Recent Newspaper Article on Will Allen Dromgoole

Boro poet Dromgoole helped bridge generations
By: By MIKE WEST
Murfreesboro Post
Monday, February 9, 2009

Her poem still often quoted

During her life, Will Allen Dromgoole was a prolific writer and poet.

While she wrote more than 7,500 poems, 5,000 essays and published 13 books, her most famous poem was “The Bridge Builder.”

To read the article, including "The Bridge Builder": Click Here.

From the standpoint of Melungeon research, the most interesting part of the article is this:

Her life then took an unusual twist for the day. She studied law with her father and won terms as engrossing clerk for the Tennessee State Senate. But an unflattering series of articles she wrote about the Melungeons of East Tennessee caused her defeat in 1889 and 1891 and she relocated to Texas where she wrote for newspapers.

This claim seems unlikely. In the first place, Melungeons were neither numerous nor popular in 1889 and 1891. And in the second place, she seems to have originally lost her job before publishing the first of her four articles on Melungeons in 1890.

For more on Will Allen Droomgoole: Click here.