Appalachian History

Please welcome guest author Roger May. May is a documentary photographer currently living in Raleigh, NC. He was born and raised in the Tug Valley region of southern WV and eastern KY. He’s currently enrolled in the Certificate in Documentary Arts program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, where he’s also a [...]

“Late fall we’d start getting up the wood for the winter. You couldn’t believe it would take that much wood. You would see wood from here, well, say a hundred feet long. You would think, well, golly, that’s a lot of wood! But it didn’t take long to get rid of that much wood in [...]

Mary sure did have some problems living in that barn. When baby Jesus was born, Joseph needed a crib, so he put some fresh hay in Ms. Horse’s feeding trough. Nobody asked Ms. Horse if they could use her food basket—her manger—for a crib. Once her manger was filled with straw nobody said Ms. Horse [...]

CARSKADON’S Raisins, figs, currants, citron, orange and lemon peel, mince meat and all those things which go to make the Christmas table attractive and beautiful. Do not fool your money away on useless toys, but come and supply yourselves with something worth 100 cents on the dollar. Come and see what we have to offer [...]

Please welcome guest author Brandon Ray Kirk. Kirk, an instructor of American history at Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, is a scholar on Appalachian feuds and Southern violence. He possesses an M.A. degree in history from Marshall University and has written more than fifty articles on Appalachian-themed topics for regional newspapers and books. [...]