Tag Archives: Cabell Record

In Search of Ed Haley 237

09 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by in Coal, Ed Haley, Harts, Timber

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In Search of Ed Haley 236

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in Ed Haley, Harts, Timber

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

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

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

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

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