Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-12
SURELY A SOLITARY LIFE
Kentucky EIOuntaineers stick to
Their Homes and Meet Few
Outsiders.

My work, which kept me in eastern Ken
lucky for more than year, with occasional
details into the mountains of eastern Ten
ressee and western Virginia, made it quite
clear to me why the denizens Of those
Businesses take 80 easily to ''moonshining,"
or Illicit distilling, and why the death
dealing feuds thrive 30 in such environ
ments.
According to the best information have
been able to obtain these people are the de-
scendants Of the convicts that were colon
lied in the Appalachian mountains by Great
Britain before the war OF the revolution.
They have never come in contact with the
world and are amazingly ignorant Of any
thing which happens outside their immedi
ate neighborhood. I have seen old men
who had never been half a mile away from
their homes-whose whole lives had been
passed in the creek bottom where they had
been born There are few schools. to be
sure, but tbs territory is so extensive and
| the schools are so few that relatively
small nusnberAo4s children ever see book.
Thers Is comparatively little communica-
ton between the different parts of the coun-
| Try Only the more prosperous own horses
or mules. In some sections travel by horse
back is impossible. Although the mountains
are not high, the country is probably the
| EOuBnSbl OnlNcu 6ldleSs n hiC1A1W
is rarity and the land is too precious for
pasturage. Here and there a few scrawny
cows are to be seen, but they belong only
to the comparatively rich and are forced
to shift for themselves by grazing along
the creek beds and underbrush. With
pastoral life out Of the question the in
habitants resort to agriculture in the most
primitive and limited way. Patches OF
corn, seldom exceeding five acres in extent,
are cultivated on the sides of the hills,
where the slope is frequently at an angle
Of forty-fve degrees. The land is titled
by the hoe, for no horse could drag a pillow
over such ground.
Probably the most respected citizen in
eastern Kentucky mountain districts is old
shackieford, who lives at the head OF
Poor Fork creek, in Perry county. Shachle-
ford is getting old now-he must be about
7O-but there is no adventurous, fre-eatins
youth who cares to try conclusions with
him. Too many have attempted that and
died He has a record of thirty-eigh'
Ceilings to his credit, a record that nj
western desperate from Las Vegas to the
Canadian line has ever equaled. He has
been shot from ambush, but he has sur
vived his wounds. although this much car
not be said OF the man that shot first. Hi
neighbors stand in awe Of him and he 4
said to bear a charmed life. His cabii
Is decorated with coon skins and over tn,
front door is nailed the skin Of the hgges
rattlesnake ever killed I'm the KentuclIl
mountains. shacklefords most dreaded
! antagonist in fight was his wife and h
! killed her several years ago in a domesti
, brawl The militant old woman was gtvel
imposing resting place. She was burie
on the top OF Harlan peak and her gray
! was dug eight feet deep. shackletord ha
directed that he be buried just above he
when he dies.
II want folks TO know that I come out o
top" he said In giving his Instructions
Outing Magazine.