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Category Archives: Pearl Adkins Diary

Harts News 12.07.1923

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Harts, Logan, Pearl Adkins Diary

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Anna Brumfield, Appalachia, Bessie Adkins, Carmus Adkins, Christmas, Cora Adkins, Curry Branch, Enos Dial, Fisher B. Adkins, Fred Adkins, genealogy, Harts, Harts School, history, Hollena Ferguson, Inez Adkins, J. Johnson, Jessie Brumfield, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan Banner, Mud Fork, Rotie Farley, Susan Virginia McEldowney, teacher, Watson Adkins, West Virginia

A correspondent named “Harts Hiccobughs” from Harts Creek in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following news, which the Logan Banner printed on December 7, 1923:

___ ks and light brown curls, __amonds, teeth like pearls.

___ Dingess was calling on Miss ______ Brumfield Sunday afternoon.

__on Adkins and Miss Cora __ were shopping in Logan Saturday.

___ of Logan was the guest ___ Jessie Brumfield Sunday.

__ why all the boys have forgotten ___ Curry Branch.

Susan Virginia McEldowney __ has been visiting her grandmother, Mrs. Hollene Ferguson, __.

__ Brumfield has returned __ a visit with relatives in __.

Jessie and Anna Brumfield __ Adkins were seen out horse back riding Friday.

Fisher B. Adkins has been __ for the last two weeks.

__ and Mrs. Herbert Adkins is busy preparing for the Christmas holidays.

The school at Harts is progressing nicely with J. Johnson teacher.

Enos Dials seems to be very __ old coals have been kindled on __ Creek.

__ Rotie Farley and Carmus Adkins of Mud Fork have been visiting here recently.

Combinations: Inez going to the ___; Anna and Robert out walking; __ and her powder puff; Bessie and her bobbed hair; Cora and her curls; Herb and his bath robe; Watson and his pipe; Fred and his coal bucket; Billy and his horse; Johnny and his frock tail coat; Pearl writing letters; Tom going down the road.

NOTE: Part of this page of the newspaper is torn and some words are missing.

Pearl Adkins grave

19 Thursday Jun 2014

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Pearl Adkins grave, Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 2011

Pearl Adkins grave, Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 2011

Pearl Adkins

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Pearl Adkins (left), Harts, Lincoln County, WV

Pearl Adkins (left), Harts, Lincoln County, WV

P.B. “Fed” Adkins home

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary

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Appalachia, Fed Adkins, genealogy, Harts, history, life, Lincoln County, Pearl Adkins, photos, West Virginia

Pearl Adkins home, 1980s

P.B. “Fed” Adkins home in Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 1980s

Pearl Adkins Diary

03 Thursday Jan 2013

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Pearl Adkins, West Virginia Diarist, 1920-1950

Pearl Adkins, West Virginia diarist, 1920-1950

Pearl Adkins Diary

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Appalachia, culture, Ed Zane Adkins, life, Lincoln County, Pearl Adkins, photos, Rinda Adkins, U.S. South, West Virginia, writers, writing

Pearl Adkins (center), 1940s

Pearl Adkins (center), 1940s

Heavy Heart

29 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Appalachia, Cora Adkins, history, inspiration, life, Lincoln County, love, Pearl Adkins, U.S. South, West Virginia, writers, writing

“My dear, dear dream boy came one evening,” Pearl wrote in May or June. “He stayed all night. After supper I was sitting on the porch. Cora was out there. My heart dearest came and sit down at my feet. He talked to Cora of first one thing then another. He changed the subject all at once and asked Cora if the doctors thought there was any chance for me ever to walk. I don’t remember the talk for I felt slighted and hurt. To think he would sit at my feet and then ask some one else about my walking powers, if there was any chance of me ever.

“Well, I spent another sleepless night for he slept in the next room. I can now see him as I write next morning at the breakfast table. I looked across the table straight into those clear but sad eyes — those eyes which sent the blood over my neck and face to burn my fevered brain. He is gone and left a heavier heart and a sadder face behind him than was there when he came. I don’t guess he ever thought of the joy he brings to a sad and lonely woman when he comes or even dreamed of such a thing that I loved him. Well, I don’t care if he ever knows. I love him just the same.”

Bad News

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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“Well, it seems that after all I might have a chance to get well,” Pearl happily wrote the following May. “Cora went to Huntington to Dr. Guthrie and told him my history. He said it was a strange case — that he couldn’t tell whether there could be any thing done with me without he could see me. He told her a certain time a board of doctors met at his hospital and, if they would bring me down there when they met, it would be a good chance to have my case studied. And among so many doctors some ought to learn what was the matter with my back. They took me under examination for three days. They took Xray pictures but all of it didn’t bring to light the cause of my troubles. Doctor Guthrie told Papa he could on the third day evening take me home and he was going to study a while longer on my case. The doctor told me to come home and whistle, sing and be a happy girl that he might have good news for me in a few days.

“I came home but I wasn’t happy, but prayed to the Heavenly Father has I never prayed before. I prayed to him to give the doctor’s knowledge to learn the cause of my troubles so they could doctor me and by the help of God I would get so I could walk. I prayed with all the knowledge the Lord give me to pray with, but my prayers were in vain. At last, my verdict was read. It read me a cripple for life. Oh that terrible news. I remember the morning I received the news. It was such a bright sunny morning and to receive such news on such a bright day I would just about as soon it would have been my death sentence for it wouldn’t have been much worse to think of leading a life so hapless as mine. Oh God, I don’t know how I ever went through that day with such sorrow as mine, for all hopes of happiness were blotted out forever. Dr. Guthrie went so far as to advise Papa not to spend any more money for he didn’t think there was any use to while I was as well off as I was, for some doctors would experiment on me. Where they might do me good they could do me a lot of harm. While it was bad, it wouldn’t be any thing to compare with a wracking body of pain. While I don’t hurt, let me be, he said. That all seems like a dream now. I only wish to my Lord above it had been a dream.”

Pearl Adkins Diary

25 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Appalachia, culture, genealogy, history, life, Lincoln County, Margaret Adkins, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia

"Aunt Marg," 1870s

“Aunt Marg,” 1870s

Hurt Feelings

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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“Alone on Xmas Eve with my thoughts centered on my one love,” Pearl wrote. “I was thinking of writing to a friend. Some folks came in. He was with them. They were all enjoying their selfs, all but me and I couldn’t help but be sad. He was looking rather sad, too. He walked around and after a while he said some thing about his girl. They laughed about her and he said, ‘She’s one of these girls that can talk.’ And, ‘I don’t like a girl that sits in the corner and smokes and talks to the cats.’ Well that caused a loud laugh but no one ever knew the wound those thoughtless words caused on my tender heart. No one shall ever know till I’m through with this life. There was no more pleasure for me that evening. He went away not knowing the hurt feelings he left behind or cared as little as he knew I supposed.”

“He come early in the morning and stayed till late in the afternoon — but he stayed in the next room,” Pearl wrote later. “Oh God, what I have to suffer just to think he was in the room and I didn’t have the strength to walk to where I could see him. What misery is some people don’t know, but if they were in my place they would soon learn. For instance, if some of you was in love and in my standing and in love and not a single hope of him ever being in love with you. If it wasn’t who it is I would have some hope, but as it is I’m in despair. What would you do, dear friend, if you were like me? Do nothing as I am doing? I know with out asking but the Lord above may change him and make him love me by and by.”

“We hadn’t any guests all day,” Pearl wrote on a Sunday in February. “Cora and I was setting by the fire. When he came in it was like the ray of sunshine drifting through a window pane on a bleak day for my life was as bleak as the day. Cora was rather friendly to him, some thing she hardly ever is. She asked him where he had been. He told her he was just walking around and thought he would stop in to see them all. He kept eating some thing. She asked what it was. He told her and said, ‘Don’t you want some?’ but never offered me any. I don’t guess he thought of me for I was as cold as an ice burg in those days. But I’m not one bit colder than he is but I’m not much better yet. Dear reader, don’t judge me too harshly for I have enough to bear and enough to make me cold and bitter for I didn’t have any girlfriends to talk to. Cora didn’t seem to care whether I was happy or not then. Aunt Marg had died then and Ma had to work so I didn’t have any one to talk to. All I had to do was to nurse my misery and think I was the most unfortunate girl in the world. You know, while Aunt Marg lived she could tell me of many things which helped to while away the hours. And I never was so bitter till after she was gone. I don’t blame my mother for my growing so hard and cold at life, for her life is a hard life to live any way. Aunt Flor was the only one that ever talked to me. She told me all the news and I liked for her to come. She seemed to understand me, but she didn’t stay much with us in them days. You see, I had a lot of time to keep growing bitter and crosser for I thought they didn’t care any thing about me, whether I lived or died. The Lord only knows what I could have been like by now if a certain thing hadn’t happened. Well, that changed me a little for a while but I soon grew cold again, but not so bad as at first. Kind friend, believe me. I spent a many a sad and lonely day then without one glimpse of happiness only when he came, not to say anything about the ones I spend now.”

