Appalachian History

We got by, I guess

Now if a widow’s left, why they draw a lot of welfare and stuff like that, but there wasn’t nothing like that then. She seen a hard time.

June 7, 2019 Class issues / North Carolina

But there was a class, and they were the poor white trash

Mrs. Mary J. Jones (b. 1910), interviewed in 1976 for the Southern Highlands Research Center, has lots to say about “no-account white trash.”

I don’t know when I got my first radio, but Daddy had one of the first radios there was in Ceres, VA (shown here in 1912). It was about as big as television is now.

davy crockett with birthplace behind him

June 5, 2019 Appalachian celebrities / Backwoodsmen/guides / Tennessee

Home and the school-house had both become too hot for me

Folk hero Davy Crockett was born in Greene County, TN. He remained in East Tennessee until 1811, when his parents moved to Lincoln County.

“A Characteristic Group, Representing Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, with Their Wives and Children,” c. 1850.

June 4, 2019 Appalachian celebrities / Carnivals & circuses / North Carolina / Unusual medical conditions

The Siamese Twins at home in Mt. Airy

After spending much of their lives on tour, the Bunkers settled in Mount Airy. They married sisters and raised a total of 21 children.