Phillips releases new booklet on East Hill Cemetery history

>> "A History of East Hill Cemetery," V.N. "Bud" Phillips (Self-published, 2011, $5)

It appears to be simply a booklet - or guide - to Bristol's famous East Hill Cemetery. But, diving into the little book's 36 pages, you discover stories of the Civil War, the Dr Pepper soft drink, prostitution and a car wrecking into a monument of a Bristol pioneer.

You will also find Bristol historian V.N. "Bud" Phillips getting more than just a little feisty in his declarations over who founded Bristol and how the story appears to get convoluted over time, thanks to a monument that now stands at East Hill.

Phillips, 82, has produced a string of local history books for both The Overmountain Press (including "Pioneers of Paradise") and The History Press (including "Hidden History of Bristol"). For this project, he offers a deluxe walking tour guide of East Hill, a burial ground since the mid-1800s lying in both Tennessee and Virginia.

Like his more lengthy books, "A History of East Hill Cemetery" is not without colorful characters and wild, wicked stories.

This booklet includes the tale of "Big Lucy," a 19th Century prostitute who used the overgrown section of the cemetery as grounds for an outdoor brothel. Phillips recounts the tale of Lucy and how she would roll from one jurisdiction to another to avoid punishment from law officials. Various schemes, still, were employed by folks to try to get rid of such activities - from staging a fake ghost in the cemetery to planting giant rattlesnakes in the brush.

In another chapter, Phillips provides a guide to the Shady Hill Slave Cemetery, including the story of "Old Si" Goodson, who was thought to be about 130 years old when he died in 1862.

> V.N. "Bud" Phillips is signing copies of his books, including "A History of East Hill Cemetery," at the Spirit of the Season Bazaar of Broadmore Senior Living, behind Bristol Regional Medical Center, on Saturday, Dec. 10, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (276) 466-6435.



>> "Steady As She Goes: Stories From My Life Experiences," Harold Rutherford (CreateSpace, 2011, $12.95)

Harold Rutherford takes readers to sea and into the advertising pages of the Bristol Herald Courier with his lively autobiography, "Steady As She Goes."

"My book is a memoir that has somewhat of a timeline, but more a collection of stories from my life experiences," Rutherford said. "I am a retired Navy captain, having spent seven-plus years on active duty in two squadrons in aircraft maintenance supervision, one year aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Forrestal as an aviation fuels officer, and 23 years in the active reserve."

He also writes of flooding the pages of this newspaper with too many liquor advertisements in the 1960s, as well as his years as a quality engineer at Sperry Univac.

Rutherford's stories begin as an East Tennnessee farm kid who thought bib overalls were the only clothes made for kids until he got to high school.  "I do not recall ever missing a meal for lack of food," Rutherford writes. "By today's standards, I suppose one could say we were extremely poor. One thing in our favor, there was no government official telling us how poor we were."

Most of the book focuses on Rutherford's Naval experiences. In between, he talks of the struggles to find a home in Virginia Beach as well as his time with the Bristol Kiwanis Club, traveling to California and his years of growing up on the Holston River before it was made into South Holston Lake at the family farm in Harr, Tenn.

"The river had a marked influence on my life as a kid," Rutherford writes. "I waded in it, fished in it, swam in it and fell in it."

> Harold Rutherford is signing copies of "Steady As She Goes" at the Spirit of the Season Bazaar of Broadmore Senior Living, 826 Meadowview Rd., on Saturday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and at the Bristol Public Library, Bristol, Va., on Dec. 17, 2:30-4 p.m. Call (423) 764-4622 or e-mail programs@broadmore-bristol.com.



>> "Soldiers, Spies and Spartans," W. Calvin Dickenson and Jennie Ivey (The Overmountain Press, 2011, $9.95)

Illustrated with photos, the 96-page "Soldiers, Spies and Spartans" by W. Calvin Dickenson and Jennie Ivey showcases Civil War stories from Tennessee, the last Southern state state to secede from the Union and one that contributed 120,000 soldiers to the Confederate cause plus 31,000 to the Union.

This book tells the story of children and teens, including Union Private Elisha Stockwell at the Battle of Shiloh; Confederate spy Ginny Moon; drummer boy Johnny Clem; the McGavock and Carter children who eye-witnessed the bloody Battle of Franklin; and slave-turned-soldier Hanson Caruthers.

The stories are written in a simple, easily accessible style and include sidebars on riding sidesaddle but also the tragedy of David Dodd, who was only 17 years old when he was hanged.

jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704