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Home , Cecil Sharp, Kentucky

FOLKLIFE IN Lynwood Montell

In the Appalachian South, Kentucky led in the The dominant folk culture strains in Kentucky are establishment and proliferation of revival institu­ of English, Scots-Irish and African ancestry. Every tions using folk traditions in education and economic portion of the state exudes characteristics that bear development. The Fireside Industries, launched by the imprint of ideas which were inherited from early President William Frost in 1893, still immigrants to the New World. The character of folk­ enable Berea students to pay for their education song, folktale, and legend repertories attest to this, through broom tying, woodworking, and weaving. and language survivals are readily discernible in most Proposals for elementary schools based on the Berea parts of the state. example led to the founding in 1902 of the Hindman The Anglo-Saxon blanket by no means covers Settlement School. Here native folk musi-c and craft every bed in the state. There are large clusters of training were combined with basic education, sew­ Afro-Americans in urban areas. Black com­ ing, and cooking classes. prise a sizeable percentage of the population in was in August 1917 at the Pine Mountain Set­ Louisville and and are also dispersed tlement School in Harlan that the noted across Kentucky in every . English folksong collectors, · and Maud Scattered colonies of Swiss, Italians, and Welsh are Karpeles first saw the Kentucky running set, an Appa­ found in Kentucky, mainly in the mountains of east­ lachian survival of the British contra dance or . ern Kentucky. Germans left indelible imprints in and her sisters were educated at Hind­ Louisville and western sectors of the state. And man School. Perhaps the earliest southern singer Fancy Farm, a Jackson settlement founded of mountain songs on the New concert stage by English Catholics in the 1830s, is now famous for was ; and pioneer folk festival orga­ its traditional fall political picnic, which kicks off every statewide political race. nizers, Sarah Gertrude Knott, Annabel Morris Bu­ chanan, and jean Thomas are Kentucky women. The mountains of eastern Kentucky are virtually synonymous with early folklore collectirg in the The Festival of American Folklife, while recogniz­ . Cecil Sharp's work in 1917-1918 re­ ing the importance of the craft and music revivals, sulted in the richest single collection of ballads and has emphasized survivals of cultural traditions. (ft is songs from , but even before Sharp's not always possible to distinguish between the two.) visit, Kentucky gave up many of its folksongs and We cannot celebrate Kentucky folk traditions with­ tunes to industrious teachers and students associat­ out acknowledging the innovative roles of institu­ ed with the mountain settlement schools. Their tions and individuals within the · whose influences are felt in many parts of the world. Dr. Lynwood Monte// is the Coordinator of the Center for Ralph Rinzler Intercultural Studies, Western Kentucky State University, Festival Director Bowling Green, Kentucky.

10 William McClure makes bowls in his barn in Mt. Mrs. Francin e Alvey of Wax, Kentucky, has been making Vernon, Kentucky. Photo by jan Faul. white oak baskets for over sixty years. Photo by David Sutherland. collections have never been equaled, and stand as priceless documents attesting to a way of life when riddles to barns and fences. While earlier collectors things were not so complex. With the impetus pro­ focused on verbal materials only, contemporary Ken­ vided by those early years, folksong collecting con­ tucky students and scholars of folklife are interested tinued apace until the outbreak of World War II. in the total ways of life of those Kentuckians who Folk beliefs, superstitions, and folktales claimed treasure cultural stability rather than social change. their rightful places in the scheme of scholarly folk­ But they are equally interested in "the folk" wher­ lore collecting in Kentucky by the late 1920s, but ever they may be in a rural or urban setting. they were not accorded an equal status with folk­ Certain traditional activities which heretofore were songs, tunes, and dances in those early years. None ignored by scholars are now considered within the of the important tale collections appeared in print scope of material folk culture and life style research. prior to 1950. These, too, came entirely from the Thus folklife scholars read relevance into the historic mountain areas. patterns of action and behavior practiced among folk Virtually no folk traditions of any variety were groups, whether such activities weathered the ocean bagged prior to mid-century from the Grass passage or grew up in response to the demands of region, from , southcentral Ken­ a harsh and relentless environment. Tradi­ tucky, or from the entire western portion of the tional cooking habits, for example, are alive and state. With the arrival of professional folklorists at vigorous in every part of the Commonwealth. Foods Murray, Western, and the , fit for a gourmet are still much in evidence at family the imbalance has been partially righted. Western reunions, community picnics, and dinners-on-the­ Kentucky University in Bowling Green, with its four ground observed by many rural Kentucky church full-time folklorists, offers an undergraduate degree groups. The butter, home-butchered meats, deviled program in folklore, and recently instituted the only eggs, pastries, and home-produced vegetables Masters degree in Folk Studies in the southeastern cooked according to time-honored recipes, are as United States. much a part of the folk process as the Nine Patch Collecting folklore for the sake of accumulating or the handmade comfort. raw texts is no longer stressed as it was in those early years. The preservation of fragile antiques is Not all folk traditions persist indefinitely. Some no longer descriptive of folkloric and folklife field­ existed only as products of their unique roles at a work and research. Notice the use of a new word, precise time in Kentucky's history. The shivaree, folklife. The term denotes the whole spectrum of which was the traditional dangerous frolicking after folk traditions from text to context, from songs and marriages; the Friday afternoon ciphering matches in

