John B. Wilkinson of Logan, WV (1928)

05 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in Logan, Wayne

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From West Virginians, published by the West Virginia Biographical Association in 1928, comes this profile of Judge John B. Wilkinson of Logan, WV:

The Honorable John B. Wilkinson, who died August 12, 1919, at Logan, where he had long been a foremost citizen, held rank among the best known and most successful lawyers and jurists in West Virginia. In business likewise Judge Wilkinson enjoyed a distinguished success. One of the leaders in the early development of the coal industry in the Guyan Valley, his position at the time of his death was among the great figures in business and industry. He was treasurer of the Guyan Coal Company, the Mona Coal Company, the Robertson Consolidated Land Company and the Alderson-Wilkinson Land Company. He was president of the Big Huff Coal Company and a director of the Robertson Grocery Company. He was originally a director of the Guyan Valley Bank, but later disposed of his holdings in that institution. Throughout the state at large, however, his fame was earned chiefly by his work as a jurist. During twelve years on the bench of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, he was noted for his fairness, accuracy and knowledge of the law. The press of the whole state reported his passing at great length and with sincere regret that so valuable a personality had been lost to the community. Judge Wilkinson was born in Logan County, W.Va., February 13, 1860, the son of David Wilkinson, who had come from Carroll County, Va. He lived on a farm and attended school in that part of Logan County which afterward became Mingo County, coming to the then village of Logan Court House to attend a teachers’ institute and take an examination for a teacher’s certificate. He taught two or three local normal schools here and at Wayne. His legal career began in 1882, when he was admitted to the bar. He continued in the legal profession until his death in 1919. In 1884 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Logan County, which office he filled continuously till 1896. After an interval of four years he again assumed that office, in 1900, and served till January 1, 1905. Having been elected Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, he resigned as prosecutor and took his place on the circuit bench on the first of January, 1905, and remained as judge until failing health induced him to resign twelve years later. Several times Judge Wilkinson was urged to become his party’s candidate for Governor of the State, although he preferred not to accept that honor. In the summer of 1916 he was nominated for Judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia. After leaving the office of circuit judge, the condition of his health inclined him to give up the practice of law and close his office, but many friends had learned to depend on him for legal counsel, and at their urging he continued in active practice until his death. Judge Wilkinson was married, September 21, 1882, to Mary Belle Straton of Logan, who survives him with their four children, John B., Jr., who resides at Ashburn, Va.; Ernest Eugene, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Mona Russo, of San Diego, Calif.; and Mrs. Margaret Midyette, of Hollywood, Calif. Judge Wilkinson was for a long time a member of the First Baptist Church of Logan, and a member of its board of deacons. He was a member of the Masonic Orders—the Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine. Hundreds of people in West Virginia and neighboring states, although not personally acquainted with Judge Wilkinson, knew of his work as a jurist and his renown as a civic leader in general, so that at the time of his death, his passing elicited the sincere feeling that the state had lost one of its best and most constructive citizens.

Aracoma (Part 4)

04 Sunday Dec 2022

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

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Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 4 of her composition.

One other detail of the legend, not generally known but occasionally heard, is the story that Aracoma was Cornstalk’s daughter by adoption, that her mother was a sister of Cornstalk who had married Chief Logan and died soon after Aracoma’s birth. For this reason, the infant was taken into the lodge of Chief Cornstalk, where there were squaws to rear her, and this kinship by marriage and common interest in Aracoma was the secret of the alliance between the two famous Indian leaders who joined forces at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. There is nothing in Aracoma’s dying words to refute this claim—she still would have considered Cornstalk her father and have been the last of his line, through a niece. But Logan’s words do carry a refutation.

At the time Logan made this speech under the Circleville Elm, and it was written down to be dispatched to Lord Dunmore at Camp Charlotte, where peace was being negotiated, he could not have said, “There runs not a drop of my blood in any living creature” if Aracoma had been his daughter.

