Appalachian History

Did you know that 40% of Fortune 500 companies are family businesses? Family business forms an extremely valuable segment of American society, yet it has steadfastly received insufficient attention. “Before the multinational corporation, there was family business,” writes William O’Hara in Centuries of Success. “Before the Industrial Revolution, there was family business. Before the enlightenment [...]

It’s September; time to head back to school. Here’s the Tater Valley Schoolhouse, active 1850-1950, moved from Tater Valley in Anderson County, TN to the Museum of Appalachia. Furnished in the manner of an early mountain school with wooden pews and a lectern. Happy Labor Day! Tater+Valley+TN one+room+schoolhouse Anderson+County+TN appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history Tweet Send to [...]

Listen to Buell Kazee play “The Dying Soldier” Oh brother Green, oh come to me, For I am shot and bleeding, Now I must die, no more to see, My wife and my dear children. The southern () has layed me low, On this cold ground to suffer, Stay brother stay and lay me away, [...]

Ray Hicks, born this day in 1922, was best known for his traditional storytelling and for preserving the original Beech Mountain ‘Jack Tales’ brought to western North Carolina by his ancestors. Ray, his grandfather Benjamin and his great-great grandfather Counce (Council) Harmon all carefully passed down these tall tales to the next generation. It seems [...]

It’s an important part of the local religious landscape. That’s probably the easiest way to sum up Fields of the Wood in Murphy, North Carolina. If you leave my hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee, headed east on U.S. Transcontinental Highway 64, you’ll go through Polk County (the southeastern most county in Tennessee) and then cross over [...]