Tag Archives: George W. Ferrell

George W. Ferrell grave (2017)

08 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County Feud

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George W. Ferrell, son of Archibald and Martha E. (Fry) Harrison and adopted son of Keenan and Arena (Saunders) Ferrell, is buried near my home in Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County, WV. Mr. Ferrell (1874-1906) composed a song about the Lincoln County Feud called “The Lincoln County Crew.” He was a store operator and postmaster. Photo by Mom. 7 April 2017.

Green Shoal (WV) Post Office

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in Ferrellsburg, Green Shoal, Toney

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Green Shoal Creek is a tributary of the Guyandotte River located in Harts Creek District of Lincoln County, West Virginia. Prior to 1863, the stream was located in Virginia, and prior to 1869, it was located in Logan County. Today, it is situated on Route 10 between the communities of Ferrellsburg and Toney. Prior to the Civil War, Green Shoal was a sort of community hub for the Harts Creek area. Green Shoal had the first post office located in the Harts area.

Green Shoal Post Office was established on January 4, 1855. It was discontinued on July 9, 1866. Burbus C. Toney, son of Squire and Nancy (Brown) Toney, was postmaster from 1855 to 1866.

Green Shoal Post Office was re-established on November 25, 1873. Admiral S. Fry, a Confederate veteran and merchant, served as postmaster until November 1, 1878. Kale Steele served as postmaster until November 17, 1879. The post office was discontinued on November 17, 1879.

Greenshoal Post Office was established on December 20, 1899. James H. McComas served as postmaster until April 5, 1901. According to one period newspaper account, C. Brumfield replaced McComas on April 2, 1901. Official records cite McComas as postmaster until December 22, 1902. George W. Ferrell, adopted son of local merchants, served as postmaster from December 22, 1902 until December 27, 1904. At this latter date, the post office was discontinued to Ferrellsburg.

In the twentieth century, the Green Shoal area was called “Fry.”

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.

Archibald Harrison 4

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Big Ugly Creek, Civil War

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In the latter part of the 1880s, Archibald Harrison sold much of his property. In 1886, he sold 30 acres of his 120-acre tract at Nine Mile Creek in Lincoln County, West Virginia, to A.E. Callihan. The next year, he sold his 360-acre tract in Harts Creek District to an unknown party. In that same year, he bought 100 more acres on Nine Mile.

Around that time, Mr. Harrison and his wife Martha may have separated or divorced, based on indications provided by tax records. In 1888, he sold 150 acres of his 230-acre tract at Phernatt’s Creek to D.B. Keck, while Martha sold the 100-acre tract on Nine Mile to Guy Fry. The following year, Martha sold 90 more acres to Fry on Nine Mile and the remaining acreage on Phernatt’s Creek (recorded as 125 acres, not 80) to James D. Cummings.

At that juncture, Martha disappears from local records.

In the 1890s, Mr. Harrison — perhaps recuperating from a second divorce — centered his property acquisitions on Nine Mile Creek. In 1890, he bought 59 acres worth $1.00 per acre from Elizabeth Scites. In 1891, he bought 150 acres worth $3.00 per acre from Guy Fry and 75 acres also worth $3.00 per acre from an unknown party. This latter tract of land he immediately deeded to his son, William T. Harrison, who married Charlotte F. Sias around 1892.

In 1892, Mr. Harrison deeded A.B. Staley 86 acres from the 150-acre tract, which tax records document as being on Fourteen Mile Creek, not Nine Mile. Four years later, William T. sold his 75 acres to Eliza J. Hager. Harrison probably died in that frame of time. His remaining property on Nine Mile was sold by D.E. Wilkinson, special commissioner, to Clinton Spurlock in 1898.

By 1900, Archibald and Martha Harrison were absent from local census records. Their children Daniel H., age 31, Guy French, age 24, and Louisa J., age 21, were also gone from the area. While the fate of Martha, Daniel and Louisa remains unclear, there is some evidence that Guy, who later lived at Micco in Logan County in 1920, moved to Virginia just after the turn of the century.

