This figure was once common in cautionary nursery tales, used to keep children from being naughty. If a child didn’t behave, legend said “Rawhead and Bloody Bones,” would come and take them. The legend was prevalent in the Appalachians throughout the early 1900s, however eventually faded into oblivion. While not nearly as obscure as North […]
Category: History
Historical facts, figures, and oddities.
The Wizards of Abingdon
Abingdon is the county seat for Washington County, Virginia. Founded in 1778, it has seen many changes through time. One of the strangest episodes in its long and storied history deals with two men, Marsh and Yates, and the conflict that made newspapers around the nation. But, was the struggle real, or just a myth? […]
The Trials of Betsy Bell
The Trials of Betsy Bell is a little-known song that once appeared in Southern Lyrics, a book published in 1907. The song is noted as being written in July of 1906, but there is no information on the writer. ‘Tis scarcely yet one hundred years Since came and went the things I tell, Since lived […]
Charles Reid and The True Story of the Vanishing Corpse
Charles J. Reid was a bright young man with a promising future in 1872. He was unmarried and still resided at home with his family in Xenia, Ohio. On that particular August morning, his parents, two sisters, and a visiting cousin waited on him at the breakfast table. Charles he walked in the room, but […]
The Beast
The Jackson family returned home to Apple Grove, Virginia, on a January night in 1959. Carroll Jackson, a husky truck driver, was 29-years old at the time. His wife Mildred rode in the passenger seat. Also in the car were four-year-old daughter Susan Ann, and baby Janet, who was 17 months old. On this night, […]
The Sybert Witch and a Bouncing Bed
Reports flooded national headlines in December of 1938. The Sybert family lived along Wallen’s Creek in Powell Mountain. Their 3-room cabin was located in Lee County, Virginia. Their situation even baffled two esteemed psychologists from the University of Tennessee. The family reported scratching noises had started the previous month. The noise escalated into a bumping […]
Spirited Tuckahoe
This home, near Jamestown, Virginia, is also known as the “Randolph family mansion.” Most of the world, however, knows it as “Tuckahoe.” This home has a lengthy history of legend and haunting. The legend and lore behind it has been discussed for centuries. The house’s origins remain debatable because of its early age. Some records […]
The Legend of the Big Stone Gap Vampire
Vampire lore is one of the most popular forms of folklore and its reach spans the globe. Here’s a tale of ghoulish proportions that was supposed to have taken place in the small town of Big Stone Gap. The Folklore: In the 1890s, a European named Rupp moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia. He […]
The History of the Death Certificate
As many genealogists can tell you, death certificate research is relatively modern. You can only go back so far and then it seems the paper trail just ends. It may be a surprise to you, but the death certificate is centuries younger than even census records. The most important year for death certificates is 1837. […]
The Female Stranger
Alexandria was a bustling harbor for shipping and trading after the Revolutionary War. One day a large schooner sailed into this Virginia port, owned by an Alexandria merchant named John Dean. The ship carried rum and sugar as its cargo, as well as a handsome, wealthy couple when it entered port on July 25, 1815. […]