Appalachian History

“There are no second acts in American lives,” claimed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. Clearly, he never anticipated the likes of Bonnie Heiskell Peters, Union County Tennessee Historian. Ms. Peters retired from her first act in intergovernmental relations for the TVA in 1990. Fortunately for us she hasn’t been content to rest on her laurels. Since [...]

We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. Check us out on the Stitcher network, available on mobile phones, in-car dashboards and tablets worldwide. Just click below to start listening: We open today’s show with a discussion of shivarees, spin the bottle, and post office. Before most people had dates, they [...]

In early 1904, with the growth of the western end of Carter County, KY, residents there sought to form a new county. They broke away, along with some citizens of Rowan and Elliott counties, to form Beckham County, named for then-Governor John CW Beckham, who signed the legislative act on February 9. GC Brooks, appointed [...]

The Dust Bowl crisis of the early 1930s for the first time brought national attention to the acute dangers of soil erosion. Southern Appalachian farms, for their part, suffered from poor soil conditions and erosion as a result of practices that maximized the short-term potential of corn, tobacco and cotton cash crops at the expense [...]

In celebration of the heroes of the Underground Railroad, Ohio Memory and the Ohio Historical Society are providing free digital access to the internationally-acclaimed Wilbur H. Siebert Collection during this year’s Black History Month. The following narrative [MSS116AV BOX 57 08OH 031] by escaped slave Asbury Parker is from the collection. Spelling and punctuation are Parker’s own. [Ohio [...]