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01/12/2024
Closing a chapter on the history of history in Jackson
By Jim Buchanan
One of the quotes that has hung with over the years came from Russell Baker, a longtime columnist for the New York Times. Asked by a stranger what he did for a living, Baker replied “I get paid to think about America.’’
Here at the Herald, I’ve been privileged to get paid to think about a very specific slice of America, Jackson County and its surrounding environs, through our weekly history page. Having grown up here, I thought I knew a good bit about local history. I’d heard tales of people like Dr. John Brinkley, who grew up here and became famous (and infamous) as a medical quack, Kansas politician and radio pioneer who helped country music get a foothold across the nation. I was also aware of Gertrude Dills McKee, the first woman elected to the North Carolina State Senate, and of a legion of superstar athletes and teams that made their mark on the collegiate and high school level.
That’s all fine history, but it only scratches the surface. For the last seven years I’ve been able to research tales of moonshiners and farmers, floods and plagues, events big and small.
One real pleasure has been to recount tales of folks from here who have perhaps faded a big from memory, like Capt. John O. Buchanan, who oversaw salvage and rescue operations during the Texas City disaster of 1947, when a freighter packed with ammonium nitrate blew up in one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in the planet’s history. The blast leveled 1,000 buildings and blew two planes out of the sky. Buchanan and his team arrived after the initial explosion and survived a secondary blast said by some to be larger than the first and were lauded for their heroics.
Then there was Matt Ransom Coward of Webster, who fought at the Battle of Veracruz and went on to become a famed merchant captain. There’s a plaque with his name on it in the Marine Society of New York’s clubroom. As a member himself, Coward was counted among historic figures of that group that included Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.
Dr. Dick Slagle was a surgeon and Sylva leader served as the caretaker for the U.S. Antarctic expedition in the ‘50s. As a younger man he was close friends with George Washington Carver. That factoid still kind of blows my mind.
A lot of inspiring stories are out there. There were plenty of sad ones too, like the saga of the Cowee 19, prisoner laborers who drowned in the Tuckaseigee while working on the Cowee Tunnel in 1882. One satisfying chapter of my time here was the er****on of a state Historical Marker near Dillsboro to help recall their story.
In telling these tales I’ve met a lot of great people and worked with great organizations. Jackson County is fortunate in that there is no shortage of people who love history and will work to preserve it.
As for me, I’m stepping away from the day-to-day operations of the Herald and this page. Four and a half decades in the newspaper business has been good to me, but hey, it’s four and half decades and I’d like to step aside with a little tread still left on the tires.
For history lovers out there, keep digging and sharing stories. We’ve only scratched the surface.
Keep thinking about Jackson.
See ya around town,
Jim
PHOTO CAPTION: A front page from the Ruralite, the precursor of the Herald & Ruralite, from its inaugural year.
