I wrote a post a while back called ‘Home Again‘ in which I mention the general area where I grew up. Several persons have contacted me on and off line to discuss one place in particular: Pressman’s Home.
My link list for this area is growing.
The Burton Family have a fantastic site with wonderful photos. My favorite is from the hotel, aimed down toward the school.
This site, is wonderful enough, but it is their page on Hawkins County that is what we are looking for. I saw further down the page that Klondike used to have a post office!! Haven’t a clue where it was though. Maybe the old store. There is also a mentioning of a post office in ‘New Hope’. That is the name of the church in the valley. The two were never open at the same time, so it is possible there were two in that area.
Other Links:
East Tenn. State University has a museum collection that includes a press from there
ETSU also hosts the Center for Appalachian Studies which has image archives from the ‘Archives of Appalachia’ that include a good sized list of Pressman’s Home . I am thinking that going there and looking through images would be a good way to get an idea for a book.
Wikipedia has a large article on George L. Berry, one of the presidents of the Pressman’s Union who lived there and is actually buried there.
I am mentioning all this because I would love to research all this, eventually writing a fiction book about it. A nonfiction one would be wonderful as well. The problem is, those who knew it most, are dead or dying. With them goes a wonderful history of not only Pressman’s Home, but of their own lives.
Gather the memories while ye may! Sounds like it would make wonderful reading, fiction or not. I encourage you to explore this project, right now!
I just might!
Got Thought Patterns of your own? Input ’em here.
I was searching the net for pics of Pressmen’s Home so that I could put them on the “Digital Photo Frame” for my folks, Walter and Georgialea Allen, who are now in their 90’s. I don’t think I’ve ever read the line “Hoglot road” before and it brought back a flood of memories – such as riding horses from Pressmen’s Home with my dad into Poor Valley. Passing the farmer plowing with a mule. The tobacco fields. Going over the rickity wooden bridges, past the log cabins with wallpaper of Lucky Strikes paper from the Card and Label Plant in Rogersville. So here I am in Springfield, OR – about to qualify for Medicare and already on Social Security. And here you are on the Internet – a thought that would be more unbelievable in 1955 than the impending possibililty of a moon landing.
I left the area in 1961 to go to school in Arizona. My folks and sister, Carole (now living with Dale Ferrell in Annapolis and the VP of a large sign/display company) left when they sold Pressmen’s Home. My sis and Dale visit the area about once a year. I haven’t been back for years.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. . . Best wishes for many successful future publications!
Barbara