Some historians have discounted Logan’s speech, but it is fully in keeping with the man pictured by his contemporaries in the Horn Papers and other sourcebooks of American history. Scottish Lord Dunmore must have [p. 10] accepted it as authentic, when it was brought to him wrapped in a wampum belt by a man he had sent to fetch Logan.

Logan had been friendly to white settlers of Virginia and Pennsylvania. As a boy, he lived in the home of James Logan, former secretary of William Penn, who educated the youth, a son of a friendly Indian chief. Thereafter Logan bore the name of his foster-father instead of Tahgahinte, his Indian name. Chief Logan remained friendly to the settlers until his family was treacherously murdered by white men. Later it was established that Colonel Cresap was not a party to the deed, though Logan thought so for a long time.

Colonel Madison who led the Virginians against Aracoma’s settlement, is said to have been a son-in-law of Colonel William Preston, a noted Virginia surveyor. Some of the earliest land surveys in present Logan County were recorded in names of members of the Preston, Madison and Breckenridge families, and it is quite likely others went to men who served under Madison and Breckenridge of the Battle of the Island, or members of their families. So the Legend of Aracoma came into the Guyandotte Valley in the memories of the white settlers who came first after her, and in their imaginations.

Another reason for discounting the story that Aracoma was the daughter of Logan is her name. Cornflower seems the logical name of a daughter of Cornstalk.

The residents of the Guyandotte Valley have treasured their legend and have honored the name of Aracoma in many ways. In the early 1800s, the town which grew up in the area of Aracoma’s settlement and grave was known as Lawnsville. During the 1850s, Thomas Dunn English, a physician and poet who was the first mayor of the town, insisted on changing the name to Aracoma, which it remained until its incorporation as a city in 1907. The change then may have been due to men’s custom of referring to the town as “Logan Courthouse” rather than by its true name. Since that time, the name of Aracoma has been given to a smaller community in the county.

When Logan County observed its Centennial in 1952, Thomas Patterson, the author of American Primitive and other well known plays, was commissioned to write a drama based on the legend of Princess Aracoma. The pageant was produced on successive days of the celebration and was considered one of the highlights. [p. 11]

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 11.

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

Edward Theodore England of Logan, WV (1928)

04 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by in Logan, World War I, Wyoming County

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From West Virginians, published by the West Virginia Biographical Association in 1928, comes this profile of Congressman Edward Theodore England of Logan, WV:

Edward Theodore England, congressman from the sixth district of West Virginia, made a reputation, which finally took him to Congress through his singularly able and efficient administration as attorney general of the state, 1916-1924. Mr. England was born in Jackson County, W.Va., the son of A.J.S. and Mary Elizabeth (Welch) England. His father was a native of Barbour County, W.Va., and a minister in the Methodist Church. He spent a boyhood and youth of mingled labor and effort to advance and improve himself. His education was largely derived from the opportunities he created. He attended public schools, the Concord Normal at Athens, W.Va., graduating therefrom in 1892 and was also graduated with the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Law from the Southern Normal University, Huntingdon, Tenn. He began the practice of law at Oceana, then the county seat of Wyoming in the spring of 1899. From there, seeking a larger field for his activities, he removed to Logan, county seat of Logan County in 1901 and from that county, his abilities as a successful lawyer gained him recognition throughout the state. He served as mayor of Logan in 1903 and again in 1908 and in 1912 was elected to the state senate. He was a leader in that body for eight years and in 1915 was elected president of the senate, an office in which he represented West Virginia and presided over the first meeting of state lieutenant governors, held at Rhea Springs, Tennessee, in 1916. In 1916, Mr. England was elected on the state Republican ticket as attorney-general and in 1920 was re-elected by an increased majority. It was during his administration, that the Virginia-West Virginia debt settlement was negotiated and finally cleared up, Mr. England handing West Virginia’s interests in the affair. He also represented the state in the cases of Ohio and Pennsylvania vs. West Virginia, involving the constitutionality of an act passed by the West Virginia legislature affecting the transportation of gas out of the state. During his term as attorney general occurred the World War and there were many matters growing out of the war period that were assigned to his office. He was a member of the State Council of Defense and as a four-minute man, his services were enlisted as a speaker in war drives and campaigns. In 1923, Mr. England was elected president of the Attorney-Generals’ Association of the United States at a meeting in Minneapolis, Minn. He was a candidate for governor of the state in 1924, being defeated by a small majority, in the primary. He is known all over West Virginia as a loyal member of the Knights of Pythias. During 1920-21 he was Grand Chancellor of the state order and was also Junior Vice Grand Chancellor in 1923. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner, and is otherwise affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows., Elks, Loyal Order of Moose, and the Kiwanis club, of Charleston. He is also a member of the Methodist church. Mr. England was elected to Congress November 2, 1926, and has looked after the interests of the state faithfully. The sixth congressional district which he represents comprises the counties of Boone, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Pocahontas and Raleigh, and in committee appointment he holds place on the Post Office and Postal Committee, being one of a fewto be honored with appointment to a major committee during first term. He was renominated without opposition in the Republican Primary in May, 1928. Mr. England was married to Huldah L. Lenburg, of Moulton, La., December 25, 1901. They have three children, Arline, Francis M. and Majorie England.

Scott Hill Reflects on Life as a Slave, Part 1 (1940)

03 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by in African American History, Barboursville, Chapmanville, Civil War, Kitchen, Tazewell County

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The following article, written by Frank Ball, is taken from a Huntington-area newspaper clipping, the first part of which is missing.

…Americans are those who remember servitude as slaves. Barboursville has one citizen, Scott Hill, who remembers rendering such service. And little work he did as a slave, for he was but six years of age when the Civil War ended.

“Uncle Scott,” as he is familiarly known, was born the property of Lorenzo Hill, prominent orchardist and farmer of the Guyandotte valley.  Lorenzo Hill, owner of several slaves, lived on a large tract of land across the river from the little mining town of Kitchen in Logan county. Here Barboursville’s “Uncle Scott,” son of Hiram and Mary Hill, was born Feb. 5, 1859. (Slaves usually took the surname of their owners.)

Mr. Hill remembers well the excitement created by the Civil War, and the frantic movements attendant thereto. His owner was a blender of the best whiskies in the valley and his home was widely visited by soldiers and citizens alike who sipped the choice brandies and exchanged the news of the day.

Hysteria in border states ran high during the war, and it was thought best by some slaveholders to move their slaves farther south for safe keeping. It was rumored that Union soldiers were taking the slaves by force and freeing them. So Lorenzo Hill, whom Uncle Scott affectionately remembers as “Ole Boss,” started with his slaves on a long journey into Virginia.

Uncle Scott’s memory of this trip and stay in Virginia is rather painful. To begin with, it meant the sacrifice of “Old Baldy,” a steer of which the slave children were exceedingly fond, to furnish meat for the journey. En route, Uncle Scott’s uncle and three of his uncle’s children were sold. Tearfully, his mother parted from her brother and her nephews and niece as the trip to Virginia was resumed.

Ole Boss left his remaining slaves with a planter in Tazewell county, and returned to Logan. A year in Virginia found Scott’s father and mother greatly overworked, and they and their children greatly underfed.

This treatment was in direct contrast to that given to them by their owner, and the mother had the nerve to “strike.” She hired herself to a neighbor slaveholder that her children might be fed. And despite the frenzied objections of the planter with whom she was left, she won out in this extraordinary action.

In the fall of 1864, wartime hysteria had subsided somewhat and Lorenzo Hill returned to Virginia for his slaves. They were overjoyed at seeing him. They were sure they would be well fed and treated kindly. In return they would work hard for Ole Boss.

Note: Mr. Scott’s true name was William Henry “Scott” Hill. His mother Mary was the daughter of her master, Lorenzo Dow Hill, and a slave named Julia.

