Tag Archives: Catlettsburg

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.

Recollections of Bert Curry about Timbering on Pigeon Creek, WV (1978)

10 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by in Coal, Holden, Timber

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The following interview excerpt of Bert Curry (born c.1901) was conducted at Lenore in Mingo County, WV, on December 5, 1978.

***

How much money was around back then?

The first public works to come into the Pigeon Creek areas was when Cole and Crane come in to cut all of this virgin timber. All of Pigeon Creek. They built a splash dam at Delbarton, one on Elk Creek, and one on Rock House. They come in here in 1910 and they paid seventy-five cents a day and board for a man to work and he worked from daylight til dark and along later some of their best men, their team drivers… Team drivers had to work extra hours. They’d put them on by the month. I remember my brother-in-law got $35 a month, but he’d have to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and then after supper he’d have to go out and clean the stable and curry his team and doctor ‘em, anything that had to be doctored and feed ‘em and bed ‘em down of the night.

Where did people get most of their income in those days?

If you had a job it was usually helping somebody cut timber. My first job was fifty cents a day carrying water for seventeen men and I was about twelve or thirteen years old.

Was that for loggers?

Well, these was loggers but my brother Wallace had a big field of corn. He had to grow corn to feed his cattle. He had six yokes of cattle and he used cattle in logging and he’d take a big flour barrel full of corn and them cattle would get around and he’d feed that corn to ‘em. They’d eat a barrel of corn each night and they’d let ‘em… Maybe a little fodder, or once in a while in bad weather they’d give ‘em a little hay. But them cattle, they worked ‘em six days a week haulin’ logs. They was trained to work and them six yokes of cattle was worth more than you could get for… You could buy a beef for $25 at that time but if you bought a good oxen that was broke you’d have to give about $50 for him.

What do you remember about the logging operations?

They was very primitive. They had nothin’ like a chain saw. They had a cross cut saw and they had axes and they had cane hooks and they had their teams of oxen and then some had teams of mules and horses. When Cole and Crane come in here they contracted all the cuttin’ of this timber. All the haulin’ it and puttin’ it into the creeks where the waters from the dams would take care of it. They had several contractors. They’d contract a whole boundary, maybe 500 or 1000 acres of timber to cut, and it was all virgin timber. It took six yoke of oxen or two to three big span of mules or horses to pull a tree. They didn’t cut it up into logs like they do now. They cut the whole tree and they didn’t take anything less than 16 inches up to the top. They’d be from 5 to 7 feet down where they cut them off and some of them would be 100 feet long and I’ve seen gorges of logs in Pigeon Creek they claimed had 5,000 trees in it. For a mile it’d be piled up bank to bank as high as they could pile. They’d work sometimes with all the teams they could get around them for three weeks a breaking one gorge. And when they got it to the Tug, they’d raft it. Sometimes they’d raft them and sometimes they would drift them down to the locks at Louisa before they’d raft them and they never went past there. They’d raft them there and then take tug boats and haul them from there to Cincinnati.

How did you raft them? I’m not familiar with that.

They had what you call chain dogs, a little chain about that long (indicates about 12 inches) with a spike on each end. They’d drive a spike in this log here and in this log (indicates two logs laying side by side) to hold it together, one at the front and one at the back, and they’d be oh maybe they’d be 50 feet wide and two or three hundred feet long, the rafts would. Maybe they’d have two or three rafts. One steamboat would be pullin’ maybe two or three rafts.

The logs wouldn’t drift apart?

They’d drive them spikes. Them spikes was about that long (indicating about six inches) and they’d drive them in there and it took a whole lot to pull ‘em out.

Did they work in the winter time, too?

Oh yes! I’ve seen fellers wade Pigeon Creek when they mush ice was a floatin’ and when they’d have to get back in the water to thaw before they could walk.

Was the creek deeper then or about like it is now?

It was more even. They had water all the time but they didn’t have as many severe floods as they have now because this was all covered with timbers, all of everything. See, this mulch in these forests held the water and let it leak out. It didn’t run off like it does now.

The water flow was more evened out this year around?

More evened out. But when they’d have a splash dam at Delbarton, one on Rockhouse up at Lando Mines and one in the head of Elk Creek, they’d time these. They’d know how long it took the water to run from Elk Creek, and they knowed how long it took the water to run from Rock House, and they knowed how long it took the water to meet. They’d try to have them all three come out at once so that they’d have a vast big sudden increase in water. You could look up the creek when they’d splash and you could see a wall floatin’ and a turnin’ in and everything.

And that was to wash the logs out?

Yes, well they washed them out to Tug River that way. That’s the way they got them out of Pigeon Creek.

Do you remember when Island Creek first came into the area?

No. Island Creek first come in about 1901. That was over there. They started when two young fellows come from New York in there looking for oil, to prospect for oil, so they could invest some money. And some old man had a mine open right where No. 1 Island Creek mine is and he was a haulin’ coal with a mule—a mule and a sled. He’d go back in there and he’d haul coal out—a big seam of coal six foot high and good and clean. So they decided that there was where they could make their money. So they got to talkin’ with these fellows and they went and got lawyers and they bought around Holden and Trace Fork and up Mud Fork and a vast area. I don’t know how much: 79,000 acres for 470,000 dollars. And fellows like Henry Ferrell, he counted timber so long. To count timber you have men a goin’ through and selecting the trees and one man a tallying. They’d make a mark on a tree when they’d count it, and the fellow with the tally sheet, he kept the numbers. He said they’d count timber a while and said then they had more money than they had brains. To spend that much money for that much land—470,000 dollars—and he said they put up a band mill and cut the timber and sold the timber and built their camps and sold enough lumber to pay for all of it. They got their coal and their land free. Just cut the timber and sold it and got their money back. People thought they were foolish for paying that kind of prices. Buying some of them farms out with all that timber for thousand dollars—that sounded like an awful lot of money. They didn’t have any money. They weren’t used to money. You worked for fifty cents a day. $1000 seemed like a whole lot.

Interview of Jean Hatfield at Sarah Ann, WV (2001), Part 1

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Timber

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In 2001-2002, I wrote a series of popular stories for the Logan Banner that merged aspects of well-known Hatfield-McCoy books written by Otis Rice and Altina Waller in the 1980s. I had previously enjoyed Rice’s narrative and Waller’s analysis; I did not conduct any new research. Even though I believed the definitive Hatfield-McCoy Feud book remained unwritten, my purpose in writing these stories was not a step toward writing a book; my purpose in writing these stories was to revisit the narrative with some analysis for Banner readers. My hope was that readers would see what I saw: first, fascinating history (or folk story) for its own sake; second, the power of history to create a popular type of tourism.

I was fortunate during this time to meet Jean Hatfield. Jean, born in 1936, operated a Hatfield family museum at Sarah Ann, WV. Jean was not a native of West Virginia but had lived her entire adult life locally and had personally known several of Anderson Hatfield’s children. I really appreciated her desire to promote regional history. She “got it.” She inspired me. Anytime that I drove up Route 44, I stopped to visit Jean at the museum. She was always welcoming. Knowing her reminded me that every Hatfield (and McCoy) descendant is a source of information–and that for the most part they have yet to tell the story in their own words. Three notable exceptions include The McCoys: Their Story by Truda Williams McCoy (1976), The Tale of the Devil (2003) by Coleman Hatfield and Bob Spence, and The Hatfield and McCoy Feud After Kevin Costner: Rescuing History (2013) by Thomas Dotson.

What follows is Part 1 of my interview with Jean, which occurred on August 7, 2001:

You were telling me some of the things you have. Family things.

Like the guns and gun molds and knives and things like that that belonged to the Hatfields. And of course as you can see here in the shop I’ve got all kinds of photographs. Still have more. I just don’t have the room to display all that I have.

You mentioned a gun specifically.

I have three of the pistols that belonged to Grandpa [Devil Anse]. The last one that he carried in his pocket. And then I have a large .38/.40. I also have a little silver pearl handle squeezer that my husband’s father gave him when he was running for sheriff before he died.

Which one of those boys was your father-in-law?

Tennis. That was Devil Anse and Levisa’s youngest son. He was just like 6 years old, seven years old when the feud was going on. I think he was born in 1889. And the feud actually started around 1886. So he was just a little boy, him and Uncle Willis both. Willis, if you remember the old picture of them in front of the old log house, Willis was sitting on one side and Tennis was sitting on the other side. Both of them was small boys.

Is that the one where they have the little coon skin caps?

Uh huh. It’s a very common picture. I think about everybody has that one.

Did you say you had an axe, too?

Yeah, I’ve got a little axe that they called their kindling axe. They chopped their wood up to start their fires with. Little short handle. Maybe the handle on it is like 28, 29 inches long. And it’s got two cutting sides so it would be a double-bitted axe. And I have gristmill rocks that they used to use to grind their meal up from their corn that they raised. They were pioneer people. They had to do everything on their own because there was no convenience store at that time. Anything they had… They floated their logs down to Catlettsburg in the fall and then they’d take a train back with their flour and sugar and things like that they needed for winter. And the rest of the things I would imagine they canned and dried so they had plenty of food the winter.

