Stories of Appalachia

In 1980, my dad became ill with a rare disease called polymyositis.  He was very weak and was... Read More

When I was a little girl, one of the big events of the summer was my dad’s family... Read More

Since I love history and genealogy, I decided to try to find out how many of my eight... Read More

It all began many years ago when my grandmother, Blanche Dwiggins Smith, gave me a daguerreotype of one... Read More

I had heard from my grandmother Smith that her great-grandfather, Daniel Dwiggins (1779-1856), was a circuit-riding Methodist preacher,... Read More

I had heard from my grandmother, Blanche Dwiggins Smith, that her great-great-grandfather, Daniel Dwiggins, was a circuit-riding Methodist... Read More

Before the days of large numbers of churches in the Piedmont section of North Carolina, the tradition of... Read More

In 1998, after having lived in Garden Valley for a long time and realizing that we wouldn’t always... Read More

When I was growing up on Church Street several decades ago, life was very different than it is... Read More

Although I knew all the neighbors at least by sight, only a few of them were close friends... Read More

My parents were Gilmer James and Louise Smith Hartley.  Everyone called my dad “Slick.”  How I wish I... Read More

When I was growing up, there were several families on Church Street. On the right side going down... Read More

Recently I posted on Facebook that with the passing of Mrs. Jim Wall, I was the last of... Read More

Looking at all the pictures of old houses on the Appalachian Memory Keepers site made me think about... Read More

John Boone was the first cousin of the more famous Boone, Daniel. He was born in Pennsylvania in... Read More

Boone’s Cave is a North Carolina State Park located in Davidson County, North Carolina, just a few miles... Read More

Hiram Hamilton Hartley, known as H. H. to friends and family, was my great-great-grandfather. Born in Davidson County,... Read More

Minnie Elizabeth Hendrix Potts was my great-grandmother, the mother of my dad’s mother, Iva Potts Hartley. Her parents... Read More

Ollie Hamilton Hartley, Papa Hartley to me, was born in 1885 in Davidson County, North Carolina, only one... Read More

My grandmother, Iva Potts, married my grandfather, O. H. Hartley, in 1908 when she was sixteen years old.... Read More

My great-grandfather, my grandmother Smith’s father, was called “Pomp” by all of the great-grandchildren—no idea where it came... Read More

We all called my mother’s father Papa Smith. I grew up across the street from my grandparents, and... Read More

My grandmother, Blanche Genetta Dwiggins Smith, was born on a farm out in the country in Davie County... Read More