Front matter
Reading edition
COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY
JEAN THOMAS
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To My Brother
DOCTOR GEORGE G. BELL
A once itinerant “Tooth Dentist”
who became the first Republican county judge
in more than a quarter of a century
at the mouth of Big Sandy
and whose unique sentences have become legendary
throughout the Blue Ridge
APPALACHIAN RITUAL
Emerald nobility Reaching to the sky, Makes the eye a ruler Fit to measure by. In the spring an ecstasy Lies upon the hills— Purpling with new red-buds, Ruffling colored frills. Make an early ritual For the mountain side; Pine and beech are spectators, White dogwood a bride. Give a pair of ivory birch For a wedding gift, All the mountain side a church Where wild flowers sift Velvet carpet-petals down To the edge of hill and town, Showing wild-grape fringes through Opal cloud-thrones dropped from blue. Now the summer like a queen Does her mountain home in green; With a season for a bier Some old majesty lies here. Autumn gold is swift and fleet With a wing upon the feet, Rushing toward a winter breath Pausing for immaculate death. In such economic bliss And a swift parenthesis— In immortal mountain trails, There are resurrection tales. All the while the mountains know Sudden death is never so. —Rachel Mack Wilson
Contents
1. The Country and the People 3
THE LAND 3
THE PEOPLE 10
BLAZING THE TRAIL 16
THE MOUNTAINEER 40
2. Land of Feuds and Stills 46
HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS 46
PEACEMAKER 55
TAKING SIDES 72
MARTIN-TOLLIVER TROUBLES 91
FAMILY HONOR 105
3. Products of the Soil 112
TIMBER 112
WOMAN’S WORK 117
4. Tradition 122
PHILOMEL WHIFFET’S SINGING SCHOOL 122
RIDDLES AND FORTUNES 135
THE INFARE WEDDING 151
5. Religious Customs 155
FUNERALIZING 155
OLD CHRISTMAS 158
FOOT-WASHING 161
NEW LIGHT 164
6. Superstition 168
BIG SANDY RIVER 168
WATER WITCH 169
MARRYING ON HORSEBACK 172
DEATH CROWN 177
A WHITE FEATHER 178
7. Legend 180
CROCKETT’S HOLLOW 180
THE SILVER TOMAHAWK 186
BLACK CAT 189
THE DEER WOMAN AND THE FAWN 194
GHOST OF DEVIL ANSE 199
THE WINKING CORPSE 203
THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN GABLES 205
8. Singing on the Mountain Side 210
OF LAND AND RIVER 210
FEUD 216
LEGEND 218
TRAGEDY 228
PATRIOT 239
9. Reclaiming the Wilderness 248
VANISHING FEUDIST 248
SILVER MOON TAVERN 250
BLOOMING STILLS 255
LEARNING 258
MOUNTAIN MEN 269
COAL 273
PUBLIC WORKS 274
BACK TO THE FARM 283
VALLEY OF PARKS 301
WHEN SINGING COMES IN, FIGHTING GOES OUT 317
VANISHING TRAIL 327
Index 331
BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY