Appalachian History

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

Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times by Dr. Ralph Stanley with Eddie Dean (781.642 STA Main)


Please welcome guest reviewer Jeanne Powers, who reviews books regularly for the Reference Department on the Bristol Public Library [TN/VA] site. Jeanne's from Dickenson County, VA. "I used to watch Mr. Cartoon from Huntington after school," she tells us.



This region has long been known for the wealth of music nurtured on the mountainsides and up in the hollers. Traditional music brought over by European immigrants melded with elements from Native American and African American music to produce a unique sound. "Pop" Stoneman is credited with extolling the virtues of the region's music to Ralph Peer, encouraging him to come here to record.

Peer soon found that Pop hadn't exaggerated: there was a lot of good music in these hills. At about the same time that Peer was making his recordings, a second son was born to Lee and Lucy Smith Stanley at their home in Big Spraddle, Virginia. The baby was named Ralph, and he and his older brother Carter would be steeped in mountain music from birth.

Such is the start of the long awaited autobiography of Ralph Stanley, traditional music icon and legend. The story is told as if you're just sitting on the front porch, passing the time as Dr. Ralph reminisces: he tells us that he knows proper English, but he chooses to tell his story in the phrases and terms of home.

I was reminded of times when, as a child, I'd hear the adults laugh about long-ago shenanigans involving outhouses or stray cows, sing bits of old ballads or hymns, pass along local lore and gossip, and speak of ghosts and faith healings and the proper way to milk a cow.

Dr. Ralph would be right at home with that group, though he realizes that he's speaking to a wider audience, ones who may not know, for example, the difference between Primitive Baptists and Old Regular Baptists. He explains mountain customs, history and traditions, while being neither ashamed nor condescending. He does an excellent job of describing a way of life without electricity, television and indoor plumbing.

Naturally, much of the book is devoted to the music, starting with the brothers' early experiences in singing gospel in churches and at community gatherings such as pie suppers. Then came the gig on "Farm and Fun Time" on WCYB, where the Stanley Brothers first made an impression on the region.

Many of their songs became country and bluegrass standards. Carter's easy way of working a crowd, along with his fine singing voice and gift for songwriting, made him the natural leader of the group, while Ralph was shy and generally deferred to his older brother. Many believed that the "Stanley sound" would end when Carter died. It was up to Ralph to not only prove the naysayers wrong, but to determine a new course for his music, going back to "old time" mountain music rather than pure bluegrass.

Earning a living through music is rarely easy and Dr. Ralph doesn't glamorize life on the road, with seedy bars, jealous musicians, and fleabag hotels. While there are humorous incidents, there are as many that are somber: Lee Stanley's deserting the family when the boys were young, Carter's early death, and the murder of a band member.

Although Dr. Ralph—and yes, the book does explain how he received that title—has been known as a man of few words, he does a fine job of telling his own story without skimping or whitewashing. Several reviewers have expressed surprise at how candid he is; he does have a few bones to pick (he didn't care for the way he was portrayed in a play, for instance) and he isn't shy about how he views his place in traditional music, but the overall tone isn't self-serving.

He does a bit of name-dropping (A. P. Carter, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, etc. )but not nearly as much as he could have. He is generous in his praise of some musicians who really haven't gotten their due, giving names to folk rarely credited in mainstream music history. In a few places he seems downright circumspect. He is honest about the toll the years have taken on his voice, but feels that the true emotion gathered from life experience compensates.

This is more than just a story of one man: it's the story of a region and a time long past. Co-author Dean, a veteran writer for publications such as Spin magazine, has done a wonderful job of telling the story while keeping to the background. The book sounds as if it came straight from Dr. Ralph's lips, without prompting or rewrites.

Several reviewers wished for more photos. I second that, and will add that an index would have been a plus, even if it did take away from the homespun feel.

I picked this book up thinking that it would be another standard celebrity biography, perhaps with a slab of cornpone on the side. I hoped there would be some mentions of this area among the name-dropping, but I wasn't exactly holding my breath. Instead I found a book to which I could relate and one that I'll be recommending to anyone who wants to know about Appalachian life and who enjoys a good, well-told story—even if it's someone who covers his ears when he hears a banjo being played.

I wouldn't be surprised if 'Man of Constant Sorrow' becomes a standard text in courses on Appalachian history and culture, but I hope it'll continue to be read just for the sheer pleasure of hearing such an original and authentic voice.

Yes, Nashville has the Grand Ole Opry and the big name recording artists. But Bristol, the town that straddles the Tennessee/Virginia border, stakes its claim as the birthplace of country music. And lately Bristol's been working hard at capitalizing on that fact. This weekend, for example, the town expects 40,000 country and bluegrass music fans to attend the Rhythm & Roots Reunion, an extravaganza boasting 3 outdoor stages and 12 indoor venues.

Victor Talking Machine Co. was the first record producer to catch wind of the (to them!) fledging "hillbilly" music scene (it wasn’t called country music in the 1920s). In the spring of 1927 they released a single by Delaney, AR fiddle player Eck Robertson. On the heels of its success, producer Ralph Peer spearheaded the push to tap the market for rural mountain music, and in July and August he set about to discover and develop the area's musical talent.

Musicians and singers originally traveled to Victor’s New York studios to record their music, but when remote recording became possible, Bristol became Peer's initial hub of operations -- chosen because of the proximity of local musicians such as Ernest and Hattie Stoneman, the Johnson Brothers, and Henry Whitter.

"In no section of the south have the pre-war melodies and old mountaineer songs been better preserved than in the mountains of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, experts declare, and it was primarily for this reason that the Victrola company chose Bristol as its operating base." -- Bristol Herald Courier, July 24, 1927.

Soon Peer recorded talent from other southern states, including West Virginia, Virginia (the Carter Family) and North Carolina (Jimmie Rodgers). The Carter Family got their start on July 31, 1927, when A.P. Carter and his family journeyed from Maces Springs, Virginia to Bristol to audition for Peer. They received $50 for each song they recorded. Both the Carters and Rodgers were unknowns when they wandered, separately, to Bristol that summer. All in all, Peer recorded 76 performances by nineteen different groups.

These early recording sessions, called the "Bristol Sessions," would mark the birth of country music, and laid the groundwork for much of the genre’s music that followed. Because Bristol is not usually thought of as the place where country music began, it was especially important that the U.S. Congress recognized Bristol's contribution to music history. In 1998, Congress passed a resolution recognizing Bristol as the "Birthplace of Country Music."


Sources: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/VA/200003609.html
http://www.thecrookedroad.org/BCMA.htm
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/music/music.html

related posts: "Jimmie Rodgers"
"Carter Family"


Bristol+VA Ralph+Peer Victor+Talking+Machine+Co Bristol+Sessions appalachia +appalachia+history Appalachian+ballads appalachian+culture appalachian+history history+of+appalachia