So they had their own mill?

Oh yeah. They’d grind their own corn into meal.

Where did it sit?

Uncle Joe had one over here across the road but now they had one earlier over ___. That was the area that they were in when the feud was going on. That’s where they done a lot of their timbering back over in that area.

What little town is there now that’s close to where they lived?

Red Jacket, over in that area. Close in around Matewan.

So you remember your father-in-law pretty well?

Well no. He died two weeks after my husband and I met. But I knew Willis and I knew Rosie [Browning] and Betty [Caldwell] and Uncle Joe. They were all Devil Anse’s children.

A lot of these things I read about, you don’t get a good idea of what they were like. Do you know anything that would make them seem like real people? Any stories? Things you’ve never seen in print?

Well, like Johnse. He was the ladies’ man. He was the one that fell in love with Roseanne and they wouldn’t let them marry. Now Tennis and Willis and Joe pretty well hung together. They were more buddies than the rest of them. Aunt Rosie was a nurse. So she nursed everybody. She was like a mother figure to all of them.

Did she nurse in a hospital?

I think she did nurse at one time in one of the hospitals. Probably one of Big Doc’s hospitals. Dr. Henry D. But she was always the type to go to the homes and take care of them, more or less. And Aunt Betty was very religious, so she was like the minister to the family.

Do you know what her religion was?

I would say Baptist. What was the older one? Probably United. But she was religious all of her life. They were human. I have a lot of people in the years that I’ve been here tell me that their grandfather and grandmother stayed at Grandpa and Grandma’s house because he wouldn’t let nobody go by if it was getting dark because they had wild bears and panthers and things like that. He was afraid people would get hurt. So he would make them come in the house and they would feed them supper and they’d sleep and the next morning at daylight they could go on. He’d done took care of their horses and everything. I would have give anything if he would have had some kind of a register that people could have signed that they have stayed all night with him. Because I still have people telling me, “My grandma, my great-grandma did this” and “My great-grandma did that.” And they took a lot of people in that didn’t have homes and let ‘em work and live with ‘em. They were kind people. But I think that they just didn’t like to be pushed around. Right now, everybody’s that way. They’ll give you anything they got, but just don’t try to take it off of ‘em. Now my husband, he was a very large man. He was like 6’2” when I met him. And I always called him my gentle giant because he was just as gentle as he could be. But you didn’t want to make him mad. He did have a temper. But I very seldom ever saw it. And they loved people. They liked dealing with people. Most of them were storekeepers. Two of Grandpa’s sons were doctors. Of course, Tennis was sheriff, Joe was sheriff. Lias and Troy, they were storekeepers. So they always were dealing with the public. You don’t deal with the public without repercussions if you’re mean.

Did you say something about having a chifferobe?

Yes. A handmade chifferobe and it has a little hidey-hole in the top of it where you could hide guns or money or whatever you want in it.

Do you know where the fort was?

I have never figured that out. I don’t know whether it was… There may have been one over on Beech Creek or Ben Creek, over in that area. But as far as I know from the family telling me, it didn’t exist. But I know their house was built back off of the road. Well, back at that time, there wasn’t a road. You had to go down through the creek to get anywhere. And trespass on other people’s property to get to Logan. I think this road went in here in 1932 or 1938. But even when Henry’s father put the monument up for Grandpa, there was no road here. That was in 1928. And they had to use mules and sleds and everything else to get that stone up on the mountain.

Civil War Dispatches From Wayne County, WV (1865-1866)

07 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Civil War, Timber

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Below are several dispatches relating to the Civil War and immediate post-war era in Wayne County, West Virginia. These dispatches appeared in pro-Union newspapers.

Wheeling Intelligencer, 21 January 1865

WEST VIRGINIA AS A PLACE TO LIVE. I could not conscientiously recommend any one to come here now to live, although investment in farms will surely be profitable. The trouble now, chiefly, is that the guerrillas have broken up their organization, if they ever had any, and scattered into small squads to rob and steal. A schoolmistress, passing along a lonely road not far from Ceredo, was robbed of all her money, the amount she had just received for three months’ teaching, by three ruffians. A few nights ago men went to the house of a quiet farmer, one mile from Ceredo, and robbed him of a few dollars, all he had, and boots and some clothing. Some of the citizens keep arms in their houses, and intend to use them if visited in that way. One of these shot one of a gang of six one night not long ago, but became frightened himself, and ran off, giving the robbers a chance to take their wounded companion away. He has not been troubled since. Geo. Crook, commanding the Department of West Virginia, has issued a circular notifying the people that they must organize for their own protection, and recommends them to hunt the bushwhackers and kill them. Governor Boreman offers to furnish arms and ammunition. It will be done, and the guerrillas will decrease every week, I hope.

