Category Archives: Boone County

Regional Place Names

20 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in Banco, Big Creek, Big Harts Creek, Big Sandy Valley, Boone County, Chapmanville, Crawley Creek, Gilbert, Giles County, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Harts, Logan, Matewan, Meador, Twelve Pole Creek, Wharncliffe

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The following list of regional place names of streams is derived from Surveyors Record Book A at the Logan County Clerk’s Office in Logan, WV. Each document generally lists three dates for the survey; I chose to identify the earliest (Treasury warrant date) and the latest date (survey completion date). The purpose of this list is to document the earliest usage and spelling of a place name in my region. Logan County was extremely large in the 1820s and has since been partitioned to create new counties, so many of these places are not located in Logan County today. This list will be updated periodically.

Beech, a branch of Tug Fork (24 May 1825, 12 October 1825, p. 64)

Ben (26 July 1826, 13 October 1826, p. 89)

Bend of Guyandotte (30 April 1823, 3 March 1831, p. 129)

Big and Clear Fork of Guyandotte River (1 October 1818, 26 June 1826, p. 79)

Big Bottom Fork of Guyandotte (12 February 1823, 25 October 1827, p. 100)

Big Creek (11 December 1817, 25 October 1824, p. 34)

Big Fork of Guyandotte River (18 July 1825, 17 February 1826, p. 73)

Big Island [Logan] (16 February 1825, 17 January 1827, p. 94)

Bluff Mountain (1 October 1818, 21 February 1825, p. 37)

Bone Lick Bottom, New River (19 January 1824, 31 July 1830, p. 123)

Breckenridge’s forks of Cole River (31 January 1825, 27 February 1827, p. 100)

Buffalo (10 February 1825, 6 February 1827, p. 99)

Coal Branch of Guyandotte River (17 December 1824, 31 March 1825, p. 42)

Cow Creek of Island Creek (13 December 1823, 11 October 1826, p. 87-88)

Crawley (10 June 1824, 8 July 1825, p. 47)

Crawleys Creek (16 February 1825, 17 January 1827, p. 95)

Crooked Creek (16 February 1825, 1 April 1825, p. 43-44)

Defeats Branch on Little Huffs Creek (7 October 1830, 27 July 1831, p. 131)

Double Camp Branch of Clear Fork (1 June 1821, 29 December 1825, p. 69)

Drew’s Creek, one of the forks of Peech Tree, a branch of Marsh Fork of Cole River (22 July 1826, 15 October 1828, p. 109)

Elk, a branch of Guyandotte (14 January 1830, 22 November 1830, p. 127)

Elk, a branch of Pigeon (16 February 1825, 18 August 1825, p. 51)

Elkhorn Branch of Tug Fork (30 April 1825, 12 November 1826, p. 93)

Elkhorn River (30 April 1825, 1 November 1825, p. 65)

Flat Top Mountain (22 November 1824, 14 February 1826, p. 72)

Gilbert (14 January 1830, 26 August 1830, p. 121)

Grapevine, a small branch called Grapevine (8 July 1825, 14 October 1825, p. 63)

Green Shoal Creek (15 March 1826, 10 October 1826, p. 86-87)

Harts Creek (17 February 1824, 10 October 1826, p. 87)

Hewetts Creek, a branch of Spruce Fork of Coal River (20 May 1813, 11 April 1825, p. 44)

Horse Creek (10 February 1825, 22 July 1826, p. 92)

Horsepen Creek, a fork of Gilbert (14 January 1830, 26 August 1830, p. 121)

Huff Creek (11 December 1822, 11 March 1825, p. 40)

Huffs Creek (18 July 1825, 14 March 1828, p. 104-105)

Indian Creek (22 July 1826, 8 February 1827, p. 99)

Ingrams Branch, New River (6 October 1829, 4 December 1829, p. 117)

Island of Guyandotte [Logan] (17 December 1824, 18 January 1827, p. 96)

Island tract [Logan] (4 May 1826, 12 May 1830, p. 120)

Jacks Branch of Clear Fork (6 January 1824, 16 December 1825, p. 66)

Laurel Fork of Guyandotte River (17 February 1824, 27 August 1830, p. 122)

Left Fork of Island Creek (4 February 1817, 28 October 1824, p. 35)

Left Hand Fork of Ben, waters of Tug Fork (13 December 1823, 11 October 1826, p. 88)

Laurel Creek and Crooked Run, New River (10 May 1825, 25 August 1825, p. 56)

Laurel Fork of Pigeon Creek (17 December 1824, 10 October 1826, p. 85)

Laurel Fork of Twelve Pole (3 November 1813, 19 March 1825, p. 40)

Lick Branch (24 May 1825, 10 October 1826, p. 85)

Little Huff’s Creek (4 May 1826, 27 May 1829, p. 116)

Loop of New River (20 February 1821, 26 February 1825, p. 90)

Main Right Hand Fork of Big Creek (24 May 1825, 8 September 1825, p. 54)

Marsh Fork of Cole River (17 February 1823, 9 March 1825, p. 39)

Marshes of Cole River (30 April 1825, 3 February 1830, p. 118)

Mate, a branch of the Tug Fork of Sandy (8 July 1825, 11 October 1825, p. 62)

Mazzel, Little Huffs Creek (12 February 1825, 18 September 1829, p. 116)

Mill Creek, a branch of Guyandotte (18 July 1825, 28 January 1831, p. 128)

Mill Creek of Island Creek (10 January 1823, 29 October 1824, p. 36)

Millers Branch of Tug Fork (4 May 1826, 16 September 1826, p. 81)

North Branch of Big Creek (18 July 1825, 7 September 1825, p. 52-53)

North Fork of Big Creek (4 April 1825, 9 September 1825, p. 54)

Old Island survey [Logan] (22 July 1826, 17 January 1827, p. 95)

Peach Tree, a small branch called the Peach Tree (24 May 1824, 7 October 1825, p. 60)

Pete Huff’s Creek (18 July 1825, 27 August 1830, p. 125)

Peter Huffs Creek (13 December 1823, 12 November 1825, p. 66)

Pigeon Creek (16 February 1825, 15 October 1825, p. 63)

Pine Creek of Island Creek (4 February 1817, 27 October 1824, p. 35)

Pond Fork of Cole River (8 March 1826, 13 November 1828, p. 112-113)

Rock Creek (22 July 1826, 11 August 1828, p. 106)

Rock House Fork of Middle Fork of Island Creek (17 February 1824, 5 October 1825, p. 59)

Rock House Fork of Pigeon (6 February 1825, 22 March 1825, p. 41)

Rum Creek (23 November 1824, 17 July 1828, p. 105)

Sand Lick Fork of Cole River (14 May 1826, 31 January 1827, p. 97)

Shannon branches, Tug Fork (6 December 1828, 2 September 1830, p. 125-126)

Skin Fork of Cole River (12 February 1825, 29 October 1828, p. 111)

Spruce Fork of Coal River (16 February 1825, 22 April 1825, p. 45)

Tonies Fork of Big Cole and Horse Creek (10 February 1825, 22 July 1826, p. 92)

Trace Fork of Big Creek (16 February 1825, 8 September 1825, p. 52)

Tug Fork of Sandy River (10 March 1825, 24 March 1825, p. 42)

Turtle Creek, a branch of Little Coal River (13 December 1824, 12 April 1825, p. 45)

West Fork of Cole River (12 February 1825, 10 November 1828, p. 111-112)

Wolf Pen Creek, branch of New River (10 May 1825, 25 August 1825, p. 56)

Wolf Pen Creek at mouth of Rattlesnake Branch (10 February 1825, 11 January 1826, p. 71)

Bob and Nora Brumfield Home in Harts, Lincoln County, WV (1991)

08 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by in Boone County, Harts

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Robert & Nora Brumfield Home

Bob and Nora (Pack) Brumfield residence in Harts, Lincoln County, WV. Bob (1893-1969), a son of Charley and Caroline (Dingess) Brumfield, served as a member of the district board of education in the early 1900s. Nora (1896-1964), the daughter of Lum and Victoria (Lambert) Pack, was a longtime teacher in the Harts community. I used to visit their son Corbit Brumfield at West Madison, Boone County, WV. Photo courtesy of Bill Adkins.

