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Appalachian History

Stories, quotes and anecdotes from Appalachia. 1880s-1950s era.

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Category: Appalachian celebrities

Jenny Lind painting collaged against a Jenny Lind house
May 21, 2020 Appalachian architecture / Appalachian celebrities / Coal mining

What is a Jenny Lind house?

The record is silent on who came up with the nickname “Jenny Lind” for coal company houses. Here, several clues to help figure it out.

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roy rogers looks at duck run sign
October 10, 2019 Appalachia in the media / Appalachian celebrities / Ohio

Roy Rogers before he was Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers wasn’t always Roy Rogers, and one of Hollywood’s most famous cowboys wasn’t raised on a western ponderosa either.

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Wiley Oakley, "The Roaming Man of the Mountains" postcard detail
October 8, 2019 Appalachian celebrities / Backwoodsmen/guides / Great Smoky Mountains / Tennessee

When my stories are true, why, I don’t yodel to the end of the story

Joseph Sargent Hall interviewed Wiley Oakley in the Great Smoky Mountains in 1939. Oakley had a 5th-grade education but was street smart.

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Jean Thomas at Traipsin' Woman Cabin, 1934
August 14, 2019 Appalachian celebrities / Appalachian music / Ballad singers / Festivals & parades / Kentucky

Jean Thomas: Kentucky’s Traipsin’ Woman

In August 1931, Jean Thomas & KY’s governor discussed the creation of an American Folk Song Society & an annual festival open to the public.

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Uncle Nick tombstone inscription
July 22, 2019 Appalachian celebrities / Appalachian Trail / Tennessee

Lived alone, suffered alone, died alone

His gravestone reads “Lived alone, suffered alone, died alone,” but in the 1870’s Nick Grindstaff was Johnson County’s most colorful resident

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  • guineas of west virginia The Guineas of West Virginia
    May 19, 2017
  • The Prophet Ezekiel; art ca. 1900 The Blood Verse
    March 7, 2008
  • John Shell in hat, with a cane World’s oldest man — Kentuckian John Shell
    July 5, 2019
  • cloverine salve and packaging Kids! Get rich selling Cloverine Salve!
    May 31, 2016
  • still from TV series Christy Christy and Leonora: City Girl, Country Gal
    November 3, 2011
  • Source: Unsplash Appalachian Innovators: Untold Stories of Invention and Ingenuity
    July 16, 2024
  • The Southeast Floods of 1916 in North Carolina; Public domain image provided by NOAA Heavy Rainfall Events and Their Impacts in Appalachian History
    February 27, 2024
  • canning and pickling jars still life From Root Cellars to Larders to Modern Pantries: The Evolution of Food Storage in Appalachian Homesteads
    January 12, 2024
  • chef holds cluster of grapes to camera A Journey Through Appalachian Winemaking History
    November 9, 2023
  • 1930s Ford truck untended in a garage / Library of Congress The Historic Role and Contemporary Allure of Vintage Appalachian Farm Trucks
    September 7, 2023
  • David Doerr on Tapping Oil at the Roots of a Family Tree
  • Tami on The Guineas of West Virginia
  • Marbles in the Graveyard - The Secret Life of Marbles on Put the corpse in the barn till spring
  • Brian Sherwood on 125 reasons you’ll get sent to the lunatic asylum
  • Kat on “Everyday” Appalachian Superstitions

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