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THE 
SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 


From  "Frye's  Geography." 


By  courtesy  of  Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston. 


The  Southern  Appalachians. 


THE  SOUTHERN 
MOUNTAINEERS 


BY 


SAMUEL  TYNDALE  WILSON,  D.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  MARYVILLE  COLLEGE 

AND 

STATED  CLERK  OP  THE  SYNOD  OF  TENNESSEE 


Literature  Department 

Presbyterian  Home  Missions 

156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 

1914 


TQ  NEV7  TOPI       \ 
?USLIC  LIDP.AKY 


TIL»BN    F^UNSiaTIONB 


J 


Copyright,  igi4,  by 
The  Board  of  Home  Missions 

OF  THE 

Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 


Printed  by 

J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Co. 

New  York 


5 


FOREWORD 

The  field  of  the  American  Church  extends  over  our 
entire  land.  It  includes  city,  town,  village^,  and  coun- 
try, throughout  the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  and 
the  West,  Every  division  of  this  wide  field  is  in- 
tensely interesting  to  the  loyal  Christian.  No  other 
part  of  the  field  appeals  to  the  heart  with  more  ro- 
mantic interest  than  does  that  included  in  the  southern 
Appalachians.  In  this  little  book  the  story  of  the 
southern  mountaineers  is  told  by  one  who  has  been 
all  his  lifetime  identified  with  them,  and  loves  them, 
and  has  been  their  ready  champion  whenever  occa- 
sion offered.  The  Board  is  glad  to  have  the  story  so 
authoritatively  and  sympathetically  presented  to  the 
Church  at  large. — First  Edition,  1906. 


REVISION 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  has  taken  advan- 
tage of  the  call  for  a  fourth  edition  of  "The  Southern 
Mountaineers"  to  ask  the  author  to  revise  the  book 
in  order  to  incorporate  in  it  the  results  of  the  census 
of  1910,  and  a  statement  of  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  the  mountain  field  and  in  the  work  of 
our  church  in  that  field  during  the  past  eight  years. 
In  compliance  with  this  request,  the  author  has  writ- 
ten into  the  present  revised  edition  the  matters  re- 
ferred to,  together  with  the  results  of  his  own  con- 
tinued study  of  the  general  subject  involved. 

The  value  of  the  revised  edition  has,  moreover, 
been  greatly  increased  by  the  generous  permission 
accorded  the  author  by  Mr.  John  C.  Campbell,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Southern  Highland  Division  of  the  Sage 
Foundation,  to  make  free  use  of  the  facts  and  sta- 
tistical data  of  his  unpublished  study  of  the  Southern 
Highland  region.  The  personal,  thorough-going,  and 
scholarly  investigation  of  the  southern  mountain  prob- 
lem that  Mr.  Campbell  has  been  carrying  forward  un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  Sage  Foundation  during  the 
past  six  years  is  the  most  important  contribution  yet 
made  to  an  exact  and  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
facts  involved  in  that  problem.     The  principal  use 

Vll 


viii  REVISION 

here  made  of  the  material  embodied  in  the  study  has 
been  in  further  illustration  of  the  conclusions  reached 
in  the  former  edition.  In  one  important  particular, 
however,  the  author  has  changed  his  former  letter- 
press to  conform  with  Mr.  Campbell's  conclusions; 
namely,  he  has  adopted  the  larger  bounds  assigned  to 
the  Southern  Appalachian  Province. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  expresses  its  hearty 
and  grateful  appreciation  of  the  courtesy  of  Mr. 
Campbell,  and  is  glad  to  be  allowed  to  give  advance 
currency  to  some  of  the  conclusions  of  his  epoch- 
making  study.  The  Board  also  thanks  the  many 
friends  in  our  own  and  other  churches  who  have 
used  and  often  generously  commended  "The  South- 
ern Mountaineers."  It  is  hoped  that  this  revised 
edition  also  will  be  useful  in  guiding  Christian  patriots 
in  their  study  of  the  southern  highlanders. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  SOUTHERN  APPALACHIANS.  Rocky  Moun- 
tain System — Appalachian  Mountain  System — 
Northern  Appalachians — Southern  Appalachians 
— Their  Extent — Scenery — Climate — Products 
and  Resources — Population — Seclusion  ...       1 

II.  THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS.  A  Composite  • 
Stock — Principally  Scotch-Irish — Other  Strains 
— Scotch-Irish  Evolution — "Transplantation  of 
Ulster  "  —  Londonderry  Patronymics  —  Roose- 
velt's Tribute — A  Virile  Lineage — Race  Registry 
— Three  Classes  of  Mountaineers:  (1)  Class  One 
Is  Helping— (2)  Class  Two  Will  Help — (3)  Class 
Three  Needs  Help — Modifications  of  These 
Classes — Many  Men  of  Many  Kinds — "Mountain- 
eers," NOT  "Mountain  Whites" 11 

III.  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS.     The       ' 

Nation's  Frontiersmen — Established  Christian- 
ity, Protestantism,  Democracy,  Civil  Govern- 
ment,   AND    EdUCATION-^SeRVICE    TO    THE    NATION 

Share    in    the    Revoitution — Kings    Mountain — 
Sons,  Daughters  of  t'&e  Revolution — War  of  1812 
AND  Mexican  War — Civil  War — Spanish- American  '^^P'^  . 
War — ^Servicb  of  Emigrants  and  Indiatiduals  .       .     26  * 

IV.  THE    APPALACHIAN    PROBLEM.      Dixie's    Two 

Problems  —  Black  Problem  —  White  Problem  — 
Problem  and  Its  Peculiarities:  (1)  American,  (2) 
Protestant,  (3)  White,  (4)  Country,  (5)  Varied 
and  Complex,  (6)  Delicate — Wanted,  Tact  and 
More  Tact — Not  Wanted,  "Missionaries" — (7) 
Urgent 42 

V.  THE    MOUNTAINEERS'    REASON    FOR    BEING. 

How  They  Became  Mountaineers:    (1)  Hunting 

ix 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

AND  Fishing  Attractive — (2)  Onlt  Land  Available 
— (3)  Few  "Outlaws" — (4)  Influence  of  Slavery 
— (5)  Mountain  Fecundity — Why  Remain  in  Moun- 
tains? (1)  Few  Do  Migrate — (2)  Inertia  Hinders 
— (3)  Local  Attachment — (4)  Ambition  Dormant — 
(5)  Timidity  Dominant — (6)  Precedent  Lacking — 
(7)  Poverty  Prevents — So,  Populous  Mountains  .     54 

VI.  THE  PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING.  Problem 
Restated — Some  In  Statu  Quo  Ante — Reasons  for 
Problem:  (1)  Lack  of  Live  Neighbors — (2)  Of 
Varied  Society — (3)  Of  Incentive  to  Labor — (4) 
Of  Trade — (5)  Of  Means  of  Communication — (6) 
Of  Money — (7)  Of  Schools — Educational  Statis- 
tics— (8)  Of  Books — (9)  Of  Educated  Leaders — 
Mormonism — Devolution  Versus  Evolution  .       .     65 


VII.  PIONEER  PRESBYTERIANISxM  AND  THE  PROB- 
LEM. Presbyterians  Were  Dominant — Presby- 
terians Were  Active  —  Founded  Churches  — 
Founded  Schools — Founded  Colleges — Helped 
Found  State — And  Were  Successful — And  Their 
Work  Abides 79 

VIII.  LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  THE  PROB- 
LEM. Causes  of  Presbyterianism's  Partial  Fail- 
ure: (1)  Decay  of  Education — (2)  Territory  Too 
Vast — (3)  Ministers  Too  Few — (4)  No  Mission 
Boards — (5)  Many  Ministers  Went  West — But 
Workers  Did  Their  Utmost — Southern  and  West- 
ern Theological  Seminary — (6)  Divisions  of  Pres- 

BYTERIANISM — OtHER  DENOMINATIONS — SoME  UN- 
CHURCHED Neighborhoods — The  Post-Presbyterian 
Age 86 

IX.  PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM  AND  THE 
PROBLEM.  How  Solve  Problem?  (1)  By  Devel- 
opment of  Economic  Life — (2)  By  Perfecting  of 
Public  Schools — (3)  By  Multiplying  of  Uplift 
Agencies — What  Is  the  Mission  of  Our  Church? 
(1)  To  Preach  to  Every  Creature— (2)  To  Dis- 
charge Debt  to  Brethren — (3)  To  Help  Other 
Denominations — (4)  To  Employ  Usual  Methods — 
(5)  But,  Principally,  to  Educate — Supplementing 
State  Education — Education  the  Open  Sesame — 


CONTENTS  xi 

chapter                                                                                      page 
Educate   the   Leaders — ^With    Education   Wide- 
VisiONED — And  Pat  Debt  to  Other  Churches — 
And    Stimulate    Them    to    Similar    Educational 
Work — Thus,  More  Light  96 

X.  THE  DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  COMMU- 
NITY CENTERS.  A  Notable  Uplift  System— And 
Notable  Builders  Thereof — An  Adjusting  Uplift 
System — The  Center,  Its  Genesis — Conditions  of 
the  Renaissance:  (1)  A  Model  Home — (2)  The 
Workers'  Consecrated  Lives — (3)  The  Open  Book 
World — (4)  Training  In  Home-Making — (5)  In- 
dustrial Training — (6)  Community  Welfare  Cam- 
paigns— (7)  Bible  Study — (8)  Moral  and  Religious 
Training — Results:  (1)  Community  Aroused — (2) 
Old  People  Helped — (3)  Young  People  Trans- 
formed— (4)  Usually,  Church  Established — Tes- 
timont  of  a   Visitor — Statistics       ....   109 

XL  THE  BOARDING-SCHOOLS  AND  LARGER  COM- 
MUNITY  centers.  The  Strategic  County  Seat 
— Presbyterial  Academies — Academies  and  Board- 
iNG-ScHOOLS — Worthy  of  the  Kirk  of  Knox — 
Policy  and  Purpose — Service  Rendered — Future 
Service — Twofold  Equipment — Girls  Need  Help 
Most — The  Colleges  of  the  Synods — Stockdalb 
Memorial — Pikeville  College — Witherspoon  Col- 
lege— Harlan  Industrial — Langdon  Memorial — 
Mossop  Memorial — Harold  McCormick  School — 
Favored  Old  North  State — Dorland  Institute — 
Bell  Institute — Burnsville  Academy — Laura  Sun- 
derland Memorial — Ashevxlle  Schools — Where 
the  Graduates  Go 123 

Xn.  THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS.  Ideal  Location- 
Rich  Investment — Fourfold  Object — (1)  The 
Pease  Memorial  House — Little  People — Large 
Work — (2)  The  Home  Industrial  School:  The 
Hand  of  Providence — ^The  Devotion  of  the 
Founders — The  Scope  of  the  School — ^The  Support 
of  the  School — (3)  The  Farm  School:  Its  Develop- 
ment— Its  Design — Its  Rich  Fruitage — (4)  The 
Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute:  "The  Key- 
stone School" — Its  Plant — Its  Clientage — Its 
Teachers — Its  Courses  of  Study — "Home-Making" 
— Religious  Life — The  Outcome 140 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  APPALACHIAN  POWER.  Problem,  Power,  Promise 
— "Power"  a  Popular  Theme — Mountains  are 
Power-Plants  —  Appalachian  Power  —  Natural 
Power — Water  Power — Steam  Power — Mineral 
Resources — Timber  Supply — Farm  Products — Vi- 
tal Energy — Vast  Extent  of  this  Power — Above 
All,  Human  Power — In  Numbers — In  Unity  in 
Variety — In  Strength  of  Race — In  Strength  of 
Body — In  Strength  of  Mind — In  Pure  American- 
ism— In  Spirit  of  Independence — In  Fervent  Pa- 
triotism— In  Sturdy  Protestantism — In  Strong 
Religious  Nature — In  Simple  Faith — In  Strong 
Will — In  Supreme  Self-Confidence — This  Power 
Pent-Up — And  Must  be  Released     ....  152 

XIV.  APPALACHIAN  PROMISE.  A  Fourfold  Promise— 
(1)  Natural  Power  Developed — Enriching  Appa- 
LACHiA — Enriching  America — (2)  Manhood:  Human 
Power  Developed — By  Material  Progress — By 
Educational  Advance — (3)  Christian:  Religious 
Problem  Solved — God's  Love  for  Mountains — No 
Irremediable  Evils — What  Prevents  Will  Remedy 
— What  Sleeps  Will  Awake — Rapid  Rehabilita- 
tion— Ready  Assimilation — Assistance  from  With- 
out— Development  from  Within — (4)  National: 
Future  Nation- Wide  Service — Home  Guards  for 
Appalachia — Reinforcements  for  America — Con- 
tributing Social  Service — Prohibition  Appalachia 
— Heroic  Fighting — Victorious  Fighting — Fight- 
ing Blood — Contributing  Christian  Faith — Con- 
tributing Christian  Workers  —  Contributing 
Christian  Reserves — In  the  Nick  of  Time — Kept 
FOR  the  Master's  Use — Inspiring  View — Problem 
Versus  Power  and  Promise — The  Appalachian 
Providence 172 

APPENDIX.  Statistical  Tables  of  the  Presbyterian 
(U.  S.  A.)  School  and  Community  Work  in  the  Synods  of 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  West  Virginia  for  the  Year 
1913;  AND  OF  the  Sabbath-School  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath-School  Work;  and  of 
the  Regular  Church  Work  for  1913 197 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Southern  Appalachians Frontispiece 

opposite  page 
The  Hills  of  Heaven  and  the  Hills  of  Earth     ....       6 

Men  of  the  MotrNTAiNS 18< 

A  Grandmother  Who  Wanted  a  School  for  Her  People     .  34 

A  Mountain  Hom^ 48 

Hitting  the  Trail 62 

"The  Knobs" 7i8 

The  Elizabeth  Boyd  Memorial,  Oakland  Heights  Presby- 
terian Church,  Asheville,  N.  C 82 

Where  Presbyterian  Work  for  Southern  Mountaineers 

Began  in  1879 90« 

On  the  Way  to  Visit  Pupils'  Homes 102 

School  and  Teachers'  Home,  Jewett,  Tennessee      .     .     .  114 

The  Borland  Institute,  Hot  Springs,  N.  C 128 

The  Laura  Sunderland  Memorial  School 136 

The  Asheville  Home  School 144 

The  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute,  Asheville,  N.  C.  .  148 

The  Asheville  Farm  School  for  Boys 158 

Missionary  Home  and  Church,  Jarrold's  Valley,  W.  Va.  .   168 

"The  Willows,"  the  Boys'  Home  at  Dorland  Institute, 

Hot  Springs,  N.  C 192 


The  Southern  Mountaineers 

CHAPTER    I 
The  Southern  Appalachians 

Relief  maps  of  the  United  States  show  two  ex- 
tensive mountain  systems  traversing  the  country 
northward  and  southward  on  lines  approximately 
parallel  to  the  Mississippi  River. 

In  the  West  the  great  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
Sierras  lift  eleven  states  to  their  own  lofty  elevation, 

and  to  a  large  extent  decide  the 

The  Rocky  character  of  the  industries  of  the 

Mountain  System  .    .  .  . 

populations     that     occupy     those 

states.  The  course  of  empire  has  pushed  irresistibly 
into,  among,  and  over  these  mountains,  until  now  al- 
most every  nook  of  them  has  been  occupied  in  the  in- 
terests of  mining,  lumbering,  cattle-raising,  farming, 
manufacturing,  and  health-seeking.  That  to  which 
Daniel  Webster  once  referred  contemptuously  as  a 
desert  has  come  to  be  regarded  by  the  world  as  an 
exhaustless  storehouse  of  wealth  and  health. 

In  the  East,  corresponding  to  the  Rockies  of  the 
West,  there  stretches  another  less  massive  and  yet 

I 


2        THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

very  noble  mountain  system,  the  worthy  counterpart 
of  the  sister  system  of  the  Occident.    While  second  to 

the   Rocky   Mountains,  the  Appa- 

The  Appalachian  i^chians  are  not  second  to  the  Al- 
Mountaiii  System  ,  ,    t^  <•       .1 

•^  pnie    system    of    Europe,    for   the 

southern  Appalachians  alone  have  a  greater  area  than 
have  the  Alps.  Geologists  find  the  genesis  of  the  sys- 
tem as  far  northeast  as  the  hills  of  Newfoundland, 
and  its  exodus  among  the  hills  of  northern  Alabama. 
Within  its  limits  the  system  embraces  about  175,000 
square  miles  of  mountain  territory  as  against  980,000 
included  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  system,  exclusive  of 
the  Sierras. 

In  the  early  history  of  our  country  the  Appalachians 
were  looked  upon  as  the  natural  western  limit  of  the 
country  and  the  formidable  enemy  of  all  progress 
sunsetward.  As  population  increased,  however,  moun- 
tain passes  were  discovered  and  highways  established 
and  natural  and  artificial  waterways  utilized,  until 
the  Allegheny  barriers  became  only  a  difficulty  to  be 
overcome  and  a  temporary  hindrance  to  predestined 
advance.  Ere  long  the  mountains  came  to  be  ignored 
as  soon  as  passed ;  when  railroads  completed  the  vic- 
tory of  transportation  and  made  easy  the  passage  of 
these  American  Alps,  the  people  almost  forgot  the 
mountains,  and^,  to  all  intents,  the  Alleghenies  ceased 
to  be.  The  Rocky  Mountains  assumed,  in  their  turn, 
the  place  of  dread  and  importance,  but  the  Appalach- 
ians, in  slighted  state,  reigned  on  in  their  silence  and 
isolation,  awaiting  the  time  of  their  rediscovery. 


THE  SOUTHERN  APPALACHIANS         3 

The  northern  Appalachians  are  not  so  compact  or 
continuous  or  extensive  as  are  their  southern  sisters ; 

consequently,  since  they  did  not  so 

The  Northern  seriously  bar  the  progress  of  west- 

Appalachians  ,       .        .       ^, 

ward  emigration,  they  were  not  so 

much  dreaded,  nor,  when  conquered,  were  they  so 
much  ignored.  Their  population  was  for  the  most 
part  assimilated  into  the  economic  and  social  life  of 
the  surrounding  country.  The  development  of  the 
coal  industry  in  the  Pennsylvanian  Alleghenies  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  victory  of  society  over  the 
mountains,  and  even  founded  among  them  many  im- 
portant and  prosperous  cities.  The  Green  Mountains, 
the  White  Mountains,  the  Adirondacks,  the  Catskills, 
the  Hudson  Highlands,  like  the  Pennsylvanian  Alle- 
ghenies, are  in  social,  economic,  and  political  Ufa 
either  part  and  parcel  of  the  commonwealths  in  which 
they  lie,  or  are  so  much  overrun  by  health-seekers, 
pleasure-hunters,  and  wealth-exploiters  as  to  be  per- 
force largely  identified  in  culture  and  interests  with 
the  territory  contiguous  to  them. 

The  problems  presented  by  the  northern  Appa- 
lachians have  been  in  the  main  satisfactorily  solved  by 
the  people  of  the  states  in  which  the  mountains  lie; 
though  here  and  there  retarded  communities  still  ex- 
ist, good  schools  and  the  other  agents  of  civilization 
have  in  the  main  •  equalized  the  culture  of  these  sec- 
tions with  that  of  the  surrounding  territory.  The 
mountains  in  themselves  naturally  attract  much  at- 
tention, being  located,  as  they  are,  so  near  the  great 


4        THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

centers  of  population.  There  is  even  an  Appalachian 
Mountain  Club,  organized  in  the  patriotic  cycle  of 
1876,  to  preserve  the  mountain  forests  and  resorts,  to 
provide  accurate  maps,  and  to  publish  scientific  data 
respecting  the  northern  Appalachians. 

The  Appalachians  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line 
extend  from  the  southern  border  of  Pennsylvania  to 

the  northern  counties  of  Georgia 
The  Southern  ^^^  Alabama.     They  include  the 

Appalachians  ,  .  •;    ,  ,       , 

mountam  masses  and  the  enclosed 

valleys  and  coves  of  nine  states.  The  region  they 
occupy  is  approximately  six  hundred  miles  long  and 
two  hundred  miles  wide.  It  may  be  subdivided  in 
turn  into  three  belts,  which  Mr.  Campbell,  of  the 
Sage  Foundation,  bounds  and  names  substantially  as 
follows:  (i)  The  eastern  belt  is  the  Blue  Ridge  belt, 
which  includes  the  mountain  ranges  that  lie  between 
the  Piedmont  Plateau  and  the  great  central  depres- 
sion of  the  Southern  Appalachian  Province  or  Sys- 
tem. (2)  The  Greater  Appalachian  Valley,  or  the 
Valley-Ridge  belt,  is  the  great  central  depression  lying 
between  the  Blue  Ridge  belt  on  the  southeast,  and  the 
Allegheny-Cumberland  belt  on  the  northeast.  (3)  The 
western  belt  is  the  Allegheny-Cumberland  belt,  and 
includes  the  Allegheny  and  Cumberland  mountains  and 
plateaus  which  lie  between  the  aforementioned  cen- 
tral depression  and  the  western  escarpment  of  the 
Cumberland  plateau  and  the  western  boundary  of 
West  Virginia. 

Mr.  Campbell  has  made  a  careful  personal  survey 
of  the  field,  and  has  consulted  with  the  geologists  that 


THE  SOUTHERN  APPALACHIANS         5 

are  authorities  regarding  the  Appalachian  region.    As 
the  result  of  his  investigation  of  all  the  facts  involved, 

he  includes  in  the  southern  high- 
lands two  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  counties  of  eight  states,  as  follows :  forty-two 
of  western  Virginia,  fifty-five  of  West  Virginia, 
thirty-six  of  eastern  Kentucky,  forty-five  of  East  Ten- 
nessee and  of  the  eastern  part  of  Middle  Tennessee, 
twenty-three  of  western  North  Carolina,  four  of  west- 
ern South  Carolina,  twenty-five  of  northern  Georgia, 
and  seventeen  of  northern  Alabama.  In  view  of  the 
description  of  the  southern  Appalachians  as  given  in 
the  preceding  paragraph,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  add 
the  four  mountain  counties  of  Maryland  to  the  two 
hundred  and  forty-seven  counties  enumerated  above. 
Thus  the  field  that  we  are  considering  may  be  said 
to  consist  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  counties  lo- 
cated in  nine  different  states.  The  total  area  of  these 
two  hundred  and  fifty-one  counties  is  110,412  square 
miles,  or  about  one  third  of  the  total  area  of  the  nine 
states  in  which  the  region  lies;  and  nearly  one  fourth 
the  area  of  the  eleven  Southern  states  lying  east  of 
the  Mississippi  River.  This  area  is  much  larger  than 
that  of  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland  combined ;  over 
half  as  large  as  either  Germany  or  France;  over  twice 
as  large  as  the  empire  state  of  New  York;  and  nearly 
one  third  larger  than  all  New  England  together  with 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware.  Indeed  this  mountain  do- 
main of  the  South  is  imperial  in  its  dimensions. 

The  scenery  in  the  Appalachians  is  sublime  in  the 
extreme.     The  mountains  increase  in  height  as  they 


6        THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

fare  southward,  until  in  Carolina  and  Tennessee  they 
tower  six  thousand  feet  heavenward.    About  twenty 

of   them   rise   higher   than   Mount 
^  Washington,     while    the    tragedy- 

crowned  head  of  Mount  Mitchell  reaches  an  elevation 
of  6,711  feet  above  the  sea.  Their  wooded  summits, 
plateaus,  declivities,  and  gorges  present  an  endless 
variety  of  views  that  in  many  places  rival  in  pictur- 
esqueness  those  seen  in  the  most  famous  of  mountain 
ranges. 

"The  mountains  like  giants  stand, 
To  sentinel  the  enchanted  land." 

The  flora  and  the  fauna  of  the  northern  temperate 
zone  flourish  as  if  in  a  national  exhibit  of  a  zone's 
riches.  Peaks  and  ranges,  cliffs  and  crags,  cascades 
and  waterfalls,  laurel  glade  and  fern  brake,  lie  in  a 
great  silence  broken  only  by  the  song  of  many  birds 
and  the  shrill  stridence  of  insistent  insects.  The 
charm  of  the  mountains  enthralls  more  and  more  those 
visitors  that  are  familiar  with  them,  until  at  least  some 
sojourners  would  fain  remain  within  their  magic 
circle  forever. 

The  climate  is  equable  and  invigorating,  the  ozone- 
laden  air  being  a  tonic  that  to  the  initiated  renders 

the  mountains  an  ideal  health-re- 

Their  Climate  ^    u    uu  •    •  u  a 

sort.   Health  is  m  every  breeze  and 

gushes  from  thousands  of  purest  springs  of  free- 
stone and  mineral  waters.  The  section  is  fitted  to  be 
a  playground  and  sanitarium  for  a  great  nation,  and 
ere  long  will  so  be  recognized.     Many  diseases  yield 


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THE  SOUTHERN  APPALACHIANS  7 

to  the  salubrious  influences  of  the  air  and  water  and 
quiet. 

The  cultivated  sections  in  the  great  and  fertile  val- 
leys produce  liberally  the  usual  crops  to  be  found  in 

the  central  states,  the  staples  being 
Their  Products         ^^^^     ,^^^     ^^^^^       The     purely 

and  Eesources  ,  .  .,  ,  j    i-  1  T 

mountain    soil,    sandy    and    light, 

yields  more  reluctant  crops  of  corn  and  potatoes. 
Fruits  flourish  when  cared  for.  North  Carolina  ap- 
ples are  famous  throughout  the  South.  Hogs  and  cat- 
tle are  produced  in  large  numbers;  and,  were  it  not 
for  sheep-killing  dogs,  the  section  might  be  the  great- 
est sheep-raising  country  in  the  world. 

The  natural  resources  of  the  Appalachians  are  al- 
most limitless.  A  king's  ransom  is  in  every  county, 
if  it  were  only  collected.  The  water  power  is  almost 
incalculable.  The  forests  are  rich  in  timber  of  many 
varieties ;  and  the  earth  is  bursting  with  coal,  iron, 
copper,  zinc,  salt,  mica,  lead,  phosphate,  and  other 
minerals.  Marble  and  other  building  stones  are  found 
in  exhaustless  store.  The  region  in  its  scientific  as- 
pect is  one  of  richest  interest  to  zoologist,  entomolo- 
gist, botanist,  dendrologist,  geologist,  and  mineralo- 
gist; while  in  a  practical  way  it  is  of  most  alluring 
attractiveness  to  the  wide-awake  prospector  and  in- 
vestor. 

The  population  of  the  region  is  collectively  large, 

though  popularly  supposed  to  be  small.     In  the  two 

„  ,  ^  ,  .  hundred  and  fifty-one  counties  that 
Their  Population  1  ^,  ^,  a       1    1  • 

^  make  up  the  southern  Appalachian 

country,  the  census   enumerators   found   in    1910  as 


8        THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

many  as  5,280,243  people.  This  grand  total  exceeds 
by  a  million  people  the  population  of  the  Pacific 
States — Washington,  Oregon,  and  California — and 
doubles  that  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  region,  called 
the  Mountain  Division  by  the  Census  Bureau;  namely, 
the  eight  commonwealths  of  Montana,  Idaho,  Wyo- 
ming, Colorado,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Utah,  and 
Nevada.  This  large  aggregate  is  scattered  over  so 
vast  a  territory  that  the  average  to  the  square  mile 
is  only  forty-seven,  a  fact  that  shows  that  the  teem- 
ing mountains  are,  after  all,  a  somewhat  sparsely  set- 
tled part  of  the  Union.  The  urban  population  of  the 
section  is  so  comparatively  small  that  it  does  not 
greatly  affect  the  average.  The  Rocky  Mountain  Di- 
vision would,  however,  in  comparison  seem  to  be  al- 
most uninhabited,  for  the  average  in  that  region  is 
only  three  to  a  square  mile! 

Collected  in  one  body  the  mountaineers  of  the 
South  would  make  one  state  somewhat  larger  than 
Ohio,  or  a  state  somewhat  smaller  than  Illinois;  or 
a  city  as  large  as  Greater  New  York  and  Pittsburgh 
combined.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  14,555  square  miles  of  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut  contain  nearly  as 
many  inhabitants  as  do  the  southern  Appalachians 
with  their  110,412  square  miles,  an  area  more  than 
seven  times  that  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Connecticut. 

The  tide  of  western  emigration,  as  has  been  said, 
flowed   over  the  southern   Appalachians,   but   ebbed 


THE  SOUTHERN  APPALACHIANS         9 

away  from  them  as  the  advancing  flood  flowed  west- 
ward.    Domestic  emigration  and  foreign  immigration 

alike  pushed  on  toward  the  magic 
Their  Seclusion       ^^^^^    r^^^  ^.^.^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  ^1^^ 

to  divert  attention  from  the  mountain  ranges  of  the 
South.  So  the  nation  went  on  about  its  toil  and  ex- 
pansion, practically  oblivious  of  one  of  its  most  valu- 
able possessions.  The  southern  mountains  were  for 
a  long  time  almost  as  much  a  terra  incognita  to  the 
American  people  as  was  the  far  Northwest  before  the 
Lewis  and   Clark  expedition. 

And  as  the  entire  section  rested  in  seclusion  from 
the  nation's  knowledge,  so  did  each  part  of  the  purely 
mountain  region  live  in  practical  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  section.  There  were  no  pikes  or  well-built 
highways;  oftentimes  only  bridle-paths  led  from  set- 
tlement to  settlement  or  from  cabin  to  cabin.  There 
are  almost  no  natural  lines  of  travel  or  transporta- 
tion, such  as  are  so  liberally  afforded  in  the  northern 
Appalachians  by  navigable  rivers  and  lakes.  For 
several  hundred  miles  north  and  south  no  railroad 
crossed  the  mountains.  Even  at  present  there  are  a 
considerable  number  of  counties  that  are  not  entered 
by  a  railroad.  And  during  rainy  seasons  travel  even 
by  horseback  is  diflicult  in  the  mountain  recesses.  To 
an  extent  that  is  hardly  conceivable  to  their  country- 
men that  dwell  in  the  midst  of  the  twentieth  century 
hurry  and  bustle,  our  southern  hillsmen  are  undis- 
turbed and  unaffected  by  that  hurry  and  bustle.  They 
call  outsiders  "furriners."  They  are  marooned  in  the 
mountains.    They  are  the  latest  Robinson  Crusoes. 


10      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

Thus  the  mountaineer's  horizon  was  limited  by  the 
summits  that  rose  on  every  side,  shutting  him  in  from 
the  rest  of  the  nation  and  forcing  him  to  find  his 
world  in  his  own  small  neighborhood.  And  so  the 
mountains  have  merely  rested  in  what  Ruskin  would 
call  their  "great  peacefulness  of  light,"  unknown  and 
unknowing  so  far  as  the  outside  world  has  been  con- 
cerned. 


>, 


CHAPTER   II 

The  Southern  Mountaineers 

Like  the  rest  of  Americans,  the  mountain  people 
are  of  a  composite  race.     There  is  probably  no  un- 
mixed strain  of  blood  in  any  com- 
|,^0"^P°site  munity     of     the     United     States. 

While  it  is  true  that  family  origin 
is  not  so  important  as  is  personal  character,  it  is  nev- 
ertheless true  that  heredity  has  much  to  do  with  ac- 
counting for  that  character,  and  merits  consideration 
from  every  thoughtful  student  of  history. 

While  it  is  undeniable  that  the  mountain  people  of 
the  South  are  a  composite  race,  the  fact  remains  that 

they  are  probably  of  about  as  pure 
Principally  ^  stock  as  we  can  boast  in  Amer- 

ica.  Almost  all  their  ancestors 
came  from  the  British  Isles.  The  principal  element 
is  Scotch  and  especially  Ulster-Scotch,  more  fa- 
miliarly known  as  Scotch-Irish.  That  this  is  the  case 
is  indisputably  proved  by  history,  by  tradition,  and 
by  the  family  names  prevailing  in  the  mountains.  All 
the  region  about  the  mountains  was  settled  princi- 
pally by  Scotch-Irish,  the  unbroken  traditions  of  the 

II 


12      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

mountaineers  agree  that  the  majority  of  the  pioneers 
were  Scotch-Irish,  while  the  names  of  the  people  are, 
throughout  most  of  the  section,  fully  fifty  per  cent, 
of  them,  Scotch  or  Scotch-Irish.  It  may  be  added, 
too,  that  there  still  survive  most  interesting  phases 
of  life  and  idioms  of  language  that  are  Scotch  or 
Scotch-Irish  in  origin.  No  argument  based  on  the 
present  condition  of  the  mountaineers  can  suffice  to 
render  doubtful  the  cumulative  proof  of  the  prevail- 
ing strain  in  the  mountain  stock. 

There  are  also,  especially  in  the  valleys,  numerous 
Huguenot  names  that  once  belonged  to  the  noble  peo- 
ple who  were  driven  from  France 

Other  Strains  u^t,  4.-         r^-uiz^j-^r 

by  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 

Nantes,  and  the  dragonnades  that  followed  that  revo- 
cation. Most  of  these  Huguenots  came  to  the  moun- 
tains by  the  way  of  Charleston  and  Savannah,  the 
great  Huguenot  ports  of  entry  for  the  South;  while 
others  came  with  the  Scotch-Irish  from  Ulster  where 
they  had  taken  refuge. 

English,  Welsh,  and  German  names  are  also  very 
numerous  in  the  Appalachians,  as  is  to  be  expected ; 
though  the  German  names  are  not  of  any  recent  im- 
migration, but  rather  may  be  traced  back  in  many 
cases  to  "the  Pennsylvania  Dutch."  Kentucky  has 
more  English  names  than  do  the  other  states  of  the 
Southern  mountains.  Occasionally  the  student  of 
ethnology  may  stumble  upon  a  community  that  is  a 
puzzle,  as,  for  example,  that  one  occupied  by  the 
"Malungeons"  of  upper  East  Tennessee.  Our  Church 
conducts  successful  work  in  two  fields  in  this  Malun- 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       13 

geon  region.  The  people,  whoever  their  ancestors 
may  have  been,  are  very  responsive  to  good  influ- 
ences. 

In  this  composite  race,  then,  the  Scotch-Irish  ele- 
ment largely  predominates.    And  surely  that  fact  lends 

an  added  interest  to  the  study  of 
Scotch-Irish  ^j^^  problem  of  the  mountains,  for 

Evolution  ,,  .  ,      ,.         ,  ,    . 

there    is    no    sturdier    element    in 

American  character  than  is  that  contributed  by  the 
Scotch-Irish.  That  the  "Plantation  of  Ulster,"  which 
took  place  as  long  ago  as  the  days  of  James  the  First 
and  Shakespeare,  should  directly  and  prevailingly 
affect  the  character  and  possibihties  of  the  Atlantic 
highlands  of  America,  is  one  of  those  interesting  facts 
that  emphasize  both  the  romance  and  the  philosophy 
of  history. 

The  Irish  rebellion  against  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
been  suppressed  with  relentless  energy,  and  the  con- 
fiscated estates  of  Ulster  were  peopled  by  the  so-called 
"Plantation  of  Ulster."  Protestant  emigrants,  mainly 
from  the  Scotch  Lowlands  but  partly  from  London 
itself,  at  the  command  of  King  James  took  the  places 
of  the  evicted  Irish,  and  established  the  most  in- 
tensely Protestant  section  of  the  British  dominion. 
Scotch  the  colonists  entered,  and  Scotch  they  re- 
mained in  blood,  for  intermarriage  with  the  Roman- 
ists was  prohibited  by  law  and  by  religion ;  but  Scotch- 
Irish  they  became,  as  we  Americans  usually  call  them, 
in  consideration  of  their  Irish  home. 

At  first  they  prospered  greatly;  but  as  early  as  1633 
England  began  to  maltreat  them,  violating  her  pledges 


14      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

and  forfeiting  her  claims  to  their  loyalty  by  a  policy 
of  perfidy  and  persecution.  The  English  State  de- 
spoiled the  Ulster  yeomanry,  and  the  English  ChurcH 
cropped  the  ears  of  the  non-conforming  Presbyteri- 
ans. But  just  as  all  of  Laud's  emissaries  and  Claver- 
house's  dragoons  could  not  force  the  Covenanters  in 
old  Scotland  to  conform  to  Episcopacy,  so  were  all 
the  acts  and  agents  of  Parliament  unable  to  coerce  the 
Scotch-Irish  cousins  of  the  Covenanters  in  their  Ul- 
ster home.  But  so  unbearable  did  their  position  be- 
come that  there  occurred  what  Dr.  Mcintosh  called 
a  "Transplantation  of  Ulster"  to  America  and  re- 
ligious freedom.  Fiske,  in  his  "Old  Virginia  and  Her 
Neighbors,"  estimates  that  between  1730  and  1770  at 
least  half  a  million  souls,  or  more  than  half  the  Pres- 
byterian population  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  emigrated 
to  the  American  colonies ;  and  that  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Revolution  they  made  up  one-sixth  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  colonies.  In  the  New  World,  this  pro- 
lific race  became  a  nation-founding  people.  Their 
annals  have  been  recorded  by  many  historians  and 
their  achievements  hav^  made  their  history  imperish- 
able. 

They  landed  at  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Charles- 
ton, and   leaving  behind  them  the  seacoast   and  the 

colonies  that  had  their  established 
''Transplanta-  religions,  they  advanced  inland  to 

tion  of  Ulster"         .    ^  ,    .•  r       ,     • 

form    a    second    tier    of    colonies. 

From  Pennsylvania  they  pressed  southward  down  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  and  under  the  Blue  Ridge  till  they 
spread  out  southeastward  to  meet  the  Charleston  im- 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       15 

migrants,  or  pushed  down  southwestward  past  Abing- 
don into  the  valley  of  East  Tennessee  and  up  the  trail 
of  Daniel  Boone  into  Kentucky.  So  advancing,  they 
took  possession  of  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  the 
Appalachians. 

The  gravestones  in  eastern  Pennsylvania,  in  Vir- 
ginia, and  in  East  Tennessee  mark  the  successive  mi- 
grations of  some  strong  old  Presbyterian  families. 
These  immigrants  brought  with  them  their  Scotch- 
Irish  convictions  and  characteristics  branded  into  them 
by  the  fires  of  persecution.  Their  invasion  of  the 
mountains  began  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

During  a  recent  visit  to  the  north  of  Ireland,  the 
writer  took  notes  in  Londonderry  of  such  names  on 

the  business  signs  as  are  familiar 

Patro°n  mici  "^""^^  '"  ^^^  southern  highlands  of 

America.  One  of  the  first  names 
noted  down  was  "Brownlow,"  and  it  recalled  to 
memory  the  fact  that  Parson  Brownlow  was  accus- 
tomed to  boast  of  his  Scotch-Irish  extraction.  Then 
the  names  fairly  trooped  into  the  notebook.  When, 
however,  it  appeared  that  the  majority  of  the  names 
encountered  must  be  transcribed  to  the  notebook,  a 
more  expeditious  way  of  making  and  preserving  the 
comparison  was  found  in  the  securing  and  checking 
up  of  a  directory  of  North  Ireland  that  is  published 
in  Londonderry.  On  every  Londonderry  street  the 
names  and,  indeed,  the  faces  of  the  people  demon- 
strated the  identity  of  the  Cis-Atlantic  and  Trans- 
Atlantic  Scotch-Irish  races. 


i6      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  writer  asked  Mr,  Samuel  Bogle,  a  stationer  of 
Londonderry,  what  Christian  names  are  most  used  in 
his  family.  To  the  great  surprise  of  his  questioner 
he  replied  that  Samuel,  James,  John,  Andrew,  and 
Hugh  are  the  names  most  commonly  used  by  his  kin- 
dred. Strange  to  say,  the  four  adults  of  the  Bogle 
family  connected  with  the  Eusebia  Presbyterian 
Church,  near  Maryville,  Tennessee,  a  few  years  ago, 
were  Hugh,  an  honored  elder,  and  his  sons,  James, 
John,  and  Andrew,  while  the  father  of  Hugh,  also 
an  elder,  had  been  named  Samuel.  In  order  to  learn 
what  traditions  survived  regarding  the  branch  of  the 
family  that  had  generations  ago  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica, the  writer  also  called  on  the  father  of  the  Lon- 
donderry Samuel  Bogle,  and  was  startled  at  his  close 
resemblance  to  the  American  Hugh  Bogle,  whose  fu- 
neral services  the  writer  had  not  long  before  con- 
ducted. 

Mr.  Campbell,  of  the  Sage  Foundation,  is  naturally 
interested  in  the  Campbell  clan,  and  so  was  greatly 
pleased  when  informed,  upon  what  seemed  to  be  good 
authority,  that  one  mountain  county  in  Kentucky  has 
several  hundred  Campbells  within  its  borders.  This 
is  a  case  not  only  where  "the  Campbells  are  coming," 
but  also  where  they  have  already  come,  not  this  time, 
however,  in  their  ancestral  homes  in  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland  or  in  the  hills  of  Ulster,  but  in  the  land  of 
promise,  the  southern  highlands  of  America. 

In  the  "Winning  of  the  West"  Mr.  Roosevelt  pays 
the   following  tribute  to  the   Scotch-Irish  pioneers: 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       17 

"The  backwoodsmen  were  Americans  by  birth  and 

parentage,  and  of  mixed  race ;  but  the  dominant  strain 

^  in  their  blood  was  that  of  the  Pres- 

TriMte^^*'^  byterian     Irish— the     Scotch-Irish 

as  they  were  often  called.  Full 
credit  has  been  awarded  the  Roundhead  and  the  Cava- 
lier for  their  leadership  in  our  history;  nor  have  we 
been  altogether  blind  to  the  deeds  of  the  Hollander 
and  the  Huguenot ;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  we  have  wholly 
realized  the  importance  of  the  part  played  by  that 
stern  and  virile  people,  the  Irish  whose  preachers 
taught  the  creed  of  Knox  and  Calvin.  These  Irish 
representatives  of  the  Covenanters  were  in  the  West 
almost  what  the  Puritans  were  in  the  Northeast,  and 
more  than  the  Cavaliers  were  in  the  South.  Mingled 
with  the  descendants  of  many  other  races,  they 
formed  the  kernel  of  the  distinctively  and  intensely 
American  stock  who  were  the  pioneers  of  our  people 
in  their  march  westward," 

Our  mountain  people  may,  then,  boast  a  most  virile 
lineage.     In  many  cases   the  individual  genealogical 

records  have  been  lost, 
A  Virile  ...^  ,      ,.„,,, 

Lineaffe  ^^"         skillful  herald  trace 

The  founders  of  our  ancient  race." 

One  generation  of  pioneers  unable  to  read  or  write 
would  be  sufficient  to  break  the  magic  thread  that  ties 
the  generations  together.  The  writer  once  saw  a  new 
student  upon  matriculating  write  down  a  phonetic 
caricature  of  a  well-known  name,  and  had  the  privi- 
lege of  setting  the  young  man  right  for  the  rest  of  his 


i8       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

life  in  the  correct  spelling  of  his  family  name  that  had 
been  lost  through  illiterate  parents.  But  nobody  could 
efface  the  record  of  racial  lineage  registered  in  name 
and  frame,  in  feature  and  speech,  in  mental  and  re- 
ligious characteristics. 

Rudyard  Kipling  tells  a  story  of  a  puzzlingly  pecu- 
liar family  discovered  in  the  Himalayas.     It  was  evi- 
.  dently    a    family    with    a    foreign 

^  ^  strain  in  it.  Investigation  revealed 
certain  infallible  signs  worked  into  the  Hindoo  family: 
red  hair,  irascibility,  the  worship  of  the  crucifix,  and 
the  singing  of  a  song  that  proved  to  be  "The  Wearing 
of  the  Green,"  and  those  Hibernian  signs  were  all  ex- 
plained and  justified  when  it  was  found  that  a  soldier 
of  a  forgotten  Irish  regiment  had  married  a  native 
woman  and  reared  a  family  in  that  lonely  recess  of 
the  mountains.  Everything  about  the  family  pro- 
claimed its  Irish  ancestry.  Were  all  the  southern 
highlanders  to  conspire  to  deny  their  ancestry,  thou- 
sands of  voices  would  yet  cry  out  of  their  physical, 
intellectual,  and  religious  characteristics :  "Do  not 
deny  the  races  that  gave  you  birth  and  heredity ;  your 
speech  and  everything  about  you  betray  you ;  most 
of  you  are  Scotch-Irishmen;  many  of  you,  especially 
in  Kentucky,  are  Englishmen ;  some  of  you  are  Hugue- 
nots and  Germans ;  all  of  you  are  descendants  of  the 
original  stocks  with  which  God  peopled  the  New 
World.  Hold  high  your  heads,  for  what  more  could 
God  do  for  men  than  he  had  done  for  you !  He  pre- 
pared for  you  :  he  gave  you  great-grandfathers  of  the 
best  races  he  had  in  stock." 


o 


^^BUC  LIBRARY 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       19 

A  century  and  a  half  have  passed  away  and  the 

tnen  of  the  mountains  of  to-day  are  the  descendants 

of  some  of  those  sterHng  pioneers. 
Three  Classes  of      j^       ^^^^   ^^^^   ^^^^^     ^^ate   for 

Mountaineers  -^   ,  .        .      ,    .     » 

several  generations  in  their  Appa- 
lachian homes ;  but  they  are  still  there  to  give  account 
of  themselves,  and  to  face  the  providential  future. 
There  have  developed  among  these  dwellers  in  the 
mountains  three  distinct  classes,  that  must  be  recog- 
nized by  every  judicious  student  of  their  history:  (i) 
nominal  mountaineers;  (2)  normal  and  typical  moun- 
taineers; (3)  submerged  mountaineers. 

