Tag Archives: Appalachia

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.

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)

Orville McCoy Recalls “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam McCoy (1990)

22 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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On July 24, 1990, scholar Rebecca Bailey interviewed Orville McCoy (b.1922) of Raccoon Creek, Kentucky. What follows here is an excerpt of Mr. McCoy’s memories of his grandfather “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam McCoy and his book.

RB: Okay. What kind of stories did you hear about the feud when you were growing up?

OM: Well, about such materials you’ll find in my book. I recorded just about everything I knew about it.

RB: Do you know how your grandfather came to write his manuscript?

OM: Yes, he wrote in the year, I believe it was, 1931 while he was in St. Louis, Missouri. We all also got that information recorded in the book.

RB: How come him to be in St. Louis? Do you know?

OM: Well, he went west in the year about nineteen and ten and I think he first went to California and then back to Kansas and…and then to St. Louis.

RB: Did he take his wife and children with him?

OM: Yes. He took his whole family except my dad. He was the only one stayed here at Racoon.

RB: Was he the oldest? Is that why he stayed?

OM: No, he wasn’t the oldest. Yeah. I guess he was the oldest. He was the only child by him and his first wife, America Goff.

RB: Did she die or did they divorce?

OM: Well, yeah. She died young.

RB: How old was your father when his father left to go out west?

OM: That would be pretty hard for me to figure, I don’t bet. You could go to my book and deduct and subtract a little there and come up with an answer.

RB: He was probably a young man, though, because he had twelve children by the time you were born so he was probably a young man and married.

OM: Yeah. I’d say he should have been around thirty, something like that.

RB: Did your father remember any of the events of the feud or hear about them?

OM: No, he couldn’t remember any of the incidents, I don’t think except what was told to him.

RB: Alright. Do you have much contact with any of your McCoy cousins?

OM: Oh, yeah. I correspond with them. I got some in Kansas. Joshua Tree, California, and Tacoma, Washington, Remington, Washington, Pennsylvania.

RB: We were talking off tape. You said that a lot of McCoys didn’t stay in this area.

OM: No, they was quite a few of them went out west.

RB: Did they go looking for work or…?

OM: I guess they was seeking adventure.

RB: How did you come to have the manuscript that “Squirrel Huntin'” Sam wrote?

OM: Well, I obtained it from Sam when he was out here to pay us a visit in 1937.

RB: What kind of person was he?

OM: Oh, he was quite a tall man. About six foot or better.

RB: What do you remember about him?

OM: Well, when he visited us, he came out here to visit us about three times in the thirties. First come in ’36. ’38. Maybe ’39. He died in ’40. They shipped him back here.

RB: Do you know where he’s buried?

OM: Yeah.

RB: Where’s he buried?

OM: He’s buried in Collins Cemetery in the head of Frozen Creek.

RB: Okay. Were you always interested as a child in in your family history?

OM: Well, not in the early years. I always held on to that book though and preserved it. I guess I was around fifty-eight years when I let them publish it.

RB: Would you tell me on tape again who published it for you?

OM: Dr. Leonard Roberts of Pikeville College.

RB: Why was he interested in it? Do you know?

OM: Dr. Roberts?

RB: Un-huh.

OM: Well, he was working for the college and that’s how he… Well, it benefited the college, you know, doing Appalachian study centers, they called it. He published books and so on for them.

Federal Troops Burn Logan Courthouse During the Civil War (1862)

20 Wednesday Apr 2022

Posted by in Civil War, Logan

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From Law Orders Book A 1873-1878 in the Logan County (West Virginia) Circuit Clerk’s office comes this entry regarding the destruction of the Logan County Courthouse in 1862:

On the 14th day of June 1878, came the following persons viz: John Dejarnett, Thomas Buchanan (except as to Investigation of the Regiment), Dr. Hinchman, who being duly sworn in open Court depose and say: That they know the fact that the Court House of Logan County West Virginia after being temporarily occupied by the 34th Ohio Regt of Federal troops commanded by Col. Seiber, was set fire to and burned up, in the month of Nov. 1862. The said Court House had not been occupied at any time by the Confederate troops, but was used alone for the administration of Justice and for the custody and preservation of the Records of the Several Courts of the said County of Logan. The building was Constructed of bricks and wood, and was a substantial, durable and convenient Exterior, and was worth at the least at the time of its destruction not less than four thousand dollars and belonged exclusively to the said County of Logan, which County has ever since been within the jurisdiction of West Virginia. The destruction of said building was a wanton and inexcusable act of the said Regt. and in no manner contributed to the prosecution of the war in behalf of the Federal Government.

At a County Court continued and held for the County of Logan State of West Virginia on the 14th day of June 1878. Present Isaac Morgan, President, and James R. Perry and L.D. Chambers, Justices, the Court with the view of obtaining Compensation for the destruction of said Court House from the Government of the United States, caused the gentlemen above named to be examined on Oath in open Court, and ordered the substance of the facts above stated by them to be spread upon the Records of this Court, and the Court further caused to be certified that the above named citizens of said County of Logan and that their Statements are entitled to full faith and credit and further that they are in no wise interested in this application except in common with other citizens of the County and Tax payers thereof.

