My Appalacian Heritage

Did you ever wonder where and who you came from? I Can't be the only one!

I recently started to trace my family roots. I've started on my fathers side, because I had some knowledge of their Tennessee Appalacian Mountain roots.

When I was young, I can remember hearing stories of my grandmother's step-father being gunned down in the streets of Wilder, Tennessee. And, how my great-great-great grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee. Top that off with the fact that my grandmother went to Washington DC, to speak with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the age of 13, and now my interest is really peaked.

I want to tell you the story of my grandma, Della Mae Smith (m. Ledbetter). An amazing, warm, loving woman, that even though may not have had the book smarts, she was as smart as they come in her abilities to take care of everyone around her. She was born in October of 1920. Her father wasn't there long after she was born, so she never knew him. My great-grandma, Daisy, later married Barney Graham, and they had 2 children...Barney and Bertha.

Barney worked in the coal mines and times were tough. I mean real tough. Wilder was one of several local coal company towns. The companies provided rental houses, a company store, & doctor for a fee to be deducted from the miners pay. But, the mining conditions were so bad that some were organizing a union, to help them with some of the issues.

On the home front, Daisy took ill with Pellegra, from the poor nourishment, and grandma had to take on more and more responsibilities in the house, and helped to care for young Barney and Bertha. Daisy was in bed alot, from my understanding, and grandma was now taking care of her, too.

The companies were putting so much pressure on the miners affiliated with the union organization, but Barney talked them into holding out and they decided to strike. He became the Union President and led these men into a strike that lasted over a year. During that time the companies were bringing in scabs to replace the miners, and shutting off their electricity, and went so far as to stage some disruptions to make it look as though the striking miners were at fault.

The founder of the Highlander Folk School in Wilder, Miles Horton, recalls the following, in an excerpt from a paper written by Angela Smith entitled: "Myles Horton, Highlander Folk School,
and the Wilder Coal Strike of 1932".

Tension in the hollow continued for several months with an occasional shooting, ambushing, dynamiting, or robbery until the night of April 29, 1933. On that night Barney Graham, Wilder union president, was shot and killed in front of the Wilder store by mine guards Shorty Green and Doc Thompson. Horton had been aware of a plot to kill Barney Graham and remembered:

"We told Barney he was going to get killed. I told him who these people
were and that they were brought in to kill him. He knew they were going
to kill him.

He was that tough kind that wouldn’t quit, you know. So I went to
work to try to get pressure to expose this before it happened, thinking that
might bring enough pressure on the company and on public opinion that
it might save his life. And that’s what I tried – tried everything I could,
put everything in the paper, the names of these guys, their history, said
they were going to kill Barney Graham, and I couldn’t move anybody.

That just killed me. That just killed me. That kind of thing is a
traumatic experience, I tell you. You get involved with death of people,
know it’s going to happen, and you can’t do anything about it. Society’s
so cruel. If I hadn’t already been a radical, that would have made me a
radical right then. Didn’t do anything to make me less radical, I’ll tell you
that. "

There my grandma stood looking out the window of the company store, at the age of 12 watching her beloved father being shot down. This hurt her so badly, and she put it on paper and to music, calling it "The Ballad of Barney Graham." She later sold that song and it was recorded by the famous folk-singer Pete Seeger.

With Barney's death came pretty much the end of the strike. Not long after his death, the companies were back in business and the striking miners began moving out of the area in search of jobs.

In the coming months, Miles Horton accompanied my grandma to Washington D.C., to discuss the labor disputes with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She recalled playing with his children. A part of the New Deal legislation made it possible for the striking miners to have preferred status on other jobs, i.e., the building of Norris Dam, Cross Creek and the Cumberland Homestead project near Crossville.

In the meantime, my grandma (age 13) met a 26 year old coal miner named Jesse Smith, and in June of 1934 they got a marriage license. Ok, 13 seems a bit young, but, remember she's been taking care of everybody and everything up till now, so, why not....They were hungry, and she needed help. And, I can remember my grandpa as one of the sweetest, warmest, caring men I knew, with the exception to my dad. But, that's where he gets it from. And my dad reminds me in looks of my grandpa, so much.

I lost my grandpa in 1969 and my grandma in 1995, but, their memory lives on in heart, mind, soul and written word.

To read more about the coal mining disputes and the Appalacian people, check out the following:

“A Short History of TVA.”
“Overton County Historical Society.”
“A Labor History Timeline"

**Ansley, Fran, and Brenda Bell. “No Moanin’: Voices of Southern Struggle.” Southern Exposure 1 (Winter 1974): 112-142.
**Elderidge, Robert L., and Mary Elderidge. Bicentennial Echoes of the History of Overton County, Tennessee. Livingston, TN: by the author, 1976.