Armed March Trial (1923)

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by in Battle of Blair Mountain, Boone County, Coal, Logan

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From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this story about the trial that resulted from the “armed march” on Logan County, WV, by UMWA miners:

Widow Is Introduced At The Blizzard Trial

LEWISBURG, W.Va., June 27 — Two word pictures, one from the lips of the widow of George Munsy, coal digger who “never came back” from guarding his county, the other from one of the party that met and killed the outpost on the mountain side, lay tonight before 12 men who are to determine whether Sub-District President William Blizzard, of the miners’ union, was an accessory to the murder of Munsy.

Before these word pictures the jurors had heard counsel on both sides outline the story of the labor trouble of Southern West Virginia coal fields, the march of thousands against the Logan border, the interruption of that march after a brigadier general of the United States Army had intervened a midnight clash between miners and deputy sheriffs and state police, resumption of the march, fighting on the mountain ridges that separated the non-union Logan coal fields from the then union fields on Coal River, the meeting of 30 or 40 marchers with Deputy Sheriff John C. Gore, of Logan county, and two companions one of whom was Munsey, the volley of shots that answered the Logan pass-word, “amen,” and a wealth of detail about the march presented from point of view of both prosecution and defense.

Review Blair Battle

All the morning was spent in the opening of the attorneys, A.M. Belcher and C.W. Osenton, for the prosecution, and H.W. Houston and T.C. Townsend, for the defense. Then in the afternoon the jurors turned their attention to the witness box. First they saw W.B. Mullens point out the battle line and the points of interest in the march on a map that was tacked to the courthouse wall above the witness stand. Next Velesco Carpenter, facing an inexhaustible stream of questions in direct and cross-examinations told how he had gone from his home in Nellis to Blair, how in a party of about 35 he marched up Blair mountain, spent the night, and early the next morning set out and from his place in line watched the meeting with three men, one of whom he learned was Gore, heard the shots and saw the bodies after they had fallen. Then just before court adjourned Mrs. Munsy took the stand for her brief examination so that she might return tomorrow to her seven children in her home on Dingess Run Creek in Logan county.

Widow on Stand

“The night before he was killed was his time to come home but he never came,” Mrs. Munsy testified that her husband had been digging coal for about fifteen years before his death and that they had been married about 20 years. He had been “guarding for about a week, working for Logan county, for the coal operators,” she went on, but later when Mr. Houston cross-examined her on that statement her formerly quiet tone rose to the ringing declaration “he was defending his county.”

Carpenter did not know who fired the shots that killed Gore, Munsy and James Cafalgo. When the shooting began he ran back a few steps and dropped to the ground, he said. After it was over he went to a point near the body of “the foreigner,” and saw that of Gore, but could not see the third body. Edgar Combs told him he had killed the one Carpenter had designated as “the large man in the middle,” and later told another of the party this man was Gore.

He left Nellis, where he was employed as a pump man, on August 29, 1921, he said, after a man had come to the mines and threatened to “knock off” the “yellow” men who did not go. A journey on foot and by rail took about 30 in his party to Ottawa, and there Edgar Combs picked him and three others he named to go to Blair. The next day from the schoolhouse steps in Blair, he said, Rev. J.E. Wilburn made a speech and a party was organized that went into the hills. Some threw down their guns and refused to go but threats were made, and the men were lined up in single file, with leaders for squads of eight men. The original party of 50 or 60 divided, and the group of about 35, in which he went, camped on the top of the mountain until daybreak. They heard firing in the direction of the “gap,” through which previous testimony had shown the road from Blair to Logan ran and set out in that direction.

Then he told of the meeting with the “large man” and his two companions, and by pre-arranged signal the leader lifted his hat three times to indicate there was no danger. The large man beckoned to them to come on, and when the parties met there were mutual demands for the password. The shots were fired, Carpenter testified, when somebody said “amen,” and in the opening statements prosecution counsel had told the jury that it would be shown that “amen” was the Logan password. Wilburn, the preacher, was in the lead of the marchers column, and Combs next behind him, the witness said.

Attack Upon Non-Union Mine in Boone County, WV (1922)

16 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by in Boone County, Clothier, Coal, Logan

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The following story about an attack upon a non-union mine at Ottawa in Boone County comes from the Logan Banner on July 21, 1922:

300 Shots Are Fired At Boone County Mine

Three hundred shots were fired from the mountain side into a group of non-union miners as they were going to work at 7:30 A.M., in a mine at Ottawa, Monday. There were no casualties as the miners fled and hastily hid behind trees, and other points of safety.

Two state troopers stationed at Ottawa made an immediate dash for the scene of the trouble but the firing which had lasted for only a few minutes, was over when they reached the mine. An investigation disclosed the fact that the attacking party had made a hasty retreat and their whereabouts could not be ascertained. A call for assistance brought five additional troopers from Clothier who brought with them a bloodhound but the dog could not take the trail evidently due to some substance that the attacking party had used to throw the hounds off the trail.

Immediately after the firing was over an investigation was made and 30 sticks of dynamite were found concealed beneath the mine track inside of the drift mouth of the mine and so arranged that it would explode when the first mine motor entered.

The outbreak Monday was the first that has occurred on Little Coal River in some months and the state police in that section are making every effort to apprehend members of the party who did the firing. Ten special officers were sworn in at Madison on Monday and Capt. Midkiff, in charge of the state police at Clothier, dispatched trooper Lloyd Layman to Logan Monday where he was furnished with 30 high-powered rifles and 3,000 rounds of ammunition with which to equip the special officers and successfully combat any further outbreak that might occur as well as to assist in apprehending members of the attacking forces last Monday.

Trooper Layman stated that in addition to the ten men sworn in Madison there would be 50 special officers sworn in at Ottawa, and every effort put forth by officers to track down the men who were responsible for the mine battle and bring them to justice.

Armed March on Logan County, WV (1921)

21 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by in Battle of Blair Mountain, Boone County, Logan

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Here is one article from the Logan Banner relating to Bill Blizzard and the Armed March on Logan County, WV, popularly remembered today as the Battle of Blair Mountain:

Blizzard Gloated at Gore’s Death, Said

“That’s fine! What’s the matter you haven’t killed any others?” William Blizzard, mine workers’ officer, was quoted as saying after he heard of the death of Deputy Sheriff John Gore and two companions at the hands of a party of union miners, according to testimony Monday at Blizzard’s trial upon an accessory to murder indictment growing out of the armed march against Logan county in 1921. Blizzard is charged with having participated in the plans that caused the death of George Munsy, one of the Logan defenders killed with Gore.

Hubert Ferrell, of Ferndale, the witness who quoted Blizzard’s words, declared the mine workers’ office made the statement in a speech to the armed miners gathered at Blair on the afternoon of the day after they had returned from Blair mountain where the Logan “defenders” were killed.

“It don’t seem like it would take any  more nerve to kill Don Chafin (Logan county sheriff) and his thugs than it would a sheep-killing dog,” Ferrell testified Blizzard continued in his speech. “Right tomorrow I want you to fix up to go over the top. It don’t matter about losing a few men. I want you to go over to Logan and let the men out of jail and tear the thing down to the ground.”

Under cross-examination Ferrell added that Blizzard had told the men he wanted them to eat dinner the next day “on the jail house step.”

