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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: F.O. Woerner

Battle of Blair Mountain (1921)

27 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Battle of Blair Mountain, Logan

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Appalachia, Battle of Blair Mountain, Bilton McDonald, C.S. Minter, crime, Don Chafin, F.O. Woerner, F.R. Remlinger, F.S. Schuster, First National Bank, Fulton Mitchell, H.C. Hill, history, justice of the peace, labor, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mine Wars, Naaman Jackson, sheriff, Sidney B. Lawson, true crime, United Mine Workers of America, W.S. Bradshaw, West Virginia

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this item dated September 9, 1921 about the “armed march” on Logan County by union miners:

TROOPS END GREAT CONFLICT

CITIZENS MEET TO SEND THANKS TO SISTER COUNTIES WHO SO NOBLY HELPED

The war is over!

With the arrival of federal troops Saturday and the relieving of the boys along the battle sector Sunday morning Logan citizens started to regain rest which has been denied for two weeks. All Sunday afternoon special trains were speedily filled up and started on their way with tired but happy men, for their homes up and down the county and to our neighboring counties who so willingly came to our help at a time when days looked very black for the future of our beautiful county.

Every man a volunteer and every one ready for action as soon as he arrived in Logan. Logan will never forget the sacrifice made.

Monday evening in answer to a call issued, the circuit court room filled with citizens of Logan to give thanks and offer resolutions to those helping us and to the counties who so nobly responded to our calls for help.

The meeting was opened by Clarence McD. England and Naaman Jackson, president of the First National Bank was elected chairman. Committees were immediately appointed to draw up the resolutions. During the time the committees were preparing the resolutions several impromptu speeches were made. The speakers included Attorney Lilly and Chafin. Mr. Chafin emphasized the fact that it was due to Kanawha county’s failure to properly cope with the situation at the time when it could have been handled without bloodshed that it become necessary for Logan to mobilize an army under arms to protect its rights as a county. He brought forth rousing cheers when he stated that Logan county has a sheriff who had made the statement that “they shall not pass” and now they could say “THEY DID NOT PASS!” The fighting parsons were called for. They were the Reverends Coffey and Dodge.

Rev. Dodge said we had taught the rednecks the meaning of “Love” as it had been taught to him when a child–that of the application of a slipper to a part of his anatomy. He said it was in this manner he preached the meaning of the word and felt in this way Logan had showed her love for those who were fighting under the red flag through ignorance but who have now laid down their arms to resume the more peaceful pursuit of “live and let live.”

Justice of the Peace Fulton Mitchell was called on for a speech relative to the treatment received at the hands of the enemy when he and his three companions were captured and held for more than a week. His remarks were of the same content as will be found in another column of this issue.

In due time the resolutions had been prepared and read to those present and were speedily adopted and have been sent to the counties specified.

They are as follows:

Logan, Logan County, West Va.,

September 5, 1921

To the Officials and Citizens of our Neighboring West Virginia Counties, and the Western Counties of Virginia, whose Aid and Counsel was so Freely and Generously given to us at the time of the threatened invasion of our boundaries:

GREETING:

The representative citizenship of Logan county, West Virginia, in mass meeting on this day assembled, do hereby earnestly and publicly express to you and each of you, our sincere and hearty thanks and appreciation for the substantial, timely and very valuable aid and assistance rendered to our county and our citizenship during the recent attempted invasion of our boundaries by a misguided and hostile mob, imbued with the spirit of anarchy and fighting under the red flag.

The value of the help brought by the men who came to us from your counties cannot be overestimated. The organization was soon perfected and proved effective in holding back the invaders.

While your men were with us they showed fine courage and devotion to duty; their bearing was always that of courteous gentlemen, and the citizens of Logan county most heartily thank you and your gallant men for the splendid help given.

We hope the occasion will never arise when you will need similar assistance, but, if such a crisis should occur, our men will be found ready to respond.

Respectfully,

REV. W.S. BRADSHAW

F.S. SCHUSTER

F.O. WOERNER

C.S. MINTER

DR. H.C. HILL

Resolutions Committee.

The foregoing resolution was unanimously adopted at a mass meeting held in the City of Logan, September 5, 1921.

NAAMAN JACKSON, Chairman.

F.S. SCHUSTER, Sec’y.

In mass meeting assembled at County Court House in Logan, September 5th, 1921:

The citizens of Logan county–

RESOLVED: That the actions and efforts of the Logan county officials as well as those of the loyal men and women, are most heartily commended and approved, and it is further

RESOLVED: That the final results of such are most gratefully acknowledged and appreciated, and be it

RESOLVED: That a copy of these resolutions be printed in our local newspapers.

DR. S.B. LAWSON

F.R. REMLINGER

BILTON McDONALD

Committee.

Early Schools of Logan County, WV (1916)

04 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Logan

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Appalachia, Aracoma, Athelyn Hatfield, Beatrice Taylor, Bertha Allen, Big Island, Big Rock, Bill Ellis, board of education, Brooke McComas, C&O Railroad, Charles Avis, circuit rider, civil war, Cleveland, Coal Street, Dingess Run, E.M. Ford, education, Elma Allen, F.O. Woerner, Florence Hughes, Fred Kellerman, Free School Act, G.O. Nelson, George Bryant, George T. Swain, Guyandotte Valley, Hickman White, history, Isabella Wilson, Island Creek, J.A. McCauley, J.L. Chambers, J.L. Curry, J.W. Fisher, James Lawson, Jennie Mitchell, Jim Sidebottom, Joe Perry, Joel Lee Jones, John B. Floyd, John Dingess, Kate Taylor, Kittie Virginia Clevinger, L.G. Burns, Lawnsville, Leland Hall, Leon Smith, Lettie Halstead, Lewis B. Lawson, Lillian Halstead, Logan, Logan County, Logan Democrat, Logan High School, Logan Wildcats, Lon E. Browning, Lucile Bradshaw, Maud Ryder, Maude Smartwood, Minnie Cobb, Morgantown, Ohio, Old Fork Field, Pearl Hundley, Pearl Staats, Peter Dingess, principal, R.E. Petty, Roscoe Hinchman, Sarah Dingess, Southern Methodist Church, Stollings, Superintendent of Schools, Tennessee, The Islands, typhoid fever, W.V. Vance, W.W. Hall, West Virginia

From the Logan Democrat of Logan, WV, in a story titled “Schools and School Houses of Logan” and dated September 14, 1916, comes this bit of history about early education in Logan County, courtesy of G.T. Swain:

The hardest proposition encountered by the author in the preparation of this book was securing the following information relative to the early schools of Logan. We interviewed numbers of the older inhabitants, but owing to their faulty memories we were unable to obtain anything accurate. Nor were the county school officials able to give us any information regarding the schools of the early period. In making mention of this fact to Professor W.W. Hall of Stollings, who is District Superintendent of the free schools in Logan district, he graciously offered to secure as much information as he could from an old lady by the name of Sarah Dingess, who lives near his home. Thus, when we thought that we had exhausted every effort along this line, we were surprised and doubly appreciative of the efforts of Professor Hall, who secured for us the data from which the following article was compiled:

When the first settlers of Logan left the civilization of the East and came to the fertile Guyan Valley to carve homes for themselves and their children out of the forest, they brought with them a desire for schools for their offspring. One of the first pioneers of this valley, Peter Dingess, very early in the last century, erected a pole cabin upon the ruins of the Indian village on the Big Island, for a school house. That was the first school house erected within the limits of Logan county. In that house the children of The Islands (the first name of Logan) were taught “readin’, writin’ and spankin’.” After they ceased to use that house for school purposes, the people annoyed Mr. Dingess so much, wanting to live in the building, that he had his son, John, go out at night and burn it down. Thus the first school house for the children of Logan disappeared.

After the cabin on the Big Island ceased to be used for a school house, Lewis B. Lawson erected a round log house near the mouth of Dingess Run, where W.V. Vance now resides, for a school building. In that house George Bryant taught the children of Lawnsville (the name of Logan at that time) for a number of terms. A Mrs. Graves from Tennessee, wife of a Methodist circuit rider, also taught several terms there. Her work was of high order as a few of the older citizens yet attest.

A short time after Mr. Lawson built his school house at Dingess Run his brother, James, erected a school house on his land at the forks of Island Creek in the Old Fork Field, where J.W. Fisher now resides. The Rev. Totten, a famous and popular Southern Methodist circuit rider, taught the urchins of Aracoma (the name of Logan at that time) for several terms in the early ’50s of the last century.

After the passage of the Free School Act by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1846, the people of Aracoma and Dingess Run erected a boxed building for a school house by the Big Rock in the narrows above Bill Ellis’ hollow. The county paid the tuition of poor children in that school. Rev. Totten taught for several years in that house. He was teaching there when the Civil War began, when he discontinued his school, joined the Logan Wild Cats, marched away to Dixie, and never returned. Each of the last three named houses was washed away in the great flood in the year 1861.

When the Civil War was over and the soldiers had returned to their homes, they immediately set about to erect a school house. They built a hewn log house on the lower side of Bill Ellis’ hollow. That was the first free school building erected within the present limits of the city of Logan. In that house one-armed Jim Sidebottom wielded the rod and taught the three R’s. He was strict and a good teacher in his day. That house served as an institution of learning till in 1883 the Board of Education bought about an acre on the hill where the brick school houses now stand from Hickman White. A few years later additional land was bought of John B. Floyd in order to get a haul road from Coal street opposite the residence of Joe Perry’s to the school building. The old frame building was erected on the hill in 1883, and it furnished ample room for the children for more than two decades.

After the completion of the Guyan railroad to Logan the phenomenal growth of the city began. The growth of its educational facilities has kept pace with its material progress. In 1907 a brick building of four more rooms was added. Then they thought they would never need any more room. In 1911 they built a two story frame school house. In 1914 the magnificent new High school building was erected. Today, nineteen teachers are employed in the city, and within the next few years several more teachers must be employed, while the buildings are already taxed to their capacity.

