Appalachian History

Jan Philpot, of the Laurel County Kentucky GenWeb site, transcribed the diary in 2001.

“The diary is written in a faded brown ink,” says Philpot, “with pages toward the back in faded pencil. At times it was difficult to make out, and at those points I place a question mark.”

So everything went along pretty calm, until Thursday of the third week. It clouded up to rain; the thunder cracked and the lightning flashed. Afternoon recess came and we were going strictly on schedule: afternoon recess at two-thirty. I heard those wagons coming up the road and I saw these big girls: one of them [...]

Part 1 of 2 Five miles out from Old Fort, up near Catawba Falls; that was my first school. No teacher ever stayed there five months. Usually, they’d stay five or six weeks. All right. The regulations were that your dress had to come down to your ankle bone. That’s what you had to wear [...]

It’s September, the traditional time to head back to school (though the current trend is late August most places.) Here’s an outdoor class being held at the Othello School in Cherokee County, GA, circa 1925. The teacher is believed to be Miss Corine Pace. Third student from left is Glenn Hubbard. This one room schoolhouse [...]

Folk hero Davy Crockett was born on August 17, 1786, in Greene County, TN. He remained in East Tennessee until 1811, when he and his family moved to Lincoln County. They moved again in 1813 to Franklin County, where the following took place. I remained with my father until the next fall, at which time [...]