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Jerry “Dad” Crowley: Logan’s Irish Repairman (1937)

02 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by in Huntington, Irish-Americans, Logan

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From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about J.E. “Dad” Crowley, a familiar Irish repairman, in 1937:

J.E. “Dad” Crowley Here Since 1884 As Repairman

Ninety-Year-Old Irishman Worked on Sewing Machines In Brazil, England, Ireland, Wales and Canada; Never Sick A Day

This will be the first time that Jerry E. “Dad” Crowley’s name has been in a newspaper.

Not that Dad doesn’t have an interesting story to tell, but just because no one ever “discovered” him before. (Dad has never been in jail, either, though he has walked twice across the continent and calls himself a “tramp.”)

Dad Crowley, 90-year-old sewing machine repairman who has been working spasmodically in Logan county since 1884, was born in Syracuse, New York, member of a family of 14 children.

During the 90 years since the time of his birth he has walked twice across the United States, gone across the continent more than 100 times by rail and has repaired sewing machines in Brazil, Wales, England, Canada, and Ireland.

Dad says he has never been sick more than a half day in his life, has had only one contagious illness, has never taken a drop of medicine to date and up to now has had no ache or pain more serious than a toothache or a corn.

His only illness was whooping cough. He had this affliction at Marietta, Ohio, when he was 76 years old.

“I guess the Master just figured I was entering my second childhood and had better give me something to remind me of the fact,” Dad said with a chuckle.

“I just whooped ‘er out, though. No doctor, no medicine, no thing.”

“Dad” says he’s not bothered with any aches or pains now.

“I haven’t any teeth no, so—toothache won’t bother me, and my feet are so battered up that a pain there wouldn’t be noticeable.”

When asked how many miles he believed he had walked during his 90 years, the leathery, little Irishman—he’s “Shelalaigh Irish” and proud of it—rattled off the figure of 23, 367, 798, 363 miles without a blink of the eye, then later admitted that “I lost track of mileage after the first 20 billion miles.”

Dad declared that in his first and last job of work that he held for a person other than for himself he walked more than 10,000 miles.

He was operator of a treadmill for a Syracuse citizen named Hamilton from whom he learned the mechanism of the sewing machine, thus making it possible for him later to be independent of all bosses.

The whitehaired old chap repaired his first sewing machine on the Mounts farm in Mount Gay in 1884 when he first came into this section of West Virginia from Huntington.

Since that time during his intermittent visits to Logan county he has canvassed nearly every home here and has worked on many of the sewing machines in the county.

Dad is a close friend of the Murphys who operate a restaurant and poolroom on Stratton street. He affectionately calls Mrs. Murphy “Mom” because he thinks she looks like his mother, who died when he was only two years old.

Dad can be found at Murphy’s Restaurant any afternoon when the baseball scores are coming in. Baseball next to repairing sewing machines, is his consuming passion. One will find Dad wearing a cap on his graying locks, smiling broadly and ever ready to spin a yarn or talk baseball.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 1 July 1937

Chief Logan (1937)

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by in American Revolutionary War, Guyandotte River, Native American History

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From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history for Chief Logan, printed in 1937:

Family of Chief Logan Was Brutally Murdered After Battle of Pt. Pleasant

Chief Logan, the Cayuga Indian leader who was an important figure in the Indian Confederation in the early days of the Revolutionary war and for whom the city of Logan was named, was an instrument in the hands of Governor Dunmore, appointed by the English Parliament to conduct the affairs of the 13 colonies.

The family of Chief Logan was brutally murdered soon after the battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, in order to incite to new acts of murder and rapine the Indians whose order for fighting the courageous white settler was beginning to wane.

In the Battle of Point Pleasant the Indian Confederacy, commanded by Chief Cornstalk faced the white settlers under General Andrew Lewis and got a taste of the treatment they might expect in event England and the Colonies went to war with themselves on the side of the mother country.

Dr. Connelly, a deputy of Governor Dunmore, realized that the Indian desire for white scalps was somewhat satiated by the battle of Point Pleasant and the tribes were once gain becoming interested in their everyday life of hunting and shing. In order to offset this feeling of contentment, Dr. Connelly employed the English trader named Greathouse to incite the Indians to new acts of bloodshed.

Trader Greathouse knew of the popularity of the Cayuga chief Logan and rightly judged that an injustice done him would be an injustice to the majority of the tribes of the Confederacy.

