In 1914 a series of massive explosions occurred in the Eccles Mine No. 5 near Eccles, West Virginia in Raleigh County, West Virginia, leaving over 180 men and boys dead, including an insurance salesman who had the bad luck of making a call on the miners that day.

Today we tell the story of West Virginia's second-worst mine disaster.

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At the turn of the 20th century a young woman named Cora Wilson Stewart was hired as an elementary school teacher, later becoming Rowan County school superintendent. Fifteen years later she began a program that has since spread across the country: the idea of adult education for those who needed it.

Today we tell her story and the story of the schools she founded, the Moonlight Schools of eastern Kentucky.

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Today we tell the story of one of the 20th century's most brilliant mathematicians, born in Bluefield, West Virginia, and the subject of the movie "A Beautiful Mind," John Forbes Nash, Jr.

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Thomas David Carr was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1846. After a childhood marked by abuse, a prison term at age 8 and an attemped poisoning of one of his "acquaintances," Carr joined the Union Army at the start of the Civil War.

As he traveled with his unit, and by his own admission, Carr left a string of murders in his wake, culminating with the brutal murder of a 13-year-old girl who spurned his persistent marriage proposals.

Today we tell the story of a dark and dangerous man, Thomas David Carr.

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Sanctified Hill was a section of Cumberland, Kentucky, where many retired African American miners and their families resided in homes many had built themselves. In 1972 heavy rains fell across Appalachia, resulting in flooding and, in the case of Sanctified Hill, a terrible disaster.

Today we tell that story.

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Around the turn of the 20th century a man charged with murder escaped from the Scott County, Virginia, jail and headed to Texas. He likely would have spent the rest of his life there but for an accident.

A real accident, involving a train.

Today we tell the story of a man whose demand for justice from the railroad company led to his own reckoning back home.

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Rising tensions along the Appalachian frontier culminated with what's called "Lord Dunmore's War," named after the royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. That conflict came to a head with a battle in 1774 at Point Pleasant in what's now West Virginia, in which Dunmore's forces battled the Shawnee warriors under Chief Cornstalk.

Today we tell that story.

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Our story of the West Virginia Mine Wars continues at Matewan, West Virginia, where a famous gun battle left several mine company hired guards dead, along with the town mayor, among others. The fighting was so fierce, many townsfolk fled across the Tug Fork into Kentucky, seeking safety. This battle also set the stage for the climax of the mine wars: the Battle of Blair Mountain.

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On April 5, 1872, the last man to be hanged in Fentress County, Tennessee, was said to have made three eerie predictions, all of which came true.

Today we tell the story of Cal Logston, a convicted murderer who is said to have foretold events up to a hundred years in the future.

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For a century and a half the king of central Appalachia has been coal. That mineral powered the industrial revolution in America, made some men and corporations very wealthy and provided jobs for the Appalachian men and women who dug it out of the ground.

Those jobs, though, didn't pay nearly well enough to justify the human costs of the work, so in 1912 miners in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas of West Virginia went on strike, triggering the first battle in what's come to be known as the West Virginia Mine Wars.

Today we tell that story.

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Catch us on TikTok and YouTube @storiesofappalachia and on Instagram @storyappalachia for short video stories of the history and folklore of Appalachia.

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