Appalachian History

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Coin collectors today consider the hobo nickel a numismatic treasure, a tribute to long- forgotten folk artists who often literally carved for their supper. The Buffalo nickel debuted in 1913, but it wasn’t until the Great Depression struck that hobo nickel carving reached its peak. During this period, buffalo nickels were the most common nickels in circulation.

The sudden scarcity of jobs in the early 1930s forced a huge number of men to hit the road. Certainly some coins were carved to fill the idle hours. More importantly, a 'knight of the road,' with no regular source of income, could take one of these plentiful coins and turn it into a folk art piece, which could in turn be sold or traded for small favors such as a meal or shelter for a night.

The nickel was an ideal coin from which to fashion such a token. The large profile of the Indian on one side and the classic image of the very wide American bison that complemented it on the reverse side provided an adequately sized canvas for the wandering hobo artist to use. It was portable, and the nickel (a copper-nickel alloy) is the hardest U.S. coin in circulation, ideal for carving.

In a community of generally anonymous drifters, two carvers rose to prominence among hobo nickel creators. Bertram 'Bert' Wiegand was born in 1880 and carved from 1913 to 1949. He signed his coins by removing L I and Y from L I B E R T Y, leaving only B E R T. He tutored the man coin collectors consider the giant of hobo nickel carving: George Washington 'Bo' Hughes (born between 1895 and 1900 in Theo, Mississippi). Bert met the young teenager in a jungle, or hobo camp, along the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad line, and Bo’s first nickels appeared two years later, in 1915. Bo carved till about 1980, when he was last seen by his friend of 40 years, Williard Chisolm, in a Florida camp.

Life as a hobo took its toll: the rigorous manual labor Bo undertook to survive during the money-tight, poverty-ridden 30s rendered his hands stiff and permanently damaged. Frequent beatings by ruthless detectives prowling railroads (where many hobos resided) in search of freeloaders and thieves compounded his dexterity impairment.

Nevertheless, devoted to his craft, Bo worked through the pain and frustrating impediments throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, but in 1957, while he was working on a nickel, his chisel suddenly slipped and struck his hand. The injury forced the once-great hobo nickel engraver to resort to a haphazard punching method. Bo continued his work, but with less frequency and diminished quality, and as America moved into the post-war era genuine hobo nickels became a thing of the past.

The U.S. Mint ceased striking Buffalo nickels in 1938.

Related posts: Riding the Rails

sources: http://www.hobonickels.org/scraps19.htm
www.pcgs.com/articles/article2766.chtml
www.montgomerycoinclub.org/bulletins/2006/club_mccc200607.html


appalachia appalachian+mountains appalachian+mountains+history Bert+and+Bo Bert+Wiegand Bo+Hughes Hobo+Nickels

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 Immigration, the State Geological Survey and the newly created Bureau of Agriculture, Labor & Statistics worked together to send agents abroad, loaded with broadsides and pamphlets, to describe Kentucky’s bright future prospects.

The Swiss jumped first. Many from Canton Bern came to Laurel County, drawn by the new coal mining jobs available in the north and east sections of that county, to found Die Kolony Bernstadt. This village was the largest of several Swiss colonies in the region, others in Laurel County being Die Kolony Langnau, Die Kolony Lily, and a group near Stanford, in Lincoln County.
The Bernstadt Colonisation Company, founded by Paul Schenk, the son of the Swiss President, and Otto Bruner, both agriculturalists, and Karl Imobersteg, the owner of a large passage office, bought 40,000 acres for the cultivation of vineyards. They encouraged German-speaking Swiss, who were suffering as a result of a farming crisis and high land prices in their native country, to come to Kentucky.

From 1881 to 1886, 336 families bought land and erected Protestant churches and two schools. The First Evangelical Reformed Church, also known as the Swiss Colony Church, was built in 1885. The Catholic Swiss families who immigrated here initially celebrated Mass at the home of one of their countrymen. Father Joseph Volk officially brought the Roman Catholic Church to East Bernstadt in 1888, when he established St. Sylvester’s. The Swiss immigrants’ improved farming methods produced well-known wines- Chasselas, Pinor Noir; and cheeses – Emmental, Gruyere, Raclette.

