Appalachian History

Before the days of T.V.A. and large power companies, electricity was supplied to rural areas by such imaginative and pioneering men as Arthur Abernathy Miller. In 1925, Miller, a brilliant self-educated electrical engineer, built the first hydroelectric dam in north Alabama --- the DeSoto dam in Ft Payne, AL.

Miller had furnished electrical power for two towns in Virginia and one in West Virginia before coming to Fort Payne from Chattanooga in 1921. He knew he had found an ideal location for his plant at this picturesque spot atop Lookout Mountain. His initial goal was to help supply power to his Little River Power Company, later sold to Alabama Power Company, which he constructed below the falls on the west side of the gorge.

After he decided to build his electric plant at DeSoto Falls, Miller's first problem appeared to be the area's inaccessibility. There were no roads at all and Miller's heavy Lincoln mired deeply in the muddy log trail on several occasions before he and Baltimore developer Phiffer Smith built the first road to DeSoto Falls. The road connected the falls with the brow of the mountain, where a road already ran to Valley Head.

Miller hired many local men for the construction of his dam, which was first built to a height of 10 feet. Later various people of the area contributed sufficient funds to raise the dam an additional 10 feet in order to increase the size of the lake.

The heavy diesel machinery purchased by Miller posed a problem, as he was at the south end of town and some distance from the depot. There was no double track to aid in the unloading, and train officials emphatically declared they could keep the train stopped for no longer than 30 minutes. They were certain this amount of time was totally inadequate for unloading such massive equipment. However, after skillful and detailed planning, Miller accomplished the feat in the allotted time.

At first Fort Payne was furnished with electricity from dark until midnight. Then, after a number of local women had purchased electric irons, power was supplied on Thursday afternoons to allow this task. Later electricity was made available all day and night.

As there was no central switch for the street lights, Ernest Wallis, a young school boy, became Fort Payne's equivalent of the "ole lamp lighter", riding his bicycle up and down the streets at dusk to turn the lights on and returning after dawn to turn them off.

On many occasions Miller jumped up from his evening meal and rushed through the darkness from his home on the corner of Third and Gault to restore electric service after an incident of power failure. But his worst such experience was to keep the power flowing during a carnival's visit to town. Every time the merry-go-round made a few turns, all the machinery stopped and the lights went out.

Miller and his partner Smith saw great possibilities in further development of this beautiful area and purchased 300 acres of land surrounding the falls. They formed the DeSoto Falls Development Company, with Smith as president and Miller as secretary and treasurer. Their tract of mountain land was divided into 266 building lots, and plans were made for a community clubhouse and tennis courts. A historic old fortress area below the falls was to be preserved as a park. However the descending Depression years prevented the further development of their park.

Arthur Abernathy Miller’s generator has long been out of commission, but the dam, waterfalls, canyon and reservoir above the dam are now a tourist attraction. A square concrete base still marks the spot where electrical power was generated for Fort Payne, Mentone, Valley Head, Collinsville, AL and Menlo, GA.

sources: www.desotostatepark.com/lol-aamiller.htm
www.tourdekalb.com/history%20-%20A.%20A.%20Miller.htm


Arthur+Abernathy+Miller DeSoto+Falls Ft+Payne+AL hydroelectric+dams appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

(continued from yesterday...)

When the Union forces first reached Atlanta, Callahan sent his daughter word not to go in for more goods, but to stay home with the children. From 30 miles away the loud roar of cannon could be clearly heard. She declared in 1928 that she would never forget the battle sound. Callahan was killed during the battle of Atlanta, after having fought for the Confederacy for several years.

After the burning of Atlanta, Sherman's march took him through the Indian family's cornfields, which were "in roasting ear," and Nancy assumed full responsibility for providing food for the other fatherless children.

Nancy remained single for over 40 more years. In her seventies, she married Norman Dollar and moved to the Mentone area. Twenty years later, her husband died. She managed to buy his tombstone by selling her cow. From this time until her death eight years later, the legends grew around Granny Dollar. She enjoyed embellishing the stories told about her and encouraged their telling. She told fortunes and managed to survive by growing chickens and vegetables and by the generosity of friends and neighbors.

