• About

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: Cumberland Mountains

History for Jenkins, KY (1928)

04 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Coal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Appalachia, Big Sandy River, C&O Railroad, coal, Consolidation Coal Company, Cumberland Mountains, Devil John Wright, Devil Judd Tolliver, Hazard Herald, history, James A Garfield, Jenkins, John Fox Jr., John W. Wright, Kentucky, Kentucky River, Letcher County, Little Elkhorn Creek, Little Shepherd Amphitheatre, Logan Banner, Nick Dann, photos, Pound Gap, Rocky Branch, Shelby, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Virginia, West Virginia

Here is a bit of history for Jenkins, Kentucky, based on a newspaper account provided in 1928:

IMG_7109.JPG

Welcome to Jenkins! 26 August 2018.

Nestling in the valley of the Little Elkhorn, within “a stone’s throw” of the famous Pound Gap, is Jenkins, one of the few great mining towns of the world. The term “mining camp” cannot rightly be used when speaking of Jenkins, because it is not a “camp” in any sense of the word, but rather a city built by the great Consolidation Coal Company for the accommodation of its thousands of employees.

IMG_7106.JPG

Little Shepherd Amphitheatre. 26 August 2018.

Never was a city planned more carefully, says the Hazard (Ky.) Herald. The men in charge of the construction work were chosen from the top of their respective professions, and the building of the plant was carried out to a plan with the health, safety, education, sanitation, convenience and enjoyment of life by the miners, as its chief object cost was a very secondary consideration.

IMG_5964.JPG

Devil John Wright, dubbed Devil Judd Tolliver by John Fox, Jr. in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Photo credit unknown.

Twenty years ago this spot was a wild mountain farm, owned by that famous mountaineer, John W. Wright. His home, a hewn log affair, stood near where the Methodist church has since been erected. For miles in every direction the unbroken forest swept away over hill and down valley, some of which had slept undisturbed since the beginning of time.

IMG_7121.JPG

St. George Catholic Church. 26 August 2018.

The mountaineers, on their seldom made visits to this wild region, would look up at the rugged mountains, like giant sentinels guarding the gates of another world, and wonder, what good could ever come of such a land. At night, the few settlers were lulled to sleep by the hoot owl’s call and awakened in the morning by the yelp of the fox.

IMG_7108.JPG

This way to Little Shepherd Amphitheatre. 26 August 2018.

Then one day news spread over the hills that Wright had disposed of his lands and that a great town was about to be built by some men from “away off yonder.” Surveying parties were camped on the Kentucky river, and along Elkhorn. Railroads were pushing into the hills from the east and west. Farmers, on their way to mill or meeting, would stop and ask questions of the engineers, learn all they could of the town that “they had heard was going to be” and then hurry home to toll the news to their neighbors, adding to the story until it becomes a fanciful fairy tale.

Jenkins KY

Jenkins. Photo credit unknown.

The roars of explosives soon were heard for many miles, children at first would run screaming to their mother [illegible line] skirts asking to be told what it was they had heard “away over yonder,” while old women smoked their pipes and wondered if “Garfield was coming up the Sandy again.”

IMG_7123.JPG

Jenkins Post Office. 26 August 2018.

Coming into wild, rugged country like the head of Elkhorn, and laying off and building a city was a feat worthy of the greatest engineering skill, and that was the sort employed by the Consolidation Company.

The nearest railroad was still miles away. Everything needed in construction must be freighted across the Cumberlands, over roads almost impassable by wagon. For 12 months preparation for this gigantic plant went on before the actual construction work began. Roads were graded across the mountain by Pound Gap and a lumbering concern was induced to build their narrow gauge railroad from Glomorgan to Rocky Branch, leaving only about five miles that supplies must be transported by wagon freight. The Pound Gap country was a beehive of activity. Freighters were so numerous on the road that it took the best part of a day to make the trip from Jenkins to Rocky Branch and return. Every few yards the driver would be forced to turn out so that another could pass.

IMG_9322.JPG

Consolidation Coal Company Meat Market. Photo credit unknown.

Hundreds of carpenters, masons and helpers were at work building houses. The houses they constructed were of a type foreign to the coal fields across the mountains in Virginia. A giant power plant was built, the water of Elkhorn were harnesses to create the power to run the greatest mining plant in the south. The dam built across the stream has formed one of the most beautiful lakes in America, it has been stocked with fish and lined with row boats for the recreation of the coal miners and their families.

IMG_7122.JPG

Jenkins. 26 August 2018.

Every home was built for convenience and comfort. Sanitation was provided and each house was wired for electricity. Word went out into the mining camps close by in Virginia that the “Jenkins company” would not tolerate kerosene lamps in their houses and required that their employees use electricity for illumination. These “other camps” were forced to remodel their plants in keeping with the pattern on which the great Consolidation plant was built, until today, the old order has been replaced with the new throughout Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky: thanks to the lead of the Consolidation Coal Company.

IMG_7112.JPG

Jenkins. 26 August 2018.

Jenkins is well lighted; has an excellent water system; fire department and paved streets in the business section. Many beautiful homes line the handsome drive, skirting the lake. These, unlike the ordinary mining town houses, are set well back from the driveway in park like lawns, well shaded with grand old oaks and other native trees.

Some of the most substantial business buildings to be found in the Cumberland region are here in Jenkins. Among these are the recreation building, housing a drug store, hotel, post office, Western Union office, barber shop, pool room, printing office, and drink stand. The First national Bank building is the most beautiful building in Letcher county; vine-clad with clinging ivy gives it the appearance of having grown there.

IMG_7114

Jenkins Dept. 26 August 2018.

The most widely known business institutions in Jenkins are the Consolidation Coal Company store, the First National bank, the Jenkins Steam Laundry, the Modern Pressing Shop, Nick Dann’s Auto Sales and Repair Shop, and the numerous businesses housed under the roof of the mammoth recreation building. The town is on the Kentucky state highway and is served by the C. & O. railroad system from Shelby junction.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 2 October 1928.

Whirlwind News 04.05.1927

09 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Holden, Whirlwind

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Appalachia, Bernie Adams, Boyd Carter, Buck Fork, Charley Mullins, Chick Dingess, Cumberland Mountains, Ewell Mullins, Florence Adams, Fred Carter, genealogy, guitar, Harmon Carter, Harts Creek, Hendersonville, history, Holden, Hoover Fork, Horatio Adams, Howard Adams, Hubert Adams, Ireland Mullins, James Thompson, Jesse Carter, Julia Tomblin, Kentucky, Lewis Maynard, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mae Robinson, Millard Thompson, music, Peter Carter, Peter Mullins, Peter Tomblin, Sallie Bunn, Trace Fork, Twelve Pole Creek, West Virginia, Whirlwind, whooping cough

An unknown correspondent from Whirlwind in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on April 5, 1927:

The Bible school on Trace Fork is progressing nicely and is conducted by Rev. Ratio Adams and Peter Mullins.

Hubert Adams of Holden was visiting relatives on Hoover recently.

Howard Adams and Charley Mullins were visiting Peter Tomblin of Twelve Pole Saturday.

James Thompson and Miss Julia Tomblin were united in marriage on Buck Fork recently. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are planning a honeymoon trip to the Cumberland Mountains and points in Eastern Kentucky.

Millard Thompson was visiting friends on Harts Creek Monday.

Ezra Farley made a flying trip to Lewis Maynard’s Sunday.

The home of Boyd Carter at Hendersonville was destroyed by fire Monday afternoon.

Chick Dingess was a visitor to Jesse Carter last Sunday.

Ireland Mullins was calling on Miss Sallie Bunn of Hoover Sunday.

Harmon Carter of Buck Fork was calling on Miss Mae Robinson Sunday.

Things seen daily: Philip going to see Aunt Minnie; Howard going to Mollie’s; Florence and her pipe; Bernie and his guitar; Clinton and his whooping cough; Mollie and her forty four; Peter and Fred Carter making toothpicks; Wilburn and his boots; Ewell watching for a car to come up Trace.

