Reflections On Reading "Appalachian Anthology: Histories, Historiographies, and Oral Histories of Appalachia" by Diane Alexander

Frequently, I buy books about Appalachia, with Appalachian titles, or some which allegedly cover Appalachian subjects, and sometimes I buy some I have to ask myself later, whey did I do that without digging deeper. This book was described on Amazon as "A collection of Appalachian journal articles, research papers, historiographies, and oral histories prominently featuring Appalachian culture, dialect, and stereotyping. Vignettes of oral history from the 30s and 40s..." It is also apparently one of those books which have been published over the last ten or so years by Amazon under deals which have them sold as printed on demand. As a class of books, I have usually found them to be less than the most rational purchases I have ever made, and I have often stated my intentions to never order another one of this type. But before I come off as totally negative about this book, let me say that it does have some merit, primarily in the purely oral history sections of the book. But it is amazingly redundant in the first two articles or chapters. The first is called "The Forties" and listed as being credited to a Joseph Alexander instead of the listed author Diane Alexander. The second article or chapter is called "Appalachian Youth in World War II: An Oral History" and Diane Alexander is listed as the author of that article or chapter. The first, "The Forties" is a genuine oral history which was apparently written by Joseph Alexander about his experiences during World War II both in the mountains of North Carolina and in Newport News, Virginia, where his parents emigrated to for employment during World War II. As pure oral history, it has merit, is relatively well organized, acceptably written, and covers the emotions of the young man about being removed from a rural Appalachian mountain life to life in a Tidewater city during the war. The second, credited to Diane Alexander, is nothing more than an article, or most likely a high school or college term paper, based on the oral history in the first section. It gives her rendition of several of the same episodes Joseph Alexander discussed in his oral history and the quotes from that oral history are ethically attributed to him. But the highly repetitive and redundant nature of the paper or article leaves it only slightly more than useless. Ms. Alexander would have been far better served to have used only one of the chapters in the book, either the pure oral history or her own conclusions about that oral history with credit to Joseph Alexander. But putting both in the book was a waste of both time and paper. By the time I had read both of these sections of the book, I considered abandoing the remainder which is an act of which I am rarely guilty. But I perserved as I almost always do in such cases since I know that I have also written some things which some people did not really choose to suffer through. I have always thought that is another person suffered through the effort to produce a book they at least deserve the respect to have me finish reading it since I chose to buy it and spend my money on it. The third section of the book, entitled "Firewood", is another piece of oral history written by Joseph Alexander about a chore of his youth in the North Carolina mountains. It has a degree of merit equal to that of his first contribution to the book although most modern readers outside a group of off gridders would find it more meaningful than simply something to read for a brief while. It is acceptable as oral history from a prior era and a man's discussion of a portion of the life which made him the man he was when he wrote it. Thankfully, Ms. Alexander does not insert her own article about this particular oral history. The next section, "Spotlight on Appalachia: Settlers and Speech, Music and Moonshine" by Ms. Alexander makes an attempt to discuss all three of the listed elements of Appalachian Culture over the next fifty pages of the book. After having spent the first twenty years of my life in an Appalachian area of Kentucky where moonshine was commonly made, sold, and consumed, and having grown up in a country grocery store where my parents regularly supplied sugar, malt syrup, cracked corn, yeast, and other items to several local moonshiners, I do know a little more than the average novice about this subject. Ms. Alexander does a minimally acceptable job of discussing the topics, but they would have been better served by having been individually discussed in shorter papers. This particular section also shows what is a common problem with the entire book. It would have been much more readable with a higher level of editorial input from a qualified person. That is a common problem in these books which are produced and sold by Amazon without editorial input. Most of those I have seen by all such authors whose work I have read are short on editorial input and long of errors of both omission and commision in all aspects of writing and language. I did think think about this book long enough to produce a blog post about it. I have also saved some of my readers both their time and money if they take my advice and never buy a copy. If you do decide to ignore my advice about the purchase, please do follow my advice about the utility of Joseph Alexander's oral history and the lack of utility in Diane Alexander's writing about it. It will save you half the time it would otherwise take you to read the book and glean most of the value from it.

The Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists--Trends In Membership Over The Last 80 Years

This blog post has been prompted by what I have observed over the last thirty or so years to be a steady, but slight, decrease in the numbers of both members and member churches of the various associations of churches which refer to themselves as "Old Regular Baptist".  My mother was a member of the Steele's Creek Church of the Old Regular Baptists from some time about 1950 until her death in 1970.  Since her death and the death of the long term moderator of that church, E. Hawk Moore, along with other members and regular attendees at that church, there was a steady decrease in members until finally the church was dissolved by the New Salem Association of which it was a member church and the church property was sold to a private owner who now leases the building to a private corporation which uses it as a day treatment center for the mentally ill or mentally disabled.  Quite fortuitously, I was able to meet that owner and he graciously gave me the sign from the front of the church which had never been removed at the time the church was dissolved.  Let me state for the record that the Steele's Creek Church was not a member of the Indian Bottom Association and I know of no connection between that church and the Indian Bottom Association other than the possibility that some minister who might have been connected to the Steele's Creek Church could have been a delegate to the Indian Bottom Association meeting at some time since several associations which refer to themselves as Old Regular Baptist do have some form of limited fellowship between associations and often send delegates to the association meetings of corresponding associations.  I should also note for the record that I am not and have never been a member of any Old Regular Baptist Church and I should never be confused with the Old Regular Baptist preacher Roger Hicks.  I am simply interested in their history, as I am in nearly every other aspect of the history of Central and Southern Appalachia, since they were a part of my family's life and I have known of them all my life.  

Among the many associations in Central and Southern Appalachia which refer to themselves as Old Regular Baptists are The New Salem Association, The Northern New Salem Association, The Burning Springs Association (1813), Red Bird Association (1823), Mountain Association (1856), Red River Association (1876) The Mud River Association (1888), Twin Creek Association, Spencer Association (1898), Sandy Creek Association, Washington Association, Three Forks of Powell Valley Association, The Philadelphia Association, Ketocton Association, Yadkin, Holston, Kehukee and Roaring River. Associations. This list is likely to be somewhat incomplete and I would recommend anyone who is interested in learning more about the Old Regular Baptist churches and their numerous independent associations to read Howard Dorgan's excellent, but somewhat aged, book "The Old Regular Baptists of Central Appalachia: Brothers and Sisters in Hope".  Any attempt to study all of the various associations is a complex and time consuming effort and I suspect that is a major factor in the fact that so few academic books have been published about any of these associations.  Thankfully, the Old Regular Baptists have historically produced an annual report of vital statistics, obituaries, and circular letters which is the best source of information about any particular association. These annual reports are referred to as the "Minutes" of each particular association and have always been a rarity among the majority of small Appalachian churches most of which maintain very few written records.  But the major drawback to that route of research is that no central depository exists for the Minutes of all the associations.  The University of Pikeville has the best collection I know of but even that one is markedly incomplete.  Thankfully, the Indian Bottom Association made a decision with the advent of the internet to place all their "Minutes" online.  I would have loved this writing to have been able to compare membership and total church numbers for at least two or three associations over the same time period but I do not have adequate access to a sufficient number of Minutes over such an extended period of time.  For that reason, this blog post can only effectively examine the membership trends in the Indian Bottom Association.  But it is likely that the other associations will have had similar trends in membership and church numbers to the Indian Bottom Association. 

I will be comparing total membership numbers and total church numbers in the Indian Bottom Association from 1939 to 2019 in ten year increments since it would be a task of book length to compare those numbers year by  year for even fifty years.  I want to begin in a year prior to World War II for two reasons, firstly, because that war changed the face of much of rural America since it sent hundreds of thousands of rural men, and quite a few women in supportive services, to Europe and Asia and exposed them to a vastly different world than the one in which they grew up.  Secondly, I would like to be able to make an educated conclusion as to whether or not a sizeable number of those young Appalachian men and women who returned alive from World War II had been affected by the war in a manner which would have caused them to have what are commonly called "salvation experiences" and to join the churches of their parents after their return.  

In 1939, there were 27 documented churches in the Indian Bottom Association which had recorded a total of 1328 members.   Three churches had more than 100 members with two more having membership in the high 90's.  The largest church was the Big Cowan Church with 138 members.  Big Cowan Church was located in Whitesburg in Letcher County Kentucky.  Carr's Fork and Poor Fork were the other two churches with 100 or more member at that time.  Carr's Fork was located on Carr Creek in Knott County Kentucky and Poor Fork was located near Cumberland, Kentucky, in Harlan County. 

When we go to the 1949 "Minutes", we see that there were then 30 churches in the Indian Bottom Association which represents an increase of 3 member churches over the ten year period which is an 11% increase over the 1939 statistics.  The total membership in those 30 churches was 1634 which represents a sizeable increase of 306 members which is an increase of slightly more than 23% in total membership in the association over the ten year period following World War II.  There is no available way to determine how many of those 306 new members might have been returning veterans but it is likely that a significant number of them were such men and perhaps a few women who were also veterans of some war related service such as nursing, hospital work, or office work at established military bases.  There were then, in 1949, five churches in the association which had more than 100 members each with the Big Cowan Church remaining the largest with 167 members.  That reflects an increase of 29 members in the Big Cowan Church which is slightly more than a 21% increase in membership over the ten year period.  Poor Fork, Oven Fork, Big Cowan, Doty Creek, and Little Home were the five churches with at least 100 members.  Carr's Fork had dropped out of the list of churches with at least 100 members and was down to 95.  Big Cowan still led the numbers with the aforestated 167 members, an increase of 29 members over the ten year period which represented an increase of 21% in membership. 

In the 1959 "Minutes", we find that total membership in the association had dropped to 1377 members which is a significant decrease over the ten year period and is very close to the numbers at the beginning of this research in 1939.  The total loss in membership is 257 members for a percentage of 15.7% over that  ten year period from 1949 to 1959.  The total number of churches in 1959 remained stable at 30.  

The 1969 "Minutes" showed a total membership of 785 members which is very significant drop in membership from 1959 when the total was 1377 members.  The total membership loss was 592 members for a 42.9% drop in membership which would be shocking in any respected institution in a stable community.  The Statistical Table only shows a total of 21 churches in the association which seems to indicate that 9 of the member churches had chosen to leave the association over the preceding ten years.  The most logical reason for such a departure in members and member churches would be that there had been some major dispute of doctrine which led the 9 churches and most of their members to leave the association.  It is also significant that no church in the association reported having a hundred members.  The largest was now New Home Church with 82 members.  A handful of the churches were now reporting less than 20 members.  

The 1979 "Minutes", as entered into the internet website does not contain a Statistical Table page which appears to be an error of some sort since no association of which I have ever known failed to include the Statistical Table in their annual "Minutes".  Because of that error, I have chosen to revert for this time period to the 1978 "Minutes" which will make this period of examination 9 years instead of 10.  For the next reporting period, I will revert back to what would have been the normal year to examine, 1989,which will make that period of examination 11 years.  The 1978 "Minutes" shows 916 total members which is a significant increase over the 785 members reported 9 years before in 1969. That represents a 16.6% increase in total membership over the 9 year period.  But the 1979 "Minutes" shows only 20 member churches which represents a loss of 1 member church during that 9 year period.  The usual reasons still hold true for the loss of a member church and would usually be due to either a loss of membership which caused a church to be dissolved or that the missing church left the association to either become an independent church or to join another Old Regular Baptist Association.  It is most likely that a church's departure with active members would have been due to doctrinal disputes.  It should also be noted that the church structure in Old Regular Baptist churches does not utilize a system of pastors or paid ministers of any kind.  Each church has a Moderator, Assistant  Moderator, and Church Clerk.  The Moderator is not a complete example of a "pastor" and that word would never be used in an ORB church.  The Moderator is responsible for running the monthly weekend of meetings, supervising care of the building, preaching or at least "opening" the services but does not function in a truly "pastoral" capacity. 

The 1989 "Minutes" shows a total of 1323 members and a total of 26 churches which is a significant increase in both membership and member churches.   That is a total of 407 new members over the 11 year period and an increase of 6 member churches.  The percentage of increase in membership is 44.4%.  The 5 new churches represents an increase in member churches of 25 percent.  I suspect that some of those member churches arose out of the Great Migration of Appalachian mountain people who moved to the industrial north to work and took their particular form of religion with them.  The church clerks list shows one in Ohio and one in Indiana which has been a common theme with the New Salem Association also and actually brought about the creation of the Northern New Salem Association in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and one or two other industrial Midwestern states.  But  I also suspect there could be other sociological reasons for such an increase in both the church members and the member churches.  Once again, I have arrived at a question which cannot be completely answered in the time I have to devote to this research and it is exacerbated by the lack of comparative data from the other associations.  

The 1999 "Minutes" reports a total membership of 1893 total members and a total of 42 member churches.  Both these increases over the 10 year period are remarkable.  They could be due to further movement of members and their families to the industrial north but that is unlikely.  It seems to me that the more likely answer would be that another small association may have disbanded and those churches decided to join the Indian Bottom.  An increase of 16 new churches in such a small association over that time period is unlikely.  The 16 churches represent a 61% increase in member churches.  The total increase in members is 570 members which represents a 43% increase in total membership and the total membership in the association had doubled over the previous 20 years.  That is truly astounding and it shatters my original supposition that the association would have had significant losses in membership over the time period.  

The 2009 "Minutes" reported 1876 total members is virtually identical to the 1893 members 10 years before.  The drop in membership of only 17 members in a total population of nearly 2,000 is statistically insignificant at .00898%.  A total of 47 member churches were reported in 2009 which indicates that average membership per individual church is dropping.  The new churches, 5 in total, represent an increase of 11.9% in total churches.  Although I had not been computing average membership in the churches over the entire examination, let's look at that for this two reports.  In 1999, the average membership per single church was slightly more than 45 members.  In 2009, the average membership per single church was down to 39 average members a drop of 6 members per congregation which represents a drop of 13.3% per individual congregation.  

The 2019 "Minutes" only two  years ago reported total membership in the association of 1595 members for a drop in membership of 281 members which represents a drop in membership of 14,9% and is also significantly less than it was 20 years before.  There are only 43 total member churches reported in 2019 for a drop of 4 member churches which is a drop of 8.5%.  The total average membership per local congregation has also dropped to 37members which is another drop of 2 members per congregation.  While everything I suspected to learn by examining these membership data in the Indian Bottom Association did not hold true, I did learn the total membership in the congregation had a significant increase in membership following World War II which was followed by a slow decline in membership which was temporarily reversed in the ten years between 1989 and 1999.  I still suspect that sizeable increase was probably due to other churches and their entire congregations deciding to join the association.  But after that increase, the next 20 years shows a reversion to the slow, steady decrease in membership while at the same time showing an increase in member churches which is offset by a drop in total average membership per congregation.  I am too overloaded with other projects to attempt a full year by year analysis of the numbers.  But it would be very educational to see some good statistician and researcher do that very project with a book in mind about that and other aspects of the various associations of Old Regular Baptist churches.  Howard Dorgan's excellent book was published 20 years ago and a follow up is long overdue. 

Watching The Documentary "Big Sonia" July 5, 2019

A couple of nights ago, on July 5, 2019, my wife and I watched the award winning documentary "Big Sonia" on the Scientology Network.  Lately, we have watched a few documentaries on this network which still leaves me somewhat apprehensive as it should since I firmly believe that the so-called "religion" is  nothing more or less than one of the most dangerous cults in the world.  For that reason, I have not included a link to their website in this blog post.  Enough said about that topic.  The documentary was released in 2016 and I had never known about it until now.  It is a documentary about Sonia Warshawski who was 91 at the time the movie was made.  She is a Jewish Polish born survivor of the Holocaust and was imprisoned by the Germans when she was in her early teen years.  Nearly her entire family were victims of the Holocaust and she had to watch her father and brother removed by the SS never to be seen again.  She watched her mother marched into the gas chamber but somehow managed to survive until liberation by the Allies.  She met and married her husband in the death camps and they came to America where they ran a tailor shop until his death.  

Sonia continued to operate the shop in a dying mall until she finally received an eviction notice as the owners prepared to sell the severely deteriorated property.  But, simultaneously, she was speaking in any forum available to her, about her experiences in the Holocaust including prisons and schools.  Sonia Warshawski is presumably still alive at this writing and is a tiny force of nature in her 90's at a time when most of her age peers are long dead.  Her story should be required viewing for every student in school in America, in every prison and jail, and in every church of the more mainstream denominations. I have not seen a more inspiring, and on some key levels, terrifying documentary in many years.  

At this time in America, we have seen racism, hate speech, hate crimes, and all other forms of Right Wing Radical acts expanding and sweeping across the country just as any other virulent disease would. Those acts have included murder as seen in Charlottesville, Virginia; beatings, harassment, and arson all across the country.  And as this has been happening, the nameless TRAITOR who currently illegally occupies the White House based on his TREASON with Russia has not attempted to say or do anything stop it because of his own clearly delineated acts of hatred, racism, ignorance, and up to the caging of babies.  America and American Democracy are in greater danger than they have been in more than 60 years and we need a thousand people like Sonia Warshawski speaking out against hatred, calling the perpetrators to task for their crimes, and serving as examples for the entire human race.  As a nation, we simply cannot afford to allow these crimes to persist!  We cannot allow their perpetrators to go unpunished!  We cannot stand by and watch our country turned into a Third World bastion of all these destructive, racist, misogynistic, debilitating, and corrosive values.  Watch this documentary the first chance you get!  Tell every friend you have to watch!  Practice the values which Sonia Warshawski expresses in the movie and tell the entire world that Sonia Warshawski is an American Heroine. 

"Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning" by Timothy Snyder---Book Review

Ever since its release date of September 8, 2015, I had been seeing this book quoted in all sorts of legitimate writing both in the public media and in more academic articles about World War II, the Holocaust, genocide, and totalitarian governments.  I am always involved in reading, research, and writing about liberal issues, dystopian governments, totalitarian governments, etc. and became particularly involved in these issues with the tragic rise to prominence of the TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump.  But I never ordered the book because my to be read list is always too long.  Then in October 2017 my wife, Candice, and I took a long vacation in the Desert Southwest.  On October 6, 2017, we happened to visit the El Paso Holocaust Museum which will receive a much deserved post on this blog sometime soon. When we completed out tour and went into the gift shop, the first thing to catch my eye was a copy of this book which I immediately bought.  I finally finished reading it a few weeks ago and should have done so before October 2017 had passed.  

Photo Of Timothy Snyder by The Book Haven

"Black Earth..." is a wonderful piece of historical writing by one of the true experts on the subjects of the Holocaust, World War II, and Eastern Europe.  Timothy Snyder has written a dozen or so books on a wide ranging list of subjects in at least four languages.  It is reported in the latest issue of "The Nation" that he has just released his latest book, "The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America". Mr. Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and is said to be able to do research in at least eight languages.  To say the least, he is a prolific author, highly acclaimed professor, and prodigious researcher.  The worst thing I can say about "Black Earth..." or Mr. Snyder is that he writes like a Yale professor of history.  By that I mean that this is a complex, well researched, lengthy, and studious book.  But do not let that keep you from reading it.  The broad ranging analysis and statistical examination of the Holocaust, Hitler's ideas, and the execution of the war across all of Europe is highly educational and worthy of your time.  The last three chapters and the conclusion are the least amount of this book that anyone should allow themselves to skip by with reading.  On page 320 in the conclusion, Snyder writes "There is little reason to think that we are ethically superior to the Europeans of the 1930's and 1940's, or for that matter less vulnerable to the kind of ideas that Hitler so successfully promulgated and realized."  That statement is absolutely true about America today.  

We are seeing a time in our country where a usurper, TRAITOR, international terrorist, racist,  demagogue, and would be dictator has been allowed to conspire and commit TREASON with an enemy of America and is still tolerated by a significant portion of America and allowed to live inside the White House with the assistance of a Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate.  In early May, TRAITOR and international terrorist Trump stated that immigrants "...aren't people. These are animals."  Those very same words were spoken by his hero, Adolph Hitler about Jews before and during the Holocaust.  On several other occasions, TRAITOR and international terrorist Trump has used words written and spoken by Adolph Hitler.  His followers, just as Hitler's followers did, cheer him on during these occasions, defend his use of them afterwards, and base their own hate filled actions on such quotes and actions.  Timothy Snyder is dead center on target when he says that "...there is little reason to think we are ethically superior...".  It is my sincere hope and heartfelt suggestion that each of you who reads this book review will also read "Black Earth...", take the information and ideas it contains to heart, and take future actions to prevent the possibility that another Holocaust directed Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants, the poor, the elderly, and the young can arise in America.  

A Higher Call By Adam Makos with Larry Alexander--Book Review

Adam Makos with Larry Alexander 2012 A Higher Call ( New York, Penguin Random House)

After seeing some television publicity for this book, I decided to read it even though I have never read a lot of WWII literature.  This book is not a classic but it is well worth the time to read.  The book will hold your interest and keep you turning pages until the end.  But it has many of the typical drawbacks of a book written with a ghost writer.  The book tells the story of what might have been the most unusual encounter between German and American military personnel during WWII.  In some ways, the story is reminiscent of the famous Christmas Truce of WWI in which British and German troops instituted a temporary cease fire on Christmas Day 1914 across trenches. "A Higher Call" tells the story of an encounter between Charles Brown, an Appalachian West Virginia farm boy turned bomber pilot, and Franz Stigler, a German Messerschmitt pilot and full fledged aerial ace over the skies of Germany near the end of WWII.  

Brown and his crew were on their first bombing run flying in the rear position of a squadron of bombers.  That position in a squadron was always assigned to the newest crew because it gave them a chance to watch ahead to see what the other pilots were doing.  But it was also the first place in a squadron that German fighter pilots attacked since they usually made their first approach from above and behind.  In the fire fight, Brown's plane was literally riddled with German fire and according to every person who saw the plane it was literally on the verge of being unable to stay airborne.  Franz Stigler was not in the initial group of planes that attacked the squadron.  Somehow, Brown and his co-pilot were able to keep the bomber aloft after the firefight ended and peeled off to try to return to their base in England.  Stigler got airborne and was searching for planes that might be stragglers or wounded.  He spotted Brown's bomber and made an initial approach to shoot it down which would have given him his last necessary kill to receive the Iron Cross, Germany's most coveted military award for fighter pilots.  

But as Stigler approached the bomber for his customary close in kill, he realized that it was deeply, gravely damaged.  The rear of the plane was nearly destroyed.  The tail gunner was dead, hanging in his safety harness. The rear turret was nearly blown off the airplane. Only one gun on the plane was in working order.  Several of the crew were wounded.  The rear stabilizers were damaged beyond what would be considered remotely safe to fly even in a straight line. The plane was perforated by machine gun fire from end to end. Stigler was a devout Catholic and had been trained by a man who was also highly honorable and had told Stigler long before that if he "ever saw him shoot down a pilot hanging in his parachute, I will kill you myself".  Stigler realized that Brown's plane was attempting to return to its base in England and would need to fly over a coastal antiaircraft battery which would surely finish the plane and its crew.  He flew alongside the plane and tried to signal with his hands, since Brown also had no useful radio, to tell Brown to change his route to avoid the flak zone.  Brown did not understand and kept flying toward the coast. In desperation, Stigler fell into place near the plane hoping the antiaircraft gunners would believe he was simply allowing the wounded plane to get over open water before he shot it down.  The gunners fell for the bait.  Stigler flew alongside Brown until he was safely over open water on his way to England, saluted Brown, and peeled off to return to his base.

Stigler knew that if the story ever made into the German military command, he would be summarily executed for dereliction of duty.  Stigler never told a soul until many years later when he had successfully immigrated to Canada.  Brown and his crew made it back to England and reported the truth of what happened and were nominated for medals by their commanding officer.  But the US and Allied command immediately put a gag order on the episode and declared it Top Secret.  The crew got no medals.  Many years later, when he was an aircraft manufacturing executive in Florida, Brown advertised in German language WWII newspapers to try to find the pilot who had saved his crew.  He left out several key details of the incident in his letters to the papers and eventually Stigler heard of the effort by Brown, learned who Brown was, and contacted him.  Both men had been deeply affected by the incident and eventually became life long friends, often referring to each other as brothers.  They made speaking engagements together, talked on the phone on nearly a daily basis, and shared a deep, almost spiritual relationship.

Despite any deficiencies the book has due to the ghost writer, it does a wonderful job of describing the incident and the effect it had on Stigler and Brown.  It focuses almost entirely on the war career of Stigler with little emphasis on the war career of Brown.  It also says as little as possible about the relationship between the two after their reunion.  In these respects, the book is deeply deficient.  But the book also does a good job of telling the story of how many Germans were deeply opposed to Hitler and the Nazis while remaining deeply committed to their country.  There were many people, even in the German military, who knew how horrible Hitler and the Nazis were, how terrible their efforts to annihilate the Jews and other minorities were, and how devastating the Nazi actions were to the German character, reputation, and morale. Every one of those people placed their very lives in danger by holding such views.  There was a real resistance in Germany during WWII and the heroes and heroines of that resistance deserve to have their stories told. 

After WWII ended, Franz Stigler found himself ostracized in Germany because the German people believed that the fighter pilots had failed Germany by not protecting them from the Allied bombing which led to the end of the war.  As a former fighter pilot, Stigler found it nearly impossible to get any kind of job even down to the most menial of labor.  He chose to emigrate to Canada and it turned out to be the best thing he could have done.  He prospered in Canada and even owned a fully restored Messerschmitt fighter plane which he used to act as the "bad guy" at air shows all over North America traveling and flying with the very men he had fought against in the war.  The story of Stigler and Brown is a story that deserves to be told, deserves to be read, and deserves to be repeated by others who are forced into enmity by unjust governments.  Buy the book!  Read it!  Come to understand that not all Germans were evil during WWII. 

"A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland" by Richard S. Fuegner--Book Review

Fuegner, Richard S.: A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland (Edina, MN, Beaver's Pond Press, 2014)

Ever since November 8, 2016, I have been steadily reading every piece of literature I can find in all formats (books, pamphlets, electronic media) which I am led to believe can be useful in the American Resistance against the illegitimate administration which is in control of the White House.  I found Richard S. Fuegner's book in a general Internet search, ordered it, and read it quickly between reading the works of George Orwell and other writers on the subjects of totalitarian, dystopian, and repressive governments and methods to resist such governments.  It is my considered professional opinion based on my education, training, and experience that the United States is being turned into a highly repressive regime in compliance with TRAITOR Donald Trump's perverted world view.  No nation in Europe did a better job than Poland of resisting Adolph Hitler and the Russians during World War II.  We have a great deal to learn from the actions of the Polish people during World War II.  Richard S. Fuegner is an expert on the subjects of both Polish and general European Resistance during that war.  He has published several books about World War II Resistance.  

"A Nation Defiant..." is an extremely well researched, well documented, and well written work.  Mr. Fuegner has studied this general topic for many years and his massive research effort shows all through the book.  The book does an excellent job of documenting the Nazi and Russian invasions of the country, the wide ranging acts of repression and savagery which the Polish people suffered, and their determined and tireless resistance to those invasions.  The country was jointly and simultaneously occupied by both Russia and Germany and the two armies consensually divided the country choosing to seize those areas nearest their own borders.  They took every action possible to repress, oppress, and abuse the citizens of Poland.  Murder, infanticide, torture, and imprisonment with little or no cause was common by both occupiers with Germany sometimes taking slightly more violent actions against citizens.  But the Polish people, right down to relatively young children, fought valiantly and ceaselessly to impede German and Russian operations all across Poland.  This book does an excellent job of telling the story of the Polish Resistance all the way from the initial Nazi invasion to the Warsaw Uprising and eventual liberation.  It tell the story of how both Russia and the United States betrayed the Polish people by not assisting them adequately or expeditiously during the Warsaw Uprising.  The Poles were led to believe they would be assisted with supply drops, an advancement of the Russian front, and bombing raids by both countries.  These actions were not carried out at all or only in a limited way because both Russia and the United States were more concerned with their own tactical and territorial goals and thousands of brave Polish fighters were murdered by the Germans during the sixty-six days of the Warsaw Uprising.  It is a powerful story and an even more important warning sign for any country such as the United States today which is under an ever increasing attempt to create a totalitarian state by the TRAITOR Donald Trump who, interestingly enough, appears to be colluding with Russian in his efforts.  When mass roundups and deportations of relatively innocuous, harmless, and productive people are being staged daily, when multiple journalist in multiple incidents are being arrested for doing their job and covering public discontent, when threats are being made daily against the peace and dignity of the country by illegitimate occupiers of the Whiter House, it is the most important mission in the country to educate yourself and as many others as possible about all and any means by which American citizens can protect American Democracy and this book will help you to do that. 

My one criticism of the book is that is was published by a small vanity press in Minnesota, Beaver's Pond Press, and the editing was not up to par.  The book is a slick presentation with a nice cover, good printing, and acceptable illustrations which are numerous.  But it is also loaded with many typographical errors, missing words, and other linguistic mistakes which a good editor would have corrected.  The author, Richard S. Fuegner, is now 81 years old and the book was published three years ago in 2014, when he was 79.  It is possible that at his advanced age Mr. Fuegner chose to use a vanity press rather than risk becoming disabled or dying before a traditional, major publisher could be found to publish the book.  If so, that is a shame.  Mr. Fuegner had a previous record of multiple published books and this book deserved a better publisher.   But don't let the errors stop you from reading the book.  It really is a masterful piece of research, organization, documentation, and writing.  It is well worth the time and the money necessary to order and read it.  It will teach you a great deal about what happened in Poland and what could happen in the next four years in America. 

VINTAGE APPALACHIAN PHOTOGRAPHS

Feeding The Chickens--West Virginia??--Subjects & Date Unknown--Circa 1945-50 (Roger D. Hicks)



As privately owned cameras became more common in Appalachia after the turn of the 20th century, families began to take photographs of family members and those daily aspects of life which were important to them.  After about 1900 to 1910, we begin to see photographs which are more mundane than the old studio photographs with their stiff, dressed up subjects standing ill at ease and often in front of some contrived background which might have been very unfamiliar in daily life.  Instead, in these family created shots, we see the people of the mountains living their daily lives, killing hogs, feeding the chickens, raising crops, riding horses, going to church, and a hundred other activities of daily life which can be educational, touching, and often heartwarming such as the photo above of a little girl and her dog sitting in the chicken lot with a cooker full of feed and the hens pecking contentedly in the background.  I would love to know who this little girl was and suspect I never will.  I found the photograph in a collection of miscellaneous materials from an estate auction. No doubt she is long dead.  But she reaches out and touches us with her childhood simplicity and happiness in her everyday world. She hangs in a place of honor in my home.

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My  auction ring man, Dewey Rogers, from Tinker Fork of Mud Creek in Floyd County Kentucky is a lifelong collector of photographs and high school year books from the area.  Recently, he brought this photograph of his parents with a very large turnip to one of my auctions.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a natural for this post of vintage photographs.  It is the very type of shot I am looking for to depict life in Appalachia as it was 50 and 100 years ago.  It shows two ordinary, hard working Appalachian people with the product of their work, a successful venture in gardening which made the local newspaper, most likely the Floyd County Times which published many photographs like this in the days when it was owned, published, and primarily written by Norman Allen.  This photograph also lies within a general category such as the one below of the cow and calf, a photograph of simple items in life which were important to the subjects.  Hopefully, we will be able to add several more photographs from Dewey's ever expanding collection over the next few years.



