Appalachian History

Please welcome guest author Arlene Marcley. Marcley is the founder and president of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Baseball Library in Greenville, SC, a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to honoring Shoeless Joe Jackson’s life and professional career. The great Ted Williams once remarked, “When I was younger, the Red Sox used to stop in [...]

GREENVILLE OF OLD by Charles A. David Greenville News July 18, 1926 You may name your boy Percival, Algernon, or Montmoresst, but if some chap at school dubs him “Sorrel-top,” “Bully,” or “Buster,” the nick-name will stick and his real name forgotten. So it has been with this little railroad–its owners christened it the Carolina, [...]

During the 1870s, William Murphy of Greenville, S. C., wandered through these mountains making music every day. He, like Stephen Foster, was regarded as a half-vagabond, but he was tolerated for the pleasure his enchanted violin gave whenever he drew his magic bow across its strings. There can be little doubt that men of his [...]

His public service was legendary. In 1821, South Carolinian Joel Roberts Poinsett had founded the Academy of Fine Arts in Charleston. In 1838, when he was the Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, he had a northeast county of Arkansas named after him by that state’s governor. At that point in his career, he’d [...]

When Louise Smith (1916-2006) started racing cars, most girls weren’t even allowed to drive. From her first wild adventure behind the wheel of her daddy’s Ford to the dangers and thrills of stock-car tracks across the country, Louise fearlessly paved the way for women in racing and became a NASCAR legend.  It takes a lot [...]