Before Land Between the Lakes: Communities That Disappeared

In my continuing series about Kentucky towns that moved—or disappeared—I couldn't overlook the communities that once stood in what is now Land Between the Lakes.

Long before campers pitched tents beneath towering oaks or anglers launched boats into Kentucky and Barkley Lakes, nearly 2,800 people called this peninsula home. Known then as Between the Rivers, the region was a close-knit collection of farms, churches, schools, country stores, and small villages where neighbors often gave directions by creek crossings instead of street names.

Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area today,
 showing the location of Golden Pond.
Map by Ontheworldmap.com

After the completion of Kentucky Dam and Barkley Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) proposed creating a national recreation area. A canal connecting the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers transformed the land into a peninsula encompassing approximately 170,000 acres in western Kentucky and Tennessee.

To make that vision a reality, every resident was required to relocate.

Entire communities vanished from the landscape, including Golden Pond, Kentucky, and Model and Tharpe, Tennessee, along with numerous smaller settlements scattered across the peninsula.

Most of these were tiny villages rather than incorporated towns. Golden Pond—the largest—had fewer than 300 residents when Land Between the Lakes was established. There were no factories, railroads, public water systems, or sewer lines. Electricity came from two rural electric cooperatives, and telephone service was limited to lines running along U.S. 68 and portions of the highway now known as the Woodlands Trace National Scenic Byway.

Visitors can walk on the concrete map at the Golden
Pond overlook and imagine the homes and businesses
that once existed there.

Today, Golden Pond lives on as the location of the Land Between the Lakes Visitor Center. From an overlook above the original town site, visitors can study a street map recreated by the U.S. Forest Service, which has managed Land Between the Lakes since 1998, and imagine the homes and businesses that once stood there.

Yet Golden Pond was once much more than a dot on the map.

A painting of Golden Pond, Kentucky, from mid-20th century.
 Artist unknown.

During the early twentieth century, it was a thriving rural community with a hotel, bank, church, café, two general stores, and a filling station. Although a devastating fire destroyed much of the business district in 1933, residents rebuilt most of what had been lost.

Golden Pond also became famous during Prohibition.

While, as one resident observed, "the big percentage of people here never had anything to do with whisky making," the region nevertheless earned a reputation for producing exceptional corn liquor. Its rugged hills, dense forests, and remote location made it an ideal place for illegal distilleries.

One colorful story tells of a local "king bee" in Golden Pond, who acted as a wholesaler for area moonshiners. Distillers reportedly delivered their whiskey to him for distribution and payment. According to local tradition, the liquor was poured into a well on a nearby hill and flowed through pipes leading directly into the king bee's house—a tale that illustrates the folklore surrounding the area's moonshining past.

Federal authorities fought a long battle against the illicit trade. From the early 1930s through the 1950s, the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit maintained five or six investigators in the region. The last operating still was seized in 1967, although TVA officials reportedly discovered evidence of a recently abandoned still as late as 1969.

Golden Pond was only one of many communities that disappeared.

In Tennessee, settlements included Tip Top, Blue Spring, Caleb's Valley, Fort Henry, Futrell, and Iron Valley. Kentucky communities included Fenton, Turkey Creek, and Pleasant Hill in Trigg County, along with Twin Lakes, Woodson Chapel, and Carmack in Lyon County.

Today, little remains of these once-vibrant communities except scattered cemeteries, old foundations hidden beneath the trees, family photographs, and cherished memories. Their stories are preserved through exhibits at the Golden Pond Visitor Center, reunions, and social media groups maintained by former residents and their descendants.

Millions of people now visit Land Between the Lakes each year to enjoy its forests, lakes, and wildlife. Few realize they are walking roads once traveled by schoolchildren, farmers, merchants, and churchgoers—following the footsteps of generations who called Between the Rivers home.

Sources:

Ed Huddleston, “The Land Between the Rivers,” reprinted from Nashville Banner, Nashville, Tenn., September, 1957.

