Tag Archives: George Fry

Daniel H. Fry Deed to Tolbert Ferrell and Patterson Ferrell (1854)

25 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Big Creek

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Daniel Fry to Tolbert Ferrell Deed 1

Deed Book C, page 420, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. This property is located in present-day West Virginia.

Daniel Fry to Tolbert Ferrell Deed 2

Deed Book C, page 421, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. Daniel’s brother Elisha Fry is my great-great-great-grandfather.

George Fry Last Will and Testament (1793)

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in American Revolutionary War, Montgomery County

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During a recent visit to the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg, Virginia, I viewed the Last Will and Testament of my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather George Fry (c.1725-1793).

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In the Name of God, Amen: I George Fry of the County of Montgomery and State of Virginia, Farmer, Being very sick and weak in Body But of Perfect Mind and Memory thanks Begiven unto God for his Mercy Calling unto Mind the Mortality of my Body, and Knowing that it is appointed for all men once to Die; do Make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament that is to say Principally and first of all I give and Recommend my Soul into the Hand of Almighty God that gave it. My Body I Recommend to the Earth to be Buried in Decent Christian Buriel at the Discretion of my Executors Nothing Doubting but at the general Resurrection I shall Receive the same again by the Mighty Power of God. And as Touching such Worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God To bless me in this Life I give Devise and Dispose of the same in the Following Manner and Form, First I give and Bequeath to Anna Fry, my Dearly Beloved Wife one Mare and Two Cows, her Choice out of My Stock to be her own Right and Property to Dispose of as She Shall think Proper…

Also I give and Bequeath to Ann Fry my Dearly beloved Wife for Dureing the time she Continues my Widow My Dwelling Houses and Household Furniture With Five Head of Sheep and My Stock of Swine and my insuing Crop, also the Present Meet and Grain which is provided for Family Use and My Garden and Meadow and Meadow Orchard Likewise the Sixth part of Grain which is Raised on the said Land For During her Widowhood Continuence on the Sd. place. Then on leaving the Sd. place or at her Decease the Sd. property to be Equally Divided Between my Four Daughers…

Also I give and Bequeath to George Fry My Beloved Son all My Iron Tools and Two Suits of Cloaths, To Dispose of as he Shall think proper…

Also I give and Bequeath to Barbary Eley Two Cows to Dispose of as she shall think proper…

Also I give and Bequeath to Susanna Byars Two Cows to Dispose of as she shall Think proper…

Also I give and Bequeath the Balance of my property to my Dearly Beloved Daughters viz Mary Adkins, Chaty. Eley, Barbary Eley, Susanna Byars to be Equally Divided  Then to Despose of as they shall think proper…

And I do Hereby Utterly Disallow Revoke and Disannul all and Every Other Former Testaments Wills Legacies Bequests and Confirming this and no other to be my Last Will and Testament, In Witness whereof I have here unto set my Hand and seal this Twenty Seventh Day of March in the year of our Lord one Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety three–

George Fry (My Mark)

Signed sealed and published pronounced and Declared by the Sd. George Fry, as his Last Will and Testament in the presence of us in his presence & in the presence of Each other have Here unto Subscribed our Names…

Charles Duncan

Joseph Benlay

Thomas Kirk

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Source: Wills Box 1791-1799, Circuit Clerk’s Office, Montgomery County Courthouse, Christiansburg, VA.

Note: I descend from George Fry through his granddaughter Mary (Fry) Lucas and his grandson John Fry, who settled in present-day Lincoln County, WV. John and another granddaughter Susannah (Fry) Adkins are buried near my residence.

Admiral S. Fry Letter (1880)

11 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Green Shoal, Huntington, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Women's History

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A.S. Fry Letter 1A.S. Fry Letter 2A.S. Fry Letter 3

A.S. Fry Letter 4

I descend from three of A.S. Fry’s siblings: Christian Fry, Emily (Fry) Lucas, and Druzilla (Fry) Abbott. A.S. Fry’s son, George Fry, is a central character in my book, “Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy.”

Harts Creek Area Justices of the Peace (1879-1910)

16 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Sand Creek, Warren

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Between 1879 and 1910, the following men served as justices of the peace in the Harts Creek community. The primary source for this material is “Commissioner’s Record of Destroyed Title Papers 2,” which is located at the Lincoln County Clerk’s Office in Hamlin, WV. Material is arranged based on the person’s name as given in the deed, the date of the deed, and the date of the deed’s acknowledgment by a JP. I have also found JPs listed in Deed Book 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, and 60. Deed Book “S” at the Logan County Clerk’s Office as well as numerous records in the Logan County Circuit Clerk’s Office have also provided information. Many thanks to the county clerks and their employees who have always been so helpful to my research these past twenty-five years.

Stephen Lambert (Logan County) 1879, 1885-1886

State v. John Mullins (1879-1880)

NOTE: Moses Dalton stated that he was a “magistrate” in c.1885.