11 BASKETS AND FOLKLIFE IN EDMONSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY Andy Wallace

With a practiced hand Mrs. Francine Alvey fills the ribs of For some 175 years Haske! Skaggs' kin have lived a new basket with a tight mesh of split oak. Photo by in Edmonson County, Kentucky. "Hack" works as a David Sutherland. guide at Mammoth National Park, which now comprises about half the county, and employs many rural schools; the party games in lieu of square of the natives of the . It's an area rich in tradi­ dances; the candy breakings, corn huskings, and tional lore of all types and remained fairly isolated various other frontier social institutions, all have up until the Second World War, largely because of passed from the stage. Any occurrence of these ac­ a lack of adequate roads. The county is split almost tivities today is generally staged for the purpose of evenly in half by the , and no bridge depicting a bit of yesterday's life styles. spanned it until a few years ago, with ferries carry­ Stemming from earlier periods in Kentucky's his­ ing essential traffic up to that time. The population tory are many artifacts of material culture which are of the area has been stable for over a century, and generally long lived because of traditional skills and many of the families have been in Edmonson County materials employed in construction. The observant since the first settlement. The people are predomi­ folklife researcher can hardly avoid noticing houses, nately Scots-Irish, and were all Eng I ish speaking barns, corncribs, and other essential architectural when they arrived. They are traditional, conserva­ forms that reflect the cultural heritage of their build­ tive people, in the best sense of the word. ers in the same way that folk speech, songs, and I was lucky enough to have Hack Skaggs and his legends do. Persons traveling across the state from wife Bertha introduce me to a number of rich tradi­ one region to another are likely to remark on the tion bearers in the Mammoth Cave area. I had called clustering of building types on the culture land­ at Mammoth Cave National Park to let them know scape: "Aren't the tobacco barns here in Western that I was in the area on a field trip for the Festival Kentucky rather tall and skinny?" or "Notice how ~ of American Folklife. The Superintendent suggested few of the barns here in the Bluegrass are built that I might take Hack along with me, as he was against a bank," or " Wonder if all mining camps familiar with most everyone in the county. It proved have two-story houses?" a fortuitous choice. Kentucky's regional folk houses and barns and Hack and Bertha Skaggs have never taken a course other forms of artistic and functional craftsman5hip in folklore ; I doubt they know precisely what the are symbols of honest and exacting work, and of the term means, but they knew what I meant by "tradi­ daring and resourcefulness of pioneer forefathers tional" " old-time" " handed down." For a week we whose legacy reaches into the present. We can visited ' with neigh,bors, relatives and friends and speculate that in our age of rapid technological change, some people feel a need to reach back, to rediscover continuity in their culture, to keep their Andy Walla ce is the Festival Liaison Officer and Research balance in the present through reminders of the past. Coordinator for the National Park Service.

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