For a brief time, less than two months, Charles Prince brought services involving snake handling to Haywood County in 1985, an effort cut short by his death from a rattlesnake bite. His effort focused attention on a practice centered in Appalachia, that of Christians handling snakes under wh…

In July 1985, Charles Prince, owner of a fish-bait store in Canton, posted a sign announcing a type of event closely tied to Appalachia but almost unheard of in Haywood County. He would worship the Lord while handling snakes.

Haywood County has been home to two men who, thanks to their longevity and the timing of their births, lived across three centuries.

Sometimes a person’s fame has to do with circumstances not of their own making, such as the timing of their birth and death. But sometimes a person can take those unusual circumstances and make the most of them, as seemed to be the case with Federick Messer, a Haywood County man who was born…

The man who titled Federick Messer the “Old Man of the Mountains” in a 1901 Charlotte Observer story was himself a colorful character who became one of the state’s best-known journalists, writing newspaper articles up until the week of his death at age 94.

(Last in a series on Appalachian self-sufficiency.)

Third in a series on the self-sufficiency of Appalachian culture.

Last week’s history feature recalled milking cows and churning butter, in honor of those looking for a more self-sufficient lifestyle in these virus-ridden times.

One of the interesting effects of the coronavirus isolation has been a social “back to basics” effort at self-sufficiency.

This story contains a lot of bull.