Monthly Archives: November 2022

Chessie System in Southern West Virginia

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Boone County, Ferrellsburg, Holden

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This model train caboose is one of many made by my great-uncle J.M. “Jim” Mullins, Jr. (born 1932) of Madison, Boone County, WV. He made this particular model for his sister, Iona Mae (Mullins) Richardson of Holden, Logan County. Jim and Mae, the children of a C&O section foreman in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County, were longtime employees of the C&O and Chessie. Uncle Jim was profiled as “The Caboose Man” in Goldenseal magazine.

Civil War Horse Theft Case: George Scaggs v. Amos Williamson (1866)

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Civil War, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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Circuit Court Logan County

George Scaggs et al v. Amos Williamson

And the said defendant George Scaggs by Ferguson _ Samuels his attorney for plea says that at the time of the committing of the said supposed grievances in the said plaintiff’s declaration mentioned a state of actual war existed between the United States of America and the so called Confederate States of America, and that the said so called Confederate States of America were there and then a de facto government, to whom all the rights of bligerants had been and were then and there accorded by the said government of the United States, that at the time aforesaid he the said defendant was a regularly enlisted soldier in the military service of the said de facto government of the Confederate States of America and the said plaintiff was a regularly enlisted soldier in the military service of the said government of the United States, that the said defendant __ in the military service of the Confederate States of America, and in obedience to the orders of Col. Vincent A. Witcher, Lieutenant Felix McConahoy & Lieutenant Tolbert Ferrell his superior officers & captured from the said plaintiff one horse, while the said plaintiff was in the military service of the said government of the United States, which said horse was then and there contraband of war and was by the orders of the officers aforesaid appointed to the use of the said Confederate States of America, and not in any way to the private use of him the said defendant which is the same horse, and the man taking and c__ing in the said plaintiff’s declaration mentioned. And this the said defendant is ready to verify, wherefore he prays judgment.

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The State of West Virginia

To the Sheriff of Logan County–Greeting:

We command that you summon Paris Bromfield, Jas. M. Duncan & Robert Thompson to appear before the Judge of our Circuit Court of Logan County, at the Court House of said County, on the 2nd day of the next May Term of the said Court, to testify and the truth to speak on behalf of George Scaggs, in a certain matter of controversy before our said Court depending, wherein Amos Williamson is Plaintiff and George Scaggs is Defendant; and have then there this writ, and show how you have executed the same. Witness: Curtis Ballard, Clerk of the said Circuit Court of Logan County, at the Court House thereof, the 2nd day of April, 1866, and in the 3rd year of the State.

Curtis Ballard, Clerk

Executed on Pairs Brumfield By Reading the within to his wife on the 4th day of April 1866.

Hatfield Pioneers by Coleman A. Hatfield (1952)

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Matewan

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Here is an excerpt of Hatfield Pioneers composed by Coleman A. Hatfield, grandson of Devil Anse Hatfield. It was published in 1952.

Aracoma (Part 2)

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in American Revolutionary War, Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 2 of her composition.

The father whose death was mentioned by Aracoma was the noted Shawnee sachem, Cornstalk, leader at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. After the treaty of Camp Charlotte was signed following that battle, Cornstalk appears to have been constant in keeping his promise to be a friend to the border Virginians. The American Revolution was then in progress, and Tory colonists strongly entrenched in Canada were using every influence they could bring to bear on the Indians to persuade them to harry western settlements of the colonies that were banded together in rebellion. In September, 1777, Cornstalk went to Fort Randolph, on the site of Point Pleasant, to warn the commander of the garrison, Colonel Arbuckle, of impending hostitlies from other Shawnees, incited by the British.

As a reward for his warning, Cornstalk was held with two companions as hostages. While Colonel Arbuckle waited for a messenger to reach the governor of Virginia and a reply to be received, two men from the fort crossed the Ohio to hunt venison and were waylaid by hostile Indians. One of the men was killed and scalped. Members of the garrison were so enraged that they killed Cornstalk and his companions in vengeance, defying officers who sought to restrain them from an act in violation of military ethics.

Aracoma’s husband was Boling (or Bowling) Baker, an English soldier who had come to America with General Braddock’s army. Though he had been called a deserter, he may have been captured by Indians lurking along the path of Braddock’s march or in the route which followed the English army’s disastrous engagement with the French and Indians on July 9, 1755.

Apparently Baker had been taken to Cornstalk’s town at Pickaway Plain, near Circleville, O., and had been made a member of the tribe. There he met the sachem’s young daughter and at some later time became her husband. Together they were leaders of the Indian settlement in present Logan County.