Deed: W.T. Butcher to Birl Farley     11 September 1885     11 September 1885

Deed: William and Emily Dingess to Polly C. Bryant     25 January 1886

Hall v. Baker     30 September 1886, 16 October 1886

NOTE: Stephen Lambert died, according to court docket files, on 21 October 1886 or 23 October 1886

A.B. Lowe was appointed justice in place of Stephen Lambert, deceased     8 November 1886

Andrew D. Robinson (Lincoln County) 1879

State v. John Mullins (1879-1880)

John McCloud (Logan County) 1881-1884, 1890-1892

Deed: Margaret Browning     01 October 1879     29 January 1881

Deed: A.A. Low to Stephen Lambert     1 June 1881     25 March 1882

Deed: Weddington Mullins     14 March 1881     18 July 1882

Deed: Charles Browning     1 June 1881     22 July 1882

Deed: Francis Vance     1 July 1882     10 March 1883

Deed: John Messer     15 September 1882     12 February 1884

Deed: Henry Workman v. Melvin Butcher     24 March 1884

Deed: Henry Workman v. Melvin Butcher     28 March 1884

Deed: Ezekiel K. Johnson     1 July 1882     30 December 1884

Workman v. Butcher     24 March 1884, 28 March 1884, 9 June 1884

Deed: Robert Mullins to Sarah E. Gore     25 November 1890     3 December 1890

Deed: Sophia Kinser     1 June 1881     12 November 1891

Deed: Farabell and John Vance to Salena Vance     11 October 1892

Jeremiah Lambert (Lincoln County) 1881-1884

Deed: John Henry Adkins     10 May 188?     3 June 1881

Deed: Archibald B. Harrison     1 July 1882     7 July 1882

Deed: John H. Fry     1 July 1882     16 August 1882

Deed: Sampson S. Brumfield      1 July 1882     17 August 1882

Deed: Minnis W. Perry     1 June 1881     13 April 1883

Deed: Enos Adkins     1 July 1882     3 June 1883

Deed: Sarah E. Thompson     23 March 1883     23 June 1883

Deed: Miles B. Browning     14 April 1881     10 August 1883

Deed: Elisha Vance     15 September 1882     10 August 1883

Deed: Moses B. Toney     21 August 1882     21 August 1883

Deed: Jeremiah and Ballard Lambert     1 July 1882     12 September 1883

Deed: Van D. Lambert     15 September 1882     30 January 1884

Deed: Albert G. Abbott     23 March 1883     14 February 1884

James H. Marcum (Lincoln County) 1881

Deed: Harmon and Susan Stroud to Louisa A. Wiley     18 November 1881

Canaan Adkins (Lincoln County) 1885-1888

Deed: Mitchell Browning and Charles Kinser     23 March 1883     5 March 1885

Deed: John and Chloe Ann Messer to Floyd Caldwell     16 March 1885     16 March 1885

Deed: Aaron and Nancy Jane Adkins to B.W. Walker     12 June 1885

Deed: John M.P. and Victory Thompson     1 July 1882     18 July 1885

Deed: Sarah E. Vance, Mary L. Nelson, and Peter M. Mullins     25 April 1883     8 August 1885

Deed: Aaron and Nancy Jane Adkins to B.W. Walker     12 June 1885     12 June 1885

Deed: Abner Vance     21 August 1882     6 October 1885

Deed: Telitha Spears to Blackburn Lucas     26 July 1886     26 July 1886

Deed: Charles Lucas to Blackburn Lucas     18 September 1886     18 September 1886

Deed: Charles Lucas to William Bird Brumfield     18 September 1886     18 September 1886

Deed: Sarah A. Perry     14 April 1881     14 February 1887

Deed: William and Jane Manns to Josephine Robinson     19 February 1887     19 February 1887

Deed: Andrew Jackson Browning     23 March 1883     17 June 1887

Deed: Elvira Baisden     1 July 1882     19 November 1887

Deed: Aaron and Nancy Jane Adkins     24 August 1887     24 August 1887/14 February 1888

Deed: Jeremiah Lambert to Van D. Lambert     30 April 1888

Deed: Floyd and Martha Caldwell to Melvin Kirk     7 July 1888     7 July 1888

A.B. Lowe (Logan County) 1886

A.B. Lowe was appointed justice in place of Stephen Lambert, deceased     8 November 1886

Hall v. Baker     18 November 1886

John B. Pullen (Lincoln County) 1888

Robert Fry to Wilford Fry, Martha J. Fry, and Rosa A. Fry     3 January 1888

Elias Vance (Lincoln County) 1889-1896

Aaron and Nancy J. Adkins to Malissia Adkins     14 August 1889     14 August 1889

Marine and Polly Spurlock to Laura Fry     6 November 1889

Polly C. Bryant to children     15 July 1891

Minerva McCloud     15 September 1882     7 November 1891

2 June 1893

Andrew and Elizabeth Elkins to Thomas J. Adkins     27 March 1894

George A. and Julia Alderson, Floyd and Emily Rakes, and C.D. and Vietta T. Haverty to J.L. Caldwell     7 December 1894

Enos Adkins et ux to Allen Brumfield     28 December 1894     14 May 1895

Charles Lucas to Sarah Brumfield     6 July 1895     6 July 1895

Samuel Workman to Melvin Kirk     29 September 1896     29 September 1896

On 26 August 1898, JP Vance was sentenced to serve two years in the state penitentiary for embezzlement.

David F. Smith (Lincoln County) 1892-1907

Richard and Olive F. Adkins to Sarah M. Adkins     18 June 1892

Peter Mullins to Jerry Lambert     12 January 1901

Lewis and Malinda Nelson to A.E. Wagner     4 December 1906

Anderson Fry to A. Gill     7 January 1907

Jefferson and Nancy E. Lucas to Cumberland Adkins     11 April 1907     12 April 1907

Hiram “Hi” Lambert (Lincoln County) 1893-1894

Deed: Farabel and John Vance to John H. Adkins     6 December 1893

Deed: Salena Vance     25 December 1893     25 December 1893

Deed: Peter M. and Mary A. Mullins et al to J.L. Caldwell     24 November 1894     29 November 1894

J.S. Payne (Lincoln County?) 1894

I.N. and Elizabeth Mullins to J.L. Caldwell     1 September 1894     7 September 1894

Sol Adams (Logan County) 1895-1897, 1899, 1907-1908

Between September and October of 1895, the Logan County Banner referenced him as Squire Sol.

Between February and September 1896, the Logan County Banner referenced him as Squire Sol.

Deed: Allen and Sarah Tomblin to William Conley     07 July 1894     09 April 1897

Cynthia Ann Mullins deposition     21 October 1899

Deed: Charles Washington Mullins to Jerry Lambert     18 June 1907

Deed: Clementine and Ed Dingess et al to Catherine Adkins     1 October 1908     16 October 1908

Deed: Clementine and Ed Dingess et al to Ann F. Davis     1 October 1908     16 October 1908

Isaac Fry (Lincoln County) 1897-1904

Richard and Spencer Adkins to D.P. Lambert     17 July 1897

Charles Adkins to Malinda Adkins     25 April 1898

Russell S. Stollings et ux to William D. Farley     24 March 1900

25 June 1900

Susan and Levi Rakes et al to J.L. Caldwell     28 July 1900     30 July 1900

28 July 1904

Jefferson Lucas (Lincoln County) 1899-1907

Isaac G. Gartin to William Manns     3 January 1899     3 January 1899

William Manns to William H. Manns     3 January 1899     3 January 1899

John P. Lucas to A.B. Staley     12 March 1907

William Bird Brumfield (Lincoln County) 1899-1904

J.H. and Amanda McComas to Blackburn Lucas     30 August 1899     30 August 1899

William and Rebecca Bell et al to Thomas H. Harvey and George F. Miller     12 January 1900

Malinda J. Vance to Emma Vance     21 July 1904     21 July 1904

George F. Frye (Lincoln County) 1901-1902

Farabell Vance to Salena Vance     7 May 1901

Enos Adkins to A.G. Adkins and F.E. Adkins     15 February 1902     15 February 1902

Rufus Pack (Lincoln County) 1903-1909

Isaac and Nancy M. Workman to Abijah Workman, Jr.     2 February 1903

Henry C. and Martha Sias to Isaac F. Nelson     17 February 1909

Charles Adkins (Lincoln County) 1905-1910

02 November 1905

Charles and Caroline Brumfield to J.M. Brammer and B.F. Scearcy     7 November 1906

Blackie Lucas to Elizabeth Lucas     15 July 1907

Asa and Rebecca Williamson to Hugh Evans     18 February 1908

William Workman to Joseph Browning     15 July 1908

Malinda Adkins to Isaiah Adkins     20 July 1908

02 January 1909

Joseph and Rosey Browning to Lace Marcum and T.R. Shepherd     1 April 1910

William Toppins (Wayne County) 1907

Deed: L.C. and Pinkston Queen to Sarah B. Maynard     18 December 1907

Hugh Evans (Lincoln County) 1908

Deed: John W. and Evaline Sartin to George Shepherd     29 July 1908

A.E. Wagner (Lincoln County) 1910

Deed: Anderson Fry to Rush and Mary Slate     14 January 1910

J.M. Brammer et ux to David Farley     11 April 1910     19 April 1910

Interview with John Dingess 2 (1996)

11 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Warren

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Al rounded up a gang of men to accompany him on his ride to fetch the prisoners in Williamson. Albert and Charlie Dingess were ringleaders of the posse, which included “Short Harve” Dingess, Hugh Dingess, John Dingess, Burl Farley, French Bryant, John Brumfield, and Charley Brumfield. Perhaps the most notorious member of the gang was French Bryant – “a bad man” who “did a lot of dirty work for the Dingesses.” On the way back from Kentucky, he tied Milt and Green by the arms and “drove them like a pair of mules on a plow line.”

“French Bryant run and drove them like a pair of horses ahead of these guys on the horses,” John said. “That’s quite a ways to let them walk. Old French, he married a Dingess. I knew old French Bryant. When he died, he was a long time dying and they said that he hollered for two or three days, ‘Get the ropes off me!’ I guess that come back to him.”

When the gang reached the headwaters of Trace Fork — what John called “Adams territory” — they sent a rider out ahead in the darkness to make sure it was safe to travel through that vicinity.

Waiting on the Brumfield posse was a mob of about 100 men hiding behind trees at Sycamore Bottom, just below the mouth of Trace Fork. This mob was led by Ben and Anthony Adams and was primarily made up of family members or people who worked timber for the Adamses, like Tom Maggard (“Ben’s right hand man”).

As the Brumfield rider approached their location, they began to click their Winchester rifles — making them “crack like firewood.” Hearing this, the rider turned back up Trace Fork, where he met the Brumfields and Dingesses at Boardtree Bottom and warned them about the danger at the mouth of Trace. They detoured safely up Buck Fork, then stopped at Hugh Dingess’ on Smokehouse where they remained for two or three days, not really sure of what to do with their prisoners. They made a “fortress” at Hugh’s by gathering about 100 men around them, fully aware that Ben Adams might make another effort to recapture Milt and Green.

While at Hugh’s, they got drunk on some of the red whiskey and apple brandy made at nearby Henderson’s. They also held a “trial” to see if Milt and Green would admit their guilt. They took one of the men outside and made him listen through the cracks between the logs of the house as his partner confessed on the inside. About then, the guy outside got loose and ran toward Bill’s Branch but was grabbed by “Short Harve” Dingess as he tried to scurry over a fence.

After this confession, the Brumfields and Dingesses considered killing Milt and Green on the spot but “got scared the Adamses was gonna take them” and headed towards Green Shoal.

John didn’t know why they chose George Fry’s home but figured Mr. Fry was a trusted acquaintance. He said they “punished” them “quite a bit there” but also got one to play a fiddle.

“These people that killed them, they made them play their last tune,” John said. “One of them would play and one guy, I think, he never would play for them.  I forgot which one, but they never could get one guy to do much. The other one’d do whatever they’d tell him to do. That’s just before they started shooting them. The tune that they played was ‘Hell Up Coal Hollow’. I don’t know what that tune is.”

After that, the mob “shot their brains out” and left them in the yard where the “chickens ate their brains.”

A neighbor took their bodies through Low Gap and buried them on West Fork.

John said there was a trial over Haley and McCoy’s murders, something we’d never heard before. Supposedly, about one hundred of the Brumfields and their friends rode horses to Hamlin and strutted into the courtroom where they sat down with guns on their laps. The judge threw the case out immediately because he knew they were fully prepared to “shoot up the place.”

This “quick trial,” of course, didn’t resolve the feud. Back on Harts Creek, Ben Adams often had to hide in the woods from the Dingesses. One time, Hugh and Charlie Dingess put kerosene-dowsed cornstalks on his porch and set them on fire, hoping to drive him out of his house where they could shoot him. When they realized he wasn’t home, they extinguished the fire because they didn’t want to harm his wife and children. Mrs. Adams didn’t live long after the feud. Ben eventually moved to Trace Fork where he lived the rest of his life. Charlie never spoke to him again.

John also said there seemed to have been a “curse” on the men who participated in the killing of Haley and McCoy. He said Albert Dingess’ “tongue dropped out,” Al Brumfield “was blind for years before he died,” and Charlie Dingess “died of lung cancer.” We had heard similar tales from Johnny Farley and Billy Adkins, who said mob members Burl Farley and Fed Adkins both had their faces eaten away by cancer. Vilas Adams told us about one of the vigilantes drowning (Will Adkins), while we also knew about the murders of Paris Brumfield, John Brumfield, Charley Brumfield, and Bill Brumfield.

Just before hanging up with John, Brandon asked if he remembered Ed Haley. John said he used to see him during his younger days on Harts Creek.

“When he was a baby, old Milt wanted to make him tough and he’d take him every morning to a cold spring and bath him,” he said. “I guess he got a cold and couldn’t open his eyes. Something grew over his eyes so Milt took a razor and cut it off. Milt said that he could take that off so he got to fooling with it with a razor and put him blind.”

John said Ed made peace with a lot of the men who’d participated in his father’s killing and was particularly good friends with Cecil Brumfield, a grandson of Paris.

A Visit to the “Murder House” (1996)

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Green Shoal, Lincoln County Feud

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The next day, Brandon, Billy, and I went to investigate the Watson Lucas-Lon Lambert home at the mouth of Green Shoal. For a long time, we had suspected it of being the actual “murder house,” the place where Haley and McCoy had been brutally murdered in 1889. Cecil Lambert, the current owner and occupant of the dwelling, told us, however, upon our arrival that it was not the same house. He said his father, Lon, had told him prior to his death that the old Fry log house was long torn down. The Fry home, he said, had been located just a few feet downriver from the current home, generally at the present-day location of a garage. Cecil had done some recent remodeling and was pretty sure that his father was correct: he hadn’t found a single log anywhere behind the walls.

Cecil walked us over to a nearby embankment and showed us what he figured to be the last remaining vestige of the Fry house: some old foundation stones strewn down into a ditch. He then took us through the house, which (unfortunately for our imaginations) really didn’t have a nineteenth century look to it.

There was one thing on the second floor that excited us: easily visible through a large hole in the wall (courtesy of Cecil’s remodeling) were some old dried beans lying on the rafter “floor.” It made us think of what Vergia Rooney had said about people using the top story of the old Fry house for drying peaches and apples. Of course, the beans we could see were not George Fry’s…but finding them like we did sure struck us as a coincidence.

Back outside, Brandon walked around the house searching for anything that might connect it with the events of 1889. He made a significant find on the upriver side, which Vergia remembered as being part of the original house. Clearly visible in a corner was an old foundation stone just like the ones at the ditch. We did not notice any more old stones under the house that day, but Cecil later found many more after further remodeling. On the upriver (or “original”) side of the house, foundation stones were intact (at least partially) while on the downriver (or “newer”) side, foundation stones had been tossed in the ditch. There was also a “hidden” door on the downriver side of the house (where Vergia had remembered one swinging open in the old days).

Back at Billy’s, Brandon got out the Fry history book and located a picture of A.S. Fry’s home at Green Shoal, presumably taken around the time of the murders. We compared it mentally with what we remembered about the present home at Green Shoal and noted a few similarities but nothing really conclusive. Then we noticed in the photograph that the Fry dwelling had an extension of rough lumber off to one side that resembled the current Lambert house. It wasn’t clear whether the log portion was on the upriver or downriver side but if it was on the downriver side (the end Vergia said was torn away) it would explain why some of the old foundation stones were lying about in that direction. In such a scenario, both Vergia and Lambert would be correct in their account of what happened to the Fry house. In other words, there was a real chance that the building was at least partly intact — although radically remodeled.

In Search of Ed Haley 316

07 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Big Creek, Chapmanville, Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Ferrellsburg, Green Shoal, Lincoln County Feud

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I told Brandon that I would be coming to Harts at the end of July. In the meantime, he contacted Basil Frye, a grandson to George Fry. Basil, a resident of North Carolina, was old enough to know about the Haley-McCoy killings (he was born in 1925) but admittedly knew very little. He had heard through the family that his grandfather George agreed to let three “guards” stay overnight at his house with two prisoners (Milt and Green). That night, a mob of drunken vigilantes arrived with guns and demanded possession of the prisoners. The three guards allowed the gang to take Milt and Green outside where they were tied to a bush and eventually shot several times. The next morning, after daylight, the Frys and guards went outside and found the dead bodies.

