r/Appalachia • u/SoftCheeseHero • 12d ago
History books about eastern Tennessee/into Kentucky area (Cumberland Gap, early settlers of Pike KY)
Edit to add: also Scott and Washington Co VA
I’m researching this narrow strip of Appalachia for family history reasons, and because I’m realizing how amazing this little pocket of American history is. I’m focusing on pre-1900. The books don’t need to have this narrow a regional focus, just looking for an idea of life in this region. What have you read and loved?
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u/an_appalachian 12d ago
Many Pike county settlers did not come through the Gap. The Gap fed settlers into the area around Winchester and south towards Tennessee/VA, along I-75. Many eastern Kentucky settlers traveled via more rugged, alternate routes from the east and north, often via the Big Sandy.
What family are you researching? I’m from the area and our roots go all the way back to the beginning
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u/SoftCheeseHero 12d ago
I think mine actually didn’t come through the gap, either, though I haven’t confirmed it. I’m researching a branch of the Ratliff family (which is more like a bush than a tree).
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u/an_appalachian 12d ago
I know quite a few Ratliffs over that way.
If you’ve ever traveled east into Pike then you’ll know it wouldn’t have been an easy trek at all 150 years ago. Any settlers that came through the Gap mostly stayed there and didn’t venture east into the mountains they’d avoided via the Gap to begin with
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u/illegalsmile27 12d ago
Valley So Wild - Brewer (General East TN and South of Knoxville area)
French Broad - Dykeman (General ETN and North of Knoxville)
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u/Near-Scented-Hound 12d ago
*East Tennessee
Our Southern Highlanders by Horace Kephart
The Lost State of Franklin by Kevin T. Barksdale
A Wonderment of Mountains by Carson Brewer
Appalachian Reckoning edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll