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Appalachia, Buffalo Creek, Charleston, coal, George W. Jones Collection, history, Logan County, Lundale, photos, West Virginia
Lundale, Logan County, WV (c.1930)
07 Wednesday Dec 2022
Tag Archives: Buffalo Creek
Boling Baker and Princess Aracoma (1937)
06 Tuesday Nov 2018
Posted in Gilbert, Logan, Native American History, Women's History
Tags
Abner Vance, Appalachia, Aracoma, Ben Stewart, Ben White, Bluestone River, Boling Baker, Buffalo Creek, Charles Hull, Clear Fork, Dingess Run, Elias Harman, Flat Top Mountain, genealogy, George Berry, Gilbert Creek, Guyandotte River, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Horse Pen Mountain, Huff Creek, Island Creek, James Hensley, James Hines, James White, John Breckinridge, John Carter, John Cook, Joseph Workman, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Mallory, Native American History, Native Americans, Oceana, Peter Huff, Rockcastle Creek, Shawnee, West Virginia, William Dingess, William S. Madison
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history concerning Boling Baker and Princess Aracoma, dated March 23, 1937:
Historical marker on Horse Pen Mountain near Gilbert, Mingo County, WV. 25 April 2015.
Dying Words of Princess Aracoma Related In Story Taken From Banner Files
Though much has been written on the history of Logan county, just as much has been forgotten about its early development.
One of the county’s first historians, Henry Clay Ragland, mayor of the city, church worker and editor of the Logan County Banner, recorded some of the high spots of the development of Logan county in a series of articles which he ran in his newspaper during 1896.
It is from this series of articles that the following story of the early settlement of Logan county is taken.
Records show that a large number of white men first set foot in what is now Logan county in the spring of 1777, when Captain Charles Hull with 20 men pursued a band of marauding Shawnees to the site where Oceana was later built. They lost the trail at Oceana and had to turn back. The Shawnees had raided a white settlement near the falls of New River one spring night and had stolen thirty head of horses. The army captain and his men set out in pursuit but the redskins had too great a start.
Huff Creek was given its name on this expedition in honor of Peter Huff who was killed in a skirmish on the banks of the stream as the men returned home. Huff was buried near the spot where he was killed, which is believed to have been near where the town of Mallory now stands.
Other men on this expedition and who returned to the valley of the Guyandotte later and built homes were John Cook, James Hines, William Dingess and James Hensley.
The first white man really to be identified with what is now Logan county was Boling Baker, a renegade white, but the old-timers would not give him credit for being a white man. They said: “He lived with the Injins and that makes him an Injin.” Baker, however dastardly he was, was indirectly responsible for the settlement of Logan county in 1780-85.
The renegade had one great weakness. A weakness that they hung men for in those days. He was a horse thief. He would take a party of Indians a hundred miles through the mountain passes of Logan county to raid a white settlement in order to steal 20 or 30 horses.
Baker had gone into the business on a large scale. At the head of Gilbert Creek, on Horse Pen Mountain, where the mountain rises abruptly with almost cliff-like sharpness, he had stripped bark from hickory trees and stretched it from tree to tree making a pen in which to keep his stolen stock.
Old settlers of the county who have had the story passed down to them from their great-grandfathers say that the pen was somewhere in the hollow below the road which leads to the fire tower on Horsepen Mountain. It was from this improvised corral of Boling Baker that the mountain was named.
But, back to how Baker was responsible for the settlement of the county.
He left his Indian camps on the Guyan river in the fall of 1780 and visited the white settlements in the Bluestone valley in the Flat Top mountain territory. There he told the settlers a story of how he had been captured by the Indians when he was a young man and had learned their ways. He said he had just escaped from the Shawnee tribe known to be hunting in the Guyandotte valley and was on his way back east to see his father and mother who lived in Boston. Shrewd chap, this Baker!
The settlers were taken in by his story and allowed him to remain with them for several weeks during which time he got the location of all the settlers barns well in mind and after a time departed “back east.”
Soon after the renegade left the Bluestone settlement the whites awoke one rainy morning late in autumn and found every barn empty. The Indians had come with the storm which lashed the valley and had gone without arousing a person. Thirty horses from the settlement went with them.
An expedition headed by Wm. S. Madison and John Breckinridge—son of the Breckinridges who settled much of Kentucky—was made up in a neighboring settlement and set out in pursuit of the thieving Shawnees.
They trailed the party over Flat Top Mountain and southwest to the headwaters of the Guyan River by way of Rockcastle creek and Clear Fork. Trail marks showed that the band had gone down the river, up Gilbert Creek to Baker’s pen and thence over the mountain.
Madison and his 75 men did not follow the Indian trail over the mountain but the redskins probably brought their herd of 50 or 75 horses down Island Creek to the Guyan.
The white expedition chose to follow the Guyan in a hope that they would find the party encamped somewhere along its banks. Scouts had reported that a large tribe of Indians used the Guyan valley as its hunting grounds.
Madison’s party followed the river down to Buffalo Creek—named because the white men found such a large number of buffalo grazing in its bottoms—crossed Rum Creek and pitched camp for a night at the mouth of Dingess Run because “Guyan” Green and John Carter, scouts sent ahead to reconnoiter, had reported finding ten Indian lodges in the canebrakes of an island formed by the joining of a large creek and the Guyan river.
The men rested on their guns for the night and the following morning divided into two parties and attacked the encampment from the front and rear.
In the furious fighting that followed, nine of the thirty Indians in the camp were killed and ten or twelve wounded. Only a few escaped the slaughter of the white men. Among those captured was an old squaw 50 or 60 years old, who by her bearing, was obviously leader of the party. She was wounded but refused to talk.
Near midnight, however, following the massacre of the camp the old squaw felt death creeping upon her and called Madison to her quarters, and told him in broken English the following:
“I am the wife of a pale face who came across the great waters to make war on my people, but came to us and became one of us. A great plague many moons ago carried off my children with a great number of my people, and they lay buried just above the bend in the river. Bury me with them with my face to the setting sun that I may see my people in their march to the happy hunting ground. 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.”
The proud princess died before morning and the white men buried her “near the bend in the river.” The Indian captives were all killed.
Four days later the men returned to the valley of the Bluestone.
Among those who helped Wm. S. Madison rout the Shawnees and who vowed to possess the valley of the Guyandotte for themselves and their children were George Booth, George Berry, Elias Harman, Ben Stewart, Abner Vance, Joseph Workman, Ben White and James White. All these names are familiar in the county today.
After the Indians were pushed to the west, surveyors allotted the land to the first settlers who had dared, with Madison, to come into the wilderness of the Guyandotte and open it up for the white man.
Madison owned several thousand acres of land on Island Creek, Gilbert Creek and Dingess Run. Other fighters were given like parcels of land.
Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 23 March 1937
Origin of Place Names in Logan County, WV (1937)
12 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in Chapmanville, Coal, Gilbert, Guyandotte River, Logan, Man, Native American History
Tags
Appalachia, Aracoma, Barnabus, Barnabus Curry, Boling Baker, Buffalo Creek, Cham, Chapmanville, Chauncey, Chauncey Browning, coal, Crystal Block, Curry, D.E. Hue, Dehue, Dingess Run, Edward O'Toole, Gilbert Creek, Guyandotte River, history, Horse Pen Mountain, Huff Creek, Island Creek, Jim Gilbert, Litz-Smith Coal Company, Logan Banner, Logan County, Main Island Creek Coal Company, Mallory, Micco, Mountain View Inn, Native American History, Native Americans, Omar, Omar Cole, Peter Huff, Rum Creek, Sarah Ann, Sarah Ann O'Toole, Stirrat, Twisted Gun Lick, West Virginia, William Dingess, William S. Madison
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Logan County place names:
Naming of Logan County Towns and Creeks Related By Logan Banner Reporter
While the first white settlers who entered the county near the middle of the 18th century had to have names for the creeks and runs in order to locate their homes, the children of these first settlers had to have names for each large settlement in order to have their mail delivered to them. Both groups used interesting methods of naming the landmarks.
Early Indian fighters who had contact with Boling Baker and his horse-thieving found little trouble naming the mountain which rises behind Mountain View Inn at the head of Island Creek. Because of the renegade’s custom of using one of the steep hollows for a corral, Captain William S. Madison, an early pioneer, named the mountain Horse Pen. Likewise, Gilbert Creek was named for Jim Gilbert, an Indian scout, who was killed in an Indian skirmish on that tributary of the Guyandotte. Near the place where he was killed there is an old salt lick which is named “Twisted Gun Lick.” The story is told that Gilbert, before he died, hit his gun barrel against a tree to keep the Indians from using it on his comrades. His friends, coming to the lick several hours later, found Gilbert scalped and the twisted firearm lying nearby.
Huff Creek was similarly named for a Peter Huff, whose scouting party was ambushed by a roving band of redskins and Huff was killed in the ensuing battle. They buried Huff on the banks of the creek near the present town of Mallory.
Buffalo Creek, however, received its name in an entirely different manner. The first settlers who hunted in the valley of the Guyandotte found buffalo herds so plentiful on this creek that they called it Buffalo Creek.
Dingess Run was named for a pioneer family of Dingesses which settled in its broad bottoms. William Dingess was the patriarchal head of the family and his children named the run in memory of him.
Island Creek received its name from the Indians who were awed by the beauty of a large creek flowing into the Guyandotte with such force as to cut an entirely separate bed, thus forming an island in the middle of the river. Old timers say that in the early days of the county Island Creek entered the Guyan river at the upper limits of Aracoma. Only during flood time did the creek meet the river at its present point.
As for the towns which have sprung up in the county since coal became king, many were named for prominent people living in them at one time or another or for pioneer families who lived in the towns when the coal companies first came in.
A unique method was used, however, in naming Micco. It received its name from the first letters of the Main Island Creek Coal Co., which formerly operated the mines there.
Omar was named for Omar Cole who was closely associated with the development of the town. The Cole family held, and still holds, extensive mining leases in the vicinity of that mining town.
Sarah Ann acquired its name from the wife of Colonel Edward O’Toole, who was manager of the coal company when the town applied to the government for a post office. The town is generally known as Crystal Block.
Barnabus received its name from Barnabus Curry, a pioneer settler whose home was near the town.
Stirrat was named for Colonel Stirrat, who was manager of the Main Island Creek Coal Company at one time.
Chauncey was named for Chauncey Browning, well-known son of a pioneer family who owned much of the land near that town. For many years the town of Chauncey was not large enough to be made a post office, but after the Litz-Smith Coal Company opened its mines there the town grew to proportions large enough to warrant a post office.
Dehue was given its name in honor of D.E. Hue, the first superintendent who operated the mines there.
Cham, a small place about two and one-half miles above Dehue, got its name from a Chambers family who lived on Rum Creek.
Chapmanville was named for the Chapmans, Curry for the Curry family and Aracoma for the famous Indian princess.
Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 25 March 1937
Recollections of McKinley Grimmett of Bruno, WV 4 (1984)
07 Friday Sep 2018
Tags
Accoville, Appalachia, Bill Mosely, Bruno, Buffalo Creek, Burl Christian, Cap Hatfield, coal, crime, Cub Creek, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, Devil Anse Hatfield, Don Chafin, Elech Luster, Elech Steven, Elk Creek, genealogy, Harve Grimmett, Henderson Grimmett, history, influenza, Italian-Americans, Joe Browning, Joe Hatfield, justice of the peace, Logan County, Logan Lumber Company, Mallory, Mallory Coal Company, Matilda Hatfield, McKinley Grimmett, Nancy Grimmett, Phil Elkins, Sand Lick, Scott Browning, sheriff, Spice Creek, Tennis Hatfield, Thomas Hatfield, Watt Elkins, West Virginia, World War I, Wyatt Belcher, Wyoming County
McKinley Grimmett was born on November 30, 1896 to Henderson and Nancy (Hatfield) Grimmett at Sand Lick, Logan County, WV. On May 14, 1916, Mr. Grimmett married a Ms. Plymale, who soon died, in Logan County. One child named Alva died on June 21, 1919 of whooping cough, aged fourteen months. His World War I draft registration card dated September 12, 1918 identifies him as having blue eyes and light-colored hair. He was employed by Mallory Coal Company at Mallory, WV. On November 13, 1919, he married Matilda “Tilda” Hatfield, daughter of Thomas Hatfield, in Logan County. He identified himself as a farmer in both of his marriage records. During the 1920s, he served as a deputy under Sheriff Tennis Hatfield.
The following interview of Mr. Grimmett was conducted at his home on July 17, 1984. In this part of the interview, he recalls his occupations. The post-World War I flu pandemic, early Bruno residents, timbering, the Hatfields, politics, and crime are featured.
***
Do you remember the flu that came along after World War I?
Oh yeah, I’ve seen ‘em up here in my graveyard bury as high as three or four in one day. Buried a man and his wife and kid all in one day there. It was bad. I was running a drum at Mallory for the company. I went there well that morning and at 10 o’clock they hauled me back in a jo-wagon. I couldn’t walk with the flu. I was down for four days and the mine didn’t run. I got over it awful quick. The doctor come… Dr. Shrewsbury, used to be at Mallory. Next day was Saturday and Sunday and he told me to stay off for Monday. And he said he’d send after me. Come and get me, bring me back in the evening. All he wanted me to do was run the drum. Not get hot or anything. I got over mine. My sister come there to see me. She had seven kids. She come there and took it. And all her kids come to see her and they all took it. And her husband come to see about them and he took it. And her husband couldn’t talk plain. Keenan Walls was her husband. He called onions “inghams.” My mother would say, Keenan, what do you want to eat today? They fried them. She’d fry them onions. He said, I don’t know hardly unless you fry me some more inghams. Yeah, they’s about 250 graves in that graveyard of mine.
Tape stops.
There’s a lot of people up this creek. Used to be there wasn’t about six families when I was a boy growing up. Wyatt Belcher lived down below the mouth of the creek. And Burl Christian lived up here a little ways. And Watt Elkins lived over there. And my daddy lived next. And my daddy’s brother Harve Grimmett lived next. Phil Elkins lived next. Now in the head of the creek where this backland was, that was before McDonalds got a hold of it. They lived on it, built log houses and everything else. I couldn’t tell you who all… Mountses there. I made several caskets. I made my mother’s coffin. I bought my daddy a steel coffin and I had to take some straw out of it. He was a pretty good sized man like myself. They both had the flu. And she had a lot of chickens here. I lived up at the old homeplace and they lived here. She wanted to know where that straw come from. I told her the truth about it. I told her I had to take it out of Daddy’s casket. It was a little too tight on him and I wouldn’t put him away that way. And said, Kin—she called me Kin, my nickname—said, whenever I die I want you to make my casket. She’d seen me make so many, you know. She wanted me to do that. And so I made it. I went to Logan and I bought the handles. It cost me $105 dollars. Looked like silver. And I bought plush stuff and lined it and everything. And I went down here to this planing mill and I bought the first class lumber. Didn’t have a knot in it. Logan Lumber Company run it then. And I made it. Oh, I’ve made oodles of ‘em. I made the old man Joe Browning’s in Spice Creek up here one time… And he’d sawed beech lumber now for me to make that casket out of. And old man Scott Browning, I got him to help me. And I bet you he weighed about 300 pound. And that beech lumber was 22 inches wide and I still had to put a slab on each side up at his hips down about four inches wide on each side. They couldn’t get enough men around that to lift it. I don’t see how they ever got it down in the grave. I didn’t go to the grave with ‘em. I made the casket and that was all.
Would you rather work with timber or coal?
Well, it’s according to what kind you do with lumber. I believe I would rather work in the mines because I’ve always had a good job in the mines. I worked 44 years and two months around the mines and I never was laid off. Born and raised here in Logan County. Never been in jail. Never been arrested. Never been sued. I never bothered nobody’s business only my own. I’ve been honest with everybody.
Were you ever politically active?
Yeah, I was, whenever them Hatfields was in there. They’d make you, whether you wanted to or not. Tennis and Joe and all of them. You get in that bunch of Hatfields at that day and time you couldn’t get away from ‘em. They’d claim me as their cousin all the time, ‘cause I was half-Hatfield myself. I don’t reckon my mother was any relation to any of them. She didn’t know nothing about them. She was from Wyoming County up on Big Cub Creek, you know. Now she heard lots of talk about Devil Anse and Cap and all of them. She was afraid for me to be with them all the time.
Did you like politics?
Yeah, I liked it pretty good.
Did you ever run for office?
Yeah, I run for JP one time. ’52. Bill Mosely run against me. And I beat Bill over here at his office precinct but he beat me up at Buffalo. Yeah, I run for JP one time. I never did run any more.
Who has impressed you the most in politics?
I reckon Tennis has been the one. Now Joe is a man that was still kind of sulky like. He didn’t seem like that he appreciated what you’d done or something like that. Either that or he thought hisself a little bit higher than you was. Something like that. I don’t know. I couldn’t figure him out. But Cap now, he’d cuss them out and everything else.
Do you remember the ’32 election?
Oh yeah. I remember. Why, coal companies, they went in with the Democrats and they fired us off of the deputy force. The coal companies put us on as guards. And we stayed that way for about three months. And Democrats come in and they cut that law out. And we went on back to work and that didn’t change nothing. I tell you, it was a sight whenever Chafin was in there. Lord, they killed people and everything. Up Buffalo at Accoville, they was building a railroad up through there. Well, that day and time they built camps for their men to stay in and they rode horses, the bosses did, ride him right out on the job. And they’d get up in the morning, Elech Steven and Elech R. Luster was the two bosses—one was superintendent, one was boss—and they’d go around, one had a ball bat and a hole drilled through it and a strap of leather in it and it was a small ball bat now and if them colored people or hunkies and Italians wasn’t up they’d knock the window lights out and then nail the window up instead of buying them a window and putting it back in. And they killed them two, the hunkies and Italians. They come out on ‘em and shot ‘em both and killed ‘em. About eight of them. Well, they killed three of ‘em before they got out of sight, the Americans did, up Accoville Hollow there. And the rest of ‘em come through and they shot one right over the Huff Knob and he rolled plumb from the top of that ridge down just like a dog bouncin’ plumb into the river. That made four of ‘em they got. Then they got two more up here on Elk Creek. Then they got two more up at Spice. Made the eight. Well, they killed them all. And they brought them—I was up there at the store at Elk Creek whenever they brought them two Italians down there… Now, this old raw bacon. Slabs that come that wide and be that long, grease would be running out. And they would cut them off raw meat and throw it to them like throwing it to a dog and they’d eat it.
NOTE: Some names may be transcribed incorrectly.
Recollections of McKinley Grimmett of Bruno, WV 2 (1984)
03 Monday Sep 2018
Posted in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal, Italian American History, Logan, Man
Tags
Alva Grimmett, Appalachia, Barnabus, Blair Mountain, Bruno, Buffalo Creek, Cabin Creek, Campbell's Creek, carpenter, Charleston, Christian, coal, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, Don Chafin, drum runner, Ed Goodman, Emmett Scaggs, George McClintock, Great Depression, Hatfield Bottom, Henderson Grimmett, history, Joe Hatfield, John Chafin, Kanawha County, Kistler, Landsville, Logan County, Mallory, Mallory Coal Company, Matilda Hatfield, McKinley Grimmett, moonshining, Nancy Grimmett, prosecuting attorney, Republican Party, Sand Lick, sheriff, Superintendent of Schools, Tennis Hatfield, Thomas Hatfield, United Mine Workers of America, West Virginia, Wild Goose Saloon
McKinley Grimmett was born on November 30, 1896 to Henderson and Nancy (Hatfield) Grimmett at Sand Lick, Logan County, WV. On May 14, 1916, Mr. Grimmett married a Ms. Plymale, who soon died, in Logan County. One child named Alva died on June 21, 1919 of whooping cough, aged fourteen months. His World War I draft registration card dated September 12, 1918 identifies him as having blue eyes and light-colored hair. He was employed by Mallory Coal Company at Mallory, WV. On November 13, 1919, he married Matilda “Tilda” Hatfield, daughter of Thomas Hatfield, in Logan County. He identified himself as a farmer in both of his marriage records. During the 1920s, he served as a deputy under Sheriff Tennis Hatfield.
The following interview of Mr. Grimmett was conducted at his home on July 17, 1984. In this part of the interview, he recalls his occupations. Coal, Don Chafin, Tennis Hatfield, unionization, and the Great Depression are featured.
***
Did you ever go to work in the mines?
Oh yeah. I’ve been… That’s what I done over here for 44 years and two months, in and around the mines.
Who hired you?
Yeah, a fellow by the name of Frazier down here at Logan. Superintendent. Not at Logan. Landsville. I stayed there four years, pretty nigh of five years. Then I quit down there and I come to Christian and I stayed up here. A fellow by the name of Harry Venebale hired me over here, the superintendent. And I stayed with him 34 years. Wouldn’t let nobody else hold a lever but me. Drum runner. I’d run as high as 35 railroad cars a day off of that hill. I’ve done it many a day.
Did you do other jobs?
Oh yeah. Days the mines didn’t work I was the carpenter boss. That is, I was overseer over ‘em all. After the union come in, why I wouldn’t take it as a boss. They just run me as a leader, you know. At that time, I’d either have to go in as a boss or get off the union, you know. And I knowed the union was the best for me and I stayed with the union.
Did you have any role in organizing the union?
Oh yeah. I had a big… They wouldn’t let us organize on their property. We had to go across an island over there in the river and have our meeting to organize.
Is it true that local men had the union organized and were waiting for Washington to allow it?
Yeah, that’s about right. We got it. No, they come from Cabin Creek and Kanawha County and Campbell’s Creek over there and tried to organize us. Don Chafin was the high sheriff. He got so much ton per coal and everything. And we couldn’t do a thing because he had every child, woman, and everything else on his side to block us every way. They come to Blair Mountain and had fights. Killed several people, too. Both sides. But I never was in it. I was running a drum and they never did ask me to go. But they paid ‘em. They did go from over there. And went from around here, too. To fight against them, you know. And there was several of them got killed up Dingess Run there. I’ve been at the place where one fellow, sink hole he was in. There was four of them got killed: deputy sheriffs. George Gore and a fellow by the name of Mitchem. I don’t know the other two. I’ve forgot ‘em now. George Gore and Mitchem. But I know where they was at and everything there.
Can you describe Don Chafin?
I’m not too familiar with him now. But he controlled Logan County all the time. Whatever he said, why they had to do or they’d get around you and beat you to death or something like that, throw you in the river, tie your hands behind you – stuff like that.
Were you a Chafin deputy?
I worked for Tennis Hatfield and Joe.
How did Tennis hire you?
Well, Emmett Scaggs run against him. And the County Court was Democratic and they give it all to Emmett. Tennis carried it up to the high court and he won it. About that time, that’s when it was, 1922 I believe it was, last part of 1922, well Emmett, he was a well-educated fellow, he had been the superintendent of schools and everything, he turns around and registers and turned to be a Republican, well then they appointed him prosecuting attorney. You understand? Give him a job. Now the Democrats didn’t do that—Tennis and all of them did. It made a full change around whenever Tennis was elected. The County Court had been Democratic all the time and it turned over, changed hands, and make a Republican County Court. Just like they’ve got now, it’s all Democratic. And a Republican couldn’t get nothing. I’ve seen John Chafin and Hi beat an Italian man. He had two ducks carrying them. Had to wade the river. They fired him over there at Christian. Had to ride horses that day and time. Didn’t have no cars. And they jumped off their horses after they overtook him and they beat him until he couldn’t walk. My dad had a store down at the mouth of the creek and he went and got him and got him up to the store and his ducks got loose. And Mother got the ducks and she raised all kinds of ducks from ‘em. But I haven’t seen that man from that day to this. He’s dead now. But they liked to beat him to death. Now Henry Allen was another one. They barred him from the union. He was a big organizer when it first started. And he got to playing crooked work and they put him out of the union. And he’d done something or other to the party. And they beat him around there at Kistler so hard – the creek was up. Buffalo was a big creek any way. They throwed him up there at Ben Gall’s store in the creek and he washed down there at Kistler and lodged up behind the middle pier at the railroad track. Some men run in and helped him out. I forget who it was. I didn’t see that go off but that’s what happened. Well, he come up here, Henry did, to where I was walking and wanted me to get him a job. Well, I told him I would talk to the boss. A fellow by the name of George Kore. George Kore give him a job working for Tony Lumber Company, helping build houses, you know. He worked about three days and why George fired him and wouldn’t have nothing more to do with him. Henry’s dead now. That’s the last I knowed of him.
Do you remember the names of any early union organizers?
I never did meet ‘em. I tell you they kept me busy all the time as a repair man and drum runner, and days that the mines didn’t run I had to do repair work on the houses and tipples and stuff. Them organizers was, one of ‘em was a fellow by the name of Hall. I’ve seen him but I forget his first name. He had an office over there in Charleston. He was president of the union then. Don Chafin went over there and aimed to tell him what to do and he shot Don. It put Don in the hospital for a long time. After he got out there, Don Chafin and Tennis Hatfield had been in to the Wild Goose business selling bootlegging moonshine whisky up at Hatfield Bottom [in Barnabus]. And they fell out. And Tennis, he goes before the federal grand jury. I forget who the judge was. I knowed him. [George McClintock] And Tennis indicted him and sent him to the pen for four years. But they never did do nothing to Hall for shooting him over there in the miners’ office. But he never did go back in it anymore.
You remember when the mines began to mechanize?
Oh, yeah. I was in there then. I worked up til ’62.
How did the mines change?
Well, they loaded by the car that day and time when they first started. Then they got conveyors in. And they cut the coal and they throwed it on them conveyors by hand. And they built belt-lines from here all across the river, just as far as you wanted to, you know. Had different offsets in it and different motors pulling the belt line. And it come out into a big tipple and dumped into a tipple and then I took it from that. I run it 2100 feet down the incline over there on two monitors on three rails. Now you figure that out. Ten tons to each monitor Now they come up there to the middle way place and they put four rails, you understand? And then one monitor passed the other one at that middle place. All the time. They had a big drum. The drum was twelve foot in diameter and fourteen foot long that way. Built out of gum. Six by six gum. Rope was inch and a quarter.
Was there much bitterness among people when mechanization started?
Oh, no. They was all for it. They was everything was settled. Whatever the union said, they had to do at that time. It was all loaded by the ton by the car. There wasn’t no weighing or nothing like that ‘til they got the union. Then they had to put scales in, you know, and weigh these cars of coal and they had to pay so much a ton. Why, there was people over there at Christian – I never will forget it. Ed Goodman was his name. He’d be broke every week. He’d never load over four or five cars. Just 35 cents a car and a car would hold about four tons, five. And they was starving him to death. He’d come in there on paydays and I’d come in. I was always the last man getting off the hill. He was wanting on dollar scrip. He’d come over and whisper to me and tell me they wouldn’t let him have a one dollar scrip. And I’d vouch for him. Sometimes I’d pull my pay envelope out—they put your money in a pay envelope, you know—and I’ve pull out my pay envelope and give him a dollar and that would do him until Monday. He had a big family. They all weren’t home at that time. He managed. And then when the union come in, they had to treat him the way they did the rest of them.
Did you maintain steady work during the Great Depression?
Yeah. I’ve always had work. I get awful good Social Security. I study all the time – they worked me too much. I actually couldn’t stand it hardly. They’d work me Sunday and every other day. But now I never got no big money at that time. I started off at four dollars a day and I ended up with two hundred and fifty dollars a month. I stayed on that way for 19 years. They wouldn’t give me a raise. I asked ‘em for more money. Miners got a raise, you know. They said no, he couldn’t give it. Was going broke. I said well if you won’t give it I’ll be leaving you first of the month. And he didn’t think I would. Day before I was supposed to quit I sent my toolbox off the hill and everything. They had a man-car there that they rode backwards and forwards that people rode up and down the hill in. That night the man said if I would stay he would split the difference with me. Give me half. Give me twenty-five dollars. I said no I won’t do it. I’ve made you a fortune here. So he wouldn’t come up to fifty dollars and I wouldn’t come off it. Next day they had a wreck. A fella was running… I was sitting here. And they wasn’t no timber around there and I could see the monitors from here. And he wrecked and I never seen such dust in all of my life. And I got in my car and went over there. And they tore one up so bad they had to buy a new one. A monitor. That cost ‘em some money, too.
NOTE: Some names may be transcribed incorrectly.
Recollections of McKinley Grimmett of Bruno, WV 1 (1984)
31 Friday Aug 2018
Posted in African American History, Coal, Dingess, Guyandotte River, Holden, Logan, Man, Timber, Wyoming County
Tags
African-Americans, Alva Grimmett, Appalachia, Austin Grimmett, Baileysville, Big Cub Creek, Bruno, Buffalo Creek, Christian, Cole and Crane Company, Devil Anse Hatfield, Dingess, Edith Grimmett, education, Elk Creek, Ettie Grimmett, farming, genealogy, general store, Green Perry, Guyandotte River, Guyandotte Valley, Henderson Browning, Henderson Grimmett, history, Holden, Horse Pen Mountain, Johnny Grimmett, Landsville, Lilly Grimmett, Logan, Logan County, logging, Madison Creek, Mallory, Man, McGuffey Readers, McKinley Grimmett, Mingo County, Mud Fork, Nancy Grimmett, rafting, Ralph Grimmett, Rose Grimmett, Sand Lick, Sanford Grimmett, Slater Hatfield, Tennis Hatfield, Thomas Hatfield, Tilda Hatfield, timber, timbering, Travis Grimmett, Verner, Walter Buchanan, West Virginia, whooping cough, World War I, Wyatt Belcher, Wyoming County
McKinley Grimmett was born on November 30, 1896 to Henderson and Nancy (Hatfield) Grimmett at Sand Lick, Logan County, WV. On May 14, 1916, Mr. Grimmett married a Ms. Plymale, who soon died, in Logan County. One child named Alva died on June 21, 1919 of whooping cough, aged fourteen months. His World War I draft registration card dated September 12, 1918 identifies him as having blue eyes and light-colored hair. He was employed by Mallory Coal Company at Mallory, WV. On November 13, 1919, he married Matilda “Tilda” Hatfield, daughter of Thomas Hatfield, in Logan County. He identified himself as a farmer in both of his marriage records. During the 1920s, he served as a deputy under Sheriff Tennis Hatfield.
The following interview of Mr. Grimmett was conducted at his home on July 17, 1984. In this part of the interview, he recalls his family background and early occupations. Logging and rafting in the Guyandotte Valley are featured.
***
Would you mind telling me when and where you were born?
Right here. I was born about a mile up above here. I was borned in Logan County. The post office was Christian at that time. Christian, WV. It’s changed now. They throwed Christian out – it was over here at Christian – and they throwed it out and moved it over here to Bruno. Christian went… The mines stopped over there. And that’s where I was born, right here at Bruno, Logan County. Been here all my life.
What day were you born?
November 30, 1896.
Who were your parents?
Henderson Grimmett and Nancy Hatfield Grimmett.
What kind of work did they do?
They did logging work. All they had that day and time. Mule teams and ox teams.
Where did your dad do his work?
All over Logan County.
Did he have his own farm?
Oh yeah. Yeah.
How big was his farm?
It was about 287 acres.
Can you describe his house?
Well, the house was a two-story building. But he never did get… He took the fever and he never did get the upper story, all of it completed. He died at a very early age of 74. He put him up a little store. Got ahead a little bit. Had a store here. Come down and bought this place off Walter Buchanan and he deeded his five kids the homeplace up there. And then he stayed on it from ’21 to ’29. He died 19th day of January, 1929.
Who were your mother’s parents?
Oh, Lord, I can’t… Slater Hatfield was her daddy’s name. And I don’t know my grandma. My daddy, now they both was born in Wyoming County. Baileysville or somewhere in there. I think my mother was born over there in Big Cub Creek. She was a Hatfield. I don’t know where…
How many brothers and sisters do you have?
I had three brothers and three sisters. Sanford was the oldest one. Austin and Johnny. They’re all dead. I’m the only one that’s living. All my three sisters… Lilly was the oldest one, and Rose was the next one, and Ettie was the youngest. They’re all dead. All of ‘em but me.
Were you educated in Logan County schools?
Yeah, that’s all we got. Free schools. I believe we started off about three months out of the year. Right over there where that first house is sitting – a one-room school house. All of us kids.
What was the last year of school you completed?
I believe it was about 1914, I’m not right sure. ’15.
Did you use the McGuffey Readers?
That’s all we had. And the spelling books. And in the late years, why we had a U.S. history… A small one. Most of it was just about West Virginia. It wasn’t about the whole United States. And geography, we had that. Arithmetic. That was about all we had in free schools. We had to buy them all then. They weren’t furnished.
How did you meet your wife?
She was born and raised over here at Horse Pen in Mingo County. And that’s how we met. We were just neighbors.
What was her maiden name?
She was a Hatfield, too. But now they were… There’s three or four sets of them.
Was her family related to Devil Anse Hatfield?
Well, they was some… Not very close, though, I don’t think.
Which church did you belong to?
I don’t belong to any.
Did you belong to a church when you were younger?
No, never did. If I ever would have joined, I’d have stayed with it.
Do you remember the year of your marriage?
Yeah, I sure do. November 13, 1919.
How many children do you have?
Four. We have two boys and two girls. Travis Grimmett is the oldest. And Ralph, Edith, and Nancy.
What was your wedding like?
Well, we just got married and come right home. At that time, they didn’t have such things, to tell you the truth.
Who was the preacher?
Green Perry. Rev. Green Perry on Elk Creek. Rode a horse back when I went up there to get married. A pair of mules. I rode them mules.
Where did you first live after you married?
Right about a mile above here at the old homeplace.
You have lived here all of your life?
All of our life.
Was it always this populated?
No, no. Wasn’t three or four houses on this creek at that day and time. It was farm land. It’s all growed up now. All them hills was put in corn, millets, and stuff like that. If they couldn’t get a machine to it, they cut it by hand. Some of them raised oats and some of them raised millet, corn. Raised hogs and cattle and sheep and selling ‘em.
Who owned this property back then?
Burl Christian owned this here, but I don’t know… My daddy bought his… A fellow by the name of Wyatt Belcher. Wait a minute. Browning. I can’t think of his name. He lived over here on Christian and he bidded in… It sold for back taxes and he bidded in. Henderson Browning.
What kind of work did you do after you married?
Just the same thing as I worked at before I got married. I first started out – my daddy was a boss for Cole and Crane on this river. I first started out working in the log business. I worked two years at that and then I decided… Mule team – I worked about eighteen months at that. Then in 1913 the coal company started in and I went to work in carpenter work. I helped build all of these houses down here at Landville. The superintendent, we got done, they was wanting to hire men, he give me a job keeping time for a while. And he wanted me to learn to run the drum – that’s letting coal off the hill. I learned it and about the third day I was up there, a preacher was running it, and he told me they’d just opened up and they didn’t have much coal to run off the hill, he told me, that preacher, he rolled out two cards and he said if that preacher fails to go out and work on that side track today you give him one of these cards. Well, I didn’t give him a card. But he come out that evening, the boss did. And he said, did the preacher work. And I said, no he refused. He said, I’ll fix him. He fired him. And I took the job and stayed with it four years and then I got married and then I went to work over here at Christian running a drum and I stayed there 34 years.
When you worked for Cole and Crane, did either of those men ever come up here?
Oh yeah. One of them was. Cole was. I don’t think Crane was ever here. A little slim fella.
Did you get a chance to talk to them?
No, they wouldn’t talk to us working men. They’d talk to the boss. They’d go away from us and talk to theirselves. We just got a $1.10 for ten hours. Eleven cents an hour.
What kind of a person did Cole seem to be?
Well, he knowed how the men was. They’d raft timber and go down this river to Guyandotte. Had what they called locks and dams there to catch the logs. This river was full of logs. He bought timber everywhere. Plumb at the head of it.
Did you ever ride a raft?
Oh, yeah. I went with my daddy. I wasn’t grown.
Can you describe it?
Oh, they’d raft the logs, poplar. Now they didn’t raft hardwoods. They’d sink on them. Some rafts, a big one would be 160 to 200 feet long, about 24 to 26 feet wide. Oar on each end of it. If it was a big raft, they had two men up front all the time plumb in to Guyandotte. I was the second man on it when I got to go out on it. My dad had timber and he rafted it, took it there and sold it. Took what they called dog wedges and cut little basket oaks and rafted them, stringers across ‘em, you know. Lots of people get drowned, too.
Were you ever in an accident?
No, I never was in no big one. I’ve seen about six or eight drown.
Could you describe how it happened?
Oh, if he couldn’t swim, sometimes the best swimmer drowned, you know, if he got under a lot of logs or something. According to whatever happened there with him. He could get out if there wasn’t no logs on top of him no where to hold him under, you know. If logs were on top of him, he was gone. Now about the last ones I seen drowned was two colored people. They was building a railroad from Logan to Man up Buffalo Creek. So we was working on a log gorge down there at the lower end of Landville. And there was four colored men… 1921. Had a saloon up here at Verner. They wouldn’t allow one in Logan County. And they went up there on the 21st day of December to get ‘em a load of whisky. And they come back… They’d seen white people ride these logs. Some county people would get on one log and ride it plumb to Logan, as far as you wanted to go. And they thought they could ride it. And they got on. Rode ‘em off the gorge and they was running into eddy water and they would hit the back end, it would, and the other end would swarp out and they’d pull out that way. And they got on ‘em with their whisky and everything and two of ‘em got out and two of ‘em drowned.
When you rode the raft to Guyandotte, how did you get back to Logan?
Oh, we had to walk. We’d get a train up to Dingess over here. You know where that’s at? We’d ride down up to there. And then we’d have to get off and walk across the hill there and come right straight out at the mouth of Mud Fork, Holden there, and up another little drain and down Madison Creek down here. And walk… Man alive, our feet would be so sore, I’d be up for two or three weeks I couldn’t walk, my feet would be wore out so.
NOTE: Some names may be transcribed incorrectly.
Early Coal Mines in Logan County, WV
01 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in Battle of Blair Mountain, Big Creek, Boone County, Coal, Holden, Logan, Stone Branch
Tags
A.D. Robertson, Albert F. Holden, Amherst Coal Company, Appalachia, Big Creek Coal Company, Blair Mountain, Boone County Coal Company, Buffalo Creek, Buffalo Creek Coal and Coke Company, Buskirk Hotel, Clothier, coal, Cole and Crane Company, Cora Coal Company, Dobra, Draper Coal Company, engineer, G.W. Robertson, Gay Coal and Coke Company, Gay Coal Company, George M. Jones, Guyan Valley Coal Operators Association, Harry S. Gay, Herbert Jones, history, Holden, Huddleston Coal Company, Illinois, Island Creek Coal Company, John B. Wilkinson, John Laing, Logan County, Logan County Coal Operators Association, Madison, Main Island Creek Coal Company, Monclo Corporation, Monitor Coal Company, Moses Mounts, Mounts-White Fisher Company, Omar, Omar Mining Company, Pennsylvania, Peru, Princess Coal Company, Shamokin, Sharples, Stone Branch Coal Company, U.S. Coal and Oil Company, Vicie Nighbert, Virginia-Buffalo Company, West Virginia, West Virginia Coal and Coke, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Coal Company, Wilkinson, William H. Coolidge, William J. Clothier, Yuma Coal and Coke Company
What follows are brief notes from a forgotten source regarding early coal mines in Logan County, WV. Each of these companies and their communities have storied histories.
Gay Coal and Coke (organized in 1903)
Soon after 1900, Harry S. Gay, a mining engineer, came from Shamokin, PA, to observe the Logan coal fields. He stayed at the Buskirk Hotel. With money from friends A.D. and G.W. Robertson, he leased 800 acres from Moses Mounts of the Mounts-White Fisher Company for $20,000. G.W. Robertson was president of Gay Coal and Coke, while Gay was its secretary-treasurer. The company opened the Number One mine in the spring of 1903.
Monitor Coal Company (organized in 1904)
Monitor Coal Co. was organized in 1904 on the land of John B. Wilkinson. The accompanying town was named Wilkinson. Monitor merged with Yuma Coal and Coke Co. in 1935. In 1942, Wilkinson consisted of 166 company-owned houses. The mines eventually played out and real estate was sold through Monclo Corporation.
In 1905, seven coal companies existed in Logan County: Big Creek, Cora, Draper, Gay, Monitor, Stone Branch, and U.S. Coal and Oil Co. (Island Creek).
Island Creek Coal
Island Creek Coal also came to Logan during that time and created Holden. About 1902, William H. Coolidge and Albert F. Holden bought land from Vicie Nighbert. In early 1905, they established Island Creek Coal Sales Co. Holden was built by 1912.
Yuma Coal and Coke Company
Organized in 1905 by the same Pennsylvania interests behind Monitor Coal and Coke Co., Yuma Coal merged with Monitor in 1935.
In 1910, seventeen coal companies existed in Logan County.
Boone County Coal Company (organized in 1911)
Organized in 1911, the Boone County Coal Co. was headquartered at Clothier. William J. Clothier served as its first president. Its buildings burned and new buildings were erected at Sharples. The company held 30,000 acres just above Madison and about 2000 of it came into Logan to the top of Blair Mountain. The company had stores at Clothier, Sharples, Monclo, and Dobra.
Amherst Coal Company
In 1911, George M. Jones and his brother Herbert became interested in the Logan field. They leased 1300 acres on Buffalo Creek and organized Amherst Coal Company in January of 1912. In 1916, the company purchased the Virginia-Buffalo Company and the Huddleston Coal Company. It later purchased Buffalo Creek Coal and Coke Company.
Main Island Creek
In 1913, John Laing leased 30,000 acres in Omar from Cole and Crane Company of Peru, Illinois. Mr. Laing was the first president of the company. Later, West Virginia Coal and Coke, the Omar Mining Company, and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Coal Company mined this land.
In 1913, the Guyan Valley Coal Operators Association organized. In 1918, it became known as the Logan County Coal Operators Association. (For more on the association, follow this link: http://www.wvculture.org/history/ms90-82.html.)
In 1920, over seventy coal companies existed in Logan County (most were small and few survived).
By 1960, there were about fifty coal companies in Logan County; four coal companies accounted for about eighty percent of production. The four companies were Island Creek, Amherst, Omar, and Princess.
Ferrellsburg Items 02.14.1918
10 Thursday Jul 2014
Posted in Ferrellsburg, Hamlin, Logan, Timber
Tags
Albert Messer, Arena Ferrell, Buffalo Creek, Coon Tomblin, Dollie Toney, education, Ethel Davis, Ferrellsburg, Fisher B. Adkins, genealogy, Hamlin, history, Homer Hager, Huntington, Iva Adkins, Jake Mathes, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Lucinda Adkins, moonshining, Musco Dingess, Nettie Bryant, Philip Hager, Roxie Adkins, Ruby Adkins, sawmill, West Virginia, World War I
“Observer,” a local correspondent from Ferrellsburg in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, February 14, 1918:
The infant child of Henry Bryant died suddenly Monday.
Miss Ruby Adkins gave a Birthday dinner Saturday. Those present were: Miss Dollie Toney and her school enmasse, Mrs. Arena Ferrell, Miss Ethel Daves, Miss Roxie Adkins, Miss Nettie Bryant, Messrs. Homer Hager, and Musco Dingess. The school children being trained by their teacher, who is especially fitted for training little ones, rendered a very interesting and entertaining program.
Miss Iva Adkins has been real sick this week.
It is reported that “Coon” Tomblin, President of the Local Bootleggers Union has been arrested and placed in jail at Logan. This is quite a shock to the members of the Union, being the first time they have been interrupted for two years.
Supt. F.B. Adkins returned from Hamlin Saturday and is husking corn.
Aunt Sinda Adkins has been seriously ill the past week.
Albert Messer and family, of Buffalo, are visiting relatives at this place.
Jake Mathes, of Huntington, who is sawing for Philip Hager, returned Monday and is making the mill hum.
Quite a lot of the boys are preparing to leave for the training camp the 27th.
In Search of Ed Haley 314
05 Thursday Jun 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Logan, Music
Tags
banjo, Brandon Kirk, Buck Fork, Buffalo Creek, Dixie Mullins, Donna Samson, Ed Belcher, Ed Haley, Falling Water, fiddle, fiddler, genealogy, George Mullins, guitar, Harts Creek, history, James Belcher, Logan, Logan County, Logan Theatre, Mary Belcher, music, piano, Putnam County, Rhoda Mullins, Scott District, timbering, West Virginia, writing
Not long after talking with Vergia, Brandon located Donna Samson, a daughter of Ed Belcher, in Logan, West Virginia. Belcher, we were told, was a multi-instrumentalist who played music with Ed Haley at George Mullins’ home on the Buck Fork of Harts Creek.
John Edward Belcher was born in 1886 or 1889, the son of James and Mary (Thomas) Belcher. The Belchers lived in Scott District, Putnam County, in 1900. Donna thought her father was from Buffalo Creek in Logan County. She said her family was once heavily involved in the sawmill business. As a young man, Ed played music with his brother Henry. At some point, he took music lessons and learned to read and write music. He could play the piano, banjo, guitar, and “could make a violin cry.” In the 1910s and 1920s, he played the violin in an orchestra during silent movies at the Logan Theatre. About that same time, he also operated a boarding house near the train station (likely a convenient “stopping off place” for Ed Haley when he came into Logan).
“He always kept music around his home,” Donna said.
Belcher played ragtime and loved to play “Falling Water” on the piano in his later years.
Donna said her father met her mother Rhoda Mullins (1919-1990) while at a dance in Logan. Rhoda was staying in town with her sister Dixie, who was a local schoolteacher. They were the daughters of George Mullins of Harts Creek. Her father, she added, was some thirty years older than her mother, who was his second wife.
Ed Belcher died in 1970. His death record gives his occupation as “Piano repair, tuner.”
Ferrellsburg News 12.21.1911
26 Saturday Apr 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Ferrellsburg, Fourteen, Rector, Sand Creek
Tags
Albert Adkins, Allen Nelson, Brooke Adkins, Buffalo Creek, Christmas, David Farley, Doren Lucas, education, Everett Dingess, Ferrellsburg, Fisher B. Adkins, Floyd Enos Adkins, genealogy, Harts Creek, Hazel Adkins, history, Jessie Lucas, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan County, Lottie Lucas, Maggie Fry, Maggie Lucas, Matthew Farley, Maud Toney, Methodist Church, Minerva Brumfield, Rector, Sand Creek, Ward Lucas, West Virginia
“Old Hickory,” a local correspondent from Ferrellsburg in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, December 21, 1911:
Mrs. Brook Adkins is teaching one of the best schools in Harts Creek district. She is a faithful teacher.
Misses Maud Toney and Maggie Fry of Rector, were visiting Mrs. Ward Lucas last Sunday.
A.G. Adkins and wife, and M.C. Farley were calling on Misses Maggie and Lottie Lucas Sunday.
Miss Minerva Dingess was visiting Mrs. A.G. Adkins Sunday.
Everett Dingess has just returned from a flying visit to Big Hart. He reports a fine time.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Ward Lucas on last Monday morning, a boy. The mother and child are doing well, and Ward says the boy will be a republican.
F.B. Adkins on returning from the Toney lodge on last Saturday night lost his hat.
M.C. Farley has returned from Big Buffalo, Logan county, where he has a good job of work.
Mrs. Martha Farley, mother of M.C. Farley, died at the home of her youngest son, David Farley, on Dec. 5th. She had been a member of the Methodist church since early life and was ever faithful to the teachings of that church. She was past 74 years of age. The remains were interred at the place selected by her on the home farm.
A small child of Allen Nelson, of Sand Creek, caught its clothes on fire the other day and was burned to death.
Hazel, the six year old daughter of F.E. Adkins, caught on fire the other day and was badly burned.
M.C. Farley went to Hamlin last Monday.
The boys of this vicinity are preparing for a lively time. Xmas and the children are looking for Santa Claus.
Brandon Ray Kirk 