"Another race has taken our fields, our forests and our game. Their children now play where we once were so happy. The trouble with the white race," she mused, "is that they lay up so much for old age that they quit work at 50 or 60 years. When they stop working, they get out of touch with nature; all wear shoes in summer which keeps them from God's good earth; then they begin to fail, and soon they are dead."

Her last years were spent on Colonel Milford Howard's property. The ruins of her cabin are almost hidden from DeKalb County Highway 156, on the south side of the road a short distance east of DeSoto Parkway. The chimney still stands and vines have taken over the decaying ruins. Across the paved road a dirt road meanders up a hill to the former site of Colonel Howard's Master School.

Colonel Howard is responsible for much of the legend surrounding Granny Dollar. In 1928 he wrote a feature story about her for The Birmingham News. He met Granny upon his return from a long stay in California. She had then settled into one of his cabins. Although his own financial situation was precarious, Howard agreed to provide for Nancy, which included a bit of fat meat in her greens and biscuits, her baccy for her ever-present corncob pipe, and rations for her “Injun” chickens and mongrel dog Buster.

Buster was very old himself, having reached the age of 20. He'd long served as Granny's faithful guardian, ever ready to attack anyone who approached either him or his mistress. He had frightened so many people and had even bitten several children, Buster was despised by the neighbors as a mean, vicious beast, but Granny had loved him.

Preparing for her own demise, Granny had saved twenty-three dollars toward a tombstone, but the money was stolen from her. Three years to the day from the publication date of the Progressive Farmer article about Granny Dollar, the January 28, 1931 issue of the Fort Payne Journal announced her death.

People in the community arranged for her burial beside her husband in Little River Cemetery, and Colonel Howard delivered the eulogy.

After Granny's funeral no one wanted Buster and he was equally unwilling to have anything to do with any prospective new master or protector. When neighbors went to check on the old dog, they found him gnawing the door, his angry snarl revealing the gums which once had held dangerous teeth.

After he refused to be coaxed or driven from his vigil, the mountaineers decided it would be more humane to chloroform Buster than to allow him to grieve himself to death or slowly starve. When Buster’s body was buried, another funeral was held with Col. Milford W. Howard, famous lawyer, congressman and author, eulogizing Granny Dollar’s faithful mongrel dog.

In 1973, largely through the efforts of Annie Young of Fort Payne, Granny’s tombstone was erected. The head of an Indian woman is inscribed at the top and "Daughter of the Cherokee" is written at the bottom, next to the dates "1826-1931" (her exact birth date is uncertain.)


Sources: www.desotostatepark.com/lol-Granny%20Dollar.htm
www.mentonealabama.org/Strayhorn/StrayhornLegends.htm
http://www.mentonealabama.org/Granny.htm



Granny+Dollar Ft+Payne+AL Trail+of+Tears Cherokees appalachia appalachia+history appalachian+history

She said she was 101 at the time of the interview in the January 28, 1928 issue of the Progressive Farmer, but she remembered the early days of childhood well.

There is no doubt that Nancy Emmaline Callahan Dollar, who came to be known as "Granny Dollar," was what is known as a character. This friendly old woman, who lived on Lookout Mountain about nine miles from Fort Payne, AL, enjoyed reminiscing and talking to visitors.

Born in Buck's Pocket (a five-mile-long gorge on Sand Mountain spanning DeKaIb, Jackson and Marshall counties) eight miles east of Coffeetown, Nancy was the daughter of a Cherokee father named William Callahan and a half Cherokee Indian, half Scots-Irish mother named Mary Sexton.

She enjoyed the games played by Indian children, including one called "dog and fox" and liked to pitch quoits, an activity similar to pitching horseshoes. She never attended any kind of school.

Nancy's father hunted game while the rest of the family raised corn and potatoes. On one occasion after having killed a very large deer, her father appeared to be very sad and unable to eat. The concerned mother, after persistent questioning finally elicited the reason for his distress. "I cannot eat my meat," he said. "I fear my three poor little children in South Carolina are hungry. I have a wife and three children in South Carolina and I was forced to leave them there." Nancy's mother replied, "Go and fetch them. There is room and plenty to eat."

Thus, Nancy's family soon included another mother and sister and two more brothers. The Cherokees were allowed to have more than one wife and in Nancy's family, at least, there appeared to be no dissension or jealousy. "My father's hut was enjoyed by all," she recalled.

