Appalachian History

By Sam Brown Modern Mechanix June 1930 issue Did you ever wonder why you came home from the carnival empty handed? Remember how you tried to ring the bell by hammering the catapult or how you tossed ring after ring trying to win a cane? Swindled? Well, maybe! Read how the operators gimmick their games [...]

“Curt Jett was a member of the Hargis clan in the Hargis-Cockrill feud. Once he was under sentence of death, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the verdict and he accepted a life term without appeal. That was for the killing of James Cockrill, July 20, 1902, near the courthouse at Jackson. He claimed [...]

In October 1960, Dr. Bernice Eddy gave a talk to the Cancer Society in New York without warning her employer, the National Institutes of Health, in advance. She startled the attendees by announcing that she had examined cells from monkey’s kidneys in which the polio virus to be used in polio vaccines was grown, and [...]

Author James Milton Hanna (b. 1932) has written 9 books chronicling local historical color from the mid-20th century.  Many, such as his first, “Cornbread and Beans for Breakfast,” published in 1995, portray the Depression era scene from his childhood in Cherokee, AL. This is the title story from that collection. When Milton was in the [...]

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 selection from the memoirs of [...]