Put this in the hopper Dennis: In my lifetime I have witnessed the end of the coming out of isolation or transformation of these southern mountain people in north Georgia. WWI and WWII brought huge change in the area mainly because the men went out of the mountains both as conscripts and volunteers to fight and came back changed men possessing broader horizons. They did that in the American Civil War too, left the mountains, but I believe once they returned they were even less open to change, they wanted to be left alone. These two modern wars were what finally brought change to communities that had been not much changed socially since very early times. It is like these people came to the mountains, settled, and were forgotten for generations. They clung to their Scottish-Irish ways. The rest of the country got settled too, but then went on apace with development. Once established in the mountains however not a heck of a lot changed over time until the wars.
I came in at the end of WWII in Gilmer County Ga.,and grew up post war in the north Georgia Mountains. Small communities, towns, nestled near what roads existed and isolated homesteads sprinkled along the waterways was pretty much the way it was when I was a boy. Paved highways were few, as were gravel roads, and once off of them it was dirt all the way. Farming for food and a bit to sell or trade, excess corn to moonshine (everybody did it, my family did). Small businesses in the towns, a few cotton mills and thread mills scattered here and there, shops catering to the needs of those outside town who when they came to shop were just as likely to show up on Saturday transported by wagon and mule as a car. A few homes were serviced by electricity and gas even then, all in the small towns sited near the improved roads. Up in the higher elevations it was cabins, outhouses and wood stoves. Change was slow.
This may be one reason for the apparent resistance for change – essential isolation up until 70-90 years ago in parts of the Carolina and Georgia mountains. I don’t remember ever seeing a flintlock, or percussion gun when I was a boy, but I'll bet they were there. I did see lots of cartridge guns, grew up with them. A hunting gun was important to a family, hunting still a way of life as it remains today, although much changed.
dp
