A Strange People of Tennessee

The Malungeons and Their Curious Customs

There is a Mystery as to Their Origin

Claims of Indian-Portuguese Descent Discussed

Their Chief Occupations Are Farming, Milling, Hunting
and Digging Medicinal Roots

September 20, 1897
Times Picayune (Louisiana)

The Manchester correspondent of the New York Evening Post writes; A party of London writers and artists are now in the Tennessee mountains studying the peculiar race of people known as the Malungeons. The Malungeons are probably the most mysterious race in America, and less is known of them than of any other people. Whence they came to America or how they obtained their peculiar name is unknown.

Those who assert that the Malungeons are of mixed negro or Indians and white blood do so utterly upon hearsay. There is no proof to show that the Malungeon is of Indian, African or Portuguese descent, nor any reliable history of his origin. The Malungeons are themselves ignorant of their ancestry. Some of them claim to be of Portuguese blood, but they can give no intelligent reason for this claim. They say that their ancestors emigrated to America about 150 years ago from the interior of Portugal and first settled in South Carolina, whence they came to Hancock County, Tenn., settling in a beautiful mountain cove on Blackwater creek. The records of Hancock county show that they were first known there in 1780. In that year they were granted public lands on Blackwater creek. They refused to hold any intercourse with the settlers, except in trade skins and furs for arms and ammunition. It was many years after the revolutionary war before they could speak broken English.

To continue reading this rather lengthy article: Click Here.

Note: This article makes a number of fairly unique claims about the Melungeons, some of which are clearly untrue, but it certainly is interesting.

Stony Creek Baptist Church Minute Books, 1801 - 1814

So far as is currently known, the word Melungeon first appeared in print in 1813 in the minutes of the Stony Creek Baptist Church located in Scott County, Virginia.

For a look at that entry: Click Here.

I have now made a transcript of the Stony (sometimes given as Stoney) Creek Primitive Baptist Church Minute Books 1 and 2, 1801-1814, available in their entirety on the MHS Blog.

To view these minutes: Click Here.

Note: The transfer of the minutes from their original format to blog format has resulted a number of formatting anomalies but the minutes remain perfectly readable. The formatting will be corrected over time. I have retain some historical notes and an index to the minutes which were appended by the transcriber. The page numbers referenced by the index are not preserved in blog format; however, the index is still useful in that it lists the names referenced in the minutes, and once you know that the original document contained 41 pages, the page numbers still give you a rough idea of where to look for a name.

Too Late For Flowers, Never Too Late For Tears

An Essay by Roy L. Sturgill
Found in Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia
Historical Society of Southwest Virginia Publication 12, 1978

As I study and try in my uneducated way to search out the genealogy of my forefathers, I try to picture in my mind the way they lived, how , and if their lives were influenced by the hard times they endured; and most of all I find myself wishing that I could have been with them, in their endeavor to wrest from the earth an existence, and an independence beyond reproach. Earlier in life, and seeing it through the eyes of an inquisitive boy. I was made to wonder why my elders settled in mountainous northwestern North Carolina, Southwest Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky. Now as the sands of time have flowed constantly onward, causing me to be older and perhaps a little wiser. I can understand their nomadic travels.

To continue reading this touching and insightful essay: Click Here.

Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier

The Henry Reed Collection
Online at the Library of Congress

Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection is a multi-format ethnographic field collection of traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia. Recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, the tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of Virginia's Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes have passed back into circulation during the fiddling revival of the later twentieth century. This online collection incorporates 184 original sound recordings, 19 pages of fieldnotes, and 69 musical transcriptions with descriptive notes on tune histories and musical features; an illustrated essay about Reed's life, art, and influence; a list of related publications; and a glossary of musical terms.

To visit: Click Here.

Tennessee State Penitentiary Inmates: 1831 - 1870

The Tennessee State Penitentiary opened in 1831. Prior to that offenders were held in county jails. Surviving records of the Penitentiary are housed at the State Library and Archives as Record Group 25.

The following list of inmates is found in ledger volume 43 of those records. The ledger also includes the date received in the Penitentiary, the prisoner's state of birth, and the date discharged.

To see the list for 1831 to 1850: Click Here.

To see the list for 1851 to 1870: Click Here.

A History of Middle New River Settlements

And Contiguous Territories

By David E. Johnston
Author of Four Years a Soldier

Published in 1906

To read this work in its entirety: Click Here.

Synopsis of Its Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter I -- 1654-1753
Chapter II -- 1753-1766
Chapter III -- 1766-1774
Chapter IV -- 1775-1794
Chapter V -- 1795-1836
Chapter VI -- 1837-1861
Chapter VII -- 1861-1865
Chapter VIII -- 1866-1905
Appendix A: Courts, Judges, etc.
Appendix B: Counties formed out of Augusta and Federick Counties
Appendix C: Biographical Sketches
Appendix D: Elected Officials
Appendix E: Commonwealth Attorneys for Giles County, 1806 - 1905
Appendix F: Confederate Officers
Appendix G: Military Rosters

Note: The link about takes you directly to a detailed table of contents, from which you can readily jump to sections of interest with a click of your mouse.

Goodspeed's Map of Early Tennessee

Published in 1886
Showing Early Settlements, Forts
Battle Grounds, Stands, and Stations

For the East Tennessee section of the map: Click Here.

For the West Tennessee section of the map: Click Here.

Note: The East Tennessee map shows a Fort Blackmore southwest of Newman's Ridge which should not be confused with the Fort Blackmore on the Clinch River at the mouth of Stoney Creek in Scott County, Virginia with which Melungeons are associated, the area around it being the final stop of some of Melungeons before arriving in the Newman's Ridge area according to Lewis Jarvis (For more on that: Click Here).

For the location of the Scott County Fort Blackmore on a 1774 map: Click Here.

Fort Blackmore is not actually show since it was not constructed until twenty years later, but Stoney Creek and the Clinch River are clearly marked.