The Life of Don West" releases
2007-11-08 14:30:00
"A Hard Journey " brings to life Don West , poet, ordained Congregationalist minister, labor organizer, educator, leftist activist, and one of the most important literary and political figures in the southern Appalachians during the middle years of the twentieth century. Author James J. Lorence is a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County, and served as Eminent Scholar of History at Gainesville State College, Gainesville, Georgia, when writing "A Hard Journey." "I first met Don West in the early summer of 1983," says Jeff Bigger, author of The United States of Appalachia. "I was a dropout from the University of California and had just gone through a wild nine-month tour of duty in Berkeley’s corridors, spending more time in jail and at leftist political meetings than in classrooms. I failed to finish my last quarter."Returning from a stint in jail for a demonstration in central California, I was involved in a tragic car accident, which resulted in the deat...
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The town built inside a crater
2007-11-07 14:30:00
Middlesboro, KY is the only city in the US now known to be built within a meteor crater. William M. Andrews Jr., a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, said erosion and vegetation have hidden most signs of the meteor's impact. However, enough evidence remains, he said, to support the conclusion."You have the round shape, shattered rock in the middle and deformed rocks around the sides that have been bent, folded or shoved," Andrews said. "That's pretty strong evidence that it was a meteor impact crater.""Middlesboro is in this strangely round valley in the middle of Appalachia," he said. "You don't get round valleys here. It's not normal."View Larger MapThe town (also spelled “Middlesborough”) was established in 1886 to exploit iron and coal deposits. The town's founder, Alexander A. Arthur, apparently did not know of the crater's extraterrestrial origin. Omni magazine listed the site in a 1979 article as one of the 15 outstanding craters in North America (there...
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East Tennessee was considered the 'pits' of the mission
2007-11-06 14:30:00
"The Mormons in the hills of eastern Tennesse e were often under attack by people from other churches. Near Bybee on November 6, 1934, I wrote, 'Went around & visited about 4 families of Saints. At Luther Talley's found a boy 21 yrs. old, just been married two days, reading & studying Book of Mormon. Found this to be case all over the community. The sectarian Ministers have been jumping on the children of the Saints. They have to study so as to defend Mormonism!'"Everyone in the headquarters seemed to pity me for being sent to such a godforsaken place. My own feelings at the time were mingled apprehension and anticipation, because East Tennessee District was considered the 'pits' of the mission. However, I knew that Kirkham was not trying to 'punish' me and chose to regard it instead as a test of my mettle. "In retrospect, I'm actively grateful for his decision. I not only survived but came to enjoy the mountaineer people and to appreciate their culture. My experience there w...
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"Their bodies were covered with the wreckage of logs"
2007-11-05 14:30:00
"The Barrenshe Run mishap was one of the worst log train wrecks in West Virginia history."As the story became legendary, the runaway train gained additional notoriety as the subject of a local blind poet, who supported himself by selling copies of his works for a nickel on Oakford Avenue in Richwood WV. The poem brought additional attention to the accident, popularizing it more than recounting of the wreck circulated by word of mouth. "Like so many items from the past, today there are several uncertainties about the poem. In one version of the poem, Charles Lough [one of 3 railroadmen known to have been killed in the accident] is replaced by Luke King, and the identities of the loadermen seem a bit uncertain. Although the poem leads to a degree of confusion, it is invaluable in many respects-including verifying the date of the accident.“As for the story behind the poem, one version is that J. A. Howell of Diana wrote and peddled it with his other poetry. Another recollection is t...
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Author Gretchen Laskas discusses "The Miner's Daughter"
2007-11-02 13:44:00
Author Gretchen Laskas caused quite a stir at the WV Book Festival several weeks ago in Charleston, where she discussed her newly published second book, “The Miner’s Daughter .” We decided to find out what all the fuss is about, and ask her a bit about she’s up to in this young adult novel.Appalachian History: You wrote another novel, “The Midwife’s Tale,” which was also set in West Virginia. Did you intend any connections between the books or any parallels in the stories?The first rough drafts of each were written around the same time, but other than some of the crossover in terms of timeline and the research I was doing, the two novels don’t share many parallels. I speak briefly of coal towns in The Midwife’s Tale and use a little bit of my midwifery history knowledge in The Miner’s Daughter, but each is, to my mind, its own story.AH: You call your grandmother "a true miner’s daughter," and your father was born in Arthurdale, the town where Willa’s family e...
