In Search of Ed Haley 245

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

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On March 20, 1865, Captain Benjamin R. Haley wrote West Virginia Governor Arthur I. Boreman about his capture the previous fall, the disbanding of his independent company of scouts and of his desire to join Captain James H. Ferguson’s Cabell County Scouts.

I have the Honor to Report the condition of my company of Ind. Scouts for Wayn County W.Va on the night of the 15th of Sept./64 we were Surrounded by 115 Rebells under command of Bill Smith in person I having only my Self and Seven of my men on duty when we were captured together with nine citizens whom I had cald in and armed to assist us in case we should be attacked we were all gobbled up with our armes and accouterments making in all Seventeen gunes with there accouterments. on my Return after Being parroled I Lernd that Senator Bowen had Recivd orders from you Excellency to take up the Remainder of the armes and accouterments and to Disband the men that was not captured. I have been bound to keep the parole they gave me for Life Sake not that I hold them a Legal Ware power yet for that and personal Safety I have kept it till now. I ernistly Desire an exchange as I wish to participate in defending my country with James H. Ferguson of Cabell County on whose List my name Shall Shortly appear.

On March 25, 44-year-old Haley enlisted in Ferguson’s Company of Cabell County Scouts at Guyandotte for one year, along with his sons William and 18-year-old James. Ben was appointed 2nd Sergeant on April 1, while William was appointed corporal. James was listed as a private in a muster roll dated May 25. The war, of course, wound down in the spring of 1865 and with it the military career of Ben Haley.

After the war, Haley settled in the headwaters of Ben Haley Branch, a tributary located at a small post office known as Kiahsville near the Wayne-Lincoln county line. In 1870, 50-year-old “Benjamin Hale” was listed with his family in the Sheridan District of newly created Lincoln County with $315 worth of real estate and $200 worth of personal property. His son William was also still in the area, having married Catherine O’Neil of Ireland in 1869. By 1880, 66-year-old Ben was back in Wayne County with 30-year-old Martha Deeryfield Spence and her children. His wife and younger children were no longer in the county.

During the 1880s, Ben Haley relocated to Quincy, Kentucky, perhaps around the time of Ed Haley’s birth in 1885. According to locals, nothing remains of his home on Ben Haley Branch except an old well. Just down the hill is Lick Creek, where Cain Adkins had been born in 1833.

In 1890, Catherine Haley was listed in the Special Union Veterans Census as a resident of the Laurel Hill District of Lincoln County. She gave John’s military information as follows: 9th West Virginia Infantry (Company G) from October 1862 until October 1864 and 1st West Virginia Infantry (Company F) from 1864 until June 1865. He suffered from consumption and was held in prison for nine months and fourteen days in Andersonville and Florence, South Carolina.

By 1900, there were no Haleys living in the Grant District of Wayne County.

Of Ben’s children, only Jane Haley currently has any descendants in the WayneCounty area. Jane married Thomas McCoy, Jr. (no relation to Green) and was the mother of Peter McCoy — the preacher who gave Milt and Green money for their escape in 1889. Peter died in 1963 but his daughter Bessie Fraley lives at the old homeplace on Route 37 near the family cemetery at the Wayne-Lincoln county line. When Brandon called her, she said her grandma Jane McCoy (Milt’s half-sister) was a “great big fat lady” who died before her birth in 1920. She had never heard of Milt Haley or even Ben Haley and had no idea that a Ben Haley Branch was only a few miles from her home.

In Search of Ed Haley 244

17 Monday Feb 2014

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On August 30, 1864, Captain Benjamin R. Haley wrote a letter to West Virginia Governor Arthur I. Boreman:

Sir I have the Honor of reporting to you the Success and condition of my company I have Lost no men tho there is Some ten cases of Sickness in my company owing to exposure in Scouting and Lying out in the night time we have had quiet times for the Last month untill the Last few days we now have Bill Smith and his gang in our midst which gives us much trouble and fatigue Looking out for him we also have Jim Smith the arch trator and a Small gang to Look after which is a great innoiance attended with considerable Trouble and Danger so upon the whole we have our hands full and in deed we may consider ourselves fourtunate if we are able to compete Successfully with them our armes are in good order and ammunition plenty for the ensuing month.