Hatfield Tunnel at Sprigg, WV (2022)

03 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Matewan

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A video from the 1990s features commentary from two sons of Allen “River Wall” Hatfield (1892-1978), who lived in Pike County, Kentucky. Scenes include Hatfield Tunnel, the Allen Hatfield farm, and the John Wallace Hatfield Family Cemetery. One person who is shown in the video died in 1997, so the video dates to 1990-1997.

Scene 1

…other side over there at the end of the bridge is West Virginia. And over on this side is Kentucky. My dad [Allen “River Allen” Hatfield, son of John Wallace Hatfield] walked up those beams and carried water—he was a water boy—while they were putting in this bridge here. This is a bridge that goes through the mountain that cuts off where the river makes a circle called the Bend of the River. And the Bend of the River is where the Hatfields lived. And over here is the tunnel. Hatfield Tunnel. And I have walked through this tunnel. You walk through this tunnel. There was man-holes through this tunnel and you could walk through here and… Step on the side when you hear a train coming. My dad and Ben Patterson who used to be the tunnel watchman here took a handcar and went over to Sprigg and put a self-playing piano on a handcar, brought it through the tunnel and took it across the river here and we unloaded it and hauled it down to our house, which was the Greenway Hatfield farm. Ben Patterson and my dad were very close friends. This is the tunnel and place where the Hatfields used to go down to Catlettsburg and they used to go down to Catlettsburg and as they took rafts down by the river and get at Catlettsburg and they’d buy whisky. The way they brought it back they brought a casket and put the whisky in a casket and put the casket in the coach car like there was somebody had died. So they’d get the train to stop right here at this tunnel and let the corpse off, you know. So they could get by with bringing in whisky from Catlettsburg.

Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022
Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022
Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022. Photo by Mom.

Aracoma (Part 3)

03 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by in American Revolutionary War, Guyandotte River, Logan, Man, Montgomery County, Native American History, Women's History

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Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 3 of her composition.

Aracoma has been described as an Indian maiden of exceptional grace and beauty. Perhaps the Virginians she impressed deeply in her dying hours may have believed she had great beauty in youth. Boling Baker is said to have had a fine physique and courageous bearing, which would have given his Indian captors reason for adopting him into the tribe. He is given credit for artful courtship of his love, and it seems likely he must have been skillful to win her away from other suitors the sachem’s daughter must have had.

The long history of their wedding, an elaborate ceremony her father accompanied them to the Guyandotte to perform, is less credible, but not impossible. More stress has been given to Aracoma’s royal estate than Indian customs warranted, but the English settlers had their own traditions of royal pomp and ceremony as patterns to draw from.

The carefree life credited to the Indians in the Guyandotte valley before 1776 reflects the wishful thinking of people whose own lives were filled with toil. Certainly the Indians must have lived stremuous lives, though they may have had an interlude of unusual peace and happiness before family life was saddened by the scourge which overtook them in 1776.

According to the story-tellers, Aracoma and Boling Baker had six children. Their names were Waulalisippi, or Laughing Waters, Snow Lily, Raindrop, Running Deer, Little Black Bear and Blue Feather.

It is said that Baker became despondent and bitter after the death of his children and during the hardships undergone by the colony after disease had reduced its strength. Doubtless the ones who added this detail had seen similar results in other men’s lives. They deduce that it was his desire to recoup the fortunes of the tribe that led him to attempt a bold exploit which resulted in disaster for his settlement.

Legendary history tells us that in the spring of 1780, a stranger appeared at a white settlement on Bluestone River, a man with a woe-begone countenance who recited sorrowful accounts of hardships he had undergone as a captive among the Indians in Ohio. He stayed for several days, familiarizing himself with everything about the settlement, then departed for the east (he said) in the hope of being reunited with his aged parents. The man was Boling Baker, who merely circled back to Flat Top Mountain, where he had left a band of his braves. On a dark rainy night in April, they stole quietly into the settlement and left with every horse there without disturbing a single sleeper.