I.     Merely  Nominal  Mountaineers. — These  are  the 
large  populations  that  have  occupied  the  fertile  and 

extensive  valleys  of  the  Shenan- 
Class_  One  Is  ^^^^    ^^^    g^g^    Tennessee,    and 

other  rich  valleys  and  plateaus, 
and  have  established  centers  of  trade  and  commerce 
that  have  developed  such  prosperous  cities  and  towns 
as  Birmingham,  Chattanooga,  Knoxville,  Johnson 
City,  Bristol,  Asheville,  Roanoke,  and  Staunton. 
These  mountaineers,  or  rather  valley-dwellers,  have 
to  deal  only  with  such  questions  as  affect  other  in- 
telligent sections  of  our  land.  They  send  out  mis- 
sionaries to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  have  as  rich 
and  pure  a  life  as  have  any  urban  or  country  people 
of  our  Southland.  They  are  a  positive  force  in  our 
national  life,  and  are  a  valuable  asset  in  the  inventory 
that  Uncle  Sam  may  make  of  his  riches.  They  out- 
number the  other  two  classes  combined.    To  apply  to 


20      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

them  any  hasty  generalizations  suggested  by  a  study 
of  the  third  class  is  simply  unpardonable. 

2.  Normal  and  Typical  Mountaineers. — Away 
from  these  centers  of  wealth,  competence,  cul- 
ture,   and    refinement,    there    are    two    other    classes 

more  affected  by  their  mountain 
-^,^,^_z^°  environment  than  are  these  others 

that  merely  live  in  sight  of  the 
mountains  or  in  highland  communities  that  are  "low- 
land" in  their  development.  There  are,  first,  the  true, 
worthy,  normal,  typical  mountaineers  that  deserve  far 
more  of  praise  than  of  dispraise.  While  their  isolated 
and  hard  life,  remote  from  the  centers  of  culture,  has 
contracted  their  wants  and  the  supply  of  those  wants, 
and  has  forced  them  to  do  without  a  multitude  of 
the  "necessities"  and  conveniences  and  luxuries  that 
seem  indispensable  to  many  other  people  of  the  twen- 
tieth century,  they  have  largely  kept  that  which  is 
really  worth  while,  namely,  their  virility  and  force  of 
character.  Hemmed  in  by  remorseless  environment, 
they  have  nevertheless  preserved  the  former  rugged 
character  and  sterling  qualities  of  their  race. 

The  fact  is  that  Nature,  in  accordance  with  her 
marvelous  method  of  compensations,  has  endowed 
these  hardy  mountaineers  with  some  sterner  qualities 
in  lieu  of  the  more  Chesterfieldian  ones  of  more  fa- 
vored society;  qualities  that  render  them  in  sojfie  re- 
spects stronger  and  more  resourceful  than  their  more 
pampered  kinsmen  of  the  valley  or  the  plain.  They 
have  escaped  many  of  the  vices  and  follies  that  are 
sapping  the  life  of  modern  society.    They  have  nerves, 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       21 

in  this  day  of  neurasthenia  and  neuremia.  They  know 
something  of  all  the  necessary  arts,  in  these  days  when 
centralized  and  specialized  labor  gives  each  workman 
only  a  part  of  one  art  to  which  to  apply  himself. 

The  mountaineer  of  this  class  eats  what  he  raises, 
and  applies  to  the  store  for  little  more  than  coffee 
and  sugar  to  supplement  what  his  acres  produce.  He 
often  does  his  own  horseshoeing,  carpentering,  shoe- 
making,  and  sometimes  he  weaves  homespun.  He  is 
the  most  hospitable  host  on  earth,  and  he  heartily  en- 
joys his  guest  provided  that  guest  has  the  courtesy 
to  show  his  appreciation  of  what  is  offered  him.  His 
honesty  coexists  with  a  native  shrewdness  that  is 
sometimes  a  revelation  to  the  unscrupulous  visitor 
that  would  take  advantage  of  him  in  a  trade.  He  is 
usually  amply  able  to  take  care  of  himself.  Indeed 
no  American  has  a  livelier  native  intelligence. 

To  speak  of  this  class  of  mountaineers  as  meriting 
patronizing  disdain  is  to  show  oneself  to  be  a  most 
superficial  observer.  Many  of  these  men  of  the 
mountains  do  need  much  that  can  be  given  from 
without  the  Appalachians,  but  they  have  a  reserve 
strength  that,  when  aroused,  will  speedily  prove  them 
the  peers  of  any  people. 

3.     Submerged  Mountaineers. — There  is  a  third  and 

much  smaller  class  of  mountaineers  of  which  not  so 

much  good  can  be  said.    They  cor- 
Glass  Three 
Needs  Help  respond  to,  while  they  are  entirely 

different  froln,  that  peculiar  and 
pitiable  lowland  class  of  humanity  that  was  one  of  the 
indirect  products  of  the  institution  of  slavery — "the 


22      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

poor  whites"  or  "white  trash,"  as  they  used  to  be 
called.  They  are  the  comparatively  few,  who  are  very 
incorrectly  supposed  by  many  readers  of  magazine  ar- 
ticles to  be  typical  of  the  entire  body  of  southern 
mountaineers.  By  this  mistaken  supposition  a  mighty 
injustice  is  done  to  a  very  large  majority  of  the 
dwellers  in  the  Appalachians.  As  fairly  judge  Eng- 
land by  "Darkest  England,"  or  London  by  White- 
chapel,  or  New  York  by  the  slums,  or  any  community 
by  the  submerged  tenth. 

This  third  class  consists  of  the  drift,  the  flotsam 
and  jetsam,  that  are  cast  up  here  and  there  among 
the  mountains.  They  are  the  shiftless,  ambitionless 
degenerates,  such  as  are  found  wherever  men  are 
found.  Usually  they  own  little  or  no  land  and  eke 
out  a  precarious  existence,  as  only  a  beneficent  Provi- 
dence that  cares  for  the  birds  and  other  denizens  of 
the  forest  could  explain. 

They  are  those  unfortunates  that  are  found  every- 
where, whether  in  city  or  country,  who  sink  to  the 
bottom,  and  leave  upper  and  middle  classes  above 
them.  They  are  simply  the  lowest  class  in  the  moun- 
tains, and  they  deserve  at  our  hearts  and  hands  both 
sympathy  and  aid.  'The  writer  will  make  no  fun  of 
them,  will  recount  no  startling  stories  at  their  ex- 
pense, and  will  not  exploit  their  oddities  or  peculiari- 
ties. It  was  his  good  fortune  to  have  parents  who 
were  foreign  missionaries;  and  very  early  in  his  life 
these  parents  taught  him  to  count  no  one  common, 
unclean,  or  even  ridiculous  for  whom  Christ  died. 
That  early  training  coincides  fully  with  his  inclina- 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS       23 

tion  when  his  brethren  of  the  mountains  are  concerned. 
A  derisive  smile,  a  sneer,  a  cynical  remark,  or  an  un- 
kind criticism  would  cause  the  mountaineer  the  keen- 
est hurt,  and  would  cost  the  offender  the  valued 
friendship  of  that  mountaineer,  and  his  own  brotherly- 
influence  over  him;  and  why  should  one  say  behind 
a  mountaineer's  back  what  would  naturally  make  him 
a  lifelong  enemy  if  said  before  his  face?  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  treat  any  mountaineer  as  if  he  were  a  stolid 
creature  incapable  of  feeling;  for  the  fact  is  that  there 
is  no  one  more  keenly  sensitive  than  is  he.  His  face 
may  not  show  it,  for  he  has  the  Indian's  impassive- 
ness;  but,  if  you  could  see  his  heart,  you  would  be 
reminded  of  the  sensitive  plant  of  his  hills  that  closes 
convulsively  almost  before  you  touch  it,  [/' 

The  proportion  of  Scotch-Irish  names  may  not  be 
so  great  among  this  third  class,  but  many  such  names 
are  found  among  them.  This  class  would  be  a  very 
hopeless  one  were  it  not  for  a  quality  that  will  be  re- 
ferred to  again ;  namely,  the  fact  that  it  can  be  made 
over  in  one  generation. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that,  as  in  all  classifications 

of  men  on  the  basis  of  character  and  condition,  there 

are  many  gradations  among  these 

Modifications  of       ^^^^^  ^j^g^^g    ^^^  j^^^g^  ^hat  the 

These  Classes  .  ^,  ,  .  ^ 

classes  themselves  merge  mto  one 

another,  so  that  at  times  it  is  impossible  to  say  just 

where  one  ends  and  another  begins.    But  why  be  too 

nice  in  determining  metes  and  bounds?     Is  there  not 

even  in  the  great  metropolis  a  slum  problem,  and  is 

there  not  a  Fifth  Avenue  problem — both  with  inde- 


24      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

terminate  boundaries?  The  worthiest  question  any- 
one can  ask  himself  is :  How  can  I  best  help  any 
brother  man  of  mine,  of  any  rank  and  race,  sub- 
merged or  non-submerged,  to  realize  his  high  calling 
in  Christ  Jesus? 

The  southern  Appalachians  have,  then,  these  three 
classes,  very  widely  distinct,  with  many  modifications 

and  shadings  of  the  classes,  and, 
Many  Men  of  q£  course,  with  many  special  idio- 

Many  Kinds  .  ^i       •   j-  -j     i 

syncrasies   among   the   mdividuals 

that  make  up  the  classes.  No  one  is  at  all  prepared 
to  understand  the  mountaineers  who  has  been  led  by 
imaginative  and  long-range  magazineers  to  confound 
the  people  of  the  region  into  one  vast  mediocrity  or 
even  degeneracy  in  which  all  individuals  and  all 
classes  look  alike  to  him. 

A  nomenclature  that  is  objectionable  to  the  persons 
named  should,  in  courtesy,  be  modified  to  remove  all 

unnecessary  offense.  Some  writers 
"Mountaineers,"  have  gotten  into  the  habit  of  call- 
not  "Mountain  •  j  -  a  -  i  u  -" 
■rjjr^-i.  >,  mg  us  modern  Appalaches  moun- 
tain whites,"  a  term  -that'  implies 
peculiarity  and,  inferentially,  inferiority.  We  are  not 
deeply  in  love  with  that  nomenclature.  It  sounds  too 
much  like  "poor  white  trashy"  the  most  opprobrious 
term  known  in  the  South.  We  do  not  like  this  color 
label  process  any  more  than  country  school  boys  en- 
joy being  called  "greenies"  by  their  city  cousins. 
There  are  no  mountain  blacks,  or  browns,  or  yellows. 
Fancy  how  it  would  sound  to  hear  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Buckeye  State  spoken  of  as  "Ohio  whites" !    They 


THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS      25 

call  themselves  Ohioans,  and  we  call  ourselves  "south- 
ern mountaineers"  or  "highlanders,"  and  of  that  name 
we  are  humbly  proud.  There  is  no  evil  hint  in  the 
word  mountaineer  in  the  Appalachians,  but  rather  the 
reverse — an  honorable  ring.  Better  use  no  class  name 
at  all,  if  possible;  but  if  one  must  be  used,  let  it  be 
a  generous  one. 

A  letter  was  not  long  since  received  at  a  mountain 
post-office  addressed,  "To  the  Teacher  of  the  Moun- 
tain White  School."  Put  yourself  in  the  place  of  the 
proud-spirited  people  of  that  village,  and  you  can  the 
better  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  thoughtlessly  ad- 
dressed letter  was  of  no  help  whatever  to  the  teacher. 

The  ancestors  of  the  mountaineers  left  Europe  in 
search  of  a  land  where  a  man  might  be  "a  man  for  a' 
that,"  and  the  descendants  of  those  ancestors  are  jeal- 
ous of  their  American  peerage.  They  are  courteous 
only  to  the  courteous.  They  can  endure  no  "I-am- 
greater-than-thou"  air.  Surely  they  have  a  right  to 
expect  of  their  friends  the  courtesy  of  an  acceptable 
designation  and  the  avoidance  of  what  is  to  them  an 
objectionable  epithet;  they  are  mountaineers  or  high- 
landers,  and  never  "mountain  whites." 


CHAPTER   III 
The  Service  of  the  Mountaineers  "i 

If  we  take  the  term  "southern  mountaineers"  in  its 
broadest  extent,  all  must  agree  that  the  service  ren- 
dered the  nation  by  the  mountaineers  of  the  South 
has  been  a  notable  one. 

They  conquered  the  Alps  beyond  which  untold  mil- 
lions of  later  compatriots  were  to  find  their  fruitful 
Italy.  It  was,  indeed,  no  small  service  that  Boone 
and  Robertson,  Bean  and  Sevier,  and  the  Shelbys  lent 
the  struggling  colonies  and  later  the  infant  republic, 
by  pressing  backward  the  long-time  frontiers  until 
those  frontiers  practically  vanished  in  the  sunset  West. 

As  backwoodsmen,  clad  in  buckskin,  and  bearing 
their  trusty  rifles,  the  pioneers  took  their  lives  in  their 

hands  and  scaled  the  mighty  bar- 
The  Nation's  ^.j^j.^  ^^^^  Nature  had  piled  before 

Frontiersmen  ,,  ,  ,         j      -u  u      ..       j 

them,  and  braved  wild  beast  and 

wilder  Indian,  and  defied  the  dread  of  unknown  evils 

in  an  unknown  wilderness.     What  we  pass  in  review 

in  a  day  cost  them  the  efforts  of  the  best  part  of  a 

lifetime.     Their  days  were  spent  in  arduous  toil,  and 

their  nights  were  too  often  wasted  in  anxious  vigils. 

The  annals  of  the  frontiersmen  are  full  of  the  stories 

of  daring  exploits  and  uncomplaining  endurance. 

26 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS     27 

Such  service  was  the  cost  that  civilization  pays  for 
new  conquests,  but  it  was  paid  not  by  the  salaried 
emissaries  of  an  organized  government,  nor  by  the 
subsidized  forces  of  great  trading  companies,  but  by 
individuals  that  went  always  at  their  own  charges,  and 
sometimes  at  the  cost  of  all  things;  more  often  than 
not,  hindered  rather  than  encouraged  by  the  unappre- 
ciative  governments  they  had  left  behind  them  when 
they  plunged  into  the  depths  of  the  forest. 

They  took  with  them  the  Bible  and  Protestant 
Christianity,  and  established  their  hereditary  faith  in 

every    district    of    the    mountains. 
Established  There  is  no  infidelity  native  to  the 

Christianity  Appalachians.    An  infidel  is  an  im- 

ported monstrosity.  The  only  heresy  is  that  of  con- 
duct. Men  believe  in  the  Bible  as  the  only  infallible 
rule  of  faith  and  practice.  "Thus  saith  the  Lord," 
when  once  ascertained,  is  the  end  of  all  their  fre- 
quent theological  controversies. 

The  legends  of  Londonderry  may  have  faded  from 
the  memory,  but  the  Orangemen  of  Ulster  are  hardly 

more  inveterate  foes  of  Romanism 
Established  ^^^^^     ^^^     ^^g     southern     moun- 

Protestantism  ^^.^^^^^      ^  ^^^^^^^^  -^  ^^^  Blue 

Ridge  stopped  at  a  cabin  for  a  gourdful  of  water.  As 
the  mistress  of  the  cabin,  "on  hospitable  thoughts  in- 
tent," was  bringing  the  water,  a  little  child  clung  to 
her  skirts  and  hindered  her.  In  her  annoyance  she 
reproved  the  child,  and  in  a  warning  voice  said,  "You 
must  be  good  or  Clavers  will  get  you."  Thus  has 
the  once-dreaded  name  of  Claverhouse  survived  as  a 


28      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

bogie  among  those  that  are  unfamiliar  with  the  pages 
of  history.  In  somewhat  the  same  way  has  a  deep- 
seated  hatred  of  Roman  CathoHcism  been  inherited 
from  the  past.  Strange  to  say,  Rome  has  as  yet  made 
practically  no  effort  to  win  the  mountain  people;  she 
either  overlooks  them  or  deems  them  an  unpromising 
field  of  proselytism. 

Fiske,  in  his  "Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors," 
tells  of  a  great  service  rendered  by  the  Scotch-Irish 

of  the  Appalachians.  He  says : 
pf ^o^jf^®*^  "In  a  certain   sense  the   Shenan- 

doah Valley  and  adjacent  Appa- 
lachian region  may  be  called  the  cradle  of  modern 
democracy.  In  that  rude  frontier  society  life  assumed 
many  new  aspects,  old  customs  were  forgotten,  old 
distinctions  abolished,  social  equality  acquired  even 
more  importance  than  unchecked  individualism.  .  .  . 
This  phase  of  democracy,  which  is  destined  to  con- 
tinue so  long  as  frontier  life  retains  any  importance, 
can  nowhere  be  so  well  studied  in  its  beginnings  as 
among  the  Presbyterian  population  of  the  Appalachian 
region  in  the  eighteenth  century." 

Out  of  the  chaos  of  individualism,  the  frontiers- 
men soon  evolved  all  the  necessary  elements  of  civil 

government.     In  many  places  they 

Established  founded  law  and  order  as  substan- 

Civil  Government    ^.  „        ,,  .  ,  ,        .    ,, 

tially  as  they  exist  anywhere  m  the 

states.  In  some  sections  they  introduced  a  good  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath — a  better  one  than  is  now 
to  be  found  in  most  of  the  cities  of  our  land.  There 
are  worthy   citizens   in   the   remotest  coves   that  do 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS     29 

not  hunt  on  the  Sabbath,  even  at  the  present  day; 
and  the  writer  recalls  one  instance  where  the  people 
of  a  very  mountainous  region  discussed  the  advisa- 
biHty  of  using  mob  law  to  rid  their  neighborhood  of 
an  intruder  from  another  country,  who,  despite  their 
protests,  persisted  in  hunting  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
Another  mountaineer  apologized,  on  his  own  initia- 
tive, for  having  been  out  with  his  team  after  mid- 
night of  Saturday  night,  justifying  himself  on  the 
good  old  Shorter  Catechism  ground  that  his  work  was 
one  of  "necessity  and  mercy."  In  many  places,  how- 
ever, the  Sabbath  is  in  as  extreme  peril  as  it  is  in  our 
great  cities. 

The  fatal  mistake  of  the  pioneers,  if  it  was  not  in 
many  cases  an  unavoidable  necessity,  was  their  al- 
lowing the  hardships  of  their  lot  to 
Established  prevent    them    from    giving    their 

Education  ,  -u  j  j      ^• 

children  as  good  an  education  as 

they  themselves  had  enjoyed.  As  Mr.  Roosevelt  in- 
vestigated the  early  documents  that  deal  with  the  set- 
tlement of  the  Allegheny  frontier,  he  noted  the  ab- 
sence of  signatures  made  by  mere  signs  or  marks. 
In  1776  out  of  one  hundred  and  ten  pioneers  of  the 
Washington  District  who  signed  a  petition  to  be  an- 
nexed to  North  Carolina,  only  two  signed  by  mark. 
In  1780  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  pioneers  of  Cum- 
berland signed  the  "Articles  of  Agreement,"  and  only 
one  signed  by  mark. 

But  the  mistake  referred  to  was  by  no  means  a 
universal  one.     In  the  case  of  the  people  of  the  rich 


so      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

valleys  and  plateaus,  the  first  care  of  the  pioneers 
was  to  establish  their  log  church;  their  next  was  to 
plant  by  it  an  academy.  Many  such  schools  perished 
either  in  the  course  of  the  years  or  during  our  Civil 
War;  yet  there  remain  as  the  lineal  descendants  of 
such  schools,  supported  and  perpetuated  at  the  cost 
of  unbounded  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  able  Presby- 
terian ministers,  at  least  six  of  the  so-called  "small 
colleges"  to  which  the  people  of  our  generation  are 
so  generously  paying  eloquent  tribute. 

The  service  that  the  southern  mountaineers  have 
rendered  in  national  matters  can  hardly  be  overesti- 
mated.    They  were  possessed  by  a 
Service  to  r  ,  r  ■,•■,     /         ,  , 

the  Nation  ^f'^^  ^°^^  °^  ^'^^^t^'  ^"^  ^°  ^^^ 

birthplace     of     American     liberty 

very  appropriately  was  in  the  mountains.  In  Abing- 
don, Virginia,  at  the  junction  of  the  valleys  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  and  East  Tennessee,  as  early  as  January 
20,  1775,  a  council  met  that,  as  Bancroft  says,  "was 
mostly  composed  of  Presbyterians  of  Scotch-Irish 
descent."  "The  spirit  of  freedom  swept  through  their 
minds  as  naturally  as  the  wind  sighs  through  the  fir 
trees  of  the  Black  Mountains.  There  they  resolved 
never  to  surrender,  but  to  live  and  die  for  liberty." 

This  was  four  months  before  the  Scotch  and 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  of  the  lowland  hills  of 
North  Carolina  issued  the  "immortal  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,"  which  in  its  turn  antedated  by  more 
than  a  year  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  the 
Continental  Congress. 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS      31 

While  the  very  fewness  and  the  inaccessibility  of 
the  mountaineers  were  their  best  defense  from  the 

armies  of  the  redcoats,  on  the 
Share  in  the  other     hand,     their     insignificant 

numbers  and  remoteness  from 
their  only  friends  exposed  the  frontiersmen  to  the 
deadly  assaults  of  the  Indians,  the  allies  of  Britain. 
The  mountaineers  have  been  called  by  Gilmore  in  the 
title  of  one  of  his  books,  "The  Advance  Guard  of 
Civilization";  and  with  equal  appropriateness,  in  the 
title  of  another  of  his  books,  "The  Rearguard  of  the 
Revolution." 

Twice  during  the  Revolution,  "the  grand  strategy" 
of  the  English  planned  simultaneous  assaults  upon  the 
colonies  from  the  coast-line  and  the  Indian  frontier; 
and  twice  did  the  little  band  of  Watauga  settlers 
frustrate  the  successful  carrying  out  of  those  saga- 
cious and  most  sinister  plans  of  campaign.  In  1776, 
while  four  hundred  and  thirty-five  men  behind  pal- 
metto logs  in  Charleston  beat  off  the  British  fleet 
with  its  five  thousand  sailors  and  seamen,  Sevier  and 
Shelby  and  their  two  hundred  and  ten  backwoods- 
men repulsed  and  defeated  the  Cherokees  led  by 
Oconostota  and  Dragging  Canoe.  Then  from  Georgia 
northward  to  Virginia,  the  frontiersmen  swept  in 
retributive  wrath  upon  the  Tory-led  Indians,  and  dealt 
them  such  a  blow  as  extorted  from  them  an  unwilling 
but  at  least  a  temporary  peace.  At  the  same  time  the 
Tories  that  infested  the  frontier  were  either  driven 
out  or  forced  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Confederation. 


32      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

In  1779  when,  on  the  coast,  Savannah  had  been 
taken  by  Clinton's  expedition,  the  frontier  invasion 
was  forestalled  by  the  timely  capture  of  all  the  ammu- 
nition stored  for  the  coming  campaign  by  the  British 
and  their  allies  at  what  is  now  Chattanooga,  by  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  mountaineers  led  again  by  Shelby 
and  Sevier.  Thus  were  the  southern  colonies  pro- 
tected, without  help  from  the  Colonial  army,  by 
the  woodsmen  who  while  fighting  for  their  own 
existence  also  contributed  materially  to  the  saving 
of  the  infant  nation. 

Nor  was  this  all  the  service  that  the  frontiersmen 
rendered  during  the  Revolution.    The  darkest  hour  of 

„.        _,       ^  .         the  War  of  Independence  in  the 
Kings  Mountain      c     ^.u  •        o        u       /-•     1 

South  was  in  1780,  when  Charles- 
ton was  captured  by  the  English,  Gates  and  DeKalb 
were  defeated  at  Camden,  and  the  interior  was  over- 
run by  the  victorious  British  soldiery.  Washington 
said:     "I  have  almost  ceased  to  hope." 

Especially  troublesome  was  the  presence  of  Colonel 
Ferguson,  who  established  himself  with  two  hundred 
regulars  in  the  western  border  counties,  attempting 
to  draw  to  the  royal  banner  the  rougher  element  that 
inhabited  the  foothills  and  were  neither  planters  nor 
mountaineers.  Two  thousand  Tories  had  joined  the 
standard,  and  Ferguson  was  threatening  the  frontier 
settlements. 

In  August  he  sent  word  to  Shelby  threatening  to 
"march  his  army  over  the  mountains,  to  hang  the 
patriot  leaders,  and  to  lay  the  country  waste  with  fire 
and  sword."    The  Indians  had  rallied  from  their  con- 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS      33 

fusion  of  the  previous  year,  and  were  menacing  the 
settlements;  but  not  for  a  moment  did  the  "rear- 
guard" hesitate  when  they  saw  their  duty  and  their 
opportunity.  When  all  other  opposition  in  the  South 
was  practically  dormant,  Shelby  and  Sevier  formed 
the  instant  purpose  not  to  act  on  the  defensive  by 
guarding  the  mountain  passes  against  the  foe,  but  the 
rather  bravely  to  issue  from  their  natural  defenses  and 
to  assault  and  capture  Colonel  Ferguson  and  his  force. 

The  story  of  the  Battle  of  Kings  Mountain  is  too 
long  to  tell  here,  but  no  more  heroic  or  romantic  chap- 
ter is  found  in  our  nation's  history.  The  mountain 
clans  mustered  on  the  Watauga  and  a  draft  was  taken, 
not  to  decide  who  should  go  to  fight  Ferguson,  but 
who  should  stay  to  defend  the  settlements.  By  Sep- 
tember twenty-fifth,  eight  hundred  and  forty  moun- 
tain men  were  ready  for  the  fight,  including  four 
hundred  "Backwater  Presbyterians"  under  Colonel 
Campbell.  Of  the  six  leaders,  five  were  Presbyterian 
elders.  Dr.  Doak,  the  founder  of  Washington  Col- 
lege, committed  the  expedition  in  prayer  to  the  God  of 
battles,  and  addressed  the  volunteer  soldiery,  closing 
his  address  with  the  words : 

"Go  forth,  my  brave  men,  go  forth  with  the  sword 
of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon." 

A  few  days  later,  at  Kings  Mountain,  after  a  march 
of  great  hardships  and  sufferings,  nine  hundred  and 
sixty  militiamen  surrounded  and  took  by  storm  an 
entrenched  natural  fortress,  and  captured  over  eleven 
hundred  English  soldiers. 

"That   glorious   victory,"    said  Jefferson,  "was  the 


34      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

glorious  annunciation  of  that  turn  in  the  tide  of  suc- 
cess which  terminated  the  Revolutionary  War  with 
the  seal  of  independence." 

The  mountaineers  had,  without  orders,  without  pay, 
without  commission,  without  equipment,  and  without 
hope  of  monetary  reward,  struck  a  decisive  blow  for 
the  entire  country.  And  then,  upon  their  arrival  at 
their  cabin  homes,  without  a  day's  rest  they  had  to 
hurry  into  the  Indians'  territory  to  check  the  warlike 
expeditions  that  were  about  to  descend  upon  the  set- 
tlements. 

Thus  were  the  trusty  rifles  of  the  pioneers  used 
within  one  short  month  against  the  British  regulars 
at  Kings  Mountain,  and  against  their  savage  allies  at 
Boyd's  Creek,  three  hundred  miles  distant. 

The  southern  mountains  are  full  of  the  descendants 
of  Revolutionary  soldiers.     Besides  the  little  armies 

of  volunteer  soldiery  who  fought 
Sons  Daugrhters  of  ^^^  Indians  and  Tories  on  the 
the  Revolution         .        .  ,,.,,,  ,      • 

frontier,  and  besides  those  who  is- 
sued out  of  their  mountain  settlements  to  render  spe- 
cial service  at  Kings  Mountain  and  Cowpens,  there 
were  also  large  numbers  of  volunteers  from  the  eastern 
slopes  and  valleys  of  the  Blue  Ridge  region  who 
served  in  the  patriot  armies.  Then,  too,  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  there  were  large  numbers  of  Revolution- 
ary soldiers  from  other  sections,  who,  when  dis- 
banded, moved  into  the  Appalachians  and  took  up 
grants  of  land  that  were  made  them  by  the  Govern- 
ment. From  this  prolific  race  there  have  issued  hosts 
of  descendants  who  are  eligible  to  be  enrolled  as  Sons 


A  Grandmother  Who  Wanted  a  School  for 
Her  People. 


THE  «£W   ri)HK 
FOBUC  LIBRART 

AtrrOK,  LJINOX 
TXLD«N  FOUNDaT^'^*-- 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS      35 

or  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution.     Some  of 

them  proudly  show  their  friends  the  very  rifles  that 

their  forefathers  carried  during  their  service  in  the 

patriot  armies. 

The  mountaineers  again  guarded  the  frontier  for 

the  Government  during  the  second  war  with  Britain. 

Many    volunteers    served    in    the 

ii/r^^-  -^^^^  northern  armies,  but  most  of  them 
Mexican  War  ■,        ■,      A         1   t    1 

served  under  (jeneral  Jackson  m 

the  "Creek  War"  and  at  New  Orleans.  The  intensity 
of  the  patriotism  may  be  judged  by  a  philippic  against 
laggards  preached  in  1813  by  Dr.  Isaac  Anderson  in 
his  Maryville  pulpit.  His  text  was,  "Curse  ye  Meroz, 
saith  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  curse  ye  bitterly  the  in- 
habitants thereof;  because "th^^ 'came  not  to  the  help 
of  the  Lord,  to  the  help  of  the.  X-prd  against  the 
mighty." 

"British  rum  and  Albion  gold  have  roused  the 
Creeks'  lust  for  rapine  and. blood.  We  are  exposed 
to  their  incursions;  let  us  carry  the  war  into  their 
country,  and  go  in  such  numbers  as  to  overwhelm 
them  at  once.  Apathy  on  this  subject  would  be  crim- 
inal.   The  call  of  country  is  the  call  of  God." 

A  few  weeks  later  one  of  the  patriot  doctor's 
patriot  schoolboys,  young  Ensign  Sam  Houston,  was 
the  second  to  mount  the  breastworks  of  the  Indian 
stronghold  on  the  Tallapoosa.  Three  severe  wounds 
he  received  that  day,  but  he  lived  to  be  a  figure  of  na- 
tional importance.  The  men  of  the  mountains  crushed 
the  Creeks  in  a  campaign  of  many  battles;  and  then 


2,6      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

at  New  Orleans  struck  the  British  the  heaviest  blow 
that  they  received  during  the  war. 

In  1 817  the  only  volunteers  General  Jackson  took 
with  him  to  the  Seminole  War  were  eleven  hundred 
Tennesseeans.  In  the  war  with  Mexico,  so  eager 
were  the  mountaineers  that,  at  the  first  call  in  Ten- 
nessee for  three  thousand  men,  thirty  thousand  volun- 
teered their  services.  The  state  became  known  as 
"the  Volunteer  State,"  but  the  entire  Appalachian  sec- 
tion also  merited  the  name. 

Naturally  in  the  days  of  the  Civil  War,  there  were 
divisions  and  alienations  and  feuds  in  the  Appalach- 
ians. Many  on  the  Virginian  side 
The  Civil  War  ^^  ^^^  mountains  and  among  the 

North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama  mountains 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy,  and  made  as 
good  soldiers  as  the  valorous  hosts  of  the  South  could 
boast.  "Stonewall"  Jackson  was  a  mountaineer  in- 
dubitably of  the  first  class,  and  his  famous  "Stone- 
wall" brigade  was  made  up  largely  of  the  men  of  the 
hills.  The  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  East  Ten- 
nessee mountains  were  overwhelmingly  for  the  Union ; 
while,  also,  there  were  many  men  of  the  other  sec- 
tions referred  to  that  fought  for  the  preservation  of 
that  Union.  No  better  soldiers  were  found  on  either 
side  of  the  great  debate  at  arms  than  were  those  that 
enlisted  from  the  mountains. 

While  it  may  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
loyalty  of  the  Appalachians  decided  the  great  contest, 
that  loyalty  certainly  contributed  substantially  to  the 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS      37 

decision ;  for  the  mountains  cleft  the  Confederacy  with 
a  mighty  hostile  element  that  not  merely  subtracted 
great  armies  from  the  enrollment  of  the  Confederacy, 
but  even  necessitated  the  presence  of  other  armies  for 
the  control  of  so  large  a  disaffected  territory.  The 
Federal  forces  actually  recruited  from  the  states  of 
the  southern  Appalachians  were  as  considerable  in 
number  as  were  the  armies  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion gathered  from  all  the  thirteen  colonies,  and  con- 
siderably exceeded  the  total  of  both  mighty  armies 
that  fought  at  Gettysburg,  while  those  from  East 
Tennessee  alone  numbered  over  thirty  thousand  men. 

These  soldiers  were  not  conscripted  or  attracted  by 
bounty,  but  rather  in  most  cases  ran  the  gauntlet 
through  hostile  forces  for  one,  two,  or  three  hundred 
miles  to  reach  a  place  where  they  could  enlist  under 
the  flag  of  their  country.  The  congressional  district 
in  East  Tennessee  in  which  the  writer  lives  claims 
the  distinction  of  having  sent  a  larger  percentage  of 
its  population  into  the  Union  army  than  did  any  other 
congressional  district  in  the  entire  country.  One 
county  of  that  district  furnished  more  Federal  sol- 
diers than  it  had  voters. 

The  story  of  the  loyal  mountaineers  is  as  romantic 
and  thrilling  a  one  as  was  ever  told  by  minstrel  or  by 
chronicler  of  the  stirring  days  of  chivalry.  No  doubt 
their  position  was  one  of  the  divinely  ordained  in- 
fluences that  contributed  to  that  outcome  of  the  frat- 
ricidal strife  which  all  Americans  now  recognize  to 
have  been  providential  and,  therefore,  best. 


38      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  happy  union  of  later  days  was  most  auspi- 
ciously manifested  in  the  service  rendered  side  by  side 

by  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  the 

Spani^-Amer-  veterans  of  both  armies  of  the  six- 
ican  War  .  ,  .         . 

ties,   as  these  younger  Americans 

united  to  free  Cuba  from  Spanish  tyranny.  Of  the 
men  enlisted  during  the  Spanish-American  War,  a 
little  army  gathered  from  the  states  of  the  southern 
mountains — a  number  far  in  excess  of  the  quota  to 
be  expected  from  those  states.  Indeed  the  recruiting 
stations  had  repeatedly  to  suspend  operations  in  this 
section,  so  numerous  were  the  enlistments.  The  offi- 
cers testified  heartily  to  the  superior  quality  of  the 
young  mountaineers  as  soldiers  and  campaigners. 
Said  one  of  the  officers :  "The  soldiers  from  the 
mountains  of  the  South  were  the  best  soldiers  we  had 
in  the  war."  The  boys  fought  uncomplainingly  amid 
whatever  privations.  They  were  of  the  stock  that 
produced  Sam  Houston.  At  San  Jacinto  his  captive, 
Santa  Anna,  asked  Houston  how  so  few  could  win 
so  complete  a  victory.  The  victor  drew  an  ear  of 
corn  from  his  pocket,  and  said :  "When  patriots  fight 
on  such  rations  as  these  they  are  unconquerable." 

Another  form  of  service  rendered  by  the  people  of 
the  mountain  region  has  been  that  contributed  to  the 

upbuilding  of  the  newer  parts  of 
oc  y  I.C  ui  j^^j.    j^j^^    1^      ^j^g    emigrants    who 

Emigrants  ,  -^      .  , 

have  gone  out  into  those  sections 

from  the  Appalachian  country.  In  spite  of  the  com- 
paratively few  who  have  migrated  from  the  remoter 
mountains,  the  Appalachians  as  a  whole  have  been  a 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS      39 

veritable  cornucopia  pouring  out  great  numbers  of 
young  people,  first  into  the  Northwest,  then  into  the 
Southwest,  and  finally  into  all  the  great  West. 
Everywhere  these  emigrants  have  been  rapidly  as- 
similated, and  they  have  made  invaluable  contribu- 
tions to  the  sections  of  their  adoption.  What  Dr. 
H.  W.  Wiley  says  of  their  influence  in  Indiana  is  also 
true,  in  varying  degrees,  of  their  influence  in  other 
states  of  the  Union.  While  addressing  the  Indiana 
Society  of  Chicago,  he  said:  "The  truest  Hoosier 
was  the  emigrant  from  southwestern  Virginia,  from 
western  North  Carolina,  from  eastern  Tennessee,  and 
eastern  Kentucky.  This  last  wave  in  its  approach 
stopped  for  a  while  in  Kentucky,  then  passed  on  and 
overwhelmed  and  engulfed  the  'lumbar'  region  of  In- 
diana. Typical  of  this  stream  was  Thomas  Lincoln 
and  Nancy  Hanks,  with  their  son  Abraham,  who  came 
with  the  rest  of  the  flood  and  bided  for  a  time,  only 
to  move  farther  west  and  north.  These  were  the 
true  Hoosiers,  free  from  all  the  virtues  of  education, 
many  of  them  knowing  not  even  how  to  read  and 
write,  but  lithe  of  limb,  strong  of  body,  keen  of  sight, 
honest  of  heart,  and  endowed  with  a  power  of  ob- 
servation and  penetration  which  was  little  short  of 
marvelous.  They  brought  the  Hoosier  dialect  so- 
called  into  the  state,  and  with  keen  and  incisive  words 
and  biting  sarcasm  and  wit,  in  their  homely  way  ob- 
served and  treated  all  the  subjects  which  came  up 
for  their  consideration.  It  was  one  of  these  who  in 
the  fertile  imagination  of  Edward  Eggleston  formu- 
lated the  fundamental  principle  of  Wall  Street  finance 


40      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

as  it  exists  to-day,  in  the  terse  but  comprehensive  ex- 
pression, Them  thet  hez  gits.'  Not  only  did  they 
thus  see  into  the  intricacies  of  finance,  but  with  equal 
insight  and  vision  understood  political  and  social 
problems  in  which  they  lived.  These  were  the  fathers 
and  mothers,  the  grandfathers  and  grandmothers,  of 
that  great  army  of  statesmen,  philosophers,  poets,  and 
authors  who  had  their  being  or  received  their  in- 
spiration in  southern  Indiana,  chief  among  them  the 
great  preserver  of  his  country  and  the  idol  of  the 
whole  nation,  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  lived  his  boy- 
hood years  in  that  environment  and  received  from  it 
that  inspiration  and  character  which  with  his  native 
genius  made  his  career  possible.  Contemporaneous 
with  or  coming  soon  before  or  after  him  were  an 
army  of  great  men  and  great  women  to  whom  the 
fame  and  prosperity  of  Indiana  are  due." 

This  chapter  would  be  incomplete  were  it  not  to 
call  attention,  before  closing,  to  the  service  rendered 

_      .        -  their  country  by  individuals  of  this 

Service  of  „       i.  •  •  a 

Individuals  mountam  region.    A  mere  mention 

of  a  few  representative  names  will 
emphasize  the  great  part  that,  in  spite  of  all  their  se- 
clusion, the  Appalachians  have  had  in  the  affairs  of 
the  nation.  There  are  the  pioneers  Boone,  Sevier, 
the  Shelbys,  Davy  Crockett,  and  Sam  Houston;  the 
presidents  Andrew  Jackson,  James  K.  Polk,  and  An- 
drew Johnson;  the  famous  Confederates  Zebulon  B. 
Vance,  John  H.  Reagan,  and  "Stonewall"  Jackson; 
the  renowned  Unionists  Parson  Brownlow  and  Ad- 


I 


SERVICE  OF  THE  MOUNTAINEERS     41 

miral  Farragut;  the  inventor  Cyrus  H.  McCormick; 
and  the  man  of  the  nation,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Surely  the  annals  of  the  country  would  be  the 
poorer  were  the  deeds  of  the  men  of  the  Appa- 
lachians not  found  recorded  in  them. 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Appalachian  Problem 

The  problems  that  America   confronts   and  must 

solve  are  legion  in  number.     There  are  problems  na- 

,  ,  tional  and  problems  sectional;  but 

p    , ,  the  national  problems  belong  also 

to  the  sections,  and  the  sectional 
ones  belong  also  to  the  nation.  Away  down  South 
in  Dixie  land,  there  are  two  great  problems — one, 
black;  the  other,  white. 

The  black  problem  is  of  vastly  the  greater  impor- 
tance because   it   affects   the  peace,    prosperity,    and 

civilization  of  the  entire  South,  if 
The  Black  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^^j^^  nation.     It  is  a 

Problem  , ,  ...         ,    . 

problem  to   the   right   solution  of 

which  the  best  efforts  of  patriots  must,  perhaps  for  a 
long  time  to  come,  be  most  faithfully  dedicated.  It 
demands  the  best  human  wisdom,  and,  above  all,  that 
wisdom  which  cometh  from  above,  profitable  to  di- 
rect. 

While  we  lend  our  most  loyal  endeavor  to  the  right 
solution  of  this  supreme  problem — a  solution  that 
shall  please  our  common  Lord  and  Master — we  should 
imitate  the  methods  of  the  divine  Mathematician,  and 

42 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  43 

not  confine  ourselves  to  one  problem  alone,  but  rather 
seek  also  the  solution  of  other  contemporary,  coin- 
cident, and  pressing  problems. 

The  second  problem  is  a  white  one ;  it  is  the  Appa- 
lachian one.     It  is  presented  principally  by  the  third 

class  of  the  mountaineers  of  the 
ProblT^^***  South.     Among  the  total  five  mil- 

lions inhabiting  the  Appalachians 
there  are  a  considerable  number  (how  many,  though 
some  say  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  and  others 
five  hundred  thousand,  there  is  no  statistician  wise 
enough  to  give  exact  data)  that  are  sorely  in  need  of 
our  Christian  sympathy  and  help. 

To  use  one  metaphor,  they  are  our  belated  brethren ; 
they  are  behind  the  times;  "they  have  fallen  behind 
in  the  race  of  life  and  progress" ;  they  have  thus  far 
missed  the  twentieth-century  train.  As  they  have 
aptly  been  called,  they  are  our  "contemporary  ances- 
tors," To  use  another  metaphor,  they  form  a  sub- 
merged class — not  submerged  by  the  waves  of  an- 
vancing  civilization,  for  these  waves  have  rolled  up 
against  the  rocky  bulwarks  and  fallen  back  in  spray 
upon  the  lowlands ;  but  submerged  in  sylvan  solitudes 
and  seclusion,  and  sometimes  buried  in  backwoods- 
man idleness  and  illiteracy. 

The  problem  is  simply  this :  How  are  we  to  bring 
these  belated  and  submerged  blood  brothers  of  ours, 

our  own  kith  and  kin,  out  into  the 

The  Problem  and  completer  enjoyment  of  twentieth- 
Its  Peculiarities  ^^        .  ..:  •'.  ,   ™    .    . 

century  civilization  and  Christian- 
ity ?    Let  us  seek  the  solution. 


44      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  Appalachian  problem  has  certain  peculiarities 
that  cannot  fail  to  engage  our  attention. 

Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  our  problem,  it  must 
be  agreed  that  it  is  a  peculiarly  American  one.     In 

many  of  the  heights  of  the  Ap- 
Problem  palachians,   a   foreigner  is  almost 

as  rare  an  object  as  an  American 
would  be  in  the  wilds  of  Tibet.  An  Indian  in  his  war 
paint  in  a  crowded  city  street  hardly  excites  more  gen- 
uine interest  and  curiosity  than  does  a  non-English- 
speaking  visitor  in  the  recesses  of  the  Great  Smokies. 
The  total  population  of  foreign  birth  in  the  southern 
mountains,  including  the  57,072  miners  and  their  fam- 
ilies of  West  Virginia,  is  only  89,964.  If  we  omit 
West  Virginia,  the  percentage  of  foreign-born  popu- 
lation in  the  mountains  is  far  less  than  one  per  cent. 
There  is  at  least  one  spot  undisturbed  by  foreign  im- 
migration. Only  in  some  mining  communities  are 
there  many  foreigners.  West  Virginia  has  fourteen 
mountain  counties  that  have  from  six  to  fifty-one  per- 
sons of  foreign  birth  to  each  county.  Kentucky  has 
one  county  with  no  foreigner,  and  twenty  counties  with 
only  from  one  to  eighteen  of  foreign  birth.  Virginia 
has  twelve  counties  with  from  none  to  twelve  of  for- 
eign birth.  Tennessee  has  twenty  counties  with  from 
none  to  twenty  of  foreign  birth.  North  Carolina  has 
five  counties  containing  together  a  grand  total  of 
eight  foreigners — not  the  equivalent  of  just  one  ordi- 
nary mountain  family.  Sixteen  North  Carolina  coun- 
ties have  from  one  to  eighteen  persons  of  foreign 
birth.     South  Carolina  has  a  county  with  a  lonely 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  45 

total  of  thirteen  foreigners.  Georgia  has  sixteen 
counties  with  from  none  to  nineteen  of  foreign  birth. 
And  Alabama  closes  the  procession  with  four  coun- 
ties that  have  an  aggregate  foreign  population  of 
forty- two. 

The  problem  is  also  a  purely  Protestant  one.   There 
is  no   other  locality   in  the   English-speaking   world 

where  a  parallel  in  this  regard  can 
A  Protestant  ^^  found  to  the  conditions  in  the 

Appalachians ;  for,  except  in  a  few 
towns  in  the  valleys,  not  a  Roman  Catholic  can  be 
found. 

