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Appalachian HistoryAppalachian HistoryFolktales, anecdotes and quotes drawn from Appalachia. Emphasis on the Depression era. Articles
The Brown Mountain Lights
2010-10-29 07:00:00 Please welcome guest blogger David Biddix. �Biddix co-authored, along with Chris Hollifield, ‘Spruce Pine,’ (Arcadia Publishing 2009), a photographic survey of that North Carolina town’s colorful history. A true ghost story is found in the hills of Burke County, NC, where the eerie Brown Mountain Lights dance along the ridgeline of a low-slung mountain in ... You Might Also Like:The oldest mountain peatland in the Appalachians
The Red Streaks on the White Mausoleum
2010-10-28 07:00:00 Please welcome guest blogger Timothy W. Hooker, an English instructor at Cleveland State Community College in Tennessee. Tim’s most recent book is a memoir, “Sushi Tuesday” (2010) from his long running blog of the same name. Tim has also written a novel, a play, and a short story collection. �Since 1996 he’s penned the creative ... You Might Also Like:The Wizzard Clip –part 3 of 3 More About: White , Luke
The Wizzard Clip ?part 3 of 3
2010-10-27 07:00:00 The bulk of the following is from ?Wizzard Clip ,? by W.W. Laidley, published in the West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly,? January 1904 Part 3 of 3 ?The result of the inquiries led Adam Livingston to visit an Episcopal minister, who then resided in Winchester, but he derived little satisfaction from this visit, and returned home ... You Might Also Like:The Wizzard Clip –part 1 of 3
The Wizzard Clip –part 2 of 3
2010-10-26 07:00:00 The bulk of the following is from “Wizzard Clip ,” by W.W. Laidley, published in the West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly, January 1904 Part 2 of 3 “In about a week afterward, his barn was burnt and his cattle all died, the crockeryware in his house, without any visible agency, was thrown upon the floor and broken; his money disappeared; the heads of his turkeys and chickens dropped off; and chunks of burning wood would leap from the fireplace several feet out into the floor, endangering the building unless promptly replaced. “Soon the annoyances, which were then destroying his peace, assumed a new form. The sound of a large pair of shears could be distinctly heard in his house, clipping in the form of half moons and other curious figures, his blankets, sheets and counterpanes, boots and shoes, clothing, etc. “This was all in one night, but the operation of clipping continued for upwards of three months, a small portion of it only being done at a time, but the ine...
The Wizzard Clip –part 1 of 3
2010-10-25 07:00:00 The bulk of the following is from “Wizzard Clip ,” by W.W. Laidley, published in the West Virginia Historical Magazine Quarterly, January 1904 Part 1 of 3 “From the “Eastern Pan-Handle” we take the following ancient ghost story. “A town was laid out by John Smith in 1794, a town on his lands, then in Berkeley County, since in Jefferson, then in Virginia, now West Virginia. This was by Act of 1798 made a town by the name of Smithfield. It has since been known as Middleway, is located about five miles west of Leetown, and has about eight hundred inhabitants. “The earliest record of the story was written by Rev. Demetrius A. Gallitzin, whose memoirs were prepared in 1797, and about the same time, Mrs. Annella McSherry wrote letters containing about the same facts, and since then there have been other papers written, all giving about the same facts, and the further fact that for fifty years the original name of the place was lost and it was only known as Wizzard&...
Listen Here: Appalachian History Weekly posts today
2010-10-24 07:00:00 We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. You can start listening right away by clicking the podcast icon over on the right side of your screen. If you’d rather grab the show off itunes for later listening, click here: We open today’s show with one Henry Harvey Fuson describing everyday life in the tent cities erected during the construction of Middlesboro, KY in the 1890s. “Killings were common, and not infrequently several men would fall in a single fight. Not always were the victims feudists; sometimes they were other mountaineers or “Yellow Creekers;” sometimes from the ranks of the newcomers, among whom was the usual ratio of brawlers, criminals, and shady characters.” We’ll pause in between things to catch up on a Calendar of Events in the region this week, with special attention paid to events that emphasize heritage and local color. In our next segment, we’ll present a selection from Kentuckian Sarah Ann Jackso... More About: Today , Listen , Weekly , Posts
The story of the Wampus Cat
2010-10-22 07:00:00 In Missouri they call it a Gallywampus; in Arkansas it’s the Whistling Wampus; in Appalachia it’s the just a plain old Wampus (or Wampas) cat. A half-dog, half-cat creature that can run erect or on all fours, it’s rumored to be seen just after dark or right before dawn all throughout the Appalachians. But that’s about all everyone agrees on. In non-Native American cultures it’s a howling, evil creature, with yellow eyes that can supposedly pierce the hearts and souls of those unfortunate enough to cross its path, driving them to the edge of sanity. Cherokee folklore, which is filled with tales of evil spirits lurking in the deep, dark forests that surrounded their villages, offers a different view of the Wampas cat. An evil demon called Ew’ah, the Spirit of Madness, had been terrorizing the village of Etowah (or Chota, depending on the version you hear) in what is today North Carolina. The village shamans and warchiefs called for a meeting. The ... More About: Story , The Story
The bottle tree
2010-10-21 07:00:00 Are your premises safe against haints, furies and other such ornery spirits? Have you painted your front door blue? Has the neighborhood seen a sudden upsurge of bottles dangling upside down in the trees? She knew that there could be a spell put in trees, and she was familiar from the time she was born with the way bottle trees kept evil spirits from coming into the house — by luring them inside the colored bottles, where they cannot get out again. —Livvie, by Eudora Welty Glass ‘bottle trees’ originated in ninth century Kongo during a period when superstitious Central African people believed that a genii or imp could be captured in a bottle. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside, but near, the home could capture roving (usually evil) spirits at night, and the spirit would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine. One could then cork the bottles and throw them into the river to wash away the evil spirits. Furthermore, the Kongo tree altar is ... More About: Tree
Haints and Hags on Halloween
2010-10-20 07:00:00 Halloween’s around the corner. 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 broth...
To the end that man might possess himself of another of the world’s waste
2010-10-19 07:00:00 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 Yellow Creek Valley, most of them having come by train as far as Pineville, ten miles away, whence they advanced by wagon, hack, horse, or mule. Apparently every city and town in Kentucky, and almost every state, was represented in these various migrants. Although the constituent parts of a few portable houses had been brought in and set up, tents were employed almost altogether for both living and business purposes, and by mid-autumn of 1889 the Valley looked, at a distance, as if it were occupied by an army. Tent city labor encampment of Middlesborough, KY; 1895. The huge labor of straightening the meanders of Yellow Creek, which bisected the Valley, was initiated under the supervision of the late Colonel George E. Waring, of New York, engineering expert. Ploughs and dirt-scoops without number we...
Worthy of a place in this cabinet of valuables
2010-10-18 07:00:00 Here’s a selection from Kentuckian Sarah Ann Jackson’s ‘My Journal for 1835.’ The diary was found between the walls of an old house in Laurel County, KY, but there is nothing that tells us if it was written in that place or how it came to be there. It was the only item found there. Jan Philpot, of the Laurel County Kentucky GenWeb site, transcribed the diary in 2001. “The diary is written in a faded brown ink,” says Philpot, “with pages toward the back in faded pencil. At times it was difficult to make out, and at those points I place a question mark.” In the following partial transcript we’ve tried to fill in one or two of those undecipherable points, seeking to remain true to the spirit of the original diary. Spelling and punctuation has been standardized on this excerpt as well for ease of reading. The original exact transcription, with additional notes from the transcriber, can be found at Diary of Sarah Ann Jackson. May 1st—Children all very pleas... More About: Place
Listen Here: Appalachian History Weekly posts today
2010-10-17 07:00:00 We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. You can start listening right away by clicking the podcast icon over on the right side of your screen. If you’d rather grab the show off itunes for later listening, click here: We open today’s show with a look at the world of the 19th century blacksmith. “A few years ago the blacksmith was the very heart and center from which the great machine world grew,” says Thomas Hidden in his 1944 book ‘Sons of Vulcan.’ “In your grandfather’s time the blacksmith shod horses, made plough points, built wagons and carriages, and made all kinds of tools and implements. He could turn his hand to making guns or clocks or locks and keys.” We’ll pause in between things to catch up on a Calendar of Events in the region this week, with special attention paid to events that emphasize heritage and local color. “I was 10 years old when the First World War stopped,” says Guysville, OH native Emma Barnh... More About: Today , Listen , Weekly , Posts
The First Lady: Museum pays tribute to Edith Bolling Wilson
2010-10-15 13:37:00 The following article by Joe Tennis ran yesterday in the Bristol Herald Courier. Wytheville, VA — Happy birthday, Edith! The First Lady – Edith Bolling Galt Wilson – was born in a second-story apartment in downtown Wytheville, Va., on Oct. 15, 1872. In 1915, she became the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. She also won the fabled title as “America’s First Woman President” or even “The Shadow President,” as she worked behind the scenes after President Wilson had a stroke in 1919. But never mind all that – well, at least for the most part. The focus on Edith, at her birthplace museum in Wytheville, is to tell the story of this First Lady in her early years, growing up as the daughter of Judge William H. and Sallie White Bolling. The judge, by the way, is said to have delayed court on the morning of his daughter’s arrival – just to be on hand to greet the newborn baby. ‘ABOVE A COMMERCIAL SETTING’ Open since 2008, an ever-evolving ... More About: Museum
I learned how to push a machine without it biting me
2010-10-14 07:00:00 On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first man to pilot the Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, above the California desert at Muroc Dry Lake Bed. “We just didn’t know what would happen when we reached the speed of sound, because we didn’t have any wind tunnel data. We could put a model in the wind tunnel and blow air by it at supersonic speeds, but what happened, a shock wave would form on that model at about .9 mach, or 90 percent of the speed of sound, and that shock wave then would bounce off the wall of the tunnel, and it would choke up the tunnel. We didn’t have any data from about .9 mach to 1.1 mach. People really just didn’t know. It was ignorance. They thought that an airplane would never go faster than sound, because of the shock waves that built up on it. But, as I say, that really didn’t make any difference to me. I could care less. It’s your job to try it. And that’s the way it worked out.” Chuck Yeage... More About: Machine
When the war ended, all the coal mine whistles blowed
2010-10-13 07:00:00 My father was a coal miner back in the…well, he went into the coal mine when he was 12 years old, and he came out when he was 47. And he worked through the First World War, well he worked, that’s all he ever done, ’till he came to the farm. But he worked through the First World War, but he was down here in the other one. Everything was rationed back there, just like in the Second World War. You had to take sugar, you had to take cornmeal, and a whole bunch of stuff to get other things, you know. And tea and coffee and all that was rationed. But my dad went in when he was 12 years old. ‘Cause it was a big family of them and he had to work. Well, bread was ten cents a loaf. And when you could get a dollar—you couldn’t get a dollar hardly ever—but if you got a dollar you could buy something with it. And you can’t now but whenever you made a dollar, and you’d save to get groceries, well, then you could get stuff; but we baked our br... More About: Coal Mine , Coal , Mine
None dared stop overnight at the Betts house
2008-12-29 13:00:00 The Charleston Daily MailDec. 27, 1925Grantsville, Calhoun County, W. Va., March 24, 1886. The following history of the haunted house, situated on the bank of Little Kanawha river, about three miles from this place, is presented to the scientist for explanation. The skeptical reader is frankly and honestly referred to any one of the persons named herein for verification of their share of the history. Although it is one of the strangest and most unaccountable stories written on this subject within a quarter of a century, every detail is well authenticated. A solution of the mysteries connected with this history will be received with gratitude and pleasure by hundreds of the respectable and honest citizens of Calhoun, Ritchie and Wirt counties. But to the history:About three miles from the county seat of Calhoun county there resided, and still resides, Mr. Collins Betts, a farmer, who is well known throughout this section of the country. His house is a one-story, rambling affair, clos... More About: House , Stop
They's heaps o folks here still believe on Old Christmas
2008-12-26 13:00:00 OLD CHRISTMASThey’s heaps o’ folks here still believeOn Christmas – that’s Old Christmas – Eve,The elders bloom upon the ground,And critters low and kneel aroundIn every stall, though none I knowHas seen them kneel, or heard them low,Unless, maybe, ‘t was Judith DaughnAnd she’s been dead these years agone.But, as a girl, I ‘member wellHow, sitting at her loom, she’d tellOf a strange thing that once befell,When she lived here upon this creek With Jason. I’ve heard old folks speakOf their log-house, when it was new.All kinds of colored lilies grew,On bushes, to the very door; And Jason laid a puncheon floor,And framed a table and a bedFor Judith. They had just been wed,When they came here from mouth o’Ball.Judith, you see, she was a Hall,And all her folks was mighty soreWhen she took up with Jason; forThey long had been a row betweenThe Daughns and Halls. The Daughns was mean.Jim Daughn, he killed Dalt Hall, and thenDalt’s brother got one of their men.And so...
