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Brandon Ray Kirk

~ This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in my section of Appalachia.

Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: culture

Appalachian Heritage Day in Logan, WV (2019)

29 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Logan, Music, Women's History

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Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club, Appalachia, Appalachian Heritage Day, authors, Bobby Taylor, books, Carter Taylor Seaton, Confederate Army, Cooney Ricketts Chapter, culture, fiddler, fiddlers, fiddling, Hatfield-McCoy CVB, Hippie Homesteaders, history, Ken Hechler, Laura Treacy Bentley, Logan, Logan County Commission, Looking for Ireland, M. Lynne Squires, photos, Rebel in the Red Jeep, Southern Coalition for the Arts, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Urban Appalachia, Vandalia Award, West Virginia

Appalachian Heritage Day occurred on August 25, 2019 in Logan, WV. The event featured authors, scholars, guest speakers, information tables, a genealogy workshop, a writers’ workshop, numerous old-time and bluegrass music workshops, and an all-day concert. Special thanks to the Logan County Commission, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, the Hatfield-McCoy CVB, and the Southern Coalition for the Arts for sponsoring the event. For more information, follow this link to the event website: https://appalachianheritageday.weebly.com/

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Authors Carter Taylor Seaton, Laura Treacy Bentley, and M. Lynne Squires offered their amazing books for sale, hosted meet-and-greet sessions at author tables, and presented about Appalachian topics. Each of these ladies has a website providing information about their biographies and books; for more info, give them a Google!

Cooney Ricketts UDC Group

The United Daughters of the Confederacy, Cooney Ricketts Chapter, were featured at Appalachian Heritage Day. This wonderful group of ladies offered history about Confederate soldiers and women on the home front. For more about this group, go here: https://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/albert-gallatin-jenkins-united-daughters-of-confederacy-hosts-annual-meeting/article_6d2cdf9e-5ef3-5a75-a22f-69382944e145.html

Bobby Taylor in Old-Time Fiddle Workshop

Master fiddler Bobby Taylor hosted an old-time fiddle workshop. Bobby is the 2010 Vandalia Award winner. For more about Bobby, go here: http://www.wvculture.org/vandalia/award/2010taylor.html

Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club

The Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club made plenty of unforgettable music at Appalachian Heritage Day. For more about them, go here: http://www.davehaasmusic.com/davehaasmusic/Club.html

Hindman Settlement School (2019)

04 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Music

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Ali Hintz, author, authors, Brandon Kirk, culture, Hindman, Hindman Settlement School, history, James Still, Kentucky, Knott County, music, Sam Gleaves, Uncle Sol's Cabin, writers

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Welcome to Hindman Settlement School! Hindman, Knott County, KY. 1 March 2019 For more information about the school, visit here: https://www.hindmansettlement.org/

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Uncle Sol’s Cabin. Hindman, Knott County, KY. Inside I met Ali Hintz, Community Agriculture VISTA. 1 March 2019 For more about Ali, go here: https://growappalachia.berea.edu/author/alihintz/

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Uncle Sol’s Cabin. Hindman, Knott County, KY. 1 March 2019

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Inside of Uncle Sol’s Cabin. Hindman, KY. Thanks to Sam Gleaves, Traditional Arts Director, for a quick tour. 1 March 2019 For more about Sam, go here: http://www.samgleaves.com/

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Inside of Uncle Sol’s Cabin. Hindman, KY. 1 March 2019

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James Still grave at Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, KY. 1 March 2019 Photo by Sam Gleaves. For more about James Still, go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Still

Mountain Folk (1927)

02 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Logan

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Alvin York, Appalachia, Arthur Davenport, Babe Ruth, Banastre Tarleton, Battle of Cowpens, Battle of King's Mountain, Charles Darwin, Charleston, Charleston Daily Mail, Charlie Chaplin, Chicago, culture, Jack Dempsey, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, R.H. Martin, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, dated August 5, 1927, comes this editorial about the “mountain folk” of Appalachia, printed in response to a piece in Collier’s:

collier's

MOUNTAIN FOLK

Observations By R.H. Martin, Editor of Charleston Mail, In Rejoinder to Collier’s Article

Some West Virginia newspapers are both indignant and aroused over an article printed in Collier’s recently under the name of Arthur Davenport and having for its theme the sad and deplorable conditions of the mountain dwellers in Southern Appalachia. The general tenor of the article can be fairly judged by the introductory synopsis:

We Americans are fond of tilting our noses and giving the rest of the world the superior eye.

Anybody going about in that fashion is pretty sure to overlook an unpolished heel or a rip in the clothing where it makes others laugh most.

Here is the story of the unpolished heel. Here are Americans of nearly two hundred years’ breeding who never heard the names Roosevelt, Wilson, Ford, Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin; who never saw a —

But never mind. Read and cease marveling for a few moments that the Chinese can be dedraggled, the Hottentot so naked, the mukhik so ignorant and the Hindu so impoverished. Here are all of these calamities within a few hours train ride from our own golden Capitol.

If the conditions are as Mr. Davenport has painted them, then it would appear to be a case where pity and help were needed rather than sneers and laughter. In fact, Mr. Davenport in the introduction, or Collier’s editor who may have written it, gives some indications of “nose-tilting” that might provoke a rather loud guffaw from some unlettered mountaineer whose forbears were possibly among, and certainly of the same type, of those mountaineers who won the battles of the Cowpens and King’s Mountain, which victories some historians consider the turning point in the American revolution. They were probably of the same type as that Col. Washington, who, although he could not make a letter, yet left the mark of his sword on a certain Col. Tarleton.

It may be true–we shall not attempt to deny it–that there are mountaineers who never heard of Babe Ruth. We have not the slightest desire to detract one iota from all laurels due to the famous batsman, but, like most mountaineers, probably we should, if it simmered down to that, prefer Sergeant York as our hero to the idol of the howling grandstand that throws pop-bottles at umpires.

Nor shall we repine if it is true that some of these mountaineers never heard of Charlie Chaplin. We fail to see where knowing him as most Americans know him would be intellectually or otherwise uplifting. Perhaps, such mountaineers, as have missed long-distance acquaintance of either of these gentlemen just mentioned have not lost so much after all. As for other names mentioned there may be in the deepest mountain recesses persons who have not heard of them. If Mr. Davenport knows of his own personal knowledge of such cases, his statement stands.

There are mountain folk in the great ranges of Southern Appalachia who have been cut off from this modern civilization of ours that produces bandits in Gotham and gunmen in Chicago, the nauseous scandals of Hollywood, the commercial orgies of Dempsey and Sharkey, and other highly moral and refining manifestations of the literates, and their ignorance of the outside world may be large. But as to whether a more intimate contact with this outside world which we boastfully call civilized would improve the mountaineer or not, would, it seems to us, depend a good deal upon that part of it with which he came in contact.

Mountaineers in the innermost recesses of the elevations of the elevations are poor as well as deficient in general knowledge. We admit as much. Their wants are few, and they are able to get along with what to satisfy their forefathers who at infinite toil conquered the wilderness and blazed the paths of those whose “culture” takes on “nose-tilting” sneering and laughing. Perhaps Mr. Davenport might get a new insight into real values if he should read what Bobbie Burns wrote about “honest poverty.”

Illiteracy still exceeds 90 percent in the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, which states contribute to the four million of which I write. Poverty of a sort unbelievable in the cities is so commonplace as not to be impressive: the amount of money passing through the hands of the old mountaineer in any year is often less than eight dollars.

The term, “mountains of Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina” is ambiguous. Practically all West Virginia is mountainous, or semi-mountainous. Taking the states named as a whole the percentage of illiteracy among native-born whites is as follows: Kentucky, 7.3; North Carolina, 8.2; Virginia, 6.1; West Virginia, 4.8; Tennessee, 7.4. These figures are slightly increased by adding to them foreign illiterates and illiterates among the negro population. The latter two elements present special problems that are being gradually worked out and the percentages from now on will rapidly diminish. To say therefore, that mountain folk are 90 percent illiterate, one would have to restrict the term “mountain folk” to a very small proportion of the population.

But Mr. Davenport seems to apply his percentage to the “four million of which I write.” It possibly may be that if Mr. Davenport has that same passion for facts as animated Charles Darwin, and is as careful in testing his data, he will revise his figures.

The entire story is exaggerated and weird; but it is nothing to worry about. The people of the states named know the causes and the difficulties and are remedying the situation as rapidly as possible. Fastidious refinement may halt at the lofty mountain ranges and at the mouth of the deep and dark defiles, but from these same mountain folk have come some of the strongest type of Americans despite educational handicaps. When we think of Sergeant York and his folk, we do not despair of the mountain folk nor depreciate their sturdy virtues. We neither feel like sneering nor laughing. And we hope modern “culture” and “civilization” has the good breeding not to tilt the nose at supposed inferiors who may in some essentials actually be superiors.

For more about Collier’s, follow this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier%27s

Halloween Traditions (1899)

17 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Women's History

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Appalachia, culture, England, Halloween, history, Huntington, Huntington Advertiser, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, West Virginia

From the Huntington Advertiser of Huntington, WV, we find the following story dated October 31, 1899:

Tonight is Halloween and the small boy, as well as many of the larger ones, are happy. Girls ditto.

The lads and lassies, particularly of Scotland and Ireland, and the young people of Wales and England, as well as the youth of this and other countries, have for centuries hailed the night of Halloween, the last night in October, as prophetic.

The first ceremony of Halloween among the Scotch is the pulling of a stock or plant of kale. All the company go out and with eyes closed each pulls the first plant of this kind he or she is able to lay hold of. It being big or little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size, shape, and other characteristic of the grand object of all the Halloween spells–the husband or wife. If any earth remains clinging to the root, that signifies fortune, and the state of the heart of the stem, as perceptible to the taste, is indicative of the natural temper and disposition of a future spouse.

