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Brandon Ray Kirk

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Leet News 04.19.1923

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Ugly Creek, Leet, Sand Creek

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Big Ugly Creek, Bill Fry, chickens, Durg Fry, Emma Paris, farming, Frank Fry, genealogy, history, John Harder, John Shelton, Leet, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Sand Creek, Toney Paris, West Virginia, Zattoo Cummings

“Reporter,” a local correspondent from Leet in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, April 19, 1923:

The farmers of this section are slow this year in getting their work started.

Emma Paris has been very ill the past two weeks.

Toney Paris has purchased some fine stock chickens and is going into the poultry business.

Forest fires have damaged the property of Zattoo Cummings a great deal this spring.

John Harder lost a fine horse one day last week.

Bill Fry has gone to Sand Creek to haul for John Shelton.

Anderson Fry is suffering from boils on his neck.

Frank Fry lost six bushels of potatoes one night recently, thieves having entered his potato hole.

G.W. “Will” Adkins

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Timber

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, crime, Harts, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia, Will Adkins

G.W. "Will" Adkins, member of the 1889 mob

G.W. “Will” Adkins, member of the 1889 mob, resident of Harts, Lincoln County, WV

In Search of Ed Haley 346

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Shively

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Alton Conley, Big Creek, blind, Blood in West Virginia, Brown's Run, Burl Farley, Charles Conley Jr., Charlie Conley, Clifford Belcher, Conley Branch, crime, Ed Belcher, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, fiddler, fiddling, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek, history, John Brumfield, Lincoln County Feud, Logan, Logan County, Milt Haley, Mona Haley, music, Robert Martin, Smokehouse Fork, Warfield, West Virginia, Wirt Adams, writing

From Clifton’s, we went to see Charlie Conley, Jr., a fiddler who lived on the Conley Branch of Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek. Wirt Adams had mentioned his name to us the previous summer. We found Charlie sitting on his porch and quickly surrounded him with a fiddle, tape recorder, and camera.

When I told him about my interest in Ed Haley’s life, he said Ed played so easy it was “like a fox trotting through dry leaves.”

Charlie said Ed was a regular at Clifford Belcher’s tavern.

“Right there, that’s where we played at on the weekends,” he said. “He used to play there a lot, the old man Ed Haley did. Me and another boy, Alton Conley — he’s my brother-in-law, just a kid… I bought him a guitar and he learned how to play pretty good. He could second pretty good to me, but he couldn’t keep up with that old man. He knowed too many notes and everything for him. The old man realized he was just a kid.”

Charlie told us an interesting story about how Ed came to be blind.

“Milt and Burl Farley, they was drinking where Burl lived down at the mouth of Browns Run. And Ed was just a little baby — been born about a week. Old man Burl said to Milt, ‘Take him out here and baptize him in this creek. It’ll make him tough.’ And it was ice water. He just went out and put him in that creek and baptized the kid and the kid took the measles and he lost his eyes. That’s how come him to be blind.”

That was an interesting picture: Milt and Burl hanging out on Browns Run. We had never really thought about it, but there was a great chance that all the men connected up in the 1889 troubles knew each other pretty well and maybe even drank and played cards together on occasion. For all we knew, Milt may have worked timber for Farley.

Brandon asked Charlie if he knew what happened to Milt Haley.

“They said the Brumfields killed him,” Charlie said. “Him and his uncle was killed over at a place called Green Shoal over on the river somewhere around Big Creek. They were together when they got killed. That was way back. I never knew much about it.”

Obviously Green McCoy wasn’t Ed’s uncle, but I had to ask Charlie more about him.

“All I can tell you is he was old man Ed’s uncle,” he said. “They lived over there on the river, around Green Shoal.”

So Ed was raised on the river?

“No, he lived down here on the creek, right where that old man baptized him in that cold water at the mouth of Browns Run,” Charlie said. “That’s where he was born and raised at, the old man was.”

I guess Charlie meant that Green lived “over there on the river,” which was sorta true.

He didn’t know why Milt Haley was killed, but said, “Back then, you didn’t have much of a reason to kill a man. People’d get mad at you and they wouldn’t argue — they’d start shooting. Somebody’d die. I know the Conleys and the Brumfields had a run in over there on the river way back. Oh, it’s been, I guess, ninety year ago. Man, they had a shoot-out over there and right to this day they got grudges against the Conley people. I’ve had run-ins with them several times. I say, ‘Look man, this happened before my time. Why you wanna fool with me for?’ But they just had a grudge and they wouldn’t let go of it.”

When we asked Charlie about local fiddlers, he spoke firstly about Robert Martin.

“They said Robert was a wonderful fiddler,” he said. “I had a half-brother that used to play a guitar with him when he played the fiddle named Mason Conley. I used to play with his brothers over there on Trace and with Wirt and Joe Adams. Bernie Adams — he was my first cousin. They said Robert was a wonderful fiddler.”

What about Ed Belcher?

“Yeah, Ed was pretty good, but he couldn’t hold old man Ed Haley a light to fiddle by. Belcher was more of a classical fiddler. Now, he could make a piano talk, that old guy could. I knowed him a long time ago. I noticed he’d go up around old man Ed and every oncest in a while he’d call out a tune for him to play. Ed’d look around and say, ‘Is that you, Belcher?’ Said, ‘Yeah,’ and he’d set in a fiddling for him. Maybe he’d throw a half a dollar in his cup and walk on down the street.”

Brandon said to Charlie, “Ed Belcher lived up at Logan, didn’t he?” and Charlie blew us away with answer: “Well now, old man Ed Haley lived up there then at that time. They lived out there in an apartment somewhere. The little girl was about that high the last time I seen her.”

Well, that was the first I heard of Ed living in Logan — maybe it was during his separation from Ella, or maybe there was an earlier separation, when Mona was a little girl.

I asked about a tune called “Warfield” and Charlie said, “That ‘Warfield’ is out of my vocabulary, buddy. I’ve done forgot them old tunes, now.”

Harts Creek scene

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek

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Appalachia, culture, farming, Harts Creek, history, life, Logan County, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia

Harts Creek scene, Logan County, WV

Harts Creek scene, Logan County, WV

Big Creek 04.19.1923

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Creek, Logan

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Big Creek, Birchard Toney, Birdie Linville, Detroit, Esther Chafin, genealogy, Georgia Lilly, Hal Chafin, Hazel Toney, Henlawson, history, Huntington, J.W. Mitchell, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Logan County, Logan Hospital, merchant, Michigan, Virginia Dingess, West Virginia, William Clerk Lucas

An unnamed local correspondent from Big Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, April 19, 1923:

Mr. W.C. Lucas, our hustling merchant, made a business trip to Huntington, one day the past week.

Miss Georgie Lilly, who has been quite ill the past few days, is recovering.

Miss Virginia Dingess was the guest of friends in Big Creek, Saturday and Sunday.

Miss Birdie Linville, of this place, returned to Henlawson, Sunday evening.

Miss Esther Chafin, of Logan, was the guest of Miss Hazel Toney, Monday.

Mr. J.W. Mitchell, mall clerk at this place, is very ill at his home.

Mr. Birchard Toney has been in Detroit, where the took two prisoners from the Logan county jail.

Mr. Hal Chafin was admitted to the Logan Hospital Sunday evening.

Whirlwind Post Office

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Whirlwind

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Appalachia, general store, Harts Creek, history, Logan County, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia, Whirlwind

Whirlwind Post Office

Whirlwind Post Office, located in the head of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV, 2014

 

In Search of Ed Haley 345

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Harts, John Hartford

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Alice Baisden, Brandon Kirk, Clifton Mullins, Connie Mullins, Dicy Baisden, Ed Haley, Ewell Mullins, Harts, Harts Creek, Harts Fas Chek, history, John Hartford, Liza Mullins, music, Peter Mullins, Sol Bumgarner, Trace Fork, Von Tomblin, West Virginia, writing

A few days later, Brandon and I loaded up the bus and headed to Harts where we arrived about midnight and parked at the Fas Chek. The next morning, we drove to Trace Fork to scope out the hollow. Initially, we stopped to see Von Tomblin, Ewell Mullins’ daughter, who lived next door to “Ed Haley’s place.” Von said she thought the back part of her father’s house was original; we were welcome to walk over and check it out.

“Just be sure and watch for snakes,” she said.

We trudged over through the field to the maroon house where we cluelessly looked at it.

Eventually, Brandon pointed down the bottom to the site of Uncle Peter’s place at the mouth of Jonas Branch. A few minutes later, as we sat in a swing under a tree at Uncle Peter’s place, taking in the sights and smells, Clifton Mullins came walking up with a big grin on his face, decked out in a Hank Williams, Jr. T-shirt. We told him we were trying to figure out just how old Ewell’s house was and he suggested that we walk up the hollow and ask Bum about it.

In no time whatsoever, we were on the porch with Bum, Shermie, and two sisters named Alice and Dicy. We had a very confusing — but potentially crucial — conversation about Ewell’s place:

Brandon: Now Ewell had an older home before that one, didn’t he?

Bum: They built onto it, what they done.

Brandon: Which is the old part?

Bum: The back part again’ the hill.

Brandon: Now, Ewell bought that place off of Ed.

Bum: Well now, Ewell built the front part. But the log house that was here, Ed or some of them built it. Some of his people. Older house there. If I ain’t badly mistaken, it was a log house. Got different grooves on it now than what it was.

Brandon: Was you ever in the old place?

Bum: Yeah. Had four or five rooms.

Brandon: When did Ewell tear it down?

Bum’s sister: I think all they tore down was the kitchen part to it.

Brandon: So part of Ewell’s house is the old place?

Bum: They took out the back here again’ the hill.

Brandon: Is part of the old log home still there?

Bum: It’s covered up now.

Brandon: But they’s log under that?

Bum: Yeah, I think it is.

We eventually headed down the hollow to Clifton’s, where his sister Connie showed us more family photographs. Clifton showed us his storage building, which featured Aunt Liza’s beautiful spinning wheel on piles of bags and boxes. Brandon and I agreed right then and there that we would give just about anything to have it. For all we knew, Liza had used it to make or mend Ed’s clothes when he was a boy.

Johnny Hager

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Music

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banjo, Boone County, Ed Haley, genealogy, history, Johnny Hager, Johnny Hagter, music, photos, West Virginia

Johnny Hager, banjo player and friend to Ed Haley

Johnny Hager, banjo player and friend to Ed Haley

Stella Abbott

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County Feud, Women's History

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Abbotts Branch, Blood in West Virginia, culture, George Fry, Green McCoy, history, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Milt Haley, photos, Stella Abbott, West Virginia

Stella Abbott, who helped to cook Haley and McCoy's meal at the Fry home

Stella Abbott, my great-great-grandmother, who helped to cook Haley’s and McCoy’s meal at the Fry home

Ed Haley plays on WLW (1924)

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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Ashland, blind, Cincinnati, Crosley Radio Weekly, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, feud, fiddler, fiddling, Green McCoy, Hamlin, history, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Lincoln Republican, Milt Haley, music, Ohio, West Virginia, WLW

About that time, Brandon found this teeth-rattling article while scanning through microfilm of the Lincoln Republican at the public library in Hamlin, West Virginia. It was titled “Ed Haley and Wife Play for the Radio” and dated Thursday, August 28, 1924.

The Crosley Radio Weekly, published at Cincinnati, Ohio, contains a good picture of Ed Haley and wife, the blind musicians so well known in Hamlin, with an interesting story of Mr. Haley, which we reproduce as follows:

The picture above is that of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Haley, of Ashland, Ky., blind fiddlers, who soon will entertain WLW listeners with a most interesting concert. They have the reputation of being the best old-time music makers of the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky, making a living for themselves and their three children by playing at dances and county fairs. Mr. Haley is shown playing a fiddle connected with which there is a very interesting story of the old mountain feud days. His father was involved in the famous Brumfield-McCoy feud and was captured by the Brumfields. He was told he was to be shot to death in five minutes, during which time he calmly played his fiddle, the same one his son plays for radio listeners and which he was holding when the above picture was taken. The feudist and a friend was shot to death when the five minutes expired and both their bodies were buried in a wooden box. The fiddle, however, was kept by the Brumfields for some years and later returned to the son of the murdered man.