The Weekly Register (Point Pleasant, WV), 26 January 1865

GIVING THEMSELVES UP. — We learn that Lieut. Samuels, brother of Judge Samuels, formerly Adjutant General of this State, recently came into Wayne county, accompanied by a dozen or fifteen other rebel soldiers, all of whom took the amnesty oath. They say they are tired of fighting for nothing and freezing to death.

Wheeling Intelligencer, 21 February 1865

A GUERRILLA MURDER. We learn from citizens of Wayne county, who arrived yesterday, that a few days ago a guerrilla murder was committed at Ceredo, on the Ohio river in that county. It appears that a gang of men, under command of the notorious Bill Smith, came down to Ceredo and entered the house of Jack Meadows, a citizen, shot him through the heart, drove his wife and children out of doors, and set fire to the premises. Mrs. Meadows who fortunately armed with a revolver, shot one of the guerrillas dead and seriously wounded another, but not until one of her legs had been broken by a blow with a gun in the hands of one of the rebels. The rebels having completely destroyed the house of Mr. Meadows, and with all its contents, fled to their hiding places, leaving their dead companion unburied. Mrs. Meadows and her children were taken to Catlettsburg, Ky., where she still remains.

Wheeling Intelligencer, 23 February 1865

GUERRILLAS. — During the debate yesterday in the House of Delegates, upon the bill to provide for the better organization of the State Guards, some horrible pictures were presented of the condition of the loyal people of the border counties. Mr. Ferguson said that every part of the county of Wayne on the Ohio river, was held by guerrillas. In the county of Cabell only one two, Guyandotte, was held by the Federal troops. The rebels have their headquarters up in Logan county, and they make forays down toward the Ohio river, stealing, murdering and devastating the country. They enter the houses of loyal people and steal household furniture and bed clothing, and frequently strip women and children of wearing apparel and leave them in an actual state of nudity. Mr. Wells, of Raleigh, and Mr. Gregory, who represents Webster and Pocahontas, gave similar accounts of the condition of things in their respective localities.

Gallipolis Journal, 2 March 1865

CEREDO, WEST VIRGINIA. — Since the breaking out of the rebellion, “I give bread” town has been subjected to many vicissitudes. Its prospects when projected, in 1854, and later, was that of a great manufacturing city. Early in 1862, many of the Yankee citizens anticipated the coming storm, and either disposed of their property or left it to the despoiler. At one time it had a regiment quartered in its midst, but of late no troops have been nearer than Guyandotte. Disloyalty has cropped out under drunkenness and personal hate, until one’s life is endangered at any moment. Guerrillas and rebel sympathizers occupy the principal houses vacated by the owners. Not a public building stands untouched. The window and door frames, flooring and every sleeper of the hotel have been torn out and burned up. The dismantling of the steam saw mill and Glass Factory have long since been accomplished. Night is made hideous by the continued debaucheries of certain desperate characters, such as Jack Meddows and Pete Jeffers. There is not a loyal family left in Ceredo.

The Weekly Register (Point Pleasant, WV), 9 March 1865

A correspondent of the Ironton Register, writing from Burlington, O., says: The murder of Jack Middaughs, at Ceredo, on the 13th inst., was attended with some circumstances that deserve mention. The guerrillas surrounded his house before he knew of their presence. Then with a single revolver he drove them a little, wounding two of them. His wife then seized the revolver and threatened them, while Jack made his motions for escape. It was then that the rebs pressed forward to get up the stairs, Mrs. Middaugh standing at the head. Jim Turner was in advance, and finding Mrs. Middaugh in his way, swung his gun and with a blow smashed her foot. She then shot him through the breast, and he fell. At this moment Jack sprang down the stairs knocking down all in his path. He got out and nearly reached the woods, when he was met by three or four mounted men, who surrounded and killed him. — There were thirty-five men in the gang, with Smith, and it would be safe to say that twenty of them were at the house. Through this crowd Jack heroically fought his way and would have escaped but for the guards near the woods. The treatment of Mrs. Middaugh was barbarous in the extreme. It has been equaled only by the cruelties practiced by the Indians in the early times in this country. After she was disabled they took her and her children out, and made her lie down upon the ground, half dressed, refusing to permit her to get a single article from the house, while they were setting fire to it. On that bitter cold night of the 13th of February, in her condition, she was compelled to remain until the savages left. The conduct of this heroic woman is duly appreciated by the citizens of Catlettsburg and they have generously provided for her and her little ones.

Wheeling Register, 6 June 1865

The following resolutions were passed at a meeting of the citizens of Wayne county, West Virginia, held at the Court House on the 18th ult.:

WHEREAS, Our country is just emerging from civil war, which has laid waste our fields and drenched the land in fraternal blood; and

WHEREAS, It is to the interest of all to restore permanent peace and harmonize the elements necessary to a well regulated society; therefore, we, the people of Wayne county, in Mass Meeting assembled, do Resolve:

1st. That in the preservation and perpetuity of the principles set forth in the Constitution and Government of our fathers, we most sincerely and devoutly acknowledge an all wise Providence, who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and the common Father of us all; and we will, in time to come, rely implicitly upon Him for His protection and guidance.

2d. That it is the duty of every individual to lend his active aid and energy to the establishment of civil law, both State and National, and to its enforcement for the protection of life, liberty and property.

3d. That we justify and approve the Amnesty of President Lincoln. Its results have been beneficial, and the croakers and fault finders of the policy are morally arrayed against the Government and its best interest, and are not found among those who have fought its battles and borne it through the ordeal of war with success.

4th. That we concur in the convention called by the citizens of Greenbrier and Monroe, to meet at Charleston on the third day of June next, for the purpose of suppressing the lawless persons, and the restoration of order throughout the State, and do appoint and constitute Messrs. Abel Segur, John B. Bowen, R. Banton, and Isaac Bloss as delegates to represent Wayne county in said convention.

W.W. Brumfield, President

J.W. Merricks, Secretary

Wheeling Intelligencer, 25 April 1866

AFFAIRS IN WAYNE COUNTY. Cassville, Wayne Co., W.Va., March 23d, 1866. To the Governor of the State of West Virginia: Dear Sir: — After respects, I wish to call your immediate attention to some facts, as follows: Sometime last Spring you commissioned me as a notary public, and I was sworn and gave bond as the law directs. I am also assessor of the 2d district of Wayne county. I live and keep my office in Cassville; and it is with extreme difficulty and under great danger and hard threats that I am getting along. My entire neighborhood is rebel with the exception of old Squire Bartram and his boys, one of whom is our high Sheriff and another Capt. David Bartram our deputy Sheriff. I have forborne for a long time calling for men and arms, thinking the rebels would quiet down; but sir, we cannot execute the civil law unless something is done. We have been beaten by mobs and shot at on the streets and dared to help ourselves. They say they can’t have power, and we shan’t have it. Now, Governor, I suggest and absolutely insist that a company of one hundred volunteer militia be raised for our protection. The rebels say if you call out the militia, they will be in the majority but we do not want more than one hundred men. Our county is mostly quiet except around Cassville. A commander and company is not necessary for the enforcement of civil law in the lower end of the county. If in your judgment you see fit to commission and arm men, I would suggest that William Shannon be commissioned Captain. He is an honorable and upright man and knows something of both civil and military matters. Further, that David Frasher be commissioned as Lieutenant, to be stationed at Cassville. We must have from 25 to 50 men here in Cassville, or else we must get out of here. This is the landing place for all lumber that comes down Tug river. Those big buck rebels come down in time of high water sometimes by dozens from Logan county and from Pike county, Ky., with their navies [revolvers] buckled around them, hurrahing “for Jeff Davis,” cursing the Government, cursing Union men, and then we have to get out. Sir, I frequently see men come in here who are indicted for murder in Kentucky, defying everybody. Not more than eight miles from here, as some of the Home Guards were on their way home from being paid off a company of rebels fell on them and beat and abused them severely, calling the party “damned abolitionists,” and swore they would not submit to our laws. A few days ago they gathered in here and raised a riot with our Sheriff, and fell on him with clubs and weights and tried to kill him and his brother. His brother ran into my house for protection. They stoned my window out, knocked two panels out of my door and nearly killed my little child. If you see fit to protect us send the commissions immediately. The men can be raised in a few days. Send full instructions and special orders. You may send arms if you think proper, for there will be no doubt about recruiting the men immediately. We have plenty of guns here which belong to the State that can be gathered up. This company should be armed with revolvers instead of guns. I refer you to Major Brown [Col. G.W. Brown, Q.M. General], the man who came here and paid the home guards. He formed some acquaintance with me when he was here, also with Shannon and Lieut. Frasher. Yours, with respect, John W. Holt.