She remembered that her mother appeared as happy over the new arrivals as did the children and had her big dirt oven full of baked potatoes and venison ready for the ravenous children. The two women labored together in raising the crops and caring for the family. Together, they had a total of 26 children, including three sets of triplets born to Nancy's mother.

This large family ate wild turkey, deer and fish with vegetables, which included cabbage, pumpkin and corn. Their corn was roasted with the shuck on. Johnnie cake, sweetened with molasses and hominy, were also common foods. The oven used for cooking their meals was made of red clay and was used under a shed outside the home.

When most Indians left this area to join the forced march over the "Trail of Tears," William Callahan avoided moving his family from their beloved mountain home by hiding in a cave. He did leave later, however, after an altercation with a white man named Jukes, during which the Indian, his temper aroused by curses and a false accusation, bit off Jukes' nose and one ear. Fearing that the Jukes family might retaliate by burning his home, Callahan moved to Georgia and settled in Marthasville, near Atlanta.

When Nancy was about 21 years old she sought a way to make money in order to help provide food for her many younger brothers and sisters. One of the mothers was now dead (she did not specify which one.)

She began hauling goods from Marthasville to the country stores near her home, a distance of 30 miles. She made long trips over rough roads in a covered, or tar-pole, wagon drawn by two mules. The wagon axles were greased and the mules hitched, unhitched and fed by Nancy herself.

Slaves helped her load the goods at Kyle Brothers Wholesalers and storekeepers helped her unload the cases of molasses, meat, salt, powder, lead, gun caps, shoes, dishes and wagon tires which she hauled for some 15 or 20 years. She was never robbed or molested in any way during the many trips she made alone.

During this period she became engaged to a storekeeper's son named Thomas Porter, but the Civil War ended this romance. Porter joined the Confederate Army and was killed in battle.

(continued tomorrow...)

Sources: www.desotostatepark.com/lol-Granny%20Dollar.htm
www.mentonealabama.org/Strayhorn/StrayhornLegends.htm
http://www.mentonealabama.org/Granny.htm



Granny+Dollar Ft+Payne+AL Trail+of+Tears Cherokees appalachia appalachia+history appalachian+history

Fort Payne [AL] Journal
May 28, 1941

Mr. Driskill’s ancestors on his father’s side were three Irishmen who settled in Maryland. His mother’s ancestors were English. Charles Driskill was born March 15, 1866, a mile from Portersville, in Big Valley, on the George Place. His Grandfather, who came from Winchester, TN, settled there in 1830.

Charles was the 13th child in a family of 16 children, though one died in infancy. The living consisted of nine boys and six girls. He attended school at Lookout Chapel, three miles from Sulpher Springs. At the ripe old age of 18 he taught school at Lookout Chapel where he had learned his A B C’s.

On Christmas Day, 1889, he married Miss Laura Dean, of Valley Head, who was born on Puddin’ Ridge. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Christmas, 1939.

This couple at Noccalula Falls, AL is not the Driskills! But the Driskills lived near here and were about the same age as this man and woman. Photo late 1800s.

After their wedding, the Driskill’s settled on a farm and lived there until 1912, when they came to Fort Payne and bought out the Jim Malone Restaurant. After a few month’s work in the restaurant, Mr. Driskill went to work in the J.O. Crow Store and worked there on and off for ten years. He also worked in G. L. Malone’s Store for three years and he worked in a store for J.W. Walker. He served in the Fort Payne City Council for 16 years and was City Clerk for two years. In 1930, he retired from active life, except for work in his vegetable garden and other work around the home.

Mr. and Mrs. Driskill are the parents of five children, three boys and two girls; and they have five grandchildren, three boys and two girls. The boys are all telegraph operators. Byron Driskill is a telegraph operator at Tuscaloosa now, but he was for twenty-five and one-half years, operator at Fort Payne Railroad Station. Bernard Driskill quit the telegrapher’s job to work in the bank. He is now Teller and Assistant Cashier of the First National Bank of Fort Payne. Bill lives in Daytona Beach, Florida. He is manager for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, a position he has held for 25 years.

The girls are Mrs. W.S. Brown (Fanny Driskill) of Jackson, MS, (she worked in a bank in Birmingham for some years) and Mrs. Donald V. Marshall (Carrie Driskill) of Birmingham, AL. D.V. Marshall is widely known for his successful business dealings with Holiday Inn activities.

