Dorie: Women Of The Mountains

by Florence Cope Bush

Before the Great Smoky Mountains became a national park, the region was a lush wilderness dotted with isolated farms. Into this land of unspoiled beauty, Dorie Woodruff Cope was born in 1899. In this evocative memoir, Dorie's daughter, Florence Cope Bush, traces a life at once extraordinary and yet typical of the many Appalachian farm families forced to leave their simple mountain homes for the cities, abandoning traditional ways for those born of "progress."
Dorie's story begins with her childhood on an isolated mountain farm, where we see first-hand how her parents combined back-breaking labor with intense personal pride to produce everything their family needed--from food and clothing to tools and toys--from the land. Lumber companies began to invade the mountains, and Dorie's family took advantage of the financial opportunities offered by the lumber industry, not realizing that in giving up their lands they were also letting go of a way of life. Along with their machinery, the lumber companies brought in many young men, one of whom, Fred Cope, became Dorie's husband. After the lumber companies stripped the mountains of their timber, outsiders set the area aside as a national park, requiring Dorie, now married with a family of her own, to move outside of her beloved mountains.
Through Dorie's eyes, we see how the mountain farmers were forced to abandon their beloved rural life-style and customs and assimilate into cities like Knoxville, Tennessee. Her experiences were shared by hundreds of Appalachians during the early twentieth century. However, Dorie's perseverance, strength of character, and deep love of the Smokies make this a unique and moving narrative.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Southern, Memoir, Womens, Biography

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lovely biography of Dorie Woodruff Cope, written by her daughter Florence Cope Bush, tells of Dorie's life in the Smoky Mountains between 1899 and 1943. I was first introduced to this book through the YouTube channel Celebrating Appalachia by Tipper Pressley, who has been reading chapters of the novel interspersed among her other wonderful videos that celebrate the region (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2gGe...).

Dorie was born in TN in 1899 to mountaineering parents who were subsistence farmers and knew how to do or make most anything because they had to. She grew up just as timber companies were coming into the mountains that would change the way of life for many. This progress was welcomed at first, as it brought money into the communities, and Dorie married a lumberman as a teen. She and her husband Fred would go on to have ten children (the author is her seventh child) over the course of 25 years, from 1916-1941. She and her family would move around for job opportunities, mostly in the TN and NC area, eventually settling in Knoxville for good in 1943.

We often think of Appalachians as living in one area permanently, surrounded by family, but this wasn't the case for many people who couldn't make a living on the small farms and had to move or leave the area. As with any change, you don't see that a way of life is changing until years later in hindsight. Many traditions were lost during this time, yet, who wouldn't welcome new technology to save your family from enduring backbreaking labor? Progress then is a double-edged sword.

My maternal grandmother was born in Kentucky in 1898, later moving to rural Indiana where she met my grandfather, and had seven children in about the same time span as Dorie, so I couldn't help but think of her. What amazing changes my grandmother and Dorie saw in their lifetimes. They both went from outhouses and travel by horses to men on the moon! This was a heart-warming book about an amazing, yet typical Appalachian woman, who will remind many people of their ancestors and make them appreciate the sacrifices they made for their families.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've become fascinated by the Smoky Mountains now, after a brief trip there, and even more after reading historian Durwood Dunn's Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community a few weeks ago.

This book, with approval and an afterword by Dr. Dunn, is a memoir/biography of an ordinary mountain woman, born in 1899, and describes her life until the family moved to Knoxville for permanent work in 1943. Both her father and her husband were often employed by Little River Timber Company & she lived in large logging camps, including Elkmont and Tremont (both inside the national park now), and even remote small camps up in the mountains, close to Clingman's Dome. But sometimes they tried farming, once even tried working for a year in a cotton mill in the mountain foothills. Dorie and her family moved frequently, always trying to find that elusive economic security (which ironically would come after the national park had taken over the mountains and the family moves to Knoxville where Dorie's husband finds work with the power company).

Dorie speaks in her own voice, in this book, as if she is telling the story but it was written by one of her younger daughters, Florence Cope Bush, who was a journalist in Knoxville. Originally written for family, not for publication, it is an interesting, simply told story of hardships, sickness, joy, birth of many children, food, etc. There's been no attempt to make it dramatic or exciting but I never got bored with it.

I particularly liked the parts about mountain medicine (turpentine, kerosene and onion poultices) which Dorie found more effective sometimes than doctors. She recognizes the beauty around her in the mountains and mourns the family's exile.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable biography of a woman who grew up in the mountains of Tennessee during the early years of the 20th century. It was a time of change and the story of how Dorie, her family and her community reacted to the changes in the world makes for an interesting read. My grandmother's life was very similar, including the relocation from a national park. I thought it was interesting that the writer blamed the government for the "loss of the homeland." The story makes it clear that the community was struggling before the government came in and bought the land. Dorie and her husband didn't own a home until after they left the mountains; all the land where they lived belong to outside timber companies. Her parents owned a farm or two but the worn out acres couldn't produce a living. Forest fires caused by logging and trains devastated areas of the region. My grandmother's parents sold their land to the government for the Blue Ridge Parkway but I heard very little in regret from the family. The dwindling of the community because people left for outside jobs and the changing economics made it easier, I'm sure.

[Lisa Keipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly told story of a woman's life and her family in their years in the mountains of East TN and Western NC.

The details of her life, their work, the lifestyle of the mountain folk through the end of the 19th century and halfway through the 20th century is amazing history.

I literally gasped when they passed, in the 1930s, on buying a large plot of riverside property in Gatlinburg. But then it was definitely the right decision.

Amazing history. And when I found out today that Elkmont still exists within the national park, I resolve to go see it this fall.

An excellent history of how life was for the average mountain person.

[Kim Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more a memoir, not a novel. But I sure read it like one! It is simply written, but it strangely captured my attention. Dorie tells the story of her family’s life in the Smoky Mountains until the creation of the national park and the need for steady work during the depression drove them out. The loyalty and hard work described is astounding when held up against the modern average family.

[Amanda West · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author truly lived an adventurous life that was parallelled by both tragedy and triumphs. Although this is a non-fiction book, it reads very much like a novel and there were pages that made me laugh and some that left me in tears. I wish I could have known Dorie, as I would have loved to sit by her rocking chair and listen to more of her stories.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are parts of the book that were a tad dull but the depiction of mountain life at the turn of the 20th century was quite enlightening. I learned how lye soap was made and that there were earthquakes in the Smokies among many other things.

[Vicki Beckner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. What a life she lived!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this story-- familiar places she described where she grew up

[Nancy (Colorado) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads like a grocery list but the historical perspective is interesting.

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really liked this book. Good read for anybody interested in Tennessee History, Appalachian History or for a good look at life in the south during the Depression. Especially interesting to me, because Dorie lived during the time of my great grandparents. My mother's mother's family lived in Polk and Monroe Counties, in Tennessee. That's about 3 counties to the south, also on the North Carolina state line. My grandmother was born in 1919 in Servilla, Tennessee, which is no longer a community. It served in much the same capacity as the logging camps Dorie grew up in. My father's father's family lived, at that time, in Grainger County, about 40 miles north of where Dorie lived. My grandfather had cousins who would alternate between farming in Grainger County, and working log camps in the mountains. Learned a lot, especially about my own notions about what living in the Appalachians in 1900-1940 would have been like....

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so interesting to learn how hard and tough mountain life was back in the early 20th century. We are all wimps compared to how these generations of early settlers did everything on their own - hunt for food, make clothes, act as a doctor. If today's society had to live even a short time as these real people did, we'd die of starvation and disease in a short while. We take so much for granted. And it's very unfortunate that many of the skills passed on from generation to generation, and knowledge of natural healing, and the fortitude it takes to pick yourself up and carry on, is now mostly lost due to today's modern conveniences. And our spoiled way of living. I passed this book on to my mother (who is 70 yrs old) and she recognized and remembered many of the things in this book from her own childhood, from her mother and grandmothers.

[Amy Dance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by Dorie's daughter, this book is a closeup look at the life of an Appalachian family in the early & mid 1900's. This book chronicles the lifestyle changes that made Dorie's life easier than her mother's, and the changes, both good & bad, that the lumber/railroad industry brought to the region in the years leading up to & just after the Great Smoky Mtns became a National Park. The railroad/timber industry brought jobs, cash, modern conveniences (such as Mason Jars for canning), & news of the outside world to the isolated mountaineers.

I was interested in the traditional practices detailed in the book such as "bleaching" apples (with diagram of the procedure) & drying greenbeans (called leather britches), & home remedies for common illnesses.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up after visiting Pigeon Forge and the cemetaries in the smokey mountains near there. This book was in one of the tourist shops and I could not put it down. It made the most excellent companion for me as we drove back home to Wisconsin. This book was written as a personal family account but bears the story of the mountain families that were displaced. This is well written and very intimate... Amazingly, the many gravestones we saw on our visit were people who showed up in this book... A true experience for me... I felt as though I had lived a bit of this life...

[Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at life in the Great Smoky Mountains at the beginning of the 20th Century, when many people were displaced to larger urban areas as the GSM's became a National Park.

A bit dry to read through.

[Rene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It tells of the life of a woman who raised a family during the Great Depression in the mountains of Tennesse. The book transports me to a world and time that myself and other young Americans will never know.

[Stacy Renee (LazyDayLit) · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mother handed me this book one day and said that I might like it. I've always been more of a big fiction reader but I gave it a chance because I tend to love books about wilderness and/or hard times in the past. It was definently interesting enough to keep me reading.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great first person account of life in the Smoky Mountains before and during the creation of the national park.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make fun of me if you'd like, but I love reading about this period in history.

[Kimb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes you wish you lived in the mountains, although electricity is nice.

[Cecile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reading. Learning about life in the mountains was very interesting. Had a few good laughs from some stories of her life. Strongly recommend.

[Dichotomy Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is no great literary work, it is an interesting and compeling read for those who are fascinated by the history of Appalachia.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful insight into a different time period