In 1900, three of Archibald’s sons were still listed in local census records. William T. Harrison and his family were residents of the Laurel Hill District. John M. Harrison was boarding nearby in the home of Vinson Spurlock and was reportedly engaged in some type of timber business. George W. Harrison was at present-day Ferrellsburg in Harts Creek District with his adopted parents, Keenan and Arena Ferrell.

Martha Harrison, the wife of Archibald, reportedly died in 1901.

George W. Ferrell 2

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Ferrellsburg

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Keenan S. Ferrell, the adoptive father of George W., had been born in March of 1854 to George and Nancy (Farley) Ferrell in Boone County. He appeared in the 1860 and 1870 censuses for that county in the home of his parents. On April 6, 1877, in Logan County, he married Arena Sanders, a daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Sanders. Arena, or Rena as she was called, had been born in March of 1861 in Russell County, Virginia. In 1880, the Ferrells lived in the Logan District of Logan County.

In the late 1890s, Keenan and Arena Ferrell moved to the Harts area of southern Lincoln County. In 1895, Rena bought 75 acres of land at Fry, on the east side of the Guyandotte River, from Admiral S. Fry, an early landowner and postmaster at Green Shoal. The following year, she bought 70 more acres on the west side of the river from John Q. Adams. In 1897 she bought a portion of the old Elias Adkins estate, situated on the river between Harts and Green Shoal. Upon this latter piece of property she erected a store building and, in short time, the surrounding area became known as Ferrellsburg. By 1900, the Ferrells had acquired George W., whom they reportedly adopted. Census records for that year show him as an “adopted son.”

Also in the home in 1900 was Lula Vance, the seven-year-old orphaned daughter of John and Columbia (Kirk) Vance. Lula would have practically grown up in the Ferrell home at the time that George W. lived there. Strangely, she never spoke about him to her children. “I don’t remember Mommy ever mentioning anything about George Ferrell,” said daughter Irene Mitchell, of Harts, in a 2003 interview. “That’s kind of strange since Mommy would’ve been raised with him. But she never really talked much about staying with the Ferrells.”

George Ferrell spent his twenties as a bachelor working around the store and making music. He was postmaster at Green Shoal from December 22, 1902 until December 26, 1904, when the office was discontinued to Ferrellsburg. He is credited with the authorship of “The Lincoln County Crew” and “The Murder of John Brumfield,” as well as a song about someone named Harve Adkins. In composing “The Lincoln County Crew,” Ferrell borrowed heavily from “The Rowan County Crew,” assuming this latter tune — documenting events of the Martin-Tolliver Feud in Kentucky — was written first. Ferrell’s version of the song, which primarily draws on local events that happened in Harts between 1889 and 1891, is a warning for men to stop drinking or risk a young, violent death.

“The Murder of John Brumfield” details Brumfield’s murder by Charlie Conley at a Chapmanville Fourth of July celebration in 1900. There is a story that Ferrell was playing this latter song for a crowd of people near the Ferrellsburg train depot when one of Conley’s brothers passed through. According to the story, Ferrell ceased his playing and singing because he feared his tune might cause trouble. But one of the attendants, Charley Brumfield, a brother to the slain John Brumfield, told him to keep the song going — no one would bother him. As Ferrell continued his music, Conley made his way by and on across the river toward his home on the Smokehouse Fork of Big Harts Creek.

George W. Ferrell died on August 6, 1905 at the age of 30 years, reportedly of tuberculosis. His tombstone offers this Biblical quote: “In my father’s house are many mansions.” Also on the stone is the following epitaph:

His last words were Mamma come to me. God bless you. Cease your mourning. Cease to languish o’er the graves of those you love. Pain and death and night anguish, enter not the world above. Sight and peace at once deriving from the hand of God most high. In his glorious presence living, they shall never, never die.