The outraged settlers realized their recent visitor must have led the raid. Without horses to follow, they could only send for help from the mounted guard at Montgomery, seat of government for Montgomery County, Virginia, in which this entire area was then located. Colonel William Ingles, sheriff of the county, dispatched Colonel Madison and a deputy sheriff, John Breckenridge, with [p. 10] the party which massacred Aracoma’s village a few days later. Her paleface husband was one of the party absent on a hunt that day.

Little is known of Boling Baker after the death of Aracoma. It is said that for many a year afterward, men could read a couplet carved on beech trees in the area: ‘Boling Baker—his hand and knife, He can’t find a horse to save his life.’ Whether the words were carved by Baker or were a gibe directed at him by another, none can say.

The story is told that years later, an aged stranger came wandering up the Guyandotte River, asking questions of those he met. After standing a long time weeping on the mountainside opposite the island where Aracoma had lived, he went on past Horsepen Creek and eventually found lodging for a night in a home near Man. That night he told briefly some of the experiences of his life, which later were recognized to match the known story of Boling Baker. Next morning he was found dead in bed.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 10-11.

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

Chessie System in Southern West Virginia

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Boone County, Ferrellsburg, Holden

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

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

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

Posted by in Civil War, Harts, Lincoln County Feud

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Circuit Court Logan County

George Scaggs et al v. Amos Williamson

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

***

The State of West Virginia

To the Sheriff of Logan County–Greeting:

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

Curtis Ballard, Clerk

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

Hatfield Pioneers by Coleman A. Hatfield (1952)

14 Monday Nov 2022

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

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

Aracoma (Part 2)

14 Monday Nov 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aracoma (Part 1)

11 Friday Nov 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rainbow End: A Poem (1928)

30 Monday May 2022

Posted by in Poetry

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The following poem appeared in the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, on August 7, 1928. The author was Fred Durham, address unknown.

THE RAINBOW END

At the end of every rainbow,

So we always have been told,

If we find its termination

Sits a pot of virgin gold.

There are those who take it serious

And their entire talent bend

To a lifelong ceaseless searching

For the fleeting rainbow end.

Some are harmless near Micawbers.

Some of lawless dangerous trend.

But they all have one objective

The entrancing rainbow’s end.

Some there are who hear the story

With a tolerant knowing smile,

Knowing that these little stories

Help to make life more worthwhile.

And to them life in its fullness

Will an untold blessing lend

They seek not but find contentment

At the phantom rainbow end.

***

This poem was brought to The Banner office last week either by the author or some one else who deemed it worth publishing. The editor, though knowing little indeed of the technique of versification, thinks it meritorious in several essential respects.

Aracoma Hotel in Logan, WV (1933)

01 Sunday May 2022

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From the Logan Banner comes this bit of history for the Aracoma Hotel dated March 17, 1933:

Arters Brothers Lease Aracoma Hotel Property

Starting April 1st W.L. Davis and Dick Arters, of this city, and E.D. Arters of Huntington will operate the Aracoma Hotel. They have leased the hotel from the Ghiz estate, Mike Ghiz having been manager for the past six months. Dick Arters has been Mr. Ghiz’ assistant.

The Arters brothers are hotel men known the state over. At one time they operated the Faymont in Montgomery, and E.D. Arters was manager of the old Jefferson in Logan, when Dick Arters served in the capacity of assistant manager. The Arters and Mr. Davis have hosts of friends among the traveling public, as well as locally, who will be interested in this announcement. Mr. Davis, now with the Pioneer, used to be at the Aracoma and Mr. Arters has been on the same force. At the present time E.D. Arters is with the Huntington Hotel in Huntington, where he has managed the Farr.