Nobody Stays Over

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Appalachia, culture, Fed Adkins, Harts, inspiration, life, Lincoln County, love, Pearl Adkins, thoughts, West Virginia, writers, writing

“They were all gone but Momma and Papa, the kiddies and me,” Pearl wrote in August. “I, like all the other times when alone, go to my meditation again and all the time it’s of him, and only him. I was longing for him to come with all my hungry heart, and he did come. It seems that when I want to see him right bad he is led to come by a higher power to satisfy my heart. Well, I will go on with my story. He come in as Momma called dinner. Pap said, ‘Come on.’ Mr. Nobody smiled and said, ‘It’s been a long time since I sit at your board.’ They said it had, too. I remember well that dinner as if it had been yesterday. It is written plainly in my mind, never to be blotted out as long as memory lasts. Mr. Nobody sit at one end of the table and I at the other. When I looked up from my plate and our eyes met for the first time since I had loved him, the picture he made there with the sun shining through the window on his hair made a fine picture of him. His eyes were like lurking shadows of those on a forest pool, as though thoughts of sadness are always pictured there. He isn’t satisfied no where for long at a time, for I’ve heard him say so time after time.”

“Some body had kind of a social gathering,” Pearl wrote later. “A lot of our friends came. I was so afraid he wouldn’t come but he did just as if he knew I wanted him to come. They all left here together. They were gone till about 11:30 o’clock, I guess. We hadn’t gone to bed when they came back. There was several stayed all night. I can see myself now as I was sitting tilted back in my chair with my feet upon the rungs when he come in. The lamp was on the shelf over my head and so he took a seat facing me again. If his eyes ever left my face I don’t remember it. I don’t know whether he thought I looked good or not, but there was a look in his eyes which I never seen there before.”

Mr. Nobody was among those who slept at the Adkins family home that night, giving Pearl cause for great excitement.

“That was my first night,” she wrote. “I tossed on my bed not able to sleep for the thoughts. Oh boy, it made it ten times worse him being in the next room. If he hadn’t been there it wouldn’t been quite so bad, but believe me dear reader I have spent a many a more nights tossing on my pillow, my fevered brain not able to think clearly. And it was all for the sake of my dear. I’ll call him Dear for he won’t never be any thing else to me as long as life lasts.”

Pearl Adkins Diary

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts, Pearl Adkins Diary, Women's History

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Cora Adkins (center), 1915-1925

Cora Adkins (center), 1920-1925

Home Alone

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

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“This has been a very nice day,” Pearl wrote on Saturday in the spring or summer. “I have been at home all day by my self. They all have been gone for the longest time. I guess I would have had to stayed the whole time by my self if it hadn’t been for a girl friend who dropped in for a few minutes chat. She has gone and I have been dreaming of my love and his sweet looks when another face broke in on my meditation and said, ‘I see [name omitted] is back again.’ I asked, ‘Where is he at?’ She said, ‘I seen him out at the store. He’s a lot better looking than he used to be.’ But I never got a glimpse of him at all.”

“Our company began to come in,” Pearl wrote the following day, a Sunday. “Cora was primping up to go out with some of them. I was laying on the bed lost in deep thoughts of my afflictions. That caused me to be so sorrowful and sad, for I couldn’t go with them. I was nursing my misery to its fullest heights when some one came in the next room. All at once a calmness came over me. I was thinking of my sweet lipped honey and wishing he was here. But I felt his presence before he entered the room. I was so astonished and dumbfounded that I couldn’t speak for several seconds when he smiled one of his smiles and said, ‘Why hello, Pearl. How are you?’ I hardly remember what I said for I was still under the shock of it all, for this was the first time I had seen him since I discovered I loved him so dearly. I know I blushed from my neck to the roots of my hair. I was so overjoyed and thankful for his return that I hardly knew what to do. Aw shucks, what could I do? I couldn’t do any thing — only lay there and smile too myself. They all left out and he stayed on. But he didn’t stay in there for long where I was, but sit in the next room nursing his misery too, I guess. But I’m not telling what it was and he wouldn’t eat no dinner and stayed till late in the evening and then was gone and left me to suffer it out by my self. No one ever guessed that I too suffered like others do. I don’t guess he ever dreamed I could love him but I do just the same and I mean that he shall know by and by.”

