The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-02-20
rHs rows OF KENTUCKY.
Pecuiisr Customs OF Mouutaineers who Ave
Descendants OF Portuguese Immiar"nts.

Dencemunntn OF FottuEueso
HARLAS CoURT HOUSE. KY. Feb. 1e.-Just
across the Kentucky line In Tennessee live a
peculiar people. They are known as the Malun-
geons. They are copper colored. with high
cheek bones. straight noses. black hair rather
coarse and straight. black eyes, and moro intel
ligence than the ordinary mountaineers.
Their color and their customs have caused
them q great deal of trouble. They number be-
tween 600 and 400. They live on Black Water
Greek. in Hancock county. and they have lived
In this section for more than 100 years. The
records of Hancock county show that their nm
cestors came to Powell's Valley rs early as
1850. when they took up lands on Black Water.
Tradition says that they held aloof from the
white settlers and spoke n strange Language
which none Of the pioneers understood. Some
OF them could speak broken English. and by this
means communicated with the white merchants
to the extent OF buying arms and ammunition
and other supplies which they could not pro-
cure in the valleys OF their mountain homes.
Before the war the Malungeons had n hard
timo In obtaining the right to vote and to send
their children to the public schools. The white
citizens declared they were negroes, and the
matter was finally carried into the courts. 1t
was dev eloped that the ancestors OF these people
emiRrstcd to America about 100 years ago from
the interior of Portugal. and had spent some
time In South Carolina before going to Tennes-
see. They declared on the witness stand that
there was not u drop Of negro blood In their
veins, and after long and tedious litigation they
were allowed to vote and to send their children
to the schools.
When the war broke out In 1851 the NAHUM
geons espOused tho cause of the Union. They
fought In the usual mountain Iashioan bush.
sent to his long home by the unerring bullets OF
these Portueuese.Amerlcans Whenever the
Confederates captured one OF them he was shot
on the spot. After the war closed and the Ma
dungeons returned to their old pursuits they
found that the Government was interfering with
one OF their oldest Ind ustrles .whIskey making.
They had been distillers back in South Caro-
nessec were brought by their ancestors over
the mountains from the first. named state.
Tor making war on their moonshins stills. or
late years the revenue men have been so per
s%istent in their work OF hunting the moonshinets
down that the Malungeons have sold but little
Inoonshino whiskey In large quantities. but they
iers in the mountalns OF Kentucky and Tennes-
see and they are rarely caught now. ,Notwith-
Kentucky and eastern Tennessee, the NAHUM
geons never go far from home.
have shed much blood aud otherwise violated
the laws OF their country. are deeply religious.
and seem a" to be beside thc@.eiyes With religious
SstSSr; ws one s OF the y Pst5is ESlI1D OF t 6s. M alSR;
In June. many years ago. DR.. Frederick A. Ross.
a noted Presbyterian minister OF eastern Ten
neese. was travelling through the Black Water
country. He accidentally came upon Uncle
Wards house and asked II no could stay all
night. The old mountaineer told him he could.
After the guest had eaten supper the old man
asked him his business. He told him he was n
preacher. The old man said he would like to
hear him preach.
Where 4, your congregation ~ asked the
minister.
I'LL get one in a few minutes" replied Uncle
Ward. lie took a long dinner horn from its
rack over the door and going out doors blew
several shrill blasts. Within an hour n con-
cregation OF fftv people had assembled and DR..
Ross said afterward that he had never preached
to al audience that showed greater apprecia-
ton and deeper religious feeling than did tho
little band OF copper-colored mountaineers on
Black Water. Uncle Ward lived TO be l0l
years old.
Politically the Malungeons were Wings be-
fore the war and since then they hnve been
Republicans. They are very clannish. Their
customs have not changed during the last two
hundred years. They still live In log cabins.
and while many Of the younger men have i'm
proved WInchesters and Martins. the older
citizens continue to use their long homemade
squirrel rifles. which invariably hang on a rack
above the old-fashioned fireplace. They are
hospitable to n degree. and no stranger. unless
they think ne IN n revenue man. Is ever turned
away from their cabins. Their peach brandy Is
pronounced the best in the mountains. and II Is
freely offered to the wayfarers under their
root. tempered with wild mountain honey. The
original settlers were the Collin-es. Gibsons, and
Mullinses, and II is difficult to find n Malungeon
to-day who Is not called by one OF these names.