In addition to the town located on the island at Logan, the Indians apparently had a camping place on Horsepen Creek where the braves sometimes camped with whatever horses they might possess. The animals could be walled in here by steep mountain sides and with hickory withes wound from tree to tree. Still today Horsepen Creek and Horsepen Mountain bear the names first white settlers gave them for their connections with the earlier inhabitants.

At this time, land-hungry white settlers were pressing continually westward from eastern Virginia. it is said that scouting parties sent out after crops were gathered in the fall of 1779 found Indians encamped with a strong force on Horsepen Fork of Gilbert’s Creek and on Ben Creek and returned home to wait until after spring crops had been planted for another visit. Also, Indian depredations and the occasional massacre of a white settler’s family by stray bands of Indian hunters far from home kept the frontiersmen alert and distrustful of all Indians, however peaceful and friendly.

Tradition says that they Indians on the Guyandotte prospered until 1776, when their settlement was stricken by a great scourge. The pestilence may have been smallpox, measles, dysentery, or even some lighter disorder, for Indians have no immunity built up against diseases which beset the white men. Among the many who died were the children of Aracoma and Boling Baker.

As repeated countless times, the Aracoma legend varies in details. Some begin the story by telling of Boling Baker’s arrival as a captive in the Shawnee village. They say that Aracoma interceded with her father when the young Englishman was about to be made to run the gauntlet, just as Pocahontas protected John Smith. Though doubtless based on surmise, the story could be true, for captives who escaped from the Indian villages in Ohio told of having been forced to run the gauntlet. Some romanticists believe Baker’s love for the Indian maiden began with his gratitude that day, and that also could be true.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 7-9.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids

Aracoma (Part 1)

11 Friday Nov 2022

Posted by in Huntington, Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 1 of her composition.

West Virginians can lay claim to one of America’s most romantic legends, the story of Aracoma which has grown in Logan County around the meager authentic details of an incident in the history of the region which occurred some 200 years ago.

It is a legend of romance and tragedy about an Indian Princess who lies buried in the city of Logan. The story tells of her love for a white man taken captive by her tribe, of their happy life together as leaders of a settlement of her people on the Guyandotte River until tragedy wiped out their children and many others of their tribe, and of his depredations which led to her death.

Legends are stories built by folklore on a foundation of historic fact. Folklore is history preserved by tradition by people searching for the heroic. Such is the Logan County legend, a story of a courageous woman whose death brought her to the attention of ancestors of many of the people now living in Logan County, with details added by the romantic imaginations of residents of the region who have preserved and added to the legend.

Aracoma, an Indian word said to mean “corn blossom,” was the name given Colonel (later General) William Madison by a dying Indian woman who appeared to be the leader of a settlement of Indians located on the island where Logan High School now stands. She had been mortally wounded in combat between her people and a party of 90 Virginians led by Colonel Madison, in which all of the Indians were massacred except some braves strong and fast enough to escape when they saw the tide of battle had turned against them and a party of hunters absent when the Virginians made their surprise attack.

In later accounts, Aracoma was described as a woman of dignity and courage who appeared to be about 40 years old. The Virginians had been reared in a culture that still remembered the old chivalric tradition of reverence for women. They quickly forgot their animosity in concern for this woman of noble bearing, and treated their wounded captive with compassion and respect.

Tradition says that for several hours the woman resisted every effort to get her to talk. She lay with closed eyes, stoically awaiting her fate. Then, apparently realizing her life was ebbing away and there was no hope for recapture by her people she asked for their leader.

“My name is Aracoma and I am the last of a mighty line,” she told Colonel Madison. “My father was a great chief and friend of your people. He was murdered in cold blood by your people when he had come to them as a friend to give them warning. I am the wife of a paleface who came across the great waters to make war on our people, but came to us instead and was made one of us. Many moons since, a great plague carried off my children with a great number of my people and they lie buried just above the bend of the river. Bury me with them with my face toward the setting sun that I may see my people in their march toward the happy hunting grounds. For your kindness, I warn you to make haste in returning to your homes, for my people are still powerful and will return to avenge my death.”

It was told that the battle occurred in the afternoon of a spring day in 1780 and that Aracoma died before daybreak of the following morning. After burying her in the place and manner she had requested, the Virginians soon departed to return to their homes.

This story of Aracoma’s death differed but slightly in detail as it was repeated around countless firesides for a century before the late Henry Clay Ragland wrote it into the History of Logan County. It seems to be a reasonably accurate account, authenticated by certain details of historic record.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 6-7.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids