 
Larry
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Username: Larry
Post Number: 169
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 5:42 pm: |    |
I've read that Detroit was the number 1 destination for Appalachians heading North, from the 1930's thru the 1960's. I'm curious as to where in particular they settled in Detroit, and how big of a cultural impact they had on the city. |
Larryinflorida
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Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 165
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 5:44 pm: | |
I'm gonna guess Hazel park is involved. |
Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 1466
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 5:52 pm: | |
Taylor township, now the City of Taylor, also known as Taylortucky. Cultural impact implies some kind of culture, and I ain't a-gonna touch that one
Kentucky: Four million people. Five surnames. |
Barnesfoto
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Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 3515
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 6:01 pm: | |
Southwest Detroit, where their unofficial cultural hall, known as Buck's Eat Shop, was located on W. Vernor. To this day, there are Appalachians in SWD, proudly clinging to their culture and stubbornly refusing to remove junk cars from their backyards.
Brightmoor was another hub of Appalachian Culture. |
Larry
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Username: Larry
Post Number: 170
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 6:07 pm: | |
I seem to remember reading about some settlements just West of Woodward and North of Downtown but not sure of more specific locations. Also I believe I read that the Detroit Police had alot of Southern born officers in the 40's. |
Fury13
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Username: Fury13
Post Number: 1664
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 6:10 pm: | |
Country music became HUGE in the Detroit area from the late '30s on because of the influx of Appalachians and southern whites into the region. It's one of the reasons the classic Detroit Sound (and by that, I mean Detroit rock and R&B of the '50s, '60s, and early '70s) is unique. The hillbilly music mixed in with the blues and primitive R&B that the southern blacks brought here when they moved here... the whole cross-pollenation thing. All these musicians, white and black, who were from other places and ended up here... they all listened to each other and they mixed in various aspects of each genre as they created Detroit-style popular music. |
Mikeg
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Username: Mikeg
Post Number: 865
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 6:13 pm: | |
This thread could have gone in a positive direction, but with all the trash-talking stereotyping going on, I'll withhold my two cents worth. |
Lmr
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Username: Lmr
Post Number: 37
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 6:22 pm: | |
Downriver - many places - Ecorse, Lincoln Park, Southgate, some in Wyandotte, Taylor, Romulus, even farther out like Brownstown Township. I knew a bunch of them. Real red-necks...the women with long hair married at 15 to a guy 10 years or more older. Some of the Baptist churches downriver still have some of the now-elderly Appalachian folks in them. |
Dialh4hipster
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Username: Dialh4hipster
Post Number: 2066
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 7:27 pm: | |
I believe I read somewhere that north corktown was a popular settling spot too. |
Kova
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Username: Kova
Post Number: 103
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 7:28 pm: | |
for some insight into the culture and history of appalachians in Detroit, read Class predicaments of whiteness in Detroit by Hartigan |
Dexterpointing
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Username: Dexterpointing
Post Number: 3
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 7:50 pm: | |
had quite a few on the east side,,,on moran, elmwood,east grand blvd,kirby,ferry,palmer,
whoo, the list goes on and on until they all left almost instantly. |
Whithorn11446
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Username: Whithorn11446
Post Number: 81
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 8:41 pm: | |
Jefferson and St.Jean for the east side. In particular,nearby Hart St was notorious for some things. Most if not all of the street disappeared when the new Chrysler plant grounds were reconfigured. Also, throughout the Cass Corridor into the 1960's. I wouldn't be surprised if their are a few old-timers still in those apartment buildings. |
Neilr
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Username: Neilr
Post Number: 504
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 10:54 pm: | |
Dialhforhipster, quote:I believe I read somewhere that north corktown was a popular settling spot too.
Quite correct, until recently that area was known as the Briggs Neighborhood and was an entry spot for many of our Appalachian emigrant families. |
Catman_dude
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Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 136
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 11:19 pm: | |
My father and mother were from Kentucky. Mom was from the Appalachians herself. Many of my uncles and aunts on my father's side moved up to Michigan and my father followed. Later my mother was visiting a brother (my uncle) in Garden City and he happened to live next to one of my father's sisters and of course, that's how they met. They settled in Westland (or Nankin Township at the time). I had other relatives in Farmington, Plymouth, Redford, and Sterling Heights. |
Larry
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Username: Larry
Post Number: 171
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 11:40 pm: | |
In a related subject. What were the original boundaries of Corktown before the expressways ? |
Lmichigan
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Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5518
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 11:58 pm: | |
It pretty much extended from the river to Grand River from north to south. The east and west boundaries, I'm not exactly sure, but it was thin like most of the neighborhoods because of ribbon farms. |
Jenniferl
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Username: Jenniferl
Post Number: 370
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 12:35 am: | |
In addition to the neighborhoods already mentioned, the area behind and south of the Fairgrounds also had a lot of Appalachians. There still are some Appalachians in that area, although not many. Since Hazel Park is directly north of there, I would guess this is why a lot of Appalachians eventually moved to that particular suburb, just as the Jews on the west side migrated directly north into Oak Park and Southfield. |
Warrenite84
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Username: Warrenite84
Post Number: 96
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 2:50 am: | |
My parents came from Eastern Kentucky. My dad came up first around 1949, and got a job at the Wonder Bread Bakery that is now Motor City Casino. He stayed at an apartment near Masonic Temple.
Uncle Sam called him to serve in the Korean War.
When He returned, my dad was hired by Cadillac in 1953. His three brothers then came up for a while to work in the factories. They eventually moved to Kentucky, Washington, and Florida. (Their new wives were from there.)
My parents married in '56 and first lived in a trailer park at 10 mile and John R. for 8 months before settling in Warren/Sterling Heights.
I am very thankful they stayed. Kentucky is nice to visit but living up in the hills and hollers is too secluded for me. |
Catman_dude
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Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 137
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 7:13 am: | |
Quote: "Kentucky is nice to visit but living up in the hills and hollers is too secluded for me."
After about two weeks in the Appalachians, I get very claustrophobic and ready to get out of there! Not being able to see some type of horizon (always a mountain side in your front view) and facing those hair-pin turns with steep falloff gets on your nerves after a while. |
Pam
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Username: Pam
Post Number: 1579
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 7:41 am: | |
quote:Country music became HUGE in the Detroit area from the late '30s on
This topic made me think of this song. "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare:
I wanna go home I wanna go home oh how I wanna go home
Last night I went to sleep in Detroit City
And I dreamed about those cottonfields and home
I dreamed about my mother dear old papa sister and brother
I dreamed about that girl who's been waiting for so long
I wanna go home I wanna go home oh how I wanna go home
Homefolks think I'm big in Detroit City
From the letters that I write they think I'm fine
But by day I make the cars by night I make the bars
If only they could read between the lines
Cause you know I rode the freight train north to Detroit City
And after all these years I find I've just been wastin' my time
So I just think I'll take my foolish pride and put it on a Southbound freight and ride
And go on back to the loved ones the ones that I left waitin' so far behind
I wanna go home I wanna go home oh how I wanna go home |
Lmr
Member
Username: Lmr
Post Number: 38
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 9:18 am: | |
The presence of Appalachians has affected the speech of white Detroiters more than I think most realize. When I first moved to Minnesota in 1984 I cut the ending t's and d's on especially contractions very short, such as wasn't pronounced as wudn't with a soft n and t. Then I moved to Minnesota, the land of old scandinavian inflection patterns where they pronounce wasn't as wazn't and the t is strongly pronounced as in the word "tower". I made quite an effort to pick up the Minnesota sound so that people would understand me better. |
Bigjeff
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Username: Bigjeff
Post Number: 73
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 12:19 pm: | |
My grandparents came to metro Detroit from share cropping in eastern Tennessee. They originally moved to Ypsilanti while working at the Hydramatic plant for GM. Then eventually moved to Garden City, then retiring back to western Tennessee. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 5878
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 12:32 pm: | |
You all right on the money!
Many Appalachians have move to most parts of Detroit and fewer Downriver suburbs. They take pride in their homes and family and most of them try not to sell their properties to anyone besides their own. That's is why there are more demarcation lines in River Rouge, Ecorse Melvindale, Allen Park and Lincoln Park and Oakwood Heights sub-division of SW Detroit had been set up. Those folks love it there for their close proximity to Rouge Plants and Detroit River and they are not leaving too soon. |
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 171
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:01 pm: | |
What was the AM station with real country?
WEXL?
Not this crap they call "country" with big snare drums....real country! Hank Willams, Buck Owens country. hehe. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 5882
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:06 pm: | |
Larryinflorida
You should listen Carrie Underwood's new county break up song "Think before he cheats". The song has 70% country and 30% pop beat. County music days are getting too cut and paste with pop and hip hop and alternative rock additives. Who want to listen too it? I don't unless its REAL County with banjos, violins and guitars and dixie drum beats. |
Lmr
Member
Username: Lmr
Post Number: 40
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:10 pm: | |
Charity Baptist Church, which I think is in Brownstown Township used to have a lot of Appalachians going there. That may still be the case. |
Bvos
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Username: Bvos
Post Number: 2175
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:12 pm: | |
My in-laws moved up from Kentucky about 60 years ago. Lived on the east side (7 Mile and Harper area). Growing up on the eastside suburbs, I can tell you that there are a lot of Appalachian Whites living in those suburbs. In school I remember lots of kids going to Kentucky, Tennessee, Carolinas, etc. on vacation, to visit grandpa & grandma, etc. |
Larryinflorida
Member
Username: Larryinflorida
Post Number: 172
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:25 pm: | |
Not to divert the historical focus of this thread, I switched to pure bluegrass about 10 achey-breaky years ago and laugh at this current nonsense.=)
What the heck was that country station's call?
It was on 8mi on Hazel Park.
All the LA rock producers from the 80's all live in nashville now, thats the problem!
(Message edited by Larryinflorida on May 18, 2007) |
Bigjeff
Member
Username: Bigjeff
Post Number: 74
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 1:40 pm: | |
Speaking of bluegrass anyone ever catch The Cass Avenue Ramblers at the old Third Street Saloon. Many a good pickin' and a grinnin' goin on in there. I need to get ahold of these guys. I think they have changed names recently, and they no longer play at Third Street. |
3rdworldcity
Member
Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 647
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 2:18 pm: | |
I know a guy in Eastern TN who died and left his widow his entire estate. She can't touch it until she's 14 though. (rimshot) And in KY, even though a couple divorces, they remain cousins. (another rimshot.)
Actually, I have backpacked many sections of the Appalachian Trail over the years and met many natives along the way. Nicest people you'd ever want to meet. If I ever retire, I'm moving to Eastern TN or Western NC. Beautiful country.The South is booming and I can't imagine why those remaining people who migrated North haven't moved back already. |
Catman_dude
Member
Username: Catman_dude
Post Number: 139
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 2:59 pm: | |
My mom's family is from the Hatfield and McCoy's country in extreme eastern Kentucky near the tri-state area. My father's family is from the Jessie James line. If any of you'uns a-wantin' ta a-lookin' down the wrong end of the barrels of a gun, I kin kindly oblige ya! |
Billk
Member
Username: Billk
Post Number: 4
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 4:18 pm: | |
Some Dutch (I think) record company put out a 4 CD set of Detroit hillbilly and country songs recorded in the 1940s and 1950s. It's called 'Detroit in the 50s'. |
Fury13
Member
Username: Fury13
Post Number: 1666
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 6:34 pm: | |
The Fortune label recorded a LOT of local hillbilly/country music from the late '40s through the '60s. Fortune was famous for its R&B, but many, many country artists passed through the studio on Third Avenue. |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 172
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 6:45 pm: | |
I can't stand what's referred to as County, nowdays. A real country band includes a good 5 string banjo player and a mandolin picker. I should just say I hate Country but love Blue Grass. |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5521
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 7:12 pm: | |
My maternal grandma is Texas, and my maternal grandfather from Detroit. And maternal grandparents both from Arkansas. You don't find too many people from the old southwest (Texas, Arkansas, parts of Louisiana...up here in Michigan. |
Missnmich
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Username: Missnmich
Post Number: 594
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 9:50 pm: | |
Actually, Lmichigan, I have served churches across Northern Arkansas, and I have found that the migration pattern from the hills went mostly to California, but a lot of folks in Eastern Arkansas ended up in Detroit. My college sweetheart grew up in Livonia, of Arkansas stock.
Also, the Chambers Brothers drug family hailed from Turrell, Arkansas, a mean old town outside of Memphis.
Where in Arkansas are your people from? |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5524
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 10:25 pm: | |
Missmich, in the far northwest and southwest in the hills. They are much more connected to Oklahoma and East and Northern Texas than to the Delta. As with most all African Americans, my family started back out hundreds of years ago down in South Carolina, but I also have a lot of Native American ancestors, and it seems that my family moved west when they were moved west, too.
BTW, you're deftinitely right about California. Most of my Arkansas relatives from my paternal granparents branch ended up in California. |
Kathinozarks
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Username: Kathinozarks
Post Number: 503
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Friday, May 18, 2007 - 11:58 pm: | |
And, guess what you guys - lots of Californians are moving to NW Ark. these days! |
Warrenite84
Member
Username: Warrenite84
Post Number: 97
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 19, 2007 - 1:47 am: | |
I admit I tend to bring a little southern twang home when I visit relatives down yonder.
It's funny. The town in Kentucky my parents are from has a population of about 2,500. When we would visit, the local weekly paper would have in their gossip column, that so and so from Detroit came down to visit family last week... |
Kathinozarks
Member
Username: Kathinozarks
Post Number: 508
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 12:16 am: | |
Just want to let you know, Warrenite - they still do that in our local paper! |
Queensfinest
Member
Username: Queensfinest
Post Number: 112
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 6:04 am: | |
Guess what? Detroit is the northernmost southern town in this her U S of A!
Metro areas, including Atlanta, Houston, and even Charlotte are a lot more cosmopolitan, urban, and Northern than Detroit.
Southeastern MI is back wards... |
Eastsidedame
Member
Username: Eastsidedame
Post Number: 141
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 6:12 am: | |
WEXL in the early days, then WDEE...the Big D Country! I don't know the exact years, though. |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5531
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 6:34 am: | |
Queens, you weren't even trying to be subtle. Serisously, what was that all about? |
Dexterpointing
Member
Username: Dexterpointing
Post Number: 22
Registered: 05-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 9:37 am: | |
I think he was calling us "country"
Which is true to a certain extent. There's a ton of southern influence in Detroit proper.
We have to remember, Detroit was a migration point for many a southerner back in he day and those influences have stuck.
Although, Im not certain I like the tone of his comment. |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 174
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 10:28 am: | |
One of the victims of the 1967 riots was a man from Tennessee by the name of Clifton Pryor. He was killed by a National Guardsmen at 667 W Alexandrine. Some of the apartments in the area were supposedly occupied by men who spent part of the year working in Detroit, and the rest down South. |
Whithorn11446
Member
Username: Whithorn11446
Post Number: 86
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 10:45 am: | |
"One of the victims of the 1967 riots was a man from Tennessee by the name of Clifton Pryor. He was killed by a National Guardsmen at 667 W Alexandrine. Some of the apartments in the area were supposedly occupied by men who spent part of the year working in Detroit, and the rest down South"
Larry,
That is the heart of the Cass Corridor filled with many people from the South in the apartments, flop houses, bars, etc. That was a tough neighborhood plain and simple. Even before the days of drugs and guns people had to literary know how to use their fists around there on those streets and in the bars on a daily basis. It was not a great area during the riots. I had a relative(Not from the South)that lived on Brainard, but he had to stay with family on the east side during that week. The nearby corner store was looted and burned. After the riots he ended up moving to Northwest Detroit for several years and eventually the suburbs. |
Larry
Member
Username: Larry
Post Number: 175
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 11:27 am: | |
Thanks Whithorn. I had heard about the Cass Corridor previously, but mainly as an area for artists. When did the Appalachian period there, approximately begin and end ?
I found a photo of 667 W Alexandrine online, along with some other apartment buildings in the area, and surprisingly they look rather well kept up. |
Whithorn11446
Member
Username: Whithorn11446
Post Number: 87
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 11:53 am: | |
Larry,
For sure it was at its peak during World War II when many of the Southern migrants arrived there after the auto plants converted to war production. Consequently, many apartments converted to boarding houses. It started to a large degree in the 1930's when auto production started rebounding somewhat from the depression. In the 1920's the Cass Corridor was a somewhat affluent area. I would say the Cass Corridor Southern migration basically ended in the late 1950's. However, it was still a temporary stop for some in the 1960's but to a smaller degree. However, like I said before you can probably still find a few old timers down there. When the old Michigan Ave. skid row was demolished in the early 1960's for Urban renewal or removal, guess where a lot of transients moved to ? The Cass Corridor of course. |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 5335
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 1:04 am: | |
Cass Corridor was a huge spot for Hillbillys. There were also many Chinese in the area, from downtown up to Warren Ave. where Wayne State Univ. dominated.
The June, 1943 riots, well documented, were conducted along there and on Woodward. Tough white guys would drag Blacks from vehicles along Woodward. Back then, Blacks were not welcome W. of Woodward along the Cass Corridor.
Three places called for their Southern occupants over the yrs. are Hazeltucky, Taylortucky, and Ypsitucky.
US 23 runs down through E. Ky. and the auto moguls like Ford, Dodge, GM, etc. recruited along there. They brought up trainloads of workers for auto and War production. Willow Run Bomber Factory was a mix of Hillbillys and Black people.
Segregated housing was set up for them near the factory. From Ashland to Louisa, Ky. was a very rough and winding road. That's the area from where many came to Detroit for a better future.
They stayed in enclaves, so few were scattered amongst the white Eastern European ethnics on the Westside in jjaba's neighborhood.
jjaba, Cass Tech. class of '59. |