Recollections of the Civil War in Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia (1862)

20 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Civil War

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Appalachia, civil war, Confederate Army, Cumberland Mountains, David Stuart Hounshell, E.H. Perry, From Youth to Old Age, history, James Stephens, John B. Floyd, Kentucky, King Salt Works, Louis Bledsoe, Prestonsburg, slavery, Thomas H. Perry, Virginia

About 1910, Rev. Thomas H. Perry reflected on his long life, most of which was spent in the vicinity of Tylers Creek in Cabell County, West Virginia. In this excerpt from his autobiography, Mr. Perry recalled his participation in Civil War activity in eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia.

After the night fight, above Prestonsburg, we knew the Federals were above us and we would have to fight if we ever got back to Dixie. The cold weather and deep snow and timber across the road and Federals to contend with, we moved very slowly. One morning we stopped, as I thought for breakfast, and as I was almost frozen I rejoiced because I thought we will all get warm and some beef, as I saw one man shoot down a cow. But just at that time the Federals run in our pickets and began shooting at us, but I was so hungry I ran to the cow and cut two or three pounds out of the hind-quarter and took it with me. We ran about one mile and there we saw Colonel Hounshal’s regiment in battle line, who held the Federals off us until we could get our breakfast. I took my beef without salt and put it on the end of my ramrod and held it to the fire and cooked an ate it, and it was good.

The next day my company was the rear guard and it was reported to the captain that the Federals had got between us and our command. The captain said: “Men, we will have to fight or we will be taken prisoners.” There was a preacher with us that day. He said: “Captain, I did not intend to fight, but rather than be a prisoner I will fight. Give me a gun.” When I saw him shoulder his gun, it did me good. I thought if a preacher could fight it was not bad for me to fight, as I was only a prospective preacher.

One very cold night I was detailed on the outer picket post, the orderly said: “You can not have fire as they are likely to slip upon you and shoot you.” I said to the orderly: “I cannot stand it without fire.” I thought I would freeze to death. The orderly said: “I cannot excuse you.” Just at that time Louis Bledsoe said to the orderly he could stand more cold than Perry could and he would go in my place and I could go in his place some other time. Never did I forget the kindness Mr. Bledsoe showed me that night.

When we were within fifteen miles of the Cumberland mountains, our army cattle, prisoners and all we had was on one creek; that creek led to the main road across the mountains into Dixie. On either side of this creek, the mountains were high and very rough and covered with snow. The Federals cut timber across the creek above us, and had a strong army below us, and held us here three days and would have captured us and all we had if General Floyd had not come with his artillery and drove the Federals away from the head of the creek, and let us out. The first night after we crossed the mountain into Dixie, E.H. Perry, one of my brothers came to my captain’s tent and said: “Captain, are my brothers all here?” He said: “Yes.” Then my brother exclaimed: “Thank the Lord for that.” Never will I forget the tone of my brother’s voice that night for he knew we had been gone for forty-one days, and it was by the hardest work that we landed back in Dixie.

Once more after this we went into winter quarters near the King Salt works, and they sent me to a farm house to nurse three sick soldiers. We had a large nice room, well furnished and the landlord was rich and good to us. He and his good wife would help me in waiting on the sick; he furnished us with everything we could ask for to eat. We stayed there more than three months. I saw in the beginning that I would not have much to do, and as I had the money and there was a book store at that place, I bought a complete set of school books and studied them hard that winter and it did me good. It helped me to keep down the roughness of a soldier’s life, and also to educate. Along the back yard there was a row of one-story brick buildings in which the negroes lived. Some nights I would go and hear them tell ghost stories, and they knew how to tell them for they had seen a great many ghosts. I deny superstition, but I noticed when these negroes had told me some of the most fearful ghost stories, if it was a very dark night I would ask some of them to go apart of the way home with me.

Mr. James Stephens, one of my patients, died; the other two got well. We left that place about the first of May. I saw then that the south could not gain her independence, and I told these negroes I thought they would soon be free and advised them to learn to read and write. I talked with a good many old men in the south about the war. They said they should have raised the “Old Flag” and contended for the constitution, and as for slavery, they said it was dying out in the south anyway.

Source: From Youth to Old Age by T.H. Perry, Chapter 8, p. 20-22.

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?