Pearl Adkins Diary

16 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Pearl Adkins Diary

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Appalachia, Cora Adkins, culture, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Inez Adkins, life, Lincoln County, photos, West Virginia, writing

Inez (McCann) Adkins and Cora Adkins, circa 1920s

Inez (McCann) Adkins and Cora Adkins, circa 1920s

Love

14 Friday Dec 2012

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     “Alone in my cuddy with no one near me I and my thoughts are struggling with each other,” Pearl wrote in late fall or early winter. “My thoughts have drifted off in a dream world. They have got the better of me. They keep drifting to that Nobody. In twilight hours my thoughts form swiftly of one fancy and then the other of him. They have woven a strong cord around my heart which seems never to be broken. I keep thinking of him and can’t help it. Aw shucks, he is in mind morning, noon and night. What makes me keep picturing him in my mind — his look, his ways, his talk and every thing about him — and what it all means, I can’t tell. I never thought of any one else as I do him. I can’t account for the uneasy feeling around my heart unless it is, I love him. Oh God, can it be I love him? Lord this has slipped upon me unexpected. Oh what sorrow it brought. It would have been a blessing to any one else, but to me it will eat my heart away. I guess I have loved him from urchin days but never realized it till just now. No hopes what ever of winning his love. God, what I have to suffer and why it is I can’t tell. I haven’t done any thing to any one that I would be chasened for, but God’s will be done. It’s a higher power above that controls our nature. We love whether it’s our wishes our not. I know it isn’t my will to love the one I do. It came with such a shock as if from the streaks of lightning. It shot through my weak body and unnerved me so I haven’t hardly recovered from the shock yet for it was all so strange and new and I’m not quite used to it yet.”

     “Winter passed on with her sleet and snow,” Pearl continued, perhaps in the spring. “I care but a little for the wind’s loud roar for I’m near the old fire place. I sit there sadly dreaming of my one love here no more. Aw, I dream of a bright future of happy moments I may spend with him when he returns home. My, the winter is gone before I hardly knew it for I heard every few days some thing of my Ideal man but I didn’t know he was till long after he had gone. As you know from girlhood days, I have had my Ideal for he is the one boy for me by and by. I have pictured my sweet many times — his height, his eyes, his weight, and last of all the color of his hair, but never dreamed of him being in miles of here, but when I did awaken I awoke with a shock to think I had known him a many a long day and had learned to love him very dearly before I knew it.”

     “Well, spring is here,” Pearl next wrote. “I have changed places but he is in my mind all the long spring days but I love him better each day and each day that passes I think I can’t love him any better but the dawning day brings on a stronger love than the preceding day. I guess there’s no limit to this love of mine.”

     “Spring days are slipping by as if on wings,” Pearl wrote, a little later. “The fleeter they are, the closer the summer draws nearer, the quicker I will get to see my honey for I have heard he will be here about the 26th of July.”

Nobody Comes and Goes

13 Thursday Dec 2012

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     “Here comes Nobody,” Pearl wrote in an undated entry. “He has gone again but not for long this time. I guess I will get to see him Friday or Saturday one. This old place is lonesome and dreary. I know I will get to see his sweet face and smiles. They are like the rays of sun shine drifting through the dark clouds (for his life seems as dark as the dark clouds).”

     “It was a cold winter night,” Pearl wrote later. “He stopped in a for a while to warm and what he said made me think he would make good some day but that hope was shattered long ago. From what I heard, he had a chance to make good his words but let it slip. But I don’t believe he done the things I heard. By hopes, I mean of him ever having any thing only as he works it out and by day labor.”

     “Well, the kid is back for a long stay this time, so I think,” Pearl wrote next. “No, oh no, I am mistaken.”

     “Well, the guy has gone to some distant city for a while but he won’t stay long,” Pearl wrote in July. “He likes his friends too well to go away finally and never return. I miss him so much and deeply regret his quick departure. Oh, I feel a sharp twinge around my heart to know it will be weeks and probably months before I see him again. Gee, how I wish he hadn’t gone away.”