In the year 1911 the Board of Education employed W.W. Hall as district supervisor. He asked for the establishment of a high school, and the citizens strongly endorsed his recommendation. The high school was established and Mr. Hall went at his own expense to the state university at Morgantown to find a principal for the high school. He secured F.O. Woerner, and the school was organized in 1911, on August 28. The next year Miss Maude Smartwood of Cleveland, Ohio, was added to the high school teaching force. In 1913 J.A. McCauley died from typhoid fever before the school closed, and George EM. Ford was employed to finish the term. In 1914 the school offered for the first time a standard four-year high school course and was classified by the state authorities as a first class high school. Today it is regarded as one of the best high schools in the state. It has more than one hundred pupils enrolled and employs seven regular high school teachers. It has a better equipped domestic science department than any other high school in West Virginia. When the high school was organized in 1911, there were only seven pupils in eighth grade in the city school. These seven were taken and pitched bodily into the high school. Of that first class, Fred Kellerman, Leland Hall, Roscoe Hinchman, Leon Smith, Kate and Beatrice Taylor continued in school until they were graduated June 2, 1915.

The first common school diploma examination ever held in Logan county was conducted by Supt. Hall as the close of his first year’s work at the head of the Logan District schools. He also conducted the first common school graduation exercises ever held in the county, in the old Southern Methodist church, on May 28, 1912.

Logan is indeed proud of her schools, and the efforts made by the faculty and school officials toward the training and educational development of young America meets with the hearty approval and commendation of all citizens.

Those in charge of the county schools are: Lon E. Browning, county superintendent; W.W. Hall, Logan district supervisor; the Logan district board of education is composed of J.L. Curry, president; and J.L. Chambers and L.G. Burns, commissioners. Chas. Avis is secretary of the board.

The faculty consists of F.O. Woerner, Principal of the Logan High School and instructor in mathematics; Joel Lee Jones, languages; Minnie Cobb, science; Isabella Wilson, cooking and sewing; Maud Ryder, commercial subjects; Jennie Mitchell, history and civics, and Mrs. R.E. Petty, music.

Lucile Bradshaw, English, literature, and mathematics; Florence Hughes, geography, history, and physiology, of the sixth and seventh grades departmental.

The following are the teachers in the grades: G.O. Nelson, Principal; Athelyn Hatfield, Pearl Staats, Brooke McComas, Lillian Halstead, Elma Allen, Lettie Halstead, Pearl Hundley, Kittie Virginia Cleavinger and Bertha Allen.

African-American Schools in Logan County, WV (1927)

21 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Huntington

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A.A. Wright, A.D. Robinson, A.V. McRae, African-Americans, Albert Meade, Anna B. Harris, Anna C. Hunter, Anna Spencer, Appalachia, Aracoma, Ardrossan, Audra Wilson, B.H. Hall, board of education, Bruce Hull, Clara Lee Johnson, Clara Richardson, Clothier, Coal River, Copperas, Cora, Crystal Block, D.E. Hopkins, Daisy Sheffery, Daniel H. Wood, Dehue, Doratha Withers, education, Elaine Ferguson, Elizabeth Creasy, Elizabeth Notter, Elma Phipps, Esta Shriver, Ethel, Ethel M. Page, F.O. Woerner, Flossie Hatfield, Flossie M. Jones, Garlands Fork, Georgia L. Miller, Gertrude Huntsman, Grace V. Reynolds, Harold Starcher, Hatfield, Helen E. Jones, history, Holden, Huntington, I.G. Hollandsworth, Imogene Baker, Ione Hall Cook, Island Creek, J.C. Evans, Jane Walker, John Pelter, Joseph D. Cary, Josephine Vaughan, Laura Griere, Laura J. Bayes, Laurel Hill, Lillian Samors, Logan County, Logan District, Logan High School, Logan Junior High School, Louis Simmons, M. Amelia Brooks, Macbeth, Mary Smith, Matilda Wade, Micco, Omar, Page Hamilton, Peach Creek, Preston A. Cave, Rossmore, Sharples, Slagle, Stirratt, teacher, Theodora Bradford, Thomas Jordan, Virginia Spratt, W.H. Houston, W.H. Huston, West Virginia, Yolyn

New Colored School at Crystal Block LB 08.12.1927 1

Logan (WV) Banner, 12 August 1927.

Logan District Colored Schools LB 08.26.1927 1

Logan (WV) Banner, 26 August 1927. This photo is meant to show the headline of the story; teachers named here are “white.”

Logan District Colored Schools LB 08.26.1927 2

Logan (WV) Banner, 26 August 1927. The list of “colored” teachers begin here and continue in the photos below.

Logan District Colored Schools LB 08.26.1927 3

Logan (WV) Banner, 26 August 1927.

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

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

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