Greathouse well-versed in the Indian situation west of the Alleghenies set out to the greatest harm to the Indians in the shortest time and chose the family of Chief Logan as the best possible victims of a white man’s outrage, knowing full well that Dr. Connelly had chosen a colonist well-known to the Indians to hold the “bag.”

The trader, posing as a representative of the English government, gained admittance to Chief Logan’s camp deep in the wilds of the Alleghenies while the latter was away on a hunting expedition. At an opportune moment when he knew that he would not be detected, Greathouse entered Chief Logan’s family circle of tepees and murdered the squaw and the Chief’s favorite children.

When the outrage was discovered by the braves, Greathouse, by instruction from Connelly, told of seeing a white Army officer’s horse near the camp that night before but though it to be of a courier. The unsuspecting braves took the explanation as good and allowed Greathouse to leave soon afterward.

Chief Logan returned from his hunting trip, found his family murdered and demanded retribution from the English.

Dr. Connelly definitely fixed the murder on a Captain Cresap, who at the time of the slaying was at his home in Maryland.

This, however, was enough for Chief Logan. A colonist, a member of the paleface band with whom a treaty had been made following the battle of Point Pleasant, had violated the trust. He returned to his Confederacy and began the work that Governor had anticipated.

The Indian tribes began new raids on the white settlers homes in the West and sufficiently retarded organization of a settlers’ regiment to allow Dunmore to make new inroads on the angry colonists in the East who were laying plans which culminated in the rebellion in 1776.

Dunmore’s strategy triumphed and probably held up the Revolution for at least a year.

Logan (WV) Banner, 19 April 1937

***

Life of Chief Logan Is An Interesting Narrative

Indian Chief Was Peaceful Until Massacre Of Family At Pt. Pleasant Changed Him To A Veritable Devil; Father Was French

Logan, chief of the Mingos, stands out as a romantic figure in the history of Indian warfare of this section.

His was a tragic role player on the shifting stage of border warfare between the white settlers who were attempting to penetrate the “wilderness” and the Indian tribes who were attempting to cling to their priority rights in this section before being pushed farther westward to the plains.

Logan was his place in history as an orator as well as a famed Indian warrior.

He was a true friend of the white man until, through the machinations of the English in an effort to incite the Indians to further bloodshed, his family was killed by a treacherous white trader named Greathouse.

Logan’s father was a French child who was captured by the Indians and adopted by the Oneida tribe that inhabited Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New York.

When he grew to manhood, he was possessed not only of a commanding stature, but of all the arts, wiles, traits, and characteristics endowed by nature and intellect to an Indian warrior.

By virtue of these he became chief of the tribe of the Susquehannas, who made their home in the Susquehanna valley of Pennsylvania.

The mother of Logan was a Mingo, or Cayuga, which tribe was a derelict branch of the Iroquois and the Six Great Nations.

It is believed that the influence of Logan’s mother on her son caused him to have attitude of tolerance and friendship toward the whites. Whether he husband influenced her sentiments for the whites is not definitely known.

As a matter of fact it was she who christened her son, the great and mighty warrior, “Logan,” in honor of James Logan, who was then secretary for Pennsylvania.

Logan’s Indian name was Tah-gah-jute, meaning “the young and mighty warrior.”

He was after a time chosen chief of the Mingo tribe of this section. As chief of the Mingos he was slow to anger, indulgent, considerate, and dealing in a kindly manner with those who dealt kindly with him.

Chief Logan married an Indian maiden whose name is not recorded. He reared a family in territory of the Guyandotte watershed and was relatively happy, living at peace, with man, until the English changed him from a peaceful Indian to a veritable devil by having massacred his family at a camp in the Ohio.

The stories of Chief Logan’s campaign against the white man after the atrocious murder of his family is recorded in history and tradition.

He lived to see his beloved hunting grounds desecrated by the white man and died a broken-hearted old chieftain somewhere in a camp on the Ohio.

A bronze replica of the mighty warrior has been erected in front of the courthouse at Williamson in memory of the Mingo chief. Logan and Logan county has honored his name by taking it for themselves.

Logan (WV) Banner, 1 May 1937

Halloween Traditions (1899)

17 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Huntington, Women's History

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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.

John B. Wilkinson

07 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Logan

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for John B. Wilkinson, who resided at Logan Court House in Logan County, West Virginia:

Prosecuting attorney, Logan C.H., W.Va., is a member of one of the oldest and most honorable families of that State. His ancestors came from England, and were among the early settlers of Virginia, where their descendants have ever been held in the highest esteem for those sterling qualities of mind and heart that have been transmitted from father to son through many generations. The subject of this sketch is a son of David and Rebecca (Chafin) Wilkinson. The father, born in Wythe county, Va., Feb. 13, 1837, was married Feb. 11, 1859, and died in his native county Nov. 25, 1862, holding rank of captain in the Confederate army, in which he had been one of the bravest officers. His wife, and the mother of John B. Wilkinson, was born in Logan county, March 29, 1838; she resides there at present. Her son, the gentleman of whom this brief record is taken, was born in Logan county, W.Va., Feb. 13, 1860, and was married there Sept. 21, 1882, to Mary B. Straton, also a native of that county. Their home has been blessed with the following offspring: Maggie, born May 3, 1884; Nellie, born Nov. 14, 1886, died Aug. 5, 1888; and John B., born Nov. 30, 1888. Mrs. John B. Wilkinson was born March 20, 1864. Mr. Wilkinson was appointed Circuit Clerk of Logan county in 1883; was an efficient officer, but resigned the same year. In 1884 he was elected prosecuting attorney for that county, and served so ably that, at the expiration of his term, he was re-elected and has held the office ever since, having never had any opposition at either election. Though young, he is one of the ablest in his profession in his State, and is a citizen well meriting the confidence and trust that have been reposed in him by his fellow citizens. With his amiable and accomplished wife and their two promising children, he resides at his beautiful residence at Logan C.H., where he has the largest and most extensive library in the county, and his law office is the handsomest in the town.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 846-847.

James R. Godfrey

26 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for James R. Godfrey, who resided at North Spring, West Virginia:

Is among the most highly respected citizens of Wyoming county, and is of a family that has always stood among the first in purity and nobility of character and brilliancy of mental endowments. As a teacher he has no superior and but few equals in that county, and is always zealously active for the advancement of education. He was appointed in 1885 on the board of teachers’ examination, served that term and two other terms since. He was born in this county July 25, 1859, and was married there Nov. 2, 1882, to Sarah M. Davis, who was born in Fayette county, W.Va., May 15, 1857. Their union has been blessed with the following offspring: Almira C., born Aug. 30, 1883; Cordova C., born Aug. 14, 1885; James C., born Oct. 2, 1889; they are all now living with parents. Mr. Godfrey owns a beautiful home on Huff’s Creek not far from Guyandotte River, surrounded by extensive mineral lands underlying valuable timber growth. His post office is North Spring, Wyoming county, W.Va., and his vocation is teaching and conducting his farm. His father, Armour L. Godfrey, was born in Mercer county, W.Va., March 25, 1827, and at present resides in Wyoming county. His mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Lister, was born in Wyoming county, Aug. 15, 1827. They were united in marriage in Wyoming county, Aug. 14, 1851. Her father, Jesse Davis, was born about 1800 and died in Wyoming county at the age of 72 years. Her mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Godfrey, was born in 1802 and died in Wyoming county at the age of 63 years. The Godfrey family came from England, and have long been seated in Virginia and in Wyoming and Mercer counties, W.Va. They have always commanded respect among the citizens, having filled many offices ably and honorably.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 830-831.

Albert William Cook

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Albert William Cook, who resided at Oceana, West Virginia:

Second son of James B. and Matilda (Shannon) Cook, was born July 19, 1861 at Oceana, W.Va. His father was born Sept. 11, 1826, in Wyoming county, W.Va. (then Logan county, Va.), of a family that has been long seated in this section; the ancestor, John Cook, came from England and made the first settlement about 1878 near Oceana, in what is now Wyoming county. His mother was also a native of Logan county, Va., now Wyoming county, W.Va., born Nov. 7, 1836. On Feb. 18, 1885, A.W. Cook was united in marriage with Ollie Ellender Bailey, the marriage being solemnized at Bear Spring Branch, Wyoming county; she was born there March 26, 1867. The result of this union is one living son, Dennis Bailey, born Oct. 3, 1889; they lost their first-born, Delia, on Feb. 5, 1886, aged one month and 11 days. Mrs. Cook’s parents are David C. and L. Jane (Lambert) Bailey, the father born here April 4, 1843, and the mother on April 3, 1849, in Tazewell county, Va. Of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, Mrs. Cook is the oldest. In connection with his mercantile pursuits, Mr. Cook was appointed postmaster June 11, 1889, at Oceana, W.Va., and as proof of his accommodating efficiency toward the public, he has furnished the office at his own expense a handsome cabinet of government lock-boxes and cause the office to be designated a money-order office. The amount of mail matter received and sent from this office is indicative of the prosperity of the section. Mr. Cook’s post office and residence is Oceana, W.Va.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 825.

