Appalachian History

Tennesseans called it the “la-la.” Elsewhere known as the john, the shanty, the shack, the throne, the shed, the relief office—it was the humble outhouse. The little buildings “out back” were as important as any building built before indoor plumbing. This was the building you located as soon as possible when you came to visit, [...]

When timber and coal camps started springing up throughout Appalachia in the late 19th century, they provided work for surveyors, lawyers, engineers, doctors, dentists, mechanics, railway workers, postal employees, and telegraph operators. The telegraph offered employment to anyone who could master the technology, regardless of background. There was even a hierarchy of status, as operators [...]

Few records of the Glen Alum [WV] payroll robbery exist, but in 1959 the late O.H. Booton, retired ‘Daily News’ staff writer, wrote to Charlotte Sanders from Macon, Ga., recalling the August 1914 incident he covered in person. Booton spent 42 years as a newsman in Mingo County. Here is his story of the robbery: [...]

“I stayed [at the Little Fox Creek place] eleven years, in the midst of the Thomas and Gibson tyranny, ere we decided we could not bear with their ways of doing any more, so we kind of organized a squad—called the “White Caps” Squad—on up until the night of October 3, 1901, when me and [...]

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 look at the Collins Company, [...]