Brandon asked Basil about the location of the old A.S. Fry-George Fry family home. He said he wasn’t sure of its location but always figured it to have been a short distance up Green Shoal, not at its mouth. He based that on the fact that his father, a son of George Fry, had been born in that vicinity in 1888 (a year before the killing). Billy Adkins had always heard that the old Fry home was up in that area, too, which caused a little doubt on our assuredness that the Milt and Green murders had taken place in the Lambert home at the mouth of Green Shoal. Brandon became even more confused when he went back to the Fry history and read how A.S. Fry (father of George) had two homes in the area: “a log cabin at Fry” (a.k.a. the mouth of Green Shoal) and “a stately house near Harts Creek, across the river from the log house.”

A little later, Brandon visited Essie McCann, an elderly neighbor in Ferrellsburg. Essie had been born on West Fork in 1910. She said her mother Martha Dial almost bumped into the 1889 mob as she rode toward her home on Big Creek with her husband. Upon hearing a troop of horses approaching their direction from Chapmanville, she and Mr. Dial knew it was the mob that had been recently sent out to capture Milt and Green. They hid in a patch of weeds near the riverbank and watched the mob ride by doubled up on horses. Essie said her mother recognized Addison Vance (a brother-in-law to Cain Adkins) riding in the group. Afterwards, Haley and McCoy were held in a house at Green Shoal where a group of men came and shot out the lights before killing them.

In Search of Ed Haley 251

26 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Music

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According to the Fry history, A.S. Fry eventually moved to Guyandotte, a river town in Cabell County, “where he built and owned a hotel. The Jesse James gang, who robbed a Huntington bank, stayed in his hotel for several nights.” His son George, meanwhile, took control of the family interests at Green Shoal. He presumably lived in the family homestead, where he was located at the time of Milt and Green’s murder in 1889. Deed records refer to it “as the old A.S. Fry homestead above the mouth of Green Shoals” and describe it as follows:

BEGINNING at the mouth of Green Shoals Creek, thence up with the meanderings of said creek to a survey made by C.T. fry, thence with the line of same to a white oak corner on a point, thence up the said point with the line of Chas. Lucas to the top of the mountain, thence running with the ridge to the head of a little ravine to a dog-wood corner made by C.T. Fry, thence down the hollow with C.T. Fry’s and B.C. Toney’s lands to a walnut corner made by said C.T. Fry, thence down the hill with John Fry’s and B.C. Toney’s line to the river, thence down with meanderings of the river to the place of beginning, containing seventy-five acres, more or less.

Although the deed was vague in giving its coordinates, it clearly proved that the “A.S. Fry homestead” — and thus the site of Milt and Green’s murder — was on the same side of the river as the railroad tracks.

By 1889, when the Brumfield gang took over the Fry house, George and his wife Eliza had a six-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. Cat Fry, a niece, also lived in the home. The family was connected to various participants in the 1889 troubles. Eliza’s older brother was married to Paris Brumfield’s sister, while two of her sisters were married to Brumfield’s nephews. These marriages were perhaps complicated when Paris murdered Mrs. Fry’s brother, Boney Lucas.

Following the Haley-McCoy murders, George Fry suffered some bad luck. In 1892, his wife reportedly had an illegitimate child by John Brumfield (Al’s younger brother). Four years later, his father sold the family homestead on Green Shoal to Arena Ferrell, a local storekeeper. George’s wife died around 1902 “when her children were young” (according to one source) and was buried in the old Fry Cemetery at Green Shoal. A.S. Fry himself was murdered at his hotel in 1904. George afterwards moved to Guyandotte where he died on May 19, 1905. Control of family businesses thereafter went to his brother Evermont Ward Fry, who was still alive as late as October 1939.

As for the “murder house” itself, Arena Ferrell deeded it to her adopted son George W. Ferrell, who is credited with writing “The Lincoln County Crew” — the song about Milt’s death. In 1899, he sold it to George R. McComas, who in turn sold it to J.L. Caldwell three years later. (This was probably the same J.L. Caldwell referred to in George Fry’s 1880 letter.) It was around that time (1902-04) when the railroad came through the Guyan Valley, which apparently had a direct effect on the “murder house.”

“The railroad now runs through one side of the house as well as that of the school building,” Ward told Fred Lambert. “This school was about one fourth mile above our residence.”

In 1915, Caldwell sold the property back to Arena Ferrell. Then, in 1919, it was transferred to Watson Lucas, whose heirs sold it to the current owners, the Lamberts, in the 1960s.

In Search of Ed Haley 250

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud

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A.S. Fry — the man who owned the home where Milt Haley and Green McCoy were murdered — was a former officer in the Confederate army and early businessman in Harts. According to the Fry history, “Shortly after his return home from the War, his adventurous spirit led him to Kansas and on to Texas; his family remained in Lincoln County. After his return from the West, his youngest son was born.” This son, Evermont Ward Fry, was born in 1872 and was later interviewed by Fred Lambert.

“When I was a boy, people gathered for a week’s religious meetings,” Fry told Lambert. “My father would keep from forty to fifty people. They held meetings in the summer or early fall. The people came on horseback from all directions. The preaching was at the Green Shoal School house; this was an old log building. Before it stood three or four beech trees. Preaching was under these trees. On one occasion my father’s house caught fire. He kept store and had just received an order of five or six dozen buckets. It was the nighttime, but he got out the fire buckets and the men formed a line up from the river. They put out the fire, but one end of the house was pretty badly burned.”

In subsequent years, A.S. Fry made other trips West, apparently with his son, George. George Franklin Fry was born in 1858 and was married to his first cousin, Eliza Virginia Lucas, a daughter of Charles and Lucinda (Fry) Lucas.

