Appalachian History

The Spring House was a common site at many farms in the past. It was a pre-electricity version of a refrigerator – a crude structure built into the side of a hill with a spring running through it. Cool waters helped the farmer to keep milk, cheese, eggs and other perishables fresh. Under the best [...]

Please welcome guest blogger Bob Sloan. This is about a man who’s a legend where I live, a man who once walked the same ground as the rest of us, but left such a track more than seventy years after his death in 1935, people still talk about him. When I was a boy it [...]

July 22 will mark the 84th anniversary of Nick Grindstaff’s demise. His gravestone reads: “Lived alone, suffered alone, died alone,” but in the 1870’s he was one of Johnson County, TN’s most colorful residents. Grindstaff was born on December 26, 1851. By the time he was three years old both his mother, Mary Heaton Grindstaff, [...]

Please welcome today’s guest blogger Debra S. YoungbloodThis article is an edited version; original post is here.Grandma was born in the late 1800′s. She was kicked out of her father’s house when her mother died and he remarried. She was seven years old. She found a place to work, cleaning and cooking, and lived there [...]

If you missed the Gatlinburg (TN) Scottish Festival & Games back in May, or can’t wait till November for the Scottish Clans of the South to gather in Hendersonville, NC, don’t panic. The Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in Linville, NC is the largest assembly of Scottish clan society members in the world, and it’s coming [...]