Browsing All Posts filed under »People of Appalachia«

“Spirit Rappings” in Port Republic

September 20, 2016 by

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Not an OTD piece, today, but rather one which just caught my eye when looking for an OTD piece. While some might think it’s just a little early for ghost stories, this piece from the Jan. 21, 1854 issue of the Richmond Dispatch is still entertaining. Clearly, the author had a little fun, tying what was […]

Wars… and wishing those buildings could talk

March 12, 2016 by

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Seeing a Facebook friend’s post, today, of all that remained of an ancestral home… a hearth and chimney… I felt compelled to post one of my own. While I can’t say for sure if it is the remains of an “ancestral” homestead, it is located in Nicholson Hollow. If not an ancestral homestead, it’s likely a place […]

Henry Ruffner’s Ghost Story (“A Screech”)

October 31, 2014 by

2

A Screech Amongst the earliest settlers in the Kanawha valley was george Alderson, who had been a man of the woods from his youth. Though not much of a scholar, yet he could read, write, and cast up accounts, which, altogether was more than the majority of his sylvan contemporaries could do. He was a […]

Ruffner’s thoughts on writing for recreation

October 31, 2014 by

0

In an article in the July, 1856 edition of the Southern Literary Messenger, Dr. Henry Ruffner wrote: A few months before Alderson’s death, my father and uncle had purchased the land on which he lived near the old salt lick above Charleston, with the view of experimenting for salt water upon it. A few months […]

When Dr. Henry Ruffner gave his “bah, humbug” to German superstitions

October 30, 2014 by

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Since it’s Halloween Eve, I figured I would fall back on an article that I read in the past year, which was written by a Shenandoah Valley author. I’ve mentioned Henry Ruffner in this blog before, mostly because of the famous “Ruffner Pamphlet” and how it pertained to slavery in antebellum Virginia. Yet, as with all […]

What’s the objective?

August 27, 2013 by

1

For the (over) five years in which I’ve been blogging, I’ve focused mostly on the American Civil War. As the title of the blog suggests, however, I have room to roam whenever I get the whim. I don’t like to keep myself too “hemmed-in”. The title has given me enough flexibility that I feel comfortable moving in just […]

“Civilized” Moonshine… is just wrong

October 19, 2012 by

3

Earlier this morning, I took a “stroll” through FaceBook entries and saw one* which revealed a photo of a clear bourbon glass… the contents of said glass were ice cubes and… Moonshine. On top of that, it was served at Skyland, on the Skyline Drive.   As if instinctively, I felt my soul seem to cry out… “Oh, […]

Southern Unionism in music

April 12, 2012 by

2

This clip was uploaded to YouTube earlier this year and I just found it… and wow, what a great piece! The description states: It’s not commonly known that there were many southerners who fought for the union during the Civil War. Most of them were from the mountains. This song is about one such southern unionist. […]

On my supposed isolationist “hillbilly” roots: the Nicholson family in Madison County, Va., part 3

November 13, 2011 by

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Sorry for the delay… busy week. O.K., where was I? Oh, yes… First, I need to say, this has been a very fluid set of posts, and all are subject to modification at this point (the beauty of blogs… they aren’t really “set-hard in ink”). I started off writing this with an idea of where […]

On my supposed isolationist “hillbilly” roots: the Nicholson family in Madison County, Va., part 2

November 6, 2011 by

4

Though Pollock’s first contact with Madison County took place in October, 1886, and it was the beginning of a long series of events that would impact the mountain people there, it seems unlikely that he actually visited Nicholson Hollow (also known as “Free State Hollow”) at the time. He does, however, mention it briefly, in […]

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