“Mrs. Rhoda Fry — Wear in this city and will Remain Hear for a few days,” A.S. Fry wrote to his wife from Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas, on July 14, 1880. “Lands is from $3 to $20 dollars per acor. Thare is fine crops hear. We may By Land in this County. This is said to be the beste County in the state and thare is thousands of acors for sail heare. It is vary warm. I don’t know when I will be at home. I will wright when I will be at home and I want you and Ward to meet me at huntington. This is a nice Country. I will wright to you in 2 or 3 days what we ar a doing. We have Gist Reatch this City. The Pepel is all Kind and seemes to tak intrust in Emzy Jane. I have nothing worthey of wrighting. Give all of my frieands best Respects for me and tell BC Toney not to Rune his stones two close. So I will close by saying that we ar well. Hoping the last few Lines will find you all well. So fare well. If you Right Direct yere Letter A.S. Fry, Garnett, Anderison Co., Kansas.”

“We wrote you from Cincinnati Ohio regarding Goods,” George wrote as an attachment to the aforementioned letter. “We bough[t] a little stock — and if Will has not gone after them go at once — they are in care of J.L. Caldwell. We also sent Bills at same time. In close you will find a butiful song bough[t] on Train.”

In Search of Ed Haley 217

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

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As we headed out of Big Ugly, we dropped Eunice and Doska off at their homes and said our “thank yous” and “goodbyes.” Billy suggested leaving the creek by a different route than Green Shoal, so we could see the grave of Ed’s great-great-grandfather, Money Makin’ Sol Mullins. That sounded good to me, I said. Plus, it was such a beautiful day; the extra drive with our windows down would be a nice way to take in all the fresh air and scenery.

We drove out of Big Ugly on a paved road and then over a mountain that dumped us at a gravel road on the Ellis Fork of the North Fork of Big Creek in Boone County. Sol’s grave was a few feet from the road in a weed patch. His headstone read, “SOLOMON MULLINS, FEB 23, 1782  NC – AUG 28, 1858, A GENIUS IN HIS OWN TIME.” Quite an epitaph for a counterfeiter. On the back of the headstone were the names of his sons: Peter (Ed’s ancestor) of Harts Creek, Alexander of Kentucky, Eli of Kentucky and Spencer of Harts. The footstone mentioned his military service and provided conflicting dates from what was given on his headstone: “SOLOMON MULLINS, 16 KY MILITIA, WAR OF 1812, FEB 20, 1782 – AUG 25, 1858.”

His wife’s headstone listed the names of their daughters: Matilda, Jenny, Margaret, and Dicie (Hollena Brumfield’s grandmother).

Back at Billy’s, we pulled out the Fry family history and looked up information on Lewis “Jupiter” Fry (1843-1924), the fiddler Mayme referenced as her father’s favorite.

“Known as Jupiter because he was interested in astronomy, he owned a telescope and predicted the weather to his family and associates,” the history read. “He also owned a typewriter and typed his own contracts. He never hired a lawyer when he was hauled into court, but represented himself and pleaded his own case. Once when he was involved in a feud over his land, he shot a man. The victim survived and Jupiter was not sentenced. He was a tall, thin man who was well-known for his fiery temper. Lewis owned and operated a grocery store at Gill of Lincoln County for many years. He also operated a push boat, running it from Gill to Guyandotte to buy groceries.”

Jupiter’s younger brother Anderson “Durg” Fry (1849-c.1938) was also a fiddler. He married a first cousin, Drusilla Lucas, and lived at Durg Frye Hollow on the Laurel Fork of Big Ugly. Drusilla was a sister to Boney Lucas and a first cousin to George Fry.

“Durg, of average height, was truly a mountaineer, a great hunter who practically stayed in the woods: coon hunting, trapping, hunting ginseng and catching ground hogs,” according to the Fry history. “He sold lots of animal furs, butchered cattle and hogs for others, and also made molasses. He smoked a pipe and chewed tobacco. He had a dog he called ‘Rat,’ and told others that when he died he hoped the Lord gave him back Rat and 1,000 acres for hunting ground. Durg loved to tell stories and relate stories of the past.”

Mayme Ferrell had told us nothing about Leander Fry (1856-c.1896), who seems to have been the best of the family fiddlers. The Fry history simply said that he “could play the violin well,” while the Lambert Collection had mentioned him as “a great fiddler” who “used to come down [the Guyan River to Guyandotte] from Lincoln on timber to play the fiddle.” Billy said his father used to play a tune called “The Ballad of Lee Fry”. Leander’s biography was vague: so far as we could tell, he never married nor had any children.

In Search of Ed Haley 208

07 Saturday Dec 2013

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On November 7, 1889, The Banner printed a Huntington story titled “Two More Victims To the Endless Hatfield-McCoy Feud/Prisoners Belonging to the Latter Faction Lynched.” This article was extremely difficult to read — some of its words were completely gone, which probably didn’t really matter since it was so error-ridden.

HUNTINGTON, W.VA., October 25 — Information was brought [here from] Hamlin, Lincoln County, that about midnight Friday, a mob surrounded the Lincoln County jail, took two of the prisoners, Green McCoy and Milton Haley, and hung them to a tree a short distance from the [jail]. Haley and McCoy are natives of Kentucky and are allied to the McCoy faction of outlaws [feuding] with the Hatfields generally familiar by the public. McCoy was engaged in a shooting scrape with Paris Brumfield about a year ago and about a month ago he, in company with Haley, ambushed and attempted to murder Brumfield and his wife. The shooting occurred on a Sunday and both victims [were] badly wounded, Mrs. Brumfield being shot in the breast and her husband in the leg. For a time it was thought the woman would die but she recovered. McCoy and Haley escaped to Hunto, Kentucky, [but] not before they made two more attempts at assassination in the county, in ____ of _____ man named Adkins was wounded. The would be murderers were arrested at Ben Postoffice, Martin county, Kentucky, and were confined in jail there. Friday they were locked up in Lincoln county (W.Va.) Jail, and in the absence of definite information it is supposed they were lynched by some of the Hatfield sympathizers.

