Appalachian History

It was Christmas Eve on Lonesome. But nobody on Lonesome knew that it was Christmas Eve, although a child of the outer world could have guessed it, even out in those wilds where Lonesome slipped from one lone log cabin high up the steeps, down through a stretch of jungled darkness to another lone cabin [...]

Hail the blest morn See the Great Mediator Down from the regions of Glory descend!Shepherds, go worship the Babe in the manger,Lo, for the a guard the bright angels attend. Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,Dawn on our darkness and lend us Thine aidStar of the East, the horizon adorning,Guide where our [...]

The only asylumWas the poorhouse, and those who could afford,Rather than send their folks to such a place,Kept them at home; and it does seem more human.But it’s not so: the place is the asylum.There they have every means proper to do with,And you aren’t darkening other people’s lives…. Robert Frost (1874–1963), “A Servant to [...]

“We were out playing one Sunday evening and it was cold as blue blazes. It was blowing a little blue snow I believe. And Daddy, he had always been strict about things, and he didn’t want us out that evening. It was just too cold for any of ust to be out there but we [...]

Monday, Nov. 23, 1942— “The begetter of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith died last week in Manhattan. “In many ways Billy De Beck lived a life as unreal as the comic-strip characters he fathered. When he was at high school in Chicago he drew imitation Charles Dana Gibson pictures, peddled them for profit. He did [...]