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Some of the people who “studied” the mountain people did so without first winning their confidence. People who lived up on the bluffs or back in the hollows may have been short on schooling but they were very able to make outrageous statements to strangers. Stories abounded in the national press about them being lazy, shiftless, murderous and inbred.
There’s some evidence that George Pollock, although overall a sympathetic friend of mountain people, may have encouraged this misconception to entertain his guests.
No one who lived with or dealt with the mountain people remembers them as some of the outside observers did. To a man, they’re remembered locally as being honest, hard-working and respectful.
“I’d trust a mountain man sooner than one who lived in town,” said Charlie Estes, whose father ran a store and a mill that served the mountain community above Sperryville.
“They’d bring down walnut kernels, struck (gutted) rabbits and dried apples. Think of how they’d work to get the cash they needed. They’d carry back coffee, salt, sugar and clothing, carry them way up over the mountain on foot.”
“I’ve seen them walk over the mountain before daylight, if they got
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