Category: Factoid

The Fraterville Mine Disaster Created Need for More Miners

April 21, 2018 Dennis Ayers

On the morning of May 19, 1902, the community of Fraterville lost all but three of its adult males. A devastating explosion in the Fraterville Mine killed 216 miners of which only 184 were ever identified. The cause of the explosion was never identified, but it

was most likely due to a build up of methane gas resulting from poor ventilation. At the time, the miners were working about 3 miles under Cross Mountain. Most were killed instantly, and 26 later died of suffocation before rescuers could reach them. Some entire families were lost. It was the worst mining disaster in Tennessee’s history and among the top five in the nation.

The miners were a mix of itinerant workers, expert miners and local men and boys. Most of the itinerant miners were never claimed and were buried alongside the nearby railroad tracks. The others were buried in local cemeteries with 89 being interred in Leach Cemetery in a spot called Miners Circle.

Due to this tragic loss of so many lives, the disaster created the need for replacement miners in the following months. This need is strongly believed to have been the reason for the entire Jackson family to relocate to Campbell County around 1905. Fraterville was located near the town of Coal Creek (now named Rocky Top) bordering Campbell and Anderson Counties. The distance to Jacksboro where many of the Jacksons moved is about 7 miles.

Indentured Servants in the American Colonies

January 13, 2018 Dennis Ayers

Immigration in America has always been controversial, even from its early days, and over the centuries it has taken many forms. In colonial America, indentured servants were, for the most part, willing adult white migrants who wanted to start a new life in the colonies and agreed to be bound to labor for a period of years. However, some poor people in England sometimes sold themselves into indenture just to survive. Others wanted more religious freedom. Four out of five who came were men who were accustomed to farming and labor back in England.

Treatment of the servants differed widely. Some were mistreated while others lived as members of the family. Some did hard labor in the fields and others performed less difficult work on the farm or plantation. The servants were provided with basic necessities such as food, clothing and lodging during their term of Indenture, but they were not paid any wages. Unlike slaves, the Indentured servants from Europe could look forward to eventual release from bondage.

They were discouraged from marriage, but any children born while in bondage were free. There was no stigma attached to indentured servitude and their families merged easily with the general population. After their service ended, it was commonly required to provide them with a gun, a set of clothes, and money or a small tract of land upon which to establish themselves.

Alias Names in Olde England

December 29, 2017 Dennis Ayers

Alias is a term used to connect alternate names of a person who has been known to use more than one for some reason, often in legal proceedings. Generally the presumption seems to be that an alias name is primarily used to conceal or disguise an identity. Quite the opposite was true in earlier times, however, when the intention was purely to identify one individual from another, before the use of surnames became commonplace.

The period during which aliases were most used in England coincided with the gradual development of surnames, approximately 1460 to 1650, and continued to be used even into the 1800s. The practice seemed to originate in the southern areas and slowly moved northward.

Silent Killers in the Civil War

April 5, 2013 Dennis No comments exist

Diseases were the silent killers during the Civil War. With so many soldiers gathered in such small areas with generally unsanitary conditions, diseases were able to spread rapidly. There were a whole host of them but the worst of all was by far Dysentery caused by contaminated water. This disease alone accounted for around 100,000 deaths on both sides. Other common diseases were Typhoid, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Pneumonia.

Measles which killed William Depew also killed around 11,000 soldiers total. Not as many as other diseases, but Measles had its fair share. About 1 in 20 people who got this disease died as a result of it.

Unfortunately, the biggest thing that all of these Civil War diseases had in common was the fact that at the time nobody had any idea how to cure them.

How Do You Say Botetourt?

February 1, 2013 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

The word Botetourt easily rolls off your tongue doesn’t it. Not for me! The local citizens of that county have no trouble with it though….they just pronounce it like “Bod – a – Tot”. When I visited the area in 2000, I was amazed that they were able to twist the spelling to make it sound like that.

Botetourt County, VA is one of the oldest counties in the state and it was named in honor of Lord Botetourt, the governor of VA when the county was formed in 1770. The land consists of beautiful rolling foothills situated in the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge Mountain and the Appalachian Mountains. This is also where the James River originates before it travels to Richmond, VA and eventually to the lower Chesapeake Bay.