Marie Wells Coutu, The Development of the Land Between the Lakes 1961-1972: A Case Study in Public Relations, Master’s Thesis, Murray (Ky.) State University, August 1973.

Harry Bolser, “Lakes Land: Iron to Alcohol,” Courier-Journal and Times, Louisville, Ky., August 31, 1969.

Senior Class, Lyon County High School, One Century of Lyon County History, Eddyville, Ky., 1964.

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. Moonshine River, the first book in her Between the Rivers Legacy series, will release this fall. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

When the lights of Broadway dim, Delia leaves the city behind. But will her family welcome her home again?

The historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was inspired by an old photo of a woman from the Between the Rivers area of western Kentucky. The story was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.

How Live Theater Shaped A Nation

By Kathy Kovach

It took some doing to convince Americans that theater had a place here. Between religious objections, and the attempt to sever all British ties by the Continental Congress in 1774, live theater almost died a painful, melodramatic death on our shores.

America’s only established theater troupe, The Great American Company, had been forced to flee to Jamaica. However, thanks to the manager’s persistence, it returned in 1784 following the end of the American Revolutionary War. One of the cities that had encouraged theater prewar, Charleston, South Carolina, embraced it with open arms.

Ironically, what we consider the hub of live theater today, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, rejected efforts to bring live theater into their communities. These, and other cities, enacted bans, going as far as to arrest anyone involved in theater. Including the patrons themselves.

By the end of the 18th Century, economic and cultural reforms began to take hold of the nation. New men were in power, and many believed live theater could promote nationalism and patriotism. Beautiful new playhouses with red velvet curtains and crystal chandeliers popped up in communities where powerful people could connect. Not only plays were performed there, but the elite enjoyed other social activities, as well.

At least, that was the hope.

It soon became evident that British influence was still unwelcome, and its plays were no exception. Dissenting political views disrupted the elegance that the theater managers wished to promote.

William Dunlap
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Dunlap_Engraving.jpg

One such disruption was a riot that took place on March 30, 1798 between the Federalist and Republican factions in attendance. The play, André by William Dunlap, took place in New York’s Park Theatre.

Before explaining what happened, it’s important to note this about playwright, actor, and producer William Dunlap. Although he was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey in 1766, that city was located in one of the colonies owned by the British Empire at the time. His father was Northern Irish and was wounded at the Battle of Quebec in 1759. In other words, he was an American born under British influence.

The play, André, is about the real person, Major John André, a British spy hanged for his role in the treason of Benedict Arnold.

So now, we have a playhouse full of American patriots of two different factions in post-war New York, watching a play about a British officer who had been executed by George Washington, written by an American with British ties. What could go wrong?

Tricorn hat with cockade

The riot sparked when an American character in the play, named Bland, is furious with Washington and rips off the black cockade from his three-cornered hat (a Federalist symbol) and throws it away. How dare he dishonor America! As a result of this theater revolt, Dunlap was forced to revise the ending.

So, how did William Dunlap come to be known as the Father of American Drama? He became devoted to the shaping of American theater, writing more than fifty original scripts, translations, and adaptations. Besides his management of New York’s John Street and Park Theatres at the turn of the century, he also wrote A History of the American Theatre in 1832. He turned out to be an advocate of shunning the old European system and encouraged the practice of allowing artists freedom of expression and thought.

Dunlap was one of the first to believe that theater could transform the new nation, teaching lessons of “patriotism, virtue, morality, and religion.”

Eventually, thanks to William Dunlap and others, by the early half of the 19th century, America, along with the American theater, was well on the journey of establishing its own identity.