The  testimony  of  the  Religious  Census,  pubhshed 
by  the  United  States  Census  Bureau  in  1906,  is  re- 
markable indeed.    According  to  this  census,  there  are 
only  86,607   Roman   Catholics   in   the   southern   Ap- 
palachians, and  these  Hve  in  Maryland  and  in  the 
mining  regions,  and  in  the  larger  cities.     For  exam- 
ple,  20,373    live   in   the   four   mountain   counties   of 
Maryland,  and  13,467  in  Birmingham.      Out  of  the 
251   mountain  counties,    161    do  not  have  even  one 
Roman   Catholic  within  their  borders.     In  Virginia 
twenty-three  of  the  forty-two  mountain  counties  have 
no  Roman  Catholics  either  within  their  own  limits  or 
within  the  "independent  cities"  that  are  surrounded 
by  those  counties.    In  West  Virginia,  in  spite  of  the 
mining  population,   fifteen  of  the  fifty-five  counties 
have  no  Romanists ;  in  Kentucky,  twenty-eight  of  the 
thirty-six  have  none;  in  Tennessee  forty-one  of  the 
forty-five;  in  Georgia,  twenty-one  of  the  twenty-five; 
in  Alabama,  ten  of  the  seventeen;  in  South  Carolina, 


46      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

one  of  the  four;  while  in  North  Carolina  only  one  of 
the  twenty-three  counties  contains  a  Roman  Catholic, 
and  that  is  Buncombe  County  in  which  Asheville  is 
located. 

In  a  recent  Roman  Catholic  appeal  in  behalf  of  the 
"Missions  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales  (East  Tennessee)" 
the  following  remarkable  statement  appears :  "This 
mission  field  comprises  some  thirty-four  counties  of 
East  Tennessee,  embracing  an  area  of  over  twelve 
thousand  square  miles,  with  nearly  a  hundred  thou- 
sand families  within  that  area.  The  total  population 
is  over  five  hundred  thousand  souls.  The  Catholics 
on  these  missions  (exclusive  of  the  city  of  Knoxville) 
number  less  than  three  hundred."  The  appeal  ex- 
presses the  hope  that  from  a  chosen  center  "mission- 
ary activity  and  church  extension  may  radiate  until 
this  fair  field  gleams  with  the  'white  robe'  of  mission 
churches  and  rejoices  in  thousands  of  loyal  neo- 
phytes." 

The  Protestant  prejudice  is  intense.  When  the 
writer  was  only  a  lad,  he  once  found  himself  in  very 
bad  repute  among  some  mountaineers  because  he  was 
mistaken  for  a  Roman  Catholic.  He  rose  to  his  feet 
to  lead  the  opening  prayer  in  a  mountain  Sabbath 
school.  In  that  locality  it  was  for  some  reason  the 
universal  custom  to  kneel  in  prayer,  and  some  one 
explained  the  innovation  of  the  visitor  by  saying  that 
it  was  rumored  that  Roman  Catholics  stand  in  prayer. 
The  stranger  was  not  reinstated  in  public  confidence 
until  he  told  the  people  that  Presbyterians,  too,  stand, 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  47 

as  did  Ezra  and  the  congregation  of  Israel,  in  the 
offering  of  prayer. 

Mission  teachers  have  sometimes  occasioned  serious 
trouble  for  themselves  by  teaching  their  pupils  the 
Apostles'  Creed  with  its  fatally  misunderstood  sen- 
tence, "I  believe  in  the  holy  catholic  church."  No 
amount  of  footnotes  or  oral  explanation  could  ren- 
der the  sentence  innocuous,  or  restore  confidence  in  the 
supposed  heretic  who  had  attempted  to  teach  it  to  the 
children.  The  mountaineers  are  unanimously  and  un- 
equivocally Protestant;  and,  as  has  already  been 
stated,  Rome  has,  for  some  reason,  put  forth  practi- 
cally no  effort  to  proselyte  these  dwellers  in  the  hill 
country. 

The  Appalachian  problem  is  almost  solely  a  white 

one.    In    i860,   there  were   but  few  slaves  in  all  the 

Appalachians,    and    almost   all    of 
A  White  Problem  ^^^^^  ^^^^  -^  ^^^  ^^jj^y^      ^^^^ 

in  19 10  there  were  but  comparatively  few  colored 
people  in  the  Appalachians.  True,  there  are  618,- 
024  colored  people  reported  as  living  in  the  south- 
ern mountain  region,  or  about  one  eighth  of  the 
entire  population,  but  they  do  not  live  in  the  remoter 
mountains.  Half  of  this  number  live  in  Virginia  and 
Alabama.  There  are  some  people  in  the  recesses  of 
the  southern  mountains  that  have  never  seen  a  colored 
man.  In  "The  Little  Shepherd  of  Kingdom  Come," 
the  hero  Chad  saw  a  negro  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life.  He  was  amazed,  and  asked  what  was  the  mat- 
ter with  the  man's  face.  When  informed,  he  braced 
up  and  said:    "It  don't  skeer  me." 


48      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

Twelve  mountain  counties  of  West  Virginia  have 
within  their  borders  from  five  to  forty-eight  colored 
people.  Kentucky  has  two  counties  that  report  only 
one  and  four  colored  respectively.  Virginia  has  one 
county  with  only  four  colored  inhabitants  and  an- 
other with  only  seven.  North  Carolina  has  one  county 
with  no  colored  people.  Tennessee  has  six  counties 
with  from  eleven  to  ninety-eight.  Even  Georgia  has 
six  counties  with  only  from  fifteen  to  one  hundred 
and  sixty-two  colored  people. 

The  only  part  of  the  South  that  is  not  directly 
concerned  in  the  race  problem  is  the  purely  mountain 
region.  The  two  problems  of  the  South — the  col- 
ored and  the  white  one — in  their  territorial  applica- 
tion almost  exclude  each  other. 

The  Appalachian  problem  is,  of  course,  a  country 
problem.    Perpetuating,  as  the  geographical  adjective 

does,  the  name  of  a  tribe  of  In- 
p  v,^^  ^^  dians,  the  Appalaches,  it  suggests 

an  outdoor  problem,  one  near  to 
Nature's  heart.  Save  in  an  exceptional  case  like 
Asheville,  there  are  no  cities  in  the  very  mountains, 
though  they  flourish  in  the  great  valleys  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  East  Tennessee.  Only  twenty  per  cent,  of 
the  southern  mountaineers  live  in  towns  of  one  thou- 
sand or  more.  The  people  are  practically  all  farmers, 
and  are  unspoiled  by  the  contaminations- of  city  life. 
Their  life  is  ideally  bucolic.  As  has  already  been  said, 
if  it  were  not  for  the  sheep-killing  dogs,  the  moun- 
taineers might  easily  be  the  greatest  pastoral' people 
of  modem  times. 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  49 

Nevertheless,  the  problem  is  a  varied  and  somewhat 

complex    one.      The    endless    variety    of    conditions 

among  the  various   settlements   is 
A  Varied  and  .  ^  ^     ^  •  .• 

n       1      p    hi  apparent  to  one  who  has  any  mti- 

mate  acquaintance  with  the  people. 

The  mountaineers  are  homogeneous  as  to  race,  but 

heterogeneous  as  to  conditions. 

It  is  an  utter  mistake  to  assume  that,  because  some 
— by  no  means  all — of  the  mountain  counties  of  Ken- 
tucky are  cursed  by  the  vendetta,  that  reminder  of 
the  clan  vengeance  of  the  Gaels,  it  is  also  true  that 
the  mountains  of  East  Tennessee  and  western  North 
Carolina  are  likewise  afflicted  by  the  same  scourge. 
The  feud  is  unknown  in  most  of  the  Appalachians. 
So  also  is  it  a  mistake  to  suppose  the  feudists  them- 
selves the  incarnation -of  all  evil.  The  Presbyterian 
bishop  who  knew  them  best  declared:  "Feud  lead- 
ers were  usually  among  the  best,  most  honest,  and 
successful  men  of  the  mountains;  and  when  they  re- 
moved to  other  localities,  made  some  of  the  best  citi- 
zens." 

To  assume  that,  because  "wildcat"  illicit  distilling 
is  done  in  some  places  in  the  mountains,  the  favorite 
occupation  of  the  mass  of  the  mountaineers  is  "moon- 
shining"  is  absurd,  and  besides  does  -great  injustice 
to  the  valiant  and  victorious  hosts  of  temperance  men 
scattered  all  over  the  mountains. 

Could  a  spiritual  and  moral  barometer  test  the  con- 
dition of  all  the  purely  mountain  communities,  a  vast 
variety  of  records  would  be  given.  Some  neighbor- 
hoods have  stood  by  the  Sabbath,  the  home,  morals, 


50      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

and  religion,  while  many  others  have  wandered  far 
astray. 

Then,  also,  as  might  be  expected,  superficial  esti- 
mates are  often  as  apt  to  be  too  harsh  as  they  are  to 
be  too  favorable.  For  example,  one  of  the  most  in- 
accessible counties  of  western  North  Carolina  has 
been  widely  advertised  as  a  very  immoral  county. 
One  of  our  ministers,  however,  after  a  residence  of 
several  years  in  the  heart  of  that  impeached  county 
while  engaged  in  educational  and  religious  work,  de- 
clared that  he  never  before  lived  in  a  place  where 
there  is  so  little  secret  vice,  and  that  he  had  known  of 
almost  no  illegitimate  births  in  the  county  during  his 
residence  there.  While  the  conditions  there  are  prim- 
itive, and  large  families  are  being  reared  in  single- 
roomed  cabins,  the  logically  inferred  immorality  does 
not  after  all  prevail.  Sometimes  under  a  rough,  sus- 
picious, and  repellant  exterior,  the  heart  beats  true. 

There  are,  however,  many  places  in  the  Appalach- 
ians where  the  conditions  are  deplorable  and  call 
loudly  for  reformation.  Some  must  receive  help  from 
outside  sources  or  perish ;  while,  as  we  have  seen, 
others  will  themselves  lend  a  most  effective  helping 
hand  in  the  making  of  the  new  mountains  that  patriot- 
ism and  philanthropy  unite  in  desiring.  The  problem 
is,  of  course,  not  so  complex  as  is  that  which  concerns 
the  redemption  and  evangelization  of  the  exceptional 
populations  of  the  great  West,  or  the  hordes  in  the 
polyglot  city  of  New  York ;  but  it  is  nevertheless 
sufificiently  complex  to  challenge  the  best  zeal  and 
discretion  of  the  church  of  Christ. 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  51 

It  must  also  be  said  with  emphasis  that  our  prob- 
lem is  an  exceedingly  delicate  one.     The  highlanders 

are    Scotch-Irish    in    their    high- 

A  Delicate  spiritedness   and   proud  independ- 

Problem  ^^^^     ^^^^^^  ^j^^  ^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^ 

must  do  so  in  a  perfectly  frank  and  kindly  way,  show- 
ing always  genuine  interest  in  them,  but  never  a  trace 
of  patronizing  condescension.  As  quick  as  a  flash  the 
mountaineer  will  recognize  and  resent  the  intrusion 
of  any  such  spirit,  and  will  refuse  even  what  he  sorely 
needs,  if  he  detects  in  the  accents  or  the  demeanor  of 
the  giver  any  indications  of  an  air  of  superiority. 

The  worker  among  the  mountaineers  must  "meet 
with  them  on  the  level  and  part  on  the  square,"  and 
conquer  their  oftentimes  unreasonable  suspicion  by 
genuine  brotherly  friendship.  The  less  he  has  to  say 
of  the  superiority  of  other  sections  or  of  the  defi- 
ciencies of  the  mountains,  the  better  for  his  cause. 
The  fact  is  that  comparatively  few  workers  are  at 
first  able  to  pass  muster  in  this  regard,  under  the 
searching  and  silent  scrutiny  of  the  mountain  people. 

The  success  of  a  worker  in  the  mountains  has 
sometimes  been  greatly  and  needlessly  endangered  by 

the  writing  of  an  injudicious  let- 
Wanted,  Tact  ^gj.  ^Yiat  has  gotten  into  print  and 

and  More  Tact        ^,       ,       ,.       ,  .,  u    1   ^-    +1,^ 

then  has  found  its  way  back  to  the 

place  where  it  was  written,  to  embarrass  its  author 
and  to  injure  or  even  to  destroy  his  usefulness.  On 
the  other  hand,  while  workers  in  the  mountains  wel- 
come heartily  the  visit  of  friends  from  other  sections, 
their  solicitude  lest  those  visitors  in  addressing  the 


52      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

schools  or  churches  should  offend  the  sensibilities  of 
the  people  by  leaving  the  impression  that  they  look 
upon  them  as  a  peculiar  and,  inferentially,  a  lower 
class,  has  unhappily  sometimes  been  justified.  Cer- 
tain offensive  expressions  of  well-meaning  but  blun- 
dering visitors  are  quoted  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
work  and,  sad  to  say,  of  the  workers,  even  for  years 
after  they  were  thoughtlessly  and  tactlessly  uttered. 
There  is  more  tact  and  discretion  needed  in  the  moun- 
tains than  in  the  cities,  for  the  mountaineer  has  sensi- 
bilities as  acute  as  any  yet  discovered,  and  a  pride 
that  deeply  resents  the  air  of  conscious  and  patroniz- 
ing superiority. 

Mr.  Campbell,  in  his  study  of  "The  Southern  High- 
land Region,"  earnestly  protests  against  the  use  of 

the   terms   "mission  work,"   "mis- 
Not  Wanted—         ^^^^   schools,"   and   "missionaries" 
Missionaries  .  ,  .  .   ,, 

m   speaking   of   the   mountaineers 

and  of  the  work  and  the  workers  among  them.  These 
terms,  while  unobjectionable  in  many  sections  of  our 
country,  and  while  used  frequently  even  by  the  dis- 
tinctively southern  churches,  and  while  confessedly 
innocent  and  appropriate  in  themselves,  are  neverthe- 
less extremely  offensive  in  many  sections  of  the  South 
and  of  the  southern  mountains  when  used  in  refer- 
ence to  the  work  carried  on  among  people  of  this  sec- 
tion by  people  of  another  section.  The  mountaineers 
are  proud-spirited  and  independent,  and,  in  resent- 
ing the  word  "missionaries,"  often  say:  "We're  no 
heathen;  they  needn't  send  missionaries  to  us."  The 
newspapers  of  the  section  frequently  reflect  this  sen- 


THE  APPALACHIAN  PROBLEM  53 

timent  in  very  emphatic  editorials.  Most  of  the  work- 
ers in  the  southern  Appalachians  will  agree  with  Mr. 
Campbell  that  the  use  of  the  word  "missionary"  does 
arouse  a  very  troublesome  prejudice  which  often  hin- 
ders a  most  worthy  cause. 

Whatever  else  may  be  said,  the  problem  is  surely 
an  urgent  one,  whether  we  take  into  account  local  or 

national  considerations.     The  men 

P^M^^^^*  ^^    ^^^    mountains    need    us;    and 

surely  we  need  them.  We  must 
add  their  sturdy  strength  to  the  embattled  forces  of 
our  Christian  Americanism  in  the  great  war  of  the 
ages  that  is  being  waged  in  our  day  and  in  our  land 
for  the  supremacy  of  sound  government  and  for  the 
spread  of  God's  glorious  gospel. 

Most  of  the  Appalachians  are  with  us  already;  what 
added  strength  it  would  give  us  to  have  the  entire 
army  of  the  five  millions  on  our  side  in  this  mo- 
mentous conflict !  They  are  ours  by  traditions  and 
prejudices;  the  day  will  come  when  they  will  be  ours 
as  intelligent  and  efficient  allies. 


CHAPTER   V 
The  Mountaineers'  Reason  for  Being  i 

Before  going  further  into  the  discussion  of  the 
problem,  it  will  be  an  interesting  task  to  search  out 
somewhat  more  in  detail  the  philosophy  of  the  forma- 
tion of  the  problem. 

How  did  the  mountaineers  ever  become  moun- 
taineers?   It  might  be  enough  to  ask  in  reply:    How 

has  it  come  to  pass  that  all  moun- 
How  They  Became  ^^-^^  ^^^^  ^^^-^^  population?    Na- 

Mountameers  ,  , ,  ,      , 

ture  abhors  a  vacuum,  and  wher- 
ever men  can  support  themselves,  they  take  possession 
and  establish  their  homes.  The  mountains  of  earth 
all  have  their  inhabitants.  Even  the  bleak  coasts  of 
Greenland  have  their  Esquimaux,  the  deserts  of 
Syria  have  their  Bedouin,  and  the  lava  lands  of  our 
West  have  had  their  Modocs. 

In  attempting  to  give  the  reasons  for  the  choice  the 
earliest  settlers  of  the  mountains  made  of  their  wild 
home,  we  can  but  approximate  the  truth.  In  many 
cases,  probably,  the  reasons  for  the  choice  were  en- 
tirely different  from  those  that  we  usually  assign. 

Some  pioneers,  whom  Izaak  Walton  would  call 
Piscators  and  Venators,  chose  the  mountains  for  the 

54 


MOUNTAINEERS'  REASON  FOR  BEING      55 

game  that  then  still  frequented  every  mountainside. 

They  had  such  love  of  Nature  and  of  the  wild  life,  of 

hunting  and  of  fishing,  that  they 

Hunting  and  shrank  away  from  civilized  society 

Fishing  Attractive ,  .    ,  ,  ,,  ^     . 

because  it  lessened  the  opportuni- 
ties for  the  pursuit  of  their  craft.  Like  Cooper's 
Leatherstocking,  they  tried  to  keep  a  few  days'  march 
in  advance  of  the  vexations  and  annoyances  of  civiliza- 
tion. The  survival  of  the  savage  strain  that  is  in  all 
of  us  is  to  be  reckoned  with.  It  is  hard  even  now  for 
all  the  allurements  of  business  and  society  to  win 
some  men  back  from  that  blessed  spot  in  field  or  by 
flood  where  they  tent  in  vacation  days. 

Rip  Van  Winkle  fled  to  the  Catskills  to  escape  do- 
mestic turmoil,  and  he  slept  away  twenty  long  years 
before  he  returned.  In  the  early  days  many  of  the 
frontiersmen  crept  up  into  the  coves  and  along  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains  and  found  Sleepy  Hollows, 
where  now,  "each  in  his  narrow  bed  forever  laid," 
they  lie  in  the  sleep  of  death;  and  where  now  some  of 
their  descendants,  metaphorically  speaking,  lie  in  a 
sleep  almost  as  profound  as  is  that  which  their  fore- 
fathers enjoy.  These  sleepy  survivors,  however,  are 
the  hunters  and  trappers  of  to-day,  learned  in  all  the 
lore  and  craft  of  the  woodsman. 

Some  of  the  later  pioneers — for  but  few  of  the 
earlier  ones  settled  in  the  remoter  mountains — chose 

the    mountain    land    as    Hobson's 
A^^^I^kT^  choice,    because    it    was    available 

and  the  choicer  "flatwoods"  were 
pre-empted.    Poverty  decided  their  location,  as  it  de- 


56      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

cided  in  the  city  who  shall  live  in  the  cheapest  tene- 
ments and  who  shall  vegetate  in  the  "Cabbage  Patch" 
in  which  Mrs.  Wiggs  plants  her  humble  home. 

Some  of  the  "Regulators"  defeated  by  Governor 
Tryon  at  the  Alamance  before  the  Revolutionary  War 
and  some  of  the  many  victims  of  the  harrying  and 
dragooning  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  during  the 
Revolutionary  War  were  forced,  in  ruin  and  despera- 
tion, to  abandon  their  lowland  homes  and  to  press 
westward.  While  the  more  vigorous  reached  the  bet- 
ter lands  beyond  the  mountains,  others  with  more 
incumbrances,  or  with  less  daring  and  energy,  or  with 
Fox's  "broken  axle,"  stopped  in  the  mountains,  and 
their  descendants  have  never  abandoned  the  rocky 
acres  that  became  their  modest  patrimony.  In  some 
cases  they  tried  to  avoid  close  neighbors,  reserving 
the  land  near  them  for  their  kindred.  And  yet  those 
first  settlers  had  no  thought  whatever  of  condemning 
their  posterity  by  the  choice  they  made  of  a  home  in 
the  wilderness  to  imprisonment  for  life  in  the  soli- 
tary confinement  of  mountain  isolation. 

It  has  been  a  theory  with  some  that  the  remoter 
mountaineers  are  the  descendants  of  criminals   and 

outlaws  that  took  refuge  in  the 
ew      u   aw  mountain  fastnesses  to  escape  the 

punishment  of  their  crimes.  Fiske  says  in  his  "Old 
Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors"  that,  in  the  earlier  days 
— before  lawbreakers  were  in  the  habit  of  fleeing  to 
New  York  and  other  large  cities  to  hide  from  the  offi- 
cers of  the  outraged  law — there  were  some  criminals 
from  among  the  "indentured  white  servants"  of  Vir- 


MOUNTAINEERS'  REASON  FOR  BEING      57 

ginia  who  took  refuge  in  the  mountains  and  planted 
permanent  homes  there. 

Gilmore  insists  that  there  was  a  "low-down"  class 
in  the  mountains  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  "They 
were  mostly  descended  from  the  more  worthless  of 
the  poor  white  settlers  who,  driven  back  from  the 
seaboard,  had  herded  among  those  wooded  hills  with 
the  hordes  of  horse-thieves  and  criminals  who  had 
escaped  from  justice  in  the  older  settlements.  The 
progeny  of  these  people  are  even  at  this  day  a  foul 
blot  on  American  civilization." 

But  in  the  Appalachians  as  a  whole  the  percentage 
of  such  settlers  must  have  formed  almost  a  negligible 
quantity  in  the  analysis  that  the  historian  may  at- 
tempt. The  mountains  have  not  been,  to  any  larger 
extent  than  other  sections  of  the  country,  a  Botany 
Bay  or  a  Pitcairn  Island.  In  the  case  of  the  Appa- 
lachians, the  original  "old  man  of  the  mountain"  was 
neither  a  wild  man  nor  an  assassin. 

The  natural  and  economic  antagonism  between 
slaveholders  and  non-slaveholders  was  so  great  that  it 

was  to  be  expected  that  wherever. 
Influence  of  g^g  ^^  ^^^  ^.^gg  gf  ^.j^g  mountains, 

opportunity  offered  itself  for  the 
non-slaveholders  to  live  at  a  comfortable  distance 
from  the  cause  of  friction,  they  would  seize  that  op- 
portunity. Slavery  did  not  pay  in  the  mountains, 
and  so  it  did  not  exist  there  to  any  appreciable  extent. 
This  common  antagonism  was  one  cause  of  the  set- 
tling of  the  mountains;  it  was  also  an  effect  of  that 


58      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

separation,  taken  in  connection  with  the  opposing  in- 
terests that  it  occasioned. 

Gilmore  says  of  our  mountaineers:  "Their  ances- 
tors being  too  poor  or  conscientious  to  hold  slaves 
were,  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  forced  back 
to  the  mountains  by  the  slaveholding  planters  of  the 
seaboard  and  insulated  there,  shut  out  from  the  world, 
and  deprived  of  schools  and  churches.  The  present 
condition  of  these  people  is  directly  traceable  to  slav- 
ery; for,  in  making  the  slave  the  planter's  black- 
smith, carpenter,  wheelwright,  and  man-of-all-work, 
slavery  shut  every  avenue  of  honest  employment 
against  the  working  white  man  and  drove  him  to  the 
mountains  or  the  barren  sand  hills." 

The  aristocratic  slaveholder  from  his  river-bottom 
plantation  looked  with  scorn  on  the  slaveless  dweller 
among  the  hills ;  while  the  highlander  repaid  his  scorn 
with  high  disdain  and  even  hate.  For  the  reason  of 
this  social  antipathy  as  well  as  for  inherited  love  of 
the  Union,  the  mountaineers  of  this  vast  region  that 
almost  bisected  the  territory  of  the  Confederacy  stood 
by  the  national  Government  in  the  Civil  War.  It  is  a 
question  as  to  who  suffered  more  from  the  efifects  of 
slavery,  the  slave  or  the  slaveless  white  man. 

The  greatest  cause  of  the  populating  of  the  hill 
country,  however,  is  yet  to  be  mentioned ;  it  is  simply 

the  natural  increase  of  the  original 
Mountain  families.      This    mightiest    of    all 

causes  for  the  existence  of  the  five 
millions  is  often  overlooked,  though  it  explains  what 
might  otherwise  be  inexplicable.     The  population  at 


MOUNTAINEERS'  REASON  FOR  BEING      59 

first  was  thin  and  scattering,  not  too  large  to  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  several  reasons  for  their  immigra- 
tion that  have  here  been  adduced.  There  was  abun- 
dant room  at  first,  game  was  plentiful,  and  only  se- 
lect tracts  of  land  were  tilled. 

The  fiat  of  the  Creator,  "Be  fruitful  and  multiply," 
was  heeded;  and  the  pioneer  family  in  the  course  of 
years  increased  to  twelve  or  fifteen ;  then  harder  lines 
were  encountered.  The  young  people  when  they  mated 
— and  they  married  very  young — took  a  less  desirable 
part  of  the  family  domain,  built  a  cabin,  cleared  a 
few  rocky  acres,  and  in  turn  began  their  struggle  for 
existence.  Game  disappeared,  trade  was  non-exist- 
ent, time  grew  harder;  and  faster  grew  the  families. 
This  process  continued  for  several  generations,  and 
now  we  see  the  natural  and  inevitable  result. 

A  sight  that  may  still  be  witnessed  is  that  of  a 
young  mountaineer  at  work,  in  the  face  of  the  jovial 
gibes  of  his  friends,  clearing  for  himself  and  his  "in- 
tended," or  his  already  "obtained,"  a  field  or  so  on  a 
hillside  that  has  never  felt  the  profanation  of  a  plow. 
The  field  will  provide  corn  for  his  "pone"  bread ;  and 
a  few  razor-backed  pigs  grown,  not  fattened,  on  the 
mast  in  the  woods  will  furnish  his  "side-meat." 

The  writer,  not  long  since,  conducted  the  funeral 
of  a  mother  in  Israel  who  united  with  the  Presby- 
terian Church  as  long  ago  as  1837.  She  had  a  hun- 
dred and  six  direct  descendants — eight  children, 
fifty-two  grandchildren,  and  forty-six  great-grand- 
children. The  writer  also  recently  matriculated  a 
new   student   from   a   cove,   a   splendidly   developed 


6o      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

young  woman,  who  told  him  that  she  had  to  earn  her 
own  way,  "for,"  said  she,  "father  has  sixteen  chil- 
dren."   And  the  sixteen  all  had  the  same  mother. 

Since  these  human  bees  from  our  mountain  hives 
almost  invariably  settle  just  as  nearly  in  sight  of  the 
old  bee-gum  as  possible,  there  need  be  no  wonder  that 
the  woods  are  full  of  them.  There  is  no  suspicion  of 
"race  suicide"  in  the  Appalachians.  Out  of  moun- 
taineers' loins  proceed  armies.  A  corporal's  guard 
becomes  a  great  people. 

A  staid  little  towhead,  almost  crowded  out  of  the 
cabin  by  his  multitudinous  brothers  and  sisters,  once 
said,  and  it  was  his  parents  of  whom  he  was  speak- 
ing, "Clay  and  Sally  Ann  has  heaps  of  children;" 
and  as  the  youngsters  were  gamboling  about  the  cabin 
door,  there  were  literally  "heaps"  of  them.  A  mother 
of  ten,  when  felicitated  upon  her  large  family,  replied 
in  a  deprecatory  way:  "Seems  Hke  a  body  ought  to 
have  at  least  a  dozen  children."  Mountain  mothers 
seem  to  hold  the  Israelitish  attitude  on  child-bearing. 

When  we  take  into  account  facts  such  as  these  just 
related,  and  the  additional  one  that  early  death  is 
rare  in  the  mountains,  we  can  easily  see  that  fe- 
cundity and  longevity  unite  to  make  the  Appalachian 
problem  a  growing  one.  The  millions  did  not  go 
there;  as  Topsy  might  say,  "They  just  growed  there." 
And  in  the  near  future  even  greater  clans  will  people 
the  rocky  hills  and  prove  that  the  story  of  Deucalion 
and  Pyrrha  is  no  fable,  but  rather  is  veritable  his- 
tory that  repeats  itself  even  in  the  reputedly  childless 
twentieth  century. 


MOUNTAINEERS'  REASON  FOR  BEING     6i 

This  mountain  region,  without  great  help  from  im- 
migration, increased  in  population  ten  and  eight- 
tenths  per  cent,  during  the  decade  closing  in  19 lo. 
Graphic  maps  showing  the  relative  number  of  births 
in  the  different  sections  of  our  country  bear  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  prolific  fruitfulness  of  the  Appalach- 
ians. 

Such  are  some  of  the  reasons  that  account  for  tlie 

peopling  of  the  Appalachians.     But  why  do  not  the 

mountaineers    emigrate    to    Okla- 

]?^L-^®T^-^  ^?  homa  and  elsewhere,  as  do  the 
the  Mountains?  1       i-  ^1         n       ^i    -mru     u 

people  of  the  valleys?    Why  have 

four  or  five  generations  held  to  the  same  simple  life? 
Many  of  the  young  men  who  have  come  into  con- 
tact with  people  from  the  outside  world  do  go  into 

the  "flatwoods,"  and  even  migrate 
Few  Do  Migrate     ^^  ^he  West.    In  the  early  part  of 

the  nineteenth  century  many  migrated  in  search  of  a 
free-soil  country,  to  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  adjacent 
territory ;  and  their  descendants  are,  as  a  rule,  substan- 
tial citizens  of  to-day.  In  an  address  already  referred 
to,  delivered  before  the  Indiana  Society  of  Chicago, 
Dr.  H.  W.  Wiley  enumerated  half  a  hundred  Indian- 
ians  who  had  attained  eminence  in  various  fields  of 
endeavor  and  pointed  out  the  fact  that  they  had  de- 
scended from  southern  mountaineer  families  that  had 
removed  to  Indiana.  Soon  after  the  Civil  War,  many 
mountaineers  migrated  to  Texas;  and  more  recently 
some  have  gone  to  Oklahoma,  and  even  as  far  as 
Oregon  and  Washington.     Most  of  the  people,  how- 


62      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

ever,  live  and  die  where  they  were  born.     This  fact 

can  be  accounted  for  in  different  ways. 

The  principal  reason  is  found  in  the  inertia  that  is 

the  concomitant   of  a  life   of   isolation.     What  has 

.  been  tends  to  continue.     The  un- 

Inertia  Hinders       ^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^  j^^^^^  quicken ; 

they  rather  stagnate.  Only  give  Nature  time,  and  she 
will  even  yet  produce  fossils ;  and  surely  in  the  moun- 
tains there  is  "all  the  time  in  the  world."  The  lack 
of  prosperity  induces  shiftlessness,  and  where  shift- 
lessness  rules,  there  is  little  initiative;  and  it  requires 
a  strong  spirit  of  initiative  to  break  loose  from  time 
immemorial  associations.  Conservatism  dominates  in 
the  secluded  sections  of  the  Appalachians. 

The  mountaineer's  bump  of  inhabitativeness  is  fully 
developed.    He  has  a  strong  attachment  to  his  native 

heath,  its  bracing  air,  its  refreshing 

Aii    1-        J.  water,     its     unrestrained     liberty. 

Attacnment  t<  ,ry         i-i     t      •  >^  i-  t* 

Pears  like  I  cam  t  live  nowhere 

else,"  he  tells  you.     He  does  not  know  nostalgia  by 

that  name,  but  in  exile  he  may  die  of  it. 

"Dear  is  that  shed  to  which  his  soul  conforms, 
And  dear  that  hill  which  lifts  him  to  the  storms. 
So  the  loud  torrent  and  the  whirlwind's  roar 
But  bind  him  to  his  native  mountains  more." 

Ambition    lies   dormant   in    his   nature.     There   is 
;  nothing  in  his  immediate  environ- 

Ambition  ^^^^  ^^  arouse  it;  and  air  else  is 

Dormant  ,  ,   .  ,,. 

vague  and  uncertain  rumor.     His 

forebears,  so  far  as  he  has  any  knowledge  of  them. 


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MOUNTAINEERS'  REASON  FOR  BEING     63 

have  been  content  "jest  to  rock  along";  and,  pray, 
why  should  he  set  himself  up  to  be  any  better  than 
his  own  kith  -and  kin,  past  or  present  ? 

"Though  poor  the  peasant's  hut,  his  feasts  though  small, 
He  sees  his  little  lot  the  lot  of  all." 

The  geologist  speaks  of  "the  Appalachian  type  of 
folding";  and  so  may  we  speak  of  the  folding  away 
of  the  human  ambitions  petrified  in  the  strata  of  Ap- 
palachian existence.  In  these  hills  nature  yields  to  a 
man's  utmost  endeavor  hardly  more  than  enough  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together;  and  if  there  is  a  sur- 
plus of  products,  there  is  no  market  for  that  surplus. 
So  the  mountaineer  yields  to  the  orderings  of  fate, 
and  throws  away  ambition,  and  contents  himself  with 
raising  what  is  absolutely  necessary  for  actual  exist- 
ence, and  philosophically  comforts  himself  with  the 
backwoods  aphorism,  "Enough's  a-plenty;" 

A  native  timidity  also  dominates  the  mountaineer. 
Bold  as  a  lion  in  physical  danger,  he  shrinks  from 

the  society  of  the  lowlands. 
iimiaity  Though  he  makes  occasional  trips 

to  the  valley  town  to  sell  apples, 
huckleberries,  chestnuts,  and  "sang-root,"  he  is  not  at 
his  ease  until  his  striding  steps  are  again  turned 
mountainward. 

In  addition  to  these  reasons  for  his  home-keeping, 

there  is  what  to  him  is  the  decisive 

Lackin^^*  one  of  a  lack  of  precedent.     No 

one  of  his  "kin-folks"  ever  left  his 
native  hills,  and  why  should  he  leave  them?     Until 


64      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

a  tangible  and  success-attended  precedent  is  set  for 
him  by  some  one  he  trusts — and  probably  even  then — 
he  will  remain  just  where  birth  and  breeding  have 
placed  him. 

Their    extreme    poverty    discourages    those    who 
would  leave  the  mountains  from  doing  so.    They  bat- 

„  ^  tie  for  existence  with  sterile,  un- 

Poverty  Prevents  ,     ,.  .,      r^,  , 

*'  productive  soil,      ihe  narrow  val- 

leys and  the  mountainsides,  so  steep  that  sometimes 
they  must  be  cultivated  by  the  hoe  if  at  all,  return  to 
"the  man  with  the  hoe" — or  for  that  matter  to  the 
women  and  children  with  the  hoe — only  enough  corn 
and  potatoes  to  provide  for  the  daily  bread.  No 
money  to  pay  for  removal  to  a  new  country  or  for 
setting  up  new  homes  comes  to  hand  to  give  the  abil- 
ity to  realize  the  dream  of  new  homes  in  a  new  world. 
Whether  our  philosophy  may  or  may  not  fully  ex- 
plain the  fact,  a  fact  it  nevertheless   remains   that, 

rude  and  inhospitable  and,  in  popu- 
So,  Populous  j^^    opinion,    sparsely    settled    as 

Mountains  .  •  .1      a       1    1  • 

those  regions  are,  the  Appalachians 

abound  in  human  beings,  as  in  the  other  works  of 
God;  that  those  people  are  there  in  most  cases  from 
no  fault  of  their  ancestors  or  of  themselves ;  and  that 
they  deserve  our  sympathy  and  not  our  scorn. 


CHAPTER   VI 
The  Problem's  Reason  for  Being 

The  problem  has  been  stated  to  be:  "How  are 
we  to  bring  certain  belated  and  submerged  Appa- 
lachian blood  brethren  of  ours  out 
The  ProDlem  -j^^^  ^]^g   completer  enjoyment   of 

twentieth-century  civilization  and 
Christianity?"  We  have  seen  that  many  of  the  pio- 
neers in  the  mountains  were  of  superior  lineage  and 
of  the  best  development  of  their  day.  How  are  we 
to  account  for  the  lapsing  of  many  of  their  descend- 
ants to  a  lower  civilization  than  was  that  which  their 
forefathers  enjoyed? 

The  answer  to  this  question  will  decide  the  amount 
of  exculpation  that  may  be  accorded  the  contemporary 
mountaineers,  and  the  degree  of  sympathy  that  may 
be  felt  for  them.  There  is  a  world-wide  difference 
between  the  degeneracy  that  Nordau  tells  of,  and  the 
provincial  limitations  that  we  find  in  mountain  dis- 
tricts. 

Theirs  is  a  case  of  what  has  been  termed  "arrested 

development."      While    they   have 

Some  In  Statu  ^^^^^  ^^^^  and  held  part  of  what 

their  fathers  had  several  genera- 
tions ago,  the  world  has  forged  far  ahead,  and  left 

^5 


66      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

them  far  in  the  rear.  There  is  a  great  difference  be- 
tween the  America  of  1780  and  the  America  of  1914, 
a  century  and  a  third  later.  There  are  some  purely 
mountain  communities  that  for  various  local  and 
providential  reasons  have  substantially  retained  the 
high  degree  of  intelligence  and  force  of  character  with 
which  the  first  settlers  endowed  them.  True,  their 
characteristics  belong  to  colonial  days  rather  than  to 
those  of  the  twentieth  century. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are,  doubtless,  other  com- 
munities in  the  mountains,  as  elsewhere,  that  started 
with  comparatively  low  standards  of  intelHgence  and 
conduct,  for,  though  their  founders  were  of  noble 
race,  they  themselves  were  but  indifferent  representa- 
tives of  that  race.  Even  the  Edinburgh,  the  Glasgow, 
and  the  Londonderry  of  to-day  can  parallel  from  "the 
masses,"  as  distinguished  from  their  "classes,"  any 
cases  of  departure  from  racial  excellence  that  we  may 
discover  among  the  mountain  "masses." 

But,  after  deducting  these  two  classes  from  the 
total  of  our  purely  mountain  people,  the  fact  still  re- 
mains, and  is  fully  confirmed  and  estabhshed  by  local 
history  and  family  tradition,  that  the  present  genera- 
tion, in  many  cases,  lacks  much  of  the  intelligence  and 
culture  and  force  of  character  for  which  their  pioneer 
ancestry  were  distinguished  when  they  entered  the 
mountains  to  make  homes  for  themselves  and  their 
children. 

There  are,  however,  several  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  to  be  adduced  to  account  for  the  losses  sus- 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       6y 

tained  by  these  children  of  the  original  mountaineers, 
where  losses  have  been  experienced.     They  are  such 

as     merely     need     mentioning     in 

ProWm  ^°'  *^^       ^^^^^   ^°   ^^   recognized  by  every 

student  of  history  as  being  real 
and  adequate  and  precedented. 

Confessedly,   many  who   settled  in  the  mountains 
were    less    energetic    and    aspiring    than    were    their 

brethren  that  pushed  forward  to 
Lack  of  Live  ^y^^  1^^^^^^  ^^^^^  j^  ^y^^  ^^jj      y^^_ 

Neighbors  ,  -r,     r      •       ,     , 

low.       Professional     hunters     are 

poor  farmers.  The  influence  that  such  people  would 
exert  upon  those  possessed  of  more  energy  would  in- 
crease by  intermarriage  and  constant  example  and  in- 
tercourse. In  such  society  the  ambitious  and  ener- 
getic family  would  be  unpleasantly  conspicuous,  and 
feel  so  much  out  of  place  as  to  lead  it  to  seek  other 
environment,  or  to  abandon  some  of  its  energy  so  as 
to  do  in  the  mountains  as  the  mountaineers  do. 

Indeed,  the  fact  that  in  their  isolation  the  moun- 
taineers have  not  enjoyed  the  stimulus  of  a  varied 

society  accounts  for  part  of  that 
Lack  of  Varied  retrograde  movement.  "All  na- 
Society  ,     f.r,. 

ture  s  difference  keeps  all  nature  s 

peace";  and  society's  differences  prevent  social  stag- 
nation. Solitary  confinement,  even  within  the  walls  of 
the  mountains,  has  its  disadvantages.  Society's  range 
of  ideas  is  decided  by  the  kind  of  society  that  exists. 
In  some  of  the  more  isolated  mountain  districts  there 
has  been,  owing  to  their  isolation,  too  much  inter- 
marriage, even;  and  what  injures  European  royalty 


68      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

does  not  improve  mountain  society.  Premature  mar- 
riage also  has  the  unhappy  result  of  causing  some  of 
the  women  to  age  prematurely. 

Dr.  W.  S.  Plumer  Bryan  has  well  said : 

"They  have  been  reduced  to  their  present  condition 
of  poverty  and  ignorance  by  the  strenuous  conditions 
under  which  they  have  been  compelled  to  live.  No 
one  who  has  never  himself  experienced  those  condi- 
tions can  realize  how  terrible  is  their  effect  upon  the 
individual  life,  or  how  great  their  effect  must  be  upon 
the  life  of  a  family  from  generation  to  generation.  To 
live  on  the  mountainside  and  perhaps  in  the  depths 
of  a  forest,  without  roads,  without  means  of  trans- 
portation, on  such  products  as  the  soil  outside  the 
cabin  door  provides,  and  in  climates  of  great  severity, 
will  tell  upon  any  man  or  woman,  or  family  or  stock, 
however  fine  its  origin  may  be. 

"The  physical  effect  is  only  exceeded  by  the  mental. 
Imagine  your  own  condition  if  you  were  compelled  to 
live  year  after  year  in  the  same  house,  and  with  the 
same  surroundings,  engaged  in  the  drudgery  of  the 
house  or  in  the  drudgery  of  the  field.  The  nearest 
neighbor's  house  is  often  too  far  for  a  visit;  and  if 
it  be  near  enough,  the  house  is  often  but  little  better 
than  the  one  from  which  the  visitor  comes.  The  con- 
versation centers  on  the  crops  and  the  household 
events,  with  only  now  and  then  a  vague  report  from 
the  great  world  outside. 

"Anyone  who  would  not  degenerate  under  hard 
conditions  like  these  would  be  more  than  human ;  and 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       69 


wwwprrrft*  ^.SHIL    «a^    TW* 


lia— 1,11,111 III!  ^B-^-  -..r-^  •'-■.''  •:..'~-'Sm«c''o^"'<rKw^*'ir»:^       ■      ^ '=^.-«". --*  —  ,    "— 

in  my  opinion  these  strenuous  conditions  are  quite 
enough  to  account  for  the  peculiarities  and  deficien- 
cies of  the  class  under  discussion." 

After  the  days  had  largely  passed  when  the  greater 
part  of  a  living  could  be  secured  by  the  hunt  or  chase, 

and  the  mountaineers  found  them- 
Lack  of  Incen-  selves  constrained  to  have  recourse 
tive  to  labor  ^^   ^^^  unproductive   soil   for  the 

corn  and  cane  and  potatoes  that  must  supplement  their 
ham  and  bacon  in  sustaining  life,  they  were  taught  by 
sad  annual  experience  that  their  best  efforts  could 
not  insure  any  adequate  return  for  their  labor;  that 
the  thin  sandy  soil  never  would  yield  abundantly 
enough  under  their  methods  of  farming  to  pay  ex- 
cept niggardly  for  the  toil  expended. 

If  it  is  every  season  demonstrated  that  by  no  ex- 
penditure of  toil  or  energetic  effort  can  farming  be 
made  remunerative,  why,  pray,  should  men  expend 
that  hopeless  toil  and  energy?  Let  enough  be  se- 
cured to  supply  the  simplest  wants  and  then  let  all 
bootless  labor  be  avoided.  By  Nature's  decree  they 
were  destined  to  hopeless  poverty ;  then  why  not  sub- 
mit to  the  decree,  eat  the  modest  fare  provided,  drink 
the  delicious  water  gushing  from  a  thousand  springs, 
and  be  as  merry  as  such  a  hard  life  may  allow  ? 

No  reward  for  labor,  no  stimulus  to  labor ! 

"A  Scotchman  even  will  not  work  when  there  is  no 
incentive."  Idleness  was  a  logical  result  of  despair 
of  substantial  reward  for  industry.  Good  wages  for 
peeling  bark  or  for  work  in  the  lumber  camp  has  in 


70      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

many  cases  proven  a  specific  for  what  was  supposed 

to  be  inveterate  laziness. 

Not  only  was  there  the  absence  of  reward  for  labor 

on  the  little  home  place,  but  there  was  also  the  al- 

most  complete  deprivation  of  op- 
XiRCK  01  xr&uc  .       •.•       (•       ,       !•  .,,       ,, 

portumties  for  tradmg  with  others 

of  the  same  neighborhood  or  of  more  distant  com- 
munities. For  a  long  time  there  were  not  even  the 
lumber  and  the  tan-bark  industries.  Almost  every- 
thing that  was  consumed  in  the  cabin  was  produced 
on  the  place.  Even  the  limited  wardrobe  was  woven 
on  the  old-fashioned  loom;  and  the  illumination  was 
provided  by  beeswax  tapers,  or  tallow  dips,  or  "light 
pine"  torches. 

Thus  trade  was  severely  limited  to  a  little  neigh- 
boring swapping  and  bartering.  The  explanation  of 
the  peculiar  hold  that  "moonshining"  has  had  in  the 
mountains  has  been  the  fact  that  it  provided  a  home 
market — the  only  one,  in  many  instances — for  the 
corn  that  was  raised.  In  the  typical  mountain  glen, 
the  wants  are  sternly  restricted  to  what  Nature  pro- 
vides. There  can  be  no  considerable  trade  without 
somewhat  adequate  means  of  communication  and 
transportation. 