In addition to the Swiss colonies of Laurel County, an Austrian one gathered in Boyle County, a German one formed in Lincoln County, and the Ohio River towns attracted some French immigrants, but overall Kentucky’s effort to import Western Europeans to empty countryside pockets wasn’t a strong success. The Bernstadt post office, which had opened in 1881, finally closed in 1964.

sources: http://snipurl.com/2625m [www_triptrivia_com]
Kentucky Place Names, by Robert M. Rennick, Univ of Ky Press, 1987
The Kentucky Encyclopedia, by John E. Kleber, Univ of Ky Press, 1987
http://snipurl.com/2625t [saintwilliamhistory_cdlex_org]


Swiss+colonies Die+Kolony+Bernstadt Kentucky+Bureau+of+Immigration Swiss+immigrants+in+Kentucky appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history,

An Extraordinary Story
Told by a West Virginia Girl who was Kidnapped Sunday Night

[New York Times, April 8, 1891]


Wheeling, West Va., April 7. ---Since Sunday night, about 9:30 o’clock, there has been much excitement in this city and vicinity over the sudden and mysterious disappearance of Miss Amy Morgan, niece of Henry Morgan, Assistant Cashier of the Exchange Bank of Wheeling. The family resides two miles from the river on the Ohio side, at the extreme western end of Bridgeport.

Sunday evening the young lady left home and attended a neighboring church. She was escorted home by a gentleman friend, and after chatting at the gate for a few minutes, they separated, Miss Morgan proceeding toward the house. From that moment all trace of the girl was lost until noon to-day, when she was driven home by Charles Hill, who found her at the Bridgeport station in an exhausted condition.

Miss Morgan states that when she left her friend at the gate she found that she had dropped a letter and walked back a few steps to look for it. While thus engaged she was seized by two men, who choked her and hurried her into a closed carriage, threatening her with death if she offered to scream. After turning the carriage around several times they started off and drove all night.

About daylight they stopped and one of the men got out and pounded at a door several times. He came back and said “There’s no one there, I guess the game’s up.”

Then they deliberated as to whether they should kill her or let her go, and finally fixed upon the latter course, telling the girl that if she attempted to follow them they would kill her.

After walking several miles, the girl struck the Bellaire, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad and followed it. She reached Kelsey Station, fourteen miles from Bellaire. There she was given food and kept last night, and to-day a ticket was purchased for Bellaire and money given her to ride from Bellaire to Bridgeport, where she was found by Hill, as stated.



crime+in+Appalachia kidnapping Wheeling+WV appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

The most serious difficulty that arose over the stateline issue, and one which threatened bloodshed, was what has been termed the "The Water-Works War." In April, 1889, the Bristol-Goodson Water Company, then just completing their plant on the Tennessee side, desired to extend their water-mains to the Virginia side. This evoked a loud protest from the Virginia authorities and public.

Sam L. King, president and principal owner of the water company, ordered his workmen to extend a pipe to Everett's restaurant, located near the corner of Main and Front streets. No sooner had the workmen reached the disputed territory than officers arrested them and they were fined for trespass.

Front Street, Bristol, VA. No date. Courtesy Bristol Historical Association.

As a further test the president himself stepped into the ditch and began digging, when he was arrested by officer James Cox — taken to jail and afterwards fined. The Goodson council issued an injunction, restraining the water company from working beyond the middle of Main street. This injunction was respected. The Goodson authorities had engaged some of the leading lawyers on the Tennessee side as council- N. M. Taylor, C. J. St. John, Sr., and W. D. Haynes.

When the Bristol-Goodson Water Company desisted in their work the Goodson council ordered work to begin on a line of pipe down Main street. They had a large force of men and made considerable speed. King appealed to Gov. Taylor of Tennessee to prevent them from trespassing, claiming that the agreement between the two councils as to the location of the line had never been approved by the legislature of either state. The governor in answer referred him to his legal advisers, who were also representing the city of Goodson. Warrants were issued for E. H. Seneker, acting mayor — in the absence of Mayor Fanning Miles— and all his councilmen.

The matter being laid before Judge John P. Smith, chancellor of the first Tennessee division, an injunction was issued, restraining the Virginia authorities. N. M. Taylor withdrew from the case.

Sheriff R. S. Cartwright, with his deputies, was placed in charge. Sheriff Hughes, with his deputies, hastened to the scene to protect the interests of Washington County and the State of Virginia.

Gov. Taylor being notified of the injunction, immediately wired, "The laws of Tennessee must be upheld."

Cartwright hurried his deputies through Sullivan County and summoned a posse comitatus. Several hundred responded. They came with all kinds of weapons, as determined as their forefathers were, when called to defend their country.

King's forces seized the armory of the A. D. R. Rifles and appropriated all the guns. The hardware stores found eager buyers for all the weapons in stock.

On account of King's life having been threatened, Sheriff Cartwright made him a deputy sheriff so that he could go armed, to protect himself.

The Sullivan County forces rendezvoused on Alabama street— they marched out Fifth Street to Main and lined up and down the street, facing the ditch on the Virginia side. The workmen in this ditch were armed, as were the line of deputies put there to defend them.

