Decoration at Old Town Cemetery in Bakersville

Decoration at Old Town Cemetery in Bakersville

Soon after the Civil War, Decoration Day began to be observed in many cemeteries around the Mountain South.  Southerners often claim the custom was copied in the North and became our national holiday, Memorial Day.  Generally held in the summer, Decoration Day...

Skillful Mountain Girl

Pictured at her loom is Mae Gouge Huskins (1911-1984), daughter of Rev. John Anderson and Hulda Thomas Gouge.  This photo belongs to Mae’s daughter, Betty Conley; it also appears in Cabins in the Laurel by Muriel Earley Sheppard.  That 1935 volume about Mitchell...

The Tradition of Apple Butter

This photo appeared in the Tri-County News, precursor to the Mitchell News-Journal, on September 13, 1973, with the following caption: “Once again it is apple butter making time in the tri-county area.  Many people still make it the ‘old-timey way’ over an open fire...