Appalachian History

The following are reminiscences of the Cloverdale, GA community by Brody Hawkins, who was born there in 1927 (d. 1998) and lived there all his life. These are his memories of the families who lived in Cloverdale when he was a child. When I got here, we had three doctors in the community, Dr. Middleton, …

Maxine Broadwater was just 5 years old when she helped her brothers destroy the glass negatives so they could turn their late uncle’s photography studio into a chicken house. Luckily for us they didn’t finish the job. Leo J. Beachy (1874-1927) is thought to have taken ten thousand photographs a year on five inch by …

In August 1843, a Tennessee gold prospector working on Potato Creek discovered a reddish-brown and black decomposed rock that contained deep red crystals; his “gold” turned out to be red copper oxide. At the time, this copper deposit was one of the world’s largest finds. The Hiwassee Mine opened in 1850, and within 5 years …

“So you wonder why I have spent the last ten years of my life behind this meat counter,” said Jack Gallup. “You think I ought to be doin’ something better, do you? Well, I’ll tell you. For one thing, I never would study in school and I dropped out at the end of the fifth …

Back in the days when this was new ground you had to cotch a b’ar ef you wanted to keep warm. Yessuh, my pappy knew this country when she was somep’n. He come over the mountains from South Ca’liny with his pappy, my gran’pappy, and gran’maw, when he was jus’ a boy. When they decided …

Moore Hollow boomed during 30’s and 40’s By Lois Kleffman Jackson County Sun [KY] Date Unknown What was it like in Moore Hollow after the mines got started? Luther Powell of Sand Gap says, “It was booming. New York didn’t have any more business than Moore Hollow. You could sell any piece of coal you …

The Metropolitan Theatre in Morgantown, WV is one of that city’s best examples of Neo-classical Revival architecture. The 1,300 seat theatre opened on July 24, 1924 with “seven acts of vaudeville sent by the BF Keith Amusement Company from its New York Office.” Over the years Gene Autry, Peggy Lee, Count Basie, the Andrews Sisters, …

Long ago, long before the Cherokee were driven from their homes in 1838, the people on Valley river and Hiwassee heard voices of invisible spirits in the air calling and warning them of wars and misfortunes which the future held in store, and inviting them to come and live with the Nûñnë’hï, the Immortals, in …

Bulletin of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Immigration, published in Richmond, distributed statewide July 1921, Bulletin No. 166, p. 74 “Have you studied this subject seriously—the nervous child?” Should there be one rigid rule for the training of all children? I am convinced that there should not. And if there is one exception it …

John Wesley Langley resigned from Congress (R., Kentucky 10th Congressional District) in January 1926, after losing an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to set aside his conviction on charges of conspiracy to violate the Volstead Act. He’d been caught trying to bribe a Prohibition officer and sent to the federal penitentiary …