Sheriff Cartwright, with a warrant for James Cox, stepped over to serve it, when Cox, in his effort to elude that officer, caught his foot on a water pipe and fell, with the sheriff on top of him.

Charles Worley came to Cox's rescue, when H. C. Caldwell, Chief-of-Police of Bristol, and Tip Powell, a deputy, rushed to Cartwright 's assistance. It became a general scuffle and the tenseness of the scene was such that, had a cap exploded, it would have been followed by a fusilade of bullets, for the guns were not loaded with blanks that day.

Officer Worley, who had not taken the situation so seriously as had some of the others, said to Caldwell, "Oh, let's get out of this," and the two men got up and walked off together.

Mayor Seneker, acting under reasonable advice, withdrew his workmen from the ditch and placed them in another part of the town. Influential citizens addressed the assembling crowds and urged peace. After much persuasion the leaders agreed to settle the matter in court, and so the friction between the two states, that had threatened a bloody conflict, was tempered by the prospect of an amicable adjustment.

In 1890 the state-line controversy came up before the United States Supreme Court. The state of Virginia was represented by Rufus A. Ayers and William F. Rhea — Tennessee by A. S. Colyer, Abram L. Demoss, N. M. Taylor Thomas Curtin, Hal H. Haynes, C. J. St. John, Sr., and W. D. Haynes. Rhea for Virginia, and Curtin for Tennessee were the examiners. Many witnesses were introduced — among them the sole survivor of a former survey, Col. George R. McClellan. Gen. J. D. Imboden and Gen. James Greever were also witnesses.

As usual the ridiculous side developed in the testimony of some of the witnesses. One confused the Henderson-Walker line with the Mason and Dixon line.A complete history of the dispute was submitted and the Supreme Court decided in favor of Tennessee — that the compromise line of 1802 was the correct line.

In April, 1900 a commission composed of William C. Hodgkins, of Massachusetts, James B. Baylor, of Virginia, and Andrew Buchanan, of Tennessee, was named to retrace and re-mark the old compromise line of 1802. This was completed in 1901-02.

On January 28, 1903, the State of Tennessee ceded to Virginia the northern half of State street, thus ending a long and tedious controversy.


from "Historic Sullivan; a history of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with brief biographies of the makers of history," by Isaac Shelby, King Printing Co, Bristol, TN, 1909
online at http://www.archive.org/stream/historicsullivan00tayl/historicsullivan00tayl_djvu.txt

They’re the first greens of the season, and they’re coming up right about now. Ramps, (Allium tricoccum or Allium tricoccum var. burdickii, Alliaceae) also known as wild leeks, are native to the Appalachian mountains. Ramps can be found growing in patches in rich, moist, deciduous forests as far north as Canada, west to Missouri and Minnesota, and south to North Carolina and Tennessee.

Back before supermarkets arrived they provided necessary vitamins and minerals following long winter months without access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

The salient feature of ramps is the smell. The Menominee Indians called it "pikwute sikakushia": the skunk. "Shikako," their name for a large ramp patch that once flourished in northern Illinois, has been anglicized to Chicago: "the skunk place."

Ramps are pleasant to eat and taste like spring onions with a strong garlic-like aroma. They are often prepared by frying in butter or animal fat with sliced potatoes or scrambled eggs. They are also used as an ingredient in other dishes such as soup, pancakes, and hamburgers. They can also be pickled or dried for use later in the year.


On the heels of ramps a host of other greens start popping up: dandelions, poke, shawnee lettuce, woolen britches, creasies, and lamb's tongue. And around these, women have fashioned womens' worlds. "That was the big deal, when everybody used to go green picking," says Carrie Lou Jarrell, of Sylvester, WV.

"That was the event of the week. Mrs. Karen Thomas would come up and she always brought Jessie Graybill with her, and then Miss Haddad would come, and most of the time Maggie Wriston came with her. And usually Sylvia Williams was always there to do green picking with them. I knew from the time I came into the world that she was just a good friend. But that was the thrill of my life to get to go with all of these women, because they talked about good stuff."

The women laugh over how Violet Dickens once mistook sassafras tea for bacon grease and poured it over the frying ramps: "We need you to come season the ramps," Mabel kidded her. They compare the aromas of poke and collard greens, and marvel at how window screens get black with flies when you're cooking them. They wonder where the creasies (dry land cress) are growing this year, and Jenny points out that creasies won't grow unless you till the soil.


Sources:
“Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia”; Library of Congress/American Memories http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/tending/essay4b.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-449.html


appalachian+history appalachian+culture history+of+appalachia appalachia

Out rolling Easter eggs on the lawn instead! Happy Easter to all of you; we'll be back tomorrow.