Tamarack: The Best of West Virginia at Beckley, WV

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud

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Beckley, Blood in West Virginia, book, books, Brandon Kirk, history, Lincoln County Feud, Tamarack, West Virginia, writing

"Blood in West Virginia" is available for purchase at Tamarack, our state's premiere showcase for native art

“Blood in West Virginia” is available for purchase at Tamarack, our state’s premiere showcase for native art

Interview with Tom Farley (2002)

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Halcyon, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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Bill Dingess, Billy Adkins, Blackberry Mountain, Brandon Kirk, Burl Farley, crime, Dave "Dealer Dave" Dingess, fiddler, French Bryant, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, Ku Klux Klan, Lee Dingess, Lewis Farley, life, Logan County, Marsh Fork, Milt Haley, murder, Polly Bryant, Satan's Nightmare, Tom Farley, West Fork, West Virginia, Wild Horse, writing

Back in Harts, Brandon and Billy visited Tom Farley on the Marsh Fork of West Fork of Harts Creek. Tom was the grandson of Burl Farley, one of the ringleaders in the Brumfield-Dingess mob of 1889. He was a great storyteller and knew a lot of interesting tales about the old vigilantes around Harts.

“Milt Haley and Green McCoy, my grandpa Burl Farley was in that,” Tom said. “Dealer Dave Dingess was in that. Dealer Dave Dingess played the fiddle for them when they chopped them boys’ heads off. He wasn’t a mean fellow. Burl Farley and them just got him drunk. French Bryant and Burl Farley was supposed to been the men who went over and chopped their heads off. My uncle Lewis Farley was in it.”

French Bryant, Tom said, married his aunt Polly Dingess.

“I’ve heard that Polly was one of the hatefulest women that ever took a breath,” he said. “A lot of people said she was the Devil’s grandma. French Bryant, he took her by the hair of the head and he tied her up to that apple tree. She took pneumonia fever and died.”

Tom told a great story about Bryant.

“French Bryant, I know a story they told me. It might be a lie. He was hooked up with the Ku Klux Klan. Was a captain of them. This is an old story. It’s supposed to happened right up here in this hollow. Dealer Dave and a bunch of them had their moonshine still set up in here. There was some young men came back in this country looking for Burl trying to get them timber jobs. They thought they was spying on them. This might every bit be lies but I was told this by all them old-timers. Burl Farley, Dealer Dave Dingess, French Bryant, Lewis Farley, and a bunch of them was supposed to’ve beheaded them right under that beech tree, my daddy always told. This story goes that they come in here looking for work. The Ku Klux Klan brought them here, made old Polly Dingess cook them a midnight supper. Dealer Dave played the fiddle for them and they danced all night. The next day at twelve o’clock Polly fixed a big dinner. Their last meal. One of them told the other two, said, ‘We just might as well eat. This is the end of the line for us.’ One of them just kept eating. He told the other two, said, ‘You better eat because this is the last meal we’ll ever eat.’ Said French Bryant cussed them and said, ‘Eat because you’ll never eat another meal.’ Dealer Dave asked them, ‘What do you want me to do as your last request?’ Said two of them cried and wouldn’t say a word. Said that one boy that eat so much told Dealer Dave, said, ‘Play ‘Satan’s Nightmare’.’ Took them out there at one o’clock under that beech tree and laid their heads across the axe and chopped two of their heads off. Said two of them cried and wouldn’t say a word. Said that one boy that eat so much told Dealer Dave, said, ‘Play ‘Satan’s Nightmare’.’ They chopped their heads off. Said French took their heads and set them on the mantle.”

So Dealer Dave Dingess was a fiddler?

“Dealer Dave played the fiddle,” Tom said. “I remember seeing old man Dave. He was tall and skinny. He played ‘Blackberry Mountain’ and a bunch of stuff. ‘Wild Horse’. Dealer Dave was the biggest coward that ever put on a pair of shoes. When it would start to get dark, my daddy and my uncle Bill Dingess — just tiny kids — they’d have to walk up this hollow with him. One would walk in front of him and the other one behind him. Said Lee Dingess cussed him all to pieces, told him, said, ‘Dealer Dave, nobody’s gonna hurt you. There ain’t a man alive that’s gonna bother you.’ Dave said, ‘Hush, Lee. I’m not afraid of the living. I’m afraid of the dead.’ Afraid to pass that cemetery. They called him Dealer Dave because he horse-traded so much and every time he got cheated he cried and he had to trade back with you. Make a trade today and tomorrow he’d cry till you give him his horse back. They said he was good on the fiddle. They said he played for square dances.”