Years later, Fred B. Lambert, noted genealogist and regional historian, published “The Lincoln County Crew” and “The Murder of John Brumfield” in his 1926 edition of The Llorrac. His private notes, now in the hands of the Special Collections Department at Marshall University’s Morrow Library, contain slightly different versions of “The Lincoln County Crew,” as well as a reference to the tune Ferrell wrote about Harve Adkins.

George W. Ferrell 1

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Big Ugly Creek, Ferrellsburg, Music

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Around the turn of the century, in the years just prior to the arrival of the C&O Railroad in the Guyandotte Valley, George W. Ferrell, a musician in present-day Ferrellsburg, busily wrote songs about local personalities and events. Today, Ferrell’s solitary grave is marked with an ornate tombstone that sits at the edge of what was, until recent years, a garden.

George W. Ferrell was born on October 10, 1874 to Archibald B. and Martha E. (Fry) Harrison. Archibald was the son of Guy P. and Cleme (Harmon) Harrison of Tazewell County, Virginia. Mary was the daughter of Daniel H. and Nancy P. (Bailey) Fry of Logan County. Ferrell’s birthplace is not known because, soon after his parents married in 1865, they left the area, settling at first in Kentucky and then elsewhere.

In 1878, George, then four years old, returned to Lincoln County with his parents. In 1880, his family lived near the mouth of Big Ugly Creek or at the “Bend,” just across the Guyandotte River. Shortly thereafter, they made their home at Phernatt’s Creek, further downriver in Laurel Hill District.

By 1889, Ferrell’s father — who was perhaps recently divorced from his mother — had sold all of the family property in Harts Creek District and at Phernatt’s Creek and relocated to Nine Mile Creek.

Details concerning Ferrell’s early life remain elusive. It is not known who influenced him musically or when he even started writing or playing music. There is no indication of his father or mother being musicians but his mother’s first husband, Jupiter Fry, was a well-known fiddler on Big Ugly. Some of his first songs may have been inspired by his father’s stories of the Civil War.

At some point in his young life, and for reasons unknown, Ferrell was adopted by Keenan and Arena Ferrell, a childless couple at Ferrellsburg in Lincoln County.

“I heard he was just a big old boy when the Ferrells took him in,” said Don McCann, current owner of the property surrounding Ferrell’s grave. “They didn’t have any children of their own.”

In the 1900 Lincoln County Census, Ferrell was listed as their 25-year-old adopted son. More than likely, he was assisting the Ferrells in the operation of their store and business interests.

It is easy to see how Ferrell would have become acquainted with his future foster parents.

“His father worked a lot of timber around Big Ugly or Green Shoal,” said Harold R. Smith, Lincoln County genealogist and historian. “And that would have put him in close contact with the Ferrells at Ferrellsburg.”

But why was he not living with his mother (wherever she was), who died in 1901, or his maternal grandmother, who was alive on Big Ugly? And what was his connection to the Ferrells?

In Search of Ed Haley 178

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by in Ed Haley

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After a few hours of digesting this material, I met Brandon Kirk in the hall near the copier. Brandon, a neatly groomed young man wearing a tie, was freighted down with satchels. We introduced ourselves and were soon in the study room where Brandon started fishing through his bags and pulling out letters, notebooks, folders and photo albums. Within a few minutes, the table was covered. It was as if someone had walked up with a giant garbage bag full of papers and dumped it all out in front of me.

One of the first things Brandon showed me was a small account of Milt Haley’s murder titled “The Brumfield-McCoy Feud”, which was originally published in a 1926 edition of Lambert’s Llorrac.

