It’s no secret that the mountains, rivers, and hollows of Appalachia are some of the most beautiful places on the planet. It’s also been a place of change, progress, oppression, death and bloodshed over its storied history. No wonder then, you might say, that haints, woodboogers, and all manner of strange and and wondrous tales come from the Appalachian region, and I readily agree. Here on this episode we won’t be going into the full breadth and width of Appalachian folklore. That would take more than a few hundred episodes on its own. No, today/tonight we will be taking a small selection from the smorgasbord that is Appalachian Folklore and History.
Rednecks, Hillbillies, and Scapegoats! Oh my!
So first we need to do a little bit of background. Its no secret that I, Ranger, have a huge love for the Appalachians. It feels like home to me. The foggy hollers, the mist covered creeks, and the people all keep drawing me back. So I would be remiss as a researcher and as a descendant of the Appalachian people if I did not tell you a bit about Appalachia.
For starters Appalachia is a region stretching from parts of Canadia land and Maine into Georgia and Northern Alabama and Mississippi (Yes, I did the little rhyme to remember how to spell Mississippi). Historically, it is a rich area. Indigenous peoples from the Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee and Yuchi tribes to the south to the mighty Algonquian, and Iroquois nations in the north all called the Appalachian region home. They are the first, they are still here and are not forgotten. So many stories and life ways come from these people it would take volumes to tell them all. Those things are not mine to tell and I leave it to those who are of those nations to tell their stories, history, and life ways. The Appalachian region is also rich in resources, and that is where we will start. The main exports of the Appalachians in the early 20th century was timber and coal. There is a deep, and bloody bond with this region and coal specifically. In fact, the term Redneck comes from when miners put red bandannas around their necks to signify they supported Unionization in the Coal Industry. In response, the coal companies started a smear campaign painting these people as backwards, barbaric, and uneducated. This wasn’t the first time this had been done to the people of Appalachia. It was a continued assault on the people who lived and died in the mines, logging camps, and company towns to keep them under the thumb of industry. The working conditions for miners were particularly barbaric. Cave ins, explosions, and other accidents were common in the mines. The “Mine Wars’ or the “Coal Wars” , as they came to be known, where the coal miners put on strike after strike and the unions fought for workers rights came to a volcanic head at the Battle of Blair Mountain. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history and is the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War. The conflict occurred in Logan County, West Virginia,and up to 100 people were killed, and many more arrested. It took many years but eventually the miners won and gained better working conditions.
Focusing on the people of the region, and going back to how the wider world perceived and continues to perceive the people of the Appalachia, it is a long held stigma that the people there are backwards, highly uneducated (Dolly Parton, John Nash, Bill Bass III, and so many others would beg to differ on that one), and hostile to outsiders. The people of Appalachia have been the topic of lots of books, most notably the Foxfire series, and the people of Appalachia have been under the watchful eye of more than a few anthropologists and folklorists over the years. Some of the earliest held to this notion that these people were primitive and backwards, but that has lessened over the years as more people have come to realize the falsehoods held within this notion. However, it is here, in the folkways of Appalachia that we will start our journey tonight. So pull up a rocking chair, breathe in that mountain air, and try to not let the mosquitos drive you absolutely batty. It’s going to be a good time.
Folk Remedies and folkways
There are so many to choose from. There’s planting by the Signs or the Zodiac, which almanacs still hold to by the way, to how to get rid of warts, how to ward off haints, how to properly prepare for a wake, and many more. I chose two common injuries/illnesses and their remedies to talk about here. Burns, and the common cold.
The first home remedy is for burns. This isn’t a comprehensive list but ones I found:
Boil Chestnut leaves and place the resulting ooze on the burned area.
Bind castor oil and egg whites around the wound with a clean cloth.
Scrape the inside of a white potato. Take the scrapings and apply them to the burned area. Leave them until the potato is black and the burned area is white. Then add a salve made from talcum powder and Vaseline.
If a person has never seen his father, he can draw the burn out by blowing on the burn.
Take table salt and dissolve it in water. Wrap the burned area with gauze and keep it constantly warm and moist with the salt water.
Honestly, some of these might work. The salt one sounds painful though if you have a 3rd degree burn, ngl.
These are the home remedies for a cold:
Make a tea from the leaves of a boneset( a common plant). Drink the tea when it has cooled. It will make you sick if taken hot. This leaf can be dried to be used in the colder months.