The Purple Onion at Capitol Market in Charleston, WV

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud

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"Blood in West Virginia" is now available in The Purple Onion at Capitol Market, Charleston, WV

“Blood in West Virginia” is now available in The Purple Onion at Capitol Market, Charleston, WV

Big Creek News 04.12.1923

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Holden, Logan, Rector, Toney

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Arline Kitchen, Baptist, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Big Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Birchard Toney, Charleston, Charley Lilly, Columbus, D.E. Owens, Dixie Toney, Easter, education, Flossie Barker, Floyd Lilly, genealogy, Gilbert Thompson, Green McNeely, history, Holden, Hub Vance, Huntington, J.H. Kitchen, Keenan Toney, Limestone School, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Logan Lodge, Maggie Lucas, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Nellie Parsons, Ohio, Rector, Robert Stone, Stone Branch School, Tom Vance, Toney, Walter Fry

An unnamed local correspondent from Big Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, April 12, 1923:

Charley Lilly is in very poor health.

Arline, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Kitchen, has been very ill during the past week.

Mrs. Robert Stone was a business visitor in Huntington the past week.

The Stone Branch school closed on April 5th. Many were present and all report a fine time.

Mr. Tom Vance was a recent visitor in our midst.

Mrs. Floyd Lilly left Saturday for Charleston where she will pay an extended visit to her sister, Mrs. Nellie Parsons.

Miss Maggie Lucas has just closed a successful term of school at Lime Stone. The pupils there all want Miss Lucas back next year.

Mr. D.E. Owens, of Columbus, Ohio, was calling on friends here recently.

Mr. K.E. Toney, of Toney, who has large business interests in this city was here the early part of the week looking after business affairs and mingling with friends.

Rev. J. Green McNeely, of Logan, delivered very able sermons to the Baptist congregation in this city, at the M.E. Church, South, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Rev. McNeely is a splendid expounder of the gospel and the people of our city are always delighted to hear him.

Miss Dixie Toney returned home Saturday evening from a shopping visit in Huntington.

Mr. Walter Fry, prominent young citizen of Rector, was in the city yesterday on matters of business.

Uncle Hub Vance continues in very poor health.

Mr. W. Birchard Toney, of this place attended Logan Lodge, No. 391, B.P.O.E., Thursday evening.

Miss Flossie Barker, of Logan, spent Easter with friends here.

Gilbert Thompson, of Holden, was the recent guest of friends in our midst.

Pickin N the Park

26 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan, Music

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Chief Logan State Park, life, Logan, music, photos, West Virginia

Pickin N the Park, Chief Logan State Park, Logan, WV, 2012

Pickin N the Park, Chief Logan State Park, Logan, WV, 2012

In Search of Ed Haley 344

26 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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Ashland, banjo, Bobby Taylor, Brandon Kirk, Charleston, Clyde Haley, Cultural Center, Deborah Basham, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, Forked Deer, Green McCoy, Grey Eagle, history, Jack Haley, John Hartford, Kentucky, Lawrence Haley, life, mandolin, Michigan, Milt Haley, Mona Haley, music, Pat Haley, Patsy Haley, Ralph Haley, Ralph Mullins, Rounder Records, San Quentin, Scott Haley, Smithsonian Institution, Steve Haley, West Virginia, writing

Around that time, Brandon and I received confirmation from Doug Owsley at the Smithsonian that he was interested in exhuming the Haley-McCoy grave. Doug gave us instructions on what we needed to do before his office could actually become involved — most importantly, to get permission from the state authorities, as well as from Milt’s and Green’s descendants. We felt pretty good about our chances of getting support from the family but weren’t sure what to expect from “officials.” For some guidance in that department, we called Bobby Taylor and Deborah Basham at the Cultural Center in Charleston, who told us all about exhumation law and codes in West Virginia. They felt, considering the interest of the Smithsonian, that we would have no trouble on the bureaucratic end of things.

Meanwhile, Rounder Records was in the final stages of releasing a two-CD set of Ed’s recordings called Forked Deer. The sound quality was incredible on the re-masters although to the uninitiated ear some of the music still sounded like it was coming from behind a waterfall in a cellophane factory. In addition to Forked Deer, Rounder was slated to release two more CDs of Ed’s music under the title of Grey Eagle in the near future.

I was very excited about all of these tunes getting out because I had fantasies of some “young Turk” fiddler getting a hold of them and really doing some damage.

In July, I called Pat Haley to tell her about the CDs, but we ended up talking more about her memories of Ed.

“I know when we lived in 1040 Greenup — when I first came over here — Pop would play very little. Only if he was drinking and maybe Mona would get him to play. I never knew of Pop ever playing sober. I didn’t hear Pop play too much but then his drinking days were just about over. But Mom would play. They had a mandolin and might have been a banjo and Mom would play a little bit. I didn’t know their brother, Ralph. He passed away, I believe, in ’46 or ’47 and I didn’t come into the family until ’48 — when I met Larry — but we married in ’49.”

Pat and I talked more about Ed’s 1951 death.

“Larry and I lived with Mom and Pop on 2144 Greenup Avenue and little Ralph lived with us,” she said. “Clyde had just come home from San Quentin, and a couple of months before Pop died Patsy was due to have Scott and so she moved into the house with us. Her and Jack had the front living room as their bedroom so that Patsy could be close to the hospital. Scott was born January 4th. My Stephen was born January 27th. We were all in the same house when Pop died. But about three days before Pop died, Clyde decided to rob his mother and came in in the middle of the night and stole her sweeper and radio while we were sleeping and he was picked up by the police and he was in jail when his daddy died. He didn’t get to come to his daddy’s funeral. His mother’s either, actually. He was in a Michigan prison when his momma died.”

John Hartford Guest House

26 Saturday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in John Hartford, Music

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bluegrass, Brandon Kirk, history, John Hartford, life, Madison, music, Nashville, photos, Tennessee

John Hartford Guest House

John Hartford guest house, Madison, TN. This is where I often stayed when visiting John.

In Search of Ed Haley 343

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Calhoun County, Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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Akron, Banjo Tramp, Black Sheep, Calhoun County, Canton, Chloe, Ed Haley, fiddle, fiddlers, fiddling, Gus Meade, harp, Jo LaRose, John Hartford, Kerry Blech, Laury Hicks, Lawrence Haley, music, Ohio, Parkersburg Landing, Ragpicker Bill, Rector Hicks, Rounder Records, Stackolee, Sugar in the Morning, Tommy Jarrell, Traditional Music and Dance in Northeast Ohio, West Virginia

Not long after visiting Ugee, I received some great information in the mail regarding Rector Hicks, a fiddler and nephew to Ed’s friend Laury Hicks. Rector grew up watching his uncle Laury play the fiddle.

“Rector was born out in the country around Chloe, Calhoun County, West Virginia, in 1914,” Joe LaRose wrote in Traditional Music and Dance in Northeast Ohio (March 1985). “His father was a good mouth harp player, but no one else in his family played music. Rector learned from fiddlers who lived in his area, beginning to play the instrument when he was around ten years old. Rector learned a lot from time spent with a distant cousin, Laury Hicks, a generation older than Rector and one of the foremost fiddlers in the area. ‘I don’t know of a fiddle player, really, that played like him. Ed Haley said Laury was the best fiddler he ever heard on the old time tunes, you know, and old fast ones. Hisself, he said that. And I always thought he was.'”

While at Laury’s, Rector Hicks also had the opportunity to see Ed.

“He was hard to figure out,” Rector told LaRose. “When I was around him most I didn’t know too much about fiddling, and a lot of that stuff I could pick up now if I was around him. How he got all that in there with his bow like he did you’d never believe it. He just set there this way (passes the length of the bow back and forth across the strings) but everything seemed like it just come in there. If you’d hear him play… Now that record, that’s not Ed Haley. That’s him, but that’s no good. You don’t get a lot of what he puts in. But he puts every note in that thing. His left hand, his fingers just flew. But his right hand… He just set there and his fiddle laid on his arm, set there and rocked. That’s the way he played. All them fastest tunes he played, didn’t seem like he put any of the bow in hardly. But it was all in there.”

Rector seemed to idolize Haley, at least according to Kerry Blech, a fiddling buff and friend of mine.

“Rector, when he was a teenager, had saved up some money and got him a pretty good fiddle and when Ed would come and stay at Laury’s house Rector would always come over,” Kerry wrote. “For a couple of years, Ed would tease him and say, ‘Well, I really like that fiddle you got, Rector. We should swap.’ And once he did and went off and played in some other town, then came back through about a week later and got his fiddle back. Rector said he was just really thrilled to’ve had Ed’s fiddle for even a week.”

As Rector got older and learned more about the fiddle, he really patterned after Haley’s style.