Almost  the  only  means  of  communication  among 
the  southern  mountains  has  been  that  provided  by  the 

rocky,  gully-gashed  roads  leading 
Lack  of  Means  of  ^^^^  ^^^  settlement  to  another. 
Communication         .  ,  ,  .„    , 

As  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show, 

the  region  is  singularly  devoid  of  navigable  water- 
courses, such  as  in  other  sections  of  our  country  pro- 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       71 

vided  comfortable  and  inexpensive  means  of  inter- 
communication even  before  the  days  of  railroads.  A 
corresponding  lack  of  railroad  facilities  has  existed 
until  very  recently,  and  even  yet  exists  to  a  notable 
degree.  A  journey  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  miles  over 
the  almost  impassable  mountain  roads  w^ill  readily 
explain  what  at  first  seems  so  strange  to  most  visi- 
tors to  the  mountains — the  fact  that  so  many  moun- 
taineers have  never  traveled  beyond  the  limits  of  their 
native  county. 

The  lack  of  trade  and  the  prohibitive  distance  from 
all  markets  naturally  resulted  in  the  almost  complete 

dearth  of  money  in  the  practically 
Lack  of  Money  quarantined  cabins  and  coves. 
Some  economists  are  ready  to  maintain  the  thesis 
that  the  preservation  of  society  demands  the  coinage 
of  money;  and  all  students  of  sociology  must  agree 
that  "no  money"  does  undoubtedly  mean  the  decline 
of  civilization.  Which  is  the  cause  and  which  the  ef- 
fect, one  may  sometimes  be  puzzled  to  decide,  but  the 
fact  is  demonstrated  beyond  all  question.  Many  Ap- 
palachian mountaineers  do  not  have  ten  dollars  in 
money  from  one  year's  end  to  the  other.  No  money 
and  no  trade  cruelly  exclude  means  of  comfort  and 
all  books  and  other  aids  to  mental  culture  and  illumi- 
nation. The  writer  once  visited  a  cabin  in  which  the 
only  literature  was  an  out-of-date  copy  of  a  patent- 
medicine  almanac.  Money  is  an  advance  agent  of 
civilization. 

One  of  the  most  evident  and  potent  reasons  for  the 


^2      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

retrograde   movement   has   been    the   lack   of   public 

schools — and  of  any  schools,   for  that  matter.     The 

_  ,  „  „  ,  ,  mountains  are  to  the  nation  a  per- 
Lack  of  Schools  ^     u-    i.  i  r  ^i       f 

manent  object-lesson  of  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  popular  education  to  safeguard  even 
our  most  virile  stock.  In  ante-bellum  days  there  were 
in  the  Appalachians  practically  no  schools.  Since  the 
war  there  has  been  much  improvement,  but  yet  not 
much  until  recently.  Owing  to  the  small  school 
funds  of  the  states  involved,  and  to  the  fact  that 
these  funds  have  been  prorated  according  to  the  enu- 
meration of  the  school  population,  the  sparsely  set- 
tled regions  of  the  mountains  have  had  few  schools, 
and  far  between;  and  even  these  schools  in  many 
cases  have  been  open  but  two  or  three  months  in  the 
year. 

A  gratifying  advance  is  now  being  made,  and  surely 
none  too  soon.  It  has  long  been  ardently  prayed  for 
and  industriously  worked  for  by  the  friends  of  the 
mountaineers. 

That  the  significance  of  even  the  present  educa- 
tional conditions  of  the  southern  mountains  may  be 

realized,  nothing  more  is  needed 
Educational  ^y^^^  ^j^^  presentation  of  the  bare 

Statistics  .    .      ^.    ,      _ 

statistics  of  the  Census   of   1910. 

The  following  three  tabular  views  give  the  statistics, 
not  of  the  entire  nine  mountain  states,  but  only  of  the 
two  hundred  and  fifty-one  mountain  counties  of  these 
states. 

I.  The  population  of  the  mountainous  portion  of 
the  Appalachian  states  is  as  follows: 


XI : 
o 


1 


i 


VM&  fiifiW   rORK     I 

i'UBLIC  LIBRARY 


AITOJ^,  LRNOX 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       73 


Total 
Population 

Total 
White 

Native 

White 

Parentage 

Foreign 

White 

Parentage 

Alabama 

681,867 
315,449 
580,919 
184,806 
394,018 
204,601 
860,145 
837,319 
1,221,119 

497,624 
270,430 
562,301 
175,660 
359,693 
145,044 
779,113 
713,323 
1,156,817 

471,451 
267,884 
555,685 
151,720 
356,876 
143,450 
762,212 
700,308 
1,042,107 

15,843 

Georgia 

1,789 

Kentucky 

4,531 

^'^aryland 

17,747 

North  Carolina 

1,688 

South  Carolina 

982 

Tennessee 

11,217 

Virginia 

6,913 

West  Virginia 

57,638 

Total 

5,280,243 

4,660,005 

4,451,693 

108,348 

Foreign- 
born 
White 


Negro 


All 
Other 


Alabama 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Maryland 

North  Carolina . 
South  Carolina . 

Tennessee 

Virginia 

West  Virginia . . 


Total. 


10,330  ' 

757 
2,085 
6,193 
1.129 

-,  613 

,\5,684  y 
6,lb2  ^ 

57,072 


184,098 
45,003 
18,421 
9,136 
32,842 
59,549 

.  80,922 . 

123.880 
64,173 


89,964 


618,024 


145 

16 

197 

10 

1,483 

8 

110 

116' 

129 


2,214 


2.     The  number  of  persons  ten  years  of  age  and 
over,  by  nativity  and  race,  is  as  follows : 


Total 

Native 
White 

Foreign- 
born 
White 

Negro 

Alabama 

496,075 
223,462 
398,771 
141,499 
277,937 
145,331 
625,349 
609,845 
903,822 

345,039 
190,478 
382,459 
128,411 
251,949 
102,704 
656,427 
511,870 
798,150 

9,964 

733 

2,045 

6,054 

1,102 

598 

5,519 

5,891 

54,646 

140,970 

Georgia 

32,236 

Kentucky 

14,137 

Maryland 

7,024 

North  Carolina 

23,843 

South  CaroUna 

42,023 

Tennessee 

63,335 

Virginia 

91,994 

West  Virainia 

50,925 

Total 

3,822,091 

3,267,487 

86,552 

466,487 

74      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 


3.     The  number  of  illiterate  persons  ten  years  of 
age  or  older  is  as  follows: 


Total 

Native 
White 

Foreign- 
born 
White 

Negro 

Alabama 

78,489 
34,015 
73,820 
6,604 
45,671 
28,589 
82,818 
85,001 
74,866 

33,878 
24,299 
69,673 
4,230 
38,739 
13,828 
55,836 
67,529 
51.407 

1,442 

44 

278 

811 

37 

48 

824 

384 

13,075 

43,206 
9,671 
3  796 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Maryland 

1,501 

North  Carolina 

6,518 

South  Carolina 

14,713 

Tennessee 

28,303 

Virginia 

14  869 

West  Virginia 

10,347 

Total 

609,873 

359,419 

16,943 

132,924 

Lack  of  Books 


The  sway  of  illiteracy  is  a  most  malign  one.  To 
be  shut  out  from  the  sweet  world  of  sacred  Scrip- 
ture, of  science,  of  history,  of  biog- 
raphy, and  of  literature  in  general, 
is  to  live  in  the  shadow  of  a  perpetual  eclipse  of  in- 
telligence, and  in  a  twilight  that  borders  hard  on  the 
region  and  shadow  of  mental  death.  This  illiteracy 
alone  is  sufficient  to  account  for  whatever  deteriora- 
tion may  be  observed  among  our  kinsmen  of  the 
mountains.  There  is  no  race  of  men  on  earth,  be  it 
French  or  German  or  Scandinavian  or  Anglo-Saxon 
or  Scotch-Irish,  that  can  either  attain  to  its  true 
sphere  or  retain  that  sphere  without  the  help  of 
schools  and  of  the  periodical  and  book-world. 

Another  cause  of  the  deterioration  in  the  moun- 
tains can  hardly  be  emphasized  too 
Leaders  ^^'''^^*®^   strongly.    It  is  the  lack  of  an  edu- 
cated   ministry,    and,    indeed,    the 
lack  of  educated  leadership  of  any  kind.     Even  the 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       75 

Highlands  of  Scotland  would  have  sadly  degenerated 
had  there  been  no  educated  ministry  to  bring  weekly 
influences  of  an  ennobling  sort  to  bear  upon  the  peo- 
ple. To  be  deprived  of  an  intelligent  ministry  would 
be  calamitous  enough  even  in  a  community  of  books 
and  lectures ;  but  to  lack  it  where  there  were  no  other 
educated  leaders,  and  few,  if  any,  books,  would  be 
fatal  to  high  ideals  or  attainments.  The  educated 
leaders,  so  necessary  even  in  the  most  highly  enlight- 
ened community,  have  been  sadly  lacking  in  the  se- 
cluded mountain  districts.  If  our  hillsmen  had  only 
known  the  pity  of  such  a  loss,  dismal  and  unending 
indeed  would  have  been  the  coronach  with  which  they 
would  have  bewailed  the  loss : 

"He  is  gone  on  the  mountain, 

He  is  lost  to  the  forest 
Like  a  summer-dried  fountain 
When  our  need  was  the  sorest." 

Let  it  be  said  here,  however,  that  any  generaliza- 
tion regarding  the  mountain  preachers  that  would  ig- 
nore the  splendid  service  that  has  been  rendered  to 
civilization  and  Christianity  in  thousands  of  com- 
munities in  the  southern  highlands  by  numberless 
humble  servants  of  God  who  have  preached  his  glori- 
ous gospel  with  all  the  powers  they  had,  would  be  at 
once  ungracious  and  unjust. 

From  the  pioneer  days  God  has  had  his  loyal  serv- 
ants of  different  faiths  that,  often  at  their  own 
charges  and  often  at  much  heroic  self-denial,  have 
for  long  lifetimes  called  the  mountaineers  to  repent- 


76      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

ance,  right  living,  and  the  Saviour  of  men.  Uncom- 
missioned by  mission  boards,  unpraised  and  unsup- 
ported by  outside  bodies  or  churches,  uncomplain- 
ingly and  unflaggingly  they  have  served  Him  who  had 
called  them  to  be  prophets  of  the  Great  Smokies. 
And  they  have  fought  drunkenness,  licentiousness, 
murder,  and  the  other  evils  of  the  mountains,  and 
have  fearlessly  raised  a  standard  about  which  the  re- 
deemed might  rally.     They  were  men 

"Who  all  their  lives  in  silence  wrought, 
And  then  their  graves  in  silence  sought," 

never  having  suspected  that  they  were,  what  God 
some  day  in  the  presence  of  all  the  church  triumphant 
will  proclaim  them,  worthy  to  reign  over  many  celes- 
tial cities. 

No  "Old  Mortality"  can  chisel  deeper  their  names 
in  orderly  kirkyards,  for  the  poor  parsons  of  the  hills 
lie  in  hillocks  unmarked  unless  by  a  couple  of  sand- 
stones picked  up  from  the  rocky  hillside  by  the  kindly 
grave-diggers.  But  the  God  of  all  the  earth  keeps 
their  names  graven  on  his  mighty  and  loving  hand. 
Their  fame  is  great  in  heaven,  and  let  us  not  forget 
them — whether  they  were  Wesleyan  circuit-riders,  or 
Lutheran  ministers,  or  Baptist  preachers,  or  our  own 
Presbyterian  parsons. 

But  after  we  have  done  full  justice,  if  that  is  pos- 
sible, to  the  faithful  though  often  illiterate  mountain 
preachers,  it  is  of  course  a  notorious  fact  that  there 
have  been  many  others,  in  many  communities,  that 
have  not  been  fitted  by  culture  or  nature  or  grace 


PROBLEM'S  REASON  FOR  BEING       ^^ 

for  the  position  of  leaders  of  God's  people.  Illiterate, 
narrow,  bigoted,  and  sometimes  wrong  in  life,  such 
men  have  been  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,  and  both 
preacher  and  people  have  fallen,  sorely  injured,  into 
the  mountain  ditch. 

Where  such  leadership  has  existed,  the  confusion 
of  thought  and  ethical  standards  has  been  great  and 
sad.  On  the  other  hand,  whenever  educated,  or  at 
least  somewhat  educated,  and  naturally  intelligent  and 
wise  men  have  stood  for  God  in  their  strength  of 
character  and  zeal,  they  have  had  an  influence  that 
would  be  utterly  impossible  in  the  lowlands.  In  those 
exceptional  cases  in  which  our  own  church  or  some 
other  has,  through  a  succession  of  educated  ministers, 
stood  by  the  work  for  generations  past  there  is  light 
to-day  on  the  mountain,  and  the  fruit  of  the  handful 
of  corn  shakes  like  Lebanon  in  that  light. 

It  is  among  the  unschooled,  the  bookless,  and  the 
pastorless  classes  that  false  teachers  find  their  prey. 

As  the  writer  has  personally  and 
Mormonism  repeatedly  seen  the  emissaries  of 

the  Mormon  abomination  plying  their  mission  of  per- 
version and  seduction  among  the  Smokies,  he  has  felt 
the  same  deep  indignation  that  on  other  occasions  he 
has  felt  upon  hearing,  at  night,  in  his  mountain  vaca- 
tion camp,  the  baying  of  the  bloodthirsty  dogs  in  too 
successful  pursuit  of  bleating  and  panic-stricken 
sheep.  And  what  must  the  Shepherd  of  the  sheep 
feel  as  he  sees  his  flocks  on  a  thousand  hills  the  quarry 
of  the  tireless  wolves  of  the  West? 


78      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

A  doctrine  in  vogue  nowadays  is  evolution.  There 
is  certainly  a  very  strong  social  tendency  that  well 

merits     the    name     "de"-volution. 

Evolitior  ^^"^  ^"^^''  ^^^  '^""'^^  environment  and 

the  forces  of  labor  and  intelligence 

and  religion  are  favorable,  even  Scotch-Irishmen  cre- 
ated in  the  image  of  God  will  lose  much  that  would 
otherwise  indicate  their  proud  descent.  It  is  by  no 
means  unprecedented  that  isolation  should  injure  even 
strong  races.  As  Goldsmith  says  of  the  dweller  in  the 
Alps: 

"But  calm,  and  bred  in  ignorance  and  toil, 
Each  wish  contracting  fits  him  to  the  soil. 
And  as  refinement  stops,  from  son  to  son 
Unaltered,  unimproved,  the  manners  run." 

It  cost  the  Scotch-Irish  Protestants,  besieged  by 
James  II  within  the  walls  of  their  Londonderry,  the 
most  heroic  and  strenuous  endeavors  on  their  own 
part,  even  under  wise  and  able  leadership,  to  save  the 
city  and  to  drive  the  Roman  Catholic  army  from  be- 
fore its  walls.  Indeed,  their  efforts  had  to  be  rein- 
forced by  the  relief  that  William  III  sent  them  before 
they  could  see  Rosen  and  the  Jacobite  army  raise  the 
siege.  Equally  will  it  require  heroic  and  strenuous 
endeavor  on  the  part  of  the  beleaguered  mountaineers 
aided  by  wise  and  able  leaders  within,  and  reinforced 
by  expeditions  of  relief  from  without,  to  raise  the 
siege,  and  to  make  all  the  mountains  what  our  fore- 
fathers made  Londonderry — the  happy  home  of  thrift, 
intelligence,  morality,  and  religion. 


CHAPTER   VII 

Pioneer   Presbyterianism   and   the   Problem 

The  dominant  faith  of  the  pioneers  in  a  large  part 
of  the  southern  Appalachians  was  Presbyterianism. 

This  is  fully  recognized  by  the  his- 
Presbyterians  torians   of  the  different   states  in 

were  Dominant  i  •  i     ^i  ..  ■       ^^        c 

which    the    mountams    lie.      bays 

Phelan  in  his  "History  of  Tennessee" : 

"Religion  in  our  state  was  coeval  with  immigration. 
The  Presbyterians  at  first  had  every  outlook  to  obtain 
a  complete  ascendancy  in  the  religious  thought  and 
life  of  Tennessee.  As  they  went  they  built  churches, 
they  established  congregations,  they  formed  pres- 
byteries. Presbyterianism  was  first  upon  the  ground, 
and  its  ministers  were  leading  figures  in  the  state. 
They  were  men  of  strong  characters,  and  the  minds 
of  men  had  not  yet  been  turned  to  spiritual  affairs. 
Besides  this,  they  were  practical  school-teachers." 

Similar  testimony  is  given  by  the  other  historians 
of  the  border.  The  first  Christian  ministers  that  at- 
tempted to  win  the  mountains  for 
Presbyterians  ^^^-^^^  ^^^^  o£  the  faith  of  Calvin 

were  Active  ,  ^jr  -ri.    t>     u  i.    • 

and  Knox.    The  Presbyterian  min- 
isters that  were  found  in  the  first  influx  of  pioneers 

79 


8o      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

lived  exceedingly  busy  lives.  They  founded  churches 
and  schools,  and  took  prominent  part  in  all  that  con- 
tributed to  the  welfare  of  the  new  settlements.  They 
participated  in  military  expeditions  and  in  the  de- 
fense of  cabin  and  blockhouse  and  distinguished 
themselves  in  constructive  work  in  political  affairs. 
They  were  preachers,  educators,  warriors,  statesmen, 
and,  in  general,  men  of  affairs  among  the  frontiers- 
men with  whom  they  had  cast  their  lot. 

The  early  ministers  were  indefatigable  preachers, 
addressing  the  people   in   private  houses,   forts,   the 

^  ,  ,  «,  ,  forest,  and  then  in  the  log  churches 
Founded  Churches  ^u  4.  £      ^-  ^  j  f 

that  frontier  reverence  erected  for 

the  worship  of  Almighty  God,  They  organized 
churches  at  central  places,  and  maintained  there  di- 
vine services  as  often  as  their  large  fields  would  al- 
low; and  in  these  centers  the  people  within  a  radius 
of  ten  miles  or  more  gathered  at  the  stated  services, 
rejoicing  that  Providence  had  placed  the  means  of 
grace  at  their  very  doors !  The  woods  around  the 
church  were  filled  with  the  horses  of  the  surrounding 
country,  for  all  the  people  that  did  not  walk  came  on 
horseback  by  the  various  trails  that  converged  at  the 
house  of  God. 

And  these  primeval  preachers  planted  Christian 
churches  in  many  of  the  more  thickly  settled  sections 
of  the  Appalachians.  Take  Abingdon  Presbytery, 
situated  in  the  heart  of  the  Appalachians,  as  an  ex- 
ample. The  members  of  that  presbytery  reported  by 
name  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1789  twenty-three 


PIONEER  PRESBYTERIANISM  8i 

congregations,  and  eight  years  later  twenty-two  addi- 
tional ones.  The  indefatigable  efforts  of  the  pastors 
of  the  pioneers  were  crowned  with  most  gratifying 
success. 

The  pioneers  of  the  church  were  also  the  pioneers 
of  Christian  education  and,  indeed,  of  education  in 

general,  upon  the  frontiers.   Their 
Founded  Schools      ^^^^^  ^^^^  u^^^-^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^ . 

education  and  its  school-house."  Practically  all  the 
frontier  forces  of  education  were  in  their  hands.  The 
parsons  were,  almost  all  of  them,  pedagogues,  "the 
first  and  the  best"  that  the  backwoods  young  people 
enjoyed. 

In  these  schools  the  men  that  were  to  shape  the 
affairs  of  state  received  the  rudiments  of  their  educa- 
tion. The  ministers,  however,  were  not  yet  satisfied 
with  what  they  had  accomplished,  and  in  a  number 
of  cases  established  and  conducted  academies,  in 
which  thorough  work  was  done  by  the  founders  who 
had,  many  of  them,  been  educated  in  the  best  eastern 
institutions  of  learning. 

In  1776  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover  founded  Lib- 
erty Hall  Academy,  in  Lexington,  Virginia;  but  its 
predecessor,  Augusta  Academy,  was  established  by 
Robert  Alexander  as  early  as  1749.  Dr.  Samuel  Doak 
in  1783  secured  a  charter  for  Martin  Academy,  while 
in  1 81 8  he  founded  Tusculum  Academy.  Dr.  Heze- 
kiah  Balch  established  in  the  eighties  his  school  at 
Greeneville.  Dr.  Isaac  Anderson  in  1802  founded, 
near  Knoxville,  Union  Academy,  popularly  known  as 


82       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

"the  log  college,"  out  of  which  grew  the  present 
Maryville  College.  And  there  were  other  academies 
scattered  throughout  the  Presbyterian  marches. 

All  the  early  colleges  established  within  the  range 
of  the  Appalachians  were  Presbyterian.     Out  of  the 

day-school  grew  the  academy ;  and 
Founded  Colleges  ^^  ^j^^  academy  was  added  a  col- 
lege department  which  was  planned,  founded,  and  con- 
ducted by  Presbyterian  parsons.  Without  other  en- 
dowment than  their  fervent  love  for  God  and  his 
mountain  people,  and  their  indomitable  purpose  and 
perseverance,  these  consecrated  men  conducted  col- 
leges that  served  the  cause  of  God  even  more  grandly 
than  the  founders  dared  to  dream. 

The  story  of  the  Appalachians  would  be  only  im- 
perfectly told  were  no  mention  made  of  the  splendid 
service  of  Washington  and  Lee  University,  as  it  is 
now  called;  Washington  (Tennessee),  chartered  in 
1795 ;  Greeneville  and  Tusculum,  chartered  as  Greene- 
ville  in  1794,  and  as  Tusculum  in  1844,  and  now 
called  Tusculum ;  Blount  College,  now  the  University 
of  Tennessee,  founded  in  1794;  and  Maryville  Col- 
lege, founded  as  The  Southern  and  Western  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  in  1819.  Hampden  Sidney,  founded  in 
1775,  Centre  College,  founded  in  1819,  and  Cumber- 
land University,  founded  by  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church  in  1842,  though  located  outside  the 
Appalachians,  contributed  to  their  illumination.  These 
several  institutions  provided  many  of  the  leaders  of 
Church  and  State  not  merely  for  the  Appalachians, 
but  also  for  the  great  Southwest. 


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muc  UBfiART 


PIONEER  PRESBYTERIANISM  83 

Just  as  the  first  of  these  institutions  trained  among 
many  other  pioneer  educators,  the  founders  and  first 
presidents  of  Washington,  Blount,  Maryville,  Tus- 
culum,  and  several  other  colleges,  so  did  these  insti- 
tutions in  their  turn  raise  up  a  host  of  educators  for 
the  Southwest.  Indeed,  most  of  the  professional  men 
and  other  leaders  of  that  great  region  received  what 
training  was  theirs  in  the  humble  halls  of  these  col- 
leges of  the  frontier.  The  records  of  these  institu- 
tions, where  any  records  have  survived  the  ravages 
of  time  and  of  the  Civil  War,  bear  eloquent  tribute 
to  the  unparalleled  service  our  Presbyterian  fore- 
fathers of  the  log  colleges  rendered  in  the  making  of 
the  West. 

The  pioneer  ministers,  in  view  of  their  education, 
culture,  and  ability,  were  naturally  deferred  to  even  in 

political  matters.  They  assisted 
th  ^^sf  t^^^^  materially  in  the  foundation  of  the 

pohtical  institutions  of  the  fron- 
tier. The  elders  also  of  the  Presbyterian  churches 
were  commonwealth  builders  of  no  mean  importance 
and  ability. 

Among  the  laymen  trained  in  the  school  of  experi- 
ence and  some  of  them  educated  in  the  log  colleges, 
there  were  many  who  contributed  largely  to  the  estab- 
lishing of  civil  government  in  the  new  settlements, 
and,  as  the  years  went  by,  to  the  foundation  of  terri- 
tory and  state.  A  book  could  be  written  specifying 
such  political  service  rendered  the  cause  of  the  nascent 
states  of  the  Appalachians.     The  heroes  of  the  Ala- 


84      THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

mance,   while    foes   of   tyranny,   were   champions   of 
civil  government. 

The  early  ministers  of  the  Appalachians  were,  like 
Paul,   abundant   in   labors,   in   journeyings   often,   in 

perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  weari- 
And  Were  ^^^^  ^^^  painfulness,  in  watchings 

Successful  ^^^^^^  .^  j^^j^gg^  ^^^  ^j^jj.g^^  j^  ^^1^ 

and  nakedness,  besides  being  burdened  with  the  care 
of  all  the  churches.  Like  Paul,  too,  their  labors  were 
blessed  of  heaven.  They  laid  the  foundations  of 
Christian  commonwealths,  tamed  the  wildness  of 
frontier  human  nature,  and  won  great  numbers  of 
souls  for  Him  who  preached  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  They  established  many  churches,  and  replen- 
ished the  fires  on  many  family  altars.  They  never 
suspected  themselves  of  heroism,  but  their  figures 
loom  up  through  the  mists  of  more  than  a  century  as 
worthies  of  true  heroic  race.  Inspired  by  their  creed 
and  more  still  by  their  Christ,  they  consecrated  their 
learning  and  their  lives  to  the  Christianization  of 
their  brethren  of  the  Scotch-Irish  border. 

Their  own  generation  might  well  rise  up  to  call 
them  blessed,  while  succeeding  generations  have  not 

done  well  if  they  have  forgotten 
And  Their  Work  ^^^^  ^hese  brave  chaplains  of  the 
^'^^^^^  wilderness  did  for  the  militant  fa- 

thers of  the  frontier.  Those  faithful  men  builded 
not  so  successfully  as  they  wished,  but  more  wisely 
than  they  knew.  While,  for  reasons  that  shall  be  enu- 
merated, the  purely  mountain  regions  were  not  ade- 
quately or  permanently  possessed,  the  more  thickly 


PIONEER  PRESBYTERIANISM  85 

populated  sections  were  occupied  by  presbyteries  and 
synods,  which  are  to-day  continuing  and  extending 
the  work  of  the  fathers.  The  statistical  tables  of  the 
assemblies  of  the  various  Presbyterian  churches  occu- 
pying the  field  tell  of  the  work  that  is  being  done. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Later  Presbyterianism  and  the  Problem 

How  did  it  come  to  pass  that  Presbyterianism 
failed  to  hold  the  predominance  in  the  country  after 

the  pioneer  period?  There  are 
Partial  Failure  of  ^^  causes  that  conspired  to  limit 
Presbyterianism        .  ,       r     r>     u  ..    •     • 

the     spread     of     Presbyterianism. 

Nowhere  does  the  creed  or  the  polity  of  any  denomi- 
nation appeal  without  exception  to  all  classes  of  peo- 
ple and  to  all  types  of  mind  in  the  community.  This 
is  as  true  and  as  natural  as  the  fact  that  no  political 
party  has  ever  commanded  the  allegiance  of  all  the 
people  at  any  period  of  our  national  history. 

The  rapid  decay  of  education  that  followed  the  set- 
tling in  the  mountains  necessarily  made  a  church  less 

welcome  that  insisted  so  much 
Decay  of  Educa-     upon  an  educated  ministry.     The 

tion  Made  it  Presbyterian   ministers   recognized 

Less  Welcome  ,  .    /  ,  „ 

this  fact,  and  very  naturally  many 

of  them  went  where  they  were  wanted,  and  where 
they  could  take  their  families  with  fair  hope  of  sup- 
porting and  educating  them.  They  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  go  where  they  were  not  especially  wel- 
come. 

86 


LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  87 

It  was  physically  impossible  for  the  pioneer  preach- 
ers to  reach  the  recesses  of  so  vast  a  parish.    The  ter- 
ritory contains,  as  we  have  seen, 

Territory  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 

Too  Vast  M  111  1 

square   miles;   and    the   long   and 

lonely  mountain  roads  are  almost  impassable  during 
a  large  part  of  the  year.  As  well  expect  a  handful 
of  merchants  to  do  business  for  all  the  broad  Appa- 
lachians. The  population  was  far  more  sparsely  set- 
tled in  the  early  days  than  at  present;  and  so  all  that 
the  preacher  could  find  at  the  end  of  a  weary  journey 
might  be  only  two  or  three  families. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  those  were  the  days  of 
small  things — beginnings  only,  in  religious  matters — 

in  America.  There  was  no  Gen- 
Mimsters  ^^.^1  Assembly  until  Hanover  Pres- 

bytery was  thirty-five  years  old. 
So  were  Lexington,  Abingdon,  and  Transylvania  pres- 
byteries older  than  the  Assembly.  There  were  only 
266  Presbyterian  ministers  in  the  entire  United  States 
in  1799.  If  the  9,410  ministers  even  now  belonging 
to  our  branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  were  to  set- 
tle in  the  southern  Appalachians,  there  would  be  room 
for  all,  and  a  parish  of  568  souls  for  every  one.  The 
ministers  of  the  early  day  had  to  be  provided  by  the 
frontier  church,  for  the  demands  for  ministers  by  the 
rest  of  the  rapidly  growing  country  exhausted  the  en- 
tire supply;  and  this  was  true  in  an  epoch  at  the  be- 
ginning of  which  there  was  no  Presbyterian  theologi- 
cal seminary  in  the  United   States.     Practically  no 


88       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

more  volunteers  could  be  expected  from  the  North 
and  the  East. 

If  the  cost  of  an  education  in  these  better  days  of 
the  twentieth  century  hinders  many  from  entering  the 
Presbyterian  ministry,  as  it  confessedly  does,  what 
must  have  been  true  in  those  days  of  hardship  and 
struggle  for  existence,  when  every  male  inhabitant 
was  needed  for  the  clearing  of  the  wilderness,  and 
"the  winning  of  the  West"?  The  few  frontier  min- 
isters did,  amid  their  many  other  toils,  educate  such 
young  men  as  they  could  find,  who  could  support 
themselves,  and  who,  they  thought,  would  be  useful 
in  the  ministry;  but  what  were  they  among  so  many? 
The  Presbyterian  Church  adhered  to  its  time-honored 
requirements  of  a  thorough  training  for  the  ministry, 
and  made  no  modification  of  its  conditions  for  en- 
trance into  its  ministry.  All  its  ministers  even  in  the 
mountains  must  have  attained  its  high  standard  of 
education.  Other  churches  profited  by  this  fact,  while 
the  founding  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church 
in  1810  by  some  Presbyterian  ministers  of  the  Ken- 
tucky frontier,  was  a  protest  against  this  rigid  ad- 
herence to  the  law  of  "the  book"  on  the  part  of  the 
ancestral  Church. 

The  pioneer  was  practically  penniless,  so  far  as 
money  was  concerned ;  and  after  he  had  kept  the  wolf 

of  poverty  from  his  own  door,  he 
No  Church  j^^^  u^^jg  strength  to  devote  to  the 

^Boards  «    ,       ,        ,       -nri 

support  of  the  church.     What  was 

needed   then   is   what    is   immensely    useful   now — a 
home-mission  board  that  should  tide  the  backwoods- 


LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  89 

men  over  the  days  of  privation  until  they  might  be 
able  to  care  for  themselves.  But  not  till  1802  did  the 
General  Assembly  even  appoint  a  Standing  Commit- 
tee on  Home  Missions ;  and  at  the  end  of  a  generation 
the  entire  income  of  the  Board  of  Missions  was  only 
$27,654.  The  entire  income  of  even  the  present  great 
Home  Mission  Board  would  be  found  sadly  inade- 
quate were  that  Board  to  attempt  to  supply  the  gos- 
pel to  all  the  people  of  the  southern  highlands.  Had 
there  been  a  strong  Home  Board  in  the  days  of  the 
pioneers,  the  story  in  the  southern  mountains  would, 
however,  have  been  very  different.  But  the  whole 
land  was  then  mission  territory  without  any  organiza- 
tion that  could  assist  in  its  evangelization;  so  the 
places  that  could  support  the  gospel  enjoyed  the  dis- 
pensation of  it;  while  the  poorer  sections  were,  too 
many  of  them,  forced  to  dispense  with  it.  The  Sus- 
tentation  Scheme  worked  wonders  in  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland,  and  a  similar  scheme  with  financial  back- 
ing would  have  greatly  improved  the  condition  of 
affairs  in  the  American  highlands. 

There  was  a  constantly  enlarging  field  of  work  lying 
to  the  south  and  west,  and  the  ministers  heard  the 

insistent   calls    from   every    direc- 

Many  Ministers  ^ion,  "Come  over  and  help  us!"  It 
Went  West  '         ,        ,    .  ^     .    . 

was  merely  a  choice  among  mission 

fields,  and  many  chose  to  go  westward.    A  very  large 

number  of  the  early  ministers  of  the  Southwest  and 

of  the  Northwest  were  originally  from  East  Tennessee 

and  the  valleys  still  farther  eastward. 


90       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 


But  Workers  Did 
Their  Utmost 


Indeed,  the  Presbyterian  churches  of  the  Appa- 
lachians have  been,  from  the  first,  constantly  depleted 
in  strength  by  a  steady  and  uninterrupted  stream  of 
emigrants  to  the  West.  Hundreds  of  churches  from 
Indiana  to  Texas  and  across  to  Oregon  were  founded 
largely  by  the  Presbyterians  of  the  mountains.  In 
some  cases  entire  churches  removed  bodily  to  the 
West. 

The  vi^orkers  in  the  mountains  savi^  all  that  w^e  now 
see  of  the  need  and  the  strategic  importance  of  their 

position,  and  some  of  them  made 
herculean  efforts  to  meet  their  op- 
portunity. The  records  of  the  pres- 
byteries and  synods  that  had  to  do  with  the  region 
bore  frequent  testimony  to  the  solicitude  those  bodies 
felt,  and  to  the  efforts  they  made  to  reach  the  desti- 
tute fields  in  the  mountains.  Long-distance  criticism 
of  the  fathers'  work  would  be  silenced  if  the  critics 
were  to  do  as  the  writer  has  had  the  pleasure  of  do- 
ing— read  the  entire  ofiicial  records  of  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  years'  proceedings  of  one  of  those  Appa- 
lachian presbyteries.  The  wants  of  the  field  were 
keenly  realized,  and  noble  efforts  to  meet  those  needs 
were  made  by  a  pitifully  inadequate  force.  Their  cry 
was  an  echo  of  the  Master's :  "Pray  ye  therefore  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he  will  send  forth  laborers 
into  his  harvest." 

Rev.  Isaac  Anderson,  D.D.,  who  had  been  educated 
at  Liberty  Hall  Academy  in  old  Rockbridge  County, 
Virginia,  found  himself  in  early  manhood  an  ordained 


U3 
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LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  91 

minister  settled  in  the  center  of  East  Tennessee.  As 
he  viewed  the  religious  destitution  of  the  valley  and 

the  mountains,  his  heart  bled  for 
Southern  and  the  hurt  of  the   daughter  of   his 

Western  Theologi-  ^^^^^^_    ^^  ^^^^  ^  ^^^^^  pilgrim- 

cai  oeminaxy  ^ .    t~>  * 

age    to    seven-year-old    Jrrmceton 

Theological  Seminary  in  the  hope  that  he  could  in- 
duce some  of  the  young  men  about  to  graduate  from 
that  school  of  the  prophets  to  reinforce  the  inadequate 
band  of  toilers  in  the  Tennessee  mountains.  In  vain 
was  his  pleading,  however,  for  were  not  many  fields 
nearer  home  in  dire  need?  And  why  not  "begin  at 
Jerusalem"?  „....-•-* 

Sorely  disappointed,  but  daUntfess  in  his  devotion 
and  courage,  this  Presbyterian  prince  turned  his 
horse's  head  homeward.  During  the  two  weeks' 
journey  through  the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  onward 
to  his  home,  the  shadow  of  the  Appalachians  was 
upon  his  spirit  and  conscience.  In  that  shadow  a 
mighty  resolve  was  made — that  since  he  could  not 
bring  the  Princeton  boys  to  his  help,  he  would  found 
a  Princeton  for  the  Southwest.  He  soon  laid  his  plans 
before  the  newly  formed  Synod  of  Tennessee,  and  that 
body  founded  at  Maryville  The  Southern  and  Western 
Theological  Seminary.  With  a  very  little  amount  of 
help  from  man  and  with  a  vast  amount  of  help  from 
God's  grace  and  providence,  he  put  the  rich  gift  of 
his  life  into  the  seminary,  with  the  one  purpose  of 
raising  up  workers  for  the  great  mountain  field  of  the 
South. 

His  broad  shoulders  bore  an  Atlas's  load  of  toil,  re- 
sponsibility, and  privations,  till  thev  tottered  and  fell 


92       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

under  the  burden.  But  he  had  given  thirty-eight 
years  to  his  seminary — or  Maryville  College,  as  it 
came  to  be  called — and  had  the  unspeakable  joy  of 
seeing,  besides  hundreds  of  trained  Christian  laymen, 
as  many  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  graduates 
of  his  school  enter  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  At 
times  a  majority  in  some  of  the  mountain  presbyteries 
were  graduates  of  his  training.  And  no  one  can  com- 
pute the  indirect  influence  of  his  great  work  and  life 
upon  the  other  churches  of  the  highlands.  God 
showed  in  Dr.  Anderson  what  one  consecrated  life 
could  do  for  the  redemption  of  the  mountains. 

We  may  here  anticipate  a  little.    The  troubles  that 
led  to  the  organization  of  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church,  and  to  the  division 
The  Divisions  of     ^f  ^he  mother  church  into  the  Old 
Presbyterianism  ,  ^.^        o  ,      i      u  j        i 

and  New  Schools,  had  perhaps  a 

more  paralyzing  effect  in  the  Appalachians  than  else- 
where, because  of  the  already  weak  condition  of  the 
church.  These  schisms  resulted  in  the  extinction  of 
the  church  in  some  places,  and  reduced  it  in  many 
other  sections  to  a  state  of  mere  existence.  And,  as 
if  these  internal  difficulties  were  not  enough,  the  na- 
tional strife  culminating  in  the  Civil  War  added  an- 
other line  of  cleavage  to  an  already  twice-bisected 
church.  Thus  several  disunions  took  away  much 
Presbyterian  strength. 

Few  who  were  not  present  in  the  section  can  im- 
agine the  overthrow  of  church  life  that  was  wrought, 
especially  by  the  cataclysm  of  the  Civil  War.  The 
most  conscientious  and  earnest  men  on  both  sides  of 


LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  93 

the  controversy,  including  no  small  number  of  elders 
and  ministers,  went  to  the  front,  and  armies  of  them 
offered  up  their  invaluable  lives  as  a  pledge  of  their 
consecration  to  what  they  deemed  right. 

Let  us  revert  now  to  the  condition  in  which  the 
pioneers  discovered  themselves  when  the  Presbyterian 

Church  found  the  region  too  im- 
Other  Denomi-         mense  to  cover  with  the  resources 

at  its  command.  There  could  not 
be  an  educated  ministry  provided  or  supported  in  most 
sections  of  the  mountains,  and  so  the  region  was 
thrown  upon  its  own  devices  as  it  sought  to  secure  a 
ministry. 

Since  educated  ministers  could  not  be  found,  or  sup- 
ported if  found,  men  without  special  education  were 
necessarily  made  preachers.  The  denominations  that 
did  not  have  an  educational  standard  for  the  ministry 
took  the  places  of  the  absent  Presbyterians.  A  great 
number  of  these  ministers  served  absolutely  without 
compensation,  except  the  reward  of  conscience  that 
comes  to  men  who  please  Christ.  None  of  them  re- 
ceived any  adequate  salary;  and  so  preachers  were 
farmers  for  six  days  of  the  week.  They  organized 
their  churches  and  the  Presbyterians  in  the  mountains 
united  with  those  churches. 

Many  of  these  men  preached  the  gospel  with  all 
earnestness,  and  were  of  untold  benefit  to  the  moun- 
tains in  which  they  prosecuted  their  simple-hearted 
ministry.  The  pity  is  that  their  number  was  inade- 
quate to  meet  the  needs  of  the  mountains.    Their  sue- 


94       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

cessors  are  still  upholding  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the 
Appalachians,  and  they  deserve  generous  reinforce- 
ment and  appreciative  recognition  at  the  hands  of  all 
Presbyterians. 

Since  there  was  a  general  lack  of  organized  efforts 
to  provide  the  gospel  for  all  the  sections,  a  consid- 

erable  number  of  thinly  populated 

Some  Unchurched   j-  -  •  .  i  r.      ■j.t.    \ 

Neighborhoods         ?/'^""^',  ^"'^  ^"^^  ^^^^^"^  ^">^  ^^- 

ligious  leadership  of  any  kind,  and 

so  have  remained  to  this  day.  The  deplorable  results 
of  such  deprivation  can  easily  be  imagined.  And  in 
such  communities  the  children  of  the  Presbyterians, 
to  their  sorrow,  shared  in  the  heart-famine  that  pre- 
vailed. 

When  the  Presbyterians  in  the  remoter  mountains 

were  absorbed  by  the  denominations  that  took  pos- 

p    X  -p  session,  so  far  as  any  possession 

•h-^i^^r,;^-^  "ii„«  '  was  taken,  they  did  not  cease  to 
bytenan  Age  .  ,    .     , 

impress  their  hereditary  influence 

upon  the  region  in  which  their  distinctive  name  was 
lost.  It  is  believed  that  they  contributed  to  the  moun- 
tains as  a  permanent  legacy  and  reminder  of  their  ex- 
istence these  distinctive  principles:  (i)  The  su- 
premacy of  the  Scriptures;  (2)  the  sovereignty  of 
God;  (3)  man's  direct  responsibility  to  God;  (4)  the 
vital  interest  of  theology;  (5)  the  Christian  Sabbath; 
and  (6)  the  dignity  of  the  individual.  There  were 
several  principles  that  too  nearly  vanished  or  passed 
into  echpse  in  the  mountains  with  the  passing  of  the 
Presbyterians.      These   were :      ( i )    The   imperative 


LATER  PRESBYTERIANISM  95 

need  of  an  educated  ministry;  (2)  the  equally  im- 
perative need  of  popular  education;  and  (3)  the  su- 
premely imperative  need  of  the  family  altar.  And  the 
Presbyterians  of  to-day  have  something  to  do  in  re- 
placing these  losses  of  a  century  of  neglect. 


CHAPTER   IX 
Present-day   Presbyterianism   and  the   Problem 

The  formation,  the  analysis,  and  the  early  Presby- 
terian treatment   of  the  Appalachian   problem  have 

thus    far    engaged    our    attention. 

i.i.°^    i-T^    -.  But  a  problem  exists  to  be  solved, 

the  Problem  ?  .     ^     ^  .  .         .  _     „,  .' 

just  as  a  proposition  of  Euclid  is 

a  Q.  E.  D.    The  all-important  question  then  is  before 

us — How  is  this  present  problem  to  reach  solution? 

The  answer  is  simple  though  triple ;  it  is  this :  The 
Appalachian  problem  is  to  be  solved  by  means  of 
three  agencies — (i)  the  economic  or  material  de- 
velopment of  the  mountains;  (2)  the  perfecting  of 
the  public  school  system;  and  (3)  the  multiplying  of 
the  uplift  agencies  of  the  various  churches  and  of 
other  philanthropic  organizations. 

In  order  that  industry  and  energy  may  have  full 
development  and  exercise  in  the  Appalachians,  labor 

must  become  remunerative,  wages 
By  Development  ^^^^  ^^  available,  markets  must 
of  Economic  Life     ,  ., , 

become     accessible,     trade     must 

flourish.  Money  and  markets  will  be  two  mighty  mo- 
tives to  help  arouse  the  mountains  to  new  life.  Amer- 
ican enterprise  is  at  work  as  never  before  hastening 

96 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM      97 

this  first-named  element  of  the  solution  of  our  prob- 
lem— that  is,  the  economic  or  material  development 
of  the  mountains. 

The  Appalachians  are  one  of  Nature's  choicest 
storehouses  of  treasures.  The  very  air  and  water  are 
assets,  and  make  the  mountains  the  sanitarium  of  the 
states  east  of  the  Mississippi.  The  tide  of  immigra- 
tion is  beginning  to  turn  from  the  West  to  the  South. 
Exploitation  companies  are  developing  the  vast  tim- 
ber, mineral,  and  hydro-electric  resources,  and  pros- 
pectors are  penetrating  every  recess  of  the  mountains 
in  search  of  new  investments  and  hopeful  fields  of 
operation,  and  their  search  is  being  rewarded.  Rail- 
roads and  even  white  lines  of  turnpikes  are  steadily 
pushing  their  way  into  the  mountains.  Mines  are  be- 
ing developed  and  manufactures  established.  Agri- 
cultural experiment  stations  are  demonstrating  that 
even  the  mountain  soil  will  in  many  places  yield  a 
fair  reward  for  the  labor  expended  upon  it. 

This  industrial  invasion  will  incidentally  introduce 
much  evil,  but  it  will  prepare  the  way  for  better 
things.  It  will  break  up  the  isolation.  Better  an  in- 
vasion that  will  bring  opportunity  and  prosperity  to 
the  old  mountain  home  than  a  hegira  down  to  an  un- 
wholesome mill  village  and  child  labor  therewith  on 
the  sweltering  plain.  If  the  rewards  of  labor  are 
forthcoming,  shiftlessness  will  disappear.  The  days 
of  no  trade  and  no  money  are  passing  away.  The 
mountaineer  sees  it,  dreads  it,  and  will  profit  by  it. 

The  second  element  in  the  solution  of  the  Appa- 
lachian problem  is  the  perfecting  of  the  public-school 


98       THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

system.     In  most  of  the  states  in  which  this  Appa- 
lachian range  is  located,  there  is  a  very  great  increase 

of  interest  and  effort  in  behalf  of 
By  Perfecting  of       ^^^  common  schools  for  all  the 

Public  Schools  1  r       11    4-1,  4--  C    4.U 

people  of  all  the  sections  oi  the 
states.  Noble,  large-minded  leaders  have  been  preach- 
ing the  new  crusade  against  ignorance  and  in  favor 
of  public  instruction,  and  more  and  more  of  the  peo- 
ple and  of  their  legislators  are  joining  the  crusading 
armies. 