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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Creek Villages of the Federal Period

by Denise Farnsworth

A number of my novels include the history of Georgia and surrounding states when large portions of the Southeast belonged to Creek and Cherokee Indian Territory. I'm often surprised at how many people are unaware that the Cherokees fought with the British during the American Revolution but allied to Andrew Jackson's Americans during the War of 1812, facing off against their longtime enemies, the Creeks, who were allied to the British. Most of the fighting of this portion of the war, known as the Creek War or Red Stick War, took place between the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers in modern-day Alabama. My novella that just released in Freed by the Frontier starts on the Georgia border in 1814 and unfolds in Creek Territory, depicting what life was life in a Creek village. Today’s article will relate something of the structure of a Creek Indian town during the Colonial to Federal period.

Naturalist William Bartram was an observer at the land cessation meeting that occurred in 1773 in Augusta, Georgia, between the white colonists and the Creek and Cherokee Indians. The journal of his travels from the coast to middle Georgia provide significant early information about the Creek Indians. He described 60 towns, 30 of which spoke the Muscogulge tongue. The five clans were Panther, Bear, Wind, Bird and Snake.

Creek reenactor at Horseshoe Bend

In each town, white clay, paste, or chalk was used to draw plants, flowers, and trees on the red clay houses, especially those creating the public square. On white walls, colored chalk was used. Each family would have a round winter and a rectangular summer house. In 1790, Caleb Swan described these as being between 12 and 20 feet long and 10 to 15 feet wide, constructed with poles stuck in the ground, walls lathed with canes and packed with clay, and roofs pitched from a ridge pole and covered with bark and four to five layers of shingles. The huts had one door and a chimney and would last only a couple of years. Families often lived in clusters of homes. Major villages were surrounded by walls.

The town council was held every forenoon in the public square, presided over by the mico, with the war chief on his left and the second headman on the right. The mico or king received great respect at the Great Rotunda or winter council house, but outside important meetings, he dressed and was treated the same as the others, hunting and working the fields with his family. He was, however, entitled to the first fruits of harvest and use of the national granary. Should a king or mico also be war chief or high priest (in charge of guarding the eternal fire in the Great Rotunda) he would indeed have great power.

Between the public square and rotunda of each town was the chunky-yard, chunky being a game which involved rolling a small disk and shooting arrows or spears at the disk. The yard itself was a large, sunken ground with what was known as the chunky-pole, four square pine pillars rising to an obtuse point. At the top, the Indians could fasten an object to shoot at with bows and arrows and rifles. Near each corner of the lower and farther end of yard was a lesser, 12-foot-high pole, but a more fearful sight than the chunky pole, as it was decorated with the scalps of enemies and crowned by a grinning enemy skull. Here in the days before Bartram’s arrival, captives could have been forced to run the gauntlet or burned to death. Thankfully, that practice had been abandoned by then, and Bartram was full of praise for the hospitality of his hosts.

Each family had a lot bordered by poles and including a garden spot where corn, rice, squash, etc. were raised. A portion of everything went to the aforementioned public granary, which was for the use of guests of the tribe or families that fell on hard times. Bartram observed that the Creek were very given to sharing and loaning. A man could clear and settle as much land as desired within his tribe. Occasionally, a Creek Indian would own an independent plantation and would live in their private villa, wealthy from trade with whites.

Freed by the Frontier: Three unforgettable romances prove that God's greatest blessings often come disguised as our greatest challenges, and that true love can bridge any divide.
https://www.amazon.com/Freed-Frontier-Lone-Star-Redemption-ebook/dp/B0GX2WN3ZB/

Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, writes historical and contemporary romance mostly set in Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A wife and mother, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses.

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Creek and Cherokee Territory

No More Grassy Taste

By Suzanne Norquist

What do soda straws and cigarette holders have in common?

First of all, they are both long tubes that bring a substance to someone’s mouth. Soda straws offer tasty beverages while cigarette holders carry nicotine.

Secondly, Marvin Stone, who brought us paper straws, first invented paper cigarette holders along with the equipment to manufacture them. Apparently, he recognized the commonality between the two and capitalized on it. Tweak the design, and presto, it’s a straw.

