A previous post explored Ella Austin’s and Asbury Whisnant’s lives during the post-Civil War years–before they both took jobs at the State Hospital at Morganton around 1894. Another focused on the…
Read moreAsbury’s Asheville: 1900-1907
For Starters: Some Guesses as to Why Asbury Chose Asheville Although the romantic designation as the Land of the Sky was bestowed upon Asheville in Christian Reid’s 1875 novel, this…
Read moreThe Cruel War and Its Aftermath: Life Down the Mountain for Asbury and Ella, 1869-1894
Asbury Whisnant and Ella Austin were not born in Asheville. They arrived as fully-formed adults: he came in 1900 when he was twenty-eight, and she came in 1907 when she was…
Read moreThe End of the (Wagon) Road in North Carolina: The Whisnants and Austins in the Down-Mountain Counties, 1760-1865
My previous post took the Visinands/Whisnants from Germany to Lancaster County PA, where they lived for (it seems) about thirty years before loading their possessions and progeny into Conestoga wagons and taking…
Read moreThe Land of the Sky at the End of the Line: Asbury and Ella
My grandparents Asbury Whisnant (1872-1955) and Sarah Ella Austin (1869-1942) both grew up down the mountain, and came to the Land of the Sky as adults–he to find a job…
Read moreMud on the Rafters
More than thirty years ago, just short of my father’s seventieth birthday, I taped a long interview with him to explore his memories of his early life in Asheville. Toward…
Read more