Not  forever  are  the  children  in  the  insular  pos- 
sessions of  the  United  States  to  have  better  instruc- 
tion and  better  educational  advantages  in  general  than 
have  these  mountaineer  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution  living  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
republic.  Not  forever  are  the  teachers  of  the  public 
schools  to  be  recruited  principally  from  the  untrained 
youths  who  have  barely  passed  the  grade  they  at- 
tempt to  teach.  Not  forever  is  the  money  invested  in 
court-house  and  jail  to  exceed  that  invested  in  the 
schoolhouses  of  the  county,  as  is  often  the  case  at 
present. 

Largely  increased  appropriations  are  being  made, 
and  many  improvements  in  the  system  of  public 
schools  are  being  introduced.  Laws  providing  for 
compulsory  attendance  are  being  enacted.  Progress 
hitherto  has  been  slow  and  delayed.  It  will  be  the 
work  of  years  to  attain  to  a  satisfactory  system,  but 
every  patriot  must  rejoice  that  something  better  lies 
in  store  for  the  children  of  the  highlands.  Hope  de- 
ferred has  made  the  heart  sick ;  but  now  a  better  day 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM      99 

is   dawning.     It   may   be   added   that   in   the   public 

schools  of  the  mountains  the  reading  of  the  Bible  will 

be  welcomed.    The  people  want  it. 

The  other  element  in  the  solving  of  the  problem 

of  the  Appalachians  is  the  multiplying  of  the  uplift 

agencies   of   the  churches  and   of 

?y  ™?^i^Ply^^&  °^  the   other   philanthropic   organiza- 
Uplift  Agencies         .  ,,  ^        ,    .     ,  •     .,  • 

tions.     Now,   what   share   m   this 

great  work  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  to  have  is  a 

matter  that  concerns  all  those  who  love  the  old  Kirk. 

Is  there  any  special  phase  of  the  work  for  which 

our    church   has   special   equipment  and   adaptation? 

What  is  the  special  mission  of 
Wnat  Is  the  present-day  Presbyterianism  in  the 

Mission  of  Our         a        ,    ,  .       0    -vxr  11  4.  1 

Church?  Appalachians?    We  may  well  take 

a  little  time  to  blaze  out  our  course 
over  the  mountains.  It  is  a  happy  fact  that  we  have 
but  to  follow  the  course  of  the  Home  Board  as  it  has 
followed  the  leadings  of  Providence  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century  to  find  a  safe  trail  already  blazed 
out  very  distinctly  over  these  mountains  of  the  South. 
In  general,  the  mission  of  present-day  Presbyter- 
ianism in  the  Appalachians  is,  so  far  as  in  it  lies,  to 

discharge  here  as  elsewhere,  the 
To  Preach  to  ^^^    ^^^^  Christ's  world-wide  com- 

Every  Creature  .    .       ,  •.     1       .        j 

mission   lays   upon   its   heart   and 

puts  into  its  hands.  The  apologies  that  the  Church 
owes  are  to  God  for  not  more  promptly  carrying  its 
share  of  the  Gospel  message  to  the  mountains,  and 
are  not  to  any  men  or  denomination  of  men  for  now 
carrying  it  there. 


100     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  present  duty  of  Presbyterianism  is  also  to  dis- 
charge the  debt  that  it  owes  its  brethren  in  the  Ap- 
palachians.     It    owes    a    duty    to 
To  Discharge  brother    Americans     "beleaguered 

Debt  to  Brethren     ,      ^r  .         ■      ,  .  ■      r    . 

by  Nature  m  the  mountain  fast- 
nesses" ;  for  ours  is  a  national  church,  with  a  duty  to 
perform  to  all  sections  of  the  land.  It  owes  a  duty 
to  the  descendants  of  the  Scotch-Irishmen ;  for, 
though  not  all  Presbyterians  are  Scotch-Irish,  most 
Scotch-Irish  were  originally  and  even  yet  the  major- 
ity are,  by  principle  or  prejudice  or  tradition,  Presby- 
terians ;  and  Presbyterianism  exercises  but  common 
sense  in  recognizing  that  fact.  It  certainly  owes  a 
peculiar  duty  to  the  descendants  of  a  Presbyterian 
ancestry,  to  us  the  proudest  lineage  on  earth.  "Blood 
is  thicker  than  water."  The  Presbyterians  of  these 
halcyon  days  of  Presbyterian  strength  and  achieve- 
ment should  do  what  their  hard-pressed  fathers 
longed  to  do,  but  were  prevented  by  their  providential 
limitations  from  being  able  to  do. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  is  the  broadest  and  most 
tolerant  in  Christendom.     It  would  not  re-enter  the 

mountains  with  any  spirit  of  de- 
To  Help  Other  nominational    zeal    or    with    any 

Denominations  ,     r    i  •  .■         r  .■,       .^ 

word  of  depreciation  of  the  other 

churches  of  the  Appalachians.  Besides  being  un- 
christlike,  it  would  be  exceedingly  out  of  keep- 
ing with  the  proprieties  of  the  case  for  us  to  criticize 
the  brethren  that  have  "tarried  by  the  stufif." 

Rather  do  we  turn  with  deep  gratitude  to  the  faith- 
ful servants  of  Christ,  of  whatever  name,  who  have 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM     loi 

cared  for  the  religious  interests  of  the  Appalachians 
in  spite  of  difficulties  that  have  tried  men's  souls.  It 
is  the  duty  of  present-day  Presbyterianism  to  run  to 
the  aid  of  our  hard-pressed  brethren  of  other  denomi- 
nations and  contribute  to  the  common  cause  that 
which  will  make  their  work  far  more  effective  and 
satisfactory,  while  at  the  same  time  it  introduces  a 
fresh  body  of  workers  into  a  region  where  the  force 
now  employed  is  on  every  hand  confessed  to  be  piti- 
fully inadequate. 

The  time-honored  means  of  preaching  and  teach- 
ing the  word  by  evangelism  and  school  are  of  course 

necessary  in  the  mountains,  as 
io  iiinploy,  m  elsewhere.     Indeed  they  are  more 

Methods  effective  there  than  in  most  parts 

of  our  country.  The  holding  of 
tent  meetings  has  been  of  service  in  gathering  together 
new  congregations  for  organization  into  churches ;  and 
by  the  means  of  such  meetings  the  efficient  missionar- 
ies of  our  Sabbath-school  Board  have  organized  and 
fostered  many  Sabbath-schools,  often  in  regions  where 
there  had  never  been  such  schools.  For  the  organiza- 
tion of  churches,  no  more  speedy  or  efficacious  means 
can  be  employed  than  are  those  put  into  practice  by 
the  heroic  and  energetic  missionaries  of  the  Sabbath- 
school  Board.  And  here  valuable  assistance  is  also 
rendered  the  other  denominations,  who  oftentimes  are 
greatly  benefited  by  the  services  given  by  our  Sab- 
bath-school missionaries.  This  phase  of  Christian 
work  might  well  be  indefinitely  increased  in  view  of 


102     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

the  providential  favor  that  has  been  manifested  to  it. 

The  organization  of  a  Presbyterian  church  in  the 
mountains,  however,  should  mean  more  than  the  or- 
ganization of  a  nucleus  of  ill-indoctrinated  or  un- 
trained church  members  to  be  ministered  to  once  or 
twice  a  month.  It  should  rather  create  a  center  where 
earnest  and  all-the-year-round  efforts  should  be  made 
by  every  method  known  to  the  wise  winner  of  souls 
to  render  it  a  city  set  on  a  hill,  a  light  set  on  a  stand. 

No  less  than  in  other  communities  does  the  pastor 
here  need  to  be  a  shepherd,  safefolding  his  flock  from 
grievous  wolves.  Here  no  less  than  elsewhere  is  the 
Bible-reader  and  catechist  or  community  worker  jus- 
tified by  the  results  of  her  work.  A  permanent,  shin- 
ing Presbyterian  church  will  be  one  of  the  greatest 
contributions  to  a  mountain  county  that  our  zealous 
Church  can  make;  and  the  benefit  rendered  will  be 
many  fold  greater  than  can  be  computed  merely  in 
terms  of  advantage  to  the  mother  Church  that  estab- 
lished it. 

The  Presbyterian  Church,  however,  has  reached  a 

practical  consensus  of  opinion  as  to  what  is  its  chief 

mission  in  the  southern  mountains. 
Bu^  Principally,     j^^^  ^-^^-^^  -^  ^^  ^^ 

to  Educate  .,„,..  ,        .      '       ^ , 

vide   Christian    education    for   the 

young  people  who  are  to  be  the  future  leaders  of  the 
mountains.  This  is,  of  course,  recognized  as  an  ex- 
ceptional case. 

Usually  the  Church  looks  upon  itself  as  an  evan- 
gelizing agency.     But  in  the  Appalachians  it  recog- 


CD 


O 


1/1 
•tH 


03 


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o 


i'iiii   i^/SW    iJHK     j 

fUBLiC  LIBRART 

AMrx>n,  LUNOX 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM     103 

nizes  the  fact  that  here  the  most  successful  way  to 
contribute  to  the  coming  of  the  glad  day  when  the 
mountains  will  be  fully  evangelized  is  to  educate  the 
young  people  of  the  mountains.  What  hope  of  build- 
ing up  good  Presbyterianism  or  good  Christianity  of 
any  type  if  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  cannot 
read,  or  search  the  Scriptures  that  testify  of  Christ? 
What  hope  of  founding  a  substantial  work  so  long  as 
educated  leaders  with  a  desire  for  improvement  and 
progress  are  lacking?  It  is  evident  that  the  Appa- 
lachian worker  must  lay  broad  and  deep  the  founda- 
tion of  education  and  intelligence  before  he  can  erect 
a  permanent  Christian  church  that  shall  largely  im- 
prove the  people  for  whose  good  it  is  consecrated. 

When    this    Presbyterian    policy    was    at    first    in 
process  of  formulation,  some  of  our  people  were  un- 
easy lest  the  Church  might  pervert 
Supplementing         -^^  ^^^^^  -^^  ^^-       ^^^y.  ^^^^  ^^^ 

State  Education        ^  ^     .  ■,  7     ,       t>  ^       , 

state  IS  supposed  to  do.     But  such 

doubters  have  now  come  to  see,  first,  that  in  this  re- 
spect the  southern  mountaineers  are  an  exceptional 
population,  and  need  an  exceptional  treatment;  sec- 
ondly, that  the  speediest  way  to  revolutionize  the 
region  they  inhabit  is  to  give  a  large  body  of  the 
young  people  such  a  thorough  Christian  education  and 
religious  training  as  will  render  them  the  great  evan- 
gelizing and  elevating  force  of  the  future;  thirdly, 
that  the  states  involved  are  not  yet  giving  the  rural 
districts  of  even  the  "flatwoods"  at  all  adequate 
schools ;  and  fourthly,  that  they  can  never  give  the 
Christian   education  and   religious   training  so  abso- 


104     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

lutely  indispensable  to  the  new  mountains  that  all 
Christian  patriots  wish  to  see. 

The  chief  bane  of  the  mountains  is  the  absence  of 
education  and  of  Christian  education  at  that;  and  the 

remedy  for  the  evils  that  exist,  so 
Education  the  ^^^  ^^  ^^^^^  j^  ^  remedy,  is  to  be 

Open  Sesame  ^        .     .  ...         j     /-i    •  .• 

found     m     enlightened     Christian 

education.  This  fact  is  keenly  appreciated  by  the  dis- 
cerning ones  in  the  mountains,  and  they  eagerly  long 
for  the  wondrous  panacea  for  their  ills.  The  broad- 
minded  ones  will  welcome  and  encourage  and  aid  all 
efforts  made  by  any  church  to  contribute  what  it  may 
to  the  education  of  the  mountains. 

The  people  of  the  Appalachians  will  hear  their  own 
sons  as  they  speak  of  needed  advance  and  improve- 
ments; but  they  will  not  listen  to 
Educate  strangers.      They    are   too   proud- 

spirited to  do  so.  Education,  then, 
is  the  best  means  for  reaching  comprehensively  and 
collectively  our  brothers  of  the  mountains.  The 
schools  will  create  the  new  generation  that,  as  Grady 
said  of  the  New  South,  will  see  "their  mountains 
showering  down  the  music  of  bells,  as  their  slow- 
moving  flocks  and  herds  go  forth  from  their  folds ; 
their  rulers  honest  and  their  people  loving,  and  their 
homes  happy,  and  their  hearthstones  bright,  and  their 
conscience  clear."  They  will  mold  public  opinion  and 
change  time  immemorial  conservatism,  and  introduce 
the  best  and  most  wholesome  gifts  that  the  modern 
world  can  put  into  church  and  home  and  heart. 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM     105 

This  Christian  education  must  be  of  the  most  wide- 
visioned  kind.     It  should  bring  to  the  service  of  the 

mountains  the  most  modern,   sci- 
With  Education      ^^^^^^        practical,      and      helpful 

Wide-Visioned  ,  ,        ^u  j       r  ^       ^-  4.u 

phases  and  methods  01  twentieth- 
century  education,  and  yet  hallow  it  all  with  the  hope- 
ful and  happy  spirit  of  that  godliness  that  "is  profit- 
able unto  all  things,  having  promise  of  the  Hfe  that 
now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come."  Preachers 
and  teachers  and  community  workers,  the  three  forces 
enlisted  in  the  Christian  education  of  the  people,  will 
contribute  by  all  the  means  within  their  power  to  the 
enlightenment  of  the  future  leaders  of  the  people.  It 
will  teach  the  care  and  preservation  of  the  health  of 
that  body  that  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In 
connection  with  the  sanctification  of  the  life,  sanita- 
tion of  the  home  will  be  indoctrinated  into  the  people, 
so  that  typhoid,  tuberculosis,  and  the  other  scourges 
of  the  hills  may  be  driven  into  permanent  exile,  and 
their  armies  of  victims  be  saved  to  the  country.  The 
teachings  of  science  as  to  the  influence  of  alcohol  and 
narcotics  upon  health  and  life  will  affect  the  young 
mountaineers  as  they  affect  many  young  lowlanders, 
and  will  rapidly  strengthen  the  armies  batthng  against 
intemperance  and  degeneracy.  This  Christian  educa- 
tion will  interest  itself  in  boyhood  and  girlhood,  and 
will  busy  itself  in  providing  wholesome  play  and 
sports  and  recreation  in  order  to  break  up  the  monot- 
ony of  the  mountains  and  to  brighten  the  rather  som- 
ber character  of  mountain  childhood  and  youth.  It 
will  encourage  whatever  will  foster  the  ability  of  the 


io6     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

farmers  to  earn  a  comfortable  living  from  the  soil — 
to  substitute  modern  and  scientific  methods  of  agri- 
culture for  those  that  have  proved  themselves  pitifully 
deficient  or  inadequate.  It  will  strive  to  make  a 
worthy,  attractive,  and  homelike  home  out  of  every 
cabin  in  the  hills.  It  will  strive  by  day  to  accomplish 
these  results,  and,  where  feasible,  it  will  strive  even 
by  night,  for  has  it  not  the  happy  results  of  the 
Rowan  County,  Kentucky,  "Moonlight  Schools"  to 
encourage  it?  And  it  will  do  all  these  things  and 
whatever  else  is  in  its  power  in  order  that  the  bless- 
ings of  the  best  Christian  civilization  may  be  shared 
by  all  our  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  mountains;  and 
that,  as  it  thus  prepares  the  way  of  the  Lord  and 
makes  straight  a  highway  for  our  God,  the  glory  of 
the  Lord  may  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh  may  see  it 
together. 

Such  Christian  education  best  pays  the  debt  we  owe 
to   the   churches   that   have   been   left   comparatively 

alone  in  the  mountains.    Their  best 

J.  ^nJ.^^^^^'  workers  and  many  of  their  minis- 
to  Other  Churches  .  f^ 

ters  will  receive  the  benefits  of  the 

Presbyterian  schools  and  centers.     And  as  we  gladly 

train  their  workers  for  the  common  service  of  our 

Lord  and  his  mountain  vineyard,  there  will  disappear 

from  men's   hearts   the   fear  that  we  are  merely  a 

proselyting  agency,  seeking  our  own  advancement  in 

the  way  of  territorial  expansion  or  numerical  growth. 

The  mere   fact  that   for  various  reasons  some  local 

leaders  may  not  appreciate  the  educational  invasion, 

and  that  others  may  be  found  even  to  antagonize  it, 


PRESENT-DAY  PRESBYTERIANISM     107 

will  not  prevent  the  service  rendered  from  being  a 
real  and  far-reaching  one. 

The  statesmanlike  leaders  of  the  various  denomina- 
tions represented  in  the  mountain  work  recognize  the 
magnitude  of  the  task  before  the  united  church  of 
Christ,  and  both  heartily  welcome  the  contribution 
that  our  Church  is  making  toward  the  performance 
of  the  task,  and  generously  speak  in  handsomest  terms 
in  recognition  of  the  character  and  extent  of  that  con- 
tribution. The  first  Interdenominational  Conference 
of  Mountain  Workers  was  held  in  Atlanta  in  April, 
191 3,  and  was  marked  by  the  most  cordial  and  fra- 
ternal unanimity  among  the  representatives  of  the 
various  churches,  and  by  evidences,  on  the  part  of  all, 
of  enthusiastic  and  hopeful  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
the  mountain  people. 

Another  happy  result  of  the  carrying  out  of  this 
mission  of  present-day  Presbyterianism  has  already 

been  greatly  to  stimulate  other  de- 
^^^•l^*^V?^^v^  *°     nominations  on  the  field  and  away 

from  the  field  to  similar  efforts  to 
afford  the  Appalachian  youth  the  Christian  training 
that  they  so  much  desire.  This  is  an  indirect  result 
of  Presbyterian  efforts,  but  one  that  is  already  joy- 
fully witnessed  and  should  still  be  hopefully  looked 
for  by  the  Church ;  for  thus  Christian  education  is  ex- 
tended to  the  rising  generation  in  the  mountains,  and 
the  common  cause  of  the  Lord  of  the  mountains  is 
conserved. 

What  matters  it  if  credit  be  not  always  given  to  the 
real  cause,  and  even  ingratitude  sometimes  greet  the 


io8     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

best  sacrifices  the  Board  and  its  workers  can  make? 

Jesus,  our  Master,  was  kind,  for  love's  sake,  to  the 

unthankful.      The   great    heart   of 

,J^      J}^.  .  the     mountain     people     will    beat 

More  Light  ,  „  ,  ^  ,        , 

gratefully,    and    the    future    will 

cheerfully  acknowledge  the  debt  it  owes  to  the  old 

Church  of  their  fathers.     The  statistics  of  the  good 

done  by  the  Church  will  be  accurately  kept  in  heaven, 

even   if  most   of  it  does  not  find  tabulation  in  the 

"Minutes  of  the  General  Assembly." 


CHAPTER   X 

The  Day-schools  and  Smaller  Community  Cen- 
ters 

The  entire  Presbyterian  Church  should  acquaint  it- 
self with  the  magnitude  of  the  service  rendered  the 

southern  highlands  by  its  accred- 
A  Notable  Uplift     -^^^   agents,   who   have   by   heroic 

and  herculean  labors  built  up  and 
carried  forward  an  Appalachian  uplift  system  that 
has  been  the  pride  of  the  mountains,  and  that  ought 
to  be  the  pride  of  the  Church.  The  colleges  in  the 
Appalachians,  most  of  them,  were  founded  by  the 
pioneers,  and  are  venerable  in  age  and  service;  but 
almost  all  the  rest  of  the  schools  and  community  cen- 
ters have  been  organized  and  established  within  the 
past  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  its  officers  have 
been  unswerving  in  their  devotion  to  the  service  of 

the  mountaineers.  The  successive 
And  NotaMe  synodical  superintendents  and  the 

Builders  Thereof      -^       •  ^     i    ^      £  .u  i    u 

supermtendents  of  the  work  nave 

counted  no  labor  too  arduous  for  them,  and  have  even 
zealously  assumed  personal  obligations,  and  raised 
special  funds  to  continue  or  to  advance  the  work  dear 
to  their  hearts.     The  rank  and  file  of  the  mountain 

109 


no     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

workers,  a  consecrated  band  of  ministers,  teachers. 
Sabbath-school  missionaries,  and  community  workers, 
have  toiled  and  moiled,  planned  and  executed,  strug- 
gled and  triumphed  in  the  cause  that  led  them  often 
far  from  home,  but  always  near  to  Nature's  heart 
and  humanity's  heart  and  the  great  heart  of  God. 
No  wonder  that  a  cause  championed  by  brave  souls 
should  have  prospered  bravely  even  beyond  human  ex- 
pectation. 

If  we  leave  out  of  account  the  colleges,  which  are 
not  connected  with  the  operations  of  the  Home  Board, 

it  will  be  seen  that  our  Church  has 

UplfftSysJem  "^.°^"^    ^°'    ^^^    Appalachians    a 

triple  system  of  uplift  influences  or 
forces  :      ( i )    Day-schools    and    community   centers ; 

(2)  boarding-schools  and  large   community  centers; 

(3)  normal  schools.  A  few  years  ago  the  deplorable 
dearth  of  school  facilities  in  the  remote  mountain  dis- 
tricts led  the  Woman's  Board  to  establish  large  num- 
bers of  primary  or  day-schools  in  the  most  destitute 
districts.  These  establishments  served  the  double  pur- 
pose of  schools  and  community  centers.  So  remark- 
ably successful  were  these  schools  in  awakening  the 
communities  in  which  they  were  located  and  in  arous- 
ing public  opinion  in  favor  of  education,  that  many  of 
these  communities  have  found  themselves  able  with  the 
help  of  the  larger  appropriations  now  being  made  for 
the  support  of  the  public-school  system  by  the  states  of 
the  southern  mountains,  to  assume  for  themselves  the 
support  of  the  schools  within  their  borders.  In  such 
cases  the  Woman's  Board  has  gladly  closed  its  schools, 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  in 

thankful  that  the  crutch  it  had  loaned  is  now  no  longer 
needed.  In  some  cases,  where  the  need  of  continued 
occupation  was  not  imperative,  the  workers  have  been 
entirely  withdrawn;  but  in  other  cases,  where  there 
was  still  sore  need  of  the  help  the  Church  could  ren- 
der, the  workers  have  continued  to  serve  the  people, 
transferring  their  entire  energies  to  the  many  lines 
of  general  and  religious  community  uplift  for  which, 
in  the  former  conditions,  there  had  not  been  sufficient 
time,  and  by  means  of  which  they  could  more  rapidly 
and  effectively  contribute  to  the  metamorphosis  of 
the  mountain.  In  some  stations  the  public  school  is 
still  so  entirely  inadequate  for  the  needs  of  the  chil- 
dren that  it  has  been  deemed  necessary  to  continue  the 
Board's  school.  The  system  of  uplift  service  is,  then, 
in  process  of  adjustment.  Meanwhile,  however,  it 
may  be  said  that  every  day-school  is  a  community 
center;  and  every  community  center  is,  in  its  essence, 
a  school  of  some  sort.  But  now  these  day-schools 
and  community  centers  call  for  our  more  particular 
attention. 

A  certain  mountain  community  has  practically  no 
public  school  and  has  never  had  an   adequate   one. 

And  the  children  live  on  and  ex- 
The  Center—  jg^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  develop.     Tidings 

Its  Genesis  ,  i.    •  a 

come  by  some  mysterious  Appa- 
lachian wireless  telegraphy,  announcing  that  the  peo- 
ple of  T'other  Mountain  or  somewhere  beyond  the  bar- 
riers have  had  their  children  taught  by  some  women 
that  came  there  to  live;  and  the  tidings  report  the 
beneficial  efifect  the  instruction  has  had  in  "smarten- 


112     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

ing  up"  the  children.  And  chimney-corner  councils 
are  held,  and  meditative  pipes  are  smoked;  and  so 
one  day  the  cause  of  the  children  sends  out  an  em- 
bassy to  beg  for  a  school  for  Daddy's  Mountain,  too. 
And  the  good  mission  teachers  of  T'other  Mountain 
are  touched  by  the  awkward  but  eloquent  plea  for  the 
unknown  children,  and  they  write  a  letter. 

In  the  course  of  time,  a  man  with  a  mule  reaches 
the  mountain.  Both  the  man  and  the  mule  have  an 
interrogative  air  about  them.  Did  circuit-riders  ever 
reach  that  wilderness,  the  man  might  be  a  circuit- 
rider.  But,  in  fact,  he  is  a  Presbyterian  sky-pilot. 
He  investigates  the  needs  of  the  field ;  and  the  peo- 
ple readily  promise  to  give  some  land,  and  perhaps  to 
build  a  temporary  cabin  home  and  a  cabin  school- 
house.  Then  the  mule  and  the  man  pick  their  slip- 
pery way  down  the  rocky  trail  and  disappear.  "Out 
in  the  flatwoods"  things  happen — Presbyterian  system 
makes  them  happen — until,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  the 
epochal  event  takes  place:  two  community  workers 
reach  the  spruce-pine  cabins  and  begin  to  live  for  the 
rising  generation  of  Daddy's  Mountain.  "God  made 
two  great  lights.  And  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 
And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fourth 
day." 

There  are  now  on  Daddy's  Mountain  all  the  elements 
that  are  needed  for  such  a  renaissance  as  the  old  dead 

mass  has  long  needed.  The  ad- 
Conditions  of  the  ^,.g„^  Qf  the  miners,  or  even  of  the 
Renaissance  .,,  ,     ,  .  ,, 

sawmill     man     and     his     godless 

"hands,"  has  sometimes  transformed  a  mountain  glen 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  113 

into  an  amphitheater  of  revelry  by  the  introduction 
of  wild  recklessness  and  the  vices  of  the  valley.  But 
the  coming  of  the  teachers  means  the  regeneration  of 
the  community. 

Everything  that  is  best  in  our  civilization  centers 
about  the   Christian   home.      The   teachers   ere   long 

have  a   simple  but  attractive  cot- 

1.  A  Model  Home    ^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^  becomes,  in  its  fur- 

nishings,  its  comfort,  its  neatness,  and  its  genuine 
homelikeness,  an  ideal  and  a  model  for  the  people  that 
come  from  far  and  near  to  see  it  for  themselves. 

These  are  the  days  of  demonstration  farms,  and 
demonstration  canneries,  and  demonstration  road- 
making;  but  here  is  something  higher  yet,  even  a 
demonstration  home.  And  slowly  but  surely  the  dem- 
onstration convinces,  and  the  cabins,  especially  those 
of  the  younger  folk,  begin  to  take  on  some  of  the 
features  of  the  teachers'  home,  now  the  norm  of  all 
homes  to  the  people  of  the  neighborhood.  And  pur- 
pose number  one  of  the  establishment  begins  to  be 
realized. 

The  consecrated  lives  in  the  cottage,  however,  are 
the  principal  agents  in   the  renaissance  of  Daddy's 

Mountain.    The  spiritual  forces  of 

2.  The  Workers  ^^^^^  jj^^^  ^^^  ^^^  heavenly  dy- 
namics that  God  employs  in  the  vitalizing  of  dead 
lives  and  the  quickening  of  inert  purposes.  The  most 
observant  eyes  on  earth  surely  are  those  that  day 
after  day,  with  X-ray  penetrativeness,  observe  these 
teachers.  And  when  those  eyes  see  in  the  heart  of 
the  teachers  unselfishness  and  genuineness  and  Christ- 


114     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

likeness,  they  brighten  with  hope  and  emulation.  Of 
none  is  it  true  more  completely  or  in  more  senses 
than  of  these  teachers,  that  they  do  not  "live  unto 
themselves" ;  they  could  not  do  so  if  they  would,  and 
they  would  not  do  so  if  they  could,  since  it  was  for 
this  cause  came  they  into  the  mountains — that  they 
should  there  bear  witness  to  the  truth. 

Though  the  strongest  influence  these  workers  ex- 
ert is  the  silent  influence  of  their  daily  lives,  their 

words  have  a  power  such  as  in  less 
'    ,    __  P,  -  unsophisticated  communities  would 

be  utterly  inconceivable.  They  be- 
come the  oracles  of  the  children  and,  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  the  authority  of  the  adults.  They  open 
the  book  world — and  that  is,  after  all,  the  entire  world 
— to  the  delighted  eyes  of  their  pupils.  To  have  a 
tabula  rasa  put  into  their  hands  for  such  inscriptions 
as  they  may  choose  to  write  makes  their  work  a  seri- 
ous responsibility,  but  also  awakens  an  enthusiasm 
that  nerves  them  in  their  isolation.  Their  proteges 
have  little  to  distract  their  attention,  and  make  most 
cheering  progress. 

Besides  maintaining  their  home  as  an  everyday  ob- 
ject-lesson   in    housekeeping   and    home-making,    the 

community  workers  attempt  to 
^Training  in  ^^.^j^  ^^^    j^.^     ^^^   ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^ 

Home-makinff  ,     ,  ,  ,.    , 

can  reach  them,  the  women  of  the 

community,  in  the  mysteries  that  out  in  the  wide,  wide 

world  go  under  the  labels  of  domestic  science  and 

home  economics.     And  right  eager  are  the  maidens 

of  the  hills  to  learn  the  strange  but  simple  and  ex- 


0) 

E 

o 


o 
03 
OJ 

C 

O 

o 
CO 


illfc 


UB^^^^ 


^^J^o^;^^^ 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  115 

perimental  lore  regarding  food-stuffs  and  food-values, 
cookery  and  sanitation,  and  dress-cutting  and  dress- 
making, that  the  workers  lay  before  them.  It  is,  how- 
ever, through  the  Mother's  Meeting  that  adult  and 
maternal  hearts  are  aroused  and  reached.  A  moun- 
tain mother  will  respond,  as  any  mother  will,  to  what- 
ever will  benefit  her  child.  And  when  the  workers 
follow  up  their  teaching  by  house-to-house  visitation, 
they  add  force  to  their  teaching  by  their  kindly  pres- 
ence and  sympathy  in  the  home.  Zenana  work  may 
be  more  unique,  but  it  can  hardly  be  more  useful 
than  this  mountain  Christian  Settlement  Work. 

Many  of  the  workers  give  sirnple  instruction  along 
practical    industrial    lines.      The    extensive    exhibits 

sometimes  collected  at  the  annual 

Trainir*"^^  Mountain     Workers'     Conference 

raining  ^^^  ^.^^^  School  at  Maryville  Col- 

lege, surprise  visitors  with  their  evidence  of  the  un- 
expected extent  to  which  the  busy  mountain  workers 
have  been  able  to  give  attention  to  training  along  in- 
dustrial lines,  from  the  kindergarten  stage  and  up- 
ward. The  Home  Board's  pamphlet  on  "The  Allan- 
stand  Cottage  Industries"  is  a  revelation  as  to  how 
the  supposedly  obsolete  spinning  wheel  and  loom  can 
be  made  to  give  forth  even  in  the  twentieth  century 
both  beauty  and  utility.  Mountain  boys,  too,  take 
kindly  to  the  training  in  the  making  of  box  furniture, 
mission  furniture,  and  the  like. 

Recognizing  the  truth  that  is  being  emphasized  by 
lecturers  on  the  Country  Life  Movement,  that  a  man 


ii6     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

must  be  able  to  make  a  comfortable  living  before  he 
can  be  expected  to  be  a  very  useful  citizen,  the  work- 
ers in  our  community  centers  are 
w  ^^^"^^"5^  devoting  more  attention  than  ever 

Campaigns  ^°  co-operating  with  those  govern- 

mental and  private  agencies  that 
are  attempting  to  bring  to  the  rural  population,  even  to 
their  very  doors,  the  valuable  suggestions  and  helps  as 
to  their  problems  and  opportunities  that  specialists  are 
preparing  for  their  use.  These  new  friends  of  the 
mountaineers — for  all  real  mountaineers  are  rural  folk 
— bring  hope  in  their  every  accent,  for  they  assure  our 
highland  people  that  with  proper  methods  of  agricul- 
ture and  horticulture,  most  sections  of  the  mountains 
can  be  rendered  much  more  productive  than  they  are 
at  present.  Miss  Goodrich  tells  of  girls'  tomato  clubs 
started  last  year  under  the  charge  of  one  of  the 
workers  in  the  Laurel  region  who  has  been  appointed 
collaborator  in  Madison  County,  North  Carolina,  by 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  With 
the  assistance  of  this  Department,  three  "Farmers' 
Days"  were  held  in  the  Laurel  field,  with  addresses 
from  specialists  on  practical  farm  matters.  During 
the  current  year  fifteen  community  centers,  including 
the  Laurel  and  Marshall  fields,  in  French  Broad  Pres- 
bytery, are  experiment  ground  for  the  development 
of  community  work,  under  the  direction  of  the  Home 
Board. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  and  its  mountain  workers 
believe  that  the  entrance  of  God's  words  giveth  light ; 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  117 

and  so  they  make  every  center  pre-eminently  a  Bible 
school.    Throughout  the  years  they  direct  and  develop 

-,    ^., ,    „     ,  the  study  of  the  Book  of  books. 

7.  Bible  Study        t.,  •  j  u      ^       c  ^\ 

*'  ihe  memories  and  hearts  of  the 

children  are  being  enriched  with  the  truth  of  God,  and 
the  minds  of  even  the  aged  are  being  brightened  by 
the  glory  that  "gilds  the  sacred  page,"  So  central  a 
place  does  the  Bible  hold  in  this  mountain  work  that 
very  appropriately  the  name  first  given  to  community, 
workers  was  "Bible-readers."  Dr.  Calvin  A.  Duncan 
gives  the  following  outline  picture  of  the  methods 
employed  by  these  Bible-readers : 

"The  women  employed  as  Bible-readers  establish  a 
model  home  where  Christ  is  first  in  all  things.  The 
house  is  inexpensive,  yet  neat  and  comfortable.  It  is 
kept  clean  within  and  without.  Great  care  is  taken 
to  comply  with  all  sanitary  conditions.  Choice  flow- 
ers bloom  in  the  yard,  and  the  premises  are  made  as 
attractive  as  possible.  Mothers'  meetings  for  prayer 
and  Bible  study,  sewing  of  garments  and  helpful  con- 
versation, are  held  in  this  home.  Then  the  homes  of 
the  people  are  visited,  the  sick  and  dying  are  minis- 
tered to,  and  words  of  comfort  are  spoken  to  the  be- 
reaved. In  some  instances  medicines  are  supplied  and 
administered.  The  Sabbaths  are  full  of  work,  these 
women  often  superintending  the  Sabbath-school,  lead- 
ing the  singing,  and  doing  most  of  the  teaching.  Then 
there  is  the  young  people's  meeting  and  the  prayer- 
meeting  work.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  our  Saviour 
were  here  on  earth  he  would  be  doing  just  such  work 
as  these  good  women  are  doing." 


Ii8     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

Running  through  all  these  various  modes  of  serv- 
ice and  dignifying  and  irradiating  them  all  is  the 
„  dominant  and  supreme  purpose  on 

Relfjoua  Training  'I'  P"'  f  '"^  7-''"^.'°  f -"-h 

the  kmgdom  of  God  m  the  com- 
munity. They,  like  Micah,  have  an  all-controlling 
ambition  that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall 
be  established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains  and  that 
it  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills,  and  that  people 
shall  flow  unto  it.  And  to  this  end  they  endeavor  to 
make  everything  contribute  to  the  alignment  and  train- 
ing of  the  people  in  lives  of  clean  morals  and  pure 
religion.  Then,  too,  once  or  twice  a  month  the  near- 
est Presbyterian  minister  comes  and  holds  services 
in  the  schoolhouse,  with  the  mountainside  gathered 
about  him.  Occasionally,  too,  the  Sabbath-school  mis- 
sionary visits  Daddy's  Mountain,  and  reinforces  with 
all  his  might  the  Sabbath-school  of  the  mission  set- 
tlement. Thus  do  all  branches  of  the  work  unite  in 
one  common  flood  of  spiritual  blessing  for  the  neigh- 
borhood and  the  school.  And  thus  is  ushered  in  the 
new  generation  on  the  old  mountain. 

The   results   of   a    day-school   appear   with   almost 
miraculous  swiftness.    The  influence  of  the  school  ap- 
pears first  of  all  in  the  children. 
Results:  1.  Com-      ^^^^  j^  j^  ^^^  j         ^^^jj  ^^^  ^^^j^^ 

munity  Aroused  ,  , 

community  reveals  a  new  move- 
ment and  life  and  ambition.  The  women  "red  up" 
the  cabins,  and  the  men  begin  to  plan  for  something 
new  on  the  farm.  Windows  appear  in  the  cabin 
homes.     Morals  tone  up,  and  temperance  men  grow 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  119 

aggressive.  The  Sabbath  becomes  a  marked  day,  and 
every  day  has  sung  into  it  the  new  songs  of  hope  and 
activity.  The  people  have  heard  the  sound  of  a  gong 
in  the  tops  of  the  trees,  and  have  bestirred  them- 
selves. 

Of  course  the  work  must  encounter  opposition  and 
misunderstandings.  There  are  prejudices  of  conserva- 
tism that  would  not  be  disturbed, 

2.  Old  People  ^^^    ^f    inertia    that    would    not 

®  ^®  move,  and  of  pride  that  is  hurt. 

But  the  difficulties  are  not  greater  than  are  those 
that  must  be  met  in  any  mission  work.  Much  of 
this  opposition  is  honest  and  can  be  overcome;  such 
part  of  it  as  is  selfish  must  be  endured  in  the  strength 
that  God  gives.  But  where  the  children  go  the  hearts 
of  the  parents  follow,  even  if  at  a  distance;  and  so 
the  older  people,  too,  are  influenced  by  the  workers, 
who  instruct  them  principally  by  proxy.  And  they 
are  helped  so  far  as  adults  fixed  in  their  ways  can  be 
helped.  And  many  appreciate  the  workers  as  they 
deserve  to  be  appreciated,  namely,  whole-heartedly. 

However,  the  principal  efifect  of  the  community 
centers,  as  was  to  be  expected  and  desired,  is  found 

to  be  in  the  transforming  of  the 

3.  Young  People     ^^^  generation,  the  hope   of  the 

future.  A  few  years  of  awakened 
community  life  put  the  light  of  intelligence  flashing  in 
their  eyes,  irradiating  their  minds,  and  illumining 
their  hearts ;  for  God's  will  has  been  done,  and  there 
is  light!  Instead  of  aimlessness,  a  definite  mission  is 
theirs!     Life  has  possibilities  and  opportunities   for 


120     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

them.  And,  while  all  step  up  to  higher  thoughts  and 
deeds  than  were  their  fathers',  some  look  out  beyond 
the  tree  tops  and  mountain  ridges  toward  a  higher 
school  of  which  they  have  heard.  And  now  and  then, 
by  the  election  of  God  and  God's  children,  one  of 
them  is  led  off  of  Daddy's  Mountain,  out  to  that 
higher  school  to  prepare  for — God  knows  what. 

In  the  course  of   the  years,  the  people,  in  many 
cases,  call  for  a  church  organization;  and  so  the  far- 
off    presbytery     is     communicated 

is  granted  and  the  church  is  found- 
ed. And  now  to  the  community  center  and  the  school- 
house  there  is  added  a  church  house,  to  prepare  them 
the  more  fully  for  that  home  of  the  soul  of  which 
the  young  people  have  learned  so  much  since  the 
workers  came  to  Daddy's  Mountain. 

And  all  this  change  has  taken  place  in  a  few  short 
years;  for  in  the  Appalachians  men  do  not  have  to 
wait,  in  such  work  as  this,  so  very  many  days  for  the 
finding  of  the  bread  they  have  cast  upon  the  waters. 
The  harvest  is  speedy. 

A  minister  of  another  denomination  has  written 
the  following  tribute  to  the  mountain  workers  of  our 

church :      "No    one    who   has    ob- 

VisitS°^^  °^  ^       ^^^^^^  ^^^  progress  of  the  schools 

established  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  can  fail  to  be  impressed  with 
the  wonderful  transformation  they  are  working.  I 
remember  having  sent  an  appointment  to  preach  at  a 
schoolhouse  in  a  community  that  I  had  never  before 


DAY-SCHOOLS  AND  SMALLER  CENTERS  121 

visited.  It  was  in  a  remote  country  district,  and  I 
expected  to  find  a  rude,  ill-favored  people,  rough  in 
voice,  manners  and  dress,  such  as  I  had  frequently 
met  in  this  section  before.  Arriving  at  the  place  a 
few  minutes  before  the  hour  for  preaching,  I  thought 
I  was  to  have  no  congregation,  because  I  had  been 
accustomed  to  see  the  people  stand  in  crowds  around 
the  church  door  and  chew  tobacco  and  crack  rude 
jokes  until  the  preliminary  services  were  over  and  the 
minister  was  ready  to  commence  the  sermon. 

"On  this  occasion  no  one  was  to  be  seen,  but  as  I 
dismounted  a  handsome,  bright-eyed  youth  came  out 
and  introduced  himself  with  an  easy  grace  unusual  in 
one  reared  in  a  remote  country  home.  I  remarked  to 
him  that  I  supposed  my  congregation  would  be  small, 
judging  from  the  present  outlook.  He  informed  me, 
however,  that  the  house  was  full. 

"I  entered  the  building  and  to  my  astonishment 
faced  as  neatly  dressed  and  intelligent  an  audience  as 
you  usually  see.  I  was  astonished  when  I  heard  them 
sing,  and  I  could  hardly  preach  for  wondering  at  the 
evidences  of  refinement,  intelligence,  and  good  taste 
before  me.  When  the  service  was  over,  three  or 
four  bright,  intelligent  ladies  came  forward,  intro- 
duced themselves,  and  told  me  they  were  conducting 
a  school  there  under  the  auspices  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  The  appearance  of  the  population  had  been 
transformed  in  a  few  years  by  this  school, 

"If  Christian  philanthropists  all  over  the  country 
could  really  understand  the  fruitful  field  that  lies  be- 
fore them  in  this  section,  they  would  not  stop  until  a 


122     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

model  home  and  a  model  school  were  maintained  in 
every  community.  Some  denominations  have  spent 
all  their  energy  and  their  money  in  this  section  in 
evangelistic  work.  Evangelistic  work  is  well,  but  it 
is  of  little  use  to  get  people  converted  unless  you  put 
into  operation  some  means  by  which  to  develop  them 
in  piety,  and  instruct  them  in  the  practical  duties  of 
Christian  life." 

The  first  day-school  in  the  South  under  the  Wom- 
an's Board  of  Home  Missions  was  established  in  1879, 
.    .  at  Whitehall,  North  Carolina.     In 

May,  1913,  the  superintendent  of 
school  work  reported  mountain  schools  and  com- 
munity centers  of  all  kinds  under  the  Woman's 
Board's  care  as  being  48;  teachers  and  community 
workers,  132;  boarding  pupils,  1,175;  ^^Y  pupils,  960; 
industrial  pupils,  252 ;  total  pupils,  2,387 ;  Sabbath- 
school  scholars,  5,019;  members  of  young  people's  so- 
cieties, 1,230;  number  of  conversions,  321. 


CHAPTER   XI 

The    Boarding-Schools   and   Larger   Community 

Centers 

The  establishment  of  day-schools  and  smaller  com- 
munity centers  in  the  remoter  rural  districts  is  justi- 
fied by  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  which  is  especially 
interested  in  the  individual  and  in  the  unfortunate. 
And  God  has  set  his  seal  of  approval  upon  this  form 
of  his  church's  activity. 

Christian  statesmanship,  however,  calls  also  for  the 
occupation  of   whatever  centers   of   population   may 

exist.  Life  proceeds  from  the 
The  Strategic  j^^^j.^  ^^  ^^^  extremities.    Thus  the 

County  Seat  1111  j        j 

church  has  always   reasoned,  and 

so  has  occupied  the  strategic  points  that  command 
other  points.  The  pioneers  established  their  acade- 
mies, if  in  the  country — there  was  little  but  country 
in  their  day — at  any  rate  in  the  most  thickly  settled 
parts  of  the  frontier.  The  mountain  county  seat  is 
sometimes  only  a  village,  but  is  always  the  largest 
place  within  the  county  limits.  From  it  roads  radiate 
to  all  the  civil  districts  of  the  county.  Its  character 
affects  the  entire  county.  Capture  for  education  and 
morality  the  people  within  sight  of  the  court-house, 
and  the  county  itself  will  ere  long  also  capitulate. 

123 


124     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

These    facts   led   our   mountain   synods   and   pres- 
byteries  and    their    synodical    superintendents — espe- 
cially  those  men   of   apostolic  la- 

Acrdemirs^^  bors,   the    late    Rev.    Donald    Mc- 

Donald, D.D.,  former  superintend- 
ent for  Kentucky,  and  the  Rev.  Calvin  A.  Duncan, 
D.D.,  former  superintendent  for  Tennessee — to  en- 
deavor to  locate  in  the  county  seat  of  each  mountain 
county  destitute  of  such  a  school  a  Presbyterian  acad- 
emy, either  under  presbyterial  control  or  under  the 
control  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  In  1887 
the  Synod  of  Tennessee  had  nine  such  academies  un- 
der the  care  of  its  presbyteries.  The  local  friends, 
aided  to  some  extent  from  abroad,  provided  the  neces- 
sary buildings;  while  the  modest  sums  required  for 
current  expenses  were  secured  from  tuition,  dona- 
tions, the  Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges  and  Academies, 
self-denial — and  always  faith. 

In  1905  there  were  within  the  limits  of  the  Appa- 
lachians and  of  the  Synods  of   Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee    nineteen     academies     and 
Academies  and         boarding-schools,  all  Presbyterian, 

though  not  all  of  them  connected 
with  the  Board  of  Home  Missions.  There  were  also 
several  listed  by  the  Synod  of  Tennessee  as  "day- 
schools"  that  had  done  and  were  doing  academic 
work;  they  were  Grassy  Cove,  Huntsville,  Sneed- 
ville,  Elizabethton  (Harold  McCormick  School), 
Flag  Pond,  Erwin  (John  Dwight  School),  and  Mar- 
shall.    So  there  were  twenty-six  schools,  aside  from 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  125 

the  preparatory  departments  of  the  colleges,  where  an 
academic  education  could  be  secured. 