In Search of Ed Haley 340

21 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Calhoun County, Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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I asked Ugee if Laury ever listened to the Grand Ole Opry and she said, “Yes. He got to hear it the year before he died. He got a radio. Let’s see, what is his name? George Hayes. We had Hayeses that lived down at Arnoldsburg. And he brought Dad up a little radio when Dad was down sick.”

Now, did Ed Haley ever hear the Grand Ole Opry?

“Oh, yes. He heard it down in Kentucky.”

Did he like it?

“No. He went to Cincinnati one time. They was a gonna make records — him and Ella — but they wanted to pick out the one for him to play. Nobody done him that a way. So he said, ‘I’ll pick my own.’ He went to Nashville once. I don’t know as he went to the Grand Ole Opry but he went to Nashville. Somebody drove him, took him down. But when he found out what they done, he didn’t have no use for that.”

Ugee made it clear that she had missed out on most of Ed’s wild times. She knew nothing about his running around with people like Doc White or chasing women. She did say he was bad about telling “dirty jokes.”

“Many a time he’s told me, ‘All right, Ugee. You better get in the kitchen. I’m gonna tell a dirty joke.’ And he’d tell some kind and you could hear the crowd out there just a dying over it. Ella’d say, ‘Mmm, I’ll go to the kitchen, too.'”

I asked Ugee about Ed’s drinking and she told the story again about her brother Harvey giving him drinks to play “Sweet Florena”. She sang some of it for me:

Oncest I bought your clothes, sweet Florena.

Oncest I bought your clothes, sweet Florene

Oncest I bought your clothes but now I ain’t got no dough

And I have to travel on, sweet Florene.

After finishing that verse, Ugee said, “That’s part of the song. And Ella didn’t like to hear that song. I think it reminded her of some of his old girlfriends or something. And she didn’t like for him to play ‘Buttermilk Mountain’, either. He’d throw back his head and laugh. She’d say, ‘Don’t play that thing. I don’t want to hear that thing.’ But she’d second it. She’d draw her eyes close together.”

Brandon asked Ugee about her aunt Rosie Hicks, who was Laury’s sister and a close friend to the Haley family. She said Aunt Rosie was working in Ed’s home in Catlettsburg when she met Blind Bill Day (her sixth husband) during the early years of the Depression. It was a rocky marriage, according to Rosie’s only child, Nora (Davis) Martin.

“I was gonna tell you about him hitting Aunt Rosie,” Ugee said. “He came through the house and Aunt Rosie was upstairs quilting and all at once — Nora said she was in the kitchen cooking — and she heard the awfulest noise a coming down the stairs and said, ‘Mommy had old Bill Day by the leg and was bringing him bumpety-bump down the stairs, dragging him. Got him in the kitchen. He just walked up and hit her with that left hand right in the mouth. She just jerked his britches off of him and started to sit his bare hind-end on the cook stove — and it red hot.’ And Nora said, ‘Oh, Mommy, don’t do that. You’ll kill him.’ She said, ‘That’s what I’m a trying to do.’ And she grabbed her mother and him both and jerked them away from there.”

Ugee was more complimentary of Day’s colleague, Jean Thomas.

“I’ve got cards from her and letters and pictures,” she said. “I’ve been to her house — stayed all night with her. She was nice. She was too good to Bill Day. She spent money on him and give him the name of Jilson Setters. Sent him to England and he played for the queen over there.”

Brandon wondered if Bill Day was a very good fiddler.

