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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

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Feud Poll 1

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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Feud Poll 2

Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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  • tumblr.
  • Twitter
  • Website
  • Weirton (WV) Daily Times Article
  • Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer News Article 1
  • Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer News Article 2
  • WOWK TV
  • Writers Can Read Open Mic Night

Feud Poll 3

Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

Recent Posts

  • Absentee Landowners of Magnolia District (1886, 1889)
  • Elias Hatfield Indictment for Unlawful Retailing (1889)
  • Significant Tracts in Magnolia District (1886-1889)

Ed Haley Poll 1

What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

Top Posts & Pages

  • Civil War Gold Coins Hidden Near Chapmanville, WV
  • About
  • Interview of Jean Hatfield at Sarah Ann, WV (2001), Part 1
  • Baisden Family Troubles
  • Elias Hatfield Indictment for Unlawful Retailing (1889)

Copyright

© Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com, 1987-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Tags

Appalachia Ashland Big Creek Big Ugly Creek Blood in West Virginia Brandon Kirk Cabell County cemeteries Chapmanville Charleston civil war coal Confederate Army crime culture Ed Haley Ella Haley Ferrellsburg feud fiddler fiddling genealogy Green McCoy Guyandotte River Harts Harts Creek Hatfield-McCoy Feud history Huntington John Hartford Kentucky Lawrence Haley life Lincoln County Lincoln County Feud Logan Logan Banner Logan County Milt Haley Mingo County music Ohio photos timbering U.S. South Virginia Wayne County West Virginia Whirlwind writing

Blogs I Follow

  • OtterTales
  • Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC
  • Piedmont Trails
  • Truman Capote
  • Appalachian Diaspora

BLOOD IN WEST VIRGINIA is now available for order at Amazon!

Blog at WordPress.com.

OtterTales

Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain

Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

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

Piedmont Trails

Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

Truman Capote

A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century

Appalachian Diaspora

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