Dave Tabler, Author at Appalachian History

The Greenland underway on the Ohio River at Burkes Point.

The ice knocked ‘The Greenland’ off the cradles and down the river she came

Excerpt from 1949 letter by Capt. Tom Greene, Greene Line Steamers owner, to his friend Dan Heekin, a Cincinnati industrialist & river buff.

January 17, 2019 Hoaxes / Virginia

The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 2 of 2

On February 3, 1934, the last gasser case reported in Botetourt County took place at the Troutville home of Mr. A.P. Scaggs.

The fear of being the gasser’s next victim had reached such proportions that families living in remote areas of the county were sleeping with neighbors.

January 15, 2019 Kentucky / Nurses / Oral histories

She had enough faith in the nurses, that if she had the nurses she’d have a live baby

Betty Lester, of Hyden, KY, served as a practicing nurse midwife at the Frontier Nursing Service, Wendover, KY, beginning in 1928.

Cooling board ca. 1850 (top) and ca. 1886

January 14, 2019 Honoring the dead

Put the corpse in the barn till spring

Sometimes the laying out was performed by family members. More typically it was done by neighbors who came to a home for the death watch.

Author: Dave Tabler

The ice knocked ‘The Greenland’ off the cradles and down the river she came

The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 2 of 2

The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 1

She had enough faith in the nurses, that if she had the nurses she’d have a live baby

Put the corpse in the barn till spring