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A.J. Ely is standing in front of his mill on Roaring Fork Road.
Ely proved to be Gatlinburg’s first vegetarian
Andrew Jefferson Ely was born in 1881 near Harrogate. Ely (pronounced EeeLee) brought a new way of thinking, backed by hard work and a determined nature, to the Sevier County folks. He also brough...
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Jeff Farrell: Head injuries in football no laughing matter
The sport of football is about to get its bell rung. With an ever increasing number of former stars joining lawsuits centered around concussions they suffered during professional careers, the NFL ...
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Carl Mays: Help close communication gap
In a rural district of England, a driver of a small truck was approaching a sharp curve when he suddenly had to hit his brakes to avoid a large luxury car hurtling around the bend in the narrow roa...
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<b>John Morrell is pictured in his park ranger uniform standing in front of park headquarters building. (Courtesy of Anne Blankenship)</b>
Upland Chronicles: John Morrell played key role in dealing with landowners for national park
In August 1913, John O. Morrell came with his family on the train from their home in Knoxville to Elkmont, to visit the Smoky Mountains.
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Carl Mays: Pardon us folks, but sometimes we are clueless
What if someone had just received the biggest promotion of her life, and you didn’t know about it yet when you saw and talked with her the morning of the promotion? And suppose while cluelessly tal...
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Derek Hodges: Wedding bells rang early for Justin, Evelyn
Justin Caldwell, the lieutenant for the local Salvation Army, and his lovely fiancée Evelyn Candido, who is an officer in the Army in Dayton, Ohio, had everything planned about how they wanted to c...
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Carl Mays: Display calmness in a crisis
My son Carl II, President/CEO of the ClaimCare Medical Billing Group, sent a congratulatory letter to employees recently promoted to supervisory positions in the company’s Dallas and Austin offices...
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Fran Troxler: Nothing like Miss Ina's flower garden
Each spring as all the beautiful tulips, dogwoods, forsythia, and redbuds start blooming, I always think of Ina Bryan, who lived a wonderful life in Wears Valley and definitely had one of the prett...
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Ralph “Pug” Murphy taken in the later years of his life.
Upland Chronicles: ‘Pug’ Murphy thrilled by Clarence Darrow encounter
When the phone rang late on the night of Sunday, July 26, 1925 at the New Central Hotel in Sevierville, Manager Ralph “Pug” Murphy and his wife, Wille Kate, were about to go to bed. Ralph answered ...
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Gail Crutchfield: Answers to FAQs provided
Working in the newspaper industry for more than 15 years, I’ve answered — and asked – all sorts of questions. Not a day goes by that we don’t get a reader asking how to get one thing or another pla...
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Carl Mays: Grow, advance and gain value
A college professor asked one of his students if he had ever heard the phrase, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” The student replied that he certainly had heard it. The professor responded...
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Jim Shelton pictured in the later years of his life.
Upland Chronicles: Shelton's photos chronicle events, places in Smokies
Out of the seven Walker sisters, only Sarah Caroline Walker married. On Dec. 27, 1907, she wed Jim Shelton who often said the other sisters remained spinsters because he was the only man who had en...
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Carl Mays: Let’s help one another to bring out our best
I’m quoting classical author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, twentieth century journalist Sidney J. Harris, President Abraham Lincoln and contemporary humorist Dave Barry – all in the same column – so ...
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Murder's her game — sort of
“I write books with people murdered in them.” Several years ago I was scheduled to meet a woman who had called into the real estate office. She told me she was interested in purchasing a mountain ...
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Adriana Zoder: Bear encounters recalled
We all have our fair share of bear stories. Here are some of my encounters with these symbols of the Smoky Mountains. The first time I saw a bear, my husband and I were driving on Highway 321 in G...
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Rachel Osborn: Couponing can become too obsessive
Though I never thought it would happen, I’ve recently become addicted to couponing. I can’t help it. You can save so much money! I wish I were as good as the couponers on TV, but my obsession is n...
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Carl Mays: She brings her work pail daily
When the Baylor Lady Bears reached absolute perfection this week, winning the 2012 NCAA women’s basketball championship and concluding the season with a 40-0 record, Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey’s ...
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<b>Cora Ownby Morton weaving in her home.</b>
Upland Chronicles: Hand weaving an art long practiced by Moore family
By CARROLL McMAHAN Early decorative arts of the Smoky Mountains were handmade quilts, hand-woven coverlets, split oak baskets and other “necessary” crafts once common to every remote household. Art...
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Carl Mays: We experienced yellow journalism in living color
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) said, “A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.” And, of course, different people find humor in dif...
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Gail Crutchfield: Tin Roof Cafe closing proves to be bittersweet
I met Summer Smith Orr about four years ago, before she added the Orr to her name and shortly after she opened Tin Roof Cafe in an old farmhouse on Apple Valley Drive in Sevierville. I believe the...
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<b>Olive Atchley Latham as an infant.</b>
Upland Chronicles: Olive Latham enjoyed 37-year teaching career in Sevier County
While many Americans were celebrating Independence Day, a baby was born in a small log house near Alder Branch Baptist Church on July 4, 1912. Her parents, A. P. “Pink” Atchley and Lula Wear Atchle...
