History
Jackson Stewart – Live Fast and Die Hard
The old saying “live fast and die hard” could be applied to Jackson Stewart, as well as to his parents and siblings. Almost all of them died in a violent or strange manner, including Jackson. His father, Isaiah, was killed by a falling limb while he was in the woods...
Loafers Glory
This central Mitchell County community was named about 1890 by Jonathon Burleson because men delighted in whitling away their time on the porch of the local general store in the evenings and on Saturdays. One day when such a crowd had gathered, Burleson lazily...
2019 MITCHELL COUNTY HISTORY BEE
The 3rdAnnual History Bee, co-sponsored by the Mitchell County Historical Society and Mitchell News-Journal, is scheduled for Thursday evening, 21 March 2019, at 6:00 PM; once again, we will convene in the Historic Courthouse in Bakersville. Fifty-Eight Mitchell...
Sheriff George K Pritchard – A Colorful Character!
Mitchell County has had 21 men serve as Sheriff. In 1861 the first was Jackson Stewart, the brother of Frankie Stewart Silver; since then many interesting stories have been told and many more are most likely out there to be collected. One of the most colorful...
Catching The Train
Catching the Clinchfield as it wound its way northbound up the mountains, or southbound to the piedmont was an easy task when passenger service was common. The railroad, which ran from coalfields of Elkhorn City, Kentucky to the textile mills of upstate South...
The Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918
A lot of older folks recall their parents and grandparents telling stories about the deadly “grip” that many Mitchell County families suffered 100 years ago. “They said that some took sick and died in two or three days. It was pretty bad.” Little did they know that...
Brummetts Creek School
It’s back to school time! These days public schools have consolidated, with only 2 high schools, 2 middle schools, 2 elementary schools, and 1 primary school in Mitchell County. A century ago, however, each community had a small school with most grades attending...
Celebrating 106 years of the Bakersville Barber Shop Building
The earliest photograph of Bakersville that shows the property on which the Barber Shop building sits today was taken after the 1901 May Flood. It’s shown here beside the first Post Office and the J W Bailey Store which was sold in 1912 to George Young. At this time,...
Mitchell County Historical Society’s 2018 Christmas Ornament Commemorates The Cloudland Hotel
In 1885 Civil War general Thomas Wilder constructed a grand resort hotel atop Roan Mountain near a hunting lodge he had built after he came to the area following the war. The Cloudland Hotel opened to great fanfare with plans to make Roan Mountain a destination for...
Baptism at Pigeon Roost
Baptisms in a creek or river were once the rule rather than the exception for Appalachian Christians. Even if they hadn’t believed immersion in an outside body of water was appropriate, it was some time before indoor plumbing would have made a baptistery inside a...