As  the  Presbyterian  patriot  a  few  years  ago  read 
the  distressing  statistics  that  the  Southern  Education 

Board  had  collected  regarding 
Worthy  of  the  these  mountain  counties  and  as  he 
Kirk  of  Knox  ^^^^^  ^^^^  Board's  clarion  call  to 

patriotic  action  in  behalf  of  these  counties,  he  experi- 
enced a  sense  of  solid  satisfaction  in  the  knowledge 
that  one  division  of  the  old  Kirk  that  boasted  Knox 
and  his  school  system  had  made  this  substantial  and 
beneficent  contribution  to  the  educational  interests  of 
nearly  thirty  counties  of  the  Scotch  highlands  of 
America.  As  men  count  polls,  the  mountain  synods 
connected  with  the  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  are  but  a  feeble  folk;  but 
nevertheless  they  have  large  love  for  the  mountains, 
and  they  had  behind  them  a  mighty  Church  and  a 
Home  Board  that  also  feels  "the  call  of  the  blood." 

The  purpose  sought  in  the  establishment  of  the 
schools  of  high  grade  was  the  same  as  in  the  case  of 

the  day-schools  and  community 
Policy  and  centers — to    train    Christians    for 

^  life's    opportunities.      The    policy 

was  to  make  each  academy  and  boarding-school  a 
center  of  influence  in  all  the  county  or  region  from 
which  the  students  gather;  to  train  new  envoys  of 
intelligence  and  send  them  out  into  many  neighbor- 
hoods to  pass  the  truth  and  training  on  to  their 
friends;  and  thus  to  exempHfy  the  cheering  truth  of 
mathematics — that  ten  times  one  is  ten. 


126     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  very  useful  careers  of  several  of  these  acad- 
emies  and   boarding-schools   were   cut   short   as   the 

result  of  the  awaking  of  interest  in 

T,     J       ,  the  public  schools,  an  awaking  that 

Rendered  .1,  .       ,        ,1,1 

these    church    schools    themselves 

had  done  a  great  deal  to  bring  about.  The  states  of 
the  southern  Appalachians  have  recently  enacted  leg- 
islation providing  for  the  establishment  of  county 
high  schools,  and  so  it  has  been  deemed  best  by  the 
Woman's  Board  in  many  cases  to  terminate  the  regu- 
lar high-school  work  of  our  schools,  and  to  seek  other 
methods  of  serving  the  mountains.  But  the  schools 
have  already  been  in  existence  long  enough  to  have 
rendered  invaluable  service,  and  in  some  cases  to  have 
wrought  a  moral  and  intellectual  transformation  in 
the  counties  they  served  that  seems  almost  miraculous. 
They  had  performed  a  most  timely  and  patriotic  part 
in  the  renaissance  of  the  mountains. 

In  this  period  of  transition  in  the  public-school  sys- 
tem  of   the   Appalachians,   some   adjustment   of  the 

work  of  our  church  has  been  made 
Future  Service  necessary.  After  earnest  deliber- 
ation it  has  been  decided:  (i) 
that  there  must  still  be  some  boarding-schools  main- 
tained in  certain  strategic  centers  of  the  mountain 
region;  and  (2)  that  there  should  everywhere  be 
sympathetic  cooperation  with  the  civil  authorities  on 
the  part  of  our  church,  so  that  its  work  may  supple- 
ment their  educational  work  by  the  providing  of  Bible, 
industrial,  and  manual  training  under  the  care  of  its 
teachers.    This  annex  will,  in  general,  be  warmly  wel- 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  127 

corned  by  the  school  authorities,  and  at  the  same  time 
provide  our  Christian  workers  the  best  of  oppor- 
tunities for  the  moral  and  religious  training  of  the 
young  people.  It  is  believed  that  in  this  cooperation 
with  the  public-school  authorities,  but  entire  independ- 
ence of  them,  will  be  found  an  economical,  workable, 
and  most  effective  mode  of  helpfulness  to  the  young 
people  gathered  in  the  county  seats  for  their  high- 
school  training. 

The  different  boarding-schools  now  operated  by  our 
Church  in  the  synods  of  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and 

Tennessee  have  plants  varying  in 
Twofola  ^Qg^  from  ten  thousand  to  two  hun- 

dred thousand  dollars.  The  prop- 
erty value  of  all  the  schools  is  given  in  detail  in  the 
Appendix.  The  buildings  employed  have  been  con- 
structed with  a  view  to  considerations  of  utility,  but 
are  generally  attractive  as  well  as  useful.  The  chief 
equipment  of  the  schools,  however,  is,  of  course,  the 
teaching  force.  The  teachers  have  been  carefully 
chosen  for  their  happy  blending  of  scholarship,  teach- 
ing ability,  genuine  character,  and  Christian  devotion. 
They  enter  upon  their  work  in  the  fear  of  God  and 
with  the  love  of  souls.  They  uphold  high  standards 
of  scholarship.  And  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  gen- 
eral policy  of  the  church  in  the  establishment  of  these 
schools,  they  spend  their  days  and  nights  in  the  en- 
deavor to  send  back  into  every  part  of  the  mountains 
earnest,  scholarly,  and  efficient  young  men  and  young 
women  to  share  with  others  their  acquisitions  in  edu- 
cation and  character. 


128     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The     mountain     boys     need     Christian     boarding- 
schools  ;  but  more  yet  do  the  mountain  girls,  the  fu- 
ture  mothers   of   the   new   moun- 

tr  1 '  -B/r    i  tains,  need  them.    The  bane  of  iso- 

Help  Most  ,     .    '  ,      r     ,       ^  ,.r     , 

lation  and  of  the  Crusoe  hfe  has 

told  most  heavily  on  the  girls  and  women.  They  have 
suffered  most.  "The  mountains  are  a  good  place  for 
men  and  dogs,  but  they  are  hard  on  women  and 
horses."  Gallaher  sings  the  praises  of  the  "Mothers 
of  the  Forest  Land,"  and  nevertheless  adds  the  quali- 
fying words: 

"Yet  who  or  lauds  or  honors  them 
Even  in  their  own  green  home?  " 

The  district  school  may  lighten  their  gloom  with  the 
illumination  of  the  three  R's,  but  it  is  the  boarding- 
school  that  kindles  the  light  of  the  outer  valley  world 
and  the  inner  Christian  life.  As  the  girls  come  in 
contact  with  devoted  and  cultured  Christian  women, 
they  are  transformed  by  the  education  of  the  heart 
and  mind  alike.  Their  longings  are  satisfied,  their 
ideals  are  elevated,  and  their  ambitions  are  awakened. 
To  many  of  them  the  opening  up  of  the  new  oppor- 
tunities is  like  the  cleaving  of  the  rock  in  a  thirsty 
land.  And  so  it  is  to  all  the  mountain  youth  that  are 
suffering  from  a  long-time  and  often  insatiable  thirst 
for  knowledge — the  kind  that  the  boy  Lincoln  had, 
while,  outstretched  on  the  puncheon  floor  of  his  fa- 
ther's cabin,  he  pored  over  his  well-thumbed  book, 
with  the  aid  of  a  pine-torch  light. 


o 


O 

K 

3 


^3 
C 

o 
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//^^   *tiivv    fiftr 


i 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  129 

Although  the  purpose  of  this  book  makes  it  un- 
necessary to  describe  in  detail  the  work  done  by  the 

colleges    of    the    Appalachian    sy- 

^]^®  ^°"®8:e*  nods,    it   would   be   impossible   to 

of  the  Synods  ,     ,     ,         .  , 

overlook  them  m  any  such  sum- 
mary as  we  are  now  making.  All  the  colleges  re- 
ferred to  have  found  it  necessary,  as  indeed,  have  all 
other  colleges  of  the  section,  in  order  to  serve  their 
constituency  to  the  best  advantage,  to  conduct  pre- 
paratory departments  in  connection  with  their  college 
departments.  So  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  had 
in  successful  operation,  in  several  cases  for  a  century 
past,  college  annex  boarding-schools  which  have 
trained  and  sent  out  many  thousands  of  the  young 
people  of  the  Appalachians.  The  usefulness  of  these 
institutions  cannot  be  measured  by  their  lists  of 
alumni,  worthy  as  those  lists  are.  The  influence  of 
their  undergraduates  has  been  far  greater  than  that 
even  of  their  graduates.  Davis  and  Elkins  (estab- 
lished in  1904)  in  West  Virginia,  and  Pikeville 
(1909)  in  Kentucky  are  the  junior  members  of  the 
octette.  Centre  College  of  Central  University  and 
the  Kentucky  College  for  Women,  formerly  called 
Caldwell  College,  are  located  in  the  Blue  Grass 
region  of  Kentucky,  and  Cumberland  University  is  lo- 
cated in  the  Central  Basin  of  Tennessee,  but  all  three 
of  these  historic  institutions  have  had  many  students 
from  the  hills.  The  East  Tennessee  trio  of  colleges, 
Washington,  Tusculum,  and  Maryville,  were,  as  stated 
in  a  former  chapter,  established  by  the  Scotch-Irish 
pioneers  to  educate  the  young  people  of  "the  fron- 


I30     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

tier"  and  "the  Southwest,"  and  incalculable  has  been 
their  service.  The  Presbyterian  Church  may  well  be 
proud  of  what  its  colleges  in  the  three  synods  of  the 
southern  mountains  have  accomplished  for  the  region 
they  have  served. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  regular  boarding-schools 
that  represent  our  church   in  the  three  synods.     In 

Lawson,  Raleigh  County,  West 
Stockdale  Virginia,  stands  one  of  the  young- 

Memorial  f     ,  ,        1         ,       T^       •      ^ 

est  of  these  schools,  the  rattie  C 
Stockdale  Memorial  Home  Industrial  School.  The 
attractive  main  building  accommodates  forty  girls. 
The  manse,  occupied  by  the  pastor  who  serves  the 
large  field  from  Clear  Creek  to  Jarrold's  Valley,  is 
built  on  the  school  grounds,  as  is  also  the  neat  chapel- 
schoolhouse.  The  Stockdale  Memorial  is  the  only 
boarding-school  representing  the  Woman's  Board  in 
West  Virginia.  It  lays  special  emphasis  upon  domes- 
tic science  and  industrial  training. 

Strategically  located  on  the  Big  Sandy  branch  of 
the  C.  &  O.  Railroad,  in  Pike  County,  the  eastern- 
most   of    the    thirty-six   mountain 

Pikeville  counties    of    Kentucky,     Pikeville 

College  ^  „  ,  ,       •; 

College  deserves  handsome  treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  the  great  church  that  placed  it 
there  on  outpost  duty.  It  was  established  as  an  acad- 
emy in  1889,  and  organized  as  a  college  in  1909.  It 
has  thus  far  confined  itself  to  junior  college  work. 
The  total  valuation  of  its  property  is  about  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars.  There  are  three  buildings.  The 
Derriana  dormitory  for  girls,  a  forty  thousand  dollar 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  131 

hall,  was  presented  by  Mr.  John  A.  Simpson,  an  elder 
in  the  Covington  Church.  The  college  is  under  the 
control  of  Ebenezer  Presbytery,  and  also  under  the 
care  of  the  Synod  of  Kentucky. 

At  Buckhorn.  in  Perry  County,  Kentucky,  on  the 
Middle  Fork  of  Kentucky  River,  at  the  mouth  of 

Squabble    Creek,    stands    Wither- 

c!^lleT^°°''  spoon  College.    This  very  remark- 

able and  prosperous  school  is  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Harvey  S.  Murdock  and 
ten  assistants,  and  is  supported  by  the  Lafayette  Ave- 
nue Church  of  Brooklyn.  The  eight  buildings  are 
utilized  to  the  utmost.  Hospital  clinics  are  provided 
for  the  needy  mountainside.  The  Englewood  farm  is 
tilled  by  the  students.  More  than  three  hundred  stu- 
dents are  enrolled.  The  additions  to  the  church  mem- 
bership at  Buckhorn  were  last  year  the  largest  in  the 
Synod  of  Kentucky. 

In  1892  a  day-school  was  begun  in  Harlan,  Ken- 
tucky.    In  1896  buildings  were  erected  for  an  acad- 

„  ,  .r  ,  ,  .  ,  emy  and  for  a  girls'  dormitory. 
Harlan  Industrial  t^,  n        ^      r    ,, 

Ihe    average    enrollment    of    the 

academy  for  the  years  1901-1911  was  two  hundred  and 
forty-six.  In  191 1  the  academy  work  was  transferred 
to  the  public  school  authorities,  and  the  work  con- 
ducted by  the  Woman's  Board  was  changed  to  that 
of  an  industrial  boarding-school  for  girls.  This  school 
has  cooperated  with  the  public  schools,  and  supple- 
mented their  work.  It  is  hoped  that  general  com- 
munity and  extension  work  will  ere  long  be  largely 
developed  in  this  interesting  center  that  has  been  at 


132     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

once  so  gratifying  and  so  conspicuous  an  evidence 
of  the  transforming  influences  of  Christian  education 
in  the  mountains.  The  town  of  Harlan  is  growing 
rapidly,  the  school  population  having  risen  in  three 
years  from  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  to  seven 
hundred  and  fifty-one.  An  excellent  public-school 
building  has  been  erected  at  a  cost  of  seventeen  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  admirable  new  church  edifice,  to 
cost  thirteen  thousand  dollars,  now  in  course  of  con- 
struction, will  itself  be  educational  in  its  influence. 

About  fifteen  years  ago  Presbyterians  in  Kentucky 
established   in   Mt.   Vernon,   Rockcastle   County,   the 

Mt.    Vernon    Collegiate    Institute. 

Langdon  Memonal  t  -   ..i.  i.  i. 

"  In    1905   the  property  was  trans- 

ferred to  the  Brown  Memorial  Church  of  Baltimore, 
by  whom  in  turn  it  was  transferred,  in  1908,  to  the 
Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions.  This  Board, 
largely  aided  by  the  Brown  Memorial  Church,  sup- 
ports and  directs  the  school.  In  honor  of  Mrs.  Lang- 
don,  who  built  the  dormitory  as  a  memorial  to  her 
husband,  the  school  is  now  called  the  Langdon 
Memorial  Industrial  School  for  Girls  and  Young 
Women.  The  county  authorities  have  recently  taken 
over  the  high-school  work  formerly  conducted  by  the 
Woman's  Board;  and  now  the  Langdon  Memorial, 
under  the  wise  leadership  of  Miss  Rose  McCord,  has 
adjusted  its  work  to  supplement  the  work  of  the 
county  high  school.  Many  of  the  high-school  girls 
board  in  the  Langdon  Memorial,  and  take  Bible,  do- 
mestic science,  and  industrial  training  under  its  work- 
ers.   Kindergarten  and  music  are  also  provided  by  the 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  133 

workers.  Both  community  and  extension  work  have 
been  carried  on  with  excellent  results.  It  is  believed 
that  much  more  effective  uplift  service  can  be  ren- 
dered by  our  workers  under  the  new  arrangements 
than  when  the  entire  high  school  was  in  their  charge. 
Mossop  Memorial  Industrial  Boarding-school  for 
Girls,    Huntsville,    Tennessee,    is    the    successor    of 

Huntsville  Academy,  which  was  es- 
Mossop  Memorial  ^ablished  by  Kingston  Presbytery 
in  1885,  and  which  continued  its  beneficent  work  till 
1907,  when  it  was  taken  over  by  the  public-school  au- 
thorities. At  comparatively  small  outlay  an  immense 
benefit  has  been  meted  out  in  the  education  of  the 
young  people,  in  the  renovation  of  the  public  schools, 
and  in  the  establishment  and  multiplication  of  Sab- 
bath-schools. One  of  the  leading  men  of  Huntsville, 
after  enumerating  the  many  ways  in  which  Scott 
County  had  made  remarkable  progress,  bore  this 
voluntary  testimony :  "Your  Board  is  not  entitled 
to  all  the  credit  for  these  improvements,  but  your 
church  and  school  should  be  given  more  credit  than 
all  the  other  agencies  known  to  me."  In  1907  a  guar- 
antee of  partial  support  from  two  generous  donors  for 
whose  parents  the  new  school  was  named,  made  it 
possible  for  the  Woman's  Board  to  estabHsh  an  in- 
dustrial boarding-school  in  a  property  presented  for 
that  purpose  by  Tennessee  women.  The  property  in- 
cludes the  dormitory  located  on  twenty  acres  bor- 
dering the  town  on  the  west,  and  a  two-story  acad- 
emy building  upon  one  acre  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
town.    It  is  valued  at  $9,600.    The  school  is  confined 


134     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

to  boarding  pupils,  accommodates  thirty,  with  three 
teachers,  and  is  always  full.  It  is  operated  upon  the 
principle  that  the  surest  and  quickest  way  to  uplift  the 
community  is  to  qualify  young  women  to  be  compe- 
tent Christian  home-makers.  Under  the  superintend- 
ence of  a  principal  and  with  the  efficient  coopera- 
tion of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  S.  Butler,  the  school  has 
from  the  first  been  a  model  one,  and  happy  are  those 
accepted  as  its  students. 

On  the  northeastern  edge  of  the  great  valley  of 
East  Tennessee,  in  Carter  County,  under  the  Unakas, 

TT      ij  -IDT  n  and  upon  the  beautiful  Watauga, 

Harold  McCor-  ,       ^,     ,  ^  ^^.        ,, 

.  1    e  u     1  where  the  heroes  of  Kmgs  Moun- 

mick  School  .  ,  ,     .      ,      -r-r      , , 

tarn   rendezvoused,   is  the  Harold 

McCormick  School  of  Elizabethton.  A  few  years  ago 
this  useful  academy  was  transferred  by  the  Wom- 
an's Board  to  the  Home  Mission  Committee  of  Hols- 
ton  Presbytery,  by  whom  now  it  has  in  turn  been 
transferred  to  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Trust  of 
Tusculum  College.  For  seven  years  Rev.  W.  C. 
Clemens  has  been  its  principal,  and  under  his  guid- 
ance it  has  not  only  given  a  general  education  to 
many,  but  has  also  prepared  a  goodly  number  for 
college. 

Our  church  has  been  strongly  drawn  to  the  Old 
North  State.    Mt.  Mitchell's  lofty  summit  looks  down 

upon  eight  of  our  boarding- 
NortrStaTe*  schools,  all  of  which  are  within  one 

hundred  miles  of  that  mountain. 
The  fact  that  annually  large  numbers  of  tourists  and 
seekers  after  health   from  the  Northern  states  visit 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  135 

Asheville  and  the  surrounding  country  has  made  this 

region  the  one  best  known  to  the  church  at  large. 

The  investments  that  the  church  has  made  here  are 

the  largest  made  in  the  mountain  region. 

At  the  state  line,  as  one  goes  up  the  gorge  of  the 

French  Broad  River  from  Tennessee,  is  Hot  Springs 

■n  1  J  T  j.-i  i.  and  its  Borland  Institute.  Dr. 
Borland  Institute    _     ,      ,         , ,.  1     ,    , 

Borland  established  the  mstitution 

in  1887  in  his  old  age,  and  it  stands  as  a  pledge  of  the 
providential  approval  of  his  life  of  devotion  to  his 
Master.  In  1893  the  Woman's  Board  assumed  the 
work.  The  plant  has  grown  to  be  an  excellent  one. 
The  girls'  dormitory  stands  in  the  town  of  Hot 
Springs.  It  is  three  stories  high  and  well-built,  con- 
taining rooms  for  sixty  girls  and  the  teaching  force. 
Two  miles  away  is  the  Institute  farm,  "The  Willows," 
where  is  the  boys'  dormitory  with  accommodations  for 
fifty  students.  Close  to  the  girls'  dormitory  stands 
the  school-building  of  eight  class-rooms  where  the 
boys  and  girls  study  and  recite  together;  and  practice 
cottages,  in  which  the  girls  in  rotation  are  instructed 
in  housekeeping  and  home-making.  This  is  the  only 
secondary  coeducational  school  in  the  mountains  car- 
ried on  by  the  Woman's  Board.  Incidentally  it  may 
be  added  that  in  its  eighteen  years'  existence  it  has 
been  remarkably  successful  in  establishing  Christian 
homes.  The  social  life  of  the  young  people  is  under 
the  faculty's  close  supervision,  for  they  regard  it  fully 
as  much  a  duty  to  teach  young  people  right  social 
habits  as  it  is  to  teach  arithmetic  or  history.  So 
eager  were  the  young  men  for  the  privileges  of  the 


136     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

Institute,  that,  before  a  dormitory  was  provided  for 
them,  they  occupied  a  tobacco  barn  that  was  lent  them 
for  use  as  a  dormitory.  On  "The  Willows"  farm,  one 
of  the  best  in  Madison  County,  the  young  men  find 
opportunities  for  practical  farm  work;  they  also 
do  the  housework.  Borland  Memorial  Church,  in  the 
town,  near  the  institute  buildings,  is  a  church  home 
for  all  students.  The  average  annual  enrollment  for 
the  decade  closing  in  191 1  was  two  hundred  and 
twenty  pupils.  For  eighteen  years  Miss  Julia  E. 
Phillips  has  been  principal,  and  during  that  time  has 
impressed  her  character  on  the  institute  and  upon 
literally  thousands  that  have  attended  it. 

A  special  interest  attaches  to  Bell  Institute,  located 
in    a    romantic    and    beautiful    mountain    setting,    in 

.„  „  .,      .  the   village    of    Walnut,    Madison 

Bell  Institute  <-       4.     -kj    ^.u  r-      v       £     v 

County,  North  Carolma,  for  it  was 

founded  and  conducted  by  the  former  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church.  After  the  union  of  this  church 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  U.  S.  A.,  Bell  In- 
stitute, in  1908,  came  under  the  care  of  the  Woman's 
Board  of  Home  Missions;  but  there  is  continued  as- 
surance that  this  school,  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
mountains,  is  still  especially  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the 
founders,  for  a  lively,  practical  interest  in  it  is  mani- 
fested by  them  at  all  times.  The  industrial  boarding 
department  accommodates  fifty  girls,  and  the  day- 
school,  which  is  coeducational,  has  a  capacity  for  an 
equal  number.  A  principal,  three  teachers,  and  a 
matron  comprise  the  faculty.  Twenty-two  pupils 
graduated  this  year,  more  than  one-half  of  whom  plan 


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BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  137 

to  continue  their  work  in  higher  schools.  The  prop- 
erty consists  of  a  large  dormitory  building,  and  a  com- 
modious chapel  and  school  building,  in  an  enclosure 
of  seven  acres  of  land.  The  total  value  of  the  plant 
is  seventeen  thousand  dollars. 

In  Burnsville,  the  county  seat  of  Yancey  County,  is 
the  Stanley  McCormick  Academy,  fostered  during  all 

its  history  by  Mrs.  Nettie  F.  Mc- 
BurnsvilleAcademy^^^^^j^j^      It  has  been  a  presby-- 

terial  academy,  under  the  care  of  the  presbytery  of 
French  Broad,  but  has  been  transferred  to  the  control 
of  Mrs.  McCormick.  Its  excellent  buildings  and 
equipment  are  valued  at  over  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Under  the  management  of  a  large  and  efficient  corps 
of  teachers,  the  academy  is  most  worthily  justifying 
its  right  to  the  enviable  vantage  ground  it  occupies. 

Crowning  a  commanding  and  beautiful  site  one  mile 
from  Concord,  in  the  Piedmont  region,  out  beyond 

Asheville  and  the  mountains, 
Wa  Sunderland    ^^^   Laura    Sunderland    Memorial 

School  is  fulfilling  its  beneficent 
mission.  It  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  first  school  es- 
tablished by  the  Woman's  Board  in  the  South,  and 
was  designed  to  reach  pupils  from  the  farm,  the 
mountain,  and  the  cotton  mill.  It  provides  a  boarding- 
school  for  sixty-four  girls,  who  are  chosen  from  a 
long  waiting  list.  A  large  proportion  of  the  students 
are  young  women  too  old  for  the  public  schools.  The 
eight  common-school  grades  are  covered  in  five  years, 
and  training  is  given  in  housekeeping,  domestic  econ- 
omy, sewing,  cooking,  agriculture,  and  gardening.   As 


138     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

a  result  of  the  strong  religious  influences  all  the  stu- 
dents are  professing  Christians.  This  hive  of  busy 
bees,  too,  has  had  the  advantage  of  continuity  of  wise 
administration,  for  Miss  Melissa  Montgomery  has 
been  in  charge  for  the  past  seventeen  years. 

At  Asheville  stand  the  three  schools  that  form,  as 
it  were,  the  apex  of  the  Presbyterian  Home  Mission 

school  system  of  the  Appalachians, 

Asnevilie  ^^  representing  the  largest  invest- 

Schools  .  ,  , 

ment  m  money  and  workers  and 

effort.  As  representative  of  the  entire  school  work 
they  will  be  spoken  of  in  a  separate  chapter. 

When  the  course  of  study  has  been  completed,  the 
graduates  of  these  schools  go  forth  to  live  their  fu- 
ture lives  and  to  exert  their  future 

Where  the  influence.      Some    are    already    at 

Graduates  Go  ,  ,  ,  ,  .^    •      ^  t 

home,  and  take  up  their  share  of 

the  responsibility  for  continued  advance  in  the  com- 
munity that  is  the  home  of  the  school.  Others  return 
to  their  homes  in  the  country  to  improve  them,  and 
to  introduce  a  new  life  into  the  neighborhood.  They 
become  leaders  in  public  sentiment  and  public  prog- 
ress. They  hurry  up  the  evolution  of  the  hill  country. 
In  some  counties  almost  all  the  public-school  teachers 
are  former  students  of  our  boarding-schools  or  acad- 
emies.    They  also  wake  up  the  Sabbath-schools. 

The  danger  of  conservatism  is  petrifaction.  Galdos 
tells  of  the  peasant  lad,  Celipin  Centeno,  as  setting 
out  from  the  mines  of  Socartes,  with  his  little  budget 
in  his  hands,  in  search  of  the  place  where  he  could 
become  "a  useful  man";  and  what  Galdos   says  of 


BOARDING-SCHOOLS,  LARGER  CENTERS  139 

Celipin  might  be  said  of  many  an  Appalachian  youth 
trained  in  our  schools :  "Geology  has  lost  a  stone,  and 
society  has  gained  a  man."  Some  of  the  young  peo- 
ple push  on,  with  help,  through  the  colleges  of  the 
synods,  and  then  go  out  to  serve  the  church  at  home 
and  abroad;  the  number  of  such  recruits  is  consid- 
erable, and  is  increasing.  The  purpose  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  schools  is  abundantly  justified. 


CHAPTER   XII 

The  Asheville  Schools 

AsHEViLLE  is  an  ideal  site  for  any  school,  and  espe- 
cially for  such  as  are  intended  to  contribute  to  the 

^,     ,  ^  solution  of  the  Appalachian  prob- 

Ideal  Location        ,  -r,-  .  ^        • 

lem.       Picturesque    America     can 

hardly  boast  a  panorama  of  more  impressive  grandeur 
and  surpassing  beauty  than  is  that  presented  from 
any  eminence  in  this  queen  city  of  the  "land  of  the 
sky."  The  romantic  Swannanoa  and  the  French 
Broad  unite  their  waters  near  the  city  and  contribute 
the  only  addition  that  the  lover  of  natural  beauty 
could  ask  to  complete  the  perfection  of  this  North 
Carolina  landscape.  Just  above  this  junction  of  the 
rivers,  the  estate  of  Biltmore  lies  in  all  that  unique 
attractiveness  which  nature  and  art  have  given  it.  A 
climate  that  is  believed  in  by  the  physicians  of  all  the 
states  attracts  every  year  tens  of  thousands  of  rest- 
seekers  and  health-seekers  to  Asheville,  to  the 
Sapphire  country,  and  to  all  the  mountain  region 
within  easy  access  of  the  capital  city  of  western  North 
Carolina. 

In  such  a  noble   natural   setting  the   Presbyterian 
Church    has    located    four    schools    of    magnificent 

140 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  141 

achievement  and  even  more  splendid  promise.     The 
money   invested    in   the   permanent   plants    of    these 

schools  amounts  to  two  hundred 
Rich  Investment  ^^^  sixty-five  thousand  dollars ;  but 
so  economically  has  the  investment  been  made,  and  so 
wisely  administered,  that  it  is  equal  in  efficiency  to 
what  twice  that  amount  would  be  in  many  places. 
About  five  hundred  and  fifty  young  people  were 
gathered  in  the  four  schools  during  the  year  191 3. 

The  plan  of  the  schools  prevents  any  unnecessary 
duplication  of  work.  The  very  names  suggest  the 
^  .,,«,.  X  difference  in  the  scope  of  the  in- 
Fourfold  Object  ^^j^^^ions.  The  Pease  Memorial 
House  for  Little  Girls  is  a  school  home  for  girls 
from  six  to  twelve  years  old,  and  provides  Instruction 
in  the  first  four  common-school  grades.  The  Home 
Industrial  gives  a  home  industrial  training  to  girls 
from  the  fifth  grade  to  the  eighth.  The  Normal  and 
Collegiate  Institute  affords  to  girls  and  young  women 
a  four  years'  course  of  normal  and  collegiate  train- 
ing, and  special  courses  of  training  in  domestic  sci- 
ence and  domestic  arts.  The  Farm  School  provides 
for  boys  and  young  men  instruction  in  the  common- 
school  branches,  and  in  industrial  training  in  the  shop 
and  on  the  farm.  Thus  is  a  wisely  coordinated  and 
yet  differentiated  work  carried  on  in  four  institutions 
with  the  economy  and  efficiency  of  a  single  institu- 
tion. Let  us  look  at  the  work  of  these  schools  some- 
what in  detail,  as  being  typical  of  the  work  of  the 
other  worthy  schools  that  have  been  merely  men- 
tioned in  the  foregoing  chapters. 


142     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

I.     The  Pease  Memorial  House 

The  Pease  Memorial  House   for  Little  Girls  was 

erected  in  1908.    Although  special  preparation  to  care 

^.,,,    „      ,  for  little  girls  in  the  Home  Indus- 

Little  People  ^  •  1  c  u     1  r      -1    1    J  t- 

•^  trial  School  family  had  never  been 

made,  the  most  needy  cases  could  not  be  refused,  and 

there  were  always  some  little  folk  in  the  family.   The 

erection  of  a  building  for  the  care  of  the  little  ones 

was,  then,  not  an  experiment  but  an  extension.    In  the 

first  edition  of  this  book  it  was  spoken  of  as  "The 

Annex  That  Must  Come." 

Fifty-five  boarders  were  received  the  day  Pease 
House  opened,  and  during  the  school  terms  there  has 
not  been  a  vacancy.  Forty  of  the  girls  are  twelve 
years  old  and  under,  and  of  this  forty  the  most  are 
from  seven  to  ten  years.  The  girls  of  Pease  House 
compose  the  practice  school  of  the  Normal  and  Col- 
legiate Institute. 

Fifteen  of  the  older  girls  do  the  heavier  work  of 
the  house,  but  all  the  children,  including  the  tiny  tots 
of  five  and  six  years,  have  some  share  in  the  work 
of  keeping  it  tidy.  Out  of  school  hours,  when  not 
playing  vigorously  out  of  doors,  or  quietly  with  dolls, 
or  poring  over  some  favorite  book  in  a  quiet  corner, 
they  are  as  busy  and  happy  as  birds  building  nests. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  acquiring  right  ideals  as 
to  future  home  nests  of  their  very  own. 

The  work  of  Pease  Memorial  House  is  in  no  sense 
that  of  an  orphanage.     Some  of  the  children  both  of 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  143 

whose  parents  are  living  come  from  remote  moun- 
tain districts  where  there  are  very  poor  or  no  school 

advantages.      By    far   the   greater 
large  Work  number   are   half   orphans,   whose 

mother  or  father  does  the  utmost  to  support  the 
child,  thus  keeping  loving  touch  with  her  and  look- 
ing to  the  future  when  they  will  again  have  a  home 
together.  This  is  a  great  incentive  for  the  little  girls 
to  learn  all  they  can  about  housekeeping  and  home- 
making.  Last  year  $2,110.29  was  paid  by  the  parents 
toward  the  meeting  of  school  expenses. 

2.     The  Home  Industrial  School 

Several  lines  of  providential  guidance  led  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Home  Industrial  School.    In  1870, 

Rev.   L.   M.   Pease  and  his  wife, 
The  Hand  of  broken  in  health  by  their  labors  at 

the  Five  Points  Mission  in  New 
York  City,  went  to  Asheville  in  search  of  health. 
Childless  themselves,  they  were  giving  their  lives  to 
the  service  of  childhood;  and  so  they  naturally  be- 
came deeply  interested  in  the  children  of  the  moun- 
tains. Business  reverses  frustrated  the  purpose  they 
formed  to  found  a  school  for  these  children,  and  they 
were  compelled  to  open  their  home  to  boarders.  In 
their  Christian  home  many  visitors,  including  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Lawrence,  D.D.,  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Boyd, 
afterwards  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  D.  Stuart  Dodge, 
D.D.,  became  interested  in  their  efforts  in  behalf  of 
the  mountain  children,  some  of  whom  Mrs.  Pease  was 
training  as  helpers  in  the  home. 

Miss  Boyd,  while  spending  the  winter  of  1884  in 


144     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

South  Carolina,  became  deeply  interested  in  the  poor 
children  near  her,  and  gathered  some  of  them  about 
her  and  gave  them  lessons  in  kitchen-garden,  and  at 
the  same  time  instructed  them  in  the  saving  truths  of 
the  Scriptures.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Wom- 
an's Executive  Committee  in  Saratoga  in  May  of 
the  same  year,  she  made  a  fervent  appeal  for  the 
opening  of  mission  schools  for  the  neglected  children 
of  the  more  destitute  parts  of  the  South. 

The  appeal  could  not  be  granted  until  the  General 
Assembly  should  enlarge  the  scope  of  the  commit- 
tee's work  and  until  funds  should  be  provided.  Later 
on  these  hindrances  w^ere  removed,  and  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  upon  the  authorization  of  a  liberal 
friend  took  steps  for  the  purchase  of  property.  By 
an  opportune  and  providential  telegram  sent  the  Board 
by  Dr.  Lawrence,  a  location  in  the  mountains  was 
chosen.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pease  transferred  to  the  Home 
Board  their  property,  including  their  home  and  thirty- 
three  acres  in  the  suburbs  of  Asheville,  reserving  for 
themselves  an  annuity  for  their  lifetime.  Thus  the 
location  of  the  projected  school  was  most  happily  de- 
cided, and  a  property  valued  at  thirty  thousand  dollars 
was  secured. 

Miss  Florence  Stephenson,  of  Butler,  Pa.,  assistant 
principal  in  one  of  the  public  schools  of  Pittsburg, 

was  appointed  principal  of  the 
The  Devotion  of  ^^^  ^^^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  position  she 
tne  rounders  ,        n,    i  ,      i 

has  filled  to  the  present  with  un- 
varying efficiency  and  success.  Before  the  end  of  the 
year  four  other  teachers  were  assisting  her;  while 


o 
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.a 


i:iB,   f(2:W    X)KK 

/UBLIC  UBRARY 


A«TOJ^,  LHNOX 
^LDKN   KOUNDATTOVR 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  I45 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pease  for  six  years  devoted  their  entire 
time  to  the  interests  of  the  school.  The  Home  In- 
dustrial was  opened  in  the  fall  of  1887,  and  was  soon 
filled  with  seventy  boarders  and  forty  day-pupils. 
The  building  has  grown  by  successive  additions  until 
it  now  accommodates  one  hundred  boarding-pupils 
and  their  eight  teachers.  Were  the  building  three 
times  its  present  size,  it  could  be  filled  immediately  by 
eager  pupils. 

The  school   is  filled  with  a   home   atmosphere  in 
which  a  healthful,  sane,  and  earnest  Christian  Hfe  is 

lived.  The  family  life  is  per- 
Tlie  Scope  of  meated   with    the    spirit   of    daily 

worship,  Bible  study,  honest  toil, 
and  unselfish  service  that  fill  the  busy  round  of  each 
day's  duties.  The  teachers  have  turned  aside  from 
higher  salaries  elsewhere  to  give  themselves  to  this 
work,  and  they  put  their  lives  into  their  holy  task. 
The  making  of  wholesome  and  Christian  home- 
makers  is  their  constant  aim.  The  school  is  an  in- 
dustrial home.  All  the  girls,  as  daughters  in  a  home, 
engage  in  the  household  duties  under  direction  of  the 
household  mothers.  All  are  trained  in  kitchen-garden 
and  cooking  classes,  in  sewing,  dressmaking,  and  in 
other  domestic  arts.  Instruction  in  the  fifth  to  the 
eighth  common-school  grades  is  provided. 

Scholarships  of  one  hundred  dollars  each  sustain 

the   pupils,   most   of   whom   come 

.  ,  Support  from    the    remote    mountain    dis- 

of  the  School  .  •  .       t     .  o       ^  -j 

tricts.     Last  year  ?3,440  was  paid 

in  tuition  and  board  by  such  as  were  able  to  contribute 


146     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

toward  their  own  support ;  while  the  entire  cost  of  the 
school  was  $14,500.  The  broad  Appalachians  and  the 
honor  of  the  Saviour  and  of  his  church  receive  rich 
returns  from  this  investment  in  the  making  of  new 
homes  for  the  mountains. 

3.     The  Farm  School 

In  1893  plans  that  had  been  maturing  for  at  least 
two  years  were  realized  in  the  inception  of  a  work 

^     ^      ,  for  the  boys  and  young  men  of 

Its  Development  ^        m    ..u   r-      r       ..u  ^ 

^  western  North   Larolma  that  was 

designed  to  be  similar  to  that  for  girls  already  so  well 
established  in  the  Home  Industrial  School.  The 
Home  Board  purchased  a  farm  of  four  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  lying  on  the  beautiful  Swannanoa,  about 
nine  miles  from  Asheville.  The  school  was  opened 
in  November,  1894,  with  three  instructors  and  twenty- 
five  boys.  Since  that  time  the  school  has  steadily  ex- 
panded, until  in  1913  it  reported  property  to  the  value 
of  $62,000;  total  expenditures  of  the  year,  $18,734; 
and  receipts  from  tuition,  $1,852;  while  the  value  of 
farm  and  garden  produce  was  estimated  at  three 
thousand  dollars.  Two  hundred  acres  have  been 
added  to  the  original  farm,  and  an  electric  lighting 
plant  has  been  installed. 

The  Farm  School  is  first  of  all  a  "school"  in  which 
the   boys    are    thoroughly    instructed    in    the   various 
.  grades    of    the    common    schools. 

^  Then,   as   the   word    "farm"    sug- 

gests, it  is  an  industrial  school,  planned  to  train  its  stu- 
dents especially  as  farmers,  but  also  to  some  extent  as 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  147 

carpenters.  The  boys  do  most  of  the  housekeeping 
also,  a  fact  that  ought  largely  to  enhance  their  value 
in  the  matrimonial  market.  The  third  design  of  the 
school  is  not  mentioned  in  its  name,  but  it  is  all-per- 
vasive in  its  life.  That  design  is  to  make  good  Chris- 
tians as  well  as  good  farmers.  A  Sabbath  well  spent, 
followed  by  a  week  of  practical  Christianity,  includ- 
ing the  reverent  and  daily  study  of  the  Bible,  results 
in  an  overmastering  Christian  sentiment  that,  for  ex- 
ample, has  been  manifested  during  the  past  years  in 
very  many  ripening  characters  and  in  large  numbers 
of  professions  of  faith  in  Christ. 

The    threefold    design    of    the    school    is    happily 
realized.     A  steady  supply  of  sturdy  lads  and  manly 

^^  ^.  ,  ^  .^  young  men  is  sent  out  into  the  An- 
Its  Rich  Fruitage       ,    ,  .  •  ,     ,       ,         • 

palachians  with  the  deep  impress 

of  their  manual,  intellectual,  and  religious  training 
manifest  in  all  their  being.  Some  go  on  to  college, 
and  enter  the  ministry  and  other  professions;  some 
become  teachers,  or  enter  business  life;  but,  as  was 
hoped,  many  more  return  to  their  homes  to  practice 
and  pass  on  to  others  the  new  ideas  and  ideals  with 
which  their  life  in  the  Farm  School  has  endowed 
them.  Faithfully  do  the  superintendent,  J.  P.  Roger, 
M.D.,  and  thirteen  consecrated  coworkers  adminis- 
ter the  trust  for  the  church.  The  Farm  School  de- 
serves liberal  support  at  the  hands  of  the  church  it  so 
admirably  serves. 


148     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

4.     The  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute 

"In  the  founding  of  this  school  the  Woman's  Board 
have  placed  the  keystone  in  the  arch  of  their  work  in 

the  mountains  of  the  South."  In 
School^^^*°^^  1892  there  was  established  on  the 

property  given  by  Mr.  Pease  to 
the  Home  Board  an  additional  school,  for  which  the 
growing  educational  work  in  the  Appalachians  had 
prepared  the  way  and  also  created  the  necessity. 
There  were  already  many  mission  schools,  and  there 
would  be  many  more.  These  and  the  public  schools 
were  calling  for  teachers  to  the  manner  born.  The 
church  saw  the  opportunity  to  do  a  most  efficient  serv- 
ice to  the  mountains  and  the  adjacent  regions  by  pro- 
viding teachers  thoroughly  prepared  to  direct  these 
schools.  And  so  by  the  benevolence  of  philanthropic 
friends  the  keystone  in  the  Appalachian  Home  Mis- 
sion school  system  was  put  into  place;  and  the  Nor- 
mal and  Collegiate  Institute  was  that  keystone. 

Just  across  the  lawn  from  the  Home  Industrial,  an 
extensive  four-story  building  was  erected,  which  in 

191 3  provided  a  school  home  for 

two  hundred  boarding  students. 
At  the  entrance  to  the  grounds  stand  the  manse  and 
the  Elizabeth  Boyd  Memorial  Chapel.  The  chapel 
was  erected  by  Dr.  Dodge,  the  president  of  the  Board 
of  Home  Missions,  as  a  memorial  to  his  wife.  In 
it  gather  for  the  Sabbath  worship  the  girls  of  both 
schools  and  residents  of  the  neighborhood.  The 
church    organization,    bearing    the    name    Oakland 


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^'■^A  naw  YQjir 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  149 

Heights,  is  self-supporting.  In  such  a  commodious 
plant,  then,  the  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute  has 
enjoyed  its  twenty-one  years  of  uninterrupted  pros- 
perity under  the  principalship,  first,  of  Dr.  Lawrence, 
and  then  of  Professor  E.  P.  Childs. 

The  girls  of  the  Normal  come  from  the  four  moun- 
tain states  of  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Ten- 

^     ^,.  nessee,  and  Kentucky,  and  an  in- 

Its  Clientage  •  u  u  i. 

"  creasmg  number   each  year  enter 

from  our  own  mountain  schools  conducted  by  the 
Woman's  Board.  In  1913,  out  of  a  total  enrollment 
of  200  boarding  pupils,  sixty  or  more  came  from 
these  elementary  schools.  The  ages  of  the  students 
range  from  fourteen  to  twenty- four  years.  The  pu- 
pils come  principally  from  the  country,  for  the  In- 
stitute is  not  designed  to  furnish  "cheap  education" 
to  those  who  could  easily  obtain  educational  advan- 
tages elsewhere. 

There  are  sixteen  teachers  and  officers  in  the  fac- 
ulty.    The  teachers  are  from  the  best  normals  and 

colleges   of   the   country,   and  are 

Its  Teachers  ,,  j    r       i.i,  1     • 

well    prepared    for    the    work    m 

which  they  are  engaged.  The  result  is  an  admirably 
conducted  institution. 

There  are  four  courses  of   study:     (i)    Normal, 
providing  an  excellent  training  for  rural  teachers  es- 
pecially, and  including  a  practice 
of^StiiT^^  school  of  five  grades.      (2)    Col- 

legiate, providing  thorough  prepa- 
ration for  the  advanced  women's  colleges  of  the  North 
and  South.     (3)  Domestic  Arts,  including  dressmak- 


150     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

ing  and  millinery.  It  is  the  intention  to  extend  this 
to  a  two  years'  course  in  order  to  give  sufficient  train- 
ing for  teachers  of  domestic  arts.  (4)  Domestic  Sci- 
ence, affording  training  in  home  economics.  It  is 
planned  to  make  this  also  a  two  years'  course  for  the 
training  of  teachers.  While  there  is  no  separate  reg- 
ular course  in  music,  two  competent  teachers  are  em- 
ployed to  give  instruction  in  instrumental  and  vocal 
music,  and  emphasis  is  placed  on  normal  training  in 
this  line  for  public-school  teachers.  Excellent  choral 
work  is  done  by  the  pupils. 

The  domestic  work  of  the  school  home  is  done  by 
the  pupils  as  a  part  of  their  training.    By  a  system  of 

_T  ,  .  work  list  assignments  each  girl  is 

Home-makinff  .  .  .  ,  r  ,     ^ 

given  experience  in  every  kind  of 

home  work — cooking,  care  of  the  dining-room,  care 
of  dormitories,  the  laundry,  and  the  like.  The  prin- 
cipal purpose  of  the  school  is  not  simply  to  help  in- 
dividuals but  to  train  leaders  and  to  send  strong  in- 
fluences for  righteousness  and  sane  living  into  many 
communities,  and  thus  to  affect  the  life  of  a  multi- 
plied constituency. 

