Appalachian History

Ringing out the old, ringing in the new. Everyone's doing it tonight. One New Year tradition in Appalachia is the New Year baby. The custom of using a baby to signify the New Year originated in ancient Greece, the baby symbolizing in this case not birth, but re-birth. The Germans added the twist of a baby with a New Year's banner, bringing the idea with them to early America.

The traditional New Year's meal throughout the region generally centers around black-eyed peas. They might be accompanied by rice and stewed tomatoes, or ham and cabbage, or whipped into a Hoppin' John (or Hop'n John) stew. But wherever they turn up, they symbolize luck, friends, and money in the coming year.

Some folks in Appalachia open every door and window at the stroke of midnight to let out any residual bad luck. They make a loud ruckus banging on pots and pans, setting off fireworks and taking part in other noisy activities to chase it far away.

The Scots-Irish community often observes 'first-footing' on Hogmanay (Scottish word for the last day of the year) -- the first person to set foot over a neighbor's threshold on the New Year brings that household luck for the year. First footer greeters hope for a fair-haired man and that he will be carrying a lump of coal for the fire, a loaf for the table and whiskey for the man or men of the house.

source: www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/jan1a.html


New+Years+Eve Hoppin+John appalachian+food Hogmanay Scots-Irish appalachia appalachian+culture appalachian+mountains+history

University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C.
June 29, 1889
O.P. Temple, Esq
My dear Judge
I have read with great interest every word of the Knoxville Journal, concerning John Sevier, etc. The occasion was on of deep historic interest. I hope you will send me the more permanent publication which will doubtless be issued hereafter.
Your own contribution is of special value & beauty. Allow me to suggest that you should devote some of your leisure to the composition of a History of East Tenn. No living man is perhaps so well qualified as yourself for this work. At least you might select some special topic, if no more. Ein kind regard to your family. We are well.
Yours very truly, Ed. T. Joynes

University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C.
July 11, 1889
Dear Friend –
Your most interesting letter recd. Let me hope you may yet carry our your plans, if only on the narrower lines such as you suggest. It is a deficit in our southern people that they will not write their own history nor even prepare materials for the future historian. Hence our noblest deeds and characters are forgotten, or misrepresented. How different in New England. Regard G Flemming If I can run off for a week, I shall come to Knoxville this summer if only for a planning visit with him and a talk with you
very truly Ed. S Joynes


Oliver Perry Temple (1820-1907) did indeed carry out the plans referred to in the second letter. He took the idea Joynes proposed about writing histories of East Tennessee and went on to author ‘The Covenanter, the Cavalier, and the Puritan (1897)’; ‘East Tennessee and the Civil War (1899)’; and ‘Notable Men of Tennessee,’ which was published posthumously in 1912.

Joynes was well qualified to spot writing ability in his friend. By the time he wrote the above letters, he’d already published “Introductory French Lessons,” “The Education of Teachers in the South,” and “A German grammar for schools and colleges.” He went on to publish 10 more books, mostly in the same ilk.

In the preface of his first book, Temple introduces himself as ‘OLIVER PERRY TEMPLE, For twelve years one of the Equity Judges of Tennessee,’ and dedicates the book ‘To the Scotch-Irish Society of America, which is doing so much to rescue from oblivion the history of the Covenanter People.”

The Covenanters were Scotsmen who in 1638 signed the National Covenant, a covenant confirming their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Temple named his estate ‘Melrose’ after the ruined abbey in Scotland near which his wife had been born. All his maternal ancestors were from Scotland. Scotch-Irish issues were personal.

“The publication of this little book in its present form is due to an accidental circumstance,” he continues. “The matter it contains was prepared as a part of a larger and perhaps more important historical work, on which I am now engaged, and which I hope will soon be in print. Happening to show some of the chapters to a friend, in whose judgment I had great confidence, he said to me : Why not publish these chapters as a separate book?