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The year with two Thanksgivings
2007-11-01 13:30:00
"I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-third of November 1939, as a day of general thanksgiving." How appropriate that Roosevelt's proclamation was issued on Halloween, the day for tricks or treats. The average citizen was irritated and confused; big business was delighted. In the end, Thanksgiving was celebrated on two different dates that year.At the beginning of Roosevelt's presidency, Thanksgiving was not a fixed holiday; it was up to the President to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation to announce what date the holiday would fall on. However, Thanksgiving was always the last Thursday in November because that was the day President Abraham Lincoln observed the holiday when he declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. FDR's break with tradition was prompted by requests from the National Retail Dry Goods Association to extend the Christmas shopping season by one week. Roosevelt had rejected the associ...
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The voices in his head told him to do it
2007-10-31 13:30:00
Burkittsville, MD is usually noted either for its role in the 1862 Battle of South Mountain during the War Between the States, or for its proximity to the Appalachian Trail, which passes over the crest of that same mountain. However, fans of the popular horror film "The Blair Witch Project," a perennial Halloween favorite, have a very different view of the town.The movie draws on various local myths and legends in addition to adding its own backstory of 'historical facts,' as it propels its three doomed protagonists into the dark woods to locate the trail of the witch. The film's writers developed a very believable character in hermit Rustin Parr. Parr's saga runs as follows: In November 1940 Parr gruesomely murdered seven local children on the supposed instructions of the Blair Witch. He lured the kids into the woods with candy. Kyle Brody, an eighth child who survived, was forced to face the wall while Parr stabbed Emily Hollands multiple times in the cellar of his house. ...
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Haints and Hags on Halloween
2007-10-30 13:30:00
Halloween’s tomorrow. Here’s a little haint tale for the occasion from Putnam County, Tennessee.About one mile and a half east of Cookeville the Buck Mountain Road is crossed by the old Sparta-Livingston Road. Turning to the left here and going about a quarter of a mile in the direction of Livingston one reaches the scene of the noted ante-bellum mystery. The large and dismal swamp that once covered several acres on either side of the road is now only a memory, due to the propensity of modern man to clear, drain and cultivate the soil. But the name, "Booger Swamp," still clings to the spot after nearly three-quarters of a century. One dark night in the early fifties a well-known minister of the gospel, whose name is not essential to our story, was passing this lonely spot on horseback, when suddenly an apparition appeared before him—or, at least, he said it did. After a great deal of discussion and several futile efforts to induce the spook- seeing brother to retract his stor...
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The miller would rub it between his fingers
2007-10-28 23:14:00
"This was last used in 1942. It's one of the mills that supplied part of the valley in here. "The original mill didn't belong to my grandfather. It belonged to a family of Matthews that owned this property at that time. The Matthews were . . . I'm sure you've heard of the old Federal Judge George McClintock used to sit on the bench in Charleston. Well it was his grandfather that had it originally."I can remember when I was a kid people would come in covered wagons. I can still remember the wagons coming, and they would spend the night. In fact in that old log barn up where . . . up on the hill where I lived . . . there were two stalls they called the mill stable . . . that the people who stayed overnight to get their grinding done kept their horses in, and we had a room up in the house . . . in our home up there that they spent the night in."My grandmothers fed an awful lot of people there who have come to the mill, and that was part of the service. They got patronizing this m...
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Which way winter? Watch woolly worms!
2007-10-26 14:30:00
You could have checked to see if the bees had been flying low, observed the size of the acorns on the trees, or paid close attention to how foggy recent mornings had been in order to gauge what kind of a winter it'll be. Easiest of all, you could have gotten yourself over to Banner Elk, NC last weekend to the 30th Woolly Worm Festival, where more than 1,400 of the little critters competed for the honor of proclaiming the official winter weather forecast. The worm that most quickly reaches the top of a three-foot piece of string gains fame and glory, makes his mark in local weather history, and wins prize money.According to this year's winner, "Armstrong," the first four weeks of this winter will be cold and snowy. The 5th and 6th weeks will be cold, while weeks 7 and 8 will be cold with light snow. Armstrong says to expect a mild spell during weeks 10 and 11 with a cold an snowy close to the winter in weeks 12 and 13.Mountain folk use the brown and black stripes on the woolly worm...
