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Ok, so I've spent sometime in upstate New York, and I've heard about these two communities called Oniontown and Allentown. They are rural areas that a family settled about a century ago and essentially isolated themselves. The children historically did not go to school and they became very poor. The nearby towns madeup tales about the "Hillbillies" who live in these towns and discriminate against them.
This sounds similar to what I've heard desribed of in the appalachian region as a Holler. am I completely off base here? What exactly is a Holler? Also, could someone please recommend some other interesting communities like Oniontown and Allentown?
A hollow is a narrow valley between two steep hills often with an intermittent stream running through it. It does not specifically denote a human settlement, but humans do occasionally settle in hollows. For example, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
I think the "holler" is a valley along a stream, usually that is accessible from one end only. Nowadays, a dead-end road or trail that goes up a small valley a short distance. "Hollow" is a synonym for "valley", but places that use the term usually restrict it to less-traveled valleys. You wouldn't call Charleston's place on the Kanawha valley a Hollow.
Ok, so I've spent sometime in upstate New York, and I've heard about these two communities called Oniontown and Allentown. They are rural areas that a family settled about a century ago and essentially isolated themselves. The children historically did not go to school and they became very poor. The nearby towns madeup tales about the "Hillbillies" who live in these towns and discriminate against them.
This sounds similar to what I've heard desribed of in the appalachian region as a Holler. am I completely off base here? What exactly is a Holler? Also, could someone please recommend some other interesting communities like Oniontown and Allentown?
I don't know what a Holler is, but here in Southern Maryland we had the Brandywine community that eventually suffered from noticeable health problems due to isolation and inbreeding - characteristically they looked of mixed race and had strange stubs for teeth, and even talked a bit different. That community has now been sucked into the larger Southern Maryland community and has become less prolific.
We had a bar/post office/grocery store down the hill in the nearby village that was called Happy Holler. It burned down about 10 years ago and basically took the community with it. As the name suggests, it was in a holler.
A hollow is a narrow valley between two steep hills often with an intermittent stream running through it. It does not specifically denote a human settlement, but humans do occasionally settle in hollows. For example, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
That's my understanding. I had kinfolk in a tiny community called West Fork. They never referred to it as West Fork, but rather 'over in the holler'. The area was exactly as you describe.
Not all hollows are rural. San Francisco's Cow Hollow neighborhood is an example of am urban hollow.
I think the "holler" is a valley along a stream, usually that is accessible from one end only. Nowadays, a dead-end road or trail that goes up a small valley a short distance. "Hollow" is a synonym for "valley", but places that use the term usually restrict it to less-traveled valleys. You wouldn't call Charleston's place on the Kanawha valley a Hollow.
Yes - having spent a fair amount of time in WV (and maybe even the little Kanawha) around mineral wells this definition makes sense to me
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