"The matter they contain is only remotely related to that of the main book, and the two should not appear together. It happened that my own mind was running in the same direction, and had nearly arrived at the same conclusion. The publication of this book, in its present form, is, therefore, mainly due to that interview. It is, as it were, a leaf torn from another book.

"The chief reason for writing so fully, or at all, about the Covenanters is given in the opening sentences of Chapter IV of this book. The error and injustice there referred to are remarkable, indeed amazing; but it is not too late to correct them by letting in the light of history. A brief comparison of the record of the Covenanters with that of the Cavaliers and the Puritans shows in how remarkable a manner the former people have been neglected and ignored in the history and the public thought of the country. If I shall be able to quicken the interest in this great race, already existing, awakened by the noble efforts of The Scotch-Irish Society of America, I shall feel that I have, indeed, done a good work."


Sources: The O.P. Temple Papers/University of Tennessee Special Collections Library
http://www.archive.org/details/covenantercavali00temprich



Oliver+Perry+Temple Knoxville+TN Covenanters Scots-Irish appalachia appalachian+history

St. Patrick’s Day is only a couple of weeks off, and one of the things you'll always find plenty of at that celebration is shillelaghs.

The shillelagh [siúil éille is an old Gaelic word meaning "oak club"] is a wooden cudgel associated with the Shillelagh Forest in County Wicklow, Ireland, famous for its once massive stands of oaks.

As often seen in depictions of leprechauns, shillelaghs appear to be nothing more than Irish walking sticks, and they certainly are that. But consider another Gaelic term for the staff: ‘bata,’ which means ‘fighting stick.’

Both the Scots and the Irish used them this way, especially during the historical era when neither group was legally allowed weapons for self-defense. And at other periods the shillelagh served well for those who simply could not afford a gentleman's sword. The Scots called their staff a ‘kebbie’ or ‘kebbie stick.’

In addition to being used as a weapon to ward off wild animals, muggers, and thieves, shillelaghs could be brought out to settle disputes---a ‘kebbie-lebbie’ to a Scotsman. Stereotypes of drunken shillelagh-swinging louts have overshadowed the existence of a disciplined martial arts training with the stick.

In his 1790 book, 'Personal Sketches of His Own Times,' Sir John Barrington wrote that stickfights were exhibitions of skill...."like sword exercises and did not appear savage. Nobody was disfigured thereby, or rendered fit for a doctor. I never saw a bone broken or a dangerous contusion from what was called 'whacks' of a shillelagh (which was never too heavy)."

The preferred material for shillelaghs is oak or blackthorn (‘pear hawthorn’ to us) due the density and hardness of those woods. The blackthorn, in particular, also has longstanding religious connections to staffs. One old legend says St. Joseph's staff was cut from the same hawthorn tree that produced the Crown of Thorns placed on Jesus' head at the crucifixion. Another states that the first hawthorn bush grew from the staff of St. Joseph.

The knobby end can be bored out and filled with molten lead, transforming the shillelagh into a ‘loaded stick.’ To keep the wood from splitting during the drying process and to harden it, sticks were often buried in a manure pile, or smeared with butter and placed in the chimney to cure, which gives them their distinctive black patina.

When the Scots-Irish settled in Appalachia, they had very little trouble locating materials for shillelaghs: The forests of the southern and central Appalachians are full of black, northern red, white, chestnut and scarlet oaks, and several species of hawthorn are common throughout the region, including may, pear, fanleaf, cockspur, and rome, all of which grow in woodland thickets at altitudes up to 8,500 feet.

In Appalachia as elsewhere, the fighting stick continues to be a symbol of pride for all Celtic and Gaelic cultures.


sources: www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AEmblem/shillelagh.html
www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Homes/1981-01-01/Shillelaghs-Make-and-Market-Them.aspx
www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/shillelagh_and_walking_sticks-t13650/index.html?s=866301538806e6579404e48f05fe42d0&t=13650
The Holy Thorn Ceremony: revival, rivalry and civil religion in Glastonbury, (Presidential Address by Marion Bowman to the Folklore Society, March 2005)
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5677803/The-Holy-Thorn-Ceremony-revival.html
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, by John Johnstone, John Longmuir, W.P. Nimmo, 1867



shillelagh Irish+fighting+sticks Scots-Irish appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

Scots-Irish or not, you may already be aware that this year is the 250th anniversary of the widely loved Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). Many of the bard's songs and poems have become international favorites - even among those who find his use of Scottish lowland dialect difficult to decipher.

If you find yourself in Franklin, NC this week, you might want to track down The Friends of the Scottish Tartans Museum. They, like lovers of Burns everywhere, host an annual Burns Supper, a celebratory tribute to the life, works and spirit of the man, on, or about, the poet's birthday, January 25th. Suppers range from stentoriously formal scholarly gatherings to uproariously informal sloshfests of drunkards and louts.

Most Burns Suppers fall in the middle of this range, and adhere, more or less, to some sort of time honored form which includes only three absolutely essential elements: Burns himself – in a toast, a poem or a song, haggis or some other great Scottish food, and hospitality.

A traditional Burns Supper outline:

The Selkirk Grace

The meal commences with the recital of Selkirk Grace, which is actually the prayer read aloud before the meal and goes like this:

Some hae meat but cannae eat.
Some hae nane but want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit.'

Address to the Haggis

This is a threatening moment for the haggis, which is about to be stabbed by the chairman after he pronounces the last words it will ever hear: The 'Address to the haggis'!

'His knife, see rustic labour dicht
An' cut ye up wi' ready slight'

The address should ideally be accompanied by some gestures to give a hint to those who are not familiar with the poet's language and be followed by the guests toasting the haggis with whiskey.

The Bill o' Fare

A typical Burns' night menu might include: Cock-a-leekie soup, an old Scottish recipe, the main course of Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties and a sweet course of Tyspy Laird (sherry trifle)

The Immortal Memory

This speech comes in many different types, ranging from smart and humorous, to literary and historical, but the main point is to praise Burns as a great man and poet and invite everyone to toast to his immortal memory.

Toast to 'the Lassies'

This toast aims to outline the importance of women in the life of the poet (and in ours!) It is given by a male guest in thanks to the women who have prepared the meal. The speaker invites all men to stand and toast 'To the lassies', in a complimentary or funny tone; however, he should be aware, as the lassies are the ones who have the last word!

Reply to the Toast to the Lassies

A woman will stand and reply to the previous toast, (hopefully) thanking the speaker in an amusing way. She might also make a reference to Burns' women and life. Burns spread his affections freely, and in one decade saw 8 illegitimate children born to him through 5 different women. One of these, Jean Armour, became Mrs. Burns in 1788.

Closing poems and songs

Favorite poems and recitations which usually follow are "Holy Willie's Prayer," "To A Mouse," "Tam o' Shanter", and of course "Auld Lang Syne."

Holy Willie's prayer is a poem written about a certain Willie Fisher, an elder in the Parish church of Mauchline, in Ayrshire. Burns rented a farm near Mauchline as a young man.

Fisher was a hypocrite and himself a sinner who spied on people and reported them to the minister if he thought they were doing wrong. The poem is a satire based on Fisher's sickly self-righteousness. The phrase "Holy Willie" has become part of the Scots language for describing someone humorless and ultra religious.

"To A Mouse" was part of Burns' first published work of poetry ---"Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" ---published in July 1786.

The success of this first effort convinced Burns to abandon plans to emigrate to Jamaica. Buoyed by his burgeoning reputation as an unschooled "ploughman poet," Burns moved from Mauchline to Edinburgh. He was unable to find a patron to support his writing, but publisher James Johnson gave him work editing a collection of Scottish folk songs.

