Depicting Historic Vardy, Tennessee

THE PHOTOS FOR THIS ISSUE Depicting Historic Vardy, Tennessee George Brosi The cover graphics for this issue of Appalachian Heritage are from the collection of AIyce and Drew B. Williams, former teachers at the Vardy Community School in Hancock County, Tennessee. Blackwater Creek forms a valley with Newman's Ridge on the South Side and Powell Mountain to the north. The valley is called the Vardy Community after Vardeman Collins, who settled in the valley in the 1700s. Presumably when he arrived a handful of families were already well established on Newman's Ridge—the people who have subsequently come to be called the Melungeons. Some claim to be "Portuguese," and others claim to be descendente of "The Lost Colony." Many are mysteriously dark-skinned yet with basically Caucasian features, often assumed to simply be a mix of Indian, Black and White races. Although less than fifty miles southeast of Cumberland Gap, Hancock County, whose seat is Sneedville in the Clinch Valley, is one of the few Tennessee counties with no U.S. highways and no McDonalds. Vardy, nestled between two imposing mountains, is even more isolated. In the 1890s, the Presbyterian Church established a school in Vardy. The inside photos in this magazine come from a collection created by Chester Leonard, a minister and teacher who served as the Presbyterian missionary in the community from 1920 until 1952. His wife, Josephine Leonard (1894-1982), supplied the captions to these pictures which were left to subsequent missionaries. The last Vardy missionary was Louise Avery who served in the 1970s. She left the photos to Willa Mae Gibson Mullins, a Valley resident who had been a cook in the community school. She made them available to Appalachian Heritage. Thanks to her and to Katie Vande Brake, Jack Mullins and DruAnna Overbay, the daughter of Alyce and Drew B. Williams, for making this possible. A book ($26.00 postage paid) and a traveling photographic exhibit, both featuring historic Vardy photographs, are also available from the Vardy Community Historical Society c/o Dru Anna Overbay, 7839 Melanie Circle, Talbott, Tennessee 37877. E-mail: overbayd@kl2m.net. ...