He lived in the late 1800s (1842-1899), when many common household products were introduced, and steam engines enabled mass production. As the son of an inventor, he had a leg up on all the others. His father invented things like a washing machine and a cheese press.

However, Marvin didn’t jump right into industry. He studied theology in college until he left to fight in the Civil War. After an injury, he stayed in the military until the war ended. Back at college, he tried his hand at music before earning a degree in theology. Afterward, he worked as a journalist for a while.

Eventually, he followed in his father’s footsteps. In addition to straws and cigarette holders, he invented a fountain pen, an umbrella, and a system to add color to fine china.

As an entrepreneur, he operated a successful business manufacturing paper cigarette holders. The product allowed smokers to keep their fingers clean and ashes away from their clothing. He contracted with W. Duke Sons & Co., a prominent cigarette manufacturer.

At that time, straws made from organic grasses left a grassy taste in drinks. Apparently, annoyed with this, he decided to make a better straw out of paper.

He wrapped strips of paper around a pencil and glued them. This diameter kept lemon seeds from getting stuck inside. To prevent sogginess, he coated the paper in paraffin. He patented the straw and the equipment used to make it.

He started manufacturing and marketing. Instead of selling straws to individuals, he offered them to restaurants and soda fountains, touting their cleanliness. They soon became his best-selling product, more popular than his cigarette holders.

Marvin Stone passed away before receiving the final patent for his manufacturing design, but his legacy lived on. His brothers-in-law took over the company. The spiral winding process is still used in electronics.

The product remained relatively unchanged until the 1930s, when Otto W. Dieffenbach invented the plastic straw, and Joseph B. Friedman turned it into a bendy straw.

Recently, the paper straw has made a comeback as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic. Marvin Stone could never have imagined the longevity of his invention. Personally, I’m grateful for the cigarette holder manufacturer who wanted something better. I wouldn’t like drinking from a straw that tastes like grass. 

***

 

Love In Bloom 4-in-one collection

“A Song for Rose” by Suzanne Norquist

Can a disillusioned tenor convince an aspiring soprano that there is more to music than fame?

“Holly & Ivy” by Mary Davis

At Christmastime, a young woman accompanies her impetuous younger sister on her trip across the country to be a mail-order bride and loses her heart to a gallant stranger.

“Periwinkle in the Park” by Kathleen E. Kovach

A female hiking guide, who is helping to commission a national park, runs into conflict with a mountain man determined to keep the government off his land.

“A Beauty in a Tansy”

Two adjacent store owners are drawn to each other, but their older relatives provide obstacles to their ever becoming close.

Republished from Bouquet of Brides

Buy links: https://books2read.com/u/bOOx8K

https://www.amazon.com/Love-Bloom-Mary-Davis/dp/B0FPLFYCXR/

 

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

 

Independence and the Island Spirit

 —By Tiffany Amber Stockton

If you haven't snagged your FREE e-book copy of Magic of the Swan, join the FanTAStic Reader community and receive the book today.

And now, on with this month's post.

When I think about Independence Day, I think about flags and fireworks and parades. But the deeper I dig into the history of these coastal communities, the more I realize these barrier islands didn't treat independence as a holiday. It was a way of life, and sometimes it was a choice that cost something.

Cut Off From the Rest of the World

For most of their history, the barrier islands of Virginia's Eastern Shore were genuinely isolated. They were part of a small sliver at the very bottom of the Delmarva Peninsula. Before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1964, getting to or from the mainland was a long ferry ride at best. The island communities that built up here — Chincoteague especially — developed a satisfying self-reliance simply because they had no other choice. Geography shaped the character the same way it always does when people are left to solve their own problems without much outside help.

You can still see it. These communities were defined by fishing, oystering, boat-building, and the practical ingenuity that comes from living at the edge of things. They knew how to read the weather, manage the tides, and handle whatever the season brought without waiting for someone else to fix it.

The July Fourth That Meant Something

In July of 1861, the country was coming apart. Virginia had just voted to secede from the Union, which put the island communities of the Eastern Shore in an extremely uncomfortable position. Their whole economy depended on selling seafood to markets in Philadelphia and New York. Siding with the Confederacy would have cut off everything.

On July 4th of that year (the 85th anniversary of American independence), 418 men from the barrier islands of Maryland and Virginia gathered on Chincoteague and signed a document pledging their loyalty to the United States. A War of 1812 veteran named Captain Edward Whaley stood up and declared he would defend the old flag to his last drop of blood. Not long after, Chincoteague voted to remain in the Union by 138 votes to 2, becoming the only part of Virginia to do so.

John A.M. Whealton, a merchant and oyster entrepreneur, was the man who organized that loyalty and made sure Washington knew about it. He later explained the decision plainly: "We sold nearly all the oysters we raised in Philadelphia. It would have meant starvation to us to have seceded." When Confederate sympathizers on the mainland tried to force the issue, Whealton's men took to flatboats and turned them back without losing a single islander.

Practical men, making a principled stand. That is the very essence of the Eastern Shore. And it's often found in smaller communities anywhere you go.

The Island Spirit

Interesting that these men chose to celebrate Independence Day in 1861 by signing a loyalty pledge. With the country fracturing around them, they gathered on their island and recommitted to the idea that freedom was worth defending. That some things don't bend.

That instinct runs all the way through the history of these communities. The barrier islands shaped people who were stubbornly self-reliant but also fiercely tied to one another. Islands by their nature draw people together. You take care of your neighbor because your neighbor is the only neighbor you have.

What happened on Chincoteague that Fourth of July didn't make the history books the way bigger battles did. Confederate Virginia barely noticed. As one account put it, Richmond simply didn't care about a small island choosing to go its own way. But Chincoteague didn't need Richmond to notice. They knew what they'd decided and why, and they went back to catching oysters.

This is just one of the many quiet decisions, made by ordinary people in ordinary places, that don't get monuments or headlines but shape everything that follows. I've been writing historical fiction long enough to know that the best stories are usually hiding in the footnotes. Chincoteague's July Fourth of 1861 was one of those footnotes. But it carried a lot of what independence actually means.

Anna Essinger: Understanding the Times in Nazi Germany

by Martha Hutchens

Image from Deposit Photos, @everett225

Fundamentally, Anna Essinger was a teacher.

But the time and place of her birth gave her the opportunity to make history.

Anna was born to a secular Jewish family in Germany in 1879. At the age of 20, she traveled to the United States, where she lived with her aunt in Nashville, Tennessee. During her years in America, she came under the influence of the Quakers, whose educational philosophy would shape the rest of her life. She later earned a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Anna returned to Germany in 1919. Around 1925, she founded a boarding school, which originally grew out of the children’s home that her sister established in 1912. The school was fundamentally different from most schools in Germany at the time. Discipline was less rigid, and students learned basic life skills, as well as academics.

Anna read Hitler’s Mein Kampf before he came to power and she found it deeply concerning. While her school was non-denominational, she did have many Jewish students. When Hitler came to power in early 1933, she remembered what she read. She watched to see what would happen.

In the spring of 1933, public buildings, including schools, were required to fly the swastika alongside Germany's traditional flag. Anna chose to comply with the order, but she also arranged an extended field trip for all of her students, so that the flag flew over an empty school.

Perhaps it was this event that drew more official attention to her school, or perhaps it was simply the fact that she was Jewish. However, oversight became more strict. And then, in May of 1933, Anna learned that her students would not be allowed to sit for the exam that gave them the opportunity to attend university. At this point, she knew that her students had no educational future in Germany. I doubt she foresaw the extent of what would happen, but she saw enough.

When it became clear that the students from Anna’s school would not be allowed higher education, many of the non-Jewish parents withdrew their children. Some families may have withdrawn due to increasing pressure on Germans to distance themselves from Jewish-owned businesses and institutions.

