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Empress of the Blues
When Bessie Smith sang the blues she meant it. Smith (1894-1937) was the greatest and most influential classic blues singer of the 1920s. Dubbed “The Empress of the Blues,” Smith embodied the blues...
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Baseball’s First World Series Hero: Deacon Phillippi
Baseball pitcher Charles Louis (“Deacon”) Phillippi, of Rural Retreat VA, was drafted into the National League by Louisville in 1898, and began his baseball career with that team on April 21, 1899. On...
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We got along well with them. Of course, we knew our limitations
“My parents were share croppers. My mother and dad separated in, I guess it may have been ’36 that they separated, and my daddy continued to work on the farm, and my mother went to Richmond and stayed...
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The oldest continuously played golf course in the US
The city of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was established in the late 1880s by Scottish born Canadian Alexander Alan Arthur and his British backers in the American Association Ltd. They were drawn to the area...
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The world’s largest carbon factory
“In this county Godfrey L. Cabot of Boston, MA has the largest carbon factory in the world, utilizing natural gas for the purpose,” stated the WV Geological Survey about Calhoun County in 1911. “The...
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Die Kolony Bernstadt
Kentucky began a campaign in the 1880s to attract Western European immigrants to the state, which had been losing population to America’s new westward movement at alarming rates. The Kentucky Bureau of...
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The WV family that brought us Mother’s Day
It took the individual effort of each Jarvis, mother and daughter, over two generations to forge the Mother’s Day we recognize today. And it’s a story with a twist, so buckle up! Ann Maria Reeves...
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Patterned after one of the Soviet dreams
On May 18, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, creating the TVA. The aim was to provide river navigation, flood control, electric power, employment and...
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He fired his gun and heard the youth scream
Shepherd Youth Killed Accidentally By Father Accident Occurred As Father and Son Were Out Hunting Ashe County [NC] Journal, May 29, 1929— Blaine Shepherd, a youth of the Crumpler-Grassy Creek section...
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And it’s home little gal and do-si-do
Traditional dancing in Appalachia includes several types: step dancing, set dancing, and couple dancing. Step dance traditions include clogging, buckdancing, flatfooting, and the Charleston. Set...
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The Coon Creek Girls play the White House
On the evening of June 8,1939 limousines began to deliver the cream of Washington D.C. society to the East Room of the White House. President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were...
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The first car in Crow, WV
Photo caption reads: “First car to Crow, W. Va. Walter Dudley and family of Glen Morgan, Permission Postmisstress at Crow. June 11, 1910″ appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history...
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They tell me I can’t pull a flower after there’s a park
On June 15, 1934 it all officially came together at long last. Congress’ act dated that day noted that an area of 400,000 acres within the minimum boundary of the park had been acquired, and therefore...
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You are now embarking on a perilous course
Representative Joseph Crockett Shaffer (R-9th District, VA) had been a member of the 71st Congress for only 3 months when the De Priest incident made national news. It was June 1929, and First Lady...
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The unsolved murder of Mamie Thurman
On June 22, 1932, her lifeless body was found where it had been dumped on 22 Mountain, which was then called Trace Mountain. She had been savagely murdered: shot in the head twice, neck fractured, face...
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This boxing match got prize fighting banned in WV
[27a. I. If any person fight a prize fight in this State, or act as second or trainer, or time-keeper, or referee, or umpire, to any persons so fighting, or if any person assist or in any way aid or...
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Time to put a berry basket to good use
Wild berry picking was once a common summer activity throughout Appalachia, and before the advent of Styrofoam or plastic containers the homemade bark berry basket was just the thing to haul your...
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The (accidental) discovery of a lifetime
Leo Lambert (1895-1955), though trained as a chemist, was an avid cave enthusiast. He was the first person to explore the Tennessee Cave on Mount Aetna (now known as Raccoon Mountain Caverns), and at...
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Light up a Spud!
The pack was expensive at 20 cents, but you got the first menthol-infused cigarette, ancestor to “Kool,” “Salem” and others. Why was it called “Spuds?” Lloyd ‘Spud’ Hughes, 1928. Collection Mingo...
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Which of them REALLY invented ‘Dr Pepper’?
The town boomed when the railroad came through in 1856, and so in 1872 a former Confederate surgeon named Dr. Charles T. Pepper started a soon-to-be-thriving business dispensing patent medicines in a...
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