Ripples from the Holler: A Folklore Told Through Word and Sketch

By G. Gene Berryhill

Ripples From the Holler is a fictional trilogy blended with historical touchstones that recounts the extraordinary adventures of an American mixed blood family who survive trials and hardships through the early 1900s back to the early 1800s. Truth, deception and the mystic merge into peculiar twists and turns––times of elation and tragedy as the line transitions from Indian lifestyle to White civilization—hunter gatherers to farmers.

Indian ancestors, the lore of Tennessee hill folk, effects of the Great Depression, bits of Civil War traumas and Indian battles that raged across the plains and woodlands unfold. Narrated by a tenacious, feisty character whose life is deeply affected tells all––up front and personal.

Fantasy with action, mystery, and the supernatural are entwined together, spiced with a pinch of romance, some rippling across to the Tennessee river waters from far away shores.
Rough sketches of key characters and landscape are interspersed throughout to magnify the text visually tracing this remarkable line of kin, held together by God, love, and pure grit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Nov 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781489747907

G. Gene Berryhill

Gene Berryhill, Ph.D. worked as a professor of art and art history at universities in numerous parts of the world for over thirty years, her most recent positions being at the Belmont University campus in Nashville, TN and the University of Maryland-UMGC online. A published non-fiction author, a Fulbright scholar and a National Endowment for the Humanities co-recipient briefly sums up her career in academia. As a professional artist in mixed media and documental photography with a stint in fresco painting, four years ago she picked up sketching and painting on canvas again, which sparked, lit the kindling, and started the fire to write this book. It was a leap of faith from her city life and extensive travel back to her love for Tennessee, the country and kin—past and present. Her first project of historical fiction, she loves reading others’ works of like kind that creatively mix history and fact with lore. Reading into the wee hours with thunder, lightning and rain overhead is one of her favorite past times. Today Berryhill lives with her husband and cat on the Cumberland River in the Tennessee woodlands.

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Copyright © 2023 G. Gene Berryhill.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover Image: Photographed by G. Gene Berryhill.

Author photo photographed by Bob Berryhill.

Interior Sketches: G. Gene Berryhill

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980,

1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4759-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4758-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-4790-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023915002

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 01/24/2024

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Part 1: Mystery in the Gallo Mountains (Early-1900s)

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Notes

Acknowledgments

Part 2: Vandora’s Flight (Mid- to Late-1800s)

Introduction

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Notes

Acknowledgments

Part 3: The Ways of Will (Early-1800s)

Introduction

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Epilogue

Notes

Acknowledgments

To my parents and grandparents, no longer with us, who still live in my mind, heart, and soul. Thank you all for sharing your love, wisdom, memories, resources, and skills during our precious times together. To my husband, Bob, and to family and friends who patiently read through my initial drafts and encouraged me. Above all, thanks to God, for He is good.

Foreword

I am so excited that Gene Berryhill has completed her historical novella trilogy Ripples from the Holler, which includes Mystery in the Gallo Mountains, Vandora’s Flight, and the recently completed The Ways of Will. Together they paint an unforgettable picture of Americana in a gritty and honest manner. Like the parables of Jesus, they demonstrate the power of fiction to tell truth-bearing stories in a way history can never capture.

There are many books that describe the humble origins of famous, accomplished people. But most of us, and most of our ancestors, were and are common people, lost to popular history but, in some ways, even more profoundly interesting due to the temporal nature of our lore. Gene captures a fascinating array of just such interwoven stories. She introduces us to unforgettable yet forgotten people who struggled to survive in a challenging time in our history—people who feel like us in a different context.

Woven through these fascinating stories are the timeless truths and values that matter most. As such, we recognize our own beauty and significance (and sometimes our own folly as well), and life is seen as an enduring, precious gift. If you allow yourself to get lost in these tales, you may just find yourself in them as well.

Dave Rolph, Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel Pacific Hills

DM in Talbot Seminary, Biola University

Bible teacher on the Balanced Word radio program

Preface

Everything in this book is mythical—except for the truth.

—Gene Berryhill

This tale is a laconic fictional story. It is blended with historical snippets that help to facilitate the experiences of an American family who survived the trials and hardships from the early-1900s back to the early-1800s and personalized with some peculiar twists and turns—mixtures of elation and tragedy. For poor folk, it is not a unique saga, as many have lamented and rejoiced through similar situations. So, if you think this is about your ancestors, you may be right, or you may be mistaken. Either way, it is shared here with a tenacious and heartfelt spirit.

You may find a bit of yourself, a granddad, an aunt, or a cousin wrapped within your own interior cobwebs of vague childhood recollections about Indian ancestors, lore of the Eastern Tennessee hills, effects of the Great Depression, the Civil War, and the numerous Indian Wars. In consideration that much happened during those times, the locations and events that were left unmentioned—important things—know that my intention was to focus on telling an adventurous tale starting in the 1930s with a hunt-and-gather family. Certain dramatic incidents are highlighted as they move from their Tennessee holler to the Gallo Mountains of New Mexico and then back again to their birth roots.

Names and numerous details are imaginary for anonymity, except for known historical persons, places, or events that were intertwined in a fictitious manner. Artistic license was mixed with historical touchstones to develop ties as deemed necessary or complementary. Fantasy played its part through actions, mysteries, and the supernatural.

As is natural in an up-and-down world, harsh realities of these past eras are not left out but also blended in with good times and further seasoned with a pinch here and there of pure, simple romance. However, through the good and the bad, the underlying message throughout is based on the theme of redemption. Any perceived mistakes or places where the story has fallen short of expectations are due to my own unintentional gaffes. Along with sketches of key characters, some landscapes, and artifacts, I offer this trilogy, the three connected together by the same family bloodline.

The multiperiod epic begins with part I, Mystery in the Gallo Mountains, placed in the early-1900s and works backward to part II, Vandora’s Flight, situated in the mid-1800s. The book concludes with part III, The Ways of Will, which relentlessly cries out for the future survival of this family during the perilous early-1800s.

A monomyth of sorts is used structurally, which means traveling backward in time, starting with what was known by our narrator and then moving deeper into the murky past of the 1800s for a painstaking journey into the unknown—secrets yet to be unearthed. But in part III, the saga comes full circle to disclose what was found and now known by the hero’s great-grandkids, a family line that has survived through the generations, and for good reason.

Ready yourself for a ride across time that will take you into places and relationships unimaginable and things you’ve never done, seen, or experienced. Draw in close with this early American, mixed-blood clan that hangs on through thick and thin. Join in and open your mind and heart. Indulge your yearning to reach out when desired or needed and fight for what Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:8. Paraphrasing, he spoke of things to dwell upon—truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness, goodness, virtue, and whatever is worthy of praise. These were the implements of survival for this family—empowered by love.

PART 1

Mystery in the Gallo Mountains (Early-1900s)

Introduction

T he year was 1933, and our family migrated from our home in Eastern Tennessee to a small outpost known as Luna, in Catron County, New Mexico, where we lived for close to five years. The locale was in the Apache National Forest, near the Arizona border. My name is Naomi, and I am the eldest daughter. At this telling many years later, I have outlived the rest of my close kin. This has come as a surprise to me at this strange and lonely juncture of life, I being well-advanced in age.

With nothing much to do these days, there is a lot of time to be lazy and mull over the past, which I seem to remember better than what I did yesterday. So, here is my story, as best as I can recall, about our barely known history heading out from the holler as a hunter-gatherer family—drifters really, after the 1929 crash, the Great Depression. It is about a place I grew to love, though a few years after settling there, our stay ended in a mysterious and bitter outcome. At this disclosure, about eighty years later, one day it struck me that the incidents my clan faced should not be buried and forgotten. So, I bear witness with a conflicted but steadfast heart.

img1.jpg

Naomi at sixteen

Chapter 1

Cry your tears but smile; water and sunshine together make rainbows.

—Gene Berryhill

O ur papa, always needing more space around him, wanted to stretch out and move across unknown territory. Mama and Papa shared this fierce wanderlust, and so, without hesitation, they left East Tennessee with us three young’uns in tow with our meager belongings. Needing to find a livelihood, we set up camp in Luna, New Mexico, hoping to find work. Soon, we moved on to an isolated canyon area in Spur Lake, known as Cooney, just west of the foothills of the Gallo (Guy-yo) Mountains. I was sorry to leave our Luna community and the festivities we enjoyed, especially on Saturday nights; box socials were among my favorites. These affairs were organized to raise money for some needed cause, but we also made music and danced; all our friends and neighbors would gather round at the old schoolhouse.

Papa declared one day, It’s time to press on. We packed our things and headed for the ranches around Spur Lake early one chipper fall morning. Papa; Mama; my younger brother, Andrew; my little sister, Candace; and I, Naomi, traveled to meet up with Mama’s cousin Alma, who had written to her about cowpunching openings on some of the ranches in the region. We were poor and living a nomadic life, moving to wherever work was available or where a relative was willing to take us in for a spell.

The Great Depression hit many folks hard and often ended in cruel misfortune. Women did not always survive childbirth, and infants, at times, were doomed to a short life, especially in