HORACE KEPHART AND FEET OF CLAY

Maybe I have come to the point that I take the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for granted. I fish in the streams, I explore the multitude of trails and I soak in the serenity and beauty of this place without remembering how it was preserved. Why is this place not "paved-over" like everything else? There are many who were influential in the development of the park, but one man in particular has captured my attention. He, like all of us, had feet of clay, but he was driven to preserve that which meant so much to him. These mountains have given me back the sanity that the city stole and I am writing this in appreciation of the life of this man. Horace Kephart was a true visionary who wished to preserve this area for future generations. He did not live to see it become a reality, but at the time of his death, he was assured that his work had been successful. Horace was an interesting character and the next time you come to the GSMNP, maybe this will cause you to "ponder" for a moment!

First of all let me give credit where credit is due. During my respites in Bryson City, I have read just about everything George Ellison has written about Horace Kephart and I owe the contents of this article to his research and writings. I will not attempt to footnote, but he deserves ALL of the credit. (George Ellison is the author of MOUNTAIN PASSAGES and the introduction to the revised edition of OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS. Mr. Ellison writes and lectures about the natural and human history of Western North Carolina and his work appears regularly in the ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES and THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS.)

Horace Kephart was well educated, well traveled and had broad work experience as a librarian. He was married and had 6 children with Laura Mack of Ithaca, New York. He entered college ( Western College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) in 1875 at the age of 13 and in 1876 he enrolled in Lebanon Valley College and was graduated in 1879. He went to Boston university where he was exposed to and enjoyed the Boston Public Library. This pleasurable exposure eventually led him into a career as a librarian! He later worked at Cornell University with its first librarian, William Fiske, who became a personal friend and benefactor. Fiske moved to Italy with his vast book collection which included some of the world's finest holdings. Although Kephart was engaged at the time and after a salary dispute, he followed his friend Fiske to Italy. Horace arrived in Florence in early 1885 and worked in the elaborately appointed Villa Forini cataloging Fiske's collection of titles. He did work in the major libraries of Italy and the Royal Library at Munich. He learned to speak Italian and traveled a great deal but he loved long walking trips in the Apennines and the Alps - this penchant would later become an obsession! In late January 1886, he returned to Laura Mack and quickly accepted a position at Rutgers College in New Jersey in March 1886. By the last week of July, he was approved to be an assistant librarian at Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut.

Kephart married Laura Mack on April 12, 1887 and settled down for a brief time as a working, family man in New Haven. Because of his time in Italy and his resulting keen interest in foreign literature, he translated Italian, Finnish and French literature into English. Seeing little opportunity for advancement at Yale, he began to search for another job. He was offered the librarianship at Princeton University, be he temporarily accepted an assistant position at the Cornell University library. In 1890 he accepted the library directorship of the ST. LOUIS MERCANTILE LIBRARY. While in New Haven, Kephart's interest in the American frontier history developed. Because of this interest and his research in this area, St. Louis (the gateway city) was the natural place to live. Kephart ran this instituion exceptionally for 10 years. Clarence Miller, as assistant, described Kephart as : "the most brilliant man I have known, and, the least assuming. He was never introverted nor austere and was always accessible to the staff or the public".

Laura Kephart arrived in St. Louis in 1890 having remained in Ithaca after the birth of their second daughter, but by 1897 there were 6 children and during this time in St. Louis, the Kephart family settled into a "blessed rut". By the first of the 20th century, Horace had put together what was arguably the finest collection of Western Americana in existence. He was, however, very disappointed in their literary quality and said they were as "dry as a ship's log book". He planned to take over this task of writing the history of the West where Roosevelt had left off, but this endeavor was postponed for over a decade.

Soon, Horace became disenchanted with the demands of home life and a serious drinking problem arose. It was said that his personality could be altered by taking a single drink. Gradually, he drifted away from friends and companionship and developed a capacity for being alone. This, coupled with his love of the outdoors, evolved into his putting into practice the need for personal isolation by taking long wilderness trips. Some of the writings he collected during this time had the common theme of "the decadence of an overly civilized, material, urban life and the corressponding virtue of a more or less primitive style of existence". He wrote, " I love the wilderness because there are no shams in it." He alienated the library's directors with his frequent wilderness trips and in late 1903 he was forced to resign from the Mercantile Library. The family was broke and before Christmas, Laura took the children and returned to her family's home in Ithaca.