Ferrell, according to his testimony, failed in his first effort to visit the men who participated in the armed march when he was stopped by guards at the mouth of Lens Creek where the marchers first assembled. He denied that he had ever desired to join the march and said he went there only to see if there were any men there whom he knew. T.C. Townsend, one of the defense attorneys, cross-examined Ferrell vigorously upon that point. The witness said he was on his way to Charleston to buy clothing at the time. Later he said he went to Blair intending to go on to Logan and visit his half-brother, but was prevented by the armed men in Blair from either going on or returning and eventually returned home on a special train after federal troops took charge of the situation.

While he was at Marmet at the mouth of Lens Creek and unable to go farther up the creek because he could not give the guards the password and did not belong to a union, Ferrell said Fred Mooney, secretary treasurer of District No. 17, United Mine Workers, and a man who was said to be C. Frank Keeney, the district president, were there in an automobile. Mooney, the young man told the jury, asked the guards if any guns and ammunition had arrived and on being told he had none informed them that two truck loads had left Charleston. The man pointed out as Keeney told the men he did not believe they were sufficiently prepared and that they would do better to go home, “get prepared and then go over and get Don Chafin and his thugs.”

On the day before Gore and Munsy were killed, Ferrell said Blizzard also made a speech from the porch of the school house that served as base for the armed forces on the union side at the mountain and asked what was the matter that they were not having more success and told them they ought to go over and “get Chafin and the thugs and get it over with.”

Mrs. J.E. Wilburn, wife of the miner-preacher who was one of the principal witnesses for the state now serving a sentence of 12 years for his part in the killings on Blair mountain, testified that guns and ammunition were stored in the parlor of their home. She did not know Blizzard, she said, but men who took the arms into the house said Blizzard had brought them, she testified.

A.R. Browning, a merchant at Blair, told the court that members of the armed forces there got merchandise at his store and told him to charge it to the United Mine Workers of America. The things they got, he said, included shoes, overalls, and other clothing and also some women’s clothing, which he thought, they got for their wives and daughters.

H.M. Miller, a constable at Madison, said that just before Keeney made a speech at the ball park near there which he counselled the marchers to return to their homes, he had a conversation with the union president in which Keeney said that “if the federal troops would keep out he would take these men and go through Logan with them.”

Earlier in the day, J.L. Workman and A.C. Rouse of Marmet had testified as to the occurrence during the assembling of the men on Lens Creek. Workman told of “Mother” Jones’ efforts to get the men to go back to their homes and her declaration that she had a telegram from the President of the United States, which he said Keeney called a “fake.” Later that day both Workman and Rouse said Savoy Holt in a speech from the running board of an automobile said the union officials were their but could not address the men and that he had been instructed to tell them that the telegram was not genuine and that they were to “go on.” Rouse said Keeney and Mooney were in this automobile and that Blizzard was in another nearby. A man he did not know spoke from the running board of the automobile in which Blizzard was riding, telling the men to go on, and Blizzard’s car drove up Lens Creek followed by the armed hordes.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 6 July 1923

Big Coal Deals for Logan County, WV (1917)

11 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by in Boone County, Coal, Huntington, Logan

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From the Logan Democrat of Logan, WV, comes this bit of information relating to coal companies in Logan County, printed on May 17, 1917:

BIG DEALS FOR COAL IN LOGAN ARE BEING MADE

Public Service Corporation Buying Huge Prices for Local Properties

Public service corporations which must have coal whether school keeps or not are becoming big investors in Logan county coal and many big deals are about to be made. Most of the business is being done at the Frederick hotel, Huntington, which at this time is swarming with Logan county operators and representatives of big interests.

So far, the following companies are as good as sold.

Loma Mining Company.

Cora Mining Company.

Island Creek Colliery Company.

The following companies have been optioned and are regarded as good as sold:

Ethel Coal Company.

Flynn-Haislip Coal Company.

Bengal Coal Company.

The Loma Mining Company and the Cora Mining Co., are reported to have been sold to Cleveland and Western Coal and Coke Company for $250,000 apiece. The Loma Mining company was capitalized at $100,000 while the Cora Mining company was capitalized at $50,000 so the investors in both corporations will clear up a handsome profit on their investment.

Deposit $100,000

In the case of the Loma Mining company $100,000 already has been deposited in a Huntington bank to insure the deal so there is no chance of it falling through. The final papers in the Cora Mining company may not be signed for a few days yet but it is regarded as good as sold as it is a valuable property for any public service to own. Both companies have well developed seams of coal and are capable of great productivity. Island Creek Colliery sold for $475,000.

The Ethel Coal Mining company at Ethel, W.Va., is working on three operations. It is reported to have been optioned at $1,250,000 and the company notified by those holding the option that they intend to exercise their rights in the near future. It was not possible to get the amount of the proposed sale of the Flynn-Haislip company.

A.H. Land, the well known coal operator of Logan county, at present is in Washington, D.C. It is said that he is there on a big deal but it is not possible to give details.

Among the operators from this county who have been in the throng at the hotel Frederick during the last few days are Jack Dalton, H.T. Proctor, Fred Haislip, Al Litz, E.H. Butts, attorney for several Logan county operators, Riley Lilly, attorney for several Logan county interests, B.L. Holland, George Aldredge, Billy Aldredge, Tom Wilson, J.J. Ross and others.

Make Vast Sums

Logan county operators are now in a position, according to reports, to clean up vast sums of money on their investments. The public service corporations who have been depending on the open market have found that it is absolutely necessary for them to go into the coal mining business on their own hook in order to insure their supply and they are doing so.

At the hotel Frederick, many big deals have been pulled off for mines in Boone, the N. & W. territory as well as for Logan. A number of deals affecting Logan county interests are anticipated in near future.

The buyers of Logan mines intend to operate them on a bigger scale than ever before. They have the money to do so and intend to employ for it that purpose so that the general prosperity of the county is on a more solid foundation than ever before.

Stone Branch Colored News 07.28.1922

08 Saturday Jun 2019

Posted by in African American History, Boone County, Huntington, Stone Branch

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A correspondent named “The Two Gypsies” from Stone Branch in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following “colored” news, which the Logan Banner printed on July 28, 1922:

The ladies helping hand club spent the day in prayer services led by Sister Mollie Claton. We had a good and successful service.

Mrs. Genoa Page has been on the sick list for a few days. She went to the Kessler hospital Monday but she is at home again.

Mrs. Hazel Smith and Miss Bessie Burney have returned home again.

Mrs. Lucy Woodie has been on the sick list for a few days.

Mrs. Mary Coltrane made a visit here last week.

Mrs. Tom Smoot of Madison was visiting church Sunday.

Mr. A.J. Dickerson went to Huntington last week to take Nathaniel Hogans to the hospital. He is home now and is somewhat improved.

Elizabeth Dickerson and Georgia Smith went to Sunday school Sunday. The Lesson was discussed by Bro. Craddock, the teacher.

Mrs. Mary Hudson is visiting Mrs. Mollie Clayton.

Mrs. Della Ferguson and daughters were seen at the carnival. We hope they had a nice time.

Stephen Hart: Origins of Harts Creek (1896/1937)

07 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Boone County, Crawley Creek, Native American History, Roane County

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From the Logan County Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history written by amateur historian Henry Clay Ragland relating to Stephen Hart and the naming of Harts Creek in Lincoln and Logan counties, West Virginia, dated 1896:

Stephen Hart Ragland LCB 04.08.1896.JPG

Logan County (WV) Banner, 8 April 1896.

***

On 13 April 1937, the Logan Banner printed another story about Hart and his relationship to Harts Creek. This latter story was generally derived from Ragland’s 1896 history.

Harts Creek Named After Stephen Hart—A Wanderer And Famous Deer Hunter

Much has been told about Harts Creek in late years, but little is known about the first settler who built his home in the long hollow and gave it a name.

Stephen Hart built a cabin on the farm which Henderson Dingess later owned at the forks of Hart’s Creek. He cared nothing for the soil, but spent his time hunting deer and curing the meat. He didn’t stay long in one place.

