My Mother passed about three years ago and I still have a lot of her personal things in the building. Occasionally I will find something that brings back old stories. My maternal grandmother was born 1903-1905, can't say for sure. She was raised in Buncombe Co. NC, on Butler Mt., just a little southeast of Asheville, NC. It was a hard scrabble and harsh life. She had a older brother that would come to our house and visit for a week at the time every couple years. He would set around and tell stories. Their last name was Ruff and they pretty much lived up to it. This is one of the best.
When he was a young boy he was at the local trading post when a wagon came in. He described them as hard dirty rough men with long beards and hair dressed mostly in buckskins. He said they lived way back in the mountains and came in a couple times a year to trade. They had herbs, bear and deer hides and wanted salt, coffee, gunpowder and lead. He described their rifles as long black heavy bear guns that loaded from the front, almost long as they were tall. They carried the powder in old cow horns and a bag for the balls. The store owner knew them and would welcome them but the locals avoided them.
This was probably a 120 years ago, must have been some of the last true mountain men in the area. Still living like the 1820's.