The Brumfield-McCoy Feud took place in the month of September, about 1888, some three miles up Hart’s Creek. Hollena Brumfield and her husband, Allen Brumfield, had been visiting Henderson Dingess, father of Mrs. Brumfield, one Sunday and were about two miles below Mr. Dingess’ on their way home. Green McCoy and Milt Haley laid in wait for them. Mr. and Mrs. Brumfield were riding down the creek, Mrs. Brumfield being on the same horse behind her husband. McCoy and Haley began shooting at them, one bullet striking Mr. Brumfield in the arm, and the other tearing away a portion of Mrs. Brumfield’s face, disfiguring her for life. Mr. Brumfield jumped from his horse and ran, and in that way escaped further injury. McCoy afterwards told that they were bribed by John Runyons with a barrel of flour and a side of bacon to McCoy, and twenty-five dollars in money to [Haley]. The murderers escaped into Kentucky but were captured a little later and brought back. Allen Brumfield supplemented the reward offered by the state with one of his own.

It seems the cause of the trouble was bad feeling between John Runyons and Al Brumfield. Runyons had a store and saloon at the mouth of Hart’s Creek. Brumfield had a store on Guyan River about a fourth of a mile below Hart, on the south side of the Guyan and sold whiskey on a houseboat. John Dingess [Mrs. Brumfield’s brother] was a bartender.

McCoy and Haley were brought back and kept over night at the house of George Fry. The next morning a number of men, presumably Brumfield’s friends came in, and the two prisoners were shot and killed.

Along with the above article was another version of “The Lincoln County Crew”, which gave George (and not Tom) Ferrell as the author.

Come all young men and ladies, come fathers, mothers, too;

I’ll relate to you the history of the Lincoln County crew.

Concerning bloody rows, and many a thieving deed,

Dear friend, pray lend attention to these few lines I say.

It was in the month of August all on a very fine day;

Allen Brumfield he got wounded they say by Milt Haley.

But Brumfield couldn’t believe it, nor hardly thought it so;

He said it was McCoy who shot that fatal blow.

They shot and killed Boney Lucas, a sober and innocent man,

And left his wife and children, to do the best they can.

They wounded Rufus Stowers, although his life was saved;

And he seemed to shun the grog shop, since he stood so near his grave.

Allen Brumfield he recovered, some weeks and months had past;

It was at the house of George Fry, these men they met at last.

Green McCoy and Milt Haley, about the yard did walk;

They seemed to be uneasy and no one wished to talk.

And then they went into the house, and sat down by the fire,

And little did they think, dear friends, they had met their final hour.

The sting of death was near them, _________________________

A few words passed between them concerning a row before.

The people some got frightened, began to rush out of the room;

When a ball from some one’s pistol laid the prisoners in the tomb.

Their friends then gathered ’round them, their wives to weep and wail;

Tom Ferrell was arrested, and soon confined to jail.

The butchers talked of lynching him, but that was all the fear;

And when the day of trial came, Tom Ferrell he came clear.

And then poor Paris Brumfield, relation to the rest,

He got three balls shot through him, they went straight through his breast.

The death of these few men have caused great trouble in our land;

Men to leave their wives and children to do the best they can.

Lincoln County’s still at war, they never, never cease;

Oh, could I only, only see my land once more in peace.

I composed this as a warning, a warning to all men;

Your pistols will cause trouble, on that you may depend.

In the bottom of the whiskey glass, the lurking devil dwells;

It burns the hearts of those who drink, and sends their soul to hell.

Ferrellsburg Post Office

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by in Ferrellsburg

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Ferrellsburg Post Office was established on December 27, 1904 by George W. Ferrell, a 30-year-old general store merchant and musician.

George W. Ferrell was born on October 10, 1874 to Archibald B. and Martha E. (Fry) Harrison. In the 1890s, Keenan S. and Arena (Sanders) Ferrell, a childless couple who made their home at Fowler Branch, adopted him. The Ferrells were proprietors of a large general store business, which they named G.W. Ferrell & Company. Young Ferrell was active in the family business. According to a 1902-03 business directory, he acted as proprietor of the store. At that same time, from December 22, 1902 until 1904, he served as postmaster of Green Shoal. In 1904, Green Shoal was discontinued to Ferrellsburg. According to postal records, Ferrell served as postmaster of Ferrellsburg from December 27, 1904 until January 23, 1906. “They claimed Ferrellsburg was named after him,” said the late Roma Elkins of Ferrellsburg. On August 6, 1905, Ferrell died of tuberculosis.