Source: Law Orders Book A 1873-1878, p. 713-714. Note: The entry contains a few errors, such as the date of the courthouse’s destruction, the spelling of Col. Edward Siber’s name, and the correct name of the unit (37th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment).

New Year’s Raid (1888): Daniel Whitt’s Testimony

23 Tuesday Nov 2021

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Daniel Whitt’s testimony in the Johnse Hatfield murder trial provides one version of the Hatfield raid upon Randolph McCoy’s home on January 1, 1888:

Q. “Do you know Randolph McCoy?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you know Cap Hatfield?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you know Robert Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, Elliot Hatfield, Charles Gillespie, Thomas Mitchell, and Anderson Hatfield?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “Do you remember of the old man McCoy’s house being burned?”

A. “Yes sir, I heard of it.”

Q. “Where were you a short time before that occurred?”

A. “Three days before Christmas I was in the neighborhood of the Hatfield’s.”

Q. “Who was with you?”

A. “Ance Hatfield, Jim Vance, Johnson Hatfield, Cap Hatfield, Charles Gillespie, and Tom Mitchell, I believe about all of the bunch.”

Q. “What were you doing together and how long had you been together?”

A. “About three days and nights.”

Q. “Were all of you armed?”

A. “Yes sir.”

Q. “What were you doing armed and together?”

A. “Just traveling in the woods most of the time.”

Q. “What did you sleep on?”

A. “We carried our quilts with us.”

Q. “Who was your captain?”

A. “Jim Vance.”

Q. “What was the purpose of your getting together?”

A. “They claimed the purpose was to get out of the way of the Kentucky authorities.”

Q. “What else did they claim?”

A. “When I left them we came to Henry Mitchell’s to get dinner. They wouldn’t let me hear what they had to talk about. Cap asked me if I was going to Kentucky with them. Said they were going to Kentucky to kill Randolph and Jim McCoy and settle the racket. He asked me if I was going with them and I said that I was not. He said that I would go or I would go to hell. I said that I would go to hell. Elias came and took me off. We slept in a shuck pen. When he got to sleep I ran away and went to Pocahontas and was there when this occurred.”

Q. “Was Johnson present when Cap was talking?”

A. “He was in the yard close enough to hear, and he came up to me when Cap was talking and took Cap out and had a talk with him.”

Source: Bill of exceptions at the office of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, Frankfort, KY.

Queens Ridge News 05.13.1927

31 Sunday Oct 2021

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Queens Ridge

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An unnamed correspondent from Queens Ridge serving Upper Hart in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on May 13, 1927:

Mrs. Paralee Browning and Garnet Mullins of Lower Hoover were the evening guests of Cecil McCloud Sunday.

Ireland and Carl Mullins went up Hoover late Sunday enroute to Troy Town.

Mrs. Belle Dora Adams is going to have a son-in-law some one said. Gee, the girls will have to quiet fliring with Charley.

Lucy McCloud was visiting her aunt Mrs. Garnet Martin here Saturday.

Howard Adams made a business trip to New Orleans. Many tears were shed on account of his long absence.

Nancy E. Hatfield Memories, Part 4 (1974)

30 Saturday Oct 2021

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Logan, Matewan, Women's History

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Howard B. Lee, former Attorney General of West Virginia, provided this account of Nancy Hatfield (widow of Cap) in the early 1970s:

“Mrs. Hatfield, we have talked much about an era that is gone. Feuds are ended, railroads and paved highways have come, the huge coal industry has developed, churches and schools are everywhere, and people are educated. Now, I would like to know something about you.”

This is the brief life-story of the remarkable and unforgettable Nancy Elizabeth Hatfield, as she related it to me.

She was Nancy Elizabeth Smith, called “Nan” by her family and friends, born in Wayne County, West Virginia, September 10, 1866. (She died August 24, 1942). In her early years, she lived “close enough to the Ohio River,” she said, “to see the big boats that brought people and goods up from below.” She attended a country school three months out of the year, and acquired the rudiments of a common school education, plus a yearning for wider knowledge.

While she was still a young girl her parents moved by push-boat up the Big Sandy and Tug rivers into what is now Mingo County, then Logan County. They settled in the wilderness on Mate Creek, near the site of the present town of Matewan.

“Why they made that move,” said Nancy Elizabeth, “I have never understood.”

In her new environment, in the summer of 1880, when she was 14 years old, Nancy Elizabeth married Joseph M. Glenn, an enterprising young adventurer from Georgia, who had established a store in the mountains, and floated rafts of black walnut logs, and other timber, down the Tug and Big Sandy rivers to the lumber mills of Catlettsburg, Ky., and Portsmouth, Ohio.

Two years after their marriage Glenn was waylaid and murdered by a former business associate, named Bill Smith–no relation to Nancy Elizabeth. Smith escaped into the wilderness and was never apprehended. The 16-year-old widow was left with a three-weeks old infant son, who grew into manhood and for years, that son, the late Joseph M. Glenn, was a leading lawyer in the city of Logan.

On October 11, 1883, a year after her husband’s death, at the age of 17, Nancy Elizabeth married the 19-year-old Cap Hatfield, second son of Devil Anse.

“He was the best looking young man in the settlement,” she proudly told me.

But at that time Cap had little to recommend him, except his good looks. He was born Feb. 6, 1864, during the Civil War, and grew up in a wild and lawless wilderness, where people were torn and divided by political and sectional hatreds and family feuds–a rugged, mountain land, without roads, schools, or churches.

When he married, Cap could neither read nor write, but he possessed the qualities necessary for survival in that turbulent time and place–he was “quick on the draw, and a dead shot.”

“When we were married, Cap was not a very good risk as a husband,” said Nancy Elizabeth. “The feud had been going on for a year, and he was already its most deadly killer. Kentucky had set a price on his head. But we were young, he was handsome, and I was deeply in love with him. Besides, he was the best shot on the border, and I was confident that he could take care of himself–and he did.”

Nancy Elizabeth taught her handsome husband to read and write, and imparted to him the meager learning she had acquired in the country school in Wayne County. But, more important, the she instilled into him her own hunger for knowledge.

Cap had a brilliant mind, and he set about to improve it. He and Nancy Elizabeth bought and read many books on history and biography, and they also subscribed for and read a number of the leading magazines of their day. In time they built up a small library or good books, which they read and studied along with their children.

At the urging of Nancy Elizabeth, Cap decided to study law, and enrolled at the University Law School at Huntington, Tennessee. But six months later, a renewal of the feud brought him back to the mountains. He never returned to law school, but continued his legal studies at home, and was admitted to the bar in Wyoming and Mingo counties. However, he never practiced the profession.

Nancy Elizabeth and Cap raised seven of their nine children, and Nancy’ss eyes grew moist as she talked of the sacrifices she and Cap had made that their children might obtain the education fate had denied to their parents. But her face glowed with a mother’s pride as she said:

“All our children are reasonably well educated. Three are college graduates, and the others attended college from one to three years. But, above everything else, they are all good and useful citizens.”

As I left the home of the remarkable and unforgettable Nancy Hatfield, I knew that I had been in the presence of a queenly woman–a real “Mountain Queen.”

Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 153-154.

Aracoma Drug Company (1927)

09 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by in Logan, Williamson

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From the Logan Banner of Logan, West Virginia, comes this item of history relating to Aracoma Drug Company, dated May 20, 1927:

K. & H. Drug Store is Sold to New Co.

A new company composed of local business men has purchased of F. Kerwood the K. & H. drug store fronting the northeast corner of the Court House. An inventory of the stock was completed last night but the store will not be re-opened before June 1. Meanwhile, elaborate improvements will be made in the front and the interior.

The purchaser is the Aracoma Drug Company, newly incorporated, among the organizers being Victor N. Griffith, office deputy under Sheriff T.S. Hatfield, and his cousin, O.D. Griffith, present manager of the Valley Drug Store. The latter will be in charge of the business. He has been here about three years and is widely known in this section.

Mr. Kerwood, who has been engaged in this business for three years, has made no definite plans for the future, he said last night.

The founder of this store was W.O. Poole, now in the drug business in Williamson, and formerly of Omar. From him Ford McDonald acquired it. Then it passed to Charles Bennett by whom it was sold to Mr. Kerwood and J.G. Hunter, hence its name K. and H.

Whirlwind News 04.12.1927

09 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Whirlwind

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An unnamed correspondent from Whirlwind on Big Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on April 12, 1927:

Sunday school is progressing nicely at Trace.

A large crowd attended the last days of Howard Adams’ school Friday. All reported a fine time.

James Carter of Monaville was visiting home folks of Hoover Sunday.

Wonder if Daniel McCloud got all the news Sunday evening.

Howard Adams went up Hoover whistling “Hard Times.” His mustache caught on fire.

Wonder what Burl Mullins was interested in Saturday evening that he forgot to shave.

There are several sick children in our town with whooping cough at present.

Jackson McCloud is making his home at Daniel McCloud’s.

We are all listening for the wedding bells to ring on Hoover. Look out Burl, you will be sure to hear them.

Shade Smith of Whirlwind was calling on friends at Daniel McCloud’s Sunday.

Burnie Adams is very ill with whooping cough at this writing.

Wonder why Will Adams was stepping so high Saturday? He must have been afraid of getting his sox muddy.

Wonder why Lucy McCloud looks so down hearted these days? Cheer up Lucy, you have made a bad mistake.

The funniest thing we heard last week was Mrs. Dixie Adams making Howard change beds.

Daily happenings: Daniel losing his cane; Earl and his potatoes; Lucy lost her ___; May got disappointed; Alice and her job; Uncle Jack chewing his tobacco; Tilda going to see __; Charlie and his black eye; Clyde going to the store.