Surname Changes

February 27, 2012 Dennis No comments exist

Doesn’t it seem strange that a family like the Derryberrys were able to change their name so easily back in the late 1800s? Were there not laws against such practices? No, not really. We know that spelling variations were very common in the past mostly due to illiteracy, and earlier generations just didn’t seem to worry much about it. In fact, documents such as land records or wills could have the same name spelled differently in multiple places throughout the document as long as it sounded the same.

On the other hand, some folks actually did change their name purposely so it didn’t sound the same. This was usually done for a variety of reasons including a desire to break with the past, a dislike of the original name, or even if it was too difficult to pronounce or spell. Often this was done along with a move to a new location. It was never a legal problem since there were no “official records” maintained about people in most states until about 1900. Although some states had started earlier, about that time the Federal government began mandating that all states officially record births, marriages, and deaths and regulate name changes. Since that time, folks have gradually become more educated and there are now relatively few surname changes or variations, unlike the past.

Confederate Shoe Problems

January 30, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

It is said that armies march on their stomachs. Well, it is also true that they march on their feet and good footwear is an absolute necessity. During the Civil War the roads were dusty in the summer and muddy in the winter, and both the Confederate and Union soldiers suffered greatly during marches. More Confederates were country-bred and accustomed to longer hiking, but on the other hand the Confederacy was always low on shoes. Ill-fitting shoes were also a problem. Confederate soldiers identified as shoemakers were encouraged to send home, or in some cases were given leave to go home and retrieve their tools. They were then put to work repairing shoes, being exempted from guard duty and other camp duties. However, the general shortage of footwear only got worse as the war continued on.

There were numerous accounts of Rebels marching barefoot for miles, even in winter months. On the march back from Gettysburg in the Summer of 1863, those whose shoes were worn out or whose feet were sore from wearing bad shoes, were organized into a separate command and allowed to pick their way along the grassy roadside. Shoes and boots were so valuable that special missions were made to procure them. They were even pulled from the feet of dead men on the bloodstained battlefields.

The Great Wagon Road

January 2, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

Long before English Colonists arrived in North America, the Indians traversed a hunting trail from the North to the South through the Appalachian Valley called the Great Warrior’s Path. Much of the trail followed the river they called the Shenandoah or “Daughter of the Stars”. After the French and Indian War in the1750s, and as Colonists expanded into new territory to the South from Pennsylvania, they essentially followed the same route, and it became known as the Great Wagon Road. Most of the German and Scotch-Irish settlers pushing out of Pennsylvania to find new lands followed this road southward as they could not easily scale the mountains to the West. It was by far the most heavily traveled route to the Burke frontier in North Carolina.

The road began at the Schuykill River Ferry in Philadelphia, and ran west to Lancaster, crossing the Susquehanna River at Harris’s Ferry and then crossing the Potomac River at Williams Ferry (Williamsport, MD). The road took settlers down through the Appalachian Valley (now called the Shenandoah Valley) essentially following Route 81 in present day Virginia. At the present location of Roanoke, the road veered eastward through a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain and once again turned south essentially following Route 220 today, crossing the Dan River and on into North Carolina.

The Great Wagon Road

January 2, 2012 Dennis No comments exist

Long before English Colonists arrived in North America, the Indians traversed a hunting trail from the North to the S Factoid outh through the Appalachian Valley called the Great Warrior’s Path. Much of the trail followed the river they called the Shenandoah or “Daughter of the Stars”. After the French and Indian War in the 1750s, and as Colonists expanded into new territory to the South from Pennsylvania, they essentially followed the same route, and it became known as the Great Wagon Road. Most of the German and Scotch-Irish settlers pushing out of Pennsylvania to find new lands followed this road southward as they could not easily scale the mountains to the West. It was by far the most heavily traveled route to the Burke frontier in North Carolina.

The road began at the Schuylkill River Ferry in Philadelphia, and ran west to Lancaster, crossing the Susquehanna River at Harris’s Ferry and then crossing the Potomac River at Williams Ferry (Williamsport, MD). The road took settlers down through the Appalachian Valley (now called the Shenandoah Valley) essentially following Route 81 in present day Virginia. At the present location of Roanoke, the road veered eastward through a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain and once again turned south essentially following Route 220 today, crossing the Dan River and on into North Carolina.