Cover of Alfreda Peel’s “Witch in the Mill,” with paper-cut illustrations by the author.
Music and folklore have been intertwined in Appalachia for centuries. Ballads and folk tunes traveled with the first settlers across the Atlantic and found root in the hills and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains. These musical traditions passed from generation to generation, serving as both a form of entertainment and a living history of the people and culture. In an effort to preserve their heritage, a dedicated group of men and women of various professions and backgrounds began collecting and recording Appalachian ballads and folk songs.
As ballad collecting became increasingly popular in the first half of the twentieth century, students and faculty at universities around Virginia became active in the search for Appalachian balladeers. The dedication to the collection of Appalachian music earned one Radford College graduate the acclimation of historians and enthusiasts alike. Radford alumnus Alfreda Marion Peel’s tireless efforts made possible the collection of ballads never before heard in the United States. Her dedication to the Virginia Folk-Lore Society and the art of ballad collecting would earn her the respect of not only her teachers and colleagues but also music collectors and historians from around the globe.
The Virginia Folk-Lore Society was founded by University of Virginia professor C. Alphonso Smith in 1913 with the goal of collecting the surviving English and Scottish ballads in the state of Virginia. While Smith and members of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society were not the first to collect ballads in Virginia, they were far more successful in their attempts to record the elusive ballads than previous collectors had been. The Virginia Folk-Lore Society tirelessly advocated for Appalachian music, and its strong core of dedicated collectors made possible the collections of thousands of ballads throughout the state. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s the Society worked closely with public school teachers to collect ballads that had never before been recorded on phonograph records. The founding of “ballad clubs” at state normal schools or teaching colleges, such as Radford, was particularly effective at encouraging participation in ballad collecting. [1]
Alfreda Peel’s interest in collecting Appalachian ballads and folklore began long before her time Radford State Teachers College. Raised in southwest Virginia, with a keen curiosity regarding her British ancestry, Peel began collecting folk music and ballads in 1911. What began as a hobby expanded after she joined the Virginia Folk-Lore Society; soon after she began traveling to places in Virginia that had previously been “considered inaccessible by the average traveler.”[2] Her travels were often adventurous and she encountered a number of colorful locals along the way; these locals provided her with traditional songs and folklore, both of which influenced her later publications. Peel collected an estimated 2500 ballads and pieces of folk literature during her more than 25 years of research.[3] Many of these ballads were unique finds in Virginia and the larger United States and confirmed ties between old English and Scottish ballads and the immigrants who settled in the Mountains.
Perhaps most famous of the ballads uncovered by Peel was a variation of a fifteenth century British ballad titled “Riddles Wisely Expounded.” Multiple versions of “Riddles Wisely Expounded” were found in the United States, but the version found by Peel in southwest Virginia was unique. Recorded in a remote section of Giles County in 1922, the ballad “The Devil’s Nine Questions” had unique wording and phrases but maintained a clear tie to the medieval ballad documented in England. The recording of this song for the first time in the United States created a “demonstrable link between Virginia and medieval Europe,” all thanks to Alfreda Peel’s “labor of love.”[4]
Peel’s love of ballads and folklore had a strong influence on many of her colleagues as well as on the vocation of ballad collecting as a whole. “The Devil’s Nine Questions” among many of Peel’s other ballad recordings were included in Dr. Arthur Davis’s Traditional Ballads of Virginia and More Traditional Ballads of Virginia. The collaborative work of Peel and Dr. Davis was published through many outlets, including the August 25, 1932 edition of the Grapurchat, Radford State Teachers College’s student newspaper.[5] In addition to publication in her Alma Mater’s newspaper, Peel was recognized for her work in a number of magazines and newspapers from around Virginia and the greater United States. She maintained contact with many of her colleagues throughout her career and was a frequent participant in local programs focusing in Appalachian music and heritage.
In her later years, Peel focused a great deal on the folklore she had acquired during her career. Decades of collecting ballads and folklore led to the publication of Witch in the Mill (1947), a collection of short folk stories.[6] Shortly after Witch in the Mill was published it caught the eye of Carl Sandburg. Sandburg, an American poet and folklorist, was invited by the College as a Lyceum guest speaker and traveled to Radford in March of 1947.[7] Sandburg shared Peel’s interest in folklore and ballad collecting and the two became acquainted during his visit. Several years later, Sandburg published a collection of folksongs in his book New American Songbag, which drew on folklore from around the nation including Appalachia.[8] It has been said that Sandburg proclaimed to Alfreda Peel: “It is the work of people like yourself that made possible the publication of my book…”[9] Whether or not this statement is true, Alfreda Peel’s influence on the field of folklore and ballad collecting cannot be underestimated.