The  religious  character  of  the  school  is  evident  in 
all  its  activities.    A  strong  Bible  department  is  main- 

_  ,.   .        ^.^  tained  under  a  special  teacher,  at 

Religious  Life  ^  ^,  .        r  .,     ^  ,  ,      , 

present  the  pastor  of  the  Oakland 

Heights  Church,  and  systematic  instruction  is  given 
throughout  the  four  years  of  each  course.  A  very 
active  branch  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  As- 
sociation renders  material  assistance  in  the  Christian 
work  of  the  school.     The  Association   cabinet  take 


THE  ASHEVILLE  SCHOOLS  151 

charge  of  the  mission  study  classes,  and  frequently 
conduct  the  chapel  exercises.  The  entire  faculty 
frankly  and  persistently  emphasize  the  Christian  char- 
acter of  the  school,  and  every  effort  is  made  by  them 
personally  to  bring  all  the  pupils  into  a  close  personal 
relationship  with  the  Christian  activities  of  home  and 
church.  No  one  has  yet  graduated  from  the  normal 
course  who  was  not  a  professing  Christian,  and  a 
very  large  majority  of  the  graduates  have  been  active 
workers  in  Christian  lines.  In  1913  all  but  five  of 
tJhe  students  were  professing  Christians. 

The  girls  who  have  graduated  from  the  institution 
in  these  twenty  years  of  its  history  have  justified  the 

hopes   and   plans   of   its    founders 
The  Outcome  ^^^  ^^  ^jj  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^  p^^^  ^^ 

teachers  and  helpers  in  its  activities.  They  have  taken 
with  them  such  a  spirit  of  helpfulness  that  their  in- 
fluence has  been  felt  wherever  they  have  gone. 
County  superintendents  highly  esteem  them  as  teach- 
ers, because  of  their  character  and  earnestness  as  well 
as  on  account  of  their  thorough  preparation.  Wher- 
ever these  graduates  go,  they  have  a  part  in  the  work 
for  general  uplift,  civic  order,  and  public  welfare. 
Quietly  and  without  parade  the  cause  of  Christian 
education  in  the  secondary  grades  of  school  work 
has  been  advanced  throughout  these  mountain  states 
by  the  Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
Appalachian  Power 

We  have  thus  far,  in  our  study,  directed  our  atten- 
tion to  the  problem  that  the  southern  mountains  pre- 

-,    , ,        „  sent  to  the  country  in  general  and 

Problem,  Power,      ^    ^u    n     ^  .    •      ^.       ,    • 
Promise  ^^  Presbyterian  Church  m  par- 

ticular. The  mountains,  however, 
are  much  more  than  a  problem;  they  are  embodied 
power  and  they  are  stored-up  promise.  Before  we 
take  leave  of  our  general  theme,  let  us  consider  it 
from  these  additional  points  of  view.  And,  first,  let 
us  consider  what  we  may  term  Appalachian  power, 
recapitulating  and  emphasizing  those  elements  of  that 
power  which  our  study  has  already  disclosed  to  us. 

Power  and  its  conservation  is  nowadays  an  in- 
tensely popular  topic  in  industrial  and  scientific  cir- 
,_  cles.    Let  it  be  water  power,  wave 

Pop^lL  Theme        P°'^^'''    '""   P""^^""'   ^^"^   P^^^^' 

steam     power,     electrical     power, 

radium  power,  or  power  of  whatever  kind, — it  rivets 
the  attention  of  the  captains  and  privates  of  industry, 
and  the  doctors  and  students  of  science.  New  sources 
of  political  or  economic  strength  and  of  national  or 
sectional  wealth  and  influence  are  subjects  of  live- 
liest interest  to  very  many  of  our  people. 

152 


APPALACHIAN  POWER     '  153 

Mountains  are  not  inert,  powerless  objects,  born 
amid  the  throes  of  nature,  and  then  petrified  for  the 

geologic  ages.     Mountains  are  the 
Mountains  Are        homes  of  men,  and  share  positively 

Power-Plants  •     ^1      u-  ..  r  i.i-  j     r 

m  the  history  of  the  race  and  of 

the  world.  To  the  lover  of  nature  they  are  instinct 
with  a  life  peculiarly  their  own ;  in  the  midst  of  their 
reticent  loneliness,  to  the  attentive  ear  their  heart- 
throb is  audible.  Their  peaks  may  be  personified  by 
the  poet  and  the  orator,  but  they  are  persons  to  the 
seeing  eye.    Of  Childe  Harold  it  was  said: 

"Where  rose  the  mountains,  there  to  him  were  friends," 

and  where  the  mountains  are  full  of  men,  they  are 

full  of  all  the  kinds  of  physical  and  personal  power 

that  exist — all  the  kinds  with  which  God  has  charged 

his  terrestrial  creation. 

Surely,  then,  we  may  fitly  speak  of  Appalachian 

power,  for  the  Appalachians  rank,  as  we  have  seen, 

among  the  most  noble  and  imperial 

Appalachian  ^f  e^^th's  mountains.     The  utili- 

X  owcr 

tarian  age  in  which  we  live  is  fast 

waking  up  to  a  realization  of  the  power,  the  dynamics, 

the  potentiality,  packed  away  in  them  as  in  a  mighty 

storehouse  of   Nature's   forces.     Then  appropriately 

may  we  sing  of  Appalachian  power,  and  of  the  men 

who,  driven  by  fate,  first  stored  human  power  within 

these  mountain  fastnesses. 

That  the   southern  highlands  are   full  of  natural, 

physical  power  is  evident  to  the  most  superficial  ob- 


154     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

server.     Their  resources  are  so  numerous  and  varied 
that  it  taxes  even  the  fertile  imagination  of  the  pro- 
fessional prospector  and  promoter 

Natural  Power  j        ^  i     ,  ^     ^.u 

adequately  to  convey  to  the  un- 
initiated even  a  faint  idea  of  their  number  and  va- 
riety. 

The  mountains  are  not  mere  scenery ;  they  are  also 
power.     Ruskin  says  that  "mountains  are  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  all  natural  scen- 

Water  Power  "     -ri  4.  ^      4.  4.u     u 

ery.  They  are  at  least  the  be- 
ginning of  most  forms  of  energy  known  in  the  indus- 
trial world.  The  greater  part  of  the  water  power  in 
the  Cis-Mississippian  states  south  of  the  Ohio  and  of 
the  Potomac  originates  in  the  heart  of  the  southern 
Appalachians.  Although  few  of  the  mountain  streams 
are  navigable  before  they  leave  the  region  of  their 
birth,  they  have  in  them  mighty  resources  of  power 
that  for  countless  ages  have  gone  to  waste  so  far  as 
the  material  advantage  of  man  is  concerned.  There 
is  no  better  watered  region  in  the  world.  Almost 
every  "hollow"  of  any  length  has  its  running  water, 
for  myriads  of  springs  burst  out  at  all  elevations,  and 
the  streams  that  they  form  must  descend  many  hun- 
dreds of  feet  before  they  reach  the  great  rivers  that 
bear  their  tide  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  or  to  the  At- 
lantic Ocean.  The  amount  of  power  generated  by 
this  descent  is  almost  incalculable.  In  the  writer's 
own  country,  the  Little  Tennessee  River,  while  mak- 
ing its  way  through  the  Great  Smokies  out  of  the 
North   Carolina   mountains,   turns   upon   its   edge  in 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  155 

rock-walled  narrows,  and  is  no  mean  reminder  of 
Niagara's  whirling  rapids;  while  enough  unutilized 
power  runs  away  down  stream  to  provide,  as  will  ere 
long  be  practically  demonstrated,  both  power  and  il- 
lumination for  great  industries.  Southey's  word- 
painting  of  how  the  water  comes  down  from  Lodore 
in  far  Cumberlandshire  might  have  described  besides 
several  minor  creeks,  two  beautiful  streams.  Little 
River  and  Abram's  Creek,  that  have  both  their  source 
and  their  mouth  within  the  borders  of  this  same 
county, — a  county  over  half  the  size  of  Rhode  Island. 
Such  streams  are  typical;  though  not  navigable,  they 
are  power-producers,  and  this  power  transmitted  by 
electrical  currents,  will  some  day  turn  countless 
wheels  of  industry  and  profit.  The  smaller  streams 
have  many  of  them  been  utilized  to  turn  the  neigh- 
borhood mill.  In  Tuckaleechee  Cove,  in  this  same 
county  of  Blount,  a  great  spring  bursting  from  the 
mountainside  turns  a  grist  mill  within  one  hundred 
feet  of  where  it  issues  forth.  The  larger  mountain 
streams  have  as  a  rule  gone  unharnessed.  Now,  how- 
ever, some  of  them  are  being  harnessed,  and  manifest 
destiny  will  ere  long  add  many  more  to  the  class  of 
producers  of  hydro-electric  power. 

As  to  steam-producing  power,  our  mountains  con- 
ceal deposits  of  coal  large  enough  to  supply  the  South 

for  many  ages,  and  to  send,  when 
Steam  Power  needed,  large  surpluses  to  the  other 

sections  of  our  country.     As  if  with  kind  considera- 
tion for  the  convenience  of  men,  it  sometimes  occurs 


156     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

that  the  coal  and  the  iron  can  be  taken  from  neigh- 
borly openings  in  the  same  mountainside. 

Estimates  prepared  by  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey  in  1908  credit  the  Southern  states  with  a  coal 
area  of  87,000  square  miles  as  against  an  area  of 
44,000  square  miles  for  the  combined  seven  principal 
coal-producing  countries  of  Europe;  and  also  assign 
to  the  Southern  states  a  reserve  supply  of  coal  amount- 
ing to  the  almost  unthinkable  total  of  530,000,000,000 
short  tons  as  against  418,000,000,000  short  tons  for 
the  combined  seven  European  countries  to  which  ref- 
erence was  made.  The  principal  coal  fields  of  the 
South  lie  in  the  Appalachian  region.  Here,  then,  is 
stored  up  steam  power  for  ages  to  come. 

So  much  of  the  purely  mountain  land  is  thin  and 
steep  that  the  mountaineer's  saying  is  often  justified: 

,  ^  "God    Almighty    never    built    this 

Mineral  l-csources  ^  •     1     j  r      r  »    t>  ^ 

— mountam  land  for  farmmg.      But 

dig  down  beneath  the  surface  and  you  will  find  ex- 
haustless  quantities  of  coal,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
and  of  valuable  marbles,  and  phosphate  rock,  and  of 
most  of  the  useful  minerals — iron,  zinc,  lead,  copper, 
bauxite,  salt,  and  the  like;  while  the  natural  gas  and 
petroleum  fields  have  now  added  new  sources  of 
power  to  our  already  long  inventory  of  such  re- 
sources. West  Virginia,  in  191 1,  gave  the  nation 
mineral  products  to  the  value  of  $105,958,000,  over 
one- fourth  of  the  mineral  products  of  the  entire 
South.  The  abundant  presence  of  the  minerals  that 
are  a  necessity  to  all  the  industries  indicates  that  the 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  157 

Appalachians  are  destined  to  be  a  great  manufactur- 
ing district. 

In  spite  of  cruel  waste  in  many  parts  of  the  south- 
ern mountains,  the   forests  are  still  of  vast  extent. 

In  the  writer's  own  county,  some 
Timber  Supply  lumbermen  purchased  seventy 
thousand  acres  of  virgin  forests,  and  are  keeping  their 
own  railroad  busy  shipping  out  the  product ;  and  yet 
they  assure  us  that  it  will  take  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  years  to  cull  the  large  timber  from  their  posses- 
sions, and  that  at  the  end  of  that  period  there  will  be 
another  growth  of  trees  ready  for  their  harvesting. 
There  is  home-making  power  in  our  great  forests. 
About  twelve  per  cent,  of  the  75,000,000  acres  in  the 
southern  mountains  are  covered  with  forests  of  vir- 
gin growth.  The  Forestry  Bureau  reports  a  total  of 
58,583,000  Appalachian  acres,  however,  as  being  tim- 
bered land.  Unhappily  large  deadenings  are  still  some- 
times seen,  even  in  these  days  of  high-priced  lumber. 
The  mountains  are,  nevertheless,  a  storehouse  of  tim- 
ber supply  for  the  nation. 

Although  a  mountainous  country,  the  southern  Ap- 
palachian region  is  also  a  farming  country.    The  gov- 
ernment estimates  that  23,310,000 
Farm  Products        ^^^^^^   ^^   ^^^^^  gq^^^.^  ^ji^s  ^f 

the  region,  are  non-agricultural.  Of  this  area  9,900,- 
000  acres  lie  above  an  altitude  of  2,500  feet,  and 
54,000  acres  above  an  altitude  of  5,000  feet.  About 
two-thirds,  then,  or  an  area  of  74,000  square  miles,  is 
agricultural.  While  the  soil  in  the  valleys  is  much  of 
it  fertile,  it  is  also  true  that  the  purely  mountain  soils. 


158     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

especially  on  the  eastern  borders  of  the  valley,  are 
capable  of  sustaining  a  good  population.  Says  Dr. 
Glenn:  "The  agricultural  lands  of  the  Appalachian 
mountains  are  generally  fertile,  and,  if  wisely  hand- 
died,  will  support  safely  and  permanently  a  much 
greater  population  than  now  inhabits  the  region." 
Where  proper  methods  of  tillage  and  rotation  of  di- 
versified crops  are  employed,  Appalachian  farming, 
favored  above  most  of  the  world  by  seasonable  rains 
and  abundant  sunshine,  has  its  full  share  of  prosper- 
ity. No  section  need  import  less  than  should  the 
southern  Appalachian  region.  It  grows  practically  all 
it  needs.  The  future  possibilities  of  fruit-growing 
and  stock-raising  are  also  very  great. 

The    mountain    breezes    furnish    another    kind    of 
power  when  by  ozone  and  oxygen  and  electrical  en- 

ergy  they  contribute  to  the  health 
^^  of  human  nerves  and  muscles  and 

the  vigor  of  human  heads  and  hearts  and  hands.  A 
naturally  strong  and  sturdy  race  inhabit  the  Appa- 
lachians, and  they  are  capable  of  great  endurance. 
Were  it  not  for  preventable  diseases,  due  largely  to 
their  lack  of  information  regarding  the  origin  of  such 
diseases,  the  vital  statistics  of  the  region  would  be 
unexcelled  on  the  earth.  All  that  nature  could  do  in 
providing  pure  water  and  pure  air  has  been  done,  and 
the  result  is  good  appetites  by  day  and  sound  sleep  by 
night;  and,  in  short,  the  development  of  a  race  of 
tenacious  constitution  and  large  reserve  of  physical 
endurance. 


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APPALACHIAN  POWER  159 

Now,  all  these  various  forms  of  energy  belong  not 
to  some  single  mountain  peak,  some  Japanese  lone 

sentinel,  Fuji-yama,   or  a  Sicilian 

^/mi.?^t^^*  ^tna   or  a   Neapolitan  Vesuvius, 

of  This  Power         ,    ^  ,  •  u^  ^        a-u  *. 

but  to  a  mighty  system  that  ex- 
tends over  vast  areas  of  nine  southern  states.  The 
Appalachians  are  examples  of  Nature's  mammoth 
sculpturing  like  that  seen  in  the  Alps  and  Himalayas. 
They  cover,  as  we  have  already  seen,  a  vast  region 
approximately  six  hundred  miles  long  by  two  hun- 
dred miles  wide,  and  contain  one  hundred  and  ten 
thousand  square  miles.  This  royal  domain  is  three 
and  a  half  times  as  large  as  are  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland  with  all  the  Lowlands  thrown  in ;  six  and  a 
half  times  as  large  as  Switzerland  with  all  her  many 
hundreds  of  snowy  pe^ks;  as  large  as  the  Alps  and 
Apennines  and  sunny  plains ^of ^Continental  Italy;  and 
well-nigh  as  large  as  great  Norway,  land  of  fiord  and 
mountain.  And  the  various  forms  of  power  of  which 
we  have  spoken  are  found  in  all  this  mighty  region, 
and  are  not  confined  to  one  isolated  mountain  heap. 
No  pent-up  pinnacle  contains  these  powers,  but  the 
whole  boundless  mountain  range  is  theirs. 

The  real  power  in  the  Appalachians  that  especially 
concerns  us  as  Christian  patriots  is,   of  course,  the 

human  power,  the  power  of  the 
Aliovi*  All 

_-  ,_'  mountaineers.    We  are  prospectors 

Human  Power  .  ^      ^ 

not  for  water  power,  steam  power, 

mineral  resources,  timber  supply,  farm  products,  nor 
even  for  vital  energy  in  itself  considered.  We  are 
deeply  interested  in  these  matters  as  they  affect  the 


i6o     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

people  of  the  mountains;  but  that  which  vitally  con- 
cerns us  is  that  higher  form  of  energy,  human  power. 
The  census  bears  witness  to  the  great  extent  of  this 
power.     As  already  stated,  in  the  two  hundred  and 

fifty-one  counties  that  make  up  the 

In  Numbers  ,,  a       i    u- 

southern    Appalachian    region,    in 

1910  there  were  5,280,243  people.  That  number  may 
look  small  when  we  recall  the  fact  that  a  larger  num- 
ber, to  be  exact,  5,578,334, — immigrants  arrived  at 
our  shores  from  the  Old  World  during  the  six  years 
from  1907  to  1912;  and  the  fact  that  twice  that  num- 
ber arrived  during  the  decennium  covered  by  the  last 
census.  But  the  number  assumes  its  proper  propor- 
tions when  we  realize  that  it  far  exceeds  the  total 
population  of  the  colonies  when  they  waged  war  for 
independence ;  and  that  it  almost  equals  the  total  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the  census 
of   1800. 

As   was    seen    in   the   chapter   on   "The   Southern 
Mountaineers,"  the  population  of  our  section  is  made 

up  of  three  classes:  (i)  The 
In  Unity  nominal      mountaineers      or     the 

dwellers  in  the  cities  and  towns 
and  on  the  better  lands  in  the  valleys  and  along  the 
plateaus;  (2)  the  typical  mountaineers,  isolated  by 
their  environment,  retaining  the  rugged  strength  of 
their  race;  (3)  the  belated  mountaineers,  or  the  sub- 
merged and  lowest  class  in  the  population.  There  is, 
however,  a  substantial  unity  in  this  variety  that  is  a 
token  of  strength.  There  is  great  power  in  exercise 
in  the  first  class;  great  power  in  reserve  in  the  sec- 


APPALACHIAN  POWER    ,  i6i 

ond  class ;  and  great  power  buried  and  awaiting  resur- 
rection in  the  third  class.  There  is  no  special  con- 
flict among  the  classes;  they  understand  one  another, 
and  are  ready  for  cooperation  as  time  and  training  pre- 
pare them  for  it.  There  is  potentiality  in  this  unity 
in  variety.  It  is  an  exemplification  of  what  one  of  the 
denominations  terms  itself,  "Unitas  Fratrum." 

To   have   descended   from  the  virile   Scotch-Irish, 
English,   Huguenot,  and   German  races   signifies  the 

best  possible  racial  heritage.   Blood 

of  Rar^*^  ^^"^*     ^^^  "^^"  °^  ^^^  mountains 

have,   flowing  in   their  veins,  not 

much  blue  blood  perhaps,  but  something  that  counts 
more  yet  in  the  making  of  American  greatness, — a 
tide  of  rich  red  Teutonic  and  Celtic  blood.  There  is 
stored  up  in  that  blood  vigor  and  tenacity  and  en- 
durance that  combine  to  make  an  endowment  of 
masterful  power  for  the  men  in  whose  veins  it  pul- 
sates. 

"Our  ships  were  British  oak, 
And  hearts  of  oak  our  men." 

As  we  have  seen,  the  salubrious  climate  contributes 
to  the  vital  forces  of  the  mountaineer.    He  has  strong 

nerves  and  a  strong  body.  He  may 
of  Bo?^^*^  be  lank  and  lean,  but  he  is  tough 

and  sinewy.  The  squirrel-hunter 
can  hold  out  his  old  homemade  twenty-five-pound 
rifle,  and  with  unflinching  nerve  duplicate  the  best 
work  of  the  best  shot  of  the  day.  Whether  he  be- 
long to  the  immediate  stock  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  An- 


i62     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

drew  Jackson,  Davy  Crockett,  and  Sam  Houston  or 
not,  he  belongs  to  their  stalwart  people,  and  looks  it. 
The  average  height  and  weight  of  the  southern  Ap- 
palachian soldiers  of  the  Union,  as  recorded  by  the 
recruiting  officers,  considerably  exceeded  that  of  the 
soldiers  enlisted  in  any  other  section  of  the  country. 

The  southern  mountaineers  have  a  mental  vigor 
that  has  arisen  out  of  their  heredity,  their  healthful 

climate,  and  their  unexhausted 
^f  M"^T^*^  power;  a  vigor  that  is  refreshing 

to  a  patriot  taking  stock  of  our  na- 
tional resources.  Strong,  alert,  shrewd,  logical,  in- 
cisive, the  genius  of  the  mountaineer  is  of  the  keenest 
sort  known  in  our  nation.  A  close  observer  like 
Cassius,  "he  looks  quite  through  the  deeds  of  men." 
When  you  think  him  dreaming,  his  photographic  and 
phonographic  observation  is  recording  all  that  is  tak- 
ing place  about  him.  Self-complacent  visitors  from 
civilization  make  an  egregious  blunder  in  their  hasty 
inference  from  his  taciturnity  and  seeming  stolidity 
that  the  mountaineer  is  intellectually  their  inferior. 
In  native  ability  he  is  fit  to  stand  before  princes.  It 
has  been  said  of  him :  "He  may  be  illiterate,  but  he 
is  not  ignorant;  he  is  not  'backward,'  but  he  is  unde- 
veloped." The  common  opinion  of  educators  in  the 
Appalachians  is  that,  other  things  being  equal,  there 
is  a  peculiar  strength  of  intellect  and  a  quickness  of 
perception  among  students  from  among  the  purely 
mountain  people  that  exceeds  that  found  among  the 
dwellers  in  the  flatwoods. 

The  mountaineer  has   a   keenness   of   insight  and 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  163 

throughsight  that  is  refreshing  to  teachers  and 
preachers.  A  picture  illustrating  a  magazine  article 
written  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  many  years  ago  was  enti- 
tled, "Which  is  the  Bad  Man?"  It  represented  side 
by  side  a  slouchy,  walking-arsenal,  but  honest- faced 
cowboy,  and  a  meek-looking,  conventionally  attired 
civilian  whose  degenerate  face  proclaimed  him  a 
sharper.  Place  side  by  side  a  self-satisfied  and  irre- 
proachably attired  town  dude  and  a  gawky  mountain 
rustic  and  propound  the  conundrum,  "Which  head 
contains  the  brains?"  and  many  mountain  workers  al- 
ready have  both  hands  up  high  to  tell  you  the  true 
answer.  Addison  would  confirm  their  decision  were 
he  living,  for  his  hand  was  in;  he  reported  in  "The 
Spectator"  the  results  of  a  dissection  of  a  "Beau's 
Head." 

A  friend  of  the  writer  tells  of  a  visit  two  Mormon 
elders  made  at  a  Cumberland  mountain  cabin.  One 
of  the  saintly  elders  to  all  appearance  dropped  dead 
at  the  fence.  The  other  did  not  lose  his  self-posses- 
sion, but  calmly  said  to  the  mistress  of  the  cabin : 
"Yes,  he  is  dead;  but  I  shall  now  show  you  that  the 
Latter  Day  Saints  have  power  on  earth  to  raise  the 
dead."  Before  he  could  take  any  steps  toward  dem- 
onstrating his  divine  legation,  the  mountain  woman 
saw  at  a  flash  the  attempted  deception  and  the  proper 
reductio  ad  ahsurdum  with  which  to  paralyze  both 
deceiver  and  deception.  She  leaped  into  the  cabin  and 
seized  a  kettle  of  boiling  water,  and  hurried  back  to 
empty  it  on  the  supposed  corpse:  "I  reckon  I  kin 
raise  the  dead  too,"  she  cried;  and  she  raised  him  in 


i64     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

short  order.  A  lowlander  will  have  to  get  up  very 
early  in  the  morning  to  get  ahead  of  a  highlander! 
Nature  has  compensated  the  mountain  man  for  some 
material  limitations  by  bestowing  upon  him  a  liberal 
amount  of  gray  matter.  Indeed  it  has  been  main- 
tained that  his  brain  is  the  most  perfect  in  form  that 
is  known. 

Our  mountain   folk  possess  also  a  mighty  deposit 
of  power  in  their  pure  Americanism  in  race,  spirit, 

and  historic  development.  Says  a 
Iti  Pure  j^^^g^  Georgian :    'Tn  all  the  broad 

reach  of  this  land  of  the  free  there 
is  no  other  field  so  teeming  with  the  possibilities  of  a 
clear-sighted,  virile,  well-balanced,  glorious  American- 
ism as  is  that  to  be  found  in  the  romantic  Appa- 
lachian country."  If  the  spirit  of  America  is  the  spirit 
of  liberty,  then  the  mountaineers  are  the  incarnation 
of  that  spirit.  Independence  has  almost  gone  wild  in 
the  mountain  wilderness.  Tyranny  has  been  left  be- 
hind so  far  and  so  long  that  it  has  become  an  in- 
credible monster  to  their  thinking.  Could  their 
tongues  express  the  thoughts  that  arise  to  them,  they 
might  say: 

"We  are  watchers  of  a  beacon 

Whose  light  must  never  die; 
We  are  guardians  of  an  altar 

'Mid  the  silence  of  the  sky: 
The  rocks  yield  founts  of  courage, 

Struck  forth  as  by  thy  rod. 
For  the  strength  of  the  hills  we  bless  thee. 

Our  God,  our  father's  God!" 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  165 

He  sees  no  earthly  reason  why,  if  he  is  called  out 
of  the  mountains  for  any  cause,  he  should  not  be  the 

peer  of  any  man,  "Lowland  or 
In  Spirit  of  Highland,   far  or  near."     Such  a 

Independence  q   \  u    u    -^         u  ia 

bcotch    heritage    he    could    never 

lose  in  the  freedom  of  the  hills.  His  independence 
is  a  passion.  In  the  Civil  War  the  mountaineer  made 
a  fierce  fighter^  and  was  an  ideal  soldier  in  all  re- 
spects save  one, — he  would  not  remove  his  cap  to 
any  martinet,  any  more  than  did  William  Penn,  in  the 
olden  day,  to  the  king  of  England.  He  does  not  have 
to  be  educated  to  self-respect.  He  has  this  quality  by 
inheritance.  As  one  of  them  said:  "We  don't  eat 
at  nobody's  second  table."  He  resents  the  arrogance 
of  wealth  or  position,  and  would  rather  die  than  sub- 
mit to  tyranny.  Sometimes  it  is  even  hard  for  him  to 
yield  due  respect  to  the  authority  of  the  civil  law  when 
it  comes  in  conflict  with  his  individualism.  There  is 
strength  in  the  spirit  of  individualism  even  if  it  does 
interfere  with  the  community  spirit. 

There  is  an  asset  of  power,  too,  in  Appalachian 
patriotism.     Not  long  since  the  writer  conducted  a 

funeral   in    an    old    graveyard    in 

In  Fervent  Tuckaleechee    Cove    in    his    home 

Patriotism  011         •<-  ,  1 

county.    Surely  here,  if  ever,  could 

the  words  of  the  Elegy,  in  a  Country  Churchyard  be 

true, — here  among  the  mountaineers: 

"Far  from  the  madding  crowd's  ignoble  strife, 
Their  sober  wishes  never  learned  to  stray; 
Along  the  cool,  sequestered  vale  of  life 
They  kept  the  noiseless  tenor  of  their  way." 


i66     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

But,  no;  the  patriarch  of  the  cove  told  me  that  in  this 
modest  yard  He  buried  soldiers  of  every  war  of  the 
republic, — the  Revolution,  the  Indian  wars,  the  War 
of  1812,  and  the  Mexican,  the  Civil,  and  the  Spanish- 
American  wars.  The  records  of  the  yard  even  give 
the  names  of  the  soldiers.  In  the  roster  are  the 
names  of  two  of  the  cove  boys  who  were  once  stu- 
dents of  the  writer,  and  who  fell  in  battle  while  fol- 
lowing the  flag  in  the  far-away  Philippines.  And  what 
is  true  of  that  churchyard  is  true  of  others  in  the 
same  county,  and  of  large  numbers  throughout  the" 
southern  mountains.  Wordsworth  exults  over  the 
patriotism  of  a  youth  buried  in  ''the  Churchyard 
among  the  Mountains",  about  which  he  writes  so 
sympathetically.  Of  his  mountain  soldier  he  said,  as 
we  may  say  of  ours : 

"No  braver  youth 
Descended  from  Judea's  heights,  to  march 
With  righteous  Joshua;  or  appeared  in  arms 
When  Gideon  blew  the  trumpet,  soul-inflamed, 
And  strong  in  hatred  of  idolatry." 

As  we  have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  "The  Service  of  the 
Mountaineers,"  the  men  of  the  mountains,  at  every 
opportunity,  have  hurried  to  answer  the  call  of  their 
country  in  time  of  war.  Their  fervent  patriotism  is 
an  asset  that  the  nation  has  learned  to  count  upon. 
May  it  hereafter  be  needed,  not  on  the  field  of  bloody 
strife,  but  rather  in  the  service  of  peace,  in  the  up- 
building of  the  political,  economic,  and  moral  well- 
being  of  the  nation! 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  167 

Another  element  of  power  is  found  in  their  sturdy 

Protestantism.     It  is  of  the  1688  Londonderry  type, 

and  is  red-hot  and  irreconcilable. 

In  Sturdy  ^Vell,    Protestantism    is   the   great 

Protestantism  ^     ^    r        1         •  -i-    i.- 

power  plant  of  modern  civilization. 

The  map  of  Protestantism  is  the  map  of  the  world's 
power  and  progress.  But  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to 
emphasize  the  dynamics  of  Protestantism  in  national 
life,  for  all  recognize  it.  Hospitable  as  America  is  to 
all  creeds,  it  is  historically  a  Protestant  nation,  and 
must  welcome  the  unanimous  help  the  five  millions  of 
the  Protestant  highlanders  of  the  South  will  bring  to 
the  perpetuation  of  our  national  liberties  and  civili- 
zation. 

As  has  been  said  of  the  race  of  Shem,  it  may  be 
affirmed  of  the  mountain  race,  "It  has  a  genjus  for 

religion."  This  is  another  inval- 
In  btrong  uable  element  in  the  mountaineer's 

strength  of  character.  His  faith 
in  God  and  God's  book  is  simple,  hearty,  childlike. 
And  this  is  surely  to  be  expected,  for  it  is  not  a  mere 
poetic  fancy  that 

"The  mountains  holier  visions  bring 
Than  e'er  in  vales  arise, 
As  brightest  sunshine  bathes  the  wing 
That's  nearest  to  the  skies." 

Wordsworth  could  have  said  of  our  mountaineer  as 
of  his  herdsman,  "In  the  mountains  he  did  feel  his 
faith."  There  are  no  indigenous  infidels  or  agnostics 
in  the  Appalachians.     By  racial  intuitions,  hereditary 


i68     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

training,  and  mountain  environment  their  belief  in 
God  and  his  religion  is  absolute,  unapologetic,  and 
controlling.  In  these  days  of  trimming  and  hedging 
and  apologizing  and  doubting,  it  is  no  small  matter  to 
find  five  millions  of  sturdy  Americans  having  an  un- 
questioning faith  in  divine  things. 

The  mountain  man's  faith  is  not  merely  intellectual 
or  theoretical,  but  it  takes  strong  hold  of  his  think- 
ing, and,  in  many  cases,  of  his  life  and  conduct.  The 
southern  mountaineers  are  grave  by  nature.  Their 
native  ballads,  like  those  of  most  mountain  dwellers, 
are  somewhat  weird  and  are  written  in  the  minor  key. 
The  native  character  is  a  serious  one.  Nothing  inter- 
ests a  mountaineer  audience  so  much  as  does  a  de- 
bate on  some  question  of  biblical  interpretation  or 
doctrinal  dispute;  and  where  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
moving  on  hearts,  nothing  holds  the  attention  more 
fixedly  than  does  a  discussion  of  some  point  of  Chris- 
tian duty.  The  one  book  that  is  read  in  the  Appa- 
lachians more  than  all  others  combined  is  the  Bible, 
and  many  readers  have  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
its  contents. 

The  mountaineer,  then,  has  a  strong  religious  na- 
ture. Too  often,  as  everywhere  else,  this  religious 
nature  is  dwarfed  and  misshapen  by  environment  and 
natural  depravity;  but,  though  stunted  and  deformed, 
it  often,  by  many  a  token  that  is  recognized  by  the 
quick  vision  of  sympathetic  lovers  of  souls,  proclaims 
its  latent  strength  and  future  possibilities.  There  is 
always  something  responsive  to  appeal  to,  in  the  man 
of  the  mountains. 


j^- 

.  .•   ■•■■               \      *     ■ 

.^.       .         .         ,           -     -''    'iii 

...» 

6  -: -     

03 
> 


>  - 

'-/I 


O 


o 

a 
a 
o 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  169 

The  mountaineer  lives  the  "simple  life"  in  close 
touch  with  nature  in  its  varied  manifestations.   From 

nature,  but  yet  more  from  the 
In  Simple  Scripture,  and  perhaps  principally 

from  strong  heredity,  he  has  ac- 
quired an  absolute  faith  in  a  personal,  omnipotent,  om- 
niscient, and  omnipresent  God,  who  has  to  do  with  him 
in  "all  the  good  and  ill  that  checker  life."  He  be- 
lieves in  the  substitutionary  sacrifice  of  Jesus  as  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  He  has  no  doubt  that  Jesus 
will  "come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead";  while 
"the  forgiveness  of  sins,  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
and  the  life  everlasting"  are  unquestioned  tenets  of 
his  creed.  Such  a  simple  but  powerful  faith  issuing 
from  the  mountains  will  some  day  "remove  moun- 
tains" from  before  the  onmarching  American  peo- 
ple. ' 

The  mountaineer  has  a  resolute  and  dauntless  will. 
What  he  wishes   to   do  he  will   do   without   asking 

license.  His  will,  in  the  absence  of 
In  btrong  wm  worthier  objects  of  concern,  may 
have  been  exercised  in  matters  of  trifling  import,  and 
thus  may  have  seemed  to  be  mere  personal  caprice 
or  stubbornness;  but  give  it  nobler  objects  to  elicit  its 
powers,  and  it  will  reveal  those  noble  qualities  of 
high  purpose  and  indomitable  perseverance  that  have 
filled  the  world  with  heroes  and  the  world's  arena 
with  victors.  The  mountaineer  is  no  invertebrate, 
but,  if  he  thinks  the  occasion  demands  it,  he  will  stand 
alone  against  the  whole  world.    He  is  made  of  good 


I70     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

staying  stuff,  of  the  kind  that  God  and  men  like  to 
employ  when  great  deeds  must  be  done. 

A  grave  but  positive   self-confidence   is   a   typical 
highland  temperament.     The  mountain  man  is  not  so 

r     „  much  "a  man  of  cheerful  yester- 

In  Supreme  j      »  r    u       r  ■, 

Self-Confidence  ^^^^  ,  as  of  confident  to-mor- 
rows." This  class  characteristic 
will  stand  him  mightily  in  hand  when  new  times  and 
new  ideas  arouse  his  slumbering  ambitions.  This 
confidence  is  not  self-assertive  or  combative  or  ego- 
tistical, but  is  matter-of-fact  and  unconscious.  The 
dweller  in  the  hills  has  by  intuition  what  others  se- 
cure as  the  result  of  training  and  experience.  He 
takes  it  for  granted  that  what  others  do  or  have  done, 
he  can  do.  This  quality,  which  is  his  by  nature,  is  of 
untold  advantage  to  him.  It  fills  his  efforts  with  the 
world-conquering  characteristic  of  dogged  persist- 
ence. When  at  last  success  crowns  his  efforts,  he  is 
satisfied,  but  not  surprised. 

The  various   forms  and  manifestations  of  human 
power  that  have  here  been  enumerated  as  embodied 

_,,..„  in  the  people  of  the  southern  Ap- 

This  Power  ^„i    u-  r  r 

Pent-Up  palachians    are,    of    course,    often 

limited  and  handicapped  by  en- 
vironment. The  isolated  mountain  region  Is  a  long 
way  behind  the  times.  The  pioneer  period  in  all  its 
barren  and  rugged  simplicity  survives  in  many  set- 
tlements of  the  mountains. 

"A  pity  it  is,"  said  one,  "to  spoil  the  naturalness 
of  these  belated  pioneers  by  introducing  the  twentieth 


APPALACHIAN  POWER  171 

century  among  them !"  Yes,  but  naturalness,  immo- 
bility, and  superficial  content  are  not  the  chief  end  of 

man.    The  only  way  to  make  a  use- 
And  Must  f^i   ^         ^^^   ^^^^   jg   ^^^^    Qq^ 

Be  Released  ,      . '  ....       •.      Asr 

wants,  IS  to  enlighten  it.     We  are 

not  put  into  the  world  to  enjoy  it  so  much  as  to  re- 
deem it.  Christian  culture  may  not  be  so  picturesque 
as  are  pioneer  survivals,  but  it  is  the  necessary  fruit- 
age of  Christianity.  Sentiment  may  say:  "Let  the 
mountaineers  alone;  they  are  content."  Reason  and 
the  Spirit  of  the  Master  say :  "Enlist  them  in  service ; 
thus  they  will  be  useful.  Release  these  imprisoned 
powers  of  body  and  mind  and  spirit;  then  will  these 
powers  be  employed  in  fruitful  service  for  humanity." 


CHAPTER   XIV 
Appalachian  Promise 

We  have  recognized  the  existence  of  great  reservoirs 
of  power  pent  up  in  the  southern  Appalachians.    This 

power  is  tremulous  with  promise. 
p        .  The  Appalachian  region  is  beyond 

question  as  potential  with  promise 
as  is  any  other  section  of  our  country.  The  promise 
here  recognized  on  every  side  is  an  unmistakable  one 
and  might  be  thus  summed  up:  All  this  largely  un- 
utilized power  will  ere  long  be  made  available  for  its 
foreordained  and  larger  uses.  This  promise  is  a  four- 
fold one,  having  to  do  with  the  natural  resources,  the 
manhood,  the  religious  life,  and  the  nation-wide  serv- 
ice of  the  mountains.  The  promise  specifically  relates 
to  the  Appalachians,  but  also  overflows  in  blessing 
on  the  plain. 

The  material  development  of  the  South,  especially 
during  the  past  few  years,  has  been  phenomenal.     A 

new,  confident,  and  energetic  spirit 

Devek^ed^  ^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^^"  possession  of  the  people. 

The  business  slogan  of  the  leaders 
in  this  industrial  advance  is:  "The  South,  the  Na- 
tion's Greatest  Asset."    Vast  amounts  of  capital  from 

172 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  173 

other  sections  of  the  United  States  and  from  foreign 
countries  are  being  invested  in  the  exploitation  of 
mining,  lumbering,  farming,  and  manufacturing  en- 
terprises. The  cry  of  the  business  world  was  once, 
"Go  West !"  It  is  now,  "Go  South !"  The  Panama 
Canal  changes  the  South  from  a  frontier  land  to  a 
central  location  in  the  Union.  The  mountain  region 
with  its  hydro-electric  and  coal  resources  is  the  heart 
of  it  all.  The  mighty  power  locked  up  in  the  natural 
resources  of  the  southern  Appalachians  will  be  devel- 
oped to  a  hitherto  undreamed-of  extent  within  the  next 
few  years. 

Much  of  the  financial  profit  arising  from  this  de- 
velopment of  the  natural  resources  of  the  mountains 

will  go  to  the  section  where  the  in- 
Enriching  vestors  live ;  but  most  of  that  profit 
^^  will,  after  all,  remain  in  the  region 
that  is  being  developed.  Already  even  into  the  remote 
mountain  regions  there  are  penetrating  those  ele- 
ments the  lack  of  which  first  produced  the  problem 
of  the  southern  mountains, — namely,  live  neighbors, 
a  varied  society,  incentive  for  labor,  trade,  means  of 
communication,  money,  and  therewith,  schools  and 
books  and  educated  leaders.  The  development  of  the 
natural  wealth  of  the  section  will  vastly  enrich  it. 
Many  judicious  observers  predict  that  the  southern 
Appalachians  will  some  day  be  another  Pennsylvania. 
The  war  is  long  past;  a  spirit  of  brotherhood  pre- 
vails; the  convincing  call  of  a  delightful  climate  and 
of  alluring  business  opportunities  is  everywhere 
heard ;  the  mountains  have  been  rediscovered,  and  ere 


174     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

long  will  yield  forth  notable  contributions  to  human 
comfort  and  gain. 

Investors  from  other  sections  of  the  country  will 
reap  rich  returns  from  their  investments  in  the  new 

mountains.     They  will  agree  that 

£inricning  their  venture  was  the  accepting  of 

xiiii6ncai 

a  good  proposition.     Part  of  the 

future  financial  service  of  the  Appalachians  will,  how- 
ever, be  indirect,  as  is  that  which  it  renders  now  in 
climate  and  meteorological  ways,  a  service  so  great 
that  our  government  has  determined  to  make  it  per- 
petual by  the  establishment  of  the  great  Appalachian 
Mountain  Forest  Preserve.  Part  of  the  service  will 
be  that  rendered  by  the  development  of  "all  that  the 
mountain's  sheltering  bosom  shields," — the  vast  re- 
sources so  much  needed  by  the  nation  at  large;  while 
a  most  important  part  will,  as  we  shall  see,  be  that  ren- 
dered by  the  hosts  of  stalwart  and  intelligent  workers 
that  will  emerge  from  the  woody  heights  to  help 
carry  forward  the  world's  work.  The  entire  country 
will  be  much  enriched  by  the  opening  up  of  the  long- 
hidden  treasures  of  the  southern  highlands. 

While  the  promise,  everywhere  visible,  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  natural  power  stored  up  in  the  Ap- 
palachians is  most  noteworthy,  of 
2.  Manhood:  f^r  more  significance  to  the  real 

Human  Power  prosperity  of  our  land  is  the 
Developed  .  . 

promise  arching  the  hills  that  the 

manhood,  the  human  power  of  the  mountains,  is  also 
destined  to  a  similar  and,  it  is  hoped,  a  speedy  develop- 
ment.    Indeed  that  development  is,  in  many  places, 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  175 

already  in  progress.     The  men  of  the  highlands  are, 

at  last,  discovering  themselves.     They  find  that  they 

are  of  value  in  the  world's  activities,  and  that  they 

may  have  a  worthy  share,  along  with  other  men,  in 

making  things  come  to  pass  in  their  immediate  world, 

and  even  out  in  the  flatwoods. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  paralyzing  influence 

of  the  lack  of  remuneration  for  labor  expended.     If 

there   can  be  no   adequate   return 

By  Material  ^^^  labor,  there  will,  in  the  course 

Prosrress 

of  time,  be  little  labor.    Nowadays, 

however,  the  agents  of  numerous  new  enterprises  are 
invading  the  former  solitude  of  the  mountains,  and 
calling  for  men  to  work  in  those  enterprises,  and,  an 
unheard-of  thing!  are  offering  for  that  labor  a  re- 
muneration that  seems  to  the  startled  mountaineers 
a  princely  wage.  In  a  few  short  weeks'  experience  in 
these  new  conditions,  the  mountaineers  adapt  them- 
selves promptly  to  the  new  world,  and  form  a  new 
estimate  of  themselves  that  will  never  thereafter  be 
lost.  The  sluggard  becomes  industrious ;  many  former 
idlers  even  become  energetic  workers.  And  with  reg- 
ular wages  comes  a  higher  estimate  of  their  own 
worth  in  the  world.  And  with  the  knowledge  that 
they  can  accomplish  tasks  in  a  workmanlike  way, 
there  comes  to  some  the  ambition  for  leadership  in 
the  doing  of  the  work  that  is  to  be  done.  And  so  it 
comes  to  pass  that,  out  of  a  drone,  the  material 
progress  amid  the  hills  has  created  a  man  and  even 
a  leader  of  men.     And  the  signs  of  the  times  give 


176     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

promise  that  this  progress  is  to  go  on  increasingly  in 
the  days  just  before  us. 

While  the  progress  of  the  section  will  rapidly  de- 
velop manhood  or  human  power  among  the  moun- 
.  tains,  the  advance  of  education  will 

Advance^*'"''  contribute    even    more   notably    to 

this  development.  Tennessee's  ad- 
vance is  typical  of  what  is  taking  place  among  prac- 
tically all  of  the  mountain  states;  within  a  few  years 
the  appropriation  to  the  support  of  the  public-school 
system  has  increased  from  a  very  unworthy  sum  to 
one-third  of  the  total  annual  revenue  of  the  state.  A 
good  beginning  has  been  made  throughout  the  Appa- 
lachians toward  the  general  provision  of  high  schools, 
so  potent  elsewhere  in  developing  the  latent  possibili- 
ties of  efficiency  and  leadership  among  young  people. 
And  everywhere  the  privileges  afforded  the  youth  of 
the  hills  by  religious  and  other  philanthropic  schools 
will  let  loose  imprisoned  dynamics  in  hosts  of  ambi- 
tious sons  and  daughters  of  the  uplands  of  the  South. 
Mountain  manhood  will  everywhere  be  developed. 