Go tell it on the mountain
2008-12-25 13:00:00 Merry Christmas everyone! I want to take a minute and thank all my readers for stopping by and having a look around here at the site throughout this past year. Your comments and appreciation really make the task of writing so much easier. Also, I want to acknowledge all the talented and generous people who've contributed so much of themselves to Appalachian History this year (alphabetically): Kevin Bannister, Arylnda Boyer, Matthew Burns, Tim Hooker, Nathan W. Murphy, Lynn Salsi, and Neal Thompson. This blog is so much richer for their help.I promise I'll get back to work posting more tasty things for you to read just as soon as I get done unwrapping a few of these pretty boxes over in the corner. More About: Mountain
Something hit the roof -- like a rubber ball
2008-12-24 13:00:00 Sunday Gazette-MailCharleston, WVDec 22, 1968Fayetteville-- Their search has dragged on for 23 years, but George & Jeannie Sodder will never believe five of their children burned to death in that Christmas morning fire of 1945.A weather-scarred billboard on a lonely WV road offers $10,000 for information leading to the five, regarded as lost in the fire that leveled the Sodder home in minutes.The undying hope that the two boys and three girls still are alive has taken the Sodders to a Mexican border town and a Spanish hamlet in Florida. But always frustration: nothing.For nearly two decades, this billboard stood at the site of the Sodder house fire. It showed photos of the missing Sodder children and offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to their recovery. Still, after all these years, the Sodders receive letters, photographs and telephone calls from persons across the country, from those who say they saw the children.Authorities in this small coal mining community snuggl... More About: Roof , Ball , Rubber
There's more than one definition of fruitcake in Appalachia
2008-12-23 13:00:00 Yes, it’s heavy as a brick, and lasts long enough that you can re-gift it year after year without anyone commenting on its shelf life having expired. Blame the Scots. Early versions of the rich style fruitcake, such as what we know today as Scottish Black Bun, date from the Middle Ages, and were luxuries for special occasions. Slices would have been served on Twelfth Night. The dessert was later known as Scotch Christmas Bun before becoming Black Bun. From the Irish and English some Appalachian residents have come to know this type of fruitcake as Scotch bun, or Dundee cakes. The heavily spiced, dense, chewy black mixture is made with dried fruit, nuts and whiskey a few months in advance of Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) eating, in order to give it time to mature. It's wrapped in a shell of very thin, hard pastry to trap in the flavor over these months. It's cut into slices for serving, as gingerbread would be, although it's very different.One’s definition of fruitcake in Appa... More About: Definition
The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 2
2008-12-22 13:00:00 (...continued)The "Anesthetic Prowler" or "The Phantom Anesthetist," he was supposedly a dark, mysterious figure responsible for dozens of Virginia victims falling ill from mysterious gasses flooding their homes. Whole families reported sudden attacks of choking, dizziness, headaches and various respiratory ailments.However, lacking tangible evidence of a culprit or culprits, the press began to express suspicion. The first case to generate skepticism occurred in Fincastle on the night of February 24, 1934, when Ms. Mamie Brown dashed from her residence screaming that she had been gassed. A crowd quickly formed and was led to her house by C.E. Williamson, constable of the local jail, who determined that someone had "tossed a common fly killing fluid into the kitchen--apparently as a joke." At about 9 PM on the 25th, a watchdog at the Chester Snyder farm near Cloverdale began barking. Prepared for the gasser, Snyder immediately leaped out of bed, grabbed a shotgun and fired at what h... More About: County , Part
The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 1
2008-12-19 13:00:00 Whether or not gas will be employed in future wars is a matter of conjecture, but the effect is so deadly to the unprepared that we can never afford to neglect the question.General John Pershing, 1919At 10 PM on December 22, 1933, Mrs. Cal Huffman detected a gassy odor in her Fincastle, VA home, and became nauseated. Despite the incident, she retired to bed while her husband remained awake in hopes of catching the perpetrator, having assumed that their house had been broken into. About 30 minutes later the smell of gas permeated the house; Mr. Huffman telephoned the police. Officer O.D. Lemon arrived about midnight, but found nothing out of the ordinary.Immediately following Officer Lemon's departure at one in the morning, a third attack reportedly took place. This time, all of the seven or eight family members experienced choking fumes that made them temporarily ill. The Huffman's 20-year-old daughter Alice fainted. When nearby Troutville physician S.F. Driver arrived on the scen... More About: County , Part
The Feast of the Seven Fishes
2008-12-18 13:00:00 Technically, on the Catholic Christmas season calendar, December 13 is The Feast of St Lucia. Over in Fairmont, WV on that day this year the local Italian community instead celebrated the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This southern Italian feast is traditionally celebrated on Christmas Eve. It stems from the observance of the Cena della Vigilia, the wait for the miraculous birth of Christ in which early Christians fasted on Christmas Eve until after receiving communion at Midnight Mass. At one time, Rome was the farthest point north where ‘La Vigilia’ was celebrated, but today Italians throughout the world celebrate it. Fairmont local son Robert Tinnell is a screenwriter, director and author whose book, "Feast of the Seven Fishes," inspired Fairmont’s city fathers to launch the local celebration, now in its third year."When I was kid, eating fish on Christmas Eve was just something you did," says Tinnell. "We never called it by name. I never even bothered to question why we did...
We didn't trim a tree at home; we didn't have any trimming
2008-12-17 13:00:00 "I don't think I was ever any more excited than on that last day at school before Christmas when Miss Dumire asked three of us girls to untrim the tree. She gave each of us a box and said, 'Try to put the same amount in each box.' So we were careful, helping each other as the teacher wanted. Then she said for us to be sure to put some of each kind of trimming in each one. Those soft, heavy icicles and the ropes of tinsel. The glass balls and the red candles clipped to the tree limbs.When we finished, we set the boxes on top of the teacher's desk, tied shut. Then at recess she called the three of us aside and asked if we would each take a box home with us so that it would get used over Christmas. Said she would get some new and different trimming for next year. She probably knew, and maybe I even had told her, that we didn't trim a tree at home, that we didn't have any trimming.""You probably asked for it," Blanche chided."No, no indeed! I never would have done that; but... More About: Home , Tree , Trim
Where's the Valle Crucis post office? Well, that depends
2008-12-16 13:00:00 In 1889, William West Skiles described a North Carolina location "entirely shut in by forest-clad mountains." The area "was watered by three small, limpid streams, two of them leaping down the hillsides in foaming cascades," Skiles wrote in Missionary Life at Valle Crucis. "It was this secluded valley which, from the cross-like form of the three streams at their junction," Skiles continued, "was now to receive the name of Valle Crucis." The Latin name means 'Vale of the Cross.' The limpid streams of Skiles' time didn't stay that way. A devastating flood struck in August, 1940, drowning people in the raging Dutch Creek, and leaving severe property damage in both valleys. Pop bottle checkers in the Mast General Store.In the days following the flood, residents congregated at one of the town's two general stores, and Mr. Mast, or Mr. Farthing down the street, would "check them off" as survivors. One of the last to appear was a woman called "Cethy," who had walked from her home on ... More About: Office , Post , Post Office
Can you imagine how it felt to be full of milk and have no child to suckle?