Alfreda Peel collected ballads and folklore for more than thirty years, stopping only with her death in 1953. She had remained active with Radford long after her graduation from the school, frequently participating in programs and conferences dedicated to Appalachian culture. Friends and colleagues mourned her loss, not only as a friend but also as a trusted authority in Appalachian music and folklore. Ultimately, her dedication to the collection of Appalachian ballads and folklore made her a “lady of legends” among Virginia historians and music collectors.[10] Half a century later her work continues to be published and analyzed. Stephen Wade’s newly published book The Beautiful Music All Around Us discusses Peel’s contributions to the study of Appalachian music.[11] The archives of the Virginia Folklore Society, housed at the University of Virginia, contain several pieces of Peel’s original sheet music as well as correspondence between Peel and Dr. Arthur Davis. Radford University is home to a small number of articles and books relating to Peel and her dedicated work; these materials are available online and in the collection at McConnell Library. Alfreda Peel’s dedication to Appalachian music has made her a legend to many music collectors, and Radford University’s Archives and Special Collections is proud to pay homage to such an interesting and important graduate.
by Amanda Meadows Phillips
Monographics Specialist, McConnell Library
[1]Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1957), 28.
[2] The use of the 1936 Sunday Morning Section magazine article entitled “Alfreda Peel, the Lady of Legends” was made possible by the permission of the University of Virginia and the Archive of the Virginia Folklore Society. Please see their website for more information on the collection: http://faculty.virginia.edu/vafolk/archive.htm
[3] Grapurchat, “Friends Mourn Loss of Alfreda M. Peel,” June 26, 1953, A01,
[4] John Long, “The Devil, The Weaver’s Bonny, and Alfreda Peel: Exploring the Roots of an Ancient Virginia Folk Ballad,” Smithfield Review IX (2005): 27-42.
[5]Grapurchat, “ Ballads and Folk Songs,” August 25, 1932, A01-A04,
[6] See: Alfreda Peel, Witch in the Mill (Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, Incorporated, 1947).
[7] Lanora Geissler Lewish-Smith, Radford College: A Sentimental Chronicle Through its First Half-Century (Radford VA: Radford College Alumnae Association, 1970),
[8] See: Carl Sandburg, New American Songbag (New York, NY: Broadcast Music, 1950).
[9] See: “Alfreda Peel, the Lady of Legends,” Sunday Magazine Section
[10] Ibid.
[11] See: Stephen Wade, The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012).
I’m so glad there were and still are people out there dedicated to preserving the history of the Appalachian people. Mrs. Peele was a treasure. She preserved beautiful stories and music during a time when the window of opportunity to do so was swiftly closing. I’m thankful for her work. My husband found an old copy of Witch in the Mill at an indoor flea market and bought it for me. I enjoyed it tremendously.
I’ve loved every minute of reading “Witch in the Mill.”
The dialect brings my grandmother’s voice to life, even though she died in 1968. Grandma Kelley, whose full name was Minnie Evelyn Peters Kelley, was born in Floyd County, Virginia, in the 1880’s. She and Grandpa Frazier Kelley lived on farms all their lives, the same way I believe their ancestors probably lived for more than 250 years.
When I was little, I remember they had no electricity, and the only running water was at the bottom of the hill, in a clear,icy cold mountain spring. Grandma churned her butter and kept her milk cans inside the always cool springhouse.
I have only one critical remark about “Witch in the Mill:” I distinctly remember Grandma said “ye” instead of “you.” And I also recall other things she said which were not used in the book, such as: “Ye’re lookin’ right smart t’day,” and “I b’lieve he must be ailin’ – he shore looks a might peak-ed.” When something surprized or amazed her, she’d exclaim, “Law!” Or “Lawsy me!”
I didn’t always understand what Grandma was talking about. I was taught not to ask questions, and she never explained anything, speaking mostly in short sentences.
Thanks to Alfreda Marion Peel for jogging my memories with those wonderful mountain tales.