{"id":3798,"date":"2026-02-06T21:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3798"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:54:23","slug":"the-dark-shadows-of-blue-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?p=3798","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Shadows of Blue Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l62UcpQLSVI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Today we tell not one but two stories, both involving the same community in Fannin County, Georgia. <\/p>\n<p>In 1864 two men, brothers-in-law Elisha Stanley and Evan Hughes, became the victims of a gang of violent bushwhackers who terrorized the area during the Civil War, leaving their families to pick up the pieces. Forty years later, in 1906, the Tilley Bend massacre occurred in the same area, causing a local woman, Elizabeth Bradley, known as a &#8220;Granny Woman&#8221; and healer, to place a curse on the community, in the process creating what may be the most well-known bit of Appalachian folklore in that part of Georgia. <\/p>\n<p>If you enjoy our stories, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app. If you&#8217;d like an ad-free version of the podcast and other extras, like unreleased episodes and other content, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/podcast\/stories-of-appalachia--5553692\/support\" target=\"_blank\">go to our podcast host, Spreaker, and become a supporter of the Stories podcast!<\/a><br \/>\nThanks for listening<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_9289\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-3798-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69844652\/download.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69844652\/download.mp3\">https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69844652\/download.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69844652\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?powerpress_pinw=3798-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/dts.podtrac.com\/redirect.mp3\/api.spreaker.com\/v2\/episodes\/69844652\/download.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"download.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><!--powerpress_player-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we tell not one but two stories, both involving the same community in Fannin County, Georgia. In 1864 two men, brothers-in-law Elisha Stanley and Evan Hughes, became the victims of a gang of violent bushwhackers who terrorized the area during the Civil War, leaving their families to pick up the pieces. Forty years later, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,85,55,8,22],"tags":[479,1526,1530,1528,1536,1531,1529,1533,1538,471,1534,1535,1067,1527,1537,1532],"class_list":["post-3798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feudin","category-folklore","category-ghosts","category-the-civil-war","category-the-oughts","tag-appalachian-folklore","tag-blue-ridge-georgia-history","tag-civil-war-in-georgia","tag-elizabeth-bradley-curse","tag-fannin-county","tag-fannin-county-legends","tag-georgia-ghost-stories","tag-granny-women","tag-haunted-appalachia","tag-historical-true-crime","tag-southern-gothic-history","tag-stanley-family","tag-stories-of-appalachia","tag-tilley-bend-massacre","tag-tilley-family-feud","tag-toccoa-river-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-Zg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3800,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions\/3800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}