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“Plenty of people can read music, but can't really make music”
2007-10-25 14:30:00
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'Looked on the hill, seen Sally runnin'Yes my my, sweet thing Sally comin'Up and down the road , the road all muddyTo hug Sally Goodin, till she can't stand steadyUpon the hillside, hewin' on a logFrogs in the millpond, barking like a dogBefore you hear that rooster crowSprinkle little meal before her door---Queen family version of traditional western North Carolina folk songOld time music matriarch Mary Jane Queen [born Prince] (1914-2007) grew up in southwestern North Carolina with eight brothers and sisters in a home that was a local hub of musical activity. Family members regularly sang at church and social events in the Caney Fork community in Jackson County. She learned the banjo and absorbed a singing repertoire that included old ballads and story songs sung around the house to accompany everyday work. "My dad work...
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I took to the dry goods line
2007-09-25 14:30:00
"When I started I didn't have very much. Didn't need very much, didn't have many customers. Course I would see them go into the store across the street. I worked over there at one time and at the building that burned down. I've been fooling with [the grocery business] all my life. Before we came here, my uncle had a store in Hineytown. He had a little old store there. It was just along the road there. It was on a big farm and we'd go out and work. When a customer came he'd ring a dinner bell or blow a horn. I'd be away up on top of a hill a'hoeing corn and I'd have to go down and wash, sometimes I'd forget to wash, just go in and wait on them."We've given credit. That's a great ____. But a lot of headaches. People move away or just don't pay and there is no way you can make them pay. It used to be that you could mark up merchandise month after month and prices would be about the same. Very little variance. I have never seen them like they are today. Seasonal stuff ...
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We used to catch the cat on a trot line
2007-09-24 14:30:00
“Us kids used to go down and we’d find a little hole, maybe big as this room, and these suckers had got in there, water was runnin’ into it, and the water’d get up and these suckers wouldn’t bite. You could take your hook and put a worm down there, and they’d swim all the way around it, same as a big ole bass. They had what we call white bass and speckled bass. Now, the speckled bass’d bite. “But them white ‘uns would swim up thata way, they just ease up to it. You could take a worm and throw it down, the water was just clear as crystal, and it’d wiggle down on a rock, and these ole bass and suckers and things’d come up and swim over it two, three times, then directly ease down and pick it up. You could catch some pretty big catfish and oh, some five or six pound bass. We used to catch the cat on a trot line.“Wasn’t but one place to have a boat down there, and that was what they called the Yonker hole. All them holes in that gulf, I can’t call ‘...
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History Channel to air Appalachia special this Sunday
2007-09-21 14:30:00
Usually there's no homework here at the Appalachian History blog, but see that nifty poll over to the right there? Well, I'd like to invite you to put that little baby to use over the next several days! Tell our community what you thought of 'Hillbilly: The Real Story.'Here's what the History Channel has to say upfront about the film---"Hosted by actor and country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus, this two-hour special brings America’s mythic and misunderstood southern mountain people to life and reveal their pivotal but little known role in forming the nation and forging the American character. Ever since they first arrived in the southern mountains 300 years ago, the hillfolk of Appalachia have been seen as a group apart, often mocked and misunderstood."They have been portrayed in the media as hillbillies and backwoods buffoons or as romanticized heroes of lost innocence and virtue. But none of those stereotypes hit the mark. That’s because behind the clichés is a much mo...
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The Black Gold Festival
2007-09-20 14:30:00
The Black Gold Festival kicks off in Hazard, KY today. It’s Kentucky’s second largest festival (the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon/miniMarathon is the largest). Festival goers can see the Black Gold Bike Show, the Road Hazards Extreme Team Stunt Show, the Black Diamond Street Rod Show, Antique Appraisals, the Ugliest Lamp Contest, a parade, and an assortment of food vendors and arts & crafts.This festival traces its roots to the Hazard Coal Carnival, which began in 1937. The Perry County beauties pictured here competed in the Miss Coal Carnival pageant, one of the highlights of that first carnival.(Left to right) Miss Chavies - Rita Duff; Miss Blue Diamond - Lorene Yother; Miss Harveyton - Pauline Begley; & Miss Busy; Rebecca Morgan. Rita Duff won the title of Miss Hazard Coal Carnival – 1937. The photo was taken by Frances Calitri Easterling at Sandy Beach, on the North Fork of the Kentucky River near Viper, Kentucky.Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys played a free c...