Image from Deposit Photos, @Quasarphotos

Anna was certainly concerned before the news in May. Throughout the spring of 1933, she was looking for a place to move her school. She considered Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway, before she settled on a run-down estate in England called Bunce Court.

She was also spending time talking to the parents of the children in her school. It surprises me how many of the parents agreed to let her take their children out of the country, considering how early this was in the Nazi rule. Not all agreed, but the majority did. Over 60 of her students, mostly Jewish, would be leaving.

The 13 oldest, who had been refused the opportunity to enter university left first in the summer of 1933. Given only a few weeks to prepare for the equivalent exam in England, nine of the 13 passed.

Image from Deposit Photos, @Mnapoli

But it was the event in October 1933 that read like a spy novel. The remaining students were assigned to three groups and taken into three different train stations. The parents were ordered that there should be no emotional goodbyes. Nothing that would draw the attention of the Nazi officials and soldiers who were already everywhere by this time. Each of the three groups crossed the German border safely, and they met up to cross the English Channel together. Anna escorted them to Bunce Court.

In Bunce Court, their lives would change. The financial support Anna had received for the school in Germany was no longer available. The students learned to grow vegetables and tend to chickens as well as typical academics. English officials were suspicious of the school, thinking that no substantial education could happen with such limited resources. But within two years, they were convinced that the Bunce Court school was doing everything it needed to do.

Anna left Germany two years before the Nuremberg Laws (which greatly restricted what Jewish people could do) were instituted. She left five years before Kristallnacht. She recognized the direction Germany was heading long before most of her fellow Germans.

After Kristallnacht, England agreed to accept 10,000 refugee children. This came to be known as the Kindertransport. Anna helped to administer these children’s welcome, and at least 50 joined her at Bunce Court. And after the war, she also took in children who had survived the Holocaust, some by hiding, and some who had survived the camps. It is estimated that 800 children passed through the school at Bunce Court.

If you'd like to hear what life at Bunce Court was really like, I share the memories of two former students here.

When I read Anna’s story, there is one Bible verse that comes to mind. First Chronicles 12:32 reads in part, “From Issachar, men who understood the times and understood what Israel should do.” I can’t think of any description that fits Anna better.

P. S. While preparing this story, I became interested in the bit about Anna taking the children on a field trip while the swastika flew over their school. I have not been able to make the timeline make sense. Some resources date the order to fly the flag as early as March 1933 and indicate that it remained flying after that. Most stories of Anna make a point of her leaving the flag up for one day while the school was empty. For now, it is one of history’s little mysteries.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at marthahutchens.com.

When his family legacy is on the line, rancher Drew McGraw becomes desperate for someone to tame and tutor his three children. Desperate enough to seek a mail-order bride. But when the wrong woman arrives on his doorstep, Drew balks.

Heiress Kaitlyn Montgomery runs straight from the scandal chasing her toward a fresh start on a secluded ranch. She strikes a bargain with Drew—a marriage convenient for both of them.

But the more Kaitlyn adapts to ranch life and forms a bond with Drew’s children and their enigmatic father, she realizes that this ranch is where she is meant to be. And then her past catches up with her…

From Knotted Lace to Tatting

by Izzy James

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatting#/media/File:2021-03-21_DSG0835_butterfly-shaped_handiwork_in_tatting_technique_(high_resolution).jpg

 From what I can gather, tatting, like most textiles, has no definite beginnings. It appears to have evolved from the techniques of knotted lace. Although one could argue that anyone who did cut work, embroidery, and even darning could have made the leap to creating fabric from knotted thread. Knotted lace and tatting are different from knitting and crochet in that those techniques create fabric by looping  yarn. Knotted lace and tatting create a lace fabric by joining rings out of knots and chains. Like knitting and crochet, tatting is still in wide practice today. YouTube has tons of videos should you like to give it a try.  
 