We have Arrested 9 Disloyal citizens which have been Sent away under Gen. Shermans order and two more who are now under trial at Catletts Burg Ky. Also one cofederate Soldier who was sent to Camp Chase whose name was Wash Wats. There has been Recently a trasaction in our county of Some importanc that a cirtain Rebel capt. James Buskerk who was experimenting with uncle Abe pills and took one too many So it worked him out of this wourld and also out of our way for ever and at the Same time there was one Stephen Strawther who took a very Heary Dose which is prooveing it is Supposed pretty fatal to him tho he may recover its affects for any thing we know yet we do hope it may have a good effect Let it work as it will it is an expressed opinion that if this Little company Should be removed the gurillas would be robbing Steam Boats between Catlettsburg & Guyandott and it is threatned Strongly as it is.

Attached to the August 30 letter was this message:

Sir wee are concious that our company is too weak to purform the Duty that is Required oweing to the increased numbers of gurilas and the Disbandment of the other three companies puting all together it becomes dangerous to Scout through the county or even to Hold a position in the County we have time and again Reported to the federal forces and with one Single exception have failed to get Help they invariably tell us to Remain with them and Keep out of Danger which you at once Se gives our County no protection at all now I have conversed with your warmest costituance and just friends and they all think it Due them and the intrust of our county that you Should give an order for more men now I can asure you the men can be recruited in a very Short time. You are aware that the term of Servis of the 5 Va Regt. is now about out and there are quite a number of them who have not nor will not reenlist also quite a number of them who Reside in wayn County and cannot Stay at home under existing circumstanses. They therefore would Readily enlist in a compey of this kind and Defend the Interest of the Loyal people of this county. There are also quite a number of citizens who would becom Souldiers in a Local Company like this be you assured we must have moor men or Suffer great Loss after Runing great Risks of our own Live we are held as usurpers of the Laws of Va and cald Borman Bogus theaves and cut throats by the Rebels and threatened with instantaneous Death when captured.

We are not at all Dismaid or intimidated at there threats not with Standing that there is plenty moor men to Help us we think it nothing more than Right they Should be permitted to do wee know they will do if armed and put at it we therefor petition you to give us the minimum number of a company Say eighty the Rank and file to be paid from the Date of there enlistment and for to be economical Say one Lieutenant.

On September 15, 1864, Haley was captured by a force under the command of Rebel Bill Smith. A few days later, on September 23, he was officially discharged from the 5th West Virginia Infantry, as was his son, William. The following day, the Wheeling Intelligencer reported on his capture:

A RAID: A few days ago the notorious rebel Bill Smith, with about sixty men, made a raid on Ceredo, situated on the Ohio river, in Wayne County in this state. They captured Capt. Ben. Hailey, and eight of his men, who belonged to the West Virginia State Guards, who were stationed at Ceredo for the protection of that point and surrounding neighborhood. They also captured all the male citizens of the place, with the exception of two old men, and robbed the Post Office of stationary and postage stamps, and other valuables, to the amount of about forty dollars, and robbed the citizens of all the horses in the neighborhood, and about seven hundred dollars. The guerillas left Ceredo with their prisoners and booty, going in the interior, in the direction of Wayne Court House, robbing the citizens of their horses and other property. The loyal citizens have been greatly annoyed for the want of necessary protection, ever since March or April last, the country being overrun by guerillas, committing depredations of the most shameful character, such as murdering citizens, robbing houses of bed clothing and their valuables, and taking money from citizens. It would be a great relief to the loyal citizens of Wayne County if the military authorities could possibly spare soldiers sufficient to protect said county from the bands of guerillas that are continually infesting the county, and driving the loyal citizens away from their homes.

In Search of Ed Haley 243

16 Sunday Feb 2014

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On June 8, 1863, Benjamin R. Haley and his son James enlisted for one year of service in the 45th Kentucky Volunteer Mounted Infantry. The 45th was organized in the summer of 1863 as a battalion (four companies) whose purpose it was the protect the Virginia front and the counties of eastern Kentucky. On October 10, the 45th was upgraded to a regiment in Ashland. At that time, Haley was made captain of Company B, while son William A. Haley was made second lieutenant.

