Appalachian History

Long before the well-endowed Hollywood starlet of the 1950′s, there was a Dagmar car, built from 1922-1926 in Hagerstown, MD by the M. P. Möller Motor Car Company. This luxury sedan was named for the one of Dr. Mathias P. Möller’s daughters. The make’s emblem was a pipe organ. The Danish industrialist by that point [...]

In 1879, just 3 years after Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrated the telephone, the Behrens brothers established West Viriginia’s first telephone line, connecting two of their grocery stores in Wheeling. A year later, on May 15, 1880, the city established one of the first telephone exchanges in the country. A switchboard was set up in [...]

It was the greatest disaster ever known to this Western Virginia mountain village. On May 2, 1929, the unusually violent storm slammed into the little community of Rye Cove, VA in the mountains of Scott County. During the storm a tornado directly struck the local two-story schoolhouse, with over 150 children and teachers inside. The [...]

Ramps are the first green thing of spring in Appalachia, and certainly the smelliest. Mountain folks have traditionally looked forward to the return of the ramp after a winter of eating mostly dried foods, often believing the ramp to possess the revitalizing power of a spring tonic (not unreasonable: they are high in vitamins A [...]

“CONGRESSMAN TOM HEFLIN’S TILT WITH WOMAN SUFFRAGE LEADER FEATURES BARBECUE” Montgomery [AL] Daily, c. 1915 “Congressman Tom Heflin has returned to his home from Wetumpka, AL where he delivered the principal address before the crowd of several thousand gathered to participate in the big barbecue held there yesterday. The congressman is glad to be alive [...]