On January 23, 1906, Arena Ferrell became postmaster. Arena was born around 1859 to Martin and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Sanders in Russell County, Virginia. She married Keenan Ferrell on April 6, 1877 in Logan County. The Ferrells had come to the Green Shoal area in the late 1890s. In 1895, Arena had bought land on the east side of the Guyan River from A.S. Fry, a postmaster and businessman at the mouth of Green Shoal. The next year, she bought land on the west side of the Guyan River from John Q. Adams. In 1897, she bought land at Fowler Branch, where she occupied a two-story log home and operated a general store. The store was listed in business directories as G.W. Ferrell & Company from 1904 until 1913. Arena served as merchant, while D. Kennis Altizer of Huntington was salesman. In 1913, Ferrell sold out to Hansford Adkins and moved to Green Shoal, where she briefly owned a hotel.

Wilburn Sanders, a nephew to Arrena Ferrell served as Ferrellsburg postmaster from 1906 until 1909. Born around 1882 to Noah Baldwin and Nancy Ann (Haner) Sanders, he married Addie Jones and later moved to Ogden, Utah. In 1906, Ferrellsburg had a population of 200 people and had a telephone connection at the Ferrell store.

Fisher B. Adkins, a popular schoolteacher was postmaster at Ferrellsburg from 1909 until 1914. Born in October of 1879 to Burl and Melissa (Adkins) Adkins of Harts, Fisher lived at West Fork with his wife, the former Beatrice Dingess. The couple had one child, Hope. A 1913 newspaper story in the Lincoln Republican referred to Fisher as “one of the leading educators of the county” who is “well up in educational matters.” Within months, he would win election as county superintendent of schools (1915-1919).

Joseph Walt Stowers became postmaster at Ferrellsburg on February 18, 1914. Born March 1, 1876 to James and Emily (Haner) Gillenwater-Stowers, Walt was raised on Green Shoal and had family connections to nearby Big Creek in Logan County. In 1908 he purchased jointly with Enos Adkins a one-acre tract of land in Ferrellsburg from the Ferrells and opened a store business under the name of Stowers & Adkins. “Walt Stowers bought the old Ferrell store and reworked it…renovated it,” said the late Vergia Rooney of Texas. According to newspaper accounts of that time, Stowers was president of the stockholders in the Burns Chair Factory and considered attending medical school in Louisville. Instead, he improved his store building, increasing its value from $100 in 1910 to $900 in 1912. In June of 1914, Stowers became the sole proprietor of the store. In that same time frame, he married Georgia Adkins, reportedly a daughter of Rayburn Adkins of Wayne County. The couple never had any children but partially raised several nephews. During the next two decades, from the World War I era until the Great Depression, Walt Stowers was the chief businessman in Ferrellsburg. He was also the longest serving postmaster, giving up the position with his death on February 10, 1934. Thereafter, his widow served as postmistress until January 12, 1938.

Following Georgia Stowers’ term, William Isaacs was postmaster from January 12 until April 1, 1938. Isaacs was a resident of upper Ferrellsburg. “Old man Isaacs lived above the schoolhouse in old man I.M. Nelson’s house,” according to Elkins. At the same time that Isaacs became postmaster, he also bought much land from Georgia Stowers. Within a year, he sold most of the land and soon moved to Barboursville where he was involved in the realty business. Georgia was also in Cabell County by 1939, where she lived at 1600 16th Street, Huntington.

Elmer Evans became postmaster at Ferrellsburg on November 28, 1938.