Fort Payne Fire Department and City Clerk's Office mid 1940s.

Mr. Driskill has held nearly all the offices in the Masonic Lodge and there are many men in Fort Payne that have learned Masonry from Mr. Driskill. He is a conscientious worker in the First Methodist Church and has been a steward for more than forty years.

Mr. Driskill does not look his age of 75. He has had no serious illness, except influenza. Until he was 49 years old, he never had a doctor call on him. His chief hobby is playing checkers. And he is still laughing over a game he played and won in Daytona Beach, FL, last year when he and Mrs. Driskill were visiting their son, Bill. The Driskills have lived in the home they live in now since 1915. The lawns and the flowers are wonderfully kept. Mrs. Driskill looks after the flowers which she loves. Mr. Driskill takes no interest in the flowers, except to enjoy their beauty. But he looks after the vegetable garden. He said that no plow has been in his garden for ten years. He digs the soil with a fork.


source: http://files.usgwarchives.org/al/dekalb/newspapers/gnw326charlesl.txt



appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history Ft+Payne+AL

As we look over the country today we see two classes of people. The excessively rich and the abject poor, and between them is a gulf ever deepening, ever widening, and the ranks of the poor are continually being recruited from a third class, the well-to-do, which class is rapidly disappearing and being absorbed by the very poor.

“On one side of this gulf we see the people toiling day and night, in the fields, the mines, the factories, working for meager wages, scantily clad and poorly fed and when the year’s crop is gathered or the day’s wages are paid we see the products of the farms and the fruits of the toil transferred across this inseparable gulf and delivered to those who are on the opposite side.

“An inspection shows that they are well clothed and that they have every comfort and luxury. They live in splendid mansions, in gorgeous palaces. We see no farms, no mines, no mills, no factories, for the dwellers on this side of the gulf do not labor. Yet there is piled up all the products of the farms, the mines, the factories which came from the other side.

“A little study of the situation reveals the fact that the laws are such that this vast army of people on one side are compelled to labor and toil in poverty in order that the few dwellers on the other side may lead lives of idleness and luxury.

“One of these classes represents plutocracy, the other represents the great masses, the toilers of the nation.

“The greatest struggle of all the ages is the one now going on between these two classes. Plutocracy is endeavoring to widen and deepen the chasm while the people are trying to bridge it until there will be a common ground on which all can meet on an equal footing.

“The rapid concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is the most alarming sign of the times and unless speedily checked portends the decay of our national greatness. The danger is so imminent that thinking men everywhere are alarmed.

“I have an unwavering faith in the honesty and patriotism of the masses and believe that when the critical moment arrives they will exhibit the spirit of our ancestors when they declared what ‘all men are, and of right ought to be, free and equal.’”

The American Plutocracy, by Milford Wriarson Howard, Holland Pub. Co, NY, 1895

Milford Wriarson Howard (1862-1937) wrote three nonfiction books on political subjects. He was a member of Congress, 7th Alabama District when he wrote ‘The American Plutocracy.’ In 1894, he had run as a Populist following a bitter split in Alabama’s Democratic Party, winning in a violent race where threats were made against his family. Two years later he suffered a nervous breakdown but successfully ran for re-election, moving his family from Ft Payne to Cullman, AL, for their safety.

Howard was seriously considered as a candidate for governor of Alabama and the U.S. Senate, and was nominated for the presidency in 1908. He was unsuccessful in a third 1910 Congressional run.

In 1927, Howard took his wife on a six-month trip to Europe, writing a series of articles about their trip for The Birmingham News. He interviewed fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Italy, and the interview changed his political views, causing him to endorse fascism. His last book was "Facism, A Challenge to Democracy." published in 1928.

Credit is due him for the existence of Alpine Camp for Boys, the Master Schools for underprivileged children on Lookout Mountain, Sally Howard Memorial Chapel, and the Scenic Highway, which runs the length of Lookout Mountain. His dreams led to Comer Scout Reservation, DeSoto Park, and DeSoto Parkway.


sources: www.alabamaliterarymap.org/author.cfm?AuthorID=111
www.mentonealabama.org/Strayhorn/StrayhornLegends.htm
www.desotostatepark.com/lol-howard.htm
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10904378



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