Stay ConnectedWelcome to “Stories of Appalachia,” the podcast where hosts Steve Gilly and Rod Mullins have been unraveling the captivating history and folklore of the Appalachian region since 2015. Join them as they guide you through mist-covered mountains and winding rivers, exploring the stories that define the heart and soul of Appalachia.
www.storiesofappalachia.com
Copyright: © Copyright Steve Gilly
This week we tell the strange and little-known story of the Mountain Cove Community, a spiritualist commune founded in the mountains of what’s now West Virginia in the early 1850s.
Led by Reverends Thomas Lake Harris and James L. Scott, the group believed they could communicate with spirits, build a new Eden in Appalachia, and create a perfect society apart from the corruption of the outside world. But as power, prophecy, and control grew inside the community, Mountain Cove began to unravel.
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In 1948, a small town in West Virginia became the center of a growing national fear over the perceived evil influence of comic books. There, in the town of Spencer, a schoolteacher and her students gathered thousands of comic books and set them ablaze in a bonfire, starting with one featuring the Man of Steel, Superman.
What led to this dramatic moment? In this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of the time a national panic reached into the heart of Appalachia, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
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George Washington Kirk was a carpenter from Greene County, Tennessee.
He was also a feared and hated Union soldier/bushwhacker during the Civil War, operating in the mountains along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Kirk and his band of Unionists known as Kirk's Raiders were hailed as heroes by some and denounced as nothing but savages by others.
From the audacious raid on Camp Vance and the brutal Battle of the Bloody Chucky at Red Banks in what’s now Erwin, to his post-war role in the Kirk-Holden War against the Ku Klux Klan, George Kirk’s story is another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
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In 1755, the frontier settlement of Draper’s Meadow was shattered by a brutal Shawnee raid in which many settlers were killed and the survivors captured. Among those taken prisoner was Mary Draper Ingles, a young wife and mother. The group was forced into a grueling march north to a village in the Ohio country. Separated from her children and facing a winter in the wilderness, Mary made a choice that would become one of the greatest survival stories in American history.
This week, we tell the story of Mary’s incredible 500-mile journey home. With nothing but a tomahawk, a knife, a blanket and sheer will, she navigated treacherous terrain and escaped starvation to return to her Virginia home in the New River Valley.
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James Harrod was a soldier, a longhunter, an explorer and the man who founded Kentucky’s first permanent pioneer settlement. But in February 1792, the legendary Colonel Harrod walked into the woods and never returned.
Today we tell the story of the man who founded Harrodsburg, Kentucky and the many theories surrounding his mysterious disappearance, including a possible connection to the fabled Swift’s silver mine.
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Roger Tandy Quisenberry had every advantage in life: wealth, education, and opportunity, but chose a path few could understand. From the California Gold Rush to a dangerous expedition in Nicaragua, his early years were filled with adventure. But when he returned home to Kentucky, something had changed. He withdrew from everybody, lived alone in a crude cabin, and became known for his extreme isolation and strange behavior.
Today we tell the story of Tandy Quisenberry, the woman hating hermit of Kentucky, another one of the Stories of Appalachia. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment on your favorite podcast app, we’d appreciate it.
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In the spring of 1895, a sudden wage cut swept through the Flat Top-Pocahontas coal fields along the Virginia/West Virginia border, touching off one of the earliest large-scale labor confrontations in that part of Appalachia. What began as a wildcat strike quickly shut down mines along the Norfolk and Western Railroad, disrupted coal shipments to Norfolk, and brought state militia into the company town of Pocahontas.
Today we tell the story of the Flat Top miners’ strike of 1895.
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Born aboard a ship of immigrants in the Atlantic Ocean, Kasper Mansker became a longhunter, venturing out to explore the wilderness of Kentucky and Tennessee from his home in what’s now West Virginia. From those longhunts to building Mansker’s Station and helping shape the Cumberland frontier, his life is part of the story of those who moved west on the Appalachian frontier.
If you enjoy our stories, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast, too...you'll get an ad-free version of the Stories podcast plus lots of extra unreleased episodes!
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Daniel Ellis of Carter County, Tennessee was a wagon maker who became one of the most successful guides of the Civil War. Living behind Confederate lines in East Tennessee, Ellis created a secret route through the Appalachian Mountains to Union territory at Cumberland Gap.
Traveling mostly at night and avoiding Confederate patrols, Ellis made about twenty journeys through East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, guiding roughly four thousand Union supporters to safety. About two thousand of them later joined the Union Army.
Join us as we tell the story of the man Confederate soldiers called “The Old Red Fox” for his ability to escape capture, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
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This week, Rod and Steve tell the story of Ray Vaughn Shores, better known as Von Shores, an Appalachian aviator and popular aerial daredevil in Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky during the 1920s and ’30s, who, it’s said, once crashed his airplane near Pound, Virginia
He was a favorite at local airshows and fairs and it’s also said he ran whiskey for Al Capone during prohibition.
Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast wherever you get you favorite podcasts. Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast, too, and help us tell our Stories of Appalachia!
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