Burning nuts is a famous Caledonian charm. Two hazel nuts, sacred to the witches, one bearing the name of the lad and the other the lass, are laid in the fire side by side and accordingly as they burn quietly together or start away from one another so will be the progress and issue of the courtship.

Certain forms must be observed to insure the success of a given spell and in the following one there must be no departure from the formula: A maiden should steal out, entirely alone to the kiln, and throw into the pot a ball of blue yarn, holding fast to the end. She should then begin winding the yarn until it resists, whereupon she should demand, “Who holds this yarn?” An answer will be returned from the kiln-pot, naming the Christian and surname of her future spouse.

Another test is for her to take a candle and going, alone by its light only stand before a mirror and eat an apple. Some traditions say one should comb one’s hair instead of eating the apple. The conditions of the spell being perfect, a shadowy face supposed to be that of the maiden’s future husband will be seen in the glass, as if peeping over her shoulder.

Another Scotch ceremony into which the uncanny largely enters as an element is described as follows: One or more go out, as the case may be (for this is a social spell), to a south running spring or rivulet where “three lairds’ lands meet” and dip the left shirt sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire and bang the wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake watching carefully, and about midnight an apparition having the exact figure of the grand object in question will come and turn the sleeve as if to dry the other side of it.

An interesting Halloween divination that solves matrimonial doubt and banishes uncertainty is accomplished by arranging three dishes upon the hearth. Into the first is put clean water, into second clouded or muddy water, while the third is left empty. The candidate is securely blindfolded and led to the hearth where the dishes are. The left hand is dipped and if by chance it be in the clean water the wife that is to be will come to the bar of matrimony a maid; if in the muddy water, a widow; but if in the empty dish it foretells with equal certainty no marriage at all. This ceremony is three times repeated, the arrangement of the dishes being each time changed.

Ducking for apples and the attempt to secure by means of the mouth only an apple balanced upon a stick suspended from the ceiling upon the end of which is placed a lighted candle provokes much laughter and no little spirited competition.

For a girl to know if she will marry within the year she must obtain a green pea pod in which are exactly nine peas, hang it over the door, and if the next man guest entering be a bachelor her own marriage will follow within twelve months. This spell is sometimes tried at other times than Halloween, but the conditions then are generally considered less favorable.

Three small rings should be purchased by a maiden during the period of a new moon, each at a different place. She should tie them together with her left garter and place them in her left glove with a scrap of paper cut heart-shaped on which her sweetheart’s name has been written in blue ink. The whole should be placed under her pillow when retiring Halloween and she will dream of her sweetheart if she is to marry him.

The future is sometimes prognosticate on Halloween by candle omens. If a candle burns with an azure tint it signifies the presence or near approach of a spirit or gnome. A collection of tallow rising against the candlestick is styled a winding sheet and is deemed an omen of death in the family. A spark in the candle denotes that the observer will shortly receive a letter.

Two cambric needles are named on Halloween and skillfully placed in a vessel of water. If they float, swimming side by side, the course of true love runs smooth for those they represent. If they sink both together, or if one sinks and the other floats, the persons named will not marry each other.

A printed alphabet is cut into its individual letters, which are placed in water faces downward. On the morrow the initial letters of the favored opposite will be found reversed.

Peel an apple so that the skin remains in unbroken sequence. Whirl this skin three times around the head so that when released it passes over the left shoulder and falls to the floor, assuming the initial letter of the chosen one’s name.

Many young girls fill their mouth with water on Halloween and walk or run around the block, being careful not to swallow the water or suffer it to escape from the mouth. If a girl succeeds in doing this the first man met on returning home will be her husband.

To ascertain one’s standing with a sweetheart select at random an apple and quarter it, carefully gathering the seeds from the core. According to the number found, the following formula is used: 1. I love; 2. I love; 3. I love, I say; 4. I love with all my heart; 5. I cast away; 6. He loves; 7. She loves; 8. They both love; 9. He comes; 10. He tarries; 11. He courts; 12. He marries; 13. Honor; 14. Riches.

At some of the American colleges for women it is customary to celebrate Halloween with straw rides, games, and an annual sheet and pillowcase party, where the illuminations are grotesque pumpkins containing candles, and where cakes containing mystic rings, beans, and a coin are served with the refreshments.

Source: “Hallowe’en Is Now Here,” Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 31 October 1899.