Mr. Davis has lived in this county since 1914. He was superintendent of the Island Creek Coal Company for ten years, and has also been superintendent of the Monitor Coal and Coke Corporation. He became interested in the hotel business several years back. Mr. Davis when interviewed today, in behalf of the new management, said they planned on renovating the Aracoma as soon as they can take charge, give their particular attention to social gatherings, for which the hotel is an ideal place, and further stated that Mrs. E.W. Oakley would remain in charge of the dining room.

Don Chafin’s Deputies (1912-1917)

28 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by in Logan

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The following list of Don Chafin’s deputies prior to the Battle of Blair Mountain is based on Record of Bonds C and Record of Bonds D in the Logan County Clerk’s Office in Logan, WV:

Don Chafin was elected sheriff on November 5, 1912 and appeared on December 28, 1912 with his bondsman U.B. Buskirk for $40,000 (Book C, p. 215)

Name, Date of Appointment, Surety, Surety Amount, Book, Page

Garland A. Adams…28 January 1913…J.W. Chambers…$5000…C…236

Joe Adams…14 October 1913…G.F. Gore, A. Dingess, David C. Dingess, Anthony Adams, Sol Adams, Sr., and Sol Adams, Jr….$5000…C…297

John Barker…5 February 1913…F.P. Hurst…$5000…C…241

J.E. Barlow…26 April 1913…S.B. Lawson…$5000…C…268

J.L. Bess…22 July 1916…Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland…$5000…D…22

Joe Blair…28 December 1912…J.W. Chambers and Allen Mounts…$5000…C…224

John D. Browning…1 July 1914…Fidelity and Deposit Company…$5000…C…345

Bert Bush…6 January 1913…Monroe Bush…$5000…C…230

John L. Butcher…28 December 1912…Lewis Butcher, J.W. Chambers, Albert Gore…$5000…C…221

George Chafin…12 July 1915…James Toney…$5000…C…402

George Chafin…3 January 1917…J.B. Toney…$5000…D…74

J.A. Chafin…20 June 1913…J.W. Chambers and A.A. Vance…$5000…C…275

John Chafins…31 January 1913…H.H. Farley and A.J. Browning…$5000…C…240

Art Chambers…25 July 1914…Cush Avis, J.L. Chambers…$5000…C…349

Charley Conley…18 June 1914…George Butcher, Ed Chapman, William White…$5000…C…342

Nim Conley…18 July 1913…Ed Chapman and W.W. Conley…$5000…C…281

R.J. Conley…25 March 1913…Albert Gore…$5000…C…252

A.J. Dalton…26 December 1913…Fidelity and Deposit Company of MD…$5000…C…315

Riley Damron…5 July 1913…Millard Elkins and J.E. McCoy…$5000…C…278

David Dingess…3 April 1913…J.W. Chambers and George Justice…$5000…C…254

Everett Dingess…10 November 1913…John F. Dingess and Burl Adams…$5000…C…304

Vincent Dingess…7 July 1913…Georgia Dingess, William Gore, and Albert Gore…C…$5000…279

Ed Eggers…21 April 1913…Paul Hardy…$5000…C…264

Green Ellis…1 January 1917…Don Chafin…$5000…D…78

Joseph A. Ellis…30 January 1913…O.M. Conley…$5000…C…239

R.H. Ellis…undated…Elizabeth Ellis…$5000…C…233

H.H. Farley…29 January 1913…L.E. Steele…$5000…C…237

W.F. Farley…28 December 1912…Robert Bland…$5000…C…223

William Farley…13 January 1914…Wash Farley, A. Dingess, Lewis Farley, G.B. Farley…$5000…C…319

J.H. Ford…16 May 1914…P.J. Riley…$5000…C…336

Harry S. Gay, Jr….15 October 1913…S.B. Lawson…$5000…C…299

Albert Gore…28 December 1912…J.W. Chambers, G.F. Gore, Millard Elkins…$5000…C…222

C.W. Gore…2 January 1917…Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland…$5000…D…76

John T. Gore…11 July 1916…G.F. Gore and Lewis Farley…$5000…D…18

Pete Gore…5 December 1916…Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland…$5000…D…63

