Hidden History of Bristol: Stories from the State Line

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

Join local author Bud Phillips as he explores the fascinating, and occasionally uproarious, lost tales of Bristol.

Legend has it that in 1842 a local slave, Silas Goodson, dreamed of a large city spreading over the hills, and ten years later Bristol was founded on the border of Tennessee and Virginia. Much of Bristol's most unusual history is long forgotten, but local author Bud Phillips's collection of his Bristol Herald Courier columns brings light to the overlooked pages of the past. With stories of a jilted suitor's porcine revenge, the legendary fiddler Nora Cross and the Devil's Hideout and the search for the gold of Rosetta Bachelor, readers will delight in the history that they always wish they knew.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609490478
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	12/11/2010
Series:	American Chronicles
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	1,096,331
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Bud Phillips has been a resident of Bristol, Virginia, since 1953. He first began to hear strange and unique stories about the past from his older clients when he served as a social worker. In March 2006, he began writing a history column for the sesquicentennial celebrations of Bristol, and due to popular demand, he continues to write for the Bristol Herald Courier to this day.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Acknowledgements 11

Introduction: Bristol on the Border 13

Rough and Tumble Days: Bristol's Early History

Chief Smoking Basket and the Rattlers 15

Worse than the Drill: Early Dentistry 17

Dr. Berry's Unusual Remedy 19

Early Form of Shock Treatment: Medical Marvel? 21

How Alabama Street Got Its Name 22

Colonel James King's Well-Traveled Bed 24

Bristol's First Clock Keeps on Ticking 25

Bristol's Prophesying Methuselah 26

Hunger at the Heart of Bristol's First Crime 28

Forgotten Civil War Tales

A Youth Cadet and the Immortal Six Hundred 30

Discovery of Another Civil War Hero 31

Colonel Mosby Comes to Bristol: A Life Before the Gray Ghost of the Confederacy 33

Children of the Confederacy and a Midwife's True Calling 36

Jefferson Davis's Visit to Pleasant Hill 37

Love, Marriage and What Comes After

A Jilted Suitor, a Flying Ham and an Explosive Wedding 40

The Legendary Marrying Parson 42

A Husband's Tribute: The Taj Mahal of Bristol 43

A Chip Saves a Woman from a Poison Cup 45

Mason Jars, Loafers and Swift Justice: The Other Side of Bristol

Moonshine and Mountain Dew on the Streets of Bristol 48

The Big Creek Resort Bubble 49

A Mayor's Swift Justice 51

Loafer's Glory 53

The Only Legal Hanging in Bristol 55

The Women of Bristol

Nora Cross and the Devil's Hideout 57

Annie Goforth Started Bristol's First Laundry 59

Rosetta's Gold 60

The Quest for Rosetta's Gold 63

The Mystery Woman of 1900 64

Presidents, Jokesters, Footloose Majors and Other Characters

Bristol's Forgotten Portrait Painter 67

Chadwick Barr Made the Dead Speak 69

President Andrew Johnson: He Bore the Mark of Bristol 71

The Dancing Major 73

Major Burson and the Watermelon Table 75

The Wild Man of Holston Mountain 77

William G. Lindsey Brought the First Train to Bristol 78

The King of the Bristol Brick Layers 80

Bristol's Famous Cow 81

The African American Community of Bristol

Mercy Hospital Served Bristol's Black Community 84

Slave Quilt Survives in Bristol 86

Ol' Ras Berry 88

The Old Massacre Tree 89

The Incredible Journey 92

Strange and Raucous Happenings

A Bizarre Death in Bristol 94

The Holy Cow and the Reluctant Angel 96

A Mouse Enlivens the Church Service 98

Familiar Places with Hidden Faces

Solar Hill Revisited 101

The Prophecy of Cedar Hill 103

Farewell to Strawberry Field 104

The History of the Mysterious Lot 106

The Christmas Gift House 108

About the Author 111