Appalachian History

I sought and received the forgiveness of my sins in August 1861, at a camp meeting at Bird’s Chapel, in Dade County, Georgia. My conversion was so definite – I may say, so sweet and so satisfactory -followed by so great peace – which I could never be made to doubt that I was reconciled [...]

Flag Pond’s Scots-Irish, German, and Cherokee ancestors have sought the wild mountain leek, or wati to the Cherokee, for generations. They eat ramps for renewal — according to legend, ramps thin down slow-flowing blood. Their pungency energizes bodies grown accustomed to cold-weather inactivity.

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 the curious story of Myrtle Corbin. Corbin was known far and wide in the late nineteenth [...]

James Henry Neel Reed, known as Henry Reed, was born on April 28, 1884, in Monroe County, WV,  a rural county lying along the Virginia border in the Appalachian Mountains of southeastern West Virginia. Reed grew up in Monroe County as a member of a large extended family. His father and at least one uncle [...]

Until late in her life, Rebecca Latimer Felton saw her career as tied completely to her husband’s. William Felton served three terms (1875-81) in the U.S. Congress. From 1884 to 1890 he served another three terms in Georgia’s state legislature. “Country Life in Georgia in the Days of My Youth” is primarily a record of Rebecca Latimer Felton’s middle years and her husband’s political campaigns.