Another tea to make was ginger tea. Make a tea from powdered ginger, or ground up ginger roots. Do not boil the tea but add it to a cup of hot water and drink. Add honey or whiskey for taste.
Put Goose-grease salve on the chest.
Take a three pound can of pine twigs and rabbit tobacco and boil it. Strain it and only drink some every 3 hours. Do not drink more than one full juice glass within a 24 hour period.
Drink Whiskey and Honey Mixed. (my favorite XD )
Take as much powdered quinine as will stay on the blade of a knife, add to water and drink.
These are just a few of the many remedies I found but a word of warning. Some of these undoubtedly work, like the leaves of a boneset plant. It’s been used for pain, fevers, and respiratory infections in ages past. Some do not. Like the remedy of drinking whiskey when you are snakebit. Doctors were very hard to come by in rural Appalachia in the early 21st century and so people had to make due. As one person put it “if it hit, it hit. If it missed, it missed” So be cautious if you look up some of these remedies and make sure it’s actually good for you to do so.
One common well known folk way is planting crops by the Signs. Some almanacs still use this method in part when giving times to plant crops, as well as for things like cutting hair, proposing to your love, and other things. In Foxfire they go into this in detail. Each day of the month is dominated by one of the 12 signs of the zodiac, yeah that thing people base their whole personality on, and each day has a sign associated with it along with a symbol, body part, planet and element the sign represents. So Leo has the symbol of a Lion, its body parts are the heart and back, its planet is the sun, and its element is fire.The signs always appear in sequence starting at Aries, or the Head, and going down to Pisces, or the Feet. Each sign has certain qualities tied to them. So “dry” days of the zodiac, such as Leo or Aries, are good for painting and “wet” days of the zodiac, such as Cancer or Virgo, are good for some types of planting. Never transplant in the heart or head as both of these signs are “death signs”. Plant flowers in Libra which is an airy sign that also represents beauty.
There are also other things to be done by the signs like cutting hair: If you cut your hair in Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, or Pisces, it will grow back stronger, thicker and more beautiful. Also make sure to bake and cook in Aries. Go hunting in Taurus, and Lay foundations in Capricorn. If you want to look into this more I suggest picking up the Farmers Almanac and taking a gander at what all is in there. It’s the best resource on this kind of thing here in 2023.
Coal miner stories of the Tommy Knockers
Tommy Knockers are an interesting phenomenon. They originate in the British Isles, specifically in Wales, and Cornwall. The Mariam-Webster Dictionary states that Tommy Knockers are “the ghosts of men killed in a mine”. Some folks think of them more like small diminutive miners themselves, with Tommy Knockers described as a little person two feet tall, with a big head, long arms, wrinkled face, and white whiskers. It wears a tiny version of standard miner’s garb. It also commits random mischief, such as stealing miners’ unattended tools and food. People have taken to calling it the Cornish cousin of the leprechaun. It is also associated with English and Scottish Brownies, the Irish Clurichaun, and the Kentish Kloker.
The name Tommy Knockers comes from the knocking sound they make right before a tunnel collapses, which is actually the creaking of the earth, stone and timbers about to give way. To some people these spirits are viewed as malevolent spirits and the knocking sound is them hitting the timber braces with little hammers, forcing them to collapse. Others think that these spirits are just tricksters and are not evil. The knocking is actually a warning to the miners telling them which supports are about to go, hoping to stop a catastrophe before it happens. In Cornish folklore to give thanks for this warning the miners would throw their last bite of their tasty pasties, little pockets of baked bread with cheese and meat or some combination of things stuffed inside, into the mine for the Knockers.
Going back to the idea that these Knockers were spirits of miners who died in the mines there was the belief that a man who died in the mines would hover around the area he died until he was buried in sacred ground and it showed as any miner who was assigned to that area would not go down again until the man who was killed was buried and the funeral was over.
A story written in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph had a 1936 story about an incident from 30 years prior that occurred in “the Pocahontas minefield.” The spirit of a man killed in a mine explosion came to a mine foreman to tell him they had buried the wrong body under his name. The spirit directed the foreman to a spot far from the drift mouth where “by a little digging you will find my body. Get it out and bury it in a cemetery.” The only name mentioned was Dan Frazier, a “well known mining executive, who could no doubt shed some further light on this highly interesting narrative.”
Haints
Speaking of ghosts, the people of Appalachia are very familiar with the concept. Haints, or ghosts, are plentiful in the dark hollers and misty roads of Appalachia. The Greenbrier ghost, the only ghost to give testimony in a court of law, is from West Virginia. The infamous Bell Witch also calls Appalachia home, so it’s no wonder the belief in these beings runs deep in the bones of this area. I have selected 2. One is true, the other…well you can judge for yourself.
Ghost Hobo
There used to be a railway between Judson and Bryson City, North Carolina, you know? Judson was a small community of approximately 600 people. It went to a watery grave in 1944 when the Fontana Dam was completed and the lake began to fill. Bryson city is still alive and well.
The train made two trips a day, haulin passengers n freight. The railroad had brought a better life to the people who lived in isolation and poverty, People still waved as the train roared by, and the new train conductor, Charles, always greeted them with a quick whistle toot. When he took over the job from Jack Ledbetter, he was required to make a week’s runs under Jack’s watchful eye. On the second day of his training a misty rain had made the train tracks slick, and this meant Charles had to drive slower, and have his headlight on.
About ten minutes out of Bryson city, Charles saw a tall man in overalls standing at the edge of the tracks who seemed ready to jump the train. Charles blew the whistle, and Jack broke out into a hearty belly laugh. Charles gave him a look, and Ledbetter just smiled, but neither of them attempted to talk over the roar of the train engine.
When they pulled into the Southern depot in Judson, Charles asked for an explanation. Jack grinned like a man with infinite wisdom tolerating the uninformed. “ I’ll bet my last chew of tobacco that you saw a man about to hop the train and blew the whistle.”
“Yeah, whats so funny about that?” Charles asked.
“Son, you saw a ghost. He’s been there for a couple of years. At first I was seein a reflection of the light on the bushes or somethin, but when I saw him on a clear day? I was plain bumfuzzled. I asked around and some of the hands, and passengers have seen him. Common sense told me no mans going to be there as many times as Ive seen ‘im. I dont cotton the notion of ghosts, but this has made a believer out of me.”
Now, Charles knew and respected Jeck Ledbetter, and knew he wasnt one for joshin or pullin a fast one so he asked “Do you know who it could be? Did anybody get killed trying to hop the train there?”
Jack frowned and shook his head “I dont think so. A couple a drunks have gotten killed but that was on the trestle. If anyone died there they didnt blame the railroad.”
“Have you ever stopped when you seen him?”
“Naw,” said Jack, scratching his face “I have slowed way down many a time and hes always gone in a flash, just like today.”
“Well, I’m thankful I saw him while you were still on the job. If theres a ghost on that run, he aint hurt ya, so it stands to reason he wont hurt me, but if you hadnt told me what you think it might have preyed on my mind and caused me to wreck the train. I’m obliged to you Jack.”
Jack nodded and moved to grab his lunch, but stopped and looked over at Charles, “I aint talked this around the bosses.”
Charles nodded, “ I get your drift.”
Jack had been telling the truth. The man was there more often times than not, rain or shine. Crew members and passengers alike had reported seeing him. By the end of Charles’ second year on the run, he had dubbed the ghost as the “hobo” because he was still hoping for an explanation for the man he saw.
As bitter as a pill it was for him to swallow, Charles could find nothing to explain the hobo except that he was a ghost. He’d talked to a lot of people who firmly believed n ghosts, and their theory was that ghosts where the spirits of people who had onced lived. That being the case, charles reasoned, that this hobo had a name when he was alive. So he started his search. According to the ghost believers, and a couple of books Charles had gotten a hold of at the local library, ghosts were apt to to stay around the place they had taken his last breath. So the next logical step, in his mind, was to try and find if someone had died at that spot on the tracks. All he had to go on was that Jack had said that if anyone ever died there, they didnt blame the rail road.
Charles asked around among the crewmemebers and got his first clue. Edith Smiley was a regular passenger and lived about a mile from the hobo’s haunt. If anyone knew it would be her. So Charles tracked her down and asked her if anyone had been killed there.
“Well, theyve found three dead bodies around there in the last few years. Two were the Gibby boys. They were drunk as skunks and got ran over on the trestle. About a year after that another man was found dead on the tracks, but he was somebody who hadnt lived here very long, so we never got the straight of it.”
“Do you know who found him?” asked Charles.
“No, but whoever it was called the Swain county sheriff.”
It hadnt occurred to charles to go to the sheriff. Around these parts people buried their own dead.
Joshua Hite had been sheriff for about ten years, and Charles knew him well. When he showed up at the sheriffs office he greeted Joshua and got right to business.
“I’m here to inquire about a man who was found dead on the railroad tracks between here and Judson some time ago. I’ve been told you were called. What can you tell me?”
“Yeah I was called. Jeb Riley found ‘im. He was stretched face down between the rails. The train had run over him but he wasn’t mangled up. Jeb knows most everybody in the county but he didnt recognize this man, so he sent for me. I called Doc Bacon, and a couple deputies and we rode over there to take a look.” Joshua went on to tell Charles that there were no signs of injury even when the deputies turned him onto his back. His eyes were wide open.
“Those eyes were the weirdest set of eyes I have ever seen.” Joshua said, shaking his head, “One was blue and the other was jet black. Doc Bacon cocked his head to the side and said ‘Looks like jimson weed poison killed him. Let’s get him off the tracks so you can look in his pockets and see if there is anything to tell us who he is.’ and so we moved him off the tracks and I went through his pockets. The only clue to who he might be was a letter in the bib pocket of his overalls. It was addressed to: Luther Evins, Route 3, Pikeville Tennessee. The sender turned out to be Rena Campbell, and knew she lived within a mile. So I sent the deputies to fetch her.
As Joshu talked, Charles recalled hearing a man had been poisoned to death but he didn’t recall hearing he had been found on the tracks. “Did he turn out to be Luther Evins?”
“Yeah,” Joshua said, “Rena identified him. He’d come over from Pikeville the previous summer to stay with an aunt and uncle while he looked for work. They live up the hill from Rena. I had read the letter, and told Rena what I had, so she might as well come clean about her and Evins. Rena is a hard up grass widow (A woman who’s husband is away for long periods of time, or a discarded mistress. Both came up when I looked it up. -R).
“While Evins was here looking for work last summer, he and Rena got together. For some reason he went back to Pikeville, and Rena had written to him to come back because she missed him. He’d been back for about a month before we found him dead. Rena found out he’d been riding the train down to Judson to see another woman and she raised hell.”
“Doc determined he was poisoned with jimson weed. It was in his blood but had also been put in one eye, which is why it was black.”
Charles was astonished. “You mean jimson weed makes your eyes turn black? Never heard that.”
“Yeah, it does but only temporarily. How long it lasts depends on how much has been put into the eye. Neither Doc or I thought he put the weed in his eye, or took enough of the stuff to kill him. Rena’s tale was that he made tea and smoked jimson weed leaves because he liked the way it made him feel. Doc said it produces hallucinations, and in Evins case, he died from a heart attack. Rena admitted that she was jealous but denied she had poisoned him. I poked around but came up dry. His uncle buried him in the family plot next to his house. What’s your interest in this?”
Charles summarized why he had inquired (Brave man, considering this is the 1940’s. People got locked up in asylums for less. -R) To his relief, Joshua did not laugh, so he concluded his summary by asking “Have you ever seen this ghost or heard this ghost tale?”
“No, Ive never seen him, but Ive heard about the railroad ghost plenty of times. I thought it was just another ghost tale. Dont be hesitant about tellin folks youve seen him, cause half tha people in this county see ghosts, and love to talk about it.”
Charles thanked Joshua, and went straight to Jack Ledbetter’s house to tell him the news. Jack listened with an amused grin until Charles finished.
‘Well, son, you put a name to the ghost. That solves the mystery of who he is, but do you think he’ll go away now?”
Charles shook his head, “I doubt it, but I’ll not be seeing him much longer. Word’s out that they are going to start filling Fontana Dam next year, and that means the train run between Bryson and Judson will end. When the tracks go under water, maybe he’ll stop trying to hop the train.”
Sources
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia
Who are the Appalachian People? Documentary Part 1
http://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/8/history/intro.htm
https://www.arc.gov/about-the-appalachian-region/
Baldwin, Juanitta. Smoky Mountain Ghostlore. Suntop Press, 2005.
Carden, Gary. “Appalachian Bestiary: Wondrous and Fearsome Creatures of the Southern Wild.” North Carolina Folklore Journal, vol. 59, no. 2, 2012, pp. 60–92.
https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2020/10/tommy-knockers-mine-ghosts.html
“Spirit Reveals Where Body Was,” The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Sunday, Dec. 13, 1936, Page 3.Themoonlitroad, Craig Dominey. “The Town without Death.” The Moonlit Road.Com, 14 Oct. 2022, http://www.themoonlitroad.com/the-town-without-death/.
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