In 1790 he produced "Tam o'Shanter", which was first published merely as an accompaniment to an illustration of Alloway Kirk, in a volume of "Antiquities of Scotland.".

All the while Burns was still editing the folk song collection, titled "The Scots Musical Museum", which was ultimately published in 5 volumes over sixteen years. Burns himself contributed over 150 songs, including "Auld Lang Syne," a reworking of an earlier folk song of unknown origin.

It's the one piece we ALL know of Burns, whether we know the man by name or not, and so it's fitting that a Burns Supper always ends with everyone joining hands and singing "Auld Lang Syne".


sources: www.scottishtartans.org/burns.htm
www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/burns.htm
www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/holy_willie.htm
www.burnssupper2009.com/burns-night/default.aspx



Robert+Burns Burns+Suppers Scots-Irish appalachia +appalachia+history appalachian+history

Scots-Irish Impact on the Appalachian region

Please welcome guest blogger Byron Chesney. By day a computer applications engineer in Knoxville, TN, Chesney is also an active observer of the Southern Appalachian scene on his numerous Tennessee and Knoxville area related websites. Somewhere in all that he manages to eat and sleep!

Stubborn, proud, independent, rugged, individualistic are all terms used to describe the people known as Scots-Irish. They came to North America in the early 1700’s from Ulster in Northern Ireland, where they were forced to flee due to political and religious persecution as well as high rent and a shortage of land. As they tried to settle within the American colonies, they soon discovered that they didn’t fit in there either. Many of the same problems that they had experienced in Ulster were also prevalent in the colonies. So, they packed up their pots and pans and headed south to the mountainous regions that we call the Appalachians. It was here that they settled in the hills of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Carolina, and Georgia, and lived life the way they saw fit.

These fine folks, though regarded by outsiders as “peculiar,” brought with them not only their beliefs and values, but also their traditional brand of music, poetry, and folklore. Today’s country and bluegrass music scenes can trace their humble beginnings back to the hills of Appalachia where families would play handmade acoustic instruments and sing songs of life, love, and lore. Country music superstars Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, as well as many others, can map out their families’ roots back to the Scots-Irish. Many present-day poets and writers can also thank these ancestors for their rich and colorful talents.

Able to scratch out a living and raise a family on an acre of rocky hillside, the Scots-Irish are largely responsible for the independent thinking and determined will of the present-day people of the southeast and regions west. Over 25 percent of Americans can trace their roots back to the Scots-Irish. You might go so far as to say that they were mainly responsible for blazing the new American frontier.

Religion played a huge role in the life of the Scots-Irish; after all, it was their religion that first drove them from their native homeland of Scotland, over to Northern Ireland, and ultimately to the Americas. They chiefly held Presbyterian beliefs and greatly influenced the beginnings of the Baptist and Methodist faiths of Protestant religions in the South. Strong spiritual and family beliefs were instilled in their mind-sets, which naturally have been passed down and are still present in the lives of their descendants today.

Along with music and religion, the Scots-Irish had strong political views. They built up a calculated indifference towards the dictatorship of British rule and the Roman Catholic Church under which they had lived both in their native homeland and in the American colonies. They were heavily involved in the Revolutionary War, fighting on the side of the Patriots. After the war, as payment for their loyalty, many state governments issued land grants to war veterans, allowing them to move their families into the westward expanding territories of North Carolina and what would eventually become the state of Tennessee.

From this group of independent thinkers, we gained the likes of pioneers such as Davy Crockett and Sam Houston, and American presidents Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and yes, even William Clinton. The role of the Scots-Irish on the Appalachian region and the United States of America should not, cannot, and will not be dismissed or overlooked. I, as a seventh generation Scots-Irish Appalachian American, will see to that! Independent? Yes. Proud? Yes. Stubborn? Definitely!


Scots-Irish Ulster Presbyterians appalachia appalachia+history appalachian+culture appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history