It wasn’t clear if the Adkins who supposedly wounded in the above account was closely related to Cain Adkins or Fed Adkins. The place names given were also questionable, since Brandon couldn’t locate Hunto or Ben Post Office in any Kentucky map books.

The Huntington story apparently had little credibility since The Banner followed it with corrections:

The above is copied from the Enquirer, and is about as reliable as you find most reports about the Hatfield-McCoy feud.  In the first place, the prisoners Haley and McCoy were not in jail.

Secondly. — No mob ever surrounded the jail, they went into Geo. Fry’s house and took them out without any resistance from the guards.

Thirdly. — They were not hung to a tree a short distance from the jail building, but were shot at Green Shoals some 25 miles from the C.H.

Fourthly. — Haley has no connection whatsoever with the McCoys of Kentucky.

Fifthly. — Mrs. Brumfield was not shot in the breast but in the face, and her husband was not shot in the leg but in one arm.

Sixthly. — McCoy and Haley never wounded Adkins, or even shot at him.

Seventhly. — Neither the Hatfields nor the Hatfield sympathizers had anything to do with the _____ing of McCoy and Haley.

It was done by the citizens of Lincoln who sympathized with the Brumfields and Dingess and by men who do not believe in the assassination of women by way laying and shooting them as they peacefully ride along the bank.

The Hatfield-McCoy feud had nothing whatever to do with the trouble, and from present appearances it is about over. Reports that some forty men _____ are armed and preparing for battle is without foundation.

For the next month, The Banner was silent about the Haley-McCoy trouble. Then, on December 12th, it gave this brief update: “Enoch Baker, of Harts Creek, was in town Monday, and reports every thing quiet, but thinks the Brumfield-McCoy feud is liable at any time to break out afresh.”

In Search of Ed Haley 207

02 Monday Dec 2013

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Toward the end of June 1995 Brandon made a trip to the Cultural Center in Charleston, West Virginia, where he spent several hours researching the story of Milt Haley’s murder using old microfilmed copies of the Logan County Banner. By examining the articles chronologically, a new perspective on the 1889 trouble emerged: the “official news accounts of the day” vs. oral tradition.

On page three of a Thursday, September 26, 1889, edition of the Banner was an article titled “Serious Shooting on Hart’s Creek, In Lincoln County” which detailed the ambush at Thompson Branch:

On last Sunday, while Mr. Allen Brumfield and his wife, who live near the mouth of Hart’s creek, in Lincoln county, were returning home from a visit to Mr. Henderson Dingess, father-in-law of Mr. Brumfield, and when about a mile and a half below Mr. Dingess, they were fired upon by some parties in ambush. Mrs. Brumfield was serious if not fatally wounded, the ball entering her right jaw near the ear and coming out near the nose, carrying away the greatest portion of the right jaw. Mr. Brumfield was shot through the right arm and another ball passed through his vest, grazing his breast. A son of Mr. Dingess, who was with them, was shot through the leg. Dr. C.L. Hudgins of this place, and Dr. V.R. Moss, of Barboursville, were sent for and Dr. Hudgins dressed the wound on Monday. We have not learned the names of the parties who were suspected of the shooting, but learn that they are being hunted for, and if found will be properly punished.

The Banner mentioned on its Thursday, October 10, 1889, society page: “John W. Runyon, of Harts Creek, and W.C. Fry, of Guyandotte, were in town Tuesday on business.” W.C. Fry was William Christian Fry, a brother to George Fry, at whose home the Haley-McCoy murders took place a few weeks later. We wondered, were he and Runyon in town together on business? And did their simultaneous trip to Logan have anything to do with George Fry’s home later being selected as the “murder house?”

The Banner first reported Milt Haley’s death in an article dated Thursday, October 31, 1889, and titled “MORE MURDERING/Two Prisoners Taken from their Guards and Shot to Pieces:”

On Thursday of last week, Green McCoy and Milton Haley, the parties charged with the shooting of Allen Brumfield and his wife, on Harts creek in Lincoln county a short time ago were [held by a group of] citizens under charge of Al Brumfield. They were brought to Chapmanville in this county and wished to remain there over night, but fearing that an effort would be made to [kill] the prisoners, citizens there would not take them in. The guards, with the prisoners under their charge, then started down the river, a portion of the guard crossing to the opposite, leaving but the officer and three guards in charge of the prisoners. About six miles below Chapmanville, the guards and prisoners stopped at George Fry’s, at Mouth of Green Shoals in Lincoln county to stay all night. About 8 o’clock a number of persons supposed to be about twenty, came to Fry’s house, and demanded the prisoners. Mr. Fry and family were told to go into the kitchen and the guard to leave the house. The mob then entered the house and began shooting. The prisoners were dragged out of the house and shot down in the yard in front of the door. Not being satisfied with putting several balls through each of the men the mob took rocks and mashed their heads all to pieces. After finishing their murderous work the crowd dispersed, leaving the neighbors to look after the dead bodies.

No effort has been made to arrest any who were engaged in the outrage, yet it is pretty generally understood who were the leaders of the gang.

More than likely, the portion of the guard “which crossed the river and left the main group,” if true, went to alert Brumfield’s friends as to where the prisoners would be held that night.

In Search of Ed Haley 205

28 Thursday Nov 2013

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Brandon kept me up to date on his research by writing me incredibly detailed letters. I was becoming a fan of his writing style. In one letter, he identified the “murder house” where Green McCoy and Milt Haley were killed at Green Shoal.