“Well, I’m gonna tell ya, I stayed all night with Aunt Rosie and Bill Day one time,” Ugee said. “They lived on 45th Street in Ashland, Kentucky. My brother took me and my mom down there and he hadn’t seen Aunt Rosie for a long time. She’d married again and she lived down there in Ashland, Kentucky. And we aimed to see Ed and Ella, but they was in Cincinnati playing music. That’s who we went to see. So Harvey, he filled hisself up with beer. That’s the first time I ever seen a quart bottle of beer. Anyway, we went up there to hear Uncle Bill play. Harvey laid down on the bed like he was sick. He wasn’t sick: he wanted me just to listen to that fellow play that fiddle. He knowed I’d get sick of it. And he played that song about the Shanghai rooster. I never got so tired in my life of hearing anything as I did that. He only played three pieces. Harvey laid there, he’d say, ‘Play that again. I love it.’ And I had to sit there and listen to it, ’cause I didn’t want to embarrass him by getting up and walking out. I walked over to Harvey and I said, ‘You’re not sick and you’re not tired, so you get up.’ Said, ‘Ugee, I’ve got an awful headache. I drove all the way down here.’ I said, ‘That bottle that you drank give you the headache, so you get up and you listen to your Uncle Bill.’ He went to the toilet. I said, ‘I’m telling you right now — you’re gonna listen to Uncle Bill if I have to listen to him.’ Harvey said, ‘I’m not listening to him no longer. I’ve heard all I want to hear of Uncle Bill.’ I got Harvey up and then I run and jumped in the bed and I covered my head up with a pillow. But we stayed all night and Aunt Rosie went home with us. She told him she’s a going up to Nora’s, but she went to Calhoun with us in the car, and I reckon while she’s gone old Bill tore up the house. I don’t think they lived together very long after that ’cause it wasn’t very long till she come back home. It was home there at my dad’s.”

Brandon asked if Day ever played with Ed in Calhoun County and Ugee said, “Oh, no. If he had, Dad woulda kicked him out.”

Okay, I thought: so Laury had no tolerance for lesser fiddlers. What about Ed?

“Ed Haley, if somebody was playing a piece of music and they wasn’t hitting it right, he’d stick his hands in his pockets and say, ‘Goddamn, goddamn,'” Ugee said. “Dad’d say, ‘Boy, ain’t he good?’ Ed would cuss a blue streak. Then after the man was gone, whoever it was, Dad and Ed would go to mocking him. Dad and Ed Haley was like brothers. They loved each other. Ella and Mom, too. Jack was the baby the first time I seen Ed after he was married. They was expecting Lawrence, so they named him after my dad. Then when she had Mona, why instead of calling her Minnie, she named her after Mom.”

Anthony Lawson founds Lawsonville

23 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in African American History, Logan

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Almost two hundred years ago, an Englishman made his way into the Guyandotte Valley and soon found himself fully engaged in the fur trading business and the creation of a new county.

Anthony Lawson was born on October 31, 1785 in Stanton, Northumberland, England. He was the son of Anthony and Margaret (Carse) Lawson. On May 26, 1806, Lawson married Ann Bilton, a daughter of Lewis and Jane Bilton, at Saint Helens Church in Longhorsley Parish, Northumberland. Ann was born on March 17, 1783 in Fieldhead, England.

In the early summer of 1817, Anthony and his family left England for America aboard the ship Active. “They left England on account of religious persecution,” according to the late Dr. Sidney B. Lawson, who spoke some years ago with historian Fred B. Lambert. Accompanying Lawson were his wife and four children: John Lawson, born in 1807 in Woodcraft, Northumberland; Lewis Bilton Lawson, born in 1808 in Stanhope, Northumberland; James B. Lawson, born in 1808 in Northumberland; and Anthony Lawson II, born in 1813.

On July 12, 1817, the Lawson family arrived at Philadelphia. They settled in Alexandria, Virginia, where Anthony’s uncle, John Lawson, operated a store on Cameron Street. While there, Ann gave birth to a fifth child named George Wilborn Lawson in 1818.

At that time, according to Ragland’s History of Logan County (1896), Lawson was persuaded to move to the Guyandotte Valley. “Col. Andrew Bierne, of Lewisburg, soon made his acquaintance, and induced him to come to the wilds of Guyandotte River and engage in the fur and ginseng trade,” Ragland wrote. “Mr. Lawson first settled near the present site of Oceana, where he remained about four years and then moved to the present site of Logan C.H.”

At Logan, which was then called the “Islands of Guyandot” and situated in Cabell County, Lawson ran a mercantile store. “Anthony had many buying and selling trips to Philadelphia,” writes James Avis of Albuquerque, New Mexico. “He would travel by horseback to the town of Guyandotte and from there by boat to Philadelphia. It is believed that he would visit with relatives living in Philadelphia.”

In 1824, when Logan County was formed from Cabell, Lawson served on the first County Court. His store was chosen as the seat of government for the new county. He also donated land for the construction of a courthouse. Reportedly, Logan was originally named Lawsonville but later had its name shortened to Lawnsville. Later still, it became Aracoma, then Logan Court House.

In 1830, Lawson was listed in the Logan County Census with his wife and four children, as well as two slaves (one female aged 10-24 and one male aged 0-10). His oldest son, John, was enumerator of the county census.

