I’m not sure if we ever relayed this, but in our Brown Mountain Lights series, the Collins sisters (Sarie, Maggie and Abbie) are modeled after the Walker sisters who lived in a log cabin their father built in Little Greenbrier Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains – late 1800s going into the 1900s, holding a lifetime lease on the property for the rest of their lives after their land was made part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The six sisters (one married and moved away) cut their own wood for cooking and heating, walker sistershunted and fished, grew herbs for healing as well as vegetables and fruit, spun their own wool from sheep they raised which they dyed with berries or bark, and grew cotton and flax they turned into textiles with their father’s cotton gin which they then used to sew their own clothing, They once said, “Our land produces everything we need except sugar, soda, coffee and salt.” I can’t imagine living this kind of life without electricity or running water but they managed quite well. Here is a picture of the sisters, who from oldest to youngest were Margaret, Polly, Martha, Nancy, Louisa (pronounced Lou-eye-za), Sarah Caroline and Hettie. They each bear a strong family resemblance, don’t you think?

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