     “They have been house cleaning all day,” Pearl wrote later. “I have been alone for hours. Some of them may have come out and stayed with me some. How well I remember that day my dress and all — it was a white dress. I thought I looked good or rather pretty in it. I can now imagine how funny I looked in that rig. Ha. Ha. We were eating supper and all of a sudden he appeared on the scene. It gave me such a shock I couldn’t eat any more supper for I didn’t know he was in 200 miles of here. Well, the whole reaon I didn’t eat any more, he came right in and seated his self at the end of the table, facing me, and right beside me at that end and began to tell of his travels. When I would look up from my plate he would be looking at me, his laughin eyes fairly dancing with delight. But believe me, he looked sweet in his new out fit. I would describe him here but I dare not for I’m afraid Cora will find and read this for I’ve heard her say if she was to find one’s diary she would read it. She would sure know who I’m writing this nonsense about. If she does bother her little head to read she won’t know any more than if she hadn’t. Hee hee.”

     “There’s going to be a big meeting,” Pearl wrote in September, “so my Nobody heard of it and came back. I’m tickled pink to see him again. We have had lots of company but none I would have rather seen than him. A friend and I were sitting by the window when he passed by. She asked who he was. I smiled and said, ‘The one in a word omitted? Aw, that is name omitted.’ She said, ‘Why, that’s the ugliest boy I ever saw.’ Ha, Ha. I said, ‘I think not. I think he’s the best looking boy round here.’ He has gone back now and my thoughts have gone with him. Oh God, help him. He is in trouble. I hope it won’t be nothing serious. It was just a little word omitted. That is all. Of course, I would rather it had never happened but it has so it doesn’t change my liking for him.”

Mr. Nobody

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

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     The third volume of Pearl’s diary is almost entirely void of dates, although it does appear to reflect chronological writing.

     “This is Spring,” Pearl began. “This is a beautiful place with its birds and flowers. It would be an Ideal home if it wasn’t such an out away place. I like the inhabitants but don’t like the location of the site with all of its beauty. I don’t want to make my home here forever. Every one wants to be so good to us but for all their kindness I don’t like here by no means. I have a few friends but a very few they are. I have one that’s every thing to me. His name, that will never do to tell. Well, his name will be Mr. Nobody here.”

     About that time, Mr. Nobody became ill.

     “Spring yet. Mr. Nobody is quite sick,” she wrote. “I have prayed that he might get well.”

     “We have had company all day and have had a nice time in the afternoon,” Pearl wrote one Sunday. “Mr. Nobody came and he was so weak he could hardly walk.”

     “He is a lot better now,” Pearl wrote in an undated entry. “My, his loss of weight, parched lips and all symptoms of a sick person made a scarecrow of him. He has gone. Wished he had stayed longer. This is the first place he’s gone since he got better. The kid has left and gone some where or other.”

     Whatever illness it was that plagued Pearl’s “crush” proved to be of a lingering nature.

     “He is sick again,” she worredly wrote. “The Lord knows whether he will have strength to get over this.”

     “He’s worse,” she wrote, yet still. “Oh Lord, can’t he never get well? Oh, he is bad — worse, he’s just as bad as can be to live. In fact, there seems to be no better in this life for him.”

     And then, to Pearl’s relief, Mr. Nobody’s condition improved.

     “He is better after all. If he did narrowly escape the clutches of death, he is well and strong again. I’m so thankful that my prayer has been answered.”

     Not long thereafter, Mr. Nobody took off on a road trip, giving Pearl nothing much to write about until his return to Harts.

     “Nobody has come back,” she wrote. “My, oh, he looks like I don’t know what with his hair growed out in his temples. He had some pictures made while some where and brought them and showed them to me. They were the ugliest things I ever seen but I told him they were real nice looking and that they looked just like him and that he couldn’t have had one more like him than those were. Ha.”

     “Well, he is now back for a long stay,” Pearl again wrote at a later date. “I guess this old place won’t be quite so desolate now. Just to get a glimpse of him makes the long summer days seems shorter.”

A Cursed Log

11 Tuesday Dec 2012

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     “Inez has seen him and has been telling me about him, his sweet talk about a certain girl,” Pearl wrote on Monday. “I couldn’t talk about it to her. I feared she would catch on to my hurt feelings so she rambled right on in her talk but not one word he ever said of me. But Gee, how it does hurt my old heart to know I won’t ever be any thing to any boy unless he should pity me. I guess I’m like a cursed log arousing nothing but pity in the heart of any one — not even the one I love.”