“During the early part of 1864 the regimental headquarters were at Mt. Sterling, Ky., from which point the 45th was continually employed in constant and arduous duty, covering the entire Virginia front from Cumberland Gap to Louisa, and keeping in check, by ceaseless activity, the rebel cavalry command concentrated in and about Abingdon, Va.,” according to Union Regiments of Kentucky.

In March of ’64, the 45th moved its headquarters further north to Flemingsburg, Kentucky. Haley, perhaps wishing to remain closer to his home in Wayne County, resigned on March 17, 1864. William absented himself from command at Prestonsburg, Kentucky, on April 24, 1864 while on the march to Saltville, Virginia. James A. was mustered out on December 24, 1864 at Catlettsburg.

On April 8, 1864, John Bowen, a resident of Buffalo Shoals, wrote West Virginia governor Arthur I. Boreman to request that Ben Haley be permitted to organize a company and provide more Union protection in Wayne County.

Dear Sir I wish to inform you that Mr. Morgan Garret has declined to raise a Scouting Company for this part of our county and has gone to Kentucky. Horse Stealing is Still going on here. We need a company for this part of the county very much. They have three companeys upon Sandy and I understand they are trying to get another one. I think if their are to be another company for this county it ought to be for this part of the county. I would recommend either Benjamin Haley or William Nixson for capt. of a company and I request that one of them be commisioned to raise a company as soon as possible as we need protection badly.

Governor Boreman heeded Bowman’s request. On April 28, 1864, 46-year-old Ben Haley organized an Independent Company of Scouts for Wayne County. Some 25 men enlisted at Ceredo to serve in Captain Ben Haley’s Company for twelve months. “The members of my com were organized and Sworn in to the Servis by Abel Segar Esq the only Justice of the Peace that is in the County that will attempt to Edecute his office,” Haley wrote to the governor. On May 7, he requested 25 hats, 25 pairs of boots, 25 woolen blankets, 25 rubber blankets, 25 haversacks, 50 flannel shirts, fifty pairs of drawers and fifty pairs of stockings. He also requested 25 Colt rifles, 4000 bullet cartridges, 25 bayonet scabbards, 25 waist belts, 12 screw drivers and two ball screws, among other items. On May 10, Haley took his oath of office and then signed an oath of allegiance to the United States of America on the following day.

On June 6, Haley wrote Governor Boreman:

Sir I have the Honor of reporting the condition of my co of Independent Scouts for Wayne Co West Va. We are in Camp at present in Ceredo. The men in good condition except 3 cases of sickness disserrtions non captured two rebels prisoners one of Rebel Witcher command & the other of Jenkins turned over to the post at Catllesburg Ky please instruction what to be don with Sick also what is to be don with capturd property horses guns in consequence of the U.S. Troops being Sent to the front we are very much trobled with Strong bands of gurillas which prevents our Scouting very far in the county notwithstanding we have Scouted considerable & have lost no man I think in my next months report I shall be able to give a good account of the Service of my men as they are brace & hardy. Men all Suplied with arms in good condition.

In Search of Ed Haley 242

14 Friday Feb 2014

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Benjamin R. Haley — Milt Haley’s father — was one of the most ardent Unionists in Wayne County (West) Virginia during the Civil War. He served in at least two companies of infantry (one in West Virginia and one in Kentucky), one company of militia, and two companies of Home Guards. He first enlisted in April of 1861 and remained on muster rolls as late as May 1865. He was twice captured and almost court martialed. He was also, based on his military records, a drinker and a fiddler.

Ben Haley was born around 1820 in Virginia. According to census records, he married Cynthia Dyer around 1843. They were the parents of the following children: Hannah Jane Haley, born about 1844; William A. Haley, born about 1846; John B. Haley; James Haley; Helen M. Haley, born about 1850; Charles Haley, born about 1852; and Margaret Haley, born about 1856. In 1850, the Haleys lived in Russell County, Virginia (as did, incidentally, Bill Duty and the Ferrells). Toward the latter years of the decade, Ben moved to Wayne County in the Big Sandy Valley, where he fathered Milt Haley by Nellie Muncy. What contact he had with Milt is unknown. In 1860, according to census records, Ben and his family lived with James Short in Wayne County, (West) Virginia. Haley had $300 worth of real estate and $250 worth of personal property. At some point, according to the Doris Miller Papers at Marshall University, he lived on the Sweetwater Branch of the East Fork of Twelve Pole Creek.

On April 2, 1861, 40-year-old Haley enlisted as a corporal in Captain Joseph M. Kirk’s Company of the 5th Virginia Foot Volunteers at Ceredo, (West) Virginia, for a period of three years. Ceredo was an abolitionist town established in 1857. On September 2, the 5th was reorganized as the 5th West Virginia Infantry at Camp Pierpont in Ceredo. It was mustered into U.S. service on October 18. On November 1, Haley was appointed 1st lieutenant of Company F (following the death of former lieutenant James Baisden). In December, the 5th was ordered to Parkersburg, while a principal part of the regiment was sent to New Creek, Virginia. Haley was apparently with the Parkersburg group as he left there for home in March of 1862 without permission and was listed in records as “Absent, sick at Ceredo.” He was still AWOL in April.

By late spring, Haley was back with the 5th where he soon found trouble with the U.S. Army. According to papers filed by the army, he was charged with “Conduct unbecoming an Officer and a gentleman; Conduct subversive of discipline; and Violating 77th Article of War.” More specifically, “on the 20th day of June, 1862, at New Creek, Va., the said Lieut. Benj. R. Haley, did drink at a saloon, with a number of enlisted men, of his own and other companies, and was then and there drunk and disorderly, being subversive of good order and discipline at said Post.” Furthermore, “Lieut. Benj. R. Haley, did, when put under arrest, allow a detachment of his company, to resist the demand for his sword, and thereby inciting mutiny. That, at the same time and place, when asked for his name and regiment, he told the Post Adjutant to find out as best he could.” More importantly, “the said Lieut. Benj. R. Haley, after having been placed in arrest and ordered to his quarters, did leave the same without permission and was afterward found in a Beer Saloon, playing the violin for some teamsters and enlisted men to dance.”

On July 16, 1862, Haley wrote a letter of resignation as second lieutenant while camped near Woodsville, Virginia. The 5th had recently been engaged at Luray, Virginia, from July 5-11 and at Sperryville, Virginia, on July 11. “I have the honor to tender my resignation as Second Lieut. Fifth Regt. Va. Inf. for the following reasons. Charges are herewith enclosed prepared by Major Burtnett agst myself, parts of which are true and I prefer that my resignation should be accepted than be tried by Court Martial. In the second place I feel my incompetency to discharge the duties of the Office which I hold.” Haley’s resignation was approved and finalized on July 30, 1862.

On August 7, 1862, Ben Haley and his son James enrolled as privates in William T. Caldwell’s Company of the 167th Virginia Militia in Wayne County. On November 29, Haley was captured in Wayne County and confined at Richmond on April 1, 1863. He was paroled on April 3 at City Point, Virginia, and reported to Camp Parole, Maryland, on April 6. He and his son James were back on muster rolls for the 167th on May 7. Captain Caldwell referenced Haley in a letter dated May 17 (“Your favor of the 14th inst has just been handed me by Mr. B.R. Haley…”) Ben’s son James was wounded later that fall, probably in an October 20 skirmish near the Logan-Wayne County line with Vincent “Clawhammer” Witchers’ troops.

In Search of Ed Haley 241

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Ed Haley, Music

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A week later, I followed up on a lead from Billy Adkins and called Tom Atkins. Tom was a great-grandson of Cain Adkins and a genealogist in Williamson, West Virginia. It was a chance lead: Billy had called him to ask about Ed Haley’s genealogical connections in the Tug Valley only to discover that Tom’s grandfather was Winchester Adkins — a son to Cain.

When I called Tom, he said he knew almost nothing about Cain and only a little about his grandfather, Winchester Adkins. He said Winchester left the West Fork of Harts Creek at a young age and settled at Stiltner in Wayne County. He eventually moved to Williamson and worked as an engineer on the N&W Railroad. At that location, after a repeated “mix-up over his checks” he changed the spelling of his surname from “Adkins” to “Atkins.” He was also a well-known fiddler who tried his hand at professional music.

“I heard my mother tell someone here while back how many tunes my grandfather played,” Tom said. “It was a hundred and some. See, he just knew them by ear. And I believe that at one time he had a fiddle that was made by Cain — his father — and I don’t know who has that or whether it’s even in existence now ’cause we’ve had floods here. And I do know at one time he was a member of a group in Mingo County called the ‘Mingo Ramblers’ and they were on the Grand Ole Opry way back in the early days.”

Tom said that was all he knew because his grandfather died when he was four years old.

In Search of Ed Haley 240

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

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A few days later, I called Ugee Postalwait with a whole bunch of questions, mostly related to my recent trip to Harts. I asked her if Laury Hicks ever went to Harts Creek with Ed.

“Oh, yeah,” she said immediately. “All through them places. Dad had a car and he had a driver, and they’d go a lot of places. Anybody was willing to take Dad any place.”

“Did Doc White ever take them anywhere?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Ugee said. “They’ve all run around together. He was a photographer, he could make teeth, he was a doctor, he was everything — and he learned it all in the penitentiary. He was a mid-wife. He could do anything. Played the fiddle. He was crazy about the railroad. He had a railroad steam engine and all that stuff back of his house. He was a smart man. Even my dad doctored with him.”

Ugee remembered Ed playing a tune called “Getting off the Raft” and figured her father also played it.

“I don’t remember Dad ever playing it but if Ed played it he played it, too,” she said. “Whatever one played, the other’n played. They was just that close together, John. They was just that way.”

I asked if Laury ever talked about a fiddler named Jeff Duty and she said, “Yeah, he talked about a fiddler by that name.”

What about Cain Adkins?

“Adkins. That sounds right.”

“Ought to be some people in Cincinnati to know Ed Haley real well,” Ugee said, kind of changing the direction of our conversation. “Him and Ella went down there and played music a lot. They made some money there. Whenever they’d get close and need some money they would go to Cincinnati and stay maybe for three or four days.”

In Search of Ed Haley 239

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

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Inspired by Louise’s letter, I called Pat Haley, who told me what she knew about Ed’s meeting of Laury Hicks.

“Ed knew Laury Hicks through Bill Day, who was Rosie Day’s husband at that time,” Pat said. “Pop was here in Ashland, I guess. Him and Bill Day got together and then Aunt Rosie and Bill Day took him to Laury Hicks. And that’s the way he got acquainted with him.”

I said, “So he never met Laury Hicks until after Rosie and Bill Day got married? But that doesn’t sound right because Ugee told me that Ed used to come up there with John Hager way back. She’s known Ed since she was a little girl. And the reason John Hager stopped traveling with Ed was because he didn’t like his lifestyle. He said he was drinking too much.”

Pat said, “Well now that makes sense, too.”

I asked her more about the circumstances of Ralph Haley’s illegitimate birth.

“I talked to Mona about there being some confusion over Ralph’s birth,” she said. “Oh, she got very uptight with me about that. She said, ‘Yes, my mother was married because my mother told me so.’ Well, I was explaining this to my sister-in-law, Patsy. She said, ‘No, no, Patricia. That’s not right. Ralph was illegitimate. Payne was a married man and Mom was teaching his daughter piano. That’s how she became pregnant.’ And the reason she’s so sure about that is Patsy had a little girl before she was married and gave her up for adoption and later she told Jack out in California and he said, ‘Well, don’t let it bother you. My mother also had a child out of wedlock.’ We got to wondering why Jack would know that and nobody else would, and then we came to the conclusion that Jack stayed with Ella Haley’s dad and stepmother for many, many years. Patsy said she figured he learned that from Nan, the stepmother.”

In Search of Ed Haley 238

10 Monday Feb 2014

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As Brandon and Billy dug up more information in West Virginia, I received a letter in the mail from Louise (Adkins) Johnson of Powderly, Texas. She’d read an article about my Ed Haley search in a now-defunct Chapmanville newspaper called The Guyandotte Voice.

“I was so pleased to hear some one mention Blind Ed & his wife,” Johnson wrote. “I’m 72 yrs. old, was born and raised, in Boone Co. just over the hill from Chapmanville, W.V. My Uncle Simeon Bias & his wife Bertha (Baisden) & my family were (I guess you could say backwood singers & musicians) but Ed & his wife came to my Uncle Sim’s often & everyone played. I remember my brother was 3 1/2 or 4 (he’s 65 now) had the most beautiful blonde curls, & Ed would feel his head and say how pretty he was. They would stay a couple of wks. at a time. If you would contact the older people of Bias Branch in Boone Co. you may be able to find out more about them.”

“Now Johnny Hager lived with my mother & Daddy my sister, my Brother & me all our growing up yrs. @ home,” Louise continued. “He was a handy man, & a fiddle player. I also have his picture. He had no family as my Parents knew of, & he stayed more with us, some time’s a neighbor would need him to come live with them, to build them an out house for them. He was noted for the best out houses, he earned his keep by living with & helping others. A very neat man.”

In Search of Ed Haley 237

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in Coal, Ed Haley, Harts, Timber

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For the moment, timber remained king of the local economy. There were saw mills, large-scale timbering and news of a “firm from the East” locating in the area. “A firm from the East is getting ready to put men at work in the woods making barrel staves in the near future, near the Logan and Lincoln county line,” the Cabell Record reported in June of 1900. “Twenty thousand logs went out from Big Ugly and Hart’s creek last week,” it reported later in December. “There is a general activity in the timber business on Hart’s creek this winter,” the paper reported in January of ’01. “About fifty men are at work there getting out logs.”

With the coming of the railroad, Harts residents were also excited about the potential of extractive industries, like coal, natural gas, and even oil. “Everyone along the valley is talking coal these days,” the Record reported on December 6, 1900. “People with coal on their lands are jubilant over the prospects.” In January of 1901, the Record stated, “Hart’s creek people are enthusiastic over the prospects of striking oil or gas in that section. They have been encouraged very much by experienced oil men, who will work more wells in the spring on Little and Big Hart.”

Unprecedented economic opportunity seemed to be at everyone’s fingertips. “The valley will soon be dotted with small towns,” the Record accurately predicted on January 24, 1901. “Every day people are coming in to locate, and the future of the Guyan valley is promising.” On April 4, 1901, the Record wrote: “More timber went out of the valley in the late rise than has gone down in several years. Rafts followed one right after the other for several days. Bob Lewis is doing a lot of work on Hart’s creek now. He has got a large number of men in the woods chopping and has now on hand a grand lot of timber for the market.”

A major problem during this prosperous time involved an overabundance of alcohol. “A man claiming to be a Deputy U.S. Marshal or Revenue officer, was along the river the most of past week investigating reports regarding the sale of liquor without the proper Government permit,” the Record reported on April 5, 1900. “It is said that he ‘hooked’ on to plenty of clues and found where cider was ‘spiked’ quite heavily.”

On April 25, the Record offered this: “The past few days have been busy ones along the river. Timber men have been busy trying to save their stuff. At Nine, Fourteen, Big Ugly and Hart the stream has been filled with men rafting and working about logs. The river was higher than it has been for many years, and much damage was done to property along the streams and the big creeks.” On May 2, it stated: “Considerable dressed timber that was lying in the mouth of Big Ugly broke loose during the high water last week, but was caught below the Falls. The stuff is very valuable and is used in ship building, being transported to various ports in the East, and it is reported that some of it gets to England and Scotland.”

Alcohol continued to plague the valley. In June 1901, the Record offered this small dispatch: “From all reports plenty of ‘kill me quick’ liquor is being sold along the river these days. A big batch of indictments and arrests may result from it.” By fall, the Record wrote of the moonshiners and distillers: “They do business despite all protest.” Essentially giving up its attack upon the liquor men, it suggested that the Lincoln County Court “grant licenses to the saloons that do business openly near Big Ugly and Hart’s creek” because it “might as well get the revenue from this source.” In December, the Record reported, “It is said that the coming Lincoln county court may grant license to some saloons. Will it extend to those who openly violate the law along the river and don’t care?”

Once the railroad was completed in 1904, the newspaper’s predictions about “small towns dotting the valley” became a reality. In 1904, Ferrellsburg and Toney were established in Harts Creek District, followed by Atenville, Eden Park, and Fry in 1908. In 1904, there were 15 schools in the district and 482 students enrolled (out of 714 enumerated).

In Search of Ed Haley 236

08 Saturday Feb 2014

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By that time, according to land records, Al Brumfield was the chief businessman in Harts. In 1890, he bought 150 acres of property, including a 100-acre tract from John W. Runyon valued at 188 dollars. (For some reason, deed records imply that Hollena bought it from John Dingess and not Runyon for $525 on August 7, 1891.) The following year, he bought 272 acres on Frances Creek, probably for timbering, and improved the value of a building on his land to 200 dollars (likely a home, store or sawmill). In 1892, his recently widowed mother deeded him 100 acres on Guyan River. That same year, he bought 50 acres on Fourteen Mile Creek (presumably for timbering) and improved the value of his building to 500 dollars. In June, he acquired the old 330-acre Toney farm at the mouth of Harts Creek. He bought out all of the heirs (including his mother), then paid Bill Fowler and Isaac Adkins $1550. Thereafter, he spent three years building that beautiful white home I saw on my first trip to Harts with Lawrence Haley in 1991.

By the early 1890s, the local timber industry was in full swing. “Considerable poplar timber has been cut out of Lincoln county for the last twenty years, and all the walnut that ever was, but there still remain magnificent tracts of tens of thousands of acres of timber which have never been touched by the woodman’s axe,” according to The Mountain State: A Description of the Natural Resources of West Virginia (1893). “Fully one-half the county is yet covered with magnificent oak forests, and the greater portion of this with poplar also. There is also much ash, beech, some chestnut, a little pine, and some other timber, all of which may be easily gotten to market by means of the Guyandotte. Little timber has ever been sawed at home, it being cheaper to float the logs out and saw them closer to market. Even staves are taken out in this way, not being sawed or split till they have reached a railroad point. The northern portion of the county has been cleared and settled to a greater extent than the southern [Harts], where the greater part of the timber that is still standing is to be found.”

Cashing in on the timber boom was Al Brumfield. In the mid-1890s, however, Brumfield and his capitalistic ventures suffered a minor setback: at that time, the traditional post offices were discontinued and relocated in the backcountry away from the Guyandotte River. (Harts was discontinued in 1891 and Warren in 1894.) For a brief time, Harts residents were left with a Fourteen address, named after nearby Fourteen Mile Creek. Andrew Elkins, an old Confederate veteran, served as postmaster there from 1880 until 1898. But there was hope for Brumfield and Harts: there was talk of a railroad coming to the Guyandotte Valley, scheduled to pass smack dab through town, connecting Logan County with Cabell County towns near the Ohio River.

By 1899, Brumfield owned nine tracts of land totaling 714.5 acres worth $2,774. On his property were three buildings valued at $150, $150 and $750 — all of these figures not including the money he was making from his log boom, store, saloon, ferry, gristmill, and orchard. The next year, in 1900, he re-established the Harts Post Office and, within a few years, the local economy shifted back to the banks of the Guyan. It was a prosperous time: timber was in its hey-day and the railroad was on its way. “Allen, son of the late Paris Brumfield, who has a big lot of property at and near the mouth of Hart’s creek, says times have been good,” according to The Cabell Record of July 26, 1900. “He has a pretty home and one of the finest store-houses along the river.” Later in October, The Record reported: “Times were never in better shape along the river. Timbermen are active and saw mills are busy. The farmers are doing well, and the new railroad is giving employment to many.”

In Search of Ed Haley 235

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by in Ed Haley, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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The Lincoln County Courthouse — which holds deed records, vital statistics, and criminal records for the Harts Creek District — burned on November 19, 1909, taking with it whatever records might have existed pertaining to the 1889 feud. Thanks to a now-forgotten arsonist reportedly hired by a gas company to eliminate locals’ claims to mineral rights, we can locate little information in the courthouse on Milt Haley’s death or Brumfield family antics. However, somehow, we do have access to Lincoln County land records since 1867 and they reveal quite a bit about the happenings at the mouth of Harts Creek in the late 1880s. (The Logan County Courthouse, which holds similar records on Ed Haley and his family, has fared little better: it was burned by Yankee soldiers during the Civil War.)

Al Brumfield, according to Brandon’s research, first settled with his wife in a small, boxed house on property owned by his mother and located just below the mouth of Harts Creek at the Shoals along the Guyandotte River. In 1888, some seven years after his marriage, he secured his first piece of property on Brown’s Branch, courtesy of his mother. More importantly, according to land records (in one of those moments where written records confuse the story by totally conflicting with oral tradition), he did not own any property at the mouth of Harts Creek at the time of the Haley-McCoy trouble. Al apparently bought land there from Bill Fowler immediately after the Haley-McCoy trouble. The earliest documented account of him owning the log boom was an 1895 deed, which partially read, “…about three hundred yards above the mouth of said creek where the log boom is now tied.”

One thing for certain: Brumfield wasted little time in eliminating his business competitors at the mouth of Harts Creek immediately following the Haley-McCoy murders. In 1889, he had four primary rivals: (1) Bill Fowler; (2) John Runyon; (3) Isham Roberts and, to a lesser extent, (4) James P. Mullins. Fowler was his cousin, Runyon was no relation, and Roberts was his brother-in-law. Mullins was located more than a mile up Harts Creek at Big Branch and operated a business that was likely past its prime.

In 1890, Brumfield acquired two tracts of land (a 95-acre tract worth 113 dollars and a 25-acre tract worth 75 dollars) from Runyon. We don’t know what price was paid for this land (thanks to the courthouse fire) but considering the circumstances it may have helped save Runyon’s life in the wake of his possible role in the Haley-McCoy fiasco. In that same year, a stubborn Bill Fowler sold two valuable lots on the west side of Guyan River totaling 165 acres to Isaac Adkins, not Al Brumfield. Fowler was apparently resisting the urge to sell out to his ambitious younger cousin who had reportedly burned his business. One tract was 75 acres and worth six dollars per acre, while the other was 90 acres and worth four dollars per acre. The property was worth 810 dollars. Meanwhile, in 1891, Brumfield’s brother-in-law, Isham Roberts, who was referenced in a circa 1884 history as a “prosperous young merchant” at the mouth of Harts Creek, sold out and moved upriver near Fowler Branch (present-day Ferrellsburg).

Not only did Fowler, Runyon and Roberts sell out — they moved away completely. Fowler took his wife and four children (Bettie, age 15, Effie, age 14, Benjamin Franklin, age 12, and George Washington, age 10) and moved to Central City in Huntington. In May of 1892, his wife bought Lot 6 Block 88 in Central City from Susan Porter and her husband. On October 19, she deeded it to Louis H. Taliaferro, who deeded it back to William Fowler, who deeded it back to Taliaferro, who deeded it back to Mrs. Fowler. The Fowlers were in Central City in 1900. According to family tradition, Roberts moved to Oklahoma because of his wife’s disapproval of the violent deeds committed by her family. Several years later, she sold her interest in her father’s estate to Charley Brumfield — the man who had murdered her father in 1891.

Aside from businessmen, the 1889 troubles drove away other important citizens from Harts. First was Cain Adkins, a doctor, lawman, preacher and schoolteacher. In 1891, Cain Adkins sold 40 acres to John H. Adkins, who thereafter claimed the remainder of the farm. Two years later, in 1893, John and his wife Sallie deeded “the Canaan Adkins Farm” (205 acres) to Salena Vance for $607.50. In 1895, Vance and others sold the farm to J.A. Chambers, who in turn deeded it to Louis R. Sweetland in 1897. Thereafter, Salena Vance acquired the property again (jointly with her children, John and Nettie Toney) and sold it to George H. Thomas and E.O. Petrie in 1913. Later that year, Petrie sold his half-interest to Thomas. In 1914, the property contained a 300-dollar building.

In addition to Preacher Cain, John H. Napier, a doctor and in-law to Adkins, seems to have fled the community around 1890. According to Hardesty’s History of Lincoln County, West Virginia (c.1884), Napier settled near the mouth of Harts Creek in 1879. His wife, Julia Ann Ross, was a niece to Cain Adkins. Her older sister married Cain Adkins’ brother-in-law, Addison Vance, of Piney. John was listed in the 1880 census as a thirty-seven-year-old physician with a wife (age 30) and five children, as well as a nephew. He did not own property locally, although his occupation as a doctor and businessman might have made him particularly threatening to an ambitious person like Al Brumfield. “Mr. Napier is a prosperous merchant in Hart Creek district, with business headquarters at the mouth of the creek,” Hardesty wrote.