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Carl Mays: Have you thanked sigfluencers lately?
My recent “Take advantage of the power of positive influence” column drew quite a number of comments – 99 percent of them positive, I’m happy to say. So I decided this week I would follow up with a...
2 months ago | 0 0 comments | 13 13 recommendations | email to a friend
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Derek Hodges: Time of year to be mad is upon us
The only thing that rivals the slowdown that besets the news staff on election days is the one that accompanies March Madness. As I write this, in the background a broadcast of the first game of t...
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<b>Homer Lindsey was a student at Pittman Center High School in this photo.</b>
Upland Chronicles: Fortune teller may have predicted Homer Lindsey's death
By CARROLL McMAHAN The palm reader looked astonished as she began to read Homer Lindsey’s palm. “Your life line...” she hesitated, “has an abrupt ending; oh, this is just a game after all, don’t wo...
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Carl Mays: Take advantage of positive influence
NCAA basketball’s “March Madness” is now here and high school basketball state tournaments are climaxing, but the Associated Press sports feed that caught my eye this week involved out-of-season NF...
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Adriana Zoder: Oath of citizenship emotional experience
Three years ago, in Greeneville, 200-plus people from more than 40 countries united their voices in saying: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all al...
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Rachel Osborn: Take it easy on restaurant serving staff
Until you’ve worked in the food service industry, you’ll never know some of the horrifying things customers do and say to restaurant employees. Though I no longer serve meals to the public, I sti...
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Derek Hodges: How Peter Pan stepped in for Spring
SEVIERVILLE — This is a story about a dog with sweet brown eyes and a big gray patch of fur shaped like a diamond on top of her head. She was there last Friday when I went out to get my copy of Th...
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Carl Mays: A true leader must be truly committed
“Commitment” is a word that has arisen quite frequently over the past several years as organizations continue to deal with our society’s economic challenges. As I spoke in a recent leadership sessi...
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<b>The original cast of “Store Britches” is pictured with Lula Mae Ogle seated second from left. Her son, Van, is the young man standing third from right. Pictures courtesy Lynn Ogle</b>
Upland Chronicles: Lula Mae Ogle's play 'Store Britches' written in 1930s
As the curtain rises, a pretty young mountain girl named Mary Adams is melodiously singing: “Who will shoe your little feet? Who will glove your hands?
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Gail Crutchfield: Thanks for support of Relay event
Once again I have to thank everyone who participated and supported in any way our recent Holiday of Hope pageant. Over the last three years, the pageant has been The Mountain Press Relay For Life ...
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Carl Mays: Let’s talk about consistency, again
I wrote a column in October 2007 titled “Consistency on all levels is a key to success.” In December 2008, I wrote “Consider the consistency.” The first column sprang from my experience with an ins...
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<b>Dr. Bruce Montgomery sits with his wife, Lenora Whaley Montgomery. He is holding their oldest daughter, Kate, and Mrs. Montgomery is holding their second daughter, Mae. Photos courtesy Kathy Pittman</b>
Upland Chronicles: Dr. Montgomery treated many aches, ailments in the mountains
By the turn of the 20th century the “timber rush” was on in the Smoky Mountains, bringing with it lumber companies and their physicians. The Little River Lumber Co. employed Dr. Bruce Montgomery fo...
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Carl Mays: Touch hearts and tickle funny bones
In response to my recent column, “Get behind the mule in the morning and plow,” I received a comment via e-mail that reads, “Even though I find you standing on a soap box and preaching in some of y...
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<b>Naturalist Arthur Stupka talking to a crowd in the new Sugarland’s Visitors Center. Photo courtesy national park</b>
Upland Chronicles: Arthur Stupka left a strong legacy in the Smokies
“Vegetation is to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park what granite domes are to Yosemite, geysers are to Yellowstone and sculptured pinnacles are to Bryce Canyon National Park,” exclaimed Arthu...
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Carl Mays: We can always learn more
“Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.” This statement by Henry L. Dohe...
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<b>The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Headquarters Administration Building is shown in 1940 before landscaping was completed.</b>
Upland Chronicles: Park headquarters building has colorful history
Regarded at the time of its construction to be the finest of all administration buildings in the entire National Park system, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park headquarters and administration...
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Carl Mays: Experts are not always expert at what they do
As most of us realize, statistics, polls and surveys are popular in our society, especially in dealing with such things as products, businesses and politics. Organizations probe the public’s inner...
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A picture of the original folk-ark par trait portraying Timothy Chandler.
Upland Chronicles: Portrait of Timothy Chandler comes home
In a manner of speaking, Timothy Chandler has returned home. Courtesy of the East Tennessee Historical Society, a reproduction of a folk art portrait of a young Timothy Chandler now hangs on the w...
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Carl Mays: Get behind the mule in morning and plow
On my Facebook page, I list my musical taste as eclectic, which basically means to me that I like a little bit of country, a little bit of rock ‘n roll, a little bit of soul, a little bit of gospel...
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