     “Sunday morning church service folks have gathered from all around,” Pearl concluded in an undated entry. “How my heart did yearn for him to come but it seems that he was no where around. But my heart told me he was coming. As always, mother had a good dinner. Just about time dinner was ready… Well, I remember I was sitting near the door when footsteps sounded on the walk. I knew his walk before I seen him. He came in and sat down and talked friendly to every one but me. He asked where Cora was. You don’t know what it is to love some body and you never get a word from them. Well, he didn’t stay.”

Let Me Walk

09 Sunday Dec 2012

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     Pearl’s second diary concludes with entries from 1928.

     “I got up this morning with a calm spirit,” Pearl wrote on April 30. “I knew he was coming. He has been gone so long.”

     “My heart. Jesus blessed Jesus, let me get till I can walk for I love and it’s a shame to love and you a cripple,” she next wrote in an undated entry. “It’s dark. I have dreamed of his coming so often I know he will be here soon for I never dream of him till a while before he comes.”

     “Diary dear. It has been some time since I have conveyed you a little secret,” Pearl wrote on Sunday, May 6. “You are my constant and steadfast friend. I think it’s so strange the turns life will take. I have long admired a cute little boy but dared not to speak of it to anyone. He’s so young and funny. I can’t keep from hardly falling in love with him. I have teased Inez and told her how much I cared for him, but she took it all as a joke. I just let her think it a joke but I never meant any thing more in my life than that. Inez was telling me about his girls, when I told her to hush. It made me mad to hear of his love making to other girls but she took that as a huge joke. But it really hurt to hear of those other girls being where I wanted to be. But that can never be. He is lots younger than I to start with, but circumstances is another obstacle. Gee, but he is just the kind of a boy I could love for life if I just had that chance. I wonder if he can feel my presence tonight. Oh Lord, how lonely I am tonight. If he were here I would be satisfied for the time being just to be with him. Gee, wish I knew if he ever thinks of me. I would give most any thing to know if he just gave me one little thought to night.”

Deep Secrets

08 Saturday Dec 2012

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Appalachia, culture, Harts Creek, history, inspiration, life, Lincoln County, love, Pearl Adkins, thoughts, U.S. South, West Virginia, writers, writing

     “Diary dear, I can tell you many things I can’t no other,” Pearl wrote on October 31. “You keep secrets that no one knows. I’m going to confide in you. I love another. I have said I could no other but one, but I’m not quite sure now. Kindness goes a long way to create love. It’s not good looks. I never knew til now. Oh Lord, what makes me always love some body that don’t love me. But they are so kind I can’t help but love him some but I don’t want to. I never thought of loving him until a certain thing happened. I dreamed so often of him making love to me. Oh Lord, let that love for him cease for I don’t want it ever to be. I want my one I always loved.”

     “This is the last day of our beautiful October weather,” Pearl continued. “Many here to day. October month here me. Oh Lord let us all meet again. Goodby October’s bright blue weather and sad the crimson autumn leaves but sadder that one of her sisters was sick. She was fixing to go and leave me dirty and as always my heart told me Dear was coming and I didn’t want to be so dirty. She quarreled at me for wanting to be cleaned up. I cried till my eyes was all swollen up and red. So you see how it is when you can’t do any thing for yourself. You go blank. Well, after I cried she went and cleaned me up but before I got my slipper on he came. It seems that he is always in a hurry. After he was gone I couldn’t help but think of a song: ‘I grieve that ere I met three, Faith fair would I forget thee. Can river thee? Never! Farewell, farewell forever! We have met, and we have parted yet uttered scarce a word like a guilty thing, Started when thy well-knowing voice I heard,’ Oh, how well those words are formed. I couldn’t have wrote my feelings better if I had tried.”

     “Sunday morning again,” Pearl wrote a little later. “Word came to Mother as I expected but I never seen him — only his well loved voice I heard. He sit down out in the yard and stayed a long time but being an old cripple I couldn’t go out to even get a look at his sweet face. Oh Lord, how I would like to speak his dear name as I can write it but I dare not for none of the folks don’t like him a great deal. So I love him on in secret as I have so long. Dear boy, I love you — love you as I can love no other.”

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Feud Poll 1

If you had lived in the Harts Creek community during the 1880s, to which faction of feudists might you have given your loyalty?

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Feud Poll 2

Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Feud Poll 3

Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

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