Appalachian History

May 31, 1898

Yesterday morning, Monday, I left Hyden to come to this neighborhood to see about getting permission to furnish a teacher for this school district. There are 109 scholars in the census. I want to put a Wilmore teacher here, full of the Holy Ghost, to get the people saved.

Storefronts in Hyden, KY, 1928. The Filson Historical Society collection.

As I passed near the school house there were 10 or 12 men sitting at the roadside on blankets or coats, playing cards. There were two games going on. I stopped and warned them mildly; they never stopped playing or made any reply.

I went to see Harrison Napier, a trustee, a merchant living two miles above the mouth of Wooton's Creek. He is 44 years old or nearly so, and five weeks ago married a girl not quite 14 years of age. He has grandchildren, several children at home. She came to the store, looked as she is, a little girl, with short dress on, very childlike in her manner and appearance.

Mr. Napier told her to go back to the house as that was the place for the children. He is a very bright man, is considered the best salesman in the county.

He said that he would employ any teacher that the district wanted, but I am told he has a man whom he wants to put in.

He gave me no encouragement, was not disposed to talk about the matter. He is very impure and his impurity led him to kill a man whose wife's affections he had alienated, a man named Bailey.

Hiram Napier or Harrison Napier, collection of Pamela Walker Robinson, New Albany,IN

His excuse for marrying a child was that he knew that she was pure and being a child she and his children would get along pleasantly together. This is a hard community though there are some good citizens in it. There is a lawless element; two stills were cut up a few days ago.

June 1, 1898

I visited the county jail, and held services twice. Monday morning last, I went to Wooton's Creek again to see further about the school at that place. During my stay, Emanuel Wooton received an appointment to raise a company for the Cuban War from the governor. He got it the 27th and the 31st; he led 46 men. Then young men in the county were enlisting very fast. Some married men were volunteering also.

The creeks are full of timber. They have had no tides yet in Leslie County, and very little in Clay. In the two counties there are 80, 000 logs ready for market, worth $240,000 or at least $200,000. The young corn is very vigorous in the bottoms and on the hillsides men, women and children are cultivating it. I hardly past a field that did not have women in it, where work was being done. The people have an abundance of corn this year. This staple is worth little more than last year, and there are thousands of bushels in this county, and plenty in Leslie County to do the people.

The people are strong in intellect considering their lack of culture. The children are both handsome and bright. The young people make a much more attractive appearance than in former years. They have more money, more knowledge of what other parts of the world are doing, and have a greater desire to keep up with the customs and fashions of the world.

From the Diaries of Reverend John J. Dickey, a traveling Methodist minister who roamed southeastern Kentucky in the late 1800's


sources: www.globalgraffiti.com/family/sizemore/dickey.htm
http://files.usgwarchives.org/ky/bell/bios/napier310gbs.txt



Leslie+County+KY marriage+customs mountain+preaching appalachia appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

"The home of Nathan Noble was known far and wide for the ample room, good living, welcome cheer and forest hospitality. The entertainment was noble, majestic and grand in its services and welcome in its invitation. A stranger never left the cabin door of these mountaineers hungry, unless it was destitute of food or the wants of the stranger were unknown to the inmates of the cabin.

"Early in the history of the settlement two Methodist preachers came to pass Sunday at the home of Noble, [and they] insisted that all the cooking be done on Saturday for Sunday. Their will in this was granted. Next morning, Sunday, Nathan had his wife prepare for him a warm breakfast and place it on the end of the table where they were to eat and place the cold meals on the other end where the preachers were to eat. Breakfast was called and the parties seated as intended.

Isabelle Deaton Turner: her father was Jackie Deaton, and her mother was a Noble. Brothers were: Joe Deaton, who ran the post office & railroad station at Wolfcoal; Brant Deaton, and Ned Deaton.

Photo mounted on cardboard. Middle Fork/Turkey area of Breathitt County.

"The meal had not proceeded far when the preachers asked that they be served with the warm breakfast whereupon Noble interrupted by telling them that they had requested that this be done and that they must eat the cold breakfast. Noble explained by saying that they had matters as they requested and that he wanted, so far as possible, people who ate at his house to have what they wanted and the way they wanted it.

"Sometimes a new preacher might find his way into the neighborhood. At that time it was almost considered sacrilegeous for the children to play or make a noise while the preacher was there. This quietness proved the breeding and manners of the home. Little Johnny or some other little boy was hard to hold in restraint very long. Something was sure to occur to bring a recital of the grammar or some of the most used words of the home vocabulary--- all to the annoyance of the mother or shame of the sister."

---History of Breathitt County, by E.L. Noble, (publ. 1928 in Jackson Times newspaper of Breathitt County KY)



Breathitt+County+KY mountain+preaching appalachia appalachia+history appalachian+history

It’s tent revival season throughout Appalachia! Last week the Voice of the Word Ministries tent revival took place in Johnson City, TN. Later this week the Blue Ridge Foothills annual tent revival kicks off in Wolftown, VA. You can bet there are hundreds more throughout the region – the region that invented the tent revival.

The first camp meeting took place in July 1800 at Gasper River Church in southwestern Kentucky. A much larger one was held at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in August 1801, where between 10,000 and 25,000 people attended, and Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist ministers participated. It was this event that stamped the organized revival as the major mode of church expansion for denominations such as the Methodists and Baptists, who were newly converted by the teachings of John Wesley.

“The significant and most recurring theme in mountain preaching,” according to Deborah McCauley, author of Appalachian Mountain Religion, “is that of a broken heart, tenderness of heart, a heart not hardened to the Spirit and the Word of God. Mountain people teach through their churches that the image of God in each person lives in the heart, that the Word of God lodges itself in the heart, and the heart is meant to guide the head, not the other way around.”


“God led me into the Free Methodist Church when in 1935 I was sanctified in a revival preached by Brother Albert Faust from Pittsburgh,” said West Virginian Dewilla Lemmon of her revival experiences. “Melrose Uphold, a neighbor, and Sister Eva Young, a local Free Methodist preacher, arranged for a meeting in a vacant building near my home. This came as an answer to prayer for me because I had been privately seeking holiness, not really knowing what it was, only that for many months I had craved a pure, perfect condition of heart with God, notwithstanding the knowledge that I had been born again.”

One of Lemmon’s fellow worshipers, “Sister Uphold,” explained to her that the experience she sought was “sanctification.” “So I went to the altar and prayed for it. I also made various restitutions. Brother Faust quoted the Scripture: ‘The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple.’ And Jesus did just that for me on the night of September 22, 1935 after Brother Faust had delivered his sermon and while Sister Young walked up and down behind me at the altar quoting in a strong voice: ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’”

Sources: http://are.as.wvu.edu/ferber.htm#_edn24
Lemmon, Dewilla. “Camp Memories” journal exercise recorded by Pauline Shahan. July 6, 1980
Appalachian Mountain Religion. University of Illinois Press: Chicago; 1995
http://www.theopedia.com/Great_awakenings

Related Posts: "Warmly Tactile Worship Behavior"


tent+revival camp+meeting mountain+preaching appalachia appalachian+culture appalachian+history history+of+appalachia