“Rector’s approach to playing has much in common with Haley’s,” LaRose wrote of Hicks. “Like Haley, Rector holds his fiddle against his upper arm and chest and supports it with his wrist (he does not rock the fiddle under the bow, though, like Haley did.) Rector uses a variety of bow strokes. Like Haley, he uses the length of the bow, sometimes playing a passage of several notes with one long stroke, deftly rocking the bow as he plays. He will accent the melody at chosen times with short, quick strokes. Rather than overlay the melody with a patterned or constant bow rhythm as some dance-oriented fiddlers do, Rector adapts his bowing to the melody of the particular tune he’s playing. Much of the lilt and movement of his tunes is built into the sequence of notes played with his left hand.”

Rector apparently kept in touch with Ed’s family, who he sometimes visited long after Haley’s death, and was very disappointed with the quality of fiddling on the Parkersburg Landing album.

“When I met Rector in the mid-70s, the Haley LP had just come out and Rector called me up to tell me it was awful,” Kerry wrote. “He said it was not representative of the man’s genius. He told me that he knew the man, and although many years had passed, the Haley genius was still in his mind’s eye. He also said that there were many other home recordings beyond what Gus Meade had copied. He said that Haley’s children had split up the recordings, that Lawrence had a number of them, and that a daughter, who lived in the Akron-Canton area, had over a hundred of them, and that Rector occasionally went over there and listened. He said that the family was irritated by how the Rounder record came to be and did not want to be involved with any of us city folk any more, afraid that someone would exploit their father’s music.”

At that time in his life, Rector mostly played Tommy Jarrell tunes but also several Ed Haley tunes, like “Birdie”, “Sugar in the Morning” (“Banjo Tramp”), “Ragpicker Bill”, “Black Sheep”, and “Staggerlee”.

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy

25 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Stiltner, Women's History

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Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Mariah Adkins, photos, Spicie McCoy, West Fork, West Virginia

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, wife of Green McCoy, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Spicie (Adkins) McCoy, wife of Green McCoy, resident of West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV

Big Creek News 04.05.1923

24 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Creek, Coal, Ferrellsburg, Logan, Toney

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Anna Laura Lucas, Big Creek, Birdie Linville, Capitol City Commercial College, Clyde W. Peters, Cora M. Adkins, Daisy Coal Company, Dixie Toney, education, Elbert Baisden, Ella Baisden, Ferrellsburg, First National Bank of Huntington, genealogy, Harts Creek District, Hazel Toney, history, Hub Vance, Hunt-Forbes Construction Company, Huntington, Ida Lucas, John Thompson, Keenan Toney, life, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Logan Assessor's Office, Logan County, Logan Sheriff's Office, M.D. Bledsoe, Marshall College, Mary Sanders, Maud Ellis, Maud Gill, Mountain State Business College, Parkersburg, Roy Anderson, Toney, Walt Stowers, West Virginia, Williamson

An unnamed local correspondent from Big Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, April 5, 1923:

Uncle Hub Vance is suffering from the flu.

Miss Mary Sanders attended Federal Court in Huntington the past week.

Miss Hoaner Ferrell has returned from Parkersburg, where she has been attending Mountain State Business College.

Miss Dixie Toney was the guest of Mrs. Clyde W. Peters, of Huntington the past week.

Miss Cora M. Adkins, the popular teacher, was in Huntington the past week making arrangements to attend Marshall College.

Miss Birdie Linville was calling on friends at Toney, Sunday.

Miss Ida Lucas, who has a position with the First National Bank of Huntington, was here recently enroute to her home on Big Creek.

Mr. K.E. Toney is in Logan this week on matters of business.

Mr. John Thompson, of the Hunt-Forbes Cons. Co., was in town today. He reports that the Company’s contract in Harts Creek district will be completed within one month.

M.D. Bledsew was a recent visitor in Williamson.

J.W. Stowers, merchant of Ferrellsburg, was a recent visitor of his sister, Mrs. Ward Lucas, of this place.

Roy Anderson, Chief Clerk in the Logan Assessor’s office was the Sunday guest of K.E. Toney.

Elbert Baisden has been appointed Asst. Supt. of the Daisy Coal Co.

Miss Hazel Toney will complete her business course at the Capitol City Commercial College about April 15th, and will, we are informed be employed in the Sheriff’s office in Logan.

Miss Maud Gill’s school closed last Friday. Miss Gill is a fine teacher and met with great success in her work this year.

Miss Maud Ellis, of Logan, was the recent guest of Mrs. Ella Baisden.

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