Dewey Rogers brought in a couple more photographs for addition to this section.  The better of the two is of his grandfather, George Washington Rogers, who was a mail man in Floyd County many years ago.  It shows G. W. Rogers riding his horse on a snowy day and carrying a large box for delivery to someone who might well have ordered it from a Sears or Montgomery Ward Catalogue as an important addition to the home.  The other photograph is actually not a photograph but a photocopy of one which includes several members of Dewey's extended family including G. W. Rogers.  In spite of the increasingly poor quality of the reproduction from photograph to photocopy to computer, I am including it because it is typical of something that happens with important family photographs.  Often several members of an extended family may want a copy and not everyone has the capacity to have them reproduced so they simply take them to someone with a copier and have a copy made.  This is becoming much less common with the proliferation of computers and scanners into many of even the least wealthy homes.  Here are the newest Dewey Rogers photographs.

George Washington Rogers, mailman (Dewey Rogers)

George Washington Rogers & his extended family (Dewey Rogers)

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I am beginning this posting with this photograph and four others which were loaned to me by Paul Jarrell of P. J.'s Pizza in Banner, KY.  My thanks go to Paul for his willingness to have his family photographs shown to the world at large.  And of course, all aspects of copyright law apply to their potential use by anyone.  I will add to this post as I locate and acquire more photos of everyday life in Appalachia of the past.  I would gladly post photographs from my readers with proper acknowledgement.  If you have photos you are willing to add to this collection, contact me by e-mail at rchicks@mrtc.com or at hicksroger_@Hotmail.com and I will be glad to add and properly acknowledge yours.  I am particularly interested in photographs which show people living life on a daily basis: plowing, working, feeding livestock, planting crops, burying the dead, baptizing the living, and scratching a living from the rocky hills of home. 



WHAT A HOG!!! Jarell Family--Prater Creek, Floyd Co. KY--Circa 1950 (Paul Jarrell)

The photograph above shows the great-grandmother and great aunt of Paul Jarrell at hog killing time on Prater Creek in Floyd County Kentucky with a massive hog, the likes of which are not often killed in the mountains today.  It is a wonderful snapshot of everyday life in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. 

Hog Killing Time--Jarrell Family--Prater Creek, Floyd Co. KY (Paul Jarrell)

The photograph above shows several members of the Jarrell Family with another hog not nearly as large.  This photograph is also a great shot of family life, subsistence farming, food preservation, and life in general.  I have also included a second photograph of the same hog from a greater distance below. 

Cow And Calf--Prater Creek, Floyd Co. KY--Circa 1950 (Paul Jarrell)

The "cream of the crop", a cow and calf from the family photographs of Paul Jarrell.  This photograph with its highly personal and informative note on the back is typical of the kind of shots I discussed earlier in this posting.  It is about animals which were important to family survival.  It is about everyday life in the mountains and must have been mailed in a letter to a family member who lived too far away to come and see the family and the livestock personally.  The pride of ownership in the note is strong and clear.  These were good animals and they were important to the writer and his/her livelihood.  

Message On Reverse Of Cow/Calf Picture--Prater Creek, Floyd Co. KY--Circa 1950 (Paul Jarrell)

Below we have the second photograph of the same hog above taken from a slightly greater distance and showing only three of the family members instead of the four in the first.  The great aunt is gone from the doorway perhaps to check on the water, the knives, the salt, or the smokehouse.  Daily life is going on and this hog will become much of a winter's food for the family.  

Hog Killing Time #2--Jarrell Family--Prater Creek, KY--Circa 1950 (Paul Jarrell)

 The photograph below is of a distant cousin, Clarence Hicks, who was the son of Banner Hicks and the grandson of Hence Hicks, my maternal great-grandfather.  The photograph was sent to me by John D. Shelton, who is married to a descendent of Hence Hicks.  This is a World War II Era photograph in uniform and was most probably taken shortly after completion of basic training and advanced individual training in preparation for deployment to the combat zones of Europe.  Clarence Hicks was in Battle of the Bulge as a Tank Crew Member and wounded 2 times there and died in 1980 of an aneurysm after returning home which so many other Americans failed to do at the Battle of the Bulge which was one of the most devastating battles of the entire war.   I have written extensively about Appalachian Patriotism, one of the key Appalachian Values first documented by Loyal Jones.  That post can be found here: Patriotism, An Appalachian Value  Literally hundreds of thousands of young Appalachians like Clarence Hicks left the mountains to fight in America's wars. 

 Clarence Hicks (John D. Shelton)