Ann S. Brown c 2025 These beautiful mountains, if only they could talk. They would tell of a time long ago of how they were formed and how their mighty peaks were born. They would tell of forests so pristine and tall and of animals who lived there, the big…
Ann S. Brown © 2025 In 1861 America was in turmoil. The Winds of the Civil War swept across the big plantations of the South. Many versions of this story have been told and written since the time of the Civil War. This retelling of what happened does not reflect…
Ann S. Brown © 2024 From a boy to a man, Bill was a picture of courage and determination. Born in 1901, he was a healthy and active child. Then when Bill was nine years old his left knee began swelling and hurting him. With rest his condition did not…
Ann S. Brown c 2025 It was the first night of revival at the Zion Hill Baptist Church on Helton Creek. The building was full of people. Men sat on one side, women on the other. Some men and older boys stood outside. Windows were open to let the fresh…
Ann S. Brown © 2025 This is what happened on that beautiful fall night in 1950. A big full moon was rising. It was the perfect night for a fox hunt. Five young hunters with their hound dogs in tow met on top of the ridge above the old cemetery.…
Ann S. Brown © 2025 Mr. Ezekiel Sizemore lived in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. There he owned a large boundary of timber, mostly oak and chestnut. The American chestnut trees were admired for their beauty, often towering over other trees at heights of up to one hundred feet and…
Ann S. Brown c 2025 That question has been asked many times down through the years, since the day of that terrible tragedy. It happened in the early 1800’s. The young woman in this story grew up in the Fees Branch section of Ashe County NC, near Helton Creek. She…
Ann S. Brown © 2025 After my Grandma Sturgill passed away, her steamer trunk came to our house to stay. It sat in the living room beneath a window where I could see it every day. That trunk fascinated me. At twelve years old, I had a big imagination and…
Ann S. Brown c 2025 My Great Uncle Noah was a young man when he joined the Confederate Army in 1862. Noah and his fellow soldiers fought those Yankees all over the South trying to drive them back. Some battles they won and some battles they lost. Many young men…
Ann S. Brown c 2025 Was he homeless or was every barn he slept in his home? Nobody knew who he was or where he came from. He didn’t talk, but seemed to understand what was said. Was he lost? Had he been injured or displaced during the Civil War?…