 

Caleb Headley

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

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From “Hardesty’s History of Lincoln County, West Virginia,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Caleb Headley, who resided at Fourteen in Lincoln County, West Virginia:

Has for nearly fifty years been a practicing physician. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1808, and his parents Thomas and Sarah (Asher) Headley, are both deceased. Caleb Headley has been twice married, his first wife, Nancy Wright, a Pennsylvanian, left him eight children: Elizabeth J., born June 2, 1829; Thomas J., November 23, 18931; Sarah A., December 8, 1833; Caleb S., March 30, 1838; George W., May 21, 1839; Benjamin F., May 31, 1841; Anthony, June 3, 1844; Elisha, born August 1, 1850. Mr. Headley was again married in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, to Sarah A. Farley, and the children of this union number six, born as follows: John T., April 20, 1867; Ida C., March 23, 1869; Caleb D., February 22, 1872; William F., August 25, 1875; Margaret, March 28, 1878; Ballard C., April 14, 1880. Mrs. Headley was born in Logan county, (now) West Virginia, May 26, 1849, and her parents, William and Elizabeth Jane (Clark) Farley, settled in Lincoln county in 1844. Caleb Headley came to Lincoln county in 1866, and is now a prosperous farmer, owning 600 acres of good land on Fourteen-mile creek, a portion of which is heavily timbered with oak, poplar and pine; coal and iron ore in abundance. There is a fine sulphur spring upon the land, on the creek three miles from Guyan river, which has been visited by people from many parts of the United States, and it is pronounced of excellent medicinal quality by all. Dr. Headley was commissioner of revenue one term, and was justice of the peace sixteen years in Wetzel county, West Virginia. He was in the late war, and ranked as captain of a company. Dr. Headley was a member of the Methodist Church for forty years, but on coming to Lincoln county, there was no church of that denomination, and he united with the Christian Church. His father was also a physician for many years. Direct mail to Fourteen, Lincoln county, West Virginia.

Source: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, Vol. 7 (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 135.

Note: Caleb Headley is my great-great-great-grandfather through his daughter, Ida Cosby (Headley) Fry.

In Search of Ed Haley 352

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Chapmanville, Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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The next day, Brandon and I got Mona to ride around town and show us some of the places where Ed played, as well as where he’d made the home recordings on 17th Street. In the car, she tried to recount the places the family had lived since her birth at Horse Branch in 1930.

The first place she remembered was an old brown house built on a slope at Halbert Street. This was the place where Ralph built the trap door.

When Mona was seven or eight years old, the family moved to 337 37th Street.

When she was about thirteen, they moved to 105 17th Street. She lived there in 1944 when she married Wilson Mullins and moved away to Chapmanville, near Harts. After her divorce, she moved back to 17th Street. At that time, Ed was separated from Ella and living in West Virginia.

For a brief spell, the Haleys lived at 5210 45th Street. Rosie Day lived nearby in a basement apartment.

Around 1948, the family moved to 1040 Greenup Avenue. Mona lived there when she married Kenny Smith and moved to South Point, Ohio.

Around 1950, Ed, Ella, Lawrence, Pat, and little Ralph moved to 2144 Greenup Avenue. Jack and Patsy lived there for a while because Patsy — who was pregnant with twins — wanted to be near the hospital. It was there that Ed passed away in February of 1951.

Thereafter, Ella stayed intermittently with Lawrence and Pat in Ashland or with Jack and Patsy in Cleveland until her death in 1954.

Brandon and I drove Mona around town later and she pointed out the sight of the Catlettsburg stock sale, where she remembered Ed making “good money” around 1935-36. She also directed us to at least three different locations of Jean Thomas’ “Wee House in the Wood.” One was remodeled into an office building and used by the county board of education, while another was out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere on a wooden stage in a valley surrounded by tall grass. Brandon and I thought this latter location was almost surreal, like something out of a weird dream.

Later at dinner, Mona told us what happened to her records.

“I sent Clyde some records when he was in San Quentin, California but he never brought them back with him,” she said.

I told her that some guy named Junius Martin had brought Lawrence some of Ed’s recordings and she said, “Seems like Junius Martin was one of Pop’s drinking buddies. I thought his name was Julius.”