The New Yorker (2016)

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Chapmanville, Ferrellsburg, Logan

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317 Steak House, Alec Soth, Anthony Adams, Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, Chapmanville, culture, Ferrellsburg, Galen Fletcher, Harts Creek, history, In the Heart of Trump Country, John Hartford, Larissa MacFarquhar, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan County, politics, Squire Sol Adams, West Virginia

John Hartford introduced me to The New Yorker magazine in the mid-1990s. “I need to get you a subscription to The New Yorker,” he told me several times. John had become familiar with the magazine as a youth. His parents were regular subscribers to the magazine; they encouraged him to read it because, they said, it contained the absolute best writing available. John told this story several times and I could tell by the way he retold it that he believed it to be true. In fact, after reading multiple issues (mostly John’s issues at the house, but also complimentary issues I spotted in medical offices), I agreed that, yes, The New Yorker did in fact contain the best writing available. Once I discovered Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, unquestionably the greatest true crime book ever written, and learned The New Yorker had frequently printed Capote’s writing, my love for the magazine became unshakable. For these reasons, and others, I am delighted to have made a small contribution to Larissa MacFarquhar’s story, “In the Heart of Trump Country,” published by The New Yorker on October 10, 2016. The opportunity to contribute to a New Yorker story, much less to appear in The New Yorker, is an honor.

You can read Larissa’s exceptionally well-composed piece by following this link:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/in-the-heart-of-trump-country

Prior to the story, Larissa approached me (and other locals) about her desire to write a piece at least partly involving recent political developments in Logan County, West Virginia. I agreed to assist Larissa in whatever way I could for several reasons: I wanted to welcome her to my section of Appalachia, I wanted to be helpful, I wanted her story to succeed, I wanted her readers to better understand my region, I’m always anxious to discuss my region’s rich history… Larissa and I corresponded via email about general political history in Logan County, then enjoyed a memorable two-and-a-half-hour conversation at 317 Steak House in Logan. I liked her right away. I like her more after reading her story.

Larissa is an accomplished professional writer. You can read more about her impressive credentials by following these links:

http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/larissa-macfarquhar

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/17/larissa-macfarquhar-interview-people-think-im-a-total-freak-for-not-using-the-first-person

https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Drowning-Grappling-Impossible-Overpowering/dp/1594204330

It was likewise pleasurable to meet photographer Alec Soth and his assistant, Galen Fletcher, who visited Logan, Chapmanville, Ferrellsburg, and Harts Creek, in order to capture images pertinent to Larissa’s story. Alec took a few photos of me in Ferrellsburg, one of which ultimately appeared in the story, then spent a hot evening taking a ton of photos at one of my favorite Harts Creek cemeteries (the Anthony Adams Family Cemetery) and a nearby historic log cabin (Squire Sol Adams residence).

You can find out more about Alec by following these links:

http://alecsoth.com/photography/

https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL532_M

He even has a Wikipedia entry!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Soth

These were nice folks. If they ever visit your part of the world, welcome them.

.

Poor Whites (1896)

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Coal, Native American History

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Adirondack Mountains, Allegheny Mountains, Appalachia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Chattanooga, Chattanooga Times, Cherokee, Choctaw, culture, history, Huntington, Huntington Advertiser, indentured servants, Native Americans, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, slavery, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

On July 15, 1896, the Huntington Advertiser of Huntington, West Virginia, printed a story titled “The Poor Whites: Origin of a Distinct Class Living in the South.” Subtitled “The ‘Cracker of the Hills’ is the Direct Descendant of the ‘Sold Passengers’ Who Came to This Country in the Seventeenth Century,” the story initially appeared in the Chattanooga Times of Chattanooga, Tennessee. And here it is:

The notion that the poor white element of the southern Appalachian region is identical with the poor people generally over the country is an error, and an error of enough importance to call for correction. The poor white of the south has some kinfolk in the Adirondack region of New York and the Blue and Alleghany [sic] mountains of Pennsylvania, but he has few relatives any place else about the Mason-Dixon line. The states of New York and Pennsylvania were slave states until the early part of this century.

This poor white mountaineer descends direct from those immigrants who came over in the early days of the colonies; from 1620 to about or some time after the Revolutionary war period, as “sold passengers.” They sold their services for a time sufficient to enable them to work out their passage money. They were sold, articled to masters, in the colonies for their board and fixed wage, and thus they earned the cost of their migration.

The laws under which they were articled were severe, as severe as apprentice laws in those days. The “sold passenger” virtually became the slave of the purchaser of his labor. He could be whipped if he did not do the task set [before] him, and woe to the unlucky wight [sic] if he ran away. He was sure to be caught and cruelly punished.

And though he was usually a descendant of the lowest grade of humanity on the British islands, he still had enough of the Anglo-Saxon spirit about him to make him an unsatisfactory chattel.

From 1620 forward–the year when the Dutch landed the first cargo of African slaves on the continent–the “sold passenger” was fast replaced by negroes, who took more naturally and amiably to the slave life.

The poor white naturally came to cherish a bitter hatred for the blacks that were preferred over him. He already hated his domineering white master. When he was free to go, he put as many miles as his means and his safety from Indian murderers permitted between himself and those he hated and hoped he might never see again. In that early time the mountain region was not even surveyed, let alone owned by individual proprietors.

The English, Scotch, Irish and continental immigrant who had some means sat down on the rich valleys, river bottoms and rolling savannahs, and the poor white was made welcome to the foothills and mountain plateaus.

These descendants of the British villain of the feudal era grew and multiplied, became almost as distinct a people from the lords of the lowlands as the Scotch highlander was, as related to his lowland neighbor, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The stir of the period since the close of our civil war has made somewhat indistinct the line that separates the mountaineer from the plainsman of the south, especially in the foothills and at points where the two have intermingled in traffic, in the schoolhouse and church, and especially where the poor whites have been employed at mining, iron making, etc. But go into the mountains far enough and you will find the types as clear cut as it was 100 years ago, with its inimitable drawling speech and curious dialect, its sallow complexion, lanky frame, lazy habits and immorality–all as distinctly marked as they were when hundreds of these people found Cherokee wives in Georgia and Tennessee in the early part of the century and bleached most of the copper out of the skin of the Choctaw as well as out of the Cherokee.

It is a pity that some competent anthropological historian has not traced the annals of this interesting and distinctive section of our population, and made record of it in the interest of science, no less than in the interest of the proper education and elevation of the mountain people. It has become, especially in the Piedmont section of the south, a most important labor element. The cotton mill labor by thousands comes from the “Cracker of the Hills,” and it is destined o become a great power, that labor population, social and political.

The redemption of the poor white began when slavery went down in blood and destruction, and it has gone on faster and traveled further than some of us think.

Pike County Tourism (2015)

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Lincoln County Feud, Pikeville

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Brandon Kirk, culture, Diggers, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Jenny Wiley Theatre, Kentucky, life, photos, Pike County Tourism, Pikeville, Tony Tackett, tourism

Tony Tackett with BK

Here I am earlier today with Tony Tackett, Pike County (KY) Tourism Director, at Jenny Wiley Theatre in Pikeville, KY. Tony and his associates are unsurpassed in what they do. Many thanks to Tony and Pike County Tourism for inviting me to the Diggers premiere. It was a great time.

Jessie Brumfield cup and saucer (2014)

29 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Harts

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Appalachia, culture, Harts, history, Jessie Brumfield, life, Lincoln County, photos, West Virginia

Jessie Brumfield cup and saucer, Harts, WV, 2014

Jessie Brumfield cup and saucer, Harts, WV, 2014

West Virginia Writers Weekend at Tamarack (2015)

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud

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Beckley, Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Kirk, culture, history, life, photos, Tamarack, tourism, West Virginia, West Virginia Writers Weekend, writers

The book and I will appear at West Virginia Writers Weekend at Tamarack in Beckley, WV, on Saturday, 27 June 2015 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The book and I will appear at West Virginia Writers Weekend at Tamarack in Beckley, WV, on Saturday, 27 June 2015 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy" is available for purchase at Tamarack

“Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy” is available for purchase at Tamarack

Goldenseal magazine (2015)

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Blood in West Virginia, books, Brandon Kirk, culture, Goldenseal, Harts, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, John Lilly, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, magazines, Pelican Publishing Company, West Virginia

Goldenseal magazine's summer edition has offered kind words regarding the book

Goldenseal magazine’s summer edition has featured a small review of the book; thanks to retiring editor, John Lilly

Goldenseal has offered treatments of the Lincoln County Feud in 1986 and 1992

Goldenseal offered treatments of the Lincoln County Feud in 1986 and 1992; Goldenseal helped inspire me to write the book

Memories of Roxie Leana Adkins 3

10 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alpha Adkins, Appalachian Power Company, Arnold Adkins, Big Branch, Caroline Adkins, Carrie Adkins, Clara Francis Adkins, culture, Denver Adkins, Doris Wellmarine Adkins, Emerald Fleming, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Huntington, James "Jim" Dalton, Jennings Adkins, John Adkins, Larrry Adrain Adkins, life, Lincoln County, Logan County, Mud Fork, Roxie Leana Adkins, Switzer, Viola Dalton, West Virginia, Willis Adkins

In 1979, Roxie Leana (Dalton) Adkins, daughter of James and Viola (Tomblin) Dalton, wrote a history of her family, which includes memories of her early life on Harts Creek. Roxie, born in 1904, married Willis Adkins in 1924 and mothered nine children. In the late 1990s, Roxie’s daughter Emerald (Adkins) Fleming gave this history to me.

I got married three years later and started a family of my own. I was married to Willis Adkins, son of John and Caroline Nelson Adkins. I was married May 29, 1924. I started housekeeping in the head of Big Branch right in the woods in a little three room house — a shack — and that was a happy time for it was mine and Willis’ private life and we had each other and I would love to go back to that lowly summer I didn’t have anything to worry about. So that is a big part of my life history and we planted a garden. We had plenty of fruit and berries and peaches, cherries and apples and we had a joy beyond compare for we didn’t have no children. Eighteen months later we had our oldest child, Carrie Adkins. She was born November 30, 1925.

