Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Kephart the Hunter

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-11175.jp2
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  • Kephart's Neighbors in the Mountains 9 four dwellings. A mile and a half away stood the log schoolhouse, which, once or twice a month, served as church. Scattered about the settlement were seven tiny tubmills for grinding corn, some of them mere open sheds with a capacity of about a bushel a day. Most of the dwellings were built of logs. Two or three, only, were weatherboarded frame houses and attained the dignity of a story and a half. All about us was the forest primeval, where roamed some sparse herds of cattle, razorback hogs, and the wild beasts. Speckled trout were in all the streams. Bears sometimes raided the fields, and wildcats were a common nuisance. Our settlement was a mere slash in the vast woodland that encompassed it. I have seen the time when our neighborhood could get no salt nor tobacco without making a twenty-four-mile trip over the mountain and back, in the dead of winter. This was due partly, to the state of the roads, and to the fact that there would be no wagon available for weeks at a time. Trade was mostly by barter, in which 'coon skins and ginseng had the same rank as in the days of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Long credits were given on anticipated crops; but the risks were great and the market limited by local consumption, as it did not pay to haul bulky commodities to the railroad. In our primitive community there were no trades, no professions. Every man was his own farmer, blacksmith, gunsmith, carpenter, cobbler, miller, tinker. Someone in his family, or a near neighbor, served him as barber and dentist, and would make him a coffin when he died.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).