In 1840, Lawson was listed in the Logan County Census with his wife, son Anthony II, and three slaves. In that same year, sons John and James were also living in the county, with no slaves.

In 1847, Lawson became ill while on a return trip from Philadelphia. He was taken from a boat at Guyandotte, now Huntington’s east end, where he died of cholera on May 20. He was buried in the city cemetery. “Col. Anthony Lawson Sr. — Logan County — died at Guyandot aged upwards of 60 on his way home from Philadelphia,” the Richmond Whig wrote on June 17, 1847. “He often spoke of his birthplace as the vicinity of Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Percies in Yorkshire, England. He accumulated a large fortune which he left his children.”

On December 27, 1847, Ann Lawson was murdered by two of her slaves in Logan County. “Ann was mending a shirt for one of the slaves so that he and another slave could go to town for supplies,” Avis writes. “Thinking that they could be free after Anthony’s death, the negro she was mending the shirt for struck her on the head with an iron poker and she died.” After the murder, the slaves robbed Lawson. “The slave knew that money was kept in one of the drawers in the bureau,” according to Avis. “The poker was again used to pry open the drawer and take the money.” Two slaves named Bill and Hardin were accused of the murder. “The one that killed her was hanged, probably on the courthouse lawn,” Avis writes. “The other slave was severely punished.”

In Search of Ed Haley 76

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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That evening, back at Lawrence’s, I was full of questions about Mona. She had made a real impression. As I spoke about her, I could sense a little hostility from Pat, as if there were years of family trouble between them, barely hidden away.

“Mona was married to Wilson Mullins,” Pat said. “He was from Harts. Mona was fourteen, I guess, when she married and he was 23 years older than her. She had one boy by Wilson Mullins — Ralph Andrew, who was named after Ralph Andrew Haley. When I came over here in 1949, Mona was divorced from Wilson and she was married to a Kenny Smith. She had two boys by Kenny Smith. Freddie lives in Michigan and Kenny Jr. lives in Ohio. Kenny Sr. is dead. Had a heart attack in Cleveland.”

After a brief marriage to Raymond Willis, a railroad engineer in Ashland, Mona married James Hager.

Pat said, “We met him once. I think they lived in Ohio.”

Mona had a daughter by Mr. Hager named Mona Lisa.

Pat seemed to think the most of Lawrence’s brother, Jack.

“Jack was a very devoted husband and father and had a beautiful home,” she said. “He worked very hard. Larry and Jack were very, very close. Jack was five years older than Lawrence.”

Jack’s wife Patsy had done a lot of family research “but found nothing beyond Uncle Peter and Aunt Liza.”

I asked if Patsy had any pictures of Ed and Pat said, “No more than what we have, because when Rounder Records came to Larry and we was getting pictures for them we went up to Pat’s and Larry got records from them. Jack had four or five records left and their son Scott brought those to Washington and whatever pictures they had.”

Pat promised to ask Patsy if she had anything.

Later that night, Lawrence told me more about his mother. He said Ella was a very small person, only about five feet tall. As a young woman, she attended the Kentucky School for the Blind at Louisville and earned a piano teaching certificate at the Morehead Normal School (now Morehead University).

“Mom was very refined,” Pat said. “No matter where she went, you could always tell she was an educated lady. Mom had very good manners. She was very good at speaking. And when you saw her and Pop together, and listening to both of them, you could tell there was a vast difference in the way they were raised.”

“Mom would read Dickens to us,” Lawrence said. “Robin Hood, Great Expectations — all them classical stories that came out of England and places at that time.”

When young, Ella was proficient at playing the piano and organ. After marrying Ed, she learned to play the mandolin and banjo-mandolin so that she could play “his type of music.”

“She used to sing more of the old English-type music,” Lawrence said. “Little nonsense stuff. We’d ask for it a lot of times ’cause we didn’t have anything else but the radio. I remember her singing one that had to do with a sea captain and it went something like this:

There was a noble boatsman.

Noble he did well.

He had a lovin’ wife

But she loved the tailor well.

And then it went on to state that the sea captain had to take his boat and go on a trip and he left his house and kissed his wife and started out. And the local tailor came in. And it just so happened the captain had forgot his sea chest so he came back and when he knocked on the door the wife was trying to find a place for him to hide. Guess where he hid? In the sea chest. And what happened to the tailor, he got chucked into the sea sometime or another on that cruise.”