In this episode of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we travel into the mountains of Southwest Virginia for the story of Robert Sawyers Sheffey, a Methodist circuit rider, mountain preacher, and one of the most unusual religious figures remembered in Appalachian history.

Robert Sayers Sheffey was born in Wythe County, Virginia, on July 4, 1820. Orphaned as a young child, raised for a time in Abingdon, and later converted at a Methodist revival meeting, Sheffey became known across the mountains not for polished preaching, but for prayer. He rode horseback through Appalachian communities, visited homes, preached where people had no regular church, helped the poor, gave away what he had, and became remembered as a man whose prayers seemed to carry unusual weight.

But around Sheffey’s name grew stories that live somewhere between history, faith, and folklore. Stories of him praying against liquor stills hidden in the mountain hollows. Stories of fire, falling trees, sudden judgment, and moonshiners who feared being on the wrong side of his prayers. Stories of a preacher who could be tender enough to rescue insects and tadpoles, yet stern enough to make grown men uneasy when he knelt down to pray.

And then there is the story that still follows one Appalachian town.

According to local tradition, Sheffey returned to his hometown to hold a revival. The people mocked him, ignored him, and went back to the very things he had preached against. Before he rode away, the story says he dusted off his shoes and spoke words over that town that people would remember for generations.

Was it a curse? A biblical warning? A piece of mountain folklore shaped by hardship and memory? Or was it a way for a struggling community to explain the loss, collapse, sinkholes, closed industry, and pain that followed?

This episode explores the real life of Robert Sheffey, the religious world of old Appalachia, the Ivanhoe curse legend, the decline of an industrial Appalachian town, and the way the people of Ivanhoe, Virginia later tried to answer loss with faith, community, Jubilee, music, gospel singing, and hope.

This is not just the story of a preacher who supposedly cursed a town. It is the story of a man remembered for prayer, a community remembered for survival, and the strange place where Appalachian history and folklore meet.

Topics include Robert Sayers Sheffey, Ivanhoe Virginia, Southwest Virginia history, Appalachian folklore, Appalachian religion, Methodist circuit riders, mountain preachers, Christian revival, the Bible Belt, moonshine stills, Appalachian industry, Jubilee Park, and the faith traditions of the mountains.

New episodes of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast release weekly, sharing true stories from Appalachia rooted in history, folklore, crime, faith, memory, and the things people do not always say out loud.

In this Memorial Day special of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia, we remember Appalachian men and women whose lives became tied to some of the most difficult moments in American military history.

Memorial Day is often confused with Veterans Day or Armed Forces Day, but its meaning is different. Memorial Day is set aside to honor the men and women who died in service to the United States. And in Appalachia, that remembrance has always felt deeply personal. From coal camps and mountain farms to Cherokee communities, small towns, and hollows tucked between the ridges, generations of Appalachian families have sent sons and daughters into military service.

This episode follows several powerful stories of Appalachian courage, sacrifice, survival, and service.

We begin with Colonel Ruby Bradley of West Virginia, an Army nurse who survived captivity during World War II and continued caring for the sick and wounded under brutal conditions in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. Later, she served again during the Korean War, becoming one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history.

From there, we move to Staff Sergeant Junior J. Spurrier, born in Castlewood, Virginia, and tied to the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. Known officially as Junior J. Spurrier after an enlistment paperwork mistake, his World War II combat actions in France earned him both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor.

We also remember Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton, born in the coalfields of East Gulf, West Virginia. A Black Appalachian soldier in the Korean War, Charlton took command after his platoon leader was wounded, led repeated assaults under heavy fire, and gave his life in action. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Then we tell the story of Private First Class Charles George, a young Cherokee soldier from the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina. During the Korean War, George sacrificed his own life by covering an enemy grenade, saving the soldiers near him. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and remains one of the most honored military figures in Cherokee history.

The episode also reflects on Francis Gary Powers, born in Burdine, Kentucky, raised in Southwest Virginia, and known around the world after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union during the Cold War. His story brings us into the shadows of secrecy, espionage, capture, and the long burden of being misunderstood after serving his country.

We also briefly recognize more modern Appalachian military stories, including Jessica Lynch of West Virginia, who was wounded and captured during the Iraq War and later received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal, and Gregory V. Pennington of Southwest Virginia, who was killed in Iraq while helping evacuate fellow soldiers during a mortar attack.

These are only a few of the many Appalachian military stories that could be told. Across the mountains, there are names carved into courthouse memorials, folded flags resting in family homes, and stories passed quietly from one generation to the next.

This Memorial Day episode is not just about wars. It is about people. Ordinary people from Appalachian communities who carried the weight of history, and in some cases, never made it back home to the mountains that raised them.

Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia explores true stories from Appalachia, including history, true crime, folklore, forgotten places, mountain communities, and the people whose lives shaped the region.

In this episode of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we tell the story of Old 97, the Southern Railway Fast Mail train whose name would become one of America’s most famous railroad ballads.

On September 27, 1903, Southern Railway’s Fast Mail Train Number 97 was racing south through Virginia carrying United States mail moving from New York through Washington, D.C., toward New Orleans. Known for speed and strict schedules, Old 97 was one of the Southern Railway’s most important trains, running so regularly that some people living along the line reportedly set their watches by it.

But that Sunday afternoon, the train was already behind schedule when it arrived in Monroe, Virginia. Another crew was reassigned to take the Fast Mail south toward Spencer, North Carolina, and before long Old 97 was speeding through Lynchburg and toward Danville trying to make up lost time.

What happened next outside Danville would become one of the deadliest railroad disasters in Southern Railway history.

But this story is about far more than a train wreck.

Over the decades that followed, the wreck of Old 97 transformed into something much larger. The story spread through newspapers, railroad depots, front porches, and eventually through music. Long before radio stations carried country music across America, people passed stories down through ballads and folk songs, and somehow the story of Old 97 refused to disappear.

In this episode, we explore the true story behind the wreck, the controversy surrounding the crash, and the questions that still remain more than a century later. We dive into the pressure railroad engineers faced in the early 1900s, the importance of the United States mail system, and the debate over whether Old 97 lost its air brakes while descending the grade toward Danville.

We also examine the life of engineer Joseph “Steve” Broady, the man blamed for the disaster. Contemporary newspaper reports stated Broady “stuck to his post” during the final moments of the train, remaining aboard the locomotive as Old 97 entered the trestle outside Danville.

The episode also follows musician Henry Whitter, whose early recording of “The Wreck of Old 97” helped preserve the ballad and introduce Southern string music to commercial recording audiences years before the Bristol Sessions of 1927.

Listeners will hear the story behind the famous song, the rise of Vernon Dalhart’s million-selling recording, the complicated copyright lawsuits surrounding the ballad, and the remarkable fact that the legal battle over Old 97 eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States.

We also explore the connection between Henry Whitter and legendary blind fiddler G. B. Grayson, whose recordings helped shape early Appalachian and country music history before Grayson’s tragic death near Damascus, Virginia in 1930.

And hidden inside the story all along are deep Appalachian roots.

Because the wreck of Old 97 was not just a railroad story.

It was an Appalachian story too.

From Southwest Virginia railroad men to early mountain musicians, this episode follows how one moment in 1903 continued traveling across generations long after the whistle faded from the rails.

This episode contains historical discussion involving railroad disasters and fatalities.

Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast explores the history, folklore, mysteries, and true stories of Appalachia through narrative storytelling rooted in the mountains and communities of the region.

Music featured in this episode includes the 1924 recording of “The Wreck of Old 97” performed by Henry Whitter. The recording is believed to be in the public domain due to its age and original publication date.