"RECENTLY I observed a peculiar behavior of a film of bichromated gelatine after it had been exposed to the action of light for a short time and then immersed into an aqueous solution of picric acid or sodium picrate and dried.

"Those parts of the gelatine film which have been exposed to light are found to be raised and if the exposure has been made under a negative the image will stand out in relief. This behavior of a gelatine film, when treated as above described, may possibly be utilized in some branch of photography.

"I will briefly describe the manner in which one of these relief images may be obtained. An ordinary dry plate composed of a good thick coating of gelatine emulsion is sensitized in a solution containing about thirty grains of potassium bichromate to a pint of water and dried in a dark place.

"After drying, the plate is exposed to light beneath a negative for two or three minutes, then removed from the printing frame, and then washed in cold water to remove all soluble chromium salts. The plate is then put in a saturated aqueous solution of picric acid. This solution should be at a temperature of about 75 F and the plate should remain in same for at least five minutes.

"On examining the plate after its removal from the solution, aside from its yellow colour, it will present the same appearance as if it had been treated with plain water, those parts of the film which have been protected from the light being higher than the other portions. On drying the condition of the film is exactly the reverse: those parts that were protected from the light are in reality depressed. This depression of the film is proportional to the strength of the light acting on said film.

A Knaffl & Brakebill 'relief image' portrait from 1920. Joseph Knaffl (1861-1938) and his brother Charles opened a photographic studio called Knaffl & Brother in Knoxville, TN in 1884.

They specialized in unusual photographs, many of which depicted historic and religious themes. Their best known photograph was the "Knaffl Madonna" (1890), which won praise at the Photographer's Association of American Art Convention in Lake Chatauqua, NY, in 1899.

James Henry Brakebill partnered briefly with photographer William J. McCoy at the turn of the 20th century in Knoxville. But by the end of that first decade he merged his business with the Knaffl brothers to form Knaffl & Brakebill.

Knaffl & Brakebill went on to receive widespread acclaim for their photographic work in the early decades of this century.

"My explanation of this phenomenon is that the picric acid forms a compound with the gelatine, which when dry is much more dense and compact than normal gelatine. That this is the correct explanation, I believe, and is borne out by the fact that if the gelatine film has been exposed beneath a positive, and afterward treated with the picric acid solution, on drying the image will be represented by a depression in the gelatine.

"The exposed portions of the film have become more or less insoluble, and the solution of picric acid is therefore unable to penetrate the film as freely as the unexposed parts and form the compound mentioned above. It appears possible to utilize a relief image of this nature for obtaining prints photo mechanically. The plate in this case should be exposed under a grained negative instead of an ordinary one, and then the image would be composed of numerous small raised dots of very hard gelatine, which should make a good printing surface retaining ink readily."


sources: "Relief Images," by Dr. Braxton D. Avis, in 'The American annual of photography, Volume 34,' 1920, edited by Percy Y. Howe, publ. by The American Annual of Photography, Inc., New York

http://dlc.lib.utk.edu/f/fa/fulltext/3122.html

Easter’s around the corner. If you keep chickens, be sure to color those biddies' eggs; otherwise they won’t hatch! Ever heard that before? Appalachia’s full of such superstitions. Here’re a few:

Weather:
Aching joints indicate rain.
When a bobwhite calls, it’s praying for rain.
Thick, tight shucks on corn indicate bad weather.
Killing a black snake and hanging it on a fence with its belly turned to the sun will bring rain before the next sunset.
If it rains on Monday, it will rain 3 days that week.
An owl hooting high on the mountain signals fair weather; the owl hooting in the lower lands signals foul weather.
There will be as many snows in a winter as there are fogs in October.

Marriage:
If a girl sleeps in a strange bed and names each bedpost a boy’s name, the post she looks to first upon waking will name the boy she’ll marry.
A girl won’t get married if anyone sweeps under her feet.

Dreams:
A dream about the dead means you’ll get a letter.
If you sleep in a strange bed, whatever you dream will come true.

Death:
If a cow moos after dark, someone will die.
If a bird flies against a window pane, there will be a death in the family.
If a dog howls before the moon rises, someone will die.



You’ll have good luck if you:
Find a 4-hole button.
Always put your right sock and shoe on first.
See a bluebird.
Look at the new moon over your left shoulder.
Find a red ear of corn.
Find a pin and pick it up.
Find a penny lying “heads-up” and put it in your right shoe.

Source: Gathering Up Memories: A Collection of Appalachian Stories
By Ann Goode Cooper
Published 2003
Parkway Publishers, Inc.


appalachian+history appalachian+culture history+of+appalachia appalachia