Knotted lace is worked by winding thread onto a shuttle, then a series of knots are formed in a line like a string of beads. Knotting was very popular in the eighteenth century becoming a favorite in the English court. Both Queen Mary, and Queen Charlotte were said to be avid knotters. Below is an image of Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle, and her shuttle and thread.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_van_Keppel,_Countess_of_Albemarle#/media/File:Anne,_2nd_Countess_of_Albemarle_by_Sir_Joshua_Reynolds.jpg

 

This website has some good, copyrighted, pictures of knotted lace. https://rookandraven.weebly.com/knotted.html

Knotting was portable, and doable with a very small number of tools. All that’s needed is a shuttle, thread, scissors, and a needle to sew sections together and to attach the lace to whatever it was intended for. 
 

Shuttles were made from all kinds of exotic and plain materials. Ivory, tortoiseshell, precious metals, not so precious metals, and wood. They could be decorated with jewels, enameled, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, or not decorated at all. 
 

Threads also varied from linen and cotton to gold and silver. 
 

It is simple to see how creating knots in that way would lead some industrious fiber artist to create rings. It is thought that this person was in Italy. Knots were used to create rings. The rings were separated by lengths of thread usually. It is astounding what can be made by making knotted rings and sewing them together in creative ways. 

Tatting is defined in Webster's dictionary as “a delicate handmade lace formed usually by looping and knotting with a single cotton thread and a small shuttle”. 

 

Tatting came into its own in the mid-to-late nineteenth century and was popular well into the twentieth. Mlle Riego, as she liked to be known, published eleven pattern books between 1850-1868. Innovation abounded as more and more women were tatting. Soon picos, small decorative loops, were used to join tatted rings which meant they didn’t have to be joined by sewing. Soon after the chain was invented. These are all the modern techniques used in tatting today. Rings, picos, joins, and chains. Once a person masters them she can create tons of designs. Lace edgings on clothes were popular in the eighteenth century along with three dimensional flowers and other accents. Tatting tools are still simple: a shuttle, thread, scissors, a needle, and a tiny crochet hook. 

https://tattingcollector.weebly.com/tatting-shuttles.html

Tatting shuttles are a good two inches smaller than knotting shuttles and they are closed at the end to allow better control of the thread. Good quality threads are easy to find and they come in many colors and useful sizes. A tiny hook is also easy to find and makes joining easier. 
 

In my book, The Road Home, Beti’s friend Agatha is a dressmaker. One of her favorite things is tatting lace for her creations. I am currently working on Agatha’s story. It will be out later this year.

 

A Cinderella story about a pirate's daughter on the Wilderness Road to Kentucky.

Beti Boatman, pirate's daughter, long dreamed of traveling to a place where no one knew her name. When looters showed up on the day she buried her father her choice was made. Leave her home or allow the only two people in the world she loves to live in constant danger.

When Zeke and what's left of his regiment organized a wagon train west, they did not expect to encounter a woman traveling alone. Beti insists she doesn't need his help, but Zeke knows better and the strong need to protect her runs deep. Things get complicated when looters track Beti down. And emissaries from her mother’s country claim Beti is a real princess. Now Beti must choose: the hardships in Kentucky or a throne.

 Izzy James lives in the traces of history in coastal Virginia with her fabulous husband in a house brimming with books. Born with a traveling bone and an itch to knit. Izzy travels to every location where her books take place, from Williamsburg to Wyoming, popping in yarn stores along the way. 

 

Connect with Izzy through her website at izzyjamesauthor.com and sign up for her monthly newsletter. 

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References:

https://www.ringoftatters.org.uk/19ctatting.html

The Complete Book of Tatting: Everything You Wanted to Know but Couldn’t Find Out About Shuttle Lace by Rebecca Jones, Lacis Publications, USA

https://daffodilandleek.com/a-brief-history-of-tatting

https://www.britannica.com/art/tatting