Then we moved to Logan County. Willis worked for Appalachian Power Company at the Logan Plant then he went to the coal mine and we moved from Mud Fork to Switzer, W.Va. and we lived there from November 1926 to May 1927. Then we moved to a lumber camp at Omar, W.Va. We stayed there to March 1928. We moved back to Big Branch and raised a garden and a crop of corn and moved back to the lumber camp in January 1929 and March 28, 1929 our first boy was born: Denver Adkins. We stayed in the lumber camp until September 1929 and moved up Pine Creek to a mine camp.

In October 1929 we moved back to the farm we live on now and rented then and a year later we bought the land off my uncle Ed Dalton and I am still here. I had 7 more kids and put them all through high school and I was very proud of all of them. I tried to see they got good treatment in school. They weren’t rich and they wasn’t the poorest people in our country but I always taught them to be kind to others and to treat their teachers with respect and to always be kind to old and young and do their best to keep all their promises.

My children are Carrie Adkins, born November 30, 1925; Denver Adkins, born March 28, 1929; Alpha Adkins, born August 24, 1931; Jennings Adkins, born April 9, 1934; Emerald Adkins, born February 13, 1937; Arnold Adkins, born February 17, 1940; Clara Francis Adkins, born August 26, 1942; Doris Wellmarine Adkins, born June 15, 1945; and Larry Adrain Adkins, born March 17, 1948. Well, I had four boys and five girls and all the boys served in the armed forces and my oldest is still in the federal government and is somewhere in the overseas countries and I don’t know but trust that God does.

I am now 75 years old. My husband passed away June 9, 1968. I was 64 years old and I am still in my own home. If it be the Lord’s will, I will live in this same house until I go. My children all got married and had families. Denver doesn’t have any children and one of my boys — Arnold Adkins — was killed by a train in Huntington in 1966. He had a wife and two children and was expecting the third and I trust they will be as honest and respectful as he always was. He had a host of friends.

Well, this is about all I can write for now.

Enos “Jake” Adkins clock (2015)

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ferrellsburg

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Appalachia, clock, culture, Enos "Jake" Adkins, Ferrellsburg, Guyandotte River, history, life, Lincoln County, photos, riverboats, U.S. South, West Virginia

Enos "Jake" Adkins clock. Jake Adkins (1825-1907) purchased this clock and a barrel of dishes when it came up the Guyan to Ferrellsburg, WV.

Enos “Jake” Adkins clock. Jake Adkins (1825-1907) purchased this clock and a barrel of dishes from a riverboat that came up the Guyan to Ferrellsburg, WV.

The Life of Pioneers 12

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek

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Appalachia, Belle Dora Adams, culture, Daisy Adams, history, Howard Adams, Logan County, Major Adams, U.S. South, West Virginia

This history of early life in Logan County, West Virginia, was written by Howard and Daisy Adams. Howard (1906-1976) and Daisy (b.1915) were children of Major and Belle Dora Adams of Trace Fork of Harts Creek. Titled “The life of pioneers during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th century” and written in the late 1960s or early 1970s, their history marks the only known attempt by local people to reconstruct the story of pioneer life. This final part of the history includes information regarding sugar-making.

So the time of year for sugar making has arrived. You see, the sugar and syrup supplied on the farm came from big sugar maple trees. This operation began usually in the early spring and lasted about 30 days. First the trees had to be tapped. To do this a large 2 inch auger was used to bore holes at a 45 degree angle downward in the tree or if no auger was available deep cup like notches were cut in the trees with an ax. Then a small auger was used to bore holes slanting upward into the holes made by boring with larger auger or ax. Now a little hollow piece of wood called a spline was needed. To get this elder bushes were used. A piece about a foot long with the ___ removed forming a pipe. This was driven up ___ in the small holes in the tree. he spline extended out from the tree far enough to reach buckets or troughs. The juice from the trees poured out through the splines into the troughs. The troughs were made by cutting down a buckeye or basswood tree about 16 inches in diameter and sawing in block about 3 feet long. These blocks were splint in halves and each half or the flat side chopped or dug out as it was called. A foot adz was used for this operation. These troughs, which held at least 5 gallons were placed under the splines in trees to catch the sap or juice. They usually had 75 to 100 trees tapped. Several large kettles were set in rock and clay furnaces. Also the molasses pan was used, too. The sugar water or juice from the trees was carried and poured in these kettles and the evaporator pan. Fires were built and it was boiled in to syrup and sugar. Boy, this took a lot of work and long hours. I’ve heard Granny tell many times about sugar making time. I have eaten some of this sugar and syrup and it was sure good. Even if the old pioneer lived a hard life I’ll say one thing: He sure had better food than we have now.

Enoch Baker

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Lincoln County Feud, Timber

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Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Canada, culture, Enoch Baker, genealogy, history, Lincoln County Feud, logging, Nova Scotia, photos, timbering

Enoch Baker (center), a timber boss on Harts Creek in West Virginia during the 1880s

Enoch Baker (center), a timber boss on Harts Creek in West Virginia during the 1880s

The Adkins Family

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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Appalachia, banjo, Blood in West Virginia, Cain Adkins, culture, East Lynn, Gospel, guitar, Harts Creek, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, music, Spicie Frye, Stiltner, The Adkins Family, U.S. South, Wayne County, West Fork, West Virginia

The Adkins Family, operating out of Wayne County, West Virginia, is one of the Tri-State’s most talented, well-known, and enduring Gospel groups. You can read more about their musical history here: http://theadkinsfamily.waynewv.com/ I’m proud to say their ancestors once lived on the West Fork of Harts Creek in Lincoln County. I met many of them while researching my book, “Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy,” which details some of their family’s rich history. I encourage you to follow their Facebook page. If you enjoy Gospel music, you will not be disappointed. This is one amazing group of musicians. https://www.facebook.com/TheAdkinsFamilyGroup

The McCoy Time Singers

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in East Lynn, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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Appalachia, Charles Bernard McCoy, culture, East Lynn, genealogy, Gladys Richardson Adkins, guitar, history, Lincoln County Feud, music, photos, Raymond McCoy, Sherman McCoy, Spicy Fry, Stiltner, The McCoy Time Singers, Wayne County, West Virginia

The McCoy Time Singers (l-r) of Wayne County, WV: Spicy Fry, Charles Bernard McCoy, Raymond McCoy, and Sherman McCoy

The McCoy Time Singers (l-r) of Wayne County, WV: Spicy Fry, Charles Bernard McCoy, Raymond McCoy, and Sherman McCoy

The Life of Pioneers 10

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek

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Appalachia, Belle Dora Adams, culture, Daisy Adams, farming, Harts Creek, history, Howard Adams, hunting, life, Logan County, Major Adams, West Virginia

This history of early life in Logan County, West Virginia, was written by Howard and Daisy Adams. Howard (1906-1976) and Daisy (b.1915) were children of Major and Belle Dora Adams of Trace Fork of Harts Creek. Titled “The life of pioneers during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th century” and written in the late 1960s or early 1970s, their history marks the only known attempt by local people to reconstruct the story of pioneer life. This part of the history includes information regarding fall food preparation, the making of molasses, and hunting.

In the late summer and fall months, people were kept busy preparing and putting up or canning food for winter. Vegetables were pickled berries, picked and canned through the summer and fall. Corn and beans were pickled by cooking and putting in a big barrel. Salt was added and a good lid put on the barrel to keep out rats and insects. Boy, these were good in winter. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and plums were gathered and canned from the orchard, which had been set out earlier.

Now that good old molasses making took place. First, large stacks of wood were prepared and dried. Now the cane had to be cut and the blades pulled off or stripped and the heads cut off. Now a furnace built and an evaporator pan set on the furnace. A machine with cogs and wheels and a long crooked pole on top with a horse or mule pulling the pole round and round: this was called a cane mill. You see, as the mule went around the stalks of cane were put in between two or three big rollers set close together and the juice squeezed out of the stalks. The juice was caught in a big tub and then transferred to the big pan to be boiled into sorghum. I liked to lick sorghum from a paddle swiped through the molasses pan. Everybody had a good time at “lassy makin’ time,” even though it was hard work.

Cushaws, squashes and pumpkin were gathered into the cellar or crib. Corn gathering was done by pulling corn of the stalks some time it had been cut and shocked up. It was hauled into the crib with mules or horses or cattle.

Now that everything was gathered in, a little pleasure followed. Squirrel , rabbit, quail, pheasant, and coon and possum hunting was done by most all the pioneers. They obtained lots of their meat supply by hunting wild game. Some folks hunted animals for their skins, which were sold, bringing in a little cash.

The Life of Pioneers 8

06 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Spottswood

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Appalachia, Belle Dora Adams, culture, Daisy Adams, farming, Harts Creek, history, Howard Adams, life, Logan County, Major Adams, Trace Fork, U.S. South, West Virginia

This history of early life in Logan County, West Virginia, was written by Howard and Daisy Adams. Howard (1906-1976) and Daisy (b.1915) were children of Major and Belle Dora Adams of Trace Fork of Harts Creek. Titled “The life of pioneers during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th century” and written in the late 1960s or early 1970s, their history marks the only known attempt by local people to reconstruct the story of pioneer life. This part of the history includes information regarding hogs and the smoke house.

The hogs furnished the main meat supply. Most farmers let their hogs run loose out on the mast as they called it till late fall. Nuts were plentiful in those days. Around the last of November some of the largest hogs were called in and put up in a floored pen with a big trough placed inside the pen so the hogs could be watered and fed often. They were fed plenty of corn till around Christmas. Then they were butchered or killed for meat.

Hog killing time was a lot of fun and good eating. It began with the hogs being well fattened as they called it. Some big kettles were set in a furnace and filled with water, then a fire was built around the kettles to heat the water. Firewood was plentiful and they sure used a lot of it. A large barrel was set down in the ground about 2 feet. The barrel was tilted over to about a 45 degree angle. Next a board platform was made around 6 feet square. It was moved up till it touched the barrel. Now a hog was either shot or hit in the head with a hammer. Either way it was killed neat. A butcher knife was plunged in the hog’s neck, the point of the knife touching the heart. Now after the hog had bled most all of the blood out of it they dragged him up on the platform before the barrel. Now the hot water from the kettles was poured in the scalding barrel, then the hog would be pushed into the barrel by men and rolled over a time or two. Now they changed ends, with the hog scalding the whole hog. Well, the hair was scraped off with big knives. Now he was hanged up about 6 feet on some object. A stick called a gammor stick, which was about 2 feet long and 2 inches in diameter sharp on both ends, it was struck through the _____ of the hind legs of hog. This held him up while the intestines were removed by splitting the hog down his belly. Now some folks come from a long way just to roast the kidneys and _____. Next Mr. Hog was carried to the smoke house, laid on a heavy table and cut up as they called it.

First after the hog was laid on the cutting table its feet and head were cut off neat all the lean meat was cut out for making sausage. A lot of the fat was cut out for rendering lard. Now the 2 hams and 2 shoulders were cut off, leaving 2 big middlings. Now the pieces were carried in the smoke house, salted, and stacked in a big trough that had been made from a large log being chopped or dug out with a tool called a foot adz and axe. This trough was made to hold the pork. Now the meat had to be hung and smoked so a lot of hickory limbs about the size of your big finger and 3 feet long with a fork on the big end, these were tied to form a loop. These loops were slipped over poles laid on the joist in the smoke house. Now the meat had holes cut in it and the meat was hooked to the loop on the joist. Now for smoking: A fire made from green hickory wood was built on the ground under the meat so the smoke filtered up through the meat and it got smoked in the process. After it had been smoked several weeks it was taken down and sprinkled and covered with a mixture of black pepper, sugar, ashes, saltpeter, etc. Now it was again stacked in the big trough and covered up to keep out rats, mice, etc. Boy it was good eatin’.

The smoke house was also used to keep meat, a barrel of flour, a barrel of salt, a can of lard, and I remember we always kept a pair of old scales to weight farm products on. Also the family weighed each other to see who was the heaviest. Boy, this smoke house took a lot of paper and time but it played an important part in the lives of the pioneers.

The Life of Pioneers 4

05 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek

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Appalachia, Belle Dora Adams, culture, Daisy Adams, Harts Creek, history, Howard Adams, life, Logan County, Major Adams, Trace Fork, U.S. South, West Virginia

This history of early life in Logan County, West Virginia, was written by Howard and Daisy Adams. Howard (1906-1976) and Daisy (b.1915) were children of Major and Belle Dora Adams of Trace Fork of Harts Creek. Titled “The life of pioneers during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th century” and written in the late 1960s or early 1970s, their history marks the only known attempt by local people to reconstruct the story of pioneer life. This part of the history includes information regarding the well and bathing.

To get the water supply, a large hole was dug in the earth down till water was reached. Then a flat rock wall was made around the edge of the well to keep the dirt from falling in and filling up. Also the rocks kept the water clean and clear. Some folks had springs nearby from which they got their water. To get the water from a well a large post 12 or 15 feet high with forks on the top of it was set in the ground near the well. Then a long pole about 30 feet long was laid up in the fork of the post and a pin put through forks and pole. It worked as a swivel or pivot and was called a well sweep or ______. These words were not found in any dictionary. They were pioneer slang and to convey messages or to tell the idea to each other.

Back to getting the water out of the well. A long wire, chain, rope, or grapevine was tied on top of the pivot pole and the bottom end of the rope was tied to a oaken bucket. The bucket was made of oak staves and hoops or bands. The bucket was lowered in the well by pulling down the pivot pole. When the bucket was filled with water the pole or pivot drew the water up out of the well. So that was one way of getting water. It always worked too. Some pioneers had a wheel called a pulley with a chain or rope run through it and a bucket on each end of rope so you lowered one bucket in the well to be filled with water, then you pulled water up by hand at the same time lowering the other empty bucket.

Bathrooms were unheard of in those days. So to get a bath you put water in a big kettle, heated it with firewood, then poured the water in a big trough made from a big log that had been chopped out, or dug out as they said, which formed a basin for holding water. Then in you got and washed off, as it was called. If they did not have a trough or big tub for a bath, they just went down to the creek to the old swimming hole and stripped off all clothes and got in and washed off. Boy, I bet there were lots of peeping Toms in those days.

Alderson B. Rutherford

01 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Fourteen, Ranger

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Alderson B. Rutherford, culture, genealogy, history, Laurel Hill District, life, Lincoln County, photos, West Virginia

Alderson B. Rutherford, resident of Laurel Hill District, Lincoln County, WV

Alderson B. Rutherford (born c.1880), resident of Laurel Hill District, Lincoln County, WV

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If you had lived in the Harts Creek community during the 1880s, to which faction of feudists might you have given your loyalty?

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