Near his cabin he built a house in which to store his cured venison between his infrequent trips to the settlements down the river and was altogether self-sufficient. His neighbors knew little about the man. There is no record of a family reared by him and he told neighbors little of his past history.

His was a roaming nature. He, like the Arabs, pitched his tent where the water was clearest, the game gamest, and the soil most fertile.

To commemorate his short stay at the forks of Harts, neighbors named the creek for him after he had loaded his gun, food stores and skins on a pack mule, and started west.

His few friends heard no more about him, but they remembered him as a “quiet man, a good shot, and a good neighbor.”

Just “around the bend and over the ridge,” Jacob Stollings, John Baker, and Dick Johnson brought their families and built their homes. From descendants of this family comes much of the record of Stephen Hart who gave the creek a name.

Hart’s venison was known for miles around as the tenderest, the most delicately cured meat in the Hart’s section and Stollings, Baker, and Johnson always put in a small supply of Hart’s meat for the winter, sometimes to take an unusually large supply off the hunter’s hands but most times just because they liked the venison.

John Baker married a daughter of Jacob Stollings, and Dick Johnson married a sister of Baker’s. Both men reared large families whose names are familiar in the county’s history.

But Hart left only the name of his beloved deer hunting grounds as a reminder that he had first set foot on Hart’s Creek.

MY NOTE: Of importance, much confusion remains regarding the source for the naming of Harts Creek, essentially relating to the fact that Stephen Hart was born too late to have inspired the naming of the stream. I first attempted to unravel this story when I published a profile of Stephen Hart in a Lincoln County newspaper in 1995/6. Stephen Hart, son of James and Elizabeth Hart, was born c.1810 in North Carolina; Harts Creek appears on a map printed prior to 1824 (Hart was still quite young). In the early 1900s, amateur historian Fred B. Lambert noted that Hart’s father had been killed by Native Americans at the mouth of present-day Little Harts Creek (according to a Hart descendant). Possibly it is Mr. Hart’s father who inspired the naming of the local stream. Problematic to this possibility is the fact that, based on Stephen Hart’s estimated year of birth, his father would have been killed in 1809-1811, which is about fifteen to twenty years too late for an Indian attack in the Guyandotte Valley. Stephen Hart did settle locally. He may well have squatted on Harts Creek land, as Ragland reported in 1896. Based on documentary evidence, he acquired 50 acres on Crawley Creek in 1839. He appears in the 1840 Logan County Census and the 1850 Boone County Census. By 1860, he had settled in Roane County, where he died in 1896–the same year that Ragland published his history. He also left plenty of local descendants in the Mud River section of Lincoln County. How did Ragland garble this section of his history so badly? For those who wish to avoid sorting out this confusing tale, consider this version: at least one early account states the creek was named “hart” due to the prevalence of stags in its vicinity.

Jake Kinser of Logan County, WV (1936-1937)

20 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by in Big Creek, Big Harts Creek, Boone County, Civil War, Coal, Logan

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Jake Kinser Visits LB 06.20.1936 1

Logan (WV) Banner, 20 June 1936. Note: Jacob was not born in 1850, so he does not appear with his family in the 1850 Census for Wythe County, Virginia. He was nine years old in the 1860 Census for Smyth County, Virginia.

Jake Kinser Recollections LB 11.12.1936 2

Logan (WV) Banner, 12 November 1936. Note: Jake Kinser appears as a seventeen-year-old fellow in the 1870 Census for Boone County, West Virginia (Washington Township).

Jake Kinser and Jane Mullins LB 07.07.1937 2

Jake Kinser and his sister Jane Mullins, Logan (WV) Banner, 7 July 1937. 

Jake Kinser and Jane Mullins LB 07.07.1937 3

Jake Kinser and his sister Jane Mullins, Logan (WV) Banner, 7 July 1937. Note: Mary Jane (Kinser) Mullins was eleven years old in the 1860 Census for Smyth County, Virginia. Mr. Kinser died in 1944; his death record can be found here: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view2.aspx?FilmNumber=571280&ImageNumber=349