William Gore…31 December 1914…W.E. White, James Ellis…$5000…C…377

Joe Hall…23 April 1913…C.P. Donovan, Paul Hardy…$5000…C…267

A.A. Hamilton…14 June 1913…A.A. Hamilton…$5000…C…273

Paul Hardy…20 February 1913…W.F. Farley…$5000…C…244

John Harrison…19 April 1913…J.S. Miller, M. Elkins, W.E. White, and James Ellis…$5000…C…262

E.R. Hatfield…6 January 1914…$5000…H.H. Farley…C…316

Tennis Hatfield…14 June 1915…James Ellis and Lewis Chafin…$5000…C…396

William Hatfield…28 December 1912…J.S. Miller and George Justice…$5000…C…229

J.O. Hill…17 April 1913…Katie Mounts…$5000…C…261

B.J. Hiner…23 April 1913…C.P. Donovan and Paul Hardy…$5000…C…266

W.L. Honaker…8 August 1916…Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland…$5000…D…23

Mat Jackson…13 October 1913…Albert Gore, Van Mullins, G.F. Gore, and David C. Dingess…$5000…C…296

Frank Justice…8 July 1914…America Justice…$5000…C…346

S.B. Lawson…12 April 1913…J.W. Chambers…$5000…C…256

G.W. Lax…21 April 1913…Paul Hardy…$5000…C…263

Harrison Lowe…5 March 1914…no surety [blank]…$5000…C…326

F. Middleburg…16 May 1914…D.V. Wickline…$5000…C…337

Charles H. Miller…25 November 1914…Don Chafin, W.E. White…C…368

J.M. Moore…14 May 1915…American Surety Company of NY…$5000…C…391

Allen Mounts…226

Cecil Mounts…11 June 1913…Allen Mounts…$5000…C…272

Cecil Mounts…2 January 1917…Lillie Mounts…$5000…D…79

K.F. Mounts…28 December 1912…Allen Mounts…$5000…C…225

K.F. Mounts…6 January 1917…Katie Mounts…$5000…D…72

Adrian Murphy…6 February 1917…W.H. Bias and W.E. White…$5000…D…77

John D. Neece…21 March 1914…W.E. White, R.H. Ellis, and J.S. Miller…$5000…C…330

George Robinett…17 July 1913…George Justice…$5000…C…284

Joe Scaggs…231

F.A. Sharp…28 December 1912…W.F. Farley and L.G. Burns…$5000…C…217

Clark Smith…22 December 1913…Mary Chafin…$5000…C…313

L.E. Steele…29 January 1913…H.H. Farley…$5000…C…238

Noah Steele…6 September 1913…L.E. Steele, Jr….$5000…C…290

Charley Stollings…21 July 1913…Matilda Stollings, Tom Butcher, Bettie Stollings, W.I. Campbell, and Milton Stowers…$5000…C…283

T.B. Stowe…13 January 1913…Martha J. Stowe…$5000…C…234

Elias Thompson…16 April 1913…W.I. Campbell and K.F. Mounts…$5000…C…258

George E. Thompson…17 April 1913…A.F. Gore and Willis Gore…$5000…C…260

Simp Thompson…3 October 1916…Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland…$5000…D…36

C.A. Vickers…12 January 1914…L.D. Perry and F.D. Stollings…$5000…C…318

Taylor Walsh…28 July 1914…W.E. White, Albert Gore…$5000…C…350

Moses Williamson…29 April 1913…L.H. Thompson…$5000…C…270

Clay Workman…28 December 1912…S.B. Lawson…$5000…C…228

Frank P. Hurst was elected sheriff on November 7, 1916 and appeared on November 28, 1916 with his bondsmen J. Cary Alderson, S.B. Robertson, and R.L. Shrewsbury for $100,000 (Book D, p. 54); deputies appointed after November 1916 may be Hurst–and not Chafin–deputies (a few names are duplicated for this reason, I think)