Kephart suffered a complete nervous collapse and in April 1904 his father came for him and took him to Dayton, Ohio where he quickly recovered. Horace became preoccupied with three interrelated concerns: 1) a desire to live a wilderness existence, 2) a desire for a literary career and 3) his interest in the early American frontier experience. The physical proximity and the lure of the Big Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina seemed to meet all of his requirements and in the first week of August 1904, he arrived by train in Dillsboro, North Carolina and set up home in a tent until October 30, 1904. He then made an excursion by rail to Bryson City and the Snowbird Mountains, deciding to relocate to the Hazel Creek watershed. He was granted permission to us a cabin at an abandoned copper mine, which he refurbished and then had his things sent by rail to the little place called Bushnell. His original intention was to live here and write about his experiences with the land and its people, but he quickly was proccupied with the challenges of living in this rugged environment. He kept meticulous notes which he used in 1906 when he wrote CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT.

Late in 1907 he left the Hazel Creek area and traveled to other parts of the Appalachians in Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee and North Georgia (near Rome) in his efforts to avoid generalizing too much from his limited observations at Hazel Creek. He discovered that true mountain people were cut from the same cloth and returned in 1910. He was fascinated by the true mountaineers, the little farmers living in the branches and the steep hillsides. He kept copius notes of his observations mainly during the period from 1904 to 1907 and these notes would later become the foundation for OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS, which he wrote in 1913. George Ellison states, "Horace had exchanged an urban, settled, institutional world with a wife and 6 children for another world. This other world was an isolated existence in the Southern Appalachians. Whether this exchange was created by his drinking problem or a conscious desire and need to be alone in the wilderness is yet to be determined."

When he returned to the area, he chose to settle in Bryson City, which was a congregating point for a variety of mountain men and women and in addition, the Cherokee Indians, which were also a source of fascination for Kephart. He loved the quiet pace of mountain life in Bryson City and remained there until his death in an automobile wreck on April 2, 1931. His meticulous notes ,which he utilized in writing OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS, have been preserved along with many photos taken by his Japanese friend George Masa. The book was a success and has been reprinted - the latest edition in 1967. He was said to have been pleased with the success of the book and was pleased and moved by the way the mountain people responded to the accounts of their lives. After this, his most important writing was done on behalf of the movement that eventually culminated in the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His role in the movement was considerable according to George Ellison. So Horace had his wishes: 1) a wilderness existence, 2) a literary career and 3) a living interest in the people of an American frontier experience (the mountain life).

His own explanation of his motivation behind his expenditure of time and energy on this project was: "I owe my life to these mountains and I want them preserved that others may profit by them as I have."

During my time in the mountains, I have met several interesting characters! All of them are older and have been "beaten-up" by life in one way or another or seem to be running from something. Upon making a new acquaintance, I always ask, "What's your story", because I love to hear their answers. After learning about Horace Kephart, I imagine I came to the mountains for some of the same reasons as he and to paraphrase his words - I was tired of the overly civilized, material, urban traffic and stress filled life and wanted a more primitive life (but not in a tent). I enjoy having friends and family visit, preparing meals together and having a glass of wine and a fine cigar on the front porch while watching the sun set. I enjoy hiking, fishing or just wandering around in the nearby little towns with all the festivals. Unlike Horace, I do love having my wife with me during this time of my life, since she has been there for all the other times.

So whenever I fish in a stream, stare off my porch at the scenic wonder of a sunset or hike one of the myriad trails in the Park, I will not forget those before me whose efforts have added so much to my life.

Horace Kephart might have had "feet of clay" but the efforts of his life have given my remaning years a "concrete" foundation.

I am truly grateful!

Now please excuse my while I get another glass of wine.