Hatfield-McCoy Feud Radio Spot
16 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud
in16 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud
in13 Saturday Feb 2021
Posted Huntington, Music
in23 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted Huntington, Music
in29 Saturday Feb 2020
Tags
Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Depot Hill, fiddle, fiddler, fiddling, history, Iredell County, North Carolina, photos, Phyllis Kirk, sheriff, Silas Alexander Sharpe, Southern Railway Depot, Statesville, Tom Dooley, Tom Dula, William Wasson
Iredell County Courthouse, Statesville, NC. The courthouse that hosted Tom Dula’s trial between 1866 and 1868 is gone; this courthouse was built in 1899. 7 January 2020
Col. Silas Alexander Sharpe House. Spectators here saw Tom Dula ride by from the courthouse to the gallows…supposedly playing a fiddle. 7 January 2020
Col. Sharpe House. 7 January 2020
Southern Railway Depot, built c.1911. Tom Dula was taken to a gallows near the original depot at what is called Depot Hill and hanged in 1868. The original depot stood 300 yards to the northeast. 7 January 2020
Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. Perhaps as many as 3000 spectators attended the hanging. 7 January 2020
Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. Sheriff William Wasson had never executed anyone prior to Dula. Photo by Mom. 7 January 2020
Tom Dula was hanged somewhere in this vicinity. For some reason, no historical markers are here to help tourists find the spot. Photo by Mom. 7 January 2020
31 Sunday Mar 2019
Posted Big Harts Creek, Whirlwind
inTags
Anna Brumfield, Appalachia, Belle Adams, Bob Dingess, Dave Dingess, fiddle, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Hollena Dingess, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lula Whitt, Ora Tomblin, singing schools, Weltha Hensley, West Virginia, Whirlwind
A correspondent named “Little Ted” from Whirlwind at Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on January 19, 1923:
Mr. Robert Dingess is conducting a good school on Pond.
Miss Hollena Dingess is enjoying school teaching now. Wonder why?
Suppose the Big 4 Taxi arrives now. Remember, they are acquainted with Harts Creek?
Miss Weltha Hensley made a flying trip to Whirlwind last Friday.
Mr. Robert Dingess calls on Miss Anna Brumfield now.
The singing school is progressing nicely at present.
Harts Creek has a number of mechanics and carpenters. They are completing a cornstalk fiddle at Dave Dingess’.
They are arranging for a millinery store on Trace.
Ora Tomblin was calling on his best friend Sunday.
They are arranging for a party at Mrs. Belle Adams’ school. The air will smell of pumpkin pie then.
Yes, Harts Creeker. “More pud.”
Lula Whitt is some little vamp of this place.
04 Sunday Oct 2015
04 Sunday Oct 2015
15 Saturday Aug 2015
Posted Ed Haley, Music, Women's History
inTags
Appalachia, fiddle, fiddler, history, Josie Cline, Kentucky, Kermit, music, photos, U.S. South, Warfield, West Virginia
The fiddle of Josie (Spaulding) Cline, “Lady Champion Fiddler of Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio & West Virginia”
26 Friday Jun 2015
Posted John Hartford
inTags
banjo, bluegrass music, Brandon Kirk, country music, fiddle, fiddler, history, John Hartford, life, Madison, Marie Hartford, music, Tennessee, writers, writing
Let me try to describe John’s hands. They were very small in every way. He had frail hands as a gentleman might have, with little hair on them. I don’t recall that his fingers were unusually long. His knuckles were slightly larger than his actual fingers, maybe because his fingers were so thin. He kept his fingernails clean and filed smooth with a file. I remember he often filed his nails while on the bus during road trips; sometimes he filed his nails when conversations barely held his interest, half-listening. He absolutely never bit his fingernails. He seldom used his hands for any type of physical work because he didn’t want to risk hurting them; they were, he said, what paid the bills. The skin on his hands was somewhat loose and pale. When you shook his hand, it was very soft, although I’m sure he had slight callouses on the ends of his left hand fingers from playing the fiddle nearly every waking minute of the day. When I first met John at Morrow Library, he shook my hand and insisted that I call him John, not Mr. Hartford. When I later visited his home in Nashville during the summer for weeks or a month, before I had moved to Nashville, he would always shake my hand before I left for West Virginia. I recall at the end of my first trip how he stood in his driveway between his house and the guest house and remarked that we shouldn’t say goodbye because we would see each other again. John did not particularly like goodbyes; he preferred until next times. At the end of his life, upon commencement of his chemotherapy, he would shake very few people’s hand. Due to the chemotherapy, he was particularly concerned about germs. At that time, we shared a laptop and I always took care to clean the keys with alcohol before passing the laptop to him for manuscript review. I did this because I did not want to pass germs and make him ill; he never asked me to do it. Actually, I recall times he told me that it wasn’t necessary, but I did it anyway. Almost always, if he met someone at an event, they would greet him with a handshake, which he had to decline. It was awkward and in a peculiar way I think he enjoyed it. I may be mistaken, but it seems as if he contemplated or did in fact wear gloves for a short time just for handshakes. On a few occasions, he complained about having shaken hands with stout men who nearly crushed his hand; he detested an unnecessarily firm handshake because he said it might affect his ability to play. Later, after I moved to Nashville and visited and stayed many days and nights in his home I observed and he said that one of his favorite things to do was to sit with Marie on the bedroom couch at night and hold her hand while the two of them watched television. These were, of course, private moments and I only intruded if I had a question about the manuscript or a related matter. John’s wrists were small. He never wore a watch on his wrist, preferring instead to keep a pocket watch – usually tucked in his overalls front pocket or in the pocket of his vest, which he nearly always wore. If I remember correctly, his watch was colored gold, not silver. When I think of his hands, I see them holding a fiddle and bow at the dining room table and on stage, I see them moving across a banjo, I see them holding a fork and knife at dinner, I see them placing tiles on a Scrabble board during our games together, I see them holding a glass of red wine late at night during our conversations, I see them holding a book or a magazine at the couch by the fireplace, I see them gripping the wheel of his Cadillac on our way to Piccadilly Cafeteria, I see them pushing PLAY and turning up the volume on his car stereo…
27 Monday Apr 2015
Posted Ferrellsburg, Music
inWritings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain
This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.
Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century