“As you might recall, when we were trying to locate the George Fry home at Green Shoal, old-timers kept mentioning the homes of Tucker Fry and Baptist Fry as well. To avoid any confusion, I want to clarify so that you might keep the three names and the two houses straight. Baptist Fry was an uncle to George Fry. (His wife, Marinda, was the mother of Ben Walker, who helped bury Haley and McCoy.) Baptist’s home stood against the mountain at Fry across Route 10 where a maroon and white house stands today. When he died in 1881, it passed into the hands of his son Tucker Fry, who lived there with his wife and two children in 1889. The George Fry home — the one where Milt and Green were killed by most accounts — stood across present-day Route 10 and just upriver where Lonnie Lambert’s house is today.”

In another package, Brandon sent this scrap of information from the Doris Miller Papers at the Morrow Library in Huntington, West Virginia. “Al Brumfield — Harts,” it read. “Hollena. Logging people. — tied up logs. Kept overnight. Washed and ironed clothes. They went out and broke off tops of winter onions as they went thru garden to creek.”

Brandon also visited Dick Thompson at Thompson Branch of Harts Creek. Dick was a first cousin to Lawrence Kirk and a grandson to Bill Brumfield. He killed a man back in the early ’30s and served time in the state penitentiary. Dick welcomed Brandon into his home, which, incidentally was just down the hill from the site of the 1889 ambush of Al Brumfield.

Every six months or so, Dick said, Ed Haley and his family came to Harts by train. Not long after they arrived in Harts, somebody would haul them up the creek where they stayed all over. Everyone knew Ed, Dick said, and he “had some of the finest boys you ever seen.” He stayed with Dick’s father Andy Thompson and his grandfather Brumfield, two local moonshiners in the Cole Branch area of Harts Creek. (This was an interesting revelation, of course, because it meant that Ed, son of Milt Haley, visited with Bill, son of Paris Brumfield.)

Dick said Ed “could play anything on that fiddle” but he only remembered “Old Dan Tucker”. Ed used to tell a story about how he’d never stay at Old Dan Tucker’s again because he had to sleep in a feather bed that threw him to the floor. Dick said Ed played a lot in taverns with Bernie Adams, an excellent guitar player. Sometimes they made up to one hundred dollars a night. Ed played periodically in Dick’s tavern on Harts Creek. One night, around 1936-37, Dick closed up and took several men (including Ed) to a tavern in the head of nearby Crawley Creek. A little later, Ed got into it with Millard Adams and hit him over the head with his fiddle. (Another variation of the “fiddle over the head story…” Sol Bumgarner had told me that Ed did that to a Stollings, while Dave Brumfield implied that it happened around 1945, not in the late ’30s. Maybe Ed was just fond of using his fiddle as a weapon in fights.)

In Search of Ed Haley 190

01 Friday Nov 2013

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Before heading to Billy’s, we became knee-deep in conversation about Milt Haley’s death. Billy told us about the Brumfields retrieving Milt and Green in Kentucky.

“Now, I don’t know where they come from over there,” he said. “I know they had a bogus warrant, the people that went to get them. They made up a fake warrant and got them. Then when they started back down through here, they was a big bunch of people was waiting to attack them. That was Cain Adkins and them and his family. They was fields full of them up on Big Branch. And somebody tipped them off, and so they went up what’s called Bill’s Branch. And so they took up Bill’s Branch and down Piney and then over to Frank Fleming holler.”

From Frank Fleming hollow, the Brumfield gang went over a mountain and crossed the river to a Fry house near the mouth of Green Shoal. At some point, according to Lola, a group of men came in and shot out the lights. Cat Fry crawled under a bed while either Milt or Green shouted to the other, “Stand up and die like a man!” Lola heard that one of the men “died a praying and the other died a cussing.”

I asked Billy if he’d heard how Milt and Green were killed.

“I’ve heard so many stories, I don’t know,” he said. “I just heard they was shot. I heard they was tied up to a tree. Tied to a chair back to back in the kitchen.”

Lola said she heard that Milt and Green were shot and hung.

“The table Milt and Green had their last meal on ended up with my grandmother, Vinnie Thompson Workman,” Billy said. “And there was bullet holes in the table.”

I asked Billy if he had any pictures of the “murder house” and he said, “No, I don’t know of anybody would. It’s where Doran’s house is. It was over there against the hill — an old log house. Of course, the railroad and stuff wasn’t there, you see. That was the old John and Catherine Fry house to start with. And then John’s son Baptist, he lived there next. That was my grandmaw’s grandpaw. And after he died, I guess this George Fry lived there. Charley Fry and George Fry both lived there and I don’t remember which one lived there when they killed them there.”

At that point, Lola completely changed the direction of the conversation when she said, “Billy, Cain Adkins was kin to us.” She’d never met Cain and had no clue what happened to him but knew that he once owned most of the lower end of West Fork at one time. All the old-timers referred to him as “Uncle Cain” because he’d been a well-respected person in the community.

Lola said George Thomas (one of Ed’s cousins, we later learned) owned the Cain Adkins farm in the years prior to her birth. Her father bought the place from him around 1905. At that time, the only remnant of Cain’s life there was his apple orchard by the creek. The Haley-McCoy grave was on the family lands.

“You go up almost to the top where it gets real flat,” Lola said. “They’s a path used to be up there. It’s up pretty much on the hill. It ain’t way up there, I’d say the first flat.”

Brandon asked her, “Now, did you tell me that some old woman used to come up there and decorate that grave?”

“They always came as long as they lived, I guess, and decorated the grave,” Lola said. “That was their wives. I was only four or five years old, but I can remember seeing them. One of them was tall and slim. But they stopped at our house every time they come.”