Categories

  • Adkins Mill
  • African American History
  • American Revolutionary War
  • Ashland
  • Atenville
  • Banco
  • Barboursville
  • Battle of Blair Mountain
  • Beech Creek
  • Big Creek
  • Big Harts Creek
  • Big Sandy Valley
  • Big Ugly Creek
  • Boone County
  • Breeden
  • Calhoun County
  • Cemeteries
  • Chapmanville
  • Civil War
  • Clay County
  • Clothier
  • Coal
  • Cove Gap
  • Crawley Creek
  • Culture of Honor
  • Dingess
  • Dollie
  • Dunlow
  • East Lynn
  • Ed Haley
  • Eden Park
  • Enslow
  • Estep
  • Ferrellsburg
  • Fourteen
  • French-Eversole Feud
  • Gilbert
  • Giles County
  • Gill
  • Green Shoal
  • Guyandotte River
  • Halcyon
  • Hamlin
  • Harts
  • Hatfield-McCoy Feud
  • Holden
  • Hungarian-American History
  • Huntington
  • Inez
  • Irish-Americans
  • Italian American History
  • Jamboree
  • Jewish History
  • John Hartford
  • Kermit
  • Kiahsville
  • Kitchen
  • Leet
  • Lincoln County Feud
  • Little Harts Creek
  • Logan
  • Man
  • Matewan
  • Meador
  • Midkiff
  • Monroe County
  • Montgomery County
  • Music
  • Native American History
  • Peach Creek
  • Pearl Adkins Diary
  • Pecks Mill
  • Peter Creek
  • Pikeville
  • Pilgrim
  • Poetry
  • Queens Ridge
  • Ranger
  • Rector
  • Roane County
  • Rowan County Feud
  • Salt Rock
  • Sand Creek
  • Shively
  • Spears
  • Sports
  • Spottswood
  • Spurlockville
  • Stiltner
  • Stone Branch
  • Tazewell County
  • Timber
  • Tom Dula
  • Toney
  • Turner-Howard Feud
  • Twelve Pole Creek
  • Uncategorized
  • Warren
  • Wayne
  • West Hamlin
  • Wewanta
  • Wharncliffe
  • Whirlwind
  • Williamson
  • Women's History
  • World War I
  • Wyoming County
  • Yantus

Feud Poll 2

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

Blogroll

  • Ancestry.com
  • Ashland (KY) Daily Independent News Article
  • Author FB page
  • Beckley (WV) Register-Herald News Article
  • Big Sandy News (KY) News Article
  • Blood in West Virginia FB
  • Blood in West Virginia order
  • Chapters TV Program
  • Facebook
  • Ghosts of Guyan
  • Herald-Dispatch News Article 1
  • Herald-Dispatch News Article 2
  • In Search of Ed Haley
  • Instagram
  • Lincoln (WV) Journal News Article
  • Lincoln (WV) Journal Thumbs Up
  • Lincoln County
  • Lincoln County Feud
  • Lincoln County Feud Lecture
  • LinkedIn
  • Logan (WV) Banner News Article
  • Lunch With Books
  • Our Overmountain Men: The Revolutionary War in Western Virginia (1775-1783)
  • Pinterest
  • Scarborough Society's Art and Lecture Series
  • Smithsonian Article
  • Spirit of Jefferson News Article
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 1
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 2
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 3
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 4
  • The New Yorker
  • The State Journal's 55 Good Things About WV
  • 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

  • Sheriff Joe D. Hatfield, Son of Devil Anse (1962)
  • The C&O Shops at Peach Creek, WV (1974)
  • Map: Southwestern West Virginia (1918-1919)

Ed Haley Poll 1

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

Top Posts & Pages

  • Adkins-McCoy family of Stiltner, WV
  • Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant Location in New York City (2019)
  • Melvin Butcher family
  • The Smoke House Restaurant in Logan, WV (1927)
  • Hatfield-McCoy Feud: Ellison Hatfield Grave at Newtown, WV (2019)

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.

Archives

  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,752 other subscribers

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

  • Follow Following
    • Brandon Ray Kirk
    • Join 754 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Brandon Ray Kirk
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...