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Away back in the early days they had disagreed
2007-09-19 14:30:00
“This valley is perhaps 3 miles long and a mile wide and is one of the prettiest and most tranquil in all Ohio. It was settled by men and women of a rather serious turn of mind and given largely to moral and religious work. In all the settlement there never were more than 2 or 3 habitual drunkards and very little moral laxity on the part of women. Naturally there were some neighborhood disagreements and quarrels. One of these I approached as I walked forward. “There was a devil's lane between the Chris Buck farm and that of George Karr, the father of the man I had just left on the shady bench.“Away back in the early days they had disagreed about something and each built his own line fence. It was the only one I ever saw and was some 12 feet in width. The Bucks were thrifty citizens and soon conceived the idea of using that lane to permit their cattle to go to and from the back end of their farm. In time, however, it grew up to bushes and was a blemish on the landscape. Those ...
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Hauling the last shipment of Confederate gold
2007-09-18 14:30:00
"A few miles from Seneca, S. C. on the Blue Ridge Railroad there was a station called Perryville; now only a few rocks remain on the south side of the track to mark the spot. There was a bar-room, where doubtless many regaled themselves. One man who lived nearby would light his pipe with a one dollar bill. Let us hope he never regretted what had gone up in smoke."A family who lived across the road were fine businessmen, and their sons established the Tate Marble works of Elberton, Georgia. They were very successful in their enterprise and one of them built a large home of pink marble which was a show place in that vicinity."A few miles down the Railroad, established many years ago, and recently enlarged, is Shiloh cut where Mr. Calhoun Clemson, only son of Thomas G. Clemson [founder of Clemson University] and his wife, Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, was killed on the Railroad. He was said to be an unusually handsome man with a promising future."The Blue Ridge was called the Old Blunde...
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A certain girl in the Senior Commercial room wrote the following
2007-09-17 14:30:00
Barney was very industriously studying her history lesson when suddenly she looked up and asked: "Mr. Humbertson, what is beheaded?" "Why, beheaded is having the head cut off, of course." After a moment of thought, Barney suddenly exclaimed: "Well, then I guess defeat is having the feet cut off."Miss Kraft who was given the children written exercises wrote this advertisement: Wanted—a milliner. Apply by letter to Miss Smith, 10 Bank Street. The children had to make application for the position. Louise Moon wrote—I saw you wanted a milliner. I hate to trim hats. Can't you get someone else? Please let me know at once.IMAGINE—Miss Kochenderfer on a diet. Miss Kraft losing her temper in French class. Miss Broadwater controlling Freshman boys. Mr. Jenkins saying "Forty minutes." Mr. Humbertson liking Nancy. Mr. Speicher telling jokes. Miss Engle with a girls' basketball team. Mr. Graser having a date. Miss Conley in the office alone. Miss Rice being in a good humor. Miss Fernald ...
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How 'House of the Rising Sun' traveled from KY to Bangkok--and back!
2007-09-15 14:30:00
The song "House of the Rising Sun " has a murky history, said to have originated in Appalachia, maybe New Orleans and perhaps even England. The song's ultimate odyssey began on September 15, 1937 when folklorist Alan Lomax recorded a version by 16-year-old Georgia Turner in Middlesboro, Ky. Lomax published the lyrics as "The Rising Sun Blues," and from there it only grew in popularity.In "Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song," author Ted Anthony searches out the twisted roots and many spreading branches of this lonesome ballad. Please welcome him today to the Appalachian History blog.Appalachian History: When did you first realize the origins of "House of the Rising Sun" would lead you to Appalachia?Ted Anthony: I originally thought the song was OF New Orleans. But when you listen to the verses -- "DOWN in New Orleans," "going BACK to New Orleans" -- you realize it is from an outsider's perspective. Many of the early versions seemed to point back to the Appalach...
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Nashville? Well no. Bristol.
2007-09-14 14:30:00
Yes, Nashville has the Grand Ole Opry and the big name recording artists. But Bristol , the town that straddles the Tennessee/Virginia border, stakes its claim as the birthplace of country music. And lately Bristol's been working hard at capitalizing on that fact. This weekend, for example, the town expects 40,000 country and bluegrass music fans to attend the Rhythm & Roots Reunion, an extravaganza boasting 3 outdoor stages and 12 indoor venues.Victor Talking Machine Co. was the first record producer to catch wind of the (to them!) fledging "hillbilly" music scene (it wasn’t called country music in the 1920s). In the spring of 1927 they released a single by Delaney, AR fiddle player Eck Robertson. On the heels of its success, producer Ralph Peer spearheaded the push to tap the market for rural mountain music, and in July and August he set about to discover and develop the area's musical talent. Musicians and singers originally traveled to Victor’s New York studios to record...
More About: Ville , Well