BoOK #2
Our Southern Highlanders
A Narrative of Adventure in the Southern Appalachians
and a Study of Life Among the Mountaineers
New and Enlarged Edition
By Horzce Kephart
Published 1922
469 pages, illustrated, indexed,
Searchable
Chapter I, "Something Hidden; Go and Find It," discusses the remoteness and ruggedness of the Southern Appalachian
Mountains, the lack of realistic literature regarding its inhabitants, and gives a brief history of the region.
Chapter II, "The Back of Beyond," gives a description of Medlin and discusses how the mountaineers have adapted
to their environment, the difficulties in farming the rugged terrain, and grazing in the highland meadows.
Chapter III, "The Great Smoky Mountains," discusses the topography, geology, wildlife and plantlife of the Great
Smokies range. Kephart also relates a story by a "Mr. and Mrs. Ferris" who ventured across the nearly-impassable
crest of the central and eastern Smokies to Mount Guyot in search of plant specimens. He also discusses the
harshness of the highland meadows, and recounts a story of 17 cattle freezing to death Silers Meadow.
Chapter IV, "A Bear Hunt In the Smokies," recounts a bear hunt undertaken by Kephart and several Hazel Creek
natives. The party includes Granville Calhoun, a Bone Valley resident named Bill Cope ("the hunchback"), John
Baker "Little John" Cable, Jr. (1855-1939), Matt Hyde, and Andrew Jackson "Doc" Jones (1851-1935).[9] The chapter
begins at Hall cabin amidst a windstorm and ends with the successful killing of a bear. This chapter contains one
of the earliest references to the Appalachian folk song Cumberland Gap.
Chapter V, "Moonshine Land," discusses Kephart's initial curiosity about moonshining, and recount's one
mountaineer's justification for the practice.
Chapter VI, "Ways That Are Dark," continues Kephart's discussion of moonshining, particularly how it is made in
Southern Appalachia, the typical size and settings of stills, etc.
Chapter VII, "A Leaf from the Past," traces the roots of moonshining to the British Isles, and explains
how the practice made its way to Southern Appalachia.
Chapter VIII, "Blockaders and the Revenue," discusses the ongoing conflict between
moonshiners and federal revenue agents.
The Hazel Creek Trail approaching the former site of MedlinChapter IX, "The Snake-Stick Man," tells
the story of a federal revenue agent whom Kephart calls "Mr. Quick" (an alias). Quick, who has a hobby
of carving sticks into the form of snakes, has a polymathic expertise that Kephart finds most impressive.
He is in the area to investigate illegal liquor sales at the nearby Cherokee Reservation.
Chapter X, "A Raid Into the Sugarlands," recounts a manhunt led by "Mr. Quick" into the Sugarlands, a remote
valley south of Gatlinburg on the Tennessee side of the Smokies. The chapter includes an anachronistic story
about a mountaineer named "Jasper Fenn" (based on a real-life Sugarlander named Davis Bracken, who lived near
what is now the Chimneys Campground)[8][10] who claimed to have read a copy of Our Southern Highlanders given to him
by the Pi Beta Phi settlement school in Gatlinburg.
Chapter XI, "The Killing of Hol Rose," recounts the killing of revenuer James Holland "Hol" Rose by J.E. "Babe" Burnett and Burnett's subsequent trial.
Chapter XII, "The Outlander and the Native," discusses the mountaineers' attitudes toward outsiders.
Chapter XIII, "The People of the Hills," describes the mountaineers' typical physical traits, work ethic, their ability to
endure harsh conditions, and their general preference for mountain life over urban life.
Chapter XIV, "The Land of Do Without," discusses the mountaineers' homelife, their manner of dress, the prevalence
of poverty and the mountaineers' scorn of charity.
Chapter XV, "Home Folks and Neighbor People," discusses gender and family roles, religion and funerary rights, music
and dancing, and Christmas and New Years Day customs among the mountain people.
Chapter XVI, "The Mountain Dialect," discusses mountain speech. Kephart's observations in this chapter mark one of
the first serious analyses of the Southern Appalachian dialect, and one of the first to label it a distinct dialect
rather than merely the speech habits of the uneducated. While Kephart overemphasizes archaic "Elizabethan"
traits in the dialect, linguists acknowledge his keen observations and painstaking scholarship in this analysis.[11]
Chapter XVII, "The Law of the Wilderness," discusses the mountaineers' penchant for self-reliance and individualism,
the importance of family bonds, and attitudes toward government.
Chapter XVIII, "The Blood-Feud," discusses Appalachian clan feuding, its typical causes, and how it compares to other
cultural clan feuds, such as Corsican vendettas.
Chapter XIV, "Who Are the Mountaineers?", traces the Scotch-Irish roots and migration patterns of the Southern
Appalachian mountaineers, and emphasizes that the Appalachian culture is a distinct culture spread across the highlands of several states.
Chapter XX, "When the Sleeper Awakes," discusses how encroaching commercialism and modernity, brought to the
region by logging firms and other corporations, threatened to erode the mountain culture
BoOK #3
The Men of
the Mountains
250+ pages
Illustrated with 27 photographs
By Arthur Spaulding
Published 1915
The Story of the Southern Mountaineer and His
Kin of the Piedmont; with an Account of
Some of the Agencies of Progress