Appalachian Families Past and Present Family History Of Janice Harburn

When I was young, there were only trees on the mountains and a few logging roads. Now, it is very common to see whole communities on a mountain side.

These are the mountains I grew up in and still live in today.

This is the house I was born in and grew up in. It was built in the late 1800s and is over 100 years old

Do you know what this little building is? We had one for a while when I was a little girl.

When I was growing up, everybody I knew had a barn. Do you know why?

We had buildings for everything, not just for cows. We had chickens, pigs and lots of other animals and food that needed cover and shelter. We had can houses, well houses, smoke houses, corn cribs and chicken coops, just to name a few.

This is my mom and dad when they were first married. Their names are Mozelle and Virgil Coker. My mother’s maiden name was McDonald.

I am the baby in this picture. The other children are my brothers and sister and cousins. There were three children born after me. There were seven children in my family counting myself. I grew and grew and grew… I am the middle child here. I’m standing by my mom in this picture.

We could never all get together to have one big family picture made. This is all seven of us. We all grew up in these Mountains. Our names are Leroy, Sue, Gene, Janice, Ronnie, (top picture) and Brenda and Jimmy in the (bottom picture).

This is my first grade picture This is my high school Senior picture

These are my grandparents on my fathers side. Their names are Virge and Cora Coker. We called them Ma and Pa Coker. These are my grandparents on my Mother’s side. Their names are Nathan and Della McDonald. I never knew my grandmother McDonald. She died when I was a baby. We called my grandfather, Papaw Donald.

This is what Hayesville Elementary School looked like when I went to school. You may recognize it as the same building where you have art and music. This is what Hayesville High School looked like when I graduated. It is now Hayesville Middle School. There wasn’t a middle School when I grew up.

This is Hayesville Elementary School today.

This is Hayesville Middle School today.

This is Hayesville High School today.

We even have an outdoor classroom now. Don’t you think we have a beautiful school?

I have deep roots in these Appalachian Mountains. I am very proud of my heritage.

When I grew up, I had a family of my own. This is my husband, Richard, and my two sons, Jeremy and Benjamin.

My two sons grew up also. This picture was taken the last day they played together in the snow at our home. They now have homes of their own. They are a very big part in my Appalachian family history. I hope is that someday they will have children to carry on this history.

I now live in this house. It is just two miles from the house I grew up in. This is also where my children grew up. I have lived in the mountains all my life.

This is my school picture this year. I have been teaching in kindergarten for eight years. Before that I worked In the high school for five years.

Do you think I have changed since I was a little girl? How? How is my family like yours? How is my family different from yours? How did my family change over the years? What are some of the things that families needed a long time ago that we still need today? What are some of the things families have today that we didn’t have long ago? How have the mountains changed since I was a little girl? How has Hayesville School changed? What is an outhouse? Almost everyone used to live on a farm. Why do we not all live on farms now? How many of you live on farms?

Now tell me about you and your family history.