2008-12-15 13:00:00 Please welcome guest blogger Arlynda Lee Boyer. She grew up in Hillsville, VA and received her BA in history from New College of Florida. Her new book "Buddha and the Bud Car: The Spiritual Wisdom of NASCAR" will release November 2009.I find it very interesting that the list you cite in "125 reasons you’ll get sent to the lunatic asylum" doesn’t include what would have been a very common event in the mid-1800s: loss of a child. Today, psychologists recognize the loss of a child or a spouse to be two of the five most devastating life experiences a person can experience. Yet then, when both experiences were far more common, they did not seem to be commonly accepted reasons to suffer extended anguish. Your list did mention “loss of a son in the war,” but that’s a loss limited in two ways, by gender/age and by circumstance.My guess is that grief was more socially integrated then. Being in closer contact with life and death than we are today, there was a better social mecha... More About: Milk , Child , Felt , Full , Suckle
We air now aiming to give a dumb show for to pleasure the Little Teacher
2008-12-12 13:00:00 I thought no more of old time play acting in the mountain country till on Christmas Eve in 1930 some of the men and boys at Gander [KY] presented for me an old mummers' play. Later two of the men gave me a fairly complete text for the play....All of the contributors were old people, and the play presented at Christmas time in 1930 was almost as new for the young people who belonged to the community as it was for me. Thirty or more years had passed since its last performance, and the play will not be presented again by this community because the two men who knew the text are both dead.--Marie CampbellJournal of American Folklore, Jan-Mar 1938Mummer's plays in Appalachia are direct descendants of the British custom of Christmas masking, or "mumming," which can be traced to the English court as early as the reign of Edward III. Mummers (Merriam Webster's--- "one who goes merrymaking in disguise during festivals") probably got the name from the German word 'Vermummung,' or disguise... More About: Show , Dumb , Teacher , Give , Pleasure
The pie the British authorities banned
2008-12-11 13:00:00 CARSKADON'SRaisins, figs, currants, citron, orange and lemon peel, mince meat and all those things which go to make the Christmas table attractive and beautiful. Do not fool your money away on useless toys, but come and supply yourselves with something worth 100 cents on the dollar. Come and see what we have to offer you. Yours very truly, GEO T CARSKADONAd from KEYSER [WV] TRIBUNEDecember 5, 1913Mince meat, or mince, pies have had a traditional place on the Christmas table throughout Appalachia for two reasons: 1) lack of refrigeration; 2) British ancestors.This is a time of year when hunters, from the earliest settlers on, have entered the forest seeking wild game to supplement the winter larder. The custom of mincemeat pies during the holidays is partially a holdover from putting up wild game in the days before freezers. The mincemeat mixture was a method of preservation, as the combination of the acids from the fruits and the heat from baking inhibited the growth of bacteri... More About: Banned , Authorities
I am a poor girl what you might say got no home
2008-12-10 13:00:00 Franklin NCDec. 10, 1926Mr. F.M. Lida.Dear SirI am going to write you for a little information about R.E. Gilliland if you know any thing about him. Last Thursday night two week ago he and I got married here in Franklin, N.C. and Tuesday morning following he slipped off and left and I don’t know where he is at and cant hear from him and there is some awful talk about him here in Franklin sence he left and also he told me several things that I find that is not so sence he left and he told me that he didnt have neither Father Mother Brother or Sister but his home was at Asheville and his parents both died when he was just smallHe told me that he was in the World War and lost his arm got his head bursted. His stomach cut from hip to hip and his inards let out got shot in both legs and also shot through the hand. He says he is drawing off the Government for these wounds but I don’t know these things for sure and cant find out. Of course I do know that his arm is gone and that he ... More About: Home , Girl , Poor
Christmas images throughout Appalachia
More articles from this author:2008-12-09 13:00:00 Community Christmas tree, Knoxville, TN. On Market Street between Union Avenue and Clinch Avenue. Night view. Ordered by Knoxville Community Service Council. December 21, 1921."Two unidentified women (initials M.H.P. and A.H.) in 1908 sent this Christmas greeting to Kentuckian Mary McDowell, "The manner of our growing old is the measure of our life."Covered bridge, 32’ long, near Dunkinsville, OH.In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Portland cutter was the most popular type of sleigh used in the United States.Peter Kimball and his sons–notably Charles Porter Kimball of Portland, Maine, developed the design. Fancy cutters, trimmed with silk and silver cost about one hundred and fifty dollars. By 1910 plain cutters were available in the twenty dollar range. Santa Claus is surrounded by children in front of O. J. Morrison's Store in Grafton, WV, circa 1920.appalachia Christmas+in+Appalachia Knoxville+TN OJ+Morrisons Grafton+WV Portland+cutter covered+bridges appalachian+history ... More About: Images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
