Table Of ContentUpper Cumberland Country Folklife in the
title:
South Series
Montell, William Lynwood.; Robbins,
author:
Marty.
publisher: University Press of Mississippi
isbn10 | asin: 0878056319
print isbn13: 9780878056316
ebook isbn13: 9780585305165
language: English
Folklore--Cumberland River Valley (Ky.
subject and Tenn.) , Cumberland River Valley (Ky.
and Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
publication date: 1993
lcc: F442.2.M664 1993eb
ddc: 976.8
Folklore--Cumberland River Valley (Ky.
subject: and Tenn.) , Cumberland River Valley (Ky.
and Tenn.)--Social life and customs.
Page i
Upper Cumberland Country
The Cumberland River winding through southern Cumberland County, Kentucky (Photo by the author)
Page iii
Upper Cumberland Country
William Lynwood Montell
William Lynwood Montell, General Editor
FOLKLIFE IN THE SOUTH SERIES
WITH A FOREWORD BY Mary Robbins
Page iv
Copyright © 1993 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
96 95 94 93 4 3 2 1
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Montell, William Lynwood, 1931
Upper Cumberland country / William Lynwood
Montell ; with a foreword by Mary Robbins.
p. cm. (Folklife in the South series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87805-630-0. ISBN 0-87805-631-9 (pbk.)
1. Cumberland River Valley (Ky. and Tenn.)
Social life and customs. 2. FolkloreCumberland
River Valley (Ky. and Tenn.) I. Title. II. Series.
F442.2.M664 1993
976.8'5dc20 93-6972
CIP
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data available
Page v
Dedicated with deepest appreciation
TO MY PARENTS
Willie and Hazel Montell
TO MY CHILDREN
Monisa and Brad
AND TO MY GRANDSONS
Alex, Frank, Hunter, Robert, and Tyler,
from whom much is expected in keeping family traditions alive
Page vii
CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Part One: Historical Perspectives 1
1. A Rich Legacy 3
Part Two: The Old Way of Life and New Beginnings 27
2. Folklife and Self-Sufficiency 29
3. The Family in Community Perspective 53
4. Schools and Churches as Community Social Agents 75
5. Matters of Life and Death 101
Part Three: Times Just Aren't the Way They Used to Be 123
6. Folklife of Contemporary Youth 125
7. Social, Generational, and Gender-Bonding Activities 143
Conclusion 173
Bibliographic Notes 175
Index 185
Page ix
FOREWORD
For over three decades, Dr. William Lynwood Montell, carrying his
ever-present camera and tape recorder, has been a familiar and much-
loved figure in the hills and valleys of the Upper Cumberland region
of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1982, when I first met him, he had
already carved out an impressive niche for himself in the fields of
folklore and oral history. In so doing, Montell had earned the respect
and admiration of his peers as well as of the individuals whose lives
and times he had chronicled in his journeys across what we here in
north central Tennessee call "God's country."
My introduction to Dr. Montell, or Lyn as I have come to know him,
was the result of the suggestion of a mutual friend on the faculty of
Tennessee Technical University, who recommended him as a guest for
"Tennessee Writers," a program that I produced and hosted for the
Cookeville PBS television station. I will always remember my total
absorption and absolute delight in Ghosts Along the Cumberland:
Deathlore in the Kentucky Foothills, the first of Lyn's books that I
read in preparation for the television interview.
That reading made me cognizant of the richness of my own heritage.
Growing up in the Upper Cumberland, I had been aware, as had most
young people of my generation, of the region's history and folklore
but in a very superficial way. The stories that my older relatives told
belonged to another era and another way of life, one that had little or
no meaning in today's "modern" world.
Lynwood Montell's writing changed completely and forever my
concepts of time and place and my ideas regarding the continuity of
family. After I finished Ghosts Along the Cumberland, I quickly read
everything that he had written. I also became involved in several of
his oral history projects, as well as initiating some of my own.
The pages that follow contain some of the most significant material
that he has collected and documented. In spanning several generations
and many diverse aspects of life in the region, Montell has
successfully conveyed the continuity of heritage. For everyone who
believes as I do that it is important to capture and preserve the
folkways of the present as well as the past, this book will be a
treasure. For others, it will be a fascinating "read" and no doubt will
make believers of them also.
Description:Tucked between Appalachia and the Deep South, the Upper Cumberland region straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee line along the banks of the Cumberland River. Here, dating from the days of the nation's earliest history, is one of America's richest repositories of folklife. Rather than revealing an artifac