The    Appalachian    problem    before    the    American 
church,  as  we  have  seen,  may  be  thus  epitomized : 

How  are  we  to  bring  certain  be- 
3.  Christian:  ^^^^^       ^^^       submerged       blood 

ProEsolved        brothers  of  ours,  our  own  kith  and 

kin,  out  into  the  completer  enjoy- 
ment of  twentieth  century  civilization  and  Christianity? 
The  writer  often  views  God's  rainbow  outlined  against 
the  ponderous  bulk  of  old  Smoky,  and  rejoices  in  it  as 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  177 

a  new  token  of  an  old  covenant  of  grace  made  by  the 
Builder  of  the  everlasting  hills  with  the  earth  that  he 
has  so  abundantly  blessed.  But  clearer  even  than  the 
sevenfold  beauty  of  the  bow  are  the  everlasting  prom- 
ises of  God  that  span  the  mountains,  cheering  onward 
the  united  Church  of  God  to  its  mission  of  service. 
As  that  church  animated  with  the  spirit  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  "goes  into  the  mountains  and  seeketh  that 
sheep  that  is  gone  astray,"  does  it  not  hear  the  Shep- 
herd say  of  that  hundredth  sheep,  "It  is  not  the  will 
of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  that  one  of  these 
little  ones  should  perish"? 

God  loves  the  mountains.     His  Mount  Moriahs  be- 
gin to  smoke  with  sacrifices  in  the  early  days  of  Gene- 
sis, and  his  Mount  Zions,  crowded 
God  s  Love  ^  ^^rith  the  redeemed,  linger  in   the 

for  Mountains  .         ,  tt        n  j  u-      t. 

Apocalypse.     He  called  his  chosen 

lawgiver  into  the  mountain-top  to  enter  into  the  se- 
cret place  of  the  Most  High;  and  there  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  fire  he  spoke  face  to  face  with  him  and 
gave  him  the  oracles  of  the  law  for  all  the  coming 
ages.  Moses  sang  of  God  as  granting  his  theophan- 
ies  amid  the  mountains: 

"Jehovah  came  from  Sinai, 
And  rose  from  Seir  unto  them. 
He  shined  forth  from  Mount  Paran." 

At  Mounts  Lebanon,  Nebo,  and  Carmel, — there  God 
met  his  people  and  showed  his  glory.  Jesus  when  on 
earth  loved  the  .mountains.  He  preached  his  great- 
est sermons  to  multitudes  gathered  on  a  mount ;  he  fed 


178     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

five  thousand  hungry  men  on  a  mount ;  he  spent  nights 
in  prayer  on  a  mount ;  he  was  transfigured  upon  a 
mount;  he  told  his  disciples  to  meet  him,  after  his 
resurrection,  on  a  Galilean  mount;  and  it  was  from 
the  Mount  of  Olives  that  he  ascended  to  his  Father. 
It  were  treason  to  doubt  that  he  will  answer  the 
prayers  offered  in  his  name  in  behalf  of  the  coming 
of  his  kingdom  amid  the  Appalachian  mountains. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  kingdom  should  not 
come  there  as  really  as  in  the  lowlands.    There  are  no 

obstacles  in  the  hills  that  are  not 

Evik^^""^^'^^^^      similar  to  those   found  elsewhere. 

The  faults  of  the  mountaineers  are 
only  such  as  are  common  to  humanity.  There  are  no 
sins  that  are  peculiar  to  the  Appalachians.  Our  ap- 
peal for  the  mountaineers  is  based  not  on  their  ex- 
trinsic vices  but  on  their  intrinsic  virtues  and  possibili- 
ties. And  yet  there  is  an  abundance  of  evil  on  the 
great  hills,  and  it  must  be  exorcised.  In  Jesus'  days 
on  earth  the  devil  went  into  a  high  mountain,  and  he 
dared  there  to  tempt  even  the  Son  of  God.  There 
was  once  in  the  Holy  Land  "a  herd  of  swine  feeding 
on  the  mountain,"  and  a  legion  of  evil  spirits  entered 
them.  And  there  is  evil  in  our  mountains  as  every- 
where else  on  earth ;  and  in  their  frank  way  some  of 
our  people  have  named  their  home  places,  "Hell  for 
Sartin  Creek,"  "Sodom,"  and  "Devil's  Fork"  ;  but  even 
such  localities  can  be  redeemed  and  are  being  re- 
deemed. Some  mountains  are  volcanoes,  but  God  can 
draw  their  fires,  and  make  them  as  fruitful  as  the 
slopes  of  Vesuvius. 


,   APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  179 

We  have  seen  that  the  development  of  business  en- 
terprise, and  the  perfecting  of  the  school  system  may 

be  confidently  expected  to  make 
What  Prevents  ^j^^jj.  invaluable  and  miracle-work- 
Will  Eemedy  ,  .,     .  ,         ,.  , 

mg  contributions  to  the  enhghten- 

ment  of  the  mountains.  There  remains  then  only  the 
contribution  that  the  various  denominations  of  the 
Christian  church  are  to  make.  The  generous  devel- 
opment of  our  training  schools  and  colleges,  the  estab- 
lishment of  industrial  and  vocational  schools,  and  of 
a  model  church  and  Sabbath-school  at  every  such  cen- 
ter, and  the  development  of  the  church  into  an  ideal 
community  center  in  which  the  spiritual  life  shall 
dominate  everything  and  also  take  interest  in  every- 
thing that  concerns  the  earthly  as  well  as  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  people  of  the  neighborhood;  and  the 
carrying  out  of  extension  work  from  these  centers  into 
the  contiguous  territory ; — all  this  will  be  the  mightiest 
service  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  can  render  our 
kindred  of  the  mountains.  When  the  ground  is  thus 
thoroughly  covered  by  our  church  and  her  sister 
churches,  our  third  of  the  problem  will  be  satisfac- 
torily solved  in  a  short  generation. 

Why  so  confident  a  statement?  Because,  for  one 
reason,  there  is  no  special  or  peculiar  problem  in  those 
sections  where  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  similar 
churches  have  occupied  the  field  and  have  conducted 
continuous  work;  and  the  presumption  is  that  the 
things  for  which  we  stand, — thrift,  schools,  and  an 
educated  ministry, — will  remedy  that  which  they 
would  have  prevented,  had  they  been  present. 


i8o     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

The  original  mountain  stock  was  made  up,  as  we 
have  seen,  very  largely  of   Presbyterian   Scotchmen 

and  Scotch-Irishmen  and  noncon- 
What  Sleeps  formist  Englishmen,  and  also  in- 

WiU  Awake  ,    ,    ,  t    .1  r- 

eluded    some    Lutheran    Germans, 

and  a  few  French  Huguenots.  Even  where  the  name 
"Presbyterian"  has  almost  been  forgotten — to  our 
shame  be  it  said — by  these  Macs  of  the  mountains,  the 
visitor  will  be  invited  to  eat  "Presbyterian  bread,"  a 
kind  of  corn  bread  that  is  good  though  cold,  and  that 
was  prepared  by  the  foremothers  on  Saturday,  so  that 
they  might  not  have  to  work  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
Occasionally  some  one  will  bring  out  for  exhibition 
an  heirloom  copy  of  a  "Confession  of  Faith"  that  had 
crossed  the  sea  from  Londonderry.  An  octogenarian 
once  showed  the  writer  such  a  copy  which  he  pre- 
served in  a  little  box  of  neat  workmanship,  a  new  ark 
of  the  covenant  which  he  had  made  to  contain  it.  Re- 
cently the  writer  met  a  mountain  preacher  whose 
grandfather  was  a  Presbyterian  elder  in  a  cove  where 
now  Presbyterianism  is  only  a  tradition.  It  was  grat- 
ifying to  hear  the  brother  emphasize  most  earnestly 
the  duty  of  old-fashioned  Sabbath-keeping.  And  this 
preacher  is  a  representative  of  numberless  similar 
instances  of  latent  Presbyterianism  with  which  the 
workers  in  the  Appalachians  are  constantly  meeting. 
Small  wonder  is  it,  in  view  of  such  facts,  that  many 
mountaineers  when  given  the  opportunity,  gravitate 
rapidly  toward  Presbyterianism.  We  expect  rever- 
sion to  type  in  our  work.  Not,  necessarily,  that  great 
numbers  of  those  of  Presbyterian  descent  will  line  up 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  i8i 

ecclesiastically  with  the  church  of  their  ancestors ; 
that  is  not  what  our  Church  is  especially  concerned 
about;  but  that  great  hosts  will  adopt  again,  in  what- 
ever may  now  be  their  church  connection,  the  passion 
for  education  in  the  individual,  the  home,  the  pulpit, 
and  the  community,  and  the  recognition  of  the  im- 
perative necessity  of  home  training  in  religious  mat- 
ters, for  which  the  old  Church  has  always  stood. 

The  greatest  Appalachian  promise  is  to  be  found 
in  the  stock  with  which  we  have  to  do,  and  in  the 

extraordinary  and  really  marvelous 

■n^i    1 -Tj.  X-  rehabilitating   power   that   it   pos- 

Rehabilitation  _    **,  f  .  f  . 

sesses.    -bor  this  mountam  stock  is, 

indeed,  capable  of  very  rapid  rehabilitation  when  fa- 
vorable conditions  obtain.  It  took  several  generations 
to  retrograde,  but  it  requires  only  one  to  come  back 
to  the  ancient  patrimony. 

For  nearly  thirty  years  the  writer  has  been  watch- 
ing this  miracle  take  place,  as  the  mountain  boys  have 
entered  the  first  preparatory  year  at  Maryville  Col- 
lege and  have  struggled  manfully  onward  until,  at  the 
end  of  eight  long  years,  some  of  the  elect  have  left 
college  the  peers  of  any  and  able  to  hold  their  own 
in  the  best  professional  and  technical  schools  of  the 
land;  while  those  that  have  spent  only  two  or  three 
years  in  school  have  gone  back  home  transformed  in 
thought  and  purpose,  and  destined  to  transform  many 
others.  A  hundred  times  has  he  thought  of  the  ad- 
vertiser's "Before  taking"  and  "After  taking." 

The  boys  and  girls  of  the  mountains  are  naturally 
quick,  and  have  the  strength  of  the  hills  in  their  hearts 


i82     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

and  brains.     As  we  have  already  said,  it  is  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  among  those  that  Rave  taught  them 
that  they  are,  on  the  average,  quicker  and  more  alert 
than  are  the  ordinary  "flatwoods"  country  students. 
One  telling  suffices.    Fox  touches  off  this  quality  well : 
"  'Don't  little  boys  down  in  the  mountains  ever  say 
"sir"  to  their  elders?'  inquired  the  Major. 
"  'No,'  said  Chad ;  'no,  sir,'  he  added  gravely." 
Their  ambition  is  easily  aroused,  and  they  will  un- 
dergo great  hardships  to  realize  its  object.     They  as- 

similate  new  ideas  and  adapt  them- 

AssUilation  '^^"^^f  *^  "^"^  surroundings  with  a 

celerity  and  an  ease  that  are  akin 
to  magic.  In  Asheville,  Knoxville,  Chattanooga,  and 
other  towns,  there  are  many  well-groomed  and  pros- 
perous business  men  that  were  born  in  cabin  homes. 
And  they  would  feel  at  home  in  the  White  House 
after  a  week  or  so.  The  writer  used  to  be  anxious 
about  the  students  from  the  mountains  when  they  en- 
tered college,  lest  they  might  feel  ill  at  ease,  or  in- 
vite chaffing  by  manifest  embarrassment,  or  lest  they 
might  become  homesick.  But  long  since  he  found  that 
his  concern  was  unnecessary.  They  are  abundantly 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves ;  to  conceal  their  em- 
barrassment when  they  experience  any;  and,  when 
they  decide  to  conquer  their  almost  overmastering 
homesickness,  speedily  to  make  themselves  as  much  at 
home  in  the  college  as  if  it  were  their  "old  cabin 
home." 

The  fact  is  that  the  young  man  of  the  far  moun- 
tain, when  separated  from  his  dwarfing  environment, 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  183 

and  aroused  by  ambition,  is  a  most  attractive  charac- 
ter. The  discerning  soul  is  constrained  to  love  him. 
He  has  drunk  in  the  mountain  air  and  water  and  scen- 
ery until  he  has  partaken  of  their  strong  qualities. 

Help  toward  the  solution  of  the  religious  problem 
of  the  mountains  has  come  in  most  heartening  en- 
thusiasm and  zeal  from  the  Church 
Assistaiice  without  the  limits  of  the  southern 

Appalachians.  Of  the  exceptional 
interest  that  our  Church  has  taken  in  the  highland 
field  we  have  already  spoken  in  detail.  Our  sister 
evangelical  denominations  in  strong  force  are  also  tak- 
ing part  with  us  in  our  common  and  patriotic  ministry 
for  the  mountains.  Last  year,  according  to  statistics 
compiled  by  Mr.  Campbell,  there  were  one  hundred 
and  ninety-six  church  and  independent  schools  in  the 
mountain  work,  of  which  forty-eight  were  connected 
with  our  church.  Nine  were  independent  schools,  one 
was  conducted  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  while  the  rest 
were  conducted  by  the  Baptist,  Brethren  (Dunkards), 
Christian,  Congregational,  Methodist  Episcopal, 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South,  Protestant  Epis- 
copal, Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States,  Re- 
formed Church  of  America,  and  United  Presbyterian 
denominations.  All  the  splendid  service  rendered  in 
love  to  the  cause  of  Christ  among  the  mountaineers 
by  these  ecclesiastical  and  philanthropic  organizations 
makes  up  a  mighty  contribution  from  without  to  the 
religious  education  of  the  hills.  And  all  this  does 
not  take  into  account  the  contributions  to  the  support 
of  the  ordinary  church  work  made  through  the  boards 


i84     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

of  the  various  churches  charged  with  the  granting  of 
such  assistance.  As  the  value  of  the  mountains  and 
the  worth  of  the  mountaineers  become  more  generally 
recognized,  we  may  expect  this  help  from  without  to 
be  increased  for  years  to  come,  until  the  special  prob- 
lems involved  shall  have  been  solved. 

The  religious  problem  will,  then,  be  solved  partly 
by  the  help  afforded  by  other  sections  of  our  country. 

The  principal  work  will,  however, 

from  wShin  ^^  ^°"^  ^^  *^^^  ^°"^  °^  *?  moun- 

tains   themselves.      All    that    our 

mountain  brethren  ask  at  our  hands  is  a  "chance." 
Give  the  choicest  and  noblest  spirits  among  them  the 
intellectual  and  religious  training  that  they  desire, 
and  they  will  take  care  of  their  native  hills.  Already 
the  elect  youths  trained  in  the  various  available  insti- 
tutions are  in  charge  of  many  of  the  schools  and  in 
control  of  many  of  the  new  enterprises  that  are  being 
established  in  the  mountains;  and  as  the  work  ex- 
pands, the  volunteers  provided  by  all  the  training 
schools  of  the  various  churches  at  work  in  the  moun- 
tains will  be  needed  for  the  ushering  in  of  the  new 
day. 

The  policy  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  the  same 
at  home  and  abroad;  that  is,  to  train  up  workers  in 
every  land  and  region  to  carry  forward  the  work  of 
evangelization  among  those  to  whom  they  are  at- 
tached by  ties  of  family  and  patriotism.  Such  labor- 
ers know  the  people  and  are  known  of  them,  and  so 
meet  with  such  a  reception  as  can  never  be  extended 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  185 

to  those  of  alien  birth,  however  kindly  their  heart  or 

faithful  their  service. 

A  fourth  and  final  element  of  Appalachian  promise 

is  that  of  a  future  nation-wide  service  that  will  be 

rendered  by  the  aroused  and  pur- 

4.  National:  pose-filled    people    of    the    moun- 

Future  Nation-       ^^j^^     j^  ^^^^  ^o  ^^^^  ^  u^^^. 

Wide  Service  „  .        ,,  ^  •    1  ^-  a 

cry    from  the  present  isolation  and 

inertia  of  the  mountain  folk  to  the  position  where 
they  may  helpfully  serve  the  entire  nation;  but,  to 
quote  Fox's  quotation  of  a  mountaineer's  measure  of 
distance,  it  is,  after  all,  only  "a  whoop  and  a  holler" 
to  that  position,  and  a  wide-awake  and  wide-visioned 
teacher  can  speedily  lead  them  to  it.  There  are  men 
hardly  yet  in  middle  hfe,  now  leaders  of  important 
causes  in  the  greatest  cities  of  our  nation,  whose  kin- 
dred still  live  in  mountain  cabins.  What  prepared 
them  for  this  wide  and  responsible  service  was  simply 
a  thorough-going  Qiristian  education  received  in  a 
brief  but  formative  decade  of  their  youth. 

The  man  who  rears  his  family  in  the  fear  of  God 
and  with  respect  for  civil  government,  and  who  in  his 

home    community    champions    the 
Home  Guards^  cause  of  morals  and  religion,  and 

for  Appalachia        ^^  j^^  ^^^  ^^^^^^  belongs  to  the 

Home  Guards  upon  whose  vigilant  devotion  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country  at  large  must  ever  depend.  Al- 
ready there  are  worthy  hosts  of  such  men  in  the  Ap- 
palachians battling  for  the  well-being  of  their  homes 
and  children;  they  have  transformed  disorderly  com- 
munities into  law-abiding  ones;  they  have  driven  the 


i86     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

saloon  from  their  mountain  fastnesses ;  and  they  are 
ready  to  stand  manfully  for  whatever  better  things 
commend  themselves  to  their  judgments.  Their  num- 
ber will  increase  with  the  spread  of  education  and 
especially  of  Christian  education.  The  public  prints 
have  much  to  say  of  the  belated  survivals  of  lawless- 
ness appearing  in  the  mountains,  but  they  do  not 
record  the  heroism  displayed  by  the  citizenship  that  is 
rapidly  enthroning  law  throughout  the  hill-country, — 
the  Home  Guards  of  Appalachia. 

In  view  of  what  the  fetter-loosed  southern  moun- 
taineer is  capable  of  doing  for  his  country,  wisdom 

would    counsel :      Save    him,    not 
Reinforcements        ^^^.^j     ^^^  primarily  for  himself, 

for  America  1  u    •  .1      r    «:    . 

though  he  is  as  worthy  of  eifort  as 

is  any  other  body  on  earth,  but  especially  that  he  may 
help  to  save  the  Americans  of  coming  days,  from 
the  mountain  foot-hills  to  the  distant  seas.  The  ark 
containing  man's  hope  once  rested  on  an  Oriental 
mountain.  It  may  be  that  the  ark  of  God  resting  on 
Appalachian  domes  may  contain  no  small  amount  of 
the  power  and  hope  of  the  future  church  throughout 
our  broad  domains.  Let  all  the  churches  of  Christ 
press  forward  the  work  of  Christian  education  in  the 
Appalachians  until  the  ark-rescued  people  that  shall 
issue  from  those  heights  shall  be  men  and  women  with 
a  providential  equipment  for  Christian  service  for  the 
nation  at  large.  Thus  will  Appalachian  power  be,  as 
it  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  be,  a  benediction  to  the  far- 
thest lowlands  of  earth. 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  187 

Little  as  the  nation  now  realizes  it,  the  men  of  the 
mountain  will  in  coming  days  be  of  immense  help  to 

the  nation  at  large  in  its  fight  for 
Contributing  g^^j^j  reforms.    This  will  be  espe- 

Social  Service  •  n     >  vu  ^  *     *u 

cially  true  with  regard  to  the  re- 
forms that  directly  concern  the  home  and  rural  life. 
Take,  for  example,  the  cause  of  temperance.  A  very 
large  majority  of  the  people  of  the  southern  Appa- 
lachians are  as  thorough-going  temperance  people  as 
are  found  in  America.  A  fatal  tendency  on  the  part 
of  many  of  the  American  people  is  to  make  hasty 
generalizations.  A  generation  ago  a  hasty  generaliza- 
tion was  made  by  magazine  readers, — most  of  our 
American  people, — and  all  of  us  southern  moun- 
taineers were  classified  as  moonshiners,  and  much  to 
our  chagrin,  and,  we  admit,  somewhat  to  our  indigna- 
tion, the  traditional  classification  lingers.  And  yet  in 
the  days  when  there  really  were  frequent  moonshiners, 
there  was  never  more  than  a  corporal's  guard  of  them 
compared  with  the  rest  of  the  people.  At  present 
there  is  just  enough  of  the  moonshine  business  sur- 
viving in  the  mountains  to  interest  the  revenue  offi- 
cers whose  fees  are  affected  by  it,  and  the  romancers 
who  can  make  such  "fetching"  copy  regarding  it. 

The  splendid  fact  is  that,  while  the  gallant  fight  for 
the  destruction  of  the  legalized  liquor  traffic  is  still 

far  from  won  in  many  more  fa- 

Pronibition  vored  sections  of  our  country,  the 

Appalachia  ,,  .        ,    ,  .  .       , 

southern    Appalachian    region   has 

almost  freed  itself  from  that  traffic.    The  temperance 

map  of  the  region  is  a  luminous  one.    Almost  all  the 


1 88     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

region  that  we  are  considering  is  under  prohibition 
laws,  West  Virginia,  Tennessee,  North  Carohna,  and 
Georgia  have   (1913)   state-wide  prohibition.     In  the 
West    Virginia    election    in    which    the    prohibition 
amendment   was    adopted,    the   majority   against   the 
hquor  traffic  was  overwhelming,  the  only  county  vot- 
ing against  prohibition  being  Ohio  County,  on  the  Ohio 
river.    In  the  North  Carolina  campaign,  the  mountain 
counties  cast  a  much  heavier  vote  against  the  saloon 
than  did  the  lowland  counties.    In  the  Tennessee  legis- 
lature the  "hill  billy"  legislators  were  the  ones  who 
really  passed  and  enforced  the  prohibition  law.     In 
Kentucky,   where  local  option  as  yet  prevails,   only 
two  of  the  thirty-six  mountain  counties  are  hospitable 
to  the  liquor  trade,  and  those  counties  are  controlled 
by  cities  located  within  their  limits.    None  of  the  four 
Maryland  mountain  counties,  however,  have  voted  the 
saloon  out  of  their  borders ;  but  all  four  of  the  South 
Carolina  counties  are  "dry,"  and  so  are  fourteen  of 
the  seventeen  Alabama  counties,  and  twenty-eight  of 
the  forty-two  counties  of  Virginia.    Of  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  mountain   counties,   two   hundred 
and  twenty-eight  do  not  have  legalized  liquor  selling 
within  their  borders.     Only  twenty-three  counties,  or 
one  in  eleven,  have  legalized  liquor  selling. 

The  mountains  have  long  had  temperance  men  that 
have  been  terrific  fighters.     Inch  by  inch,  while  the 

,-      .    -n-  1  J.'  world  was  too  largely  looking  upon 

Heroic  Fightmsr      -u       1  .f   / 

the  saloon  as  a  necessary  evil,  these 

fighters   have  been   advancing   the    lines    of  prohibi- 
tion,   till    now    almost    all    of    the    Appalachian    ter- 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  189 

ritory  is  "dry"  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
satisfaction  of  good  men.  In  1878,  the  writer,  just 
out  of  college,  was  colporteur  for  the  American  Bible 
Society  in  a  mountain  county.  In  one  corner  of  the 
otherwise  fair  county  he  was  surprised  to  find  the 
most  God-forsaken  civil  district  he  has  ever  visited. 
There  had  been  four  recent  murders  in  the  district. 
Sixteen  out  of  seventeen  families  visited  in  one  day 
had  no  copy  of  the  Scriptures.  And  yet,  in  such  phe- 
nomenally unfavorable  environment,  he  found  a  stal- 
wart young  Methodist  who  almost  unaided  had  taken 
handsome  advantage  of  the  peculiar  but  providential 
Tennessee  law  enacted  the  year  before  making  un- 
lawful any  saloon  within  four  miles  of  an  incorporated 
school  not  in  an  incorporated  town.  At  some  expense, 
and  he  was  a  very  poor  man,  this  unknown  hero  had 
secured  the  incorporation  of  a  log  cabin  public  school, 
and  had  thus  made  the  liquor  traffic  an  outlaw  within 
a  radius  of  four  miles  of  the  log  cabin  corporation. 
What  he  did  at  great  and  unquestioned  personal  risk 
and  discomfort,  he  did  out  of  his  love  for  Christ. 
When  solicitude  was  expressed  regarding  the  danger 
he  was  in,  he  glanced  anxiously  at  his  young  wife, 
but  set  his  teeth  together,  and  said:  'T  reckon  I'll 
see  it  through."  And  he  did.  No  wonder  his  county 
has  been  free  from  saloons  for  many  years,  and  that 
his  civil  district  was  splendidly  rehabilitated  in  much 
less  than  a  generation. 

The  mountaineers  may  be  slow,  but  the  lifetime  of 
one  generation  has  transformed  them  into  a  resolute 


I90     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

temperance  army  that  will  never  allow  the  liquor 
traffic  to  find  again  a  legal  home  among  them.    Their 

thoughtful  leaders  have  seen  the 
Fi^htin^^  blighting  influences  of  the  whisky 

trade,  and  have  united  to  rid  their 
people  of  the  malign  mischief-maker.  The  young 
people  trained  in  the  mountain  colleges,  boarding-  and 
day-schools  of  our  Church  and  of  other  churches  have 
been  practically  unanimous  in  their  determined  hos- 
tility to  the  saloon,  and  have  in  a  few  years  multiplied 
and  solidified  the  temperance  sentiment  in  their  home 
counties  until  it  has  become  irresistible.  Many  former 
moonshiners  and  habitual  drinkers  have  voted  for  pro- 
hibition laws,  and  many  have  become  very  effective 
and  zealous  temperance  workers. 

Yes,  the  mountaineers  of  the  near  future  will  help 
the  nation  win  many  battles  for  temperance  and  other 

social    reforms.      They,    too,    love 
^  God   and   home  and    native   land. 

Take  courage,  you  who  in  many  states  are  fighting 
your  apparently  death-struggle  battles  against  an  or- 
ganized and  wealthy  saloon-power  upheld  by  de- 
praved Americans  and  by  many  as  yet  un-American- 
ized  though  naturalized  foreign  immigrants !  If  you 
will  but  listen,  you  may  hear  the  "tramp,  tramp, 
tramp,  the  boys  are  marching"  of  Americans  from 
the  free  hills,  coming  to  share  with  you  the  contest 
and  to  join  with  you  in  the  victory  that  awaits  our 
common  cause.  Be  assured  that  these  stalwart  recruits 
from  "the  land  of  the  mountain  and  the  glen"  will 
stay  in  the  fight  to  the  finish.    When  the  witches  stir 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  191 

in  their  caldron  Scotch-Irish  blood,  and  John  Bull 
blood,  and  a  little  Huguenot  and  German  blood  for 
seasoning,  and  then  let  the  brew  simmer  in  the  moun- 
tains for  a  few  generations,  it  is  bound  to  make 
"double,  double  toil  and  trouble"  for  anybody  that 
once  excites  that  blood  to  indignant  action. 

So,  too,  will  the  future  Appalachians  contribute  of 
their  power  to  the  religious  faith  and  work  of  the 

entire  nation.     Theirs,  as  we  have 
Contributing  ^^^^  j^  ^  simple  and  unquestioning 

Christian  Faith        .  .  ,        „  .       .    ,  .  1  1 

faith.      Our   national    faith    needs 

quickening.  To  the  faithful  who  are  praying  for  that 
quickening  there  will  be  renewal  of  cheer  and  zeal 
when  they  see  issuing  from  the  schools  and  homes  of 
the  highlands  groups  of  men  and  women  who  are  fully 
persuaded  that  "God  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder 
of  them  that  diligently  seek  him."  Mountains  have 
throughout  the  ages  been  the  refuge  of  distressed 
faith.  Lot  obeyed  God  and  escaped  to  the  mountain 
lest  he  should  be  consumed.  Rahab  sent  the  spies  for 
hiding  to  the  mountain.  Jesus  told  his  followers  that 
in  a  certain  day  those  of  them  that  were  in  Judea 
should  escape  to  the  mountain ;  and  the  author  of  the 
epistle  to  the  Hebrews  testified  that  many  heroes  of 
faith  did  wander  in  mountains  and  in  dens  and  caves 
of  the  earth.  But  the  best  thing  is  that  faith  thrives 
in  the  hills.  And  it  is  quickened  and  rectified,  and 
directed  by  the  Christian  education  that  the  Church 
is  giving  through  the  schools  and  centers  of  illumi- 
nation of  which  we  have  spoken.     And  this  sturdy 


192     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

faith  of  the  hills  will  reinforce,  through  many  work- 
ers and  emigrants,  the  faith  of  the  lowland.  Already 
from  the  valleys  of  the  highlands,  an  exhaustless 
storehouse  of  humanity,  many  thousands  of  families 
have  gone  out  West  and  elsewhere  and  are  in  the 
churches  of  those  sections.  And  right  welcome  is  the 
reinforcement. 

The  mountains  of  the  future  will  not  add  merely  to 
the  Christian  faith  of  the  country  at  large,  but  will 

contribute    far    beyond    their    pro 
Christian  ^^^^  ^°  ^^^  active,  zealous,  and  en- 

Workers  ergetic  Christian  workers.     Indeed 

parts  of  the  Appalachians  are  al- 
ready doing  so.  For  example,  Maryville,  the  synodi- 
cal  college  of  Tennessee,  has  thus  far  sent  three  hun- 
dred of  its  graduates  into  the  ministry,  besides  some 
undergraduates;  and  during  the  past  thirty-six  years 
has  sent  out  forty-eight  foreign  missionaries.  More 
than  thirty-five  candidates  for  the  ministry  are  now 
enrolled  among  its  students.  Tusculum  has  contributed 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  of  its  alumni  to  the  min- 
istry ;  and  Washington  also  has  sent  forth  large  num- 
bers. And  from  these  and  the  other  schools  of  the 
mountains  there  are  proceeding  large  and  steady 
streams  of  Christian  ministers,  teachers,  and  other 
workers,  who  are  serving  the  Church  at  home  and 
abroad.  And  the  signs  of  promise  for  an  increase  of 
such  contributions  are  most  encouraging. 

The  more  we  study  the  problem  of  the  seclusion  of 
the  people  of  the  southern  uplands,  the  more  con- 


I 


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rOBUC  UBRART 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  193 

vinced  we  must  be  that  the  hand  of  God  is  in  it,  and 
that  this  manly  race  has  been  held  in  reserve  by  the 

Lord  of  Sabaoth  to  be  thrown  into 

Contributing  the    continental    fieht    for    sound 

nstian  Americanism  and  pure  Christianity 

jtv6S6rV63 

at  the  psychological  moment,  in  his 
"fullness  "of  time,"  to  help  decide  the  battle  for 
righteousness  that  is  being  waged  for  the  entire  na- 
tion. 

In  the  days  of  the  American  Revolution,  the  sons 
of  the  Appalachians,  sons  of  Anak  in  size  and  valor, 

swept  down   from  their  mountain 
f  m-     -^^^^  eyries  and  conquered  Ferguson  and 

his  men  at  Kings  Mountain.  In 
coming  days,  the  mountaineer,  like  Tennyson's 
eagle,  will  sweep  down  to  the  modern  field  of  oppor- 
tunity in  the  valley  below. 

"Close  to  the  suri  in  lonjely  lands 

Ringed  with  the  azure  world  he  stands. 
He  watches  from  his  mountain  walls 
And  like  a  thunderbolt  he  falls." 

And  history  will  repeat  itself.  On  America's  great 
moral  battlefield  at  a  critical  period  the  reserve  power 
trained  by  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  mountains  will 
hurry  to  reinforce  the  army  of  God,  and  will,  per- 
haps, in  God's  great  mercy  be  a  deciding  influence  in 
turning  the  tide  of  battle  toward  victory.  And  great 
will  be  the  gratitude  of  the  victors  on  that  day  of 
united  deliverance.    As  when  Barak  of  Mount  Naph- 


194     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

tali  swept  down  from  Mount  Tabor  and  delivered  Is- 
rael from  Jabin,  king  of  Canaan,  and  Sisera,  his  cap- 
tain, the  Church  will  celebrate  the  faith  of  the  hero 
who  thus  "wrought  righteousness,  waxed  mighty  in 
war,  turned  to  flight  armies  of  aliens." 

Surely  men  of  virile  lineage,  and  strong  body,  and 
intellect;  embodying  pure  Americanism,  personal  in- 
dependence, fervent  patriotism,  and 
Kept  for  the  sturdy   Protestantism;   favored  of 

Master's  Use  -,t  -^.i        ^  r  • 

Heaven  with  a  strong  religious  na- 
ture, and  honoring  Heaven  with  a  simple  faith;  and 
in  everything  exemplifying  strength  of  will  and  su- 
preme self-confidence,  must  be  destined  for  conspicu- 
ous service  not  merely  in  their  native  Appalachians, 
but  beyond  in  the  great  world-field  wherever  men  of 
such  caliber  and  character  are  needed  by  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  The  miracle  of  the  waters  may  be  re- 
peated. Out  of  the  mountain  reservoirs  flow  ten 
thousand  streams  that  unite  to  bless  the  lowlands  with 
mighty  rivers,  and  to  provide  refreshment  and  wealth 
for  town  and  country.  Out  of  the  mountain  reser- 
voirs of  reserve  strength  and  virility  there  may  at  no 
distant  day  proceed  streams  of  living  waters  to  make 
glad  not  merely  plain  and  valley,  but  even  the  City  of 
our  God. 

Every  morning,  as  the  writer  rises   for  his  day's 
work,  he  looks  out  of  his  bedroom  window,  across  the 

tops  of  Tennessee  forests,  upon  the 
Inspiring  View       ^j^^.^  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^  -^  ^p^^^^  ^^^  -^^ 

Chilhowee's  proud  length,  and  heaped  up  in  the  tow- 
ering piles  of  Old  Thunderhead  and  Gregory's  Bald. 


APPALACHIAN  PROMISE  195 

And  they  are  never  the  same  Smokies  that  they  were 
the  day  before.  Throughout  the  year,  kaleidoscoping 
every  day  and  shifting  every  hour,  a  new  panorama 
lies  in  majesty  before  delighted  eyes.  The  geologist 
tells  of  the  mighty  metamorphosis  of  the  Appalachi- 
ans that  has  taken  place  since  the  mountains  were 
thrown  up  twelve  thousand  feet  above  the  primeval 
plain.  The  daily  and  annual  metamorphosis  of  light 
and  shade,  of  brown  and  purple,  of  vegetation  and 
snow,  proclaims  the  infinity  of  the  Builder  of  the 
mountains. 

As  the  delighted  spectator  drinks  in  the  sublime  in- 
spiration of  the  scene,  he  almost  forgets  the  problem 

of  the  Appalachians,  and  thinks 
Problem  Versus  rather  of  their  power  and  promise. 
Power  and  Promise  God  rolled  those  mountains  up  for 

the  good  of  America;  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  our  American  Congress  has  recognized 
this  fact  in  providing  for  the  vast  Appalachian  Forest 
Preserve,  to  be  a  blessing  in  all  the  future  to  all  the 
cis-Mississippian  country.  So  has  God  stored  away 
in  this  great  mountain  reservoir  of  humanity  five 
millions  of  sturdy  race  to  be  a  source  of  refreshment 
and  strength  to  the  nation  in  trying  days  to  come,  the 
days  of  struggle  to  preserve  our  civil  and  religious 
institutions  unimpaired  in  the  Armageddon  with 
which  the  hordes  of  undesirable  Americans  and  un- 
Americanized  immigrants  are  threatening  our  nation. 

Yes,  the  Appalachians  are  a  power  and  a  promise  as 
well  as  a  problem.     The  problem  will  be  solved,  and 


196     THE  SOUTHERN  MOUNTAINEERS 

when  solved  will  be  a  means  to  the  solution  of  other 
and  wider  problems,  a  pou  sto  on  which  the  Christian 

Archimedes  of  the  future  will  lift 

?rovi^encf "'"'     "P  ""^  P'^"^  "'  ^od  for  America's 

welfare  toward  their  fuller  con- 
summation. A  day  will  come  when  the  Christian 
philosopher  and  historian  will  tell  not  of  the  Appa- 
lachian problem,  but  of  The  Appalachian  Provi- 
dence. 


I 


APPENDIX 
I.    School  and  Community  Work 

The  following  tables  will  convey  some  idea  of  the 
Presbyterian  school  system  and  community  centers  of 
three  of  the  five  synods  of  our  church  in  the  southern 
mountains.  The  author  has  compiled  the  tables  from 
information  provided  by  the  Home  Board  and  by  the 
authorities  of  the  several  institutions  therein  men- 
tioned. 

Some  of  the  schools  are  controlled  and  conducted 
by  the  local  presbyteries  and  synods;  some  by  boards 
of  trustees,  in  which  the  majority  of  the  members  are 
required  to  be  Presbyterians;  most  are  conducted  by 
the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions ;  while  a  num- 
ber are  directed  by  the  cooperation  of  two  of  the  agen- 
cies that  have  been  mentioned. 

Pamphlets  descriptive  of  such  of  the  schools  as  are 
under  the  care  of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Mis- 
sions may  be  had  upon  application  at  the  Board's 
rooms,  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.  Informa- 
tion regarding  any  of  the  schools  listed  in  the  tables 
may  be  secured  by  correspondence  with  the  schools. 

197 


198 


APPENDIX 


1.    Synod  of  Kentucky. 


Teachers 

and 
Workers 

1913 


Value 

of 

Property 

1913 


No.  of 

Pupils 

1913 


Colleges. 

*tCentral  University,  embracing: 

(a)  Center  College,  Danville,  Ky. ; 

(b)  Preparatory  School,  Danville,  Ky. ; 

(c)  College  of  Dentistry,  Louisville  Ky 
Kentucky  College  for  Women,  Danville,  Ky 

Pikeville,  Pikeville,  Ky 

Witherspoon  College,  Buckhorn,  Ky 

Boarding-schooh. 

Harlan,  Harlan,  Ky 

Langdon  Memorial,  Mt.  Vernon,  Ky 

Community  Centers. 

Cortland,  Ky.  (Station) , 

Hindman,  Ky.  (Station) 

Manchester,  Ky.  (Station) 

Manchester  Home,  Manchester,  Ky.   (Sta- 
tion)   

Total 


40 
19 
10 
11 


94 


$880,000 

153,631 

75,000 

50,000 


15,100 
5,175 


2,342 
2,086 
3,318 

5,675 


$1,192,327 


275 
226 
240 
296 


32 

62 


1,131 


♦  Not  in  the  mountain  section. 

t  Controlled  jointly  by  the  Synods  of  Kentucky,  U.  S.  and  U.  S.  A. 


APPENDIX 


199 


2,    Synod  of  Tbnnesske. 


Teachers 

and 
Workers 

1913 


Value 

of 

Property 

1913 


No.  of 

Pupils 

1913 


Colleges. 

Maryville,  Maryyille,  Tenn 

♦Cumberland  University,  Lebanon,  Tenn . . . 

Tusculum,  Greeneville,  Tenn 

Washington,  Washington  College,  Tenn .... 

Academies. 

Stanley  McCormick,  BurnsviUe,  N.  C 

Harold  McCormick,  Elizabethton,  Tenn 

Boarding-schools. 

Normal  and  Collegiate  Institute,  Asheville, 
N.  C 

Home  Industrial  School,  and  Pease  Memorial 
House,  Asheville,  N.  C 

Farm  School,  N.  C 

Borland  Institute,  Hot  Springs,  N.  C 

Bell  Institute,  Walnut,  N.  C 

Laura  Sunderland  Memorial,  Concord,  N.  C 

Mossop  Memorial,  Huntsville,  Tenn 

Day-schools  and  Community  Centers. 

Banks  Creek,  Cane  River,  N.  C.  (Station) . . 

Big  Pine,  N.  C 

Jacks  Creek,  Day  Book,  N.  C 

Laurel  Field,  White  Rock,  N.  C.  (Station) . . 

Little  Pine,  Marshall,  N.  C 

Pensacola,  Athlone,  N.  C.  (Station) 

Wabiut  Run,  Marshall,  N.  C 

Walnut  Spring,  Marshall,  N.  C.  (Station). ., 

Jewett,  Grand  View,  Tenn.  (Station) 

Juniper,  Sevierville,  Tenn 

Ozone,  Tenn 

Rocky  Ford,  Flag  Pond,  Tenn 

Brittain's  Cove,  Weaverville,  N.  C 

Marshall  District,  Marshall,  N.  C 

Rock  Creek,  Irwin,  Tenn 

Sycamore,  Sneedville,  Tenn 

Vardy,  Sneedville,  Tenn 

Total 


39 

16 

18 

7 


16 


$826,835 
355,500 
290,205 
200,000 


51,300 
10,000 


150,000 


702 
360 
192 
122 


193 
130 


294 


9 

52,650 

167 

14 

62,850 

160 

12 

46,485 

181 

5 

17,075 

100 

6 

22,600 

76 

4 

9,623 

31 

1 

1,910 

64 

2 

2,415 

72 

2 

1,900 

42 

14 

19,475 

200 

2 

3,640 

94 

1 

1,725 

60 

2 

3,050 

74 

2 

3,125 

34 

2 

1,100 

53 

2 

3,530 

120 

1 

1,733 

49 

2 

2,380 

98 

1 

tio 

3 

7,550 

1 

500 

t27 

1 

2,085 

1 

761 

t25 

199 

$2,152,002 

3,730 

*  Not  in  mountain  section. 
t  Industrial  pupils  only. 


200 


APPENDIX 


3.    Stnod  of  West  Vieginia. 


Teachers 

and 
Workers 

1913 

Value 

of 

Property 

1913 

No.  of 

PupHs 

1913 

College. 
*Davi8  and  Elkins,  Elkina,  W.  Va 

10 
4 

2 

1 
1 
2 
2 

$201,285 

17,100 

1,400 
1,500 

134 

Boarding-school. 
Fattie  Stockdale  Memorial,  Lawson,  W.  Va. 

Community  Centers. 
Brush  Creek,  Cabell,  W.  Va 

72 

Clear  Creek,  W.  Va 

tie 

25 

Dorothy,  W.  Va 

Dry  Creek,  W.  Va 

1,395 
1,375 

Jarrolda  Valley,  W.  Va 

tl8 

Total 

22 
315 

$224,045 
$3,568,374 

265 

Total  of  the  three  Synods .... 

5,126 

*  Controlled  by  Presbyteries  of  Lexington  and  Winchester,  U.  S.,  and 
Synod  of  West  Virginia,  U.  S.  A. 
t  Industrial  pupils  only. 


APPENDIX 


20 1 


II.    Work  of  the  Sabbath-school  Board 

The  following  table  sums  up  the  work  being  done 
in  the  Appalachians  by  the  Sabbath-school  Depart- 
ment of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and 
Sabbath-school  work: 


Synods 

S.  8.  under 
Care  of 
S.  S.  Mis- 
sionaries 

Officers 

and 
Teachers 

Pupils  in 

These 
Schools 

Presby. 

Chs. 

Organized 

Since 

1887 

No.  of 
S.  S. 
Mission- 
aries 

West  Virginia 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

90 

63 

127 

449 
239 
491 

3.909 
3.020 
6,659 

28 
22 
30 

3 
3 

7 

Total . . . 

280 

1.179 

13,588 

80 

13 

The  average  number  of  Sabbath-schools  organized  in  the  three  synods 
each  year  since  1892  is  ninety. 


III.    Regular  Church  Work 


The  author  has  compiled  the  following  tabular  view 
of  the  church  work  being  done  in  the  counties  of  the 
southern  mountains  by  our  branch  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Only  the  churches  and  Sabbath-schools  lo- 
cated in  the  mountain  counties  and  only  the  ministers 
living  within  those  counties  are  enumerated,  those  por- 
tions of  overlapping  presbyteries  lying  without  the 
limits  of  the  counties  referred  to  having  been  care- 
fully excluded  from  the  statistical  table.  The  pres- 
byterial  reports  presented  to  the  General  Assembly 
of  19 1 3  are  the  basis  of  this  summary.    The  work  that 


202 


APPENDIX 


the  Board  of  Freedmen  conducts  among  the  colored 
people  is  not  included  in  this  table. 


State 

'a 

o 

o 

w 

a 

a 

3 

6 

Synod 

Presbytery 

E 

tn 

■a 

1 

Ui 

3 

O 

0. 

s 

(U 

.a 

a 

O 

:t 

00 

t-l 

a 
M 

a 

(S 

02 

• 

Maryland 

4 

Baltimore .... 

Part  of  Baltimore. . . 

10 

13 

1,619 

1,055 

West  Virginia. . 

10 

14 

6 

West  Virginia . 

All  of  Grafton 

AU  of  Parkersburg .  . 
All  of  Wheeling 

13 
11 
20 

19 

28 
24 

2,486 
2,308 
5,420 

2,174 
3.491 
4,382 

Kentucky 

8 
10 

Kentucky .... 

Part  of  Ebenezer 

Part  of  Transylvania 

8 
8 

11 
15 

949 
913 

1,128 
1,499 

Tennessee 

(including  Ga. 
and  N.  C.) 

10 
2 

3 

7 

4 

10 

Tennessee .... 

(including  Ga. 
and  N.  C.) 

Part  of  Chattanooga 

(Tenn.  and  Ga.) 
Part  of  Cookeville. . . 

All  of  French  Broad, 
N.  C 

19 
5 

13 

14 

6 

30 

29 
10 

11 
23 
18 
46 

1,582 
292 

931 
1,385 

798 
4,333 

2,088 
343 

2,307 

AllofHolston 

Part  of  McMinnville 
All  of  Union 

1,683 

726 

3,992 

Alabama 

2 

5 

4 

Alabama 

Part  of  Birmingham 
— A 

12 

11 

8 

10 
22 
21 

830 

819 

1,046 

739 

All  of  Gadsden 

Part  of  Huntsville. . . 

1,052 
556 

Virginia 

None 

South  